Sermen by Rev. Dr. Cheever on the Masen and Sildell Affair.[From the New York Herald, Jan. 1.]
The reverend Doctor delivered a sermen, or rather harangue — for, from the applause which greeted him during its delivery, we fancied ourselves at a political meeting in Tammany Hall rather than an edifice supposed to be dedicated to God--at the
Church of the Puritans, Union square, in the presence of a large congregation, on Sunday evening last.
He chose this text from the Second Book of Samuel, twenty-third chapter and third verse.
‘"He that ruleth or sermen must be just ruling in the fear of God."’
And from the Prophecy of Mica, sixth chapter and eighth verse:
‘"He bath showed thee, Oh man, what is good, and what doth the
Lord require of thee but to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"’
The reverend gentleman said that justices was an attribute of God most clearly reflected in the ordaining of goverment; that it was most important in all its transactions, and whatever violated this attribute laid the foundation for an injury that might an irreparable.
The injustice of this government to the African race, had brought this country to the verge of ruin, but God had arisen to avenge the violation of this law in a way almost as awful as the crime itself, which cried to heaven for vengeance.
When a nation was suffering under a judgment, in consequence of any injustice practised, a return to justice was the essential thing, without which there could be no salvation.
In all questions of national honor, or disputes between nations, the first and principal thing to be regarded was justice, for nothing that justice required was dishonorable, and everything that violated it was, and it was alone the North star amid the perilious ocean upon which the nation was now tossed.
If justice had been meted out to the slave at the commencement of the breaking out of the rebellion, it would have been crushed long ere this.
But our Government has become a kidnapping Government on a scale fearful to contemplate.
It had sanctioned slavery, and was violating the law of God and the
Constitution.
A war carried on with such a view was an unjust war. The Government, in refusing to a bolish slavery, took upon itself the whole guilt of a deliberate establishment of it, and this renewed guarantee of slavery in the wars made it, so far as slavery was concerned, atrocious, and brought it directly beneath the reprobation of the Almighty.
Slavery had taken away all our manliness, nobleness, and independence, and made us tremble at our enemie, and at the command of
Great Britain justice had been defrauded of its due by the release of two of the greatest criminals.
The leaders of this conspiracy ought to be singled out and made the subjects of punishment.
If there were a class composed of a certain number of men who had executed this vast treason, then that whole class ought to be annihilated.
If these were exterminated all sources of division and motives for rebellion would cease.
The slaveowners being the prime movers in the rebellion: a price ought to have been set upon their heads, for if all the slaveowners were condemned to death, it was but carrying out what God had appointed to be done beforehand.
God would certainly blast a government and people who persisted in such wickedness as this.
It was, the reverend gentleman considered, nothing but our insane refusal to exercise justice on the slave confederacy that had given
Great Britain the advantage ever us, and driven us to the humiliating necessity of submitting to almost any concession, even when we were in the right.
God would now adow any nation to take us by the throat, and, though the demand be ever so unjust, we could not help it, for we had so hampered ourselves by defending the right of the confederacy to trample upon the slave that Heaven would now recognise the right of any nation to trample upon us.
The preacher would call the attention of the audience for a moment to
Mason and
Slidell — leading traitors and rebels, he was going to say — now in our power.
He had meditated on this subject during his recent visit to
Toronto, where he had carefully watched the progress of the war fever, and he felt it his duty to investigate the matter by the Word of God.
He would ask what did justice require in regard to these rebels, traitors, and criminals?
Why it required that they should be punished for their crime.
If smaller criminals were tried, shot and hanged for simply following the example of those men; if a deserter, mutineer or a man engaged in the slave trade was punished with death, how much more should justice be meted out to the leading conspirators who had plunged the country into this war and ruin?
By the judgment of God and all civilized nations they were worthy of death.
The course of dignity and honor, and justice before God and man, would have been to have apprehended
Mason and
Slidell, immediately and solemnly have tried them for the crime of high treason, and if their complicity in this vast conspiracy had been fully proven, they should have been taken from the prison to the scaffold and hanged till they were dead, no matter whether all the nations of the earth threatened to make war against us!
(This sentence was greeted by the audience with two rounds of applause,) It was God-appointed justice.
It was justice already allotted by the
Government to the slaver,
Captain Gordon, and why should not
Mason and
Slidell meet the same fate?
The crimes of the author of the
Fugitive Slave Law were against the race those of
Capt. Gordon only against individuals.
It was not justice that the understrappers should be hanged and the principals feed upon thanks giving turkey and be set free.
(Applause.)
Now, in regard to
Great Britain, who claimed to be injured by the taking of these State criminals, if this country had committed an error they were bound to make reparation — to acknowledge it and ask forgiveness.
But in the present case, the reverend gentleman contended that no insult being intended to
England, there could be no cause for war. America had exercised too much leniency in the matter, and the whole thing could have been made so plain that every nation upon earth would have cried shame on
Great Britain for demanding reparation for this supposed insult.
It would have been considered the most boundless cruelty on record, excepting, perhaps, the war on
China for the sake of forcing opium on that unfortunate people.
But if war came it would be owing to our madness in not striking at slavery.
Had this been done three months ago there would have been no danger of offending
England or
France, and no hazard of the recognition of this slave trading Confederacy — this nation of pirates.
It was not to be supposed that the nations of
Europe, with their low views of moral duty and political obligation, would much longer delay the recognition, of the Southern Confederacy, and the consequence would be a breaking up of the blockade, and we should thus have the shame and humiliation of doing for the
Confederacy, by our recognizing slavery, what it could not do for itself — giving it a place among Christian nations.
It looked as though
Great Britain would embrace that nation of slave traders.
If we had declared for the freedom of the slaves we should have had the sympathy of all
Europe, but now we had only their scorn, and must only have the anger of the Almighty.
The speaker said it was the duty of the
President to issue a proclamation, not for the partial, but for the total emancipation of the slave, which should be circulated among all the
Generals of the army, who, together with their
Commander-in-Chief, should be called upon to aid, by every means in their power, in carrying into effect such proclamation.
(Loud applause.) The result of this would be glorious beyond expression.
It would redeem our country from its degradation and misery, unite the whole
North, and fill every heart with confidence.
If the
President would not take this step, which would render him a benefactor to his country and mankind, then Congress should pass this measure of emancipation without a moment's delay.
It was now in their power to do so, and if carried out we might conquer the enemy, prevent the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by the nations of
Europe, and a foregn war.