Chapter II (6)

Through this organization we shall secure the election of men who, unseduced and unterrified, will at Washington uphold the principles of Freedom,--and also here at home, in our own community, by example, influence, and vote, will help invigorate Massachusetts. I might go further, and say that by no other organization can we reasonably hope to obtain such men, unless in rare and exceptional cases.

Men are but instruments. It will not be enough to choose those who are loyal. Other things must be done here at home. In the first place, all existing laws for the protection of human freedom must be rigorously enforced [_applause, and cries of "Good!"_]; and since these are found inadequate, there must be new laws for this purpose within the limits of the Constitution. Massachusetts will do well in following Vermont, which by special law places the fugitive slave under the safeguard of Trial by Jury and the writ of _Habeas Corpus_. But a Legislature true to Freedom will not fail in remedies. [_Applause._] A simple prohibition, declaring that no person, holding the commission of Massachusetts as Justice of the Peace, or other magistrate, shall assume to act as a Slave-Hunting Commissioner, or as counsel of any Slave-Hunter, under some proper penalty, would go far to render the existing Slave Act inoperative. [_Applause._] There are not many so fond of this base trade as to continue in it, when the Commonwealth sets upon it a legislative brand.

Besides more rigorous legislation, Public Opinion must be invoked to step forward and throw over the fugitive its protecting ægis. A Slave-Hunter will then be a by-word and reproach; and all his instruments, especially every one who volunteers in this vileness without positive obligation of law, will naturally be regarded as part of his pack, and share the ignominy of the chief hunter. [_Laughter and cheers._] And now, from authentic example, drawn out of recent history, learn how the Slave-Hunter may be palsied by contrition. I take the story from late letters on Neapolitan affairs by the eminent English statesman, Mr. Gladstone, who has copied it from an Italian writer. A most successful member of the Neapolitan police, Bolza, of the hateful tribe known as _sbirri_, whose official duties involved his own personal degradation and the loathing of others, has left a record of the acute sense retained of his shame by even such a man. "I absolutely forbid my heirs," says this penitent official, "to allow any mark, of whatever kind, to be placed over the spot of my burial,--much more any inscription or epitaph. I recommend my dearly beloved wife to impress upon my children the injunction, that, in soliciting any employment from Government, they shall ask for it elsewhere than in the _executive police_, and not, unless under extraordinary circumstances, to give her consent to the marriage of any of my daughters with a member of that service."[135] Thus testifies the Italian instrument of legal wrong. Let public opinion here in Massachusetts once put forth its might, and every instrument of the Fugitive Slave Act will feel a kindred shame. [_Great applause._] They will resign. When, under the heartless Charles the Second of England, the Act of Uniformity went into operation, upwards of two thousand pulpits were vacated by the voluntary withdrawal of men who thought it better to face starvation than treachery to their Master. Here is an example for us. Let magistrates and officers, called to enforce a cruel injustice, take notice.

[135] Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen, on the State
Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government, by the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, (London, 1851,) Letter II. p. 45.

It is sometimes gravely urged, that, since the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive Act, there only remains to us, in all places, whether in public station or in private life, the duty of absolute submission. Yes, Sir, that is the assumption, which you will perceive is applied to the humblest citizen who holds no office and has taken no oath to support the Constitution, as well as to the public servant who is under the special obligations of an official oath. Now, without stopping to consider the soundness of the judgment affirming the constitutionality of this Act, let me say that the Constitution, as I understand it, exacts no such _passive obedience_. In taking the oath to support the Constitution, it is as I understand it, and not as other men understand it. [_Loud applause._]

In adopting this rule, first authoritatively enunciated by Andrew Jackson, when, as President of the United States, in the face of the Supreme Court, he asserted the unconstitutionality of the Bank, I desire to be understood as not acting hastily. Let me add, that, if it needed other authority in its support, it has the sanction also of the distinguished Cabinet by which he was then surrounded, among whom were that unsurpassed jurist, Edward Livingston, Secretary of State, and that still living exemplar of careful learning and wisdom, Roger B. Taney, then Attorney-General, now Chief-Justice of the United States. Beyond these, it has the unquestionable authority of Thomas Jefferson, by whom it was asserted again and again as a rule of conduct. Thus, if any person at this day be disposed to deal sharply with me on account of the support which I now most conscientiously give to this rule, let him remember that his thrusts will pierce not only myself, the humblest of its supporters, but also the great fame of Andrew Jackson and of Thomas Jefferson,--patriots both of eminent life and authority, on whose Atlantean shoulders this principle of Constitutional Law will ever firmly rest.

Reason here is in harmony with authority. From the necessity of the case I must swear to support the Constitution either _as I do understand it_ or _as I do NOT understand it_. [_Laughter._] But the absurdity of dangling on the latter horn of the dilemma compels me to take the former, and there is a natural end of the argument. [_Great laughter and cheers._] Is there a person in Congress or out of it, in the National Government or State Government, who, when this inevitable alternative is presented, will venture to say that he swears to support the Constitution as he does _not_ understand it? [_Laughter and applause._] The supposition is too preposterous. But let me ask gentlemen disposed to abandon their own understanding of the Constitution, and to submit their conscience to the standard of other men, By whose understanding do they swear? Surely not by that of the President: this is not alleged: but by the understanding of the Supreme Court. In other words, to this Court, being at present nine persons,--represented by a simple majority, it may be of _one_ only,--is accorded the power of fastening such interpretation as they see fit upon any part of the Constitution,--adding to it, or subtracting from it, or positively varying its requirements,--actually making and unmaking the Constitution; and to their work all good citizens must bow, as of equal authority with the original instrument, ratified by solemn votes of the whole people! [_Great applause._] If this be so, the oath to support the Constitution is hardly less offensive than the famous "et cætera" oath devised by Archbishop Laud, where the subject swore to certain specified things, with an "&c." added. Such an oath I have not taken. ["_Good! good!_"] An old poet anticipates my objection:--

