The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-06-10

! out and In those graces that send Howard
and a Nightingale upon their errands, they
were little better than the savages of our own
| forests.
But modern civilization and modern law,
| imperfectly as they are yet developed, have a
different history, and are based upon differ.
emit idea. We have not been in the habit of
giving sufficient importance to the influence of
| Christianity and the Jewish records. The story
| of our common origin, Of the origin of all prop
| erty in the Divine grant to the common head,
both in the beginning and when the second
| father of man went forth from the ark the dim
glimpses of justice and equity, of oppression
and its punishment, seen through the veil of the
Pentateuch and the early Jewish annals the
authoritative announcement of the principles
| of natural law in the second table cf the deca-
logue the anathemas upon injustice burning
10 the pages of the chief prophets and the
crowning glory of all, the teachings of the Di.
vine man, establishing universal brotherhood
as the normal relation, and universal Love
az the highest duty, have furnished the grand
IDEA of modern civilization Force is no
longer the base of property. The first lesson in
modern law makes broad and impossible the
distinction between men and things That is
property which God has made property. The
stranger is no longer the enemy-the enemy
no longer the slave. The law of the strong
hand yields to the law of justice; and. as the
idea of the artist brings out the form, gradu-
ally, imperfectly, according to the iSiperfect
material, and the more imperfect sklI,.s the
great idea of JUSTICE as the basis of property
and end of law, starting out with the overthrow
of the robber dogma of property in one another,
is guiding us onward and upward, though on
q rugged road and with hating steps, vet sure.
" on to it's com plete realization.
l cannot better illustrate the contrast be.
tween the ancient and modern theories of 90
litcal morals, than by opposing to the maxim
attributed by Thucyddes to his countrymen,
that "to King or Commonwealth nothing is
unjust which is useful" Thu. Hist VOL g. the
following declaration of the younger Pitt, in
opposition to the slave trade:
"The argument which, in his Mr.. Pitts I
opinion, ought to determine the committee,
was, that the slave trade was unjust. 1t was
such trade as it was impossible for him to
support, unless it could be first proved to him
that there we're no laws of morality binding
upon nations, and that it was not the duty of
Legislature to restrain its subjects from in.
vading the happiness Of other countries, and
from violating the fundamental principles of
justice. Cqarkson's History of the Abolition
of the Sl0Ue Trade, DOL. 2, page 243.
Could England in all her administrations
have had the wisdom to realize this noble SEN
timent could she have withstood the barbarism
of her greedy capitalists, by the Christianity
of her common law what dishonor would not
have been saved to her what woes, what
blight, to us, as we'll as to the grooming East
1t was necessity that the ancient civiliza.
ton should fall. 1t could no more live in the
light of the Christian idea, than the affairs of
the Aztecs or the feasts of the Fejees; and the
grander the structure, the more imposing the
pile of this Bastile of human hopes-based as
it was upon lie, upon moral quicksands-
more complete the ruin. True, this ruin is not
without its use. 1t is great quarry, with many
fit column for the new temple based upon the
rock.
1t is mistake to mourn over the collapse of
mere force and the consequent and necessary
anarchy. 1t could not be otherwise. They
were the prelude to higher civilization. They
became essential to make way for the gradual
infusion of the idea of justice as the law of
society, the law of property; and dark as was
the transition, and seemingly hopeless as was
the long fermentation of human passions yet,
slowly emerging from that chaos, form of So
ciety is arising, that may become immortal !;
for the curtailment of its abuses and the devel.
opment OF the race is made possible by the
gradual adoption, throughout Christendom, of
the Divine idea. The steps to that end are
already many and long; private property is no
longer subject to lawful capture private forays
are piracy; prisoners of war are no longer
slaves; cities cannot lawfully be devoted to
pillage, their inhabitants, men, women, and
children, delivered to the sword, or made to
pass under the yoke as property even the high
seas, so long the safe field of robbery, are being
embraced, and but for an act of this Admins
tration might ere this have been embraced in
the protection of the great idea; and in all
lands-shall l be forced to except my own?-
the yoke is being broken, the scourge is being
exchanged for the contract, and the handcuff
gives way to the school book.
Aud the struggle now is, to turn back the
tide of civilization to supplant the idea of JUS
tice, to reenthrOne the law of force. Hardly
a proposition, hardly a measure, meets with any
favor, that has not this end in view. For that
the dominant interest has broken faith, spurned
every constitutional guarantee, prescribed all
but self sold slaves debsuched the judiciary,
enslaved the Territories, made provinces of the
States, and all to substitute the robber right for
the Divine grant Ay, and for that it has COM
passed heaven and earth to give life to the Lee
compton villainy. Its central organ in Febru-
airy last endorsed threat of disunion unless
the principle of Lecompton be ratified unless
the slave interest be allowed "to retire from
Kansas with our drums beating and colors fly.
ing" exclaiming, why not give US the shell,
while they the North have the kernel?" as
it not enough that they have an overwhelming
majority in Kansas 2" The President, in press,
ing Lecompton, admitted that it's reign would
be short. Why then press it, but that the prn.
ciple of Lacompton is precious to tee one ideal.
lists 2 and why 30 precious? Only because,
first, it is the work of a lean minority, and is
scornfully rejected by the vast majority hence
the idea of sUBJECTION is enthroned over T" the
consent of the governed" and second, and
mainly, this Constitution alone proclaims the
airocious dogma, that the right of property in
man is as inviolable as the right of any other
property, and is above constitutional sanction
Hence the idea of cid FORCE, instead of Cons
GRANT, as the base of property.
And which, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen,
prefer you, the ancient or the modern, the Pagan
or the Christian idea In which age will YOU
place us? On which slope of the pilirg CEN
turtles shall we travel? Gentlemen defend the
property idea of force, from the fact that it is
ancient, that all heathendom recognised ii, that
it was the idea of. the Greek and the Roman,
the Scythian and the Arab, the Ethiopian and
| the Indian. never doubted the fact, but have
often wondered whether gentlemen really desire
to turn back the shadow upon the dial, to re-
enthrone moral chaos, and bring back nigh,
| again
The gentleman from South Carolina has just
told us of the fetter fastening, the Slavery low
ing, the force-enthroning religion of the Cross
1t we'll becomes him to give such a blasphe
nous exegesis of its holy maxims. He nigh,
naturally understand that the exhor.ation to
resist not evil, to meekly turn the cheek to the
assailant, rather than meet force by force, jus
titles the evildoer and smiter With the same
instincts that guided Laud and Stafford, be
might readily infer that the duty of passive