Reticent as most underground operators were at the time in regard to their unlawful acts, they did not attempt to conceal their principles. On the contrary, they were zealous in their endeavors to make converts to a doctrine that seemed to them to have the combined warrant of Scripture and of their own conscience, and that agreed with the convictions of the fathers of the Republic. The Golden Rule and the preamble of the Declaration of Independence they often recited in support of their position. When they had transgressed the Fugitive Slave Law of Congress they were wont to find their justification in what ex-President Fairchild of Oberlin has aptly called the Fugitive Slave Law of the Mosaic institutions:[260] "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which hath escaped unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him."[261] They refused to observe a law that made it a felony in their opinion to give a cup of cold water to famishing men and women fleeing from servitude. Their faith and determination is clearly expressed in one of the old anti-slavery songs:-- "'Tis the law of God in the human soul, 'Tis the law in the Word Divine; It shall live while the earth in its course shall roll, It shall live in this soul of mine. Let the law of the land forge its bonds of wrong, I shall help when the self-freed crave; For the law in my soul, bright, beaming, and strong, Bids me succor the fleeing slave." Theodore Parker was but the mouthpiece of many abolitionists throughout the Northern states when he said, at the conclusion of a sermon in 1850: "It is known to you that the Fugitive Slave Bill has become a law.... To law framed of such iniquity I owe no allegiance. Humanity, Christianity, manhood revolts against it.... For myself I say it solemnly, I will shelter, I will help, and I will defend the fugitive with all my humble means and power. I will act with any body of decent and serious men, as the head, or the foot, or the hand, in any mode not involving the use of deadly weapons, to nullify and defeat the operation of this law...."[262] [260] Fairchild, _The Underground Railroad_, Vol. IV; _Tract No. 87_, Western Reserve Historical Society, p. 97. [261] Deut. xxiii, 15, 16. [262] Delivered in Melodeon Hall, Boston, Oct. 6, 1850. The _Chronotype_, Oct. 7, 1850. See Vol. II, No. 2, of the _Scrap-book_ relating to Theodore Parker, compiled by Miss C. C. Thayer, Boston Public Library.