The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-07-23
FfOns Me Boston Transcript
The Peace and Dignity OF the Commons
WeAllh.-Ho. xxxIii


article is called g DisOrgGnizing Doctrines ia
.dOrals,' and is apparently editorial. | pro-
Tess not TO be certain, however, OF this; for it
is not long since the community were surprised
and disguised by couple of articles in the
Christian Register, one very shallow and
lmpertinent attempt to excite the public feel
ing on the subject of the chains around the
courthouse; and the other an impudent, gross,
and exceedingly boyish assault upon Judge
Sprague and his admirable charge, then re-
Gently delivered to the grand jury. These ar
ticles were supposed to be editorial by some per-
sons, and very properly rebuked in the Courier
and Daily Advertiser. 1t was afterwards I'M
however, that in the absence of the
genuine editors, some persons who were learn
ing TO be editors, or other officous Intermediates
had got at the machinery, and produced the
mischief
The article to which | desire to draw the
public attention is very decently prepared
and, in somewhat of an ex-cathedra manner, to
be sure, proposes to correct the tone of public
sentiment in regard to conscience" and ''the
higher Laic."
There seem to me to be some errors in point
of fact, and some misapprehensions Of the mo
tives Of men, in the article referred to, which
are entitled to grave consideration The edi-
''Fer the first time within more than half cen
tury, indeed we may say for the first time since
the foundation -four Government, serious attempt
has been made to enforce a law which comes di-
rectly into conflict with the settled moral convic
tons ola large portion of our people,"
This is utterly untrue. | have no doubt
that the license laos of the respective States,
as the liquor laws are called, have come d.
recth into conflict ,oith the settled moral con-
rictions ofG large portion Of our people; and
yet attempts have been made, and successfully
made. to enforce those laws from year to year
and from day to day. Among the editors and
readers of the Christian Register there is pro
badly no man who more heartily desires the
suppression of the liquor traffic than myself
Yet know, and, for more than twenty years
have known, bishops, priests, and deacons.
lawyers and physicians, merchants and me-
chanics, many of them of high responsibility,
and whose views on this subject differ en-
tirely from my own. Many of these persons
avow their settled moral conuiction that the
Liberties of the people are infringed by the IL
sense lalos. / believe not so. But, while /
believe that men may honestly err, and until
can satisfy myself that the sum total of all the
conscience and moral conDicti0fl belong to us
and our side, | must believe that a large por-
ton of the people honestly differ, and that the
license Ln,os conflict Nth their settled moral
convictions.
The tobacco laws of this city conflict pith
the settled moral CONNECTIONS of large portion
of the people of New York. The editors of the
Register, | think, can have no just idea how
very large and how very respectable portion
of the people those anti-renters are, with whose
settled moral CONNECTIONS those laws conflict, in
opposition to which they are ready to take up
arms. This opposition is not confined to law
less, unprincipled rabble. Many individuals of
character, standing, and estate, conscientiously
believe in the perfect righteousness of tar and
feathers when applied to the officers of the law
who come to enforce it within their borders.
In 1875, during the whisky rebellion, when
Mitchell and Vigol were convicted of high
treason, a large portion Of the people were con-
scientiously opposed to the excise law; it con-
ficted Nth their settled moral convictions The
spirit Of opposition and Of actual resistance had
laid hold of some, among the worthiest and
most pious families in Western Pennsylvania
They solemnly believed they were right. There
is nothing more Inonstrous in this supposition
than In the fact that our fathers conscientiously
hung witches and Quakers, or in a thousand
things beside, however abominable, which have
been done very consclentiously, no doubt.
The laws to which | have referred have all
been executed from time to time, as well as
some Others to which | might refer, though
they conficted acith the settled moral convictions
Of Il large portion Of the peopIe-for, like the
Fugitive Slave law, they did not conflict with
the settled moral convictions of all. There is
large portion Of the people with whose settled
moral convictions that law does not conflict.
There is, in the first place, almost the whole
people of the slaveholdng States; and surely
these worthy editors will not disfranchise this
large portion Of the people of their consciences
at one sweep IT we say that conscience can
not act against our selfinterest, we utterly
misunderstood the powers, and the energies,
and the original purposes of that great moral
muscle. Then, again, there is a large portion
of the people wholly opposed to slavery, but
equally opposed to the doing of evil that good
may come thereof. Respect for the Constitu-
ton, reverence for the obligation of those
solemn contracts to which their fathers were
parties, and obedience to the laws, do not con-
tlict Nth their settled moral convictions at ALL
There Is large portion of the people con-
scientiously opposed to those quarantine or san-
tary laws which are based upon the principle
Of contagion. Their settled moral comic
tons teach them, as they believe, that the the
DRY Is absurd, and that great wrong and injus-
tlce are done to the community by the deten-
tion and delay consequent upon the execution
of those laws. Yet they are readily enforced
among law-abiding people.
This extraordinary error, that the attempt to
execute the Fugitive Slave law is the first Sc
riOus attempt since the formation of our Govern
ment to execute law which comes directly
into conflict with the settled moral cOnric-
lions Of large portion Of oar people, is entitled
to correction, not merely for the sake of truth
and right, but as warning to the reader to
walk, not by faith, but by sight, while follow
ing the lead of these reverend gentlemen, who
offer their guidance to the community upon this
highly important subject-the ''disorganizing
doctrines IN morals"
The editors of the Christian Register OBJ
serve:
The first and most fatal position taken in this
great controversy is the virtually assumed, and
sometimes the expressly declared denial, of any
binding authority, rule of action higher than the
law of the land.
"Thc ridicule that has been heaped on the very
word conscience and what in derision has
been called the higher law is to us one of the