Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-05-16
SERMON BY DIR. ChEEvER.

mon preached during anniversary week, In pehai'
of Miss Miners Institution at Washington-th
which some of the authorities of that city
should be abated. We extract the following:
A government that exacts obedience from the
people has a responsibility laid upon it by God to
provide for them the means and motives OF obedi-
ence. Whenever the government is a minister of
God for good to the citizens, there is the motive as
well as the authority and power for obedience
Hence in the great prophetic Missionary Psalm.
He shall judge the poor of thy people. he shall
save the children of the NEEDY, and shall break in
pieces the oppressor." The children CT all classes,
but especially the lower, have claims from God
upon the government by their very birth as human
beings and by the very claims Of government over
them. An education is due to them from the gov
ernment, such as will enable them to understand
their duties, their responsibilities and their rights.
Neither color nor race constitute the claims for
such education, but humanity: and it is due as full
ly to the blacks us to the whites, and to one race
as freely and completely rs to another.
The effect Of the system Of slavery was traced on
the condition of the free colorcd race, under such
social, civil and political degradation and exclusion
MS they had to enc ure-excluded from most OF the
honorable and honest employments of life, and de-
prived of oil the ordinary incentives to thei attain
ment of knowledge. BY the decision of the Su-
preme Court, lately pronounced, this treatment Of
them, us fit for nothing but slaves, is put forth as
tho law of the land in regard to them. How can
they be saved from such tyranny and ruin2
DR.. Cheever argued their claims to citizenship
and protection. first in point Of law and fact-the
testimony of Justices Curtis and Mclean being
incontestible, as well as the argument of Mr.. Down
ing. But. in the second place. surprising that as
law and fact the colored race had never been con-
sidered as citizens nor admitted as having any OF
the rights Of human beings, th6t would make no
difference as to our duty and their just claims in
the sight Of God. Their rights as human beings
are inalienable, and the destruction Of these rights
by law is n violation of natural justice, of the
ends of good government, and Of the commands
of God and it is our duty to repel such inquisi.
tious statutes ard to expose in the light of Gods
Word the wickedness which has enacted them.
The nature and character of the Supreme Court
as q court rf equity and justice-a court, as Judge
Story described it, for the relief of the enfeebled
and oppressed, to secure them against the iniqui-
ties and fraud aud the oppression of a hard bar
gain-the Supreme Court, ms a court Of equity,
may not take advantage of the necessities and
and misfortunes of any class of people, to trample
them down, since it was established to defend
Just such defenseless men and women. Yet this
Court openly, on the very ground that the African
race has been un Justly despoiled for all ages, con-
dennis them to a perpetuity of such oppression, as
being fit for nothing else-ft only to be made
slaves and merchandise. There is not in this de-
cision even the affecta,ion Of any design of equity,
but the whole reasoning is w~a1tonly unjust and
cruel.
The claim of the African ra ,e, then, upon the
Government is for such an education rs will enable
them to be proper citizens under the Government
as will tit them to understand their rights, their
duties, and their responsibilities And the children
of the race have, claims upon the government just
in proportion to their Indebtedness and helpless
ness. There is no intiination in the Constitution
Of the United States. nor any construction that
can be forced upon it, whereby children can be
rightfully chattelized, and converted into property.
Iha urtinla xuIIrb il somp n tCrfnrnH into Snsh
Il meaning, is restricted to persons from ,fhom
iabor or service is DUE" and not persons from
whom their children are due. The children can
not, under the divine law, belong to any other
persons than their parents, and, when they are
born, are born under protection of government,
having all the rights for the security of which
government is ordained Of God. To the children
are due from government all those rights, priv
ileges, opportunities; all that discipline, training
and development, for which Gud himself declares
government to have been nstituted-without re
Spect to persons, races, color or blood. The speak
err dwelt at some length on the iniquity of chattel
izlng and imbruting children, instead of training
and educating them for freedom and happiness
When any government foredooms millions o.
human beings to such a condition., and render'
the propagation, increase and perpetuity of suci
misery an objec: of its guardian care, it divests i
self of all the attributes of good with which God ha'
invested government as a blessing, and it puts OF
itself the characteristics of a living curse.
This process was considered in regard to parent
and the family-its destruction of the parental re
lation, and of The family institution and thu
speaker drew a vivid picture Of Slavery as /
violates the family.and so the Word OF God whicl
ordained the family. The guilt and danger o
such perversion Of Justice, and such inhuman treat
ment of a whole race, adopted as the policy of tn,
nation, cannot be measured. And the infuenc'
of such unjust legislation in destroying the people
veneration for law is not one of its smallest evils
r. -. .uo.,o .La- I,,a Il, -,
any government that employs them will run ant
split upon the rock. Judges perverted into tn,
ser vice of lie slave oligarchy, setting at defiance
by their reasoning all principles of humanity ant
justice, and corrupting and destroying the con
science. are like DR.. Kane's hungry Arctic dogs
devouring their own harness.
They destroy the claim of obedience, the posi-
bility of reverence, and the sense of authority IL
the command. There is then nothing left to holt
by. The Arctic navigator, when he found wha
his dog had been doing, cut off strips from hi
own trousers to supply the place of the reindee
traces but such a process is suicidal. And sucl
is the process going on when our Judges undertak,
to peryert the moral sense of the people, which j
the only thing that God has appointed to hint
them to obedience -conscienco toward God. l
that be destroyed, no government can be sustained
but by bayonets and ~soldiery. And if the peopl
made up that defciensy Of religious authority il
government by a sacrifice of their religious indie
! DChutnOCt thNiA 'tSAf'N W tb'N
grounded in his Word. they sacrifice their owl
life and lay themselves ~bare-without defense, ant
3 without right of protest-to all the cruelties o
despotism.
A. PRYsE, Of Ravenna. lectured in this plao
on Saturday evening on Temperance, and o
Sunday gave three %lectures on Sectarianism. Iii
Temperance meeting We regret to say, was bu
small. On Sunday the attendance was better, AM
many gospel truths were uttered by the speake
which are but rarely heard from the pulpit. ID
: presented thoughts, the careful consideration an
! practical adoption of which, would do away wit
much Of the evil that results from ~sectarian bite
c nose and alienation.