"Who swears _&c._ swears more oaths at once
Than Cerberus out of his triple sconce;
Who views it well with the same eye beholds
The old half serpent in his numerous folds
Accursed."[136]

[136] Cleveland. See Hudibras, ed. Grey, Part I. Canto 2, Note to
v. 650.

The power of our Supreme Court is great, and its sphere is vast; but there are limits to its power and its sphere. According to the Constitution, "the judicial power shall extend to _all cases_ in law and equity, arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties"; but it by no means follows that the interpretation of the Constitution, _incident_ to the trial of these "cases," is final. Of course, the judgment in the "case" actually pending is final, as the settlement of a controversy, for weal or woe, to the litigating parties; but as a _precedent_ it is not final even on the Supreme Court itself. When cited afterwards, it will be regarded with respect as an _interpretation of the Constitution_, and, if nothing appears against it, of controlling authority; but, at any day, in any litigation, at the trial of any "case," it will be within the unquestionable competency of the Court to review its own decision, _so far as it establishes any interpretation of the Constitution_. If the Court itself be not constrained by its own precedents, how can coördinate branches, under oath to support the Constitution, and, like the Court itself, called _incidentally_ to interpret the Constitution, be constrained by them? In both instances, the power to interpret is simply _incident_ to other principal duties, as the trial of "cases," the making of laws, or the administration of government; and it seems as plainly _incident_ to a "case" of legislation or of administration as to a "case" of litigation. And on this view I shall act with entire confidence, under the oath I have taken.

For myself, let me say, that I hold judges, and especially the Supreme Court, in much respect; but I am too familiar with the history of judicial proceedings to regard them with any superstitious reverence. [_Sensation._] Judges are but men, and in all ages have shown a full share of human frailty. Alas! alas! the worst crimes of history have been perpetrated under their sanction. The blood of martyrs and of patriots, crying from the ground, summons them to judgment. It was a judicial tribunal which condemned Socrates to drink the fatal hemlock, and which pushed the Saviour barefoot over the pavements of Jerusalem, bending beneath his cross. It was a judicial tribunal which, against the testimony and entreaties of her father, surrendered the fair Virginia _as a slave_,--which arrested the teachings of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, and sent him in bonds from Judæa to Rome,--which, in the name of the Old Religion, persecuted the saints and fathers of the Christian Church, and adjudged them to a martyr's death, in all its most dreadful forms,--and afterwards, in the name of the New Religion, enforced the tortures of the Inquisition, amidst the shrieks and agonies of its victims, while it compelled Galileo to declare, in solemn denial of the great truth he had disclosed, that the earth did not move round the sun. It was a judicial tribunal which, in France, during the long reign of her monarchs, lent itself to be the instrument of every tyranny, as during the brief Reign of Terror it did not hesitate to stand forth the unpitying accessary of the unpitying guillotine. Ay, Sir, it was a judicial tribunal in England, surrounded by all forms of law, which sanctioned every despotic caprice of Henry the Eighth, from the unjust divorce of his queen to the beheading of Sir Thomas More,--which lighted the fires of persecution that glowed at Oxford and Smithfield, over the cinders of Latimer, Ridley, and John Rogers,--which, after elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyranny of ship money against the patriot resistance of Hampden,--which, in defiance of justice and humanity, sent Sidney and Russell to the block,--which persistently enforced the laws of Conformity that our Puritan fathers persistently refused to obey, and afterwards, with Jeffreys on the bench, crimsoned the pages of English history with massacre and murder, even with the blood of innocent women. Ay, Sir, it was a judicial tribunal in our own country, surrounded by all forms of law, which hung witches at Salem,--which affirmed the constitutionality of the Stamp Act, while it admonished "jurors and people" to obey,--and which now, in our day, lends its sanction to the unutterable atrocity of the Fugitive Slave Act. [_Long continued applause, and three cheers for Sumner._]

Of course judgments of courts are binding upon inferior tribunals, and their own executive officers, whose virtue does not prompt them to resign rather than aid in executing an unjust mandate. Over all citizens, whether in public or private station, they will naturally exert, _as precedents_, an impartial influence. This I admit. But no man, who is not lost to self-respect, and ready to abandon that manhood which is shown in the Heaven-directed countenance, will voluntarily aid in enforcing a judgment which in conscience he believes wrong. He will not hesitate "to obey God rather than men," and calmly abide the peril he provokes. Not lightly, not rashly, will he take the grave responsibility of open dissent; but if the occasion requires, he will not fail. Pains and penalties may be endured, but wrong must not be done. [_Cheers._] "Where I cannot obey I am willing to suffer," was the exclamation of the author of "Pilgrim's Progress," when imprisoned for disobedience to an earthly statute. Elsewhere I have said what I now repeat and proclaim on the house-top. Better suffer injustice than do it. Better be even the poor slave returned to bondage than the unhappy Commissioner. [_Applause and sensation._]

