[112] _Page 131, note 1._ “For he [a ruler] is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” _Epistle to the Romans_, xiii. 4. [113] _Page 132, note 1._ The cause for Mr. Emerson’s indignation was great and recent. His honored townsman, Samuel Hoar, Esq., sent by the State of Massachusetts as her commissioner to South Carolina to investigate the seizures, imprisonments, punishments, and even sale of colored citizens of Massachusetts who had committed no crime, had been expelled with threats of violence from the city of Charleston. (See “Samuel Hoar,” in _Lectures and Biographical Sketches_.) [114] _Page 133, note 1._ A union then of honest men, Or union never more again. “Boston,” _Poems_. [115] _Page 134, note 1._ John Quincy Adams, who, though disapproving, as untimely, the legislation urged on Congress by the abolitionists, yet fought strongly and persistently against the rules framed to check their importunity, as inconsistent with the right of petition itself. [116] _Page 144, note 1._ Here comes in the doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest that appears in the “Ode inscribed to W. H. Channing,” but, even more than there, tempered by faith in the strength of humanity. See the “Lecture on the Times,” given in 1841 (_Nature, Addresses and Lectures_, p. 220), for considerations on slavery more coolly philosophical than Mr. Emerson’s warm blood often admitted of, during the strife for liberty in the period between the Mexican and Civil Wars. [117] _Page 145, note 1._ To-day unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound! “Boston Hymn,” _Poems_. [118] _Page 146, note 1._ In the early version of the “Boston” poem were these lines:— O pity that I pause! The song disdaining shuns To name the noble sires, because Of the unworthy sons. ... Your town is full of gentle names, By patriots once were watchwords made; Those war-cry names are muffled shames On recreant sons mislaid. WAR In the winter and early spring of 1838, the American Peace Society held a course of lectures in Boston. This lecture was the seventh in the course. Mr. Alcott wrote in his diary at that time:— “I heard Emerson’s lecture on _Peace_, as the closing discourse of a series delivered at the Odeon before the American Peace Society.... After the lecture I saw Mr. Garrison, who is at this time deeply interested in the question of Peace, as are many of the meekest and noblest souls amongst us. He expressed his great pleasure in the stand taken by Mr. Emerson and his hopes in him as a man of the new age. This great topic has been brought before the general mind as a direct consequence of the agitation of the abolition of slavery.”