Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
Yet another reason is found in devotion to the interests of a party.
Tell a whig he could make whig capital out of anti-slavery, he would
turn abolitionist in a moment, if he believed you. Tell a democrat that
he can make capital out of abolition, and he also will come over to your
side. But the fact is, each party knows it would gain nothing for its
political purposes by standing out for the rights of man. The time will
come, and sooner too than some men think, when it will be for the
interest of a party to favor abolition; but that time is not yet. It
does seem strange, that while you can find men who will practise a good
deal of self-denial for their sect or their party, lending, and hoping
nothing in return, you so rarely find a man who will compromise even his
popularity for the sake of mankind.
Then again, there is the fear of change. Men who control our politics
seem to have little confidence in man, little in truth, little in
justice, and the eternal right. Therefore, while it is never out of
season to do something for the tariff, for the moneyed interests of men,
they think it is never in time to do much for the great work of
elevating mankind itself. They have no confidence in the people, and
take little pains to make the people worthy of confidence. So any change
which gives a more liberal government to a people, which gives freedom
to the slave, they look on with distrust, if not alarm. In 1830, when
the French expelled the despotic king who encumbered their throne, what
said Massachusetts, what said New England, in honor of the deed?
Nothing. Your old men? Nothing. Your young men? Not a word. What did
they care for the freedom of thirty millions of men? They were looking
at their imports and exports. In 1838, when England set free eight
hundred thousand men in a day, what did Massachusetts say about that?
What had New England to say? Not a word in its favor from these
political leaders of the land. Nay, they thought the experiment was
dangerous, and ever since that it is with great reluctance you can get
them to confess that the scheme works well. In 1848, when France again
expels her king, and all the royalty in the kingdom is carted off in a
one-horse cab--when the broadest principles of human government are laid
down, and a great nation sets about the difficult task of moving out of
her old political house, and into a new one, without tearing down the
old, without butchering men in the process of removal,--why, what has
Boston to say to that? What have the political leaders of Massachusetts,
of New England, to say? They have nothing to say for liberty; they are
sorry the experiment was made; they are afraid the French will not want
so much cotton; they have no confidence in man, and fear every change.
Such are their opinions, to judge by what they do; such the reasons
thereof, judging by what they say.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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