New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-08-15

right, that the only real difference between
right ard wrong depends on the Law, and that
the whole duty Of man consists in obeying such
laws az may be put forth By those who-no
matter how-attsin to the supreme authority.
The new Hobbists Of our day are also, so far
as their private and personal character is con-
cerDed, good sort Of men enough but like
Hcbbes excessively timid frightened as he was
at the idea Of an approaching struggle, and like
him regarding peace, no matter at what expense
it may be purchased, as the greatest Of all pos
sible blessings, to secure which there is no des-
potsm that lie not to be patiently submitted to-
Accordingly they insist, as Hobbes did, that
there's 10 law higher than the law Of the lsni
and that the despOtism OF tho shareholders ought
to be patiently submitted to, since the whole
duty Of nan consists in obedience to the legis.
lstye authority, no matter by whom usurped or
for what purposes exercised.
Among the most Jealous apostles of this mod
ern Hobbism is to be reckoned The Boston Trar-
elltr, which in recent article on "ths incress-
"ing contempt Of the law" treats its readers to
remarkable homily on this topic. After
abiding to the late instances Of Lynch Law in
Wisconsin and the late riots at Louisville, The
TrareIer-which, as we had occasion to mention
the other day, claims specially to represent the
moral and theological ideas of the original
planters of ew.Engand-prOceeds in the fol-
lowing Characteristic strain:
"It cannot be denied that this spirit has been fos
tered and encouraged OF late years by men, some OF
them Of position and influence IN the community, who
have advanced and supported the dangerous and de-
suuctye doctrine Of higher law. This doctrine
eaCs nccessariy TO an abnegaton OF all law; for II
every allowed 10 be his own judge OF the pro-
prety Of law, and to refer 10 his own conscience
to determine whether not he shall render obedience
o the enactments Of the constituted authorities ID
evident that mig ht well have law at all The
Judgment of men is very apt 10 be perverted, and
Coincidence is a very elastic faculty. ......
"Pernicous as the higherlaw doctrine is it hes found
many advocates, and its practical results have been
witnessed in outrages which have been committed by
the excited multitudes who have opposed the execution
of obnoxious laws. And we would remark that High
erLawisn is not confined to section OF the coun~
try II exists, in principle If not in name, among the
nul;fers and secessioniss OF the South, a. wen as
among The extremists of the North We consider that
to the inculcaons of the advocates of this doctrine
the recent Ourages against law and order which nave
disgraced our country, are in great measure atrlb
utabie. By intemQerate comments upon the laws oil
tie land by impugning the motives of legislators; by
undertaking and abusing the judiciary, and by hold
il up the officers of the law TO rdcue and cOntempt
the higher-aw advocates have done much toward ere
ating disregard for law among the people and toward
encouraging that la3ess spirit which always exists to
greater or less extent III certain class in the COM
munty bat which would never dare to make an open
demonstration without such encouragement"
Now it may be, as The Traveller says, that
conscience is a very elastic faculty. never
theless We DO not precisely see how it is to be
dispensed with in the administration of human
affairs A cable that sometimes stretches and
sometimes contracts is still better than no
cable at all. The only practical question seems
in fact to be whether men shall be governed as
to matters Of right and wrong by their own con-
sciences or by those of other people. We pre-
fer to be governed by our own; and we sppre-
hend that at bottom The Trareller, so far as its
own case is concerned, is much of the same
opinion. The only difference between US we
suspect to be that The TraUelier is not willing to
allow anybody to have conscience but itself
s thSsft n spFdeEaG e of the 9gsHeo
every body else ought to be made to pull with its
own, at least in the matter of the Fugitive Slave
law, to which, however touchy and tender on
many other points the conscience of The TraU
eUer may be, it finds no difficulty in submitting.
In paragraph introduced between the two
we have quoted above, our contemporary inquiries
how the friends of prohibitory liquor leg,sla-
tion would like TO have the doctrine of higher
law and of the supremacy of the individual con-
science piled to that sort of lawsl To which
we answer-That when the opposition to the
Maine Law finds no other support than con-
science and respect for the higher law the
Maine Law will already have triumphed When
Che Devil has no other re source except to quote
Scripture and to prowl about in the disguise of
a Christian minister, pretending to have con-
science, he has ceased to be formidable adyer-
sary. Unfortunately, the liquor sellers are not
yet reduced to that desperate expedent.
We lament, as much as any one can those
instances Of insubOr iinatiOn which it has
chosen as its text on this occasion; but is there
no other explanation Of them except that given
by The IfareHer2 Is il absolutely certain that
the increasing contempt of law of which that
print complains, is to be solely ascribed to the
recent PRONUNCIATION of "higher law" heresies
Is it not possible that the disaraceful positions
into which the law has recently been brought, by
those entrusted with the making OF it, and the
administration of it, may have had something
to do with the contempt into which il is said
to have fallen With Congresses sach as those
whi:h enacted the Fugitive Slave Act and the
Nebraska swindle, with Legislatures like the pre-
tended one Of Kansas with courts like those
over which Judges Kane and Grier and Chief
Justice Lewis preside, with Executives like