Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1852-10-08

tween man and brute, between human soul |
and an inanimate chattel, to plant and enroot in
our civil policy vast, expanding system, in |
which conscience, reason, the capacities Of re-
ligion, and the Unborn convictions of accounta- |
billy and Immortality are made subservient and
secondary to bones and muscles, and put upon |
auction blocks as incidents to the body that per-
isheth When before, in all our history, have
| men of eloquence and power ever traversed the
country, and scattered letters and speeches. like
| the fakes of the snow storm, to snbdue and har
monize the public mind to such stupendous
wrong? When before, since the Mayfower
crossed the ocean with her precious burden, has
any minister of the Puritan stock ever dared
| or ever desired to put priestly robes and en-
ter the house of God, to defend slavery or to
paate it? Sir, such things were never known
before. Il is new spectacle for men and an
gels. 1t must give new joy in the world of
/ darkness.
| Another collateral effect which slavery has
| produced, is the promulgation from the halls OF
Congress, and also 'Tom-what in such cases IS
not the sacred, but the profane desk-that there
! is no Higher Law" than the Constitution, or
than any Interpretation which any corrupt Con-
gress may put upoh it. Such doctrine is moth
less than palpable and fragrant atheism. III am
bound to obey any human law or constitution, as
my paramount rule Of duty, thenceforth that
rule becomes my supreme arbter, Judge and God:
and am compelled, by logical necessity, to alb
jure, renounce, and depose all others. There
| cannot be two supreme rules of right. 1t ac-
knowedged myself bound by the divine law,
then must disobey the latter. But if the hui
man law be the higher law, and if it conflicts
with Gods law, then | am bound TO disobey the
! law of God. If the Constitution be the High
err Law" then we, on taking seats in this
| nd oil latO when
entering upon the duties of their respective Off
ces, ought not to take an oath before God to
support the Constitution, but ought to swear by
the Constitution to support that first and God al
forwards, provided it is convenient. say then,
that this doctrine-whch is one of the otfshoots
of slavery-that there is no higher law than the
law OF the state is palpabe and practical atheism.
And yet it is perfectly we'll known to all who
hear me, and to all who frequent the perlieus OF
Congress, that there is no butt of rldcue so
common here nothing which SO readily and SO
frequently raises the :" loud laugh that speaks
the vacant mind as fling jeer at the "high-
| or law"
Sir, it is fearful omen, when the laws OF
men are made, even in theory, to take prece-
dence and override the laws of God. And the
last aggravaton is added to iniquity, when the
politician DISCUSSES himself in the garb of priest
and cloaks his wickedness under the show Of re,
ligion.
No person feels profounder reverence, or
would pay sincerer homage to godly, sn-avol-
ding, sin-exposing priesthood, than myself But
have no adequate words to express my abhor-
renee for the clerical hypocrite, with whom re-
ligion is neither sanctifcation of the soul, nor
publication of the body, but only kind of pol
icy of insurance against the retribution in anoth-
er world for sins committed in this, accompan-
led all the while by knavish tricks on the part of
the insured to cheat the Divine Insurer out of
his premium.
Mr.. SWITZERLAND. | ask the gentleman
| from Massachusetts, whether it is possible that
| the higher law of God can come in conflict with
the Constitution
Mr.. MANN. think it would be better to ask
whether the Constitution comes in conflict with
the higher law.
| Mr.. SUTHERLAND. ask the gentleman if
every American citizen does not obey the high
| or law Of God when he obeys every part of the
Constitution And can any good result. from
discussing these immaterial distractions Is not
the spirit of the Constitution in accordance with
the higher law? Can you point to 4 clause i'll
the Constitution which, when fulfilling to the
best of my ability, would make me violate the
| higher law of God y?
| Mr. MANN. This is not to the point.
! Mr.. SUTHERLAND. 1t is just the point. You
and others-I say it with all possible respect
disturb The harmony of this house and OF the
| country by trying to get up issues on abstract
questions of morality, which have nothing what
ever to do with the proceedings OF this House,
or with correct pubic sentiment. 1t shouiu
attempt to make an issue between you and me
on the subject of slavery, it would be wrong
| Yet you get up here and attempt to make THIS
issue before the country. You get up an issue
upon an immaterial question of morality, which
simply tends to excite men without any practi-
| teal benefit.
Mr.. MANN hope the gentleman will not
interrupt me further. His arguments would
have answered just as we'll in the time of Her |
cd, the tetrarch, when he issued the order
for the murder of all the children under
two years of age. The murderers doubtless got
ten-dolldr commission fee for the deed. So
those who massacred thirty-sx thousand Prot
estants on St. Bartholomew day at the ringing
of a signal bell, went by the Higher Law" of |
the Pope, or Of his vicegerent, the Higher Law"
King; and had not they their Union" to save
by it? And our Pilgrim Fathers were driven |
into exile by the "higher law of hierarchical
Parliament And so if you admit this doctrine
there is no enormity, actual conceivable,
which may not be perpetrated and justified IN
der it.
The gentleman says am discussing ''imma-
teral distractions, and raising issues that have
no practical bearing. Is the Fugitive Slave Law
an "immaterial abstraction pa law which vio- |
lates both the divine law and the constitution of
| the country. Ask the free man, Gibson, who
was sent into bondage under it when as much
entitled his liberty you or |, whether that law
has not some bearing on a practical question:
Are not the Baltimore edicts before the country?
And have they no practical bearing, when their
very purpose is to suppress free speech; and
when that purpose has been executed again and
again ?-and the attempt has been made here
within the last half hour, upon me to enforce it?
CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK.
wALwORTH COUNTY FREE DEMO-
CRATIC CONVENTION.
DEAR TELEGRAPH:-
improve this, the first opportunity, of inform
ing you of the various proceedings of the Wal
worth Free Democracy, at their Convention on
the 3Oth last. The delegates all arrived in good
time and organized about 10, A. NJ. After ex-
aiming the credentials. the Convention adjourn.