The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1862-09-30
Beecher on the Presidents Proclamation.

HENRY WARD BEEcHER delivered discourse
at his church. the evening of the 2Slh inst, the
concluding part of which lie thus reported in the
New York papers
In conclusion, he said that the Lord God AL
mighty was now walking forth in clouds and
thunder, and for people to refuse TO believe
that God rewarded liberty and punished slavery
against their education, historic ideas-against
all the canons of their political structure and
all the sympathies of the human heart, was
monstrous infdelity, We were about to move
with gigantic force in one way or the other, and
it was necessary that we shonld fall back upon
some great principle and take our direction, not
from the mutable councils of cunning men, not
from those weaving politicians that bad emeshed
US in times past, until we struck some great and
immutable principle of God. What then, he
asked, is to be our policy for the future! what
are we to dol There is one class OF men that
say the remedy for all these evils is to gather
twenty secessonists and twenty abohtlonists
and hang them. If hanging twenty men would
root out that cancer would be those twenty
men if God would give me power to multiply
all my life again would stand under the gal
lows twenty times, and be hanged twenty times
if it would cure slavery. III tell you what
hanging twenty abolitionists will do. 1t will
do what it would do in ship in which terri
Bile disease had broken out, when the crew rose
against the doctors and kicked the medicine
chest after them. The disease would stay on
board, and only the cure would go overheard
You may rage as much as you please, but the
men that stand to bring back the voice OF the
founders of this nation-the men whose faith
has fbo VII al nj
the men that are in sympathy with Luther-the
men that vet breat the the breath that famed the
flame of the Revoluton-the men that walked
in the spirit of the old Pulitans the men that
are like the first founders Of these model repub-
lics-they are the men, if there be any medicine
yet, by whose hand God will send a cure. Hang
them That was the medicine the Jews bad
when they crucifed Christ. The Lord of glory
was put upon an ignomn0us tree, and they
thong ht they would have peace in Jerusalem
Where is Jerusalem and where are the Jews
A byword and Kissing to the earth. You, the
children of men, that come here for liberty
you that heard nothing but the doctrines OF lib
crty from your mothers lips, and drank it with
her mik--you, i'll whose making every threao
and every fiber was spun from the golden fleece
of liberty. can you stand 10 any doubt as o
is to repent and break away from the past; it
is to call God to witness that in time to come
we will ccnsecrate individually and nationally,
every energy to repair the mischief of slavery
to do it away utterly and to establish the reign
OF universal liberty That is the path of safety,
and blessed be God he has sent the porter He
has opened the door by the hand of the Pres-
dent. He has lifted the silver trumpet Of liber-
ty, and the blast is blown that 70 is through
the forest, and goes along the mountain side and
spreads wide over the prairies. 1t is known on
tie kither and on the thither ocean the waves
Of the Pacific and the waves of tn, Atlantic lift
themselves up and sound together notes Of glad
nesS, because that policy is enunciated that can
not be taken back,
As long as it was a question whether the
President meant to declare, as Commlnder-ln.
Chief of the army and navy of the United States,
as military necessity, universal emancip patton
-as long as it was a matter of doubt-the
North was i'll danger of being divided into two
parties-the one attempting to make him pro,
claim liberty, and the other attempting to make
him stand up for slavery. He has taken his
choice, There can be only two paries-one for
liberty and the President, and the other for the
South and slavery, Manifestations of applause
followed the utteranco OF this sentence) The
foundation of all opposition is Knocked out.
know it is said that tn President is not the
government that the constitution Is the govern
ment. What a sheepskin parchment gov.
eminent? | should think it was very tit one
for some men that | see and hear sometimes.
What is government in our country? 1t is
body Of living men ordained by the people to
administer public afflrs according to laws that
are written in a cons ltutlOn and in the statuto
books, and the govern cnt is the living men
that are administering 10 Il certain method the
ofairs of the nation. 1t Is not dry writing
or book. President Lincoln, his Cabinet, the
heads of the executive departments, are the
government, and men have got to take their
choice whether they will go against their gov
eminent or 60 with them tell you that the
mounting traitors will pretend to 90 with the
government while they are undermining it, and
all honest men will support it-and you know
that the homes men OF the North are vet a large
majority thank God the lines are drawn
There is nothing SO dcmoralizing as equivocal
neutrality. The President has taken ground ::
and since the administration is fixed on the side
Of liberty, the old original Spirit OF our constl-
tuition and the doctrine of GU, fathers we are
going to have the Union as it never was, but us
it was meant to be-
The Unlcn as it was meant to be, and not the
Union as 1t was, is to be our do .trine because
the Union as it was, was mons,rous outrage on
your rights and mine. The Union as it was
guaranteed men the right of speech, and paid
for that right by my lite in Virginia, the Caro-
linas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas
and Missouri. | should not have gone there
and spoken words that have spoken here to.
pi0ht VI thOut pra iSip IN