I repeat, judges are but men, and I know no difference between the claim of power now made for them and that other insulting pretension put forth sometimes in the name of a king and sometimes of a people. Listen to what King James of England once wrote: "It is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do: good Christians content themselves with his will revealed in his word. So it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do this or that: but rest in that which is the king's revealed will in his law."[137] Thus wrote one who was called "the wisest fool of Christendom." And so we are to rest in that popular will revealed in the Fugitive Slave Act, and ratified by the Supreme Court. The rabble of revolutionary France, in a spirit kindred to that of King James, cried out, as the executioner's cart tracked its way in blood, "We can do what we please,"--adding, "There is no God." Of course, if there were no God, they could not do as they pleased; nor could the king, whose pretension for himself was no better than that of the rabble. But there is a God, to be obeyed in all things, although kings, people, and even courts, assert the contrary.

[137] Speech in the Star-Chamber, June 20, 1616: Works of the Most
High and Mighty Prince, James, by the Grace of God King of Great
Britain, &c., (London, 1616, folio,) p. 557. See also Finch's Law,
p. 81.

The whole dogma of _passive obedience_ must be rejected, whatever guise it assumes, under whatever _alias_ it skulks,--whether in tyrannical usurpations of king, parliament, or judicial tribunal,--whether in exploded theories of Sir Robert Filmer, or rampant assumptions of the Fugitive Slave Act. The rights of the civil power are limited; there are things beyond its province; there are matters out of its control; there are cases in which the faithful citizen may say,--ay, _must_ say,--"I will not obey." One of the highest flights of Mirabeau was, when, addressing the National Assembly of France, he protested against a law then pending, and exclaimed, "If you make such a law, I swear never to obey it!"[138] No man now responds to the words of Shakespeare, "If a king bid a man be a villain, he is bound by the indenture of his oath to be one." Nor, in this age of civilization and liberty, will any prudent reasoner, who duly considers the rights of conscience, claim for any earthly magistrate or tribunal, howsoever styled, a power which the loftiest monarch of a Christian throne, wearing on his brow "the round and top of sovereignty," dare not assert.

[138] Projet de Loi sur les Émigrations, 28 Février, 1791:
OEuvres, (Paris, 1834,) Tom. III. p. 85.

On this twofold conclusion I rest, and do not doubt the final result. The citizen who has sworn to support the Constitution is constrained to support it simply as he understands it. The citizen whose private life has kept him from assuming the obligations of official oath may bravely set at nought the unrighteous ruling of a magistrate, and, so doing, he will serve justice, though he expose himself to stern penalties.

Fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, our own local history is not without encouragement. In early colonial days, the law against witchcraft, now so abhorrent to reason and conscience, was regarded as constitutional and binding,--precisely as the Fugitive Slave Act, not less abhorrent to reason and conscience, is regarded as constitutional and binding. A special Court of Oyer and Terminer, with able judges, whose names are entwined with our history, enforced this law at Salem by the execution of nineteen persons as witches,--precisely as petty magistrates, acting under sanction of the Supreme Court of the United States, and also of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, have enforced the Fugitive Act by the reduction of two human beings to slavery. The clergy of Massachusetts, particularly near Boston, and also Harvard College, were for the law. "Witchcraft," shouted Cotton Mather from the pulpit, "is the most nefandous high treason," "a capital crime,"--even as opposition to the Fugitive Act has been denounced as "treason." [_Laughter._]

But the law against witchcraft was not triumphant long. The General Court of the Province first became penitent, and asked pardon of God for "all the errors of his servants and people in the late tragedy." Jurymen united in condemning and lamenting the delusion to which they had yielded under the decision of the judges, and acknowledged that they had brought the reproach of wrongful bloodshed on their native land. Sewall, one of the judges, and author of the early tract against Slavery, "The Selling of Joseph," whose name lives freshly in his liberty-loving descendant [Hon. S. E. SEWALL] [_applause_], stood up in his place at church, before the congregation, and implored the prayers of the people, that the errors he had committed might not be visited by the judgments of an avenging God on his country, his family, or himself. And now, in a manuscript diary of this departed judge, may be read, on the margin against the contemporary record, in his own handwriting, words of saddest interjection and sorrow: _Væ! væ! væ!_ Woe! woe! woe![139] [_Sensation._]

[139] Holmes, Annals, Vol. I. p. 440, note. In similar spirit, John
Winthrop, the early Governor of Massachusetts, on his death-bed
refused to sign an order to banish a heterodox person, saying, "I
have done too much of that work already."--Hutchinson, History of
Massachusetts, Vol. I. p. 142.

The parallel between the law against witchcraft and the Fugitive Act is not yet complete. It remains for our Legislature, successor of that original General Court, to lead the penitential march. [_Laughter._] In the slave cases there have been no jurymen to recant [_laughter_]; and it is too much, perhaps, to expect any magistrate who sanctioned the cruelty to imitate by public penitence the magnanimity of other days. Yet it is not impossible that future generations may be permitted to read, in some newly exhumed diary or letter by one of these troubled functionaries, words of woe not unlike those wrung from the soul of Sewall. [_Sensation._]

* * * * *

Fellow-citizens, one word in conclusion: Be of good cheer. ["_That's it!_"] I know well the difficulties and responsibilities of the contest; but not on this account do I bate a jot of heart or hope. [_Applause._] At this time, in our country, there is little else to tempt into public life an honest man, who wishes, by something that he has done, to leave the world better than he found it. There is little else to afford any of those satisfactions which an honest man can covet. Nor is there any cause which so surely promises final success. There is nothing good--not a breathing of the common air--which is not on our side. Ours, too, are those great allies described by the poet,--

"Exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind."

