Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
On our side, there are great and powerful allies. The American idea is
with us; the spirit of the majority of men in the North, when they are
not blindfolded and muzzled by the demagogues of State and Church. The
religion of the land, also, is on our side; the irreligion, the
idolatry, the infidelity thereof, all of that is opposed to us. Religion
is love of God and love of man: surely, all of that, under any form,
Catholic or Quaker, is in favor of the unalienable rights of man. We
know that we are right; we are sure to prevail. But in times present and
future, as in times past, we need heroism, self-denial, a continual
watchfulness, and an industry which never tires.
Let us not be deceived about the real question at issue. It is not
merely whether we shall return fugitive slaves without trial by jury. We
will not return them with trial by jury! neither "with alacrity," nor
"with the solemnity of judicial proceedings!" It is not merely whether
slavery shall be extended or not. By and by there will be a political
party with a wider basis than the free soil party, who will declare
that the nation itself must put an end to slavery in the nation; and if
the Constitution of the United States will not allow it, there is
another Constitution that will. Then the title, Defender and expounder
of the Constitution of the United States, will give way to
this,--"Defender and expounder of the Constitution of the Universe," and
we shall reaffirm the ordinance of nature, and reënact the will of God.
You may not live to see it, Mr. President, nor I live to see it; but it
is written on the iron leaf that it must come; come, too, before long.
Then the speech of Mr. Webster, and the defence thereof by Mr. Stuart,
the letter of the retainers and the letters of the retained, will be a
curiosity; the conduct of the whigs and democrats an amazement, and the
peculiar institution a proverb amongst all the nations of the earth. In
the turmoil of party politics, and of personal controversy, let us not
forget continually to move the previous question, whether Freedom or
Slavery is to prevail in America. There is no attribute of God which is
not on our side; because, in this matter, we are on the side of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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