Washington sentinel., 1854-04-11


But, when set foot on the shores of my native
land, under the broad folds of our national flag,
and, surrounded by the protecting genius of our
American institutions, did not feel like recog-
nizing any such rightful authority of that di-
yinelyappointed institution, in temporal affairs,
here or elsewhere.
Your claims for the supremacy of this divine
ly-appointed institution are subversiye OF the
fundamental principles upon which our whole
republican system rests. What the necessity
of Congress, il you can supervise and direct
its conduct? Why should the people subject
themselves to the trouble and expense Of elect,
ing legislatures for the purpose of enacting hui
man laws, if their validity depends upon the
| sanction of your divine authority? Why sus-
tain vast and complex judicial system to ex-
pound the laws, administer justice, and deter
mine all disputes in respect to human rights,
if your dvinely-appointed institution is invest
ed with all authority to prescribe the rule Of
decision in the name of the Deity? If your
pretensions be just and valid, why not dispense
with all the machinery Of human government
and subject ourselves freely and unreservedly,
together with all our temporal and spiritual in
terests and hopes, to the Justice and mercy OF
this diyinely appointed institution?
Our fathers held that the people were the
only true source Of all political power; but
what avails this position, if the constituted au
thorities established by the people are to be
controlled and directed-not by their own
judgment, not by the will of their constituents,
but by the diyinely-constituted power Of the
clergy? Does it not follow that this great
principle, recognised and affirmed in the con
stitution Of the United States and Of every
State of this Union, is thus virtually annulled
| and the representatives of the people convert
ed into machines in the hands of an all-con
trolling priesthood?
The will of the people, expressed in ODE
dience to the forms and provisions of the Con
stitution, is the supreme law of this land But
your :" Office as ministers" is not provided for
in the Constitution. Your divinely-appointed
institution is not recognised in that instrument
Nowhere in the Constitution or laws of any oi
the States, or of the United States, is there to
be found provision constituting or recog-
nising you and your brethren the divinely-
appointed institution for the declaration and
enforcement of Gods will !" and therefore, in
your character as body of ministers, you
cannot claim any political power under our
system of government.
The prosecutions of our ancestors were too
fresh in the memories of our revolutionary ia
theirs for them to create, recognise, or even
tolerate, church establishment in this coun-
try, clothed with temporal authority. So ap-
prehensive were they of the usurpations OF
this, the most fearful and corrupting Of all
despotisms, whether viewed with reference to
the purity Of the church or the happiness OF
the people, that they provided in the Constitu-
ton that mo religious test shall ever be re-
quired as qualification to any office or public
trust under the United States" Still, fearful
that, in the process of time, spirit ofreligious
fanaticism, or spirit of ecclesiastical domina-
ton, (yet more to be dreaded, because cool and
calculating might seize upon some exciting
political topic, and in an evil hour surprise
or entrap the people into dangerous conces.
sion of political power to the clergy, the first
Congress underthe Constitution proposed, and
the people adopted, an amendment to guard
against such calamity, in the following words:
"Congress shall make no aw respecting an
establishment Of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof"
principle of the Constitution is, that every hui
man being hasa inalienable, divinely conferred
right to worship God according to the dictates
Of his own conscience and that no earthly in
stitution, nor any Constitution" on earth, can
rghtfully deprive him of that sacred and ines.
Unable privilege.
However, it is no part of my purpose to in
quire into the extent of your authority in
spiritual affairs. That is a question between
you and your respective congregations, with
which havo neither right nor wish to inter-
fere.
All that have said, and all that I propose
to say, has direct reference to the vindication
Of my character and position against the un-
justifable assaults which You have made in re-
gard to my official action in the Senate. |
repeat that your assumption of power from
the Almighty, to direct and control the civil
authorities Of this country, is in derogation Of
the Constitution, subversive of the principles of
free government and destructive of all the
guarantees of civil and religious liberty. The
sovereign right of the people to manage their
own affairs in conformity with the Constitution
of their own making, recedes and disappears,
when placed in subordination to the authority
Offices as ministers, to be a divinely-appointed
institution for the declaration and enforcement
of Gods will on earth.
If your objection to the Nebraska bill con-
sists in the fact that it asserts the great prin-
ciple of selfgovernment and declares the right
of the people to regulate their domestic con-
Germs in their own way, and thus, by implication,
denies your right of supremacy, you are acting
consistently with your own principles in op-
posing it.
Upon careful examination Of your protest,
it is certain that you have acted under total
misapprehension of the principles and provi-
sions of the bill, unless you object to it solely
upon the ground that it recognises the pro-
priety of leaving to the people Of these Ter
ritories what is the undoubted right Of the
States to govern themselves in respect to their
local and domestic concerns. On the supposi-
ton that you may have formed your opinions
from unreliable sources Of information, in the
absence Of the opportunity of reading the bill
itself, have copied, the only provision to which
your protest can possibly be construed to refer:
aSEc. ID That the Constitutions and all laws of
the United States which not locally inapplica-
Bile, shall have the force and effect within the
said Territory Of Nebraska as elsewhere within
the United States, except the eighth section OF the
act preparatory TO the admission Of Missouri into
the Union, approved March 6, 1920, which, being
incor ssient with the principle Of non intervention
by Congress with slavery in the States and Ter
ritories, as recognised by the legislation of $780,
commonly called the compromise measures, is