And there are favoring circumstances peculiar to the present moment. By the passage of the Nebraska Bill, and the Boston kidnapping case, the tyranny of the Slave Power is unmistakably manifest, while at the same time all compromises with Slavery are happily dissolved, so that Freedom stands face to face with its foe. The pulpit, too, released from ill-omened silence, now thunders for Freedom, as in the olden time. [_Cheers._] It belongs to Massachusetts, nurse of the men and principles which made the earliest Revolution, to vow herself anew to her ancient faith, as she lifts herself to the great struggle. Her place now, as then, is in the van, at the head of the battle. [_Sensation._] To sustain this advanced position with proper inflexibility, three things are needed by our beloved Commonwealth, in all her departments of government,--the same three things which once, in Faneuil Hall, I ventured to say were needed by every representative of the North at Washington. The first is _backbone_ [_applause_]; the second is BACKBONE [_renewed applause_]; and the third is BACKBONE. [_Long continued cheering, and three cheers for "Backbone."_] With these Massachusetts will be felt and respected, as a positive force in the National Government [_applause_], while at home, on her own soil, free at last in reality as in name [_applause_], all her people, from Boston islands to Berkshire hills, and from the sands of Barnstable to the northern line, will unite in the cry,--

"No slave-hunt in our borders! no pirate on our strand!
No fetters in the Bay State! no slave upon our land!"

THE GOOD FARMER AND THE GOOD CITIZEN.

LETTER TO THE NORFOLK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY,
SEPTEMBER 25, 1854.

ANOTHER voice against the Fugitive Slave Act.

BOSTON, September 25, 1854.

My Dear Sir,--I am grateful for the honor done me by the invitation of your Society, and also for the kind manner in which you have conveyed it. But another engagement promises to occupy my time so as to deprive me of the pleasure thus kindly offered.

From the mother earth we may derive many lessons, and I doubt not they will spring up abundantly in the footprints of the Norfolk Agricultural Society. There is one that comes to my mind at this moment, and which is of perpetual force.

The good farmer obeys the natural laws; nor does he impotently attempt to set up any behest of man against the ordinances of God, determining day and night, summer and winter, sunshine and rain. The good citizen will imitate the good farmer; nor will he impotently attempt to set up any statute of man against the ordinances of God, which determine good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice. Let me express these correlative ideas in a sentiment which I trust may be welcome at your festival:--

_The Good Farmer and the Good Citizen_: Acting in conformity with the laws of God, rather than the statutes of man, they know that in this way only can true prosperity be obtained.

Believe me, dear Sir, with much respect,

Very faithfully yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.

HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT TO BE DISOBEYED.

LETTER TO A COMMITTEE AT SYRACUSE, NEW YORK,
SEPTEMBER 28, 1854.

The escape of the Fugitive Slave, Jerry, at Syracuse, was commemorated at a public meeting, to which Mr. Sumner was invited. His answer was published at the time as "from a man who is not afraid to speak out."

BOSTON, September 28, 1854.

Dear Sir,--I cannot be with you at Syracuse, according to the
invitation with which I have been honored; but I shall rejoice at
every word uttered there which helps to lay bare the true nature of
Slavery, and its legitimate offspring, the Fugitive Slave Bill.

That atrocious enactment has no sanction in the Constitution of
the United States or in the law of God. It shocks both. The good
citizen, at all personal hazard, will refuse to obey it.

Yours very faithfully,

CHARLES SUMNER.

POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE MERCHANT,

ILLUSTRATED BY THE LIFE OF

GRANVILLE SHARP.

ADDRESS BEFORE THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF BOSTON, ON THE
EVENING OF NOVEMBER 13, 1854.

Veluti in speculum.

Here was another effort to obtain a hearing for unwelcome truth. While portraying the life and character of Granville Sharp, Mr. Sumner was saying what he had most at heart on Slavery, and exposing that swiftness which had been shown here in support of the Fugitive Slave Act. Describing the simple championship of the Englishman, he presented an example for imitation. Showing how Slavery had been overturned in England, he exhibited the essential rule of interpretation, by which, in the absence of precise words of sanction, it necessarily becomes impossible. Condemning the London merchants who contributed to support this wrong, and also the able lawyers who lent themselves to the same cause, he presented a picture where our merchants and lawyers might see themselves. Extolling that conscience which sustained Granville Sharp in his career, he vindicated all among us who would not bow before injustice.

The address was well received. The tide was then turning. Since then the lecture-room has been free. The condition of the public mind was noticed at the time. One newspaper said, that "a Boston audience of the kind then and there present would not have listened to it with patience four years ago,"--that, "valuable as the lecture is on account of its literary merits, its real importance consists in marking an era in Boston opinion." Another paper says, with enthusiasm, "That Mr. Sumner should have delivered such a lecture before 'the solid men of Boston' is a great, a sublime fact in American history," and, after proceeding in this strain, concludes with the remark, that "it is one of the most striking examples of whipping one set of people over the backs of another that we ever heard of."

