Chapter II (3)

The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed; those of Heaven must at once be performed; nor should we suffer ourselves to be drawn by any compact into opposition to God. Such is the rule of morals. Such, also, by the lips of judges and sages, is the proud declaration of English law, whence our own is derived. In this conviction, patriots have braved unjust commands, and martyrs have died.

[208] De Legibus, Lib. I. capp. 15, 16; Lib. II. capp. 5, 6. The
conclusion appears in the dialogue between Cicero and his brother
Quintus.

ARC. Ergo est lex justorum injustorumque distinctio, ad illam
antiquissimam et rerum omnium principem expressa naturam....

"QUINT. Præclare intelligo; nec vero jam aliam esse ullam legem
puto non modo habendam, sed ne appellandam quidem."

Among moderns, the Abbé de Mably, in an elaborate discussion,
adopts the conclusion of Cicero, as well as his treatment of it
by dialogue, making his interlocutor, Lord Stanhope, ask, "What
other remedy can be applied to this evil than disobedience?" and
representing him as "pulverizing without difficulty the miserable
commonplaces in opposition."--_Des Droits et des Devoirs du
Citoyen_, Lettre IV. OEuvres (Paris, 1797), Tom. XI. pp. 249, 251.

Cicero was not alone among ancients in submission to an overruling
law, nowhere pictured in greater sovereignty than by Sophocles, in
a famous verse of the _OEdipus Tyrannus_:--

Ϻέγας ἐν τούτοις Θεός, οὐδὲ γηράσκει.--v. 845 [871].

Great in these laws is God, and grows not old.

[209] Versus ad Astralabium Filium: Opera (ed. Cousin), Tom. I. pp.
341, 342.

And now, Sir, the rule is commended to us. The good citizen, who sees before him the shivering fugitive, guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast, while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and then reads the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a despotic mandate "to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law."[210] Again let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set myself against any requirement of law. This grave responsibility I would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice, by the comprehensive Christian Law of Brotherhood, _by the Constitution, which I have sworn to support_, I AM BOUND TO DISOBEY THIS ACT. Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution. Pains and penalties I will endure, but this great wrong I will not do. "Where I cannot obey actively, there I am willing to lie down and to suffer what they shall do unto me": such was the exclamation of him to whom we are indebted for the "Pilgrim's Progress," while in prison for disobedience to an earthly statute.[211] Better suffer injustice than do it. Better victim than instrument of wrong. Better even the poor slave returned to bondage than the wretched Commissioner.

[210] Fugitive Slave Act, September 18, 1850, Sec. 5.

[211] Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan, written by
Himself: Works (Glasgow, 1853), Vol. I. pp. 59, 60. Balmez, the
Spanish divine, whose vindication of the early Catholic Church is
a remarkable monument, declares, after careful discussion, "that
the rights of the civil power are limited, that there are things
beyond its province,--cases in which a man may say, and ought to
say, _I will not obey_." (Protestantism and Catholicity Compared,
Ch. 54.) Devices to avoid the enforcement of unjust laws illustrate
this righteous disobedience,--as where English juries, before the
laws had been made humane, found an article stolen to be less
than five shillings in value, in order to save the criminal from
capital punishment. In the Diary of John Adams, December 14, 1779,
at Ferrol, in Spain, there is a curious instance of law requiring
that a convicted parricide should be headed up in a hogshead with
an adder, a toad, a dog, and a cat, and then cast into the sea;
but in a case that had recently occurred the barbarous law was
evaded by painting these animals on a hogshead containing the
dead body of the criminal. (Works, Vol. III. p. 233.) In similar
spirit, the famous President Jeannin, high in the magistracy and
diplomacy of France, when called to a consultation on a mandate
of Charles the Ninth, at the epoch of St. Bartholomew, said, "We
must obey the sovereign slowly, when he commands in anger"; and
he concluded by asking "letters patent before executing orders so
cruel." (Biographie Universelle, art. _Jeannin Pierre_.) The remark
of Casimir Périer, when Prime-Minister, to Queen Hortense, that
it might be "legal" for him to arrest her, but not "just," makes
the same distinction. (Guizot, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire
de mon Temps, Tom. II. p. 219. See _ante_. Vol. II. pp. 398, 399.)
The case is stated with perfect moderation by Grotius, when he says
that human laws have _a binding force_ only when they are made
in a humane manner, not if they impose a burden which is plainly
abhorrent to reason and Nature,--_non si onus injungant quod a
ratione et natura plane abhorreat_. (De Jure Belli ac Pacis, Lib.
III. Cap. XXIII. v. 3; also Lib. I. Cap. IV. vii. 2, 3.) These
latter words aptly describe the "burden" imposed by the Slave Act.

There is, Sir, an incident of history which suggests a parallel, and affords a lesson of fidelity. Under the triumphant exertions of that Apostolic Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier, large numbers of Japanese, amounting to as many as two hundred thousand,--among them princes, generals, and the flower of the nobility,--were converted to Christianity. Afterwards, amidst the frenzy of civil war, religious persecution arose, and the penalty of death was denounced against all who refused to trample upon the effigy of the Redeemer. This was the Pagan law of a Pagan land. But the delighted historian records, that from the multitude of converts scarcely one was guilty of this apostasy. The law of man was set at nought. Imprisonment, torture, death, were preferred. Thus did this people refuse to trample on the painted image. Sir, multitudes among us will not be less steadfast in refusing to trample on the living image of their Redeemer.

Finally, Sir, for the sake of peace and tranquillity, cease to shock the Public Conscience; for the sake of the Constitution, cease to exercise a power nowhere granted, and which violates inviolable rights expressly secured. Leave this question where it was left by our fathers, at the formation of our National Government,--in the absolute control of the States, the appointed guardians of Personal Liberty. Repeal this enactment. Let its terrors no longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly whom it pursues, mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements, in the name of Charity, in the name of the Constitution, repeal this enactment, totally and without delay. There is the example of Washington; follow it. There also are words of Oriental piety, most touching and full of warning, which speak to all mankind, and now especially to us: "Beware of the groans of wounded souls, since the inward sore will at length break out. Oppress not to the utmost a single heart; for a solitary sigh has power to overturn a whole world."

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Transcriber's note:

The punctuation and spelling are as in the original publication with the exception of the following:

Professor Stearns, who resided in Cambridge, was occucupied . . . was changed to Professor Stearns, who resided in Cambridge, was occupied . . .

. . . leaning for support on the great Truimvirate was changed to . . . leaning for support on the great Triumvirate