The Liberator

From the New York Evening Post of March 7.

THE DUTY OF THE NORTH.

REV. THEODORE PARKER'S LECTURE AT THE TABERNACLE.

The Tabernacle was prodigiously crowded last evening by an audience anxious to hear what new thing the great Boanerges of anti-slavery had to say upon his favorite theme. Mr. Parker was introduced to the audience by Oliver Johnson, Esq., the secretary of the society, with highly appropriate remarks. Mr. Parker responded as follows.

[We regret that, for lack of space, we are unable to publish all the report given of Mr. Parker's lecture in the Evening Post. Here are some extracts.]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Your friend, Mr. Johnson, has introduced me to you as one who labors under the name of an infidel while others get the praise of orthodoxy by taking the South side view of all iniquity. If I, through taking a Northern view of wickedness, and rebuking the wrongs of the oppressed, earn a different name, I trust I shall bear it with becoming meekness. Sufficient is it for me if the blessing of those who are ready to perish rests on my head.

The battle between slavery and freedom—what shall the North do? That is the theme, ladies and gentlemen, to which I ask your attention to-night.

It is very plain that either freedom must go down or else bondage must perish, and this generation is to decide which of the two shall prosper.

Now, slavery exists by the act of the American people. It is a federal institution; it has been the favorite of the American government for seventy years.

Slavery exists, not by the act of Carolina and Mississippi and the other slave States, but by the act or the acquiescence of the whole people of the United States. It is not the slave States who extend slavery; it is the United States. It is not Missouri who puts bondage into Kansas; it is the people of the United States, acting through their government; not the border ruffians, but the central power, legislative, judicial and executive.

Read your President's message, and the defence of border ruffians made by Northern Senators, and you see this is plainly so. Missouri—why those border ruffians, they were only the cat's-paw which the other sitting in Congress made use of. (Laughter and cheers.)

Speaking philosophically, there are three great Protestant denominations in this country. There is the sect of Trinitarians, who worship God as Three; that of Unitarians, who worship God as One, and that of Nothingarians, who worship God as Nothing and Nobody. It is a very large sect, and popular and famous, this sect which worships the Divine Nullity, counting God as Nothing and Nobody and Nowhere. Now, in the pulpits that are bottomed on the dollar, Slavery is Pope. I know it is common to suppose that the creeds of our churches are derived from the Bible—that this is a symbolical book. No mistake could be greater.

They are found in the heart of the slaveholder; he is the hope of these churches, and slavery is translated out of the original tongues, and appointed to be read in churches. (Laughter and applause.)

I did not know it until 1850 and 1851, and there one great-minded man—I mean a man of great power of understanding—stood up in the Senate of the United States, and said: There is no higher law.' Then Trinitarians and Unitarians and Nothingarians lifted up their hands, and said: It's all right; there is no higher law. Down with Jesus Christ, and up with the Fugitive Slave Bill. I'd send back my own mother to keep the compromises of the Constitution.

Suppose these three great measures of the slave power shall succeed—suppose slavery is restored to the States and Territories now free—suppose that we go filibustering, and restore the African slave-trade; what then will happen? If slavery progresses for the next eighty years as it has done for the last eighty, we shall have thirty-two millions of slaves; and this number, in eighty years more, at the same rate of increase, would be two hundred and fifty millions. What a picture!

Two hundred and fifty millions of slaves to spread themselves over this continent—the Atlantic and the Pacific bounding a continent cursed with such a stupendous despotism! Perhaps such a despotism is not possible, and I do not believe it is.

But if these contemplated measures succeed, then the fate of the American republic is like the fate of the republics of old. Down, then, with your free church, your free press, your free school, your free speech! down with everything that makes us free and great and prosperous! Connecticut will then become like California, Massachusetts like Georgia, and New York like Arkansas! and I say we shall deserve it. It is not a dream that I am stating to you. Ten years like the last, and we are undone. There are men who think this will be our fate. Their logic is, that man is a selfish animal, and, this being his nature, he should have an opportunity to exercise this nature.

There is a man, very high in the cabinet, who thinks so. He told a friend of his, in a private conversation, who is also a friend of mine, that he thought so; and that our fathers made a mistake in not establishing a limited monarchy. I need not mention his name; but suffice it to say, he was not born in this state. There are others who think so from history. They look around, and see that free republics have never made old bones, while despotism sits upon his throne secure for a thousand years, and slumbers upon his bloody pillow, dreaming only of conquest and power. Hungry labor is naked and poor, while it creates the capital that kings use to crush it. Industry toils in poverty, while Idleness reaps the reward. And as other republics who have grown rich and oppressive, have gone down and perished, so they think it will be with us.