ADDRESS.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION:--

I have been honored by an invitation to deliver an address, introductory to the annual course of lectures which your Association bountifully contributes to the pastime, instruction, and elevation of our community. You know, Sir, something of the reluctance with which, embarrassed by other cares, I undertook this service,--yielding to kindly and persistent pressure, which only a nature sterner than mine could resist. And now I am here to perform what I promised.

I am to address the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, numbering, according to your last Report, two thousand and seventy-eight members, and possessing a library of more than fifteen thousand volumes. With so many members and so many books, yours is an institution of positive power. Two distinct features appear in its name. It is, primarily, an association of persons in mercantile pursuits; and it is, next, an association for the improvement of its members, particularly through books. In either particular it is entitled to regard. But it possesses yet another feature, more interesting still, which does not appear in its name. It is an association of YOUNG MEN, with hearts yet hospitable to generous words, and with resolves not yet vanquished by the trials and temptations of life. Especially does this last consideration fill me with a deep sense of the privilege and responsibility to which you have summoned me. I am aware, that, according to usage, the whole circle of knowledge, thought, and aspiration is open to the speaker; but, as often as I have revolved the occasion in my mind, I have been brought back to the peculiar character of your Association, and have found myself unwilling to touch any theme not addressed to you especially as merchants.

I might fitly speak to you of books; and here, while considering principles to govern the student in his reading, it would be pleasant to dwell on the profitable delights, better than a "shower of cent per cent," on the society, better than fashion or dissipation, and on that completeness of satisfaction, outvying the possessions of wealth, and making the "library dukedom large enough,"--all of which are found in books. But I leave this theme. I might also fitly speak to you of young men, their claims and duties; and here again, while enforcing the precious advantages of Occupation, it would be pleasant to unfold and vindicate that reverence which Antiquity wisely accorded to youth, as the season of promise and hope, pregnant with an unknown future, and therefore to be watched with tenderness and care,--to show how in every young man the uncertain measure of capacities yet undeveloped gives scope to magnificence of anticipation beyond any reality,--and to inquire what must be done, that all this anticipation may not wholly die while the young man lives. But there are other things which beckon me away. Not on books, not on youth must I speak, but on yet another topic, suggested directly by the name of your Association.

With your kind permission, I shall speak to-night on what this age requires from the mercantile profession, or rather, since nothing is justly required which is not due, what the mercantile profession owes to this age. I would show the principle by which we are to be guided in making the _account current_ between the mercantile profession and Humanity, and, might I so aspire, hold up the _Looking-Glass of the Good Merchant_. And since example is better than precept, and deeds are more than words, I shall exhibit the career of a remarkable man, whose simple life, beginning as apprentice to a linen-draper, and never getting beyond a clerkship, shows what may be accomplished by faithful, humble labor, and reveals precisely those qualities which in this age are needed to crown the character of the Good Merchant.

* * * * *

"I hold every man a debtor to his profession," was a saying of Lord Bacon, repeated by his contemporary and rival, Lord Coke. But this does not tell the whole truth. It restricts within the narrow circle of a profession obligations which are broad and universal as humanity. Rather should it be said that every man owes a debt to mankind. In determining the debt of the merchant, we must first appreciate his actual position in the social system.

At the dawn of modern times trade was unknown. There was nothing then like a policy of insurance, a bank, a bill of exchange, or even a promissory note. The very term "chattels," so comprehensive in its present application, yet, when considered in its derivation from the mediæval Latin _catalla_, cattle, reveals the narrow inventory of personal property in those days, when "two hundred sheep" were paid by a pious Countess of Anjou for a coveted volume of Homilies. The places of honor and power were then occupied by men who had distinguished themselves by the sword, and were known under the various names of Knight, Baron, Count, or--highest of all--Duke, _Dux_, leader in war.

Under these influences the feudal system was organized, with its hierarchy of ranks, in mutual relations of dependence and protection; and society for a while rested in its shadow. The steel-clad chiefs who enjoyed power had a corresponding responsibility, while the mingled gallantry and gentleness of chivalry often controlled the iron hand. It was the dukes who led the forces; it was the counts or earls who placed themselves at the head of their respective counties; it was the knights who went forth to do battle with danger, in whatever form, whether from robbers or wild beasts. It was the barons of Runnymede--there was no merchant there--who extorted from King John that Magna Charta which laid the corner-stone of English and American liberty.

Meanwhile trade made its humble beginnings. But for a long time the merchant was of a despised caste, only next above the slave who was sold as a chattel. If a Jew, he was often compelled, under direful torture, to surrender his gains; if a foreigner, he earned toleration by inordinate contribution to the public revenue; if a native, he was treated as caitiff too mean for society, and only good enough to be taxed. In the time of Chaucer he had so far come up, that he was admitted to the promiscuous company, ranging from knight to miller, who undertook the merry pilgrimage from the Tabard Inn to Canterbury; but the gentle poet satirically exposes his selfish talk:--

"His resons spake he ful solempnely,
Souning alway the encrese of his winning:
He wold the see were kept for any thing
Betwixen Middelburgh and Orewell."[140]

[140] Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 276-279.

