[183]
with the piety and the learning, but with the liberties, of the country.
For a long time New England was governed by their prayers more than by any acts of the legislature; and, at a later day, their voices aided even the Declaration of Independence.
The clergy of our time may speak, then, not only from their own virtues, but from the echoes which yet live in the pulpits of their fathers.
For myself, I desire to thank them for their generous interposition.
They have already done much good in moving the country.
They will not be idle.
In the days of the Revolution, John Adams, yearning for independence, said, “Let the pulpits thunder against oppression!”
and the pulpits thundered.
The time has come for them to thunder again.
“Sir,” said he most pertinently in this midnight protest,
the bill which you are now about to pass is at once the worst and the best bill on which Congress ever acted.
Yes, sir, Worst and best at the same time.
It is the worst bill, inasmuch as it is a present victory of slavery.
In a Christian land, and in an age of civilization, a time-honored statute of freedom is struck down, opening the way to all the countless woes and wrongs of human bondage.
Among the crimes of history another is about to be recorded, which no tears can blot out, and which, in better days, will be read with universal shame.
Do not start.
The tea tax and Stamp Act, which aroused the patriot rage of our fathers, were virtues by the side of your transgression; nor would it be easy to imagine, at this day, any measure which more openly and perversely defied every sentiment of justice, humanity, and Christianity.
Am I not right, then, in calling it the worst bill on which Congress ever acted?
But there is another side to which I gladly turn.
Sir, it is