Are these measures to prosper? Is slavery always to ride upon the saddle, with freedom struggling to keep upon the crupper till it is thrown off? One thing is certain, slavery will either become universal, or it will be burned up, and its ashes cast into the sea. For such is the logic of slavery, that while there is a single slave State or a single slave, held by the government, there cannot be peace. Slavery will either exterminate or be exterminated. The question is, which shall it be? A single Sharp's rifle in Kansas may set the country on fire; and when a house is on fire, how much of it will burn?

Just now the question was, Shall Freedom or Slavery sit in the Speaker's chair? Next fall it is to be, Which shall sit in the Presidential chair?

I think that Freedom is to triumph—that it is to put down Slavery. The blood of Hengist and Horsa, of Luther, of Cromwell, of the English Puritans and Quakers, and of American freemen of the Revolution, is opposed to Slavery. Three great battles have been fought. First, between the Anglo-Saxon people in the sixteenth century and the Pope. The Saxon conquered.

In the seventeenth century the question was: Shall there be a limited monarchy, and in which the powers of the throne shall be limited by the representatives of the parliament? How did that turn out? Oliver Cromwell hewed off a neck of one king, and stout William the Dutchman banished another. Kings were taught that they had joints in their necks. Anglo-Saxon blood prevailed. Next came the question of the right of a people to self-government, which was settled here. Three times has Anglo-Saxon blood fought for human rights, and conquered.

What if these questions had been answered differently? A different world would we have now. If our forefathers had submitted to the exactions of the British government, we should have been like the British provinces. If the people had submitted to the Stuarts, Great Britain would have been under the yoke. If the encroachments of Rome had not been resisted, the inquisition would now have existed in England. Now, in the nineteenth century, comes the fourth great question for Anglo-Saxon blood to decide: and shall it, that has three times stricken down oppression, now turn and strike down freedom?

Shall 20,000,000 of men aid 300,000 wicked men to keep down 3,500,000 of poor bondsmen? I say the Anglo-Saxon is not going to 'cave in' before 300,000 slaveholders. But the question must be soon solved. The North has a duty to perform—to put slavery down, 'peaceably if it can, forcibly if it must.' There are two ways to go to work to do this: one is, to dissolve the Union, and leave the South to settle the matter for herself.

There are many things that look that way; and there are some who think this the true system. Among them is my friend Johnson, who so handsomely introduced me as an infidel.' But he meant such an infidel as loves the good God and his fellow-man. Mr. Garrison is in favor of the dissolution of the Union. He is a great and good man, and I love him. (Applause, with some hisses.) I do not wonder that some hisses are mingled with your applause: for the people do not yet appreciate Mr. Garrison. ..... I do not agree with him that the Union should be dissolved. It could not now be done without bloodshed. I think that those who live in a thousand years from now may see a Canadian republic, a Pacific republic, and an Atlantic republic—perhaps also a Central American republic. It is contrary to the genius of the Anglo-Saxons to keep together in great bodies, and in time we shall peaceably separate.

I am not a non-resistant, and would shed blood sometimes. But I think that, in nine cases out of ten, the Quaker is right. In the tenth case I think he is wrong, and would shed blood. I think the Union could not now be dissolved peaceably, and it is not yet necessary to abolish it forcibly. I think, too, that if we were to dissolve the Union, it would be difficult to tell where to draw the line. We should have to draw it north of New York, north of Concord, and east of Boston. (Laughter.) I fear we should have to draw it through your delegation in Washington. And besides, it would not be right for us to dissolve the Union, and leave four millions of our brethren in bondage. We would not do it if they were white, and we ought not to do it because they are black. For these reasons I would not dissolve the Union; and yet the dissolution of the Union is a small matter, compared with the wrongs which have been enacted within the last ten years. Rather than one more fugitive slave should be sent back, I would let the Union be broken into fragments no larger than the space upon which this building stands; and then I would place myself upon a little piece of free soil, which was not contaminated with my brother's blood.

But it seems to me that the dissolution of the Union is unnecessary. Let us see what we can do without disturbing it. The free States can choose for its officers men who are men—men made by Nature, and not by Nature's journeymen. Then let New York pass a Personal Liberty Bill, declaring that no slave can owe labor or service, and that any person claimed as a slave shall be deemed a freeman: and pass a law to imprison kidnappers. All this you can do at Albany, any day, without violating the Constitution, for you are a sovereign State.