The man of trade was so low, that it took him long to rise. A London merchant, the famous Gresham, in the time of Elizabeth, founded the Royal Exchange, and a college also; but trade continued still a butt for jest and gibe. At a later day an English statute gave new security to the merchant's accounts; but the contemporaneous dramatists exhibited him to the derision of the theatre, and even the almanacs exposed his ignorant superstitions by chronicling the days supposed to be favorable or unfavorable to trade. But in the grand mutations of society the merchant throve. His wealth increased, his influence extended, and he gradually drew into his company decayed or poverty-stricken members of feudal families, till at last in France (I do not forget the exceptional condition of Italy), at the close of the seventeenth century, an edict was put forth, which John Locke has preserved in the journal of his travels, "that those who merchandise, but do not use the yard, shall not lose their gentility"[141] (admirable discrimination!); and in England, at the close of the eighteenth century, his former degradation and growing importance were attested in the saying of Dr. Johnson, that "an English merchant is a new species of gentleman."[142] But this high arbiter, bending under feudal traditions, would not even then concede to him any merit,--proclaiming that there were "no qualities in trade that should entitle a man to superiority,"--that "we cannot think that a fellow, by sitting all day at a desk, is entitled to get above us,"--and to the supposition by his faithful Boswell, that a merchant might be a man of enlarged mind, the determined moralist replied: "Why, Sir, we may suppose any fictitious character; but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind."[143]

[141] King's Life of Locke, Vol. I. p. 104.

[142] Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Croker, (London, 1835,) Vol.
II. p. 294, note, anno 1765.

[143] Boswell's Johnson, Vol. V. pp. 63, 64, Oct. 18, 1773.

In America feudalism never prevailed, and our Revolution severed the only cord by which we were connected with this ancient system. It was fit that the Congress which performed this memorable act should have for its President a merchant. It was fit, that, in promulgating the Declaration of Independence, by which, in the face of kings, princes, and nobles, the New Era was inaugurated, the education of the counting-house should flaunt conspicuously in the broad and clerkly signature of JOHN HANCOCK. Our fathers "builded better than they knew"; and these things are typical of the social change then taking place. By yet another act, fresh in your recollection, and of peculiar interest to this assembly, has our country borne the same testimony. A distinguished merchant of Boston, who has ascended through all the gradations of trade, honored always for private virtues as well as public abilities,--need I mention the name of ABBOTT LAWRENCE?--has been sent to the Court of St. James as ambassador of our Republic, and with that proud commission, higher than any patent of nobility, taken precedence of nobles in that ancient realm. Here I see the triumph of personal merit, but still more the consummation of a new epoch.

Yes, Sir! say what you will, this is the day of the merchant. As in the early ages war was the great concern of society, and the very pivot of power, so is trade now; and as feudal chiefs were the "notables," placed at the very top of their time, so are merchants now. All things attest the change. War, which was once the universal business, is now confined to a few; once a daily terror, it is now the accident of an age. Not for adventures of the sword, but for trade, do men descend upon the sea in ships, and traverse broad continents on iron pathways. Not for protection against violence, but for trade, do men come together in cities, and rear the marvellous superstructure of social order. If they go abroad, or if they stay at home, it is trade that controls them, without distinction of persons. In our country every man is trader: the physician trades his benevolent care; the lawyer trades his ingenious tongue; the clergyman trades his prayers. And trade summons from the quarry choicest marble and granite to build its capacious homes, and now, in our own city, displays warehouses which outdo the baronial castle, and sales-rooms which outdo the ducal palace. With these magnificent appliances, the relations of dependence and protection, marking the early feudalism, are reproduced in the more comprehensive feudalism of trade. There are European bankers who vie in power with the dukes and princes of other days, and there are traffickers everywhere whose title comes from the ledger and not the sword, fit successors to counts, barons, and knights. As the feudal chief allocated to himself and his followers that soil which was the prize of his strong arm, so now the merchant, with grasp more subtle and reaching, allocates to himself and his followers, ranging through multitudinous degrees of dependence, all the spoils of every land, triumphantly won by trade. I would not press this parallel too far; but at this moment, especially in our country, the merchant, more than any other character, stands in the very boots of the feudal chief. Of all pursuits or relations, his is now the most extensive and formidable, making all others its tributaries, and bending at times even the lawyer and the clergyman to be its dependent stipendiaries.

Such, in our social system, is the merchant; and on this precise and incontrovertible statement I found his duties. Wealth, power, and influence are not for self-indulgence merely, and just according to their extent are the obligations _to others_ which they impose. If, by the rule of increase, to him that hath is given, so in the same degree new duties are superadded: nor can any man escape from their behests. If the merchant be in reality our feudal lord, he must render feudal service; if he be our modern knight, he must do knightly deeds; if he be the baron of our day, let him maintain baronial charity to the humble,--ay, Sir, and baronial courage against tyrannical wrong, whatsoever form it may assume. Even if I err in attributing to him this peculiar position, I do not err in attributing to him these duties; for his influence is surely great, and he is at least a man, bound by simple manhood to regard nothing human as foreign to his heart.

The special perils which aroused the age of chivalry have passed away. Monsters, in the form of dragons, griffins, or unicorns, no longer ravage the land. Giants have disappeared from the scene. Robbers have been dislodged from castle and forest. Godeschal the Iron-hearted, and Robin Hood, are each without descendants. In the new forms which society assumes, touched by the potent wand of trade, there is no place for any of these. But wrong and outrage are not yet extinct. Cast out of one body, they enter straightway another, whence, too, they must be cast out. Alas! in our day, amidst all this teeming civilization, with the horn of Abundance at our gates, with the purse of Fortunatus in our hands, with professions of Christianity on our lips, and with the merchant installed in the high places of Chivalry, there are sorrows not less poignant than those which once enkindled knightly sympathy, and there is wrong which vies in loathsomeness with early monsters, in power with early giants, and in existing immunity with robbers once sheltered by castle and forest,--stalking through your streets in the abused garb of Law itself, and by its hateful presence dwarfing all the atrocities of another age. A wicked man is a deplorable sight; but a wicked law is worse than any wicked man, even than the wretch who steals human beings from their home in Africa; nor can its outrage be redressed by any incidental charities, perishing at night as manna in the wilderness. Like the monster, it must be overpowered; like the robber, it must be chained; like the wild beast, it must be exterminated.

To the merchant, then, especially to the young merchant, I appeal, by the position you have won and by the power which is yours,--go forth to redress these grievances, whatever they may be, whether in the sufferings of the solitary soul or audaciously organized in the likeness of law. That I may not seem to hold up any impracticable standard, that the path of duty may not appear difficult, and that no young man need hesitate, even though he find himself alone and opposed by numbers, let me present briefly, as becomes the hour, the example and special achievement of GRANVILLE SHARP, the humble Englishman, who, without wealth, fame, or power, did not hesitate to set himself against the merchants of the time, against the traditions of the English bar, against the authority of learned lawyers, and against the power of magistrates, until, by persevering effort, he compelled the highest tribunal of the land to declare the grand constitutional truth, that the slave who sets his foot on British ground becomes that instant free. His character of pure and courageous principle may be little regarded yet; but as time advances, it will become a guiding luminary. There are stars aloft, centres of other systems, in such depths of firmament that only after the lapse of ages does their light reach this small ball which we call earth.

Be assured, Mr. President, I shall not tread on forbidden ground. To the occasion and to your Association I shall be loyal; but let me be loyal also to myself. Thank God, the great volume of the Past is always open, with its lessons of warning and example. Nor will the assembly which now does me the honor to listen to me be disposed to imitate the pious pirates of the Caribbean Sea, who daily recited the Ten Commandments, always omitting the injunction, "Thou shalt not steal." I know well the sensitiveness of certain consciences. This is natural. It is according to the decrees of Providence, that whosoever has been engaged in meanness or wickedness should be pursued, wherever he moves, by reproving voices, speaking to him from the solitudes of Nature, from the darkness of night, from the hum of the street, and from every book that he reads, like fiery tongues at Pentecost, until at last the confession of Satan himself can alone express his wretchedness:--

"Me miserable! which way shall I fly?
Which way I fly is Hell: _myself am Hell!_"

GRANVILLE SHARP was born at Durham, in 1735. His family was of great respectability and of ancient lineage. His grandfather was Archbishop of York, confidential chaplain and counsellor of the renowned Chancellor, Heneage Finch, Lord Nottingham. His less conspicuous father was archdeacon and prebendary of the Church, who, out of his ecclesiastical emoluments, knew how to dispense charity, while rearing his numerous children to different pursuits. Of these, Granville was the youngest son, and, though elder brothers were educated for professional life, he was destined to trade, a portion being set apart by his father to serve as his apprentice-fee in London. With this view his back was turned upon the learned languages, and his instruction was confined chiefly to writing and arithmetic; but at this time he read and enjoyed all the plays of Shakespeare, perched in an apple-tree of his father's orchard. When fifteen years old, he was bound as apprentice to a Quaker linen-draper in London, and at this tender age left his father's house. Of his apprenticeship he has given an interesting glimpse.

"After I had served about three years of my apprenticeship, my
master, the Quaker, died, and I was turned over to a Presbyterian,
or rather, as he was more properly called, an Independent. I
afterward lived some time with an Irish Papist, and also with
another person, who, I believe, had no religion at all."[144]

[144] Memoirs, by Prince Hoare, (London, 1820,) p. 28.

Although always a devoted member of the Church of England, these extraordinary experiences in early life placed him above the prejudice of sect, and inspired a rule of conduct worthy of perpetual memory, which he presents as follows.

"It has taught me to make a proper distinction between the
OPINIONS of men and their PERSONS. The former I can freely condemn,
without presuming to judge the individuals themselves. Thus freedom
of argument is preserved, as well as Christian charity, leaving
personal judgment to Him to whom alone it belongs."[145]

[145] Memoirs, p. 29.

Only two years before the enrolment of Granville Sharp among London apprentices,--that class so famous in local history,--another person, kindred in benevolence, and now in fame, Howard, the philanthropist, on whose career Burke has cast the illumination of his genius, finished service in the same place, as apprentice to a wholesale grocer. I do not know that these two congenial natures--or yet another contemporary of lowly fortunes, Robert Raikes, the inventor of Sunday schools--ever encountered in the world. But they are joined in example,--and the life of an apprentice, in all its humilities, seems radiant with their presence, as with heavenly light. Perhaps among the apprentices of Boston there may be yet a Granville Sharp or John Howard. And just in proportion as the moral nature asserts its rightful supremacy here will such a character be hailed of higher worth than the products of all the mills of Lowell, backed by all the dividends and discounts of State Street.