I believe freedom will triumph, for it is the 19th century we live in, not the 9th. If it were the 9th, I would not stand here; I would go home, and study to set in operation causes that a thousand years hence would have influence and fame out. It is the 19th century; and give up thinking of failure. Look what race we are of; it is the Anglo-Saxon particularly, and if it is not that, it is the Teutonic; it is the blood of Cromwell, of Luther, of Latimer, of English Puritans, of English Quakers.

A race that has always loved freedom, and in the last three centuries has fought three great contests. In the 16th, in came this question: Shall the Church be independent at home, or ruled by a foreign power, an infallible Pope? In the 17th: Shall there be an irresponsible despotism ruling the church, state and people, or shall there be a limited monarchy, with a House of Representatives appointed by the people, to make and sustain their laws? It lasted from 1664 to 1689. Cromwell answered it boldly.

In the eighteenth century came this question: Shall the New England colonies rule themselves or be ruled? That was a great question, and it took eight years of bloody war to answer it. It cost rivers of blood and immense treasure, but was answered triumphantly. In two hundred and fifty years, we have entered into three great revolutions—fought three great strifes, and in every one of them freedom has been victorious.

Now, suppose these questions had been differently answered! What another world this would be! What if America had knelt down, and said to the oppressor, 'Lay on your burdens; they are very heavy, but we will bear them.' New England would have been like Nova Scotia. The city of New York would have been like Toronto. Buffalo, Boston and Philadelphia would have been small colonial towns. It would have served us right.

What if there had been no Cromwell, and the people of England had crouched under their oppressors? What would Old England be to-day? She would have been like Germany. Edinburgh University would have been inquiring, How it was that the Virgin Mary, of all mankind, had no original sin in her? How it was that the Pope's perpetual infallibility was consistent with his occasional errors and particular sins?

Then, in a national point of view, repeal all fugitive slave bills. Then abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and all the territories. Abolish the entire slave-trade, and make it piracy. Then make slaveholding incapacitate a man from holding any office. Then re-construct the United States Judiciary—they need not remove the judge from office, but remove the office from the man. Then, in their places, I would take honest men, who love God and love men, and then the Constitution would no longer be a pro-slavery document.

There are things in that document that are bad things, which I would tread under my foot. But there are other things which are noble, and they preponderate. Then, at last, I would decree a day, fixed and certain, when each State should abolish slavery, and if they did not do it, the government should take possession of them, and form a Republican government. In the next six months we can place a Republican man in the Presidential chair, and if that is accomplished, freedom will triumph.

But if slavery is to triumph, let us go back to Lexington, and amend the first battle-fields of the Revolution, and break to pieces the little monuments built there, and grind them to powder: go to Bunker Hill, and blast and tumble over that great monument erected there. Let it not be with British gunpowder—it would not take fire in so unholy a cause; nor with French gunpowder—that is fitly employed in blasting to pieces the bulwarks of despotism at Sevastopol; but let it be with Russian gunpowder, for that alone is of such Tartarian character as to do the work.

Then let the present Administration go down to Plymouth, and dig up their forefathers' rock, which so much abhors the despots' race, break it to pieces—ay, grind it to powder—but not cast it on the waters, for some St. Christopher may carry it to lands where again its influence may be felt: but let Mr. Caleb Cushing carry it to Rome, and in mute solemnity, in the presence of the head of the American party, there give it to the Pope. Let him then deliver it to the Jesuits to carry to Madrid, and under the Inquisition bury it full forty fathoms deep in the bowels of the ground.

But even then despotism could not sit secure, for the blood of our patriot fathers would cry out from the sky, 'Where is thy brother, Cain?' and the sky would answer with a curse. (Applause.)

Slavery is weak, but her armies are united. It has commonly happened that when the aristocratic class has tyrannized over the democratic, the aristocrats were many, and the victims few; the aristocracy rich, the people poor; the aristocracy educated, the bondsmen ignorant. Here it is reversed. Our masters one, we are many; they are poor, we rich: they are ignorant, we learned and intelligent. But yet we crouch down before them.

Will you wait, and not resist them? Will you wait until necessity, through the throat of the cannon, says: 'Do or die!' I would not wait so long. To-day we can check bondage with our votes; wait another Presidential term, and we can only efface bondage from this continent by wiping it out with the sacrifice of some of the best blood which runs in American hearts.

When we triumph, how rich will America become! America, the youngest of the nations, will be the mother of a continent, having a church without a bishop, a state without a King, a community without a lord, a family without a breeder of slaves; and we shall show the nations how divine a thing a people can be. (Loud applause.)