Shortly after the completion of his apprenticeship and entrance upon business, Sharp lost both his parents, and very soon thereafter, abandoning trade, obtained a subordinate appointment as supernumerary clerk in the Ordnance Office, where, after six years' service, he became simply "clerk in ordinary." Meanwhile, conscientiously fulfilling this life of routine and labor, not unlike the toils of Charles Lamb at the India House, he pursued, in moments saved from business and snatched from sleep, a series of studies, which, though undervalued by his modesty, the scholar may envy. That he might better enjoy and vindicate that Book which he reverently accepted as the rule of life, he first studied Greek and then Hebrew, obtaining such command of both languages as to employ them skilfully in the field of theological controversy. Music and French he studied also, and our own English tongue too, on the pronunciation of which he wrote an excellent essay.

These quiet pursuits were interrupted by an incident which belongs to the romance of truth. An unhappy African, by the name of Jonathan Strong, was brought as a slave from Barbadoes to London, where, after brutal outrage, at which the soul shudders, inflicted by the person who called himself master,--I regret to add lawyer also,--he was turned adrift on the unpitying stones of the great metropolis, lame, blind, and faint, with ague and fever, and without a home. In this plight, while staggering along in quest of medical care, he was met by the Good Samaritan, Granville Sharp, who, touched by his misfortunes, bound up his wounds, gave him charitable assistance, placed him in a hospital, and watched him through a protracted illness, until at last health and strength returned, and he was able to commence service as freeman in a respectable home. In this condition, after the lapse of two years, he was recognized in the street by his old master, who at once determined to entrap him, and to hold him as slave. By deceitful message the victim was tempted to a public house, where he was shocked to encounter his cruel claimant, who, without delay, seized and committed him to prison. Here again was the Good Samaritan, Granville Sharp, who lost no time in enjoining upon the keeper of the prison, at his peril, not to deliver the African to any person whatever, and then promptly invoked the intervention of the Mayor of London. At the hearing before this magistrate, it appeared that the claimant had already undertaken, by formal bill of sale, to convey the alleged slave to another person, who, by an agent, was in attendance to take him on board a ship bound for Jamaica. As soon as the case was stated, the Mayor gave judgment in words worthy of imitation. "The lad," said this righteous judge, "has not stolen anything, and is not guilty of any offence, and is therefore at liberty to go away." The agent of the claimant, not disheartened, seized him by the arm, and still claimed him as "property,"--yes, even as property! Sharp, in ignorance of legal proceedings, was for a moment perplexed, when the friendly voice of the coroner, who chanced to be near, whispered, "Charge him"; on which hint, our philanthropist, turning at once to the brazen-faced claimant, said, with justifiable anger of manner, "Sir, I charge you, in the name of the King, with an assault upon the person of Jonathan Strong, and all these are my witnesses,"--when, to avoid immediate commitment, and the yawning cell of the jail, he let go his piratical, slave-hunting grasp, "and all bowed to the Lord Mayor and came away, Jonathan following Granville Sharp, and no one daring to touch him."[146]

[146] Memoirs, pp. 32-35. Clarkson's History of the Abolition of
the African Slave-Trade, Vol. I. pp. 57-60.

But the end was not yet. By this accidental and disinterested act of humanity Sharp was exposed at the same time to personal insult and to a suit at law. The discomfited claimant--the same lawyer who had originally abandoned the slave in the streets of London--called on him "to demand gentlemanlike satisfaction"; to which the philanthropist replied, that, as "he had studied the law so many years, he should want no satisfaction that the law could give him." And he nobly redeemed his word; for he applied himself at once to his defence against the legal process instituted by the claimant for an alleged abstraction of _property_. Here begins his greatness.

It is in collision with difficulty that the sparks of genuine character appear. This simple-hearted man, now vindictively pursued, laid his case before an eminent solicitor, who, after ample consideration with learned counsel, among whom was the celebrated Sir James Eyre, did not hesitate to assure him, that, under the British Constitution, he could not be defended against the action. An opinion given in 1729, by the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General of the time, Yorke and Talbot,--two great names in the English law, and each afterwards Lord Chancellor,--was adduced, declaring, under their respective signatures, "that a slave, by coming from the West Indies to Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, _doth not_ become free," and "that the master may legally compel him to return to the plantations"; and Lord Mansfield, the Chief Justice, was reported as strenuously concurring in this opinion, to the odious extent of delivering up fugitive slaves to their claimants. With these authorities against him, and forsaken by professional defenders, Sharp was not disheartened; but, though, according to his own striking language, "totally unacquainted either with the practice of the law or the foundations of it, having never in his life opened a law-book except the Bible," he was inspired to depend on himself. An unconquerable will, and instincts often profounder in their teaching than any learning, were now his counsellors. For nearly two years, during which the suit was still pending, he gave himself to intense study of the British Constitution in all its bearings upon human liberty. During these researches he was confirmed in his original prepossessions, and aroused to undying hostility against Slavery, which he plainly saw to be without any sanction in the Constitution. "_The word_ SLAVES," he wrote, "_or anything that can justify the enslaving of others, is not to be found there, God be thanked!_"[147] And I, too, say, God be thanked!

[147] Memoirs, p. 38.

The result of these studies was embodied in a tract, entitled "A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of tolerating Slavery, or of admitting the least Claim of Private Property in the Persons of Men in England." This was submitted to his counsel, one of whom was the famous commentator, Sir William Blackstone, and, by means of copies in manuscript, circulated among gentlemen of the bar, until the lawyers on the other side were actually intimidated, and the Slave-Hunter, failing to bring forward his action, was mulcted in treble costs; and thus ended that persecution of our philanthropist. In 1769 this important tract was printed.