-

of God, and is even more highly the duty of the magistrate and the citizen, than armed enforcement of ordinary laws. The only difficulty is the speculative one-as to what really constitutes society in this supreme aspect—and as to the means by which its supreme will must be made known. The more complete the development of society becomes, the more completely this difficulty vanishes; and we have the remarkable fact, that God's ordinances concerning these immense interests of man, are not merely the only clear and comprehensive disposition ever made of the whole subject—but they become more practical and more fundamental, the higher is the advancement of society; more readily and effectually applicable to the complex problems of the nineteenth Christian century, than to the simple ones of the first Christian century, or the rude ones of the earliest historic century before Christ. By whatever means it can be ascertained, who is a citizen in any particular country, by the same means it is made certain, what is the body in which the legal sovereignty resides. It is a question not without difficulty, in most civilized countries, how far the safety of the state will permit, the citizens and the adult male population to be numerically identical; or how far, on the other hand, that safety will allow a ruling class to press-without fatal reaction-the disfranchisement of the lower classes. And certainly it is a question, which all disfranchised classes in all civilized states may well ponder, how far they are allowed by God to proceed in forcing their enfranchisement; or if they be, as they generally are, the numerical majority, how far they are to be justified in vindicating their claim to be the very society which God has ordained-and whose rights the privileged classes have usurped. These are all questions, however, which lie on that extreme verge, where the imperfect stage of human progress, makes it difficult for complete truth to have free scope. They are questions which have no relevancy to American affairs; for they are settled here, by written constitutions, and by immemorial tendency in one direction. In other nations, we are furnished with a great variety of solutions of them. In France, for example, with the singular combination of universal suffrage on the part of the people, and irresponsible and nearly unlimited power on the part of the Emperor;

a combination so prolific of mischief, that even half a million of soldiers, and the gratification of every national passion by the present Emperor, may possibly not allow that great ruler to transmit his crown to his race. In England, we have the example of the most protracted struggle which history affords, between the mutually conflicting claims of the people, the privileged classes, and the crown, resulting in a limited monarchy, with the most distinguished aristocracy in the world, and only a fraction of the adult male population enfranchised, and the sovereignty nominally vested in the popular branch of an omnipotent Parliament-but really in the public opinion of that whole English population, which, upon extremity, is the fiercest and most turbulent in Europe. Yet no one can compare the France and England which the Romans subdued, with the France and England of the present day, without confessing a progress as remarkable as was ever made, under difficulties as great as were ever surmounted. And as we ponder such examples of the triumphs which even the imperfect exercise of the powers inherent in society may win—and which even the insufficient application of the divine principles we are discussing may make imperishable; we ought to rise, with a sublime confidence, above our immediate perils and calamities. It is not by fatal concessions to armed destroyers of our national life-nor by equally fatal acquiescence in the destruction of our constitutional liberty and security-that we dare hope for triumph. It is by a faithful adherence to the truth God has taught us, and by a true obedience to the commands he has laid on us, with respect to the very matters now hanging on wager of battle; that our courage, our fortitude, our faithfulness to our trust, our justice, our wisdom, our heroic moderation, may be relied on as the sure means of such a triumph as God will approve, and all coming ages magnify! We have spoken, in a former paragraph, of certain heinous offenses against society being aggravated, when the provisions of our American constitution, which remove all occasion, and nearly all temptation, to committing them-are considered. And in the last paragraph, we have spoken of the determinate and sovereign settlement in those constitutions-of the difficulties, which, everywhere else, and in all ages, have proved such formidable obstacles to society in passing from one form

of government to another, or even in liberalizing and perfecting their institutions, without changing the general nature of the government. This state of fact appears to us to be so important, and to place the duty of the citizen of a free commonwealth, organized on the principles of all our American. constitutions, on such a basis; that all irregular opposition to a fair government, and all forcible resistance of just laws, assume a turpitude unknown in other countries; nay, that violence on the part of the citizen, which might be excused, or even justified, under other forms of government, does not admit of any extenuation under ours. For let it be remembered, that the constitution of the United States is the formal and sovereign will of the people of the United States, deliberately expressed, solemnly ratified, and steadfastly adhered to for nearly three-quarters of a century. And let it be further remembered, that the nation not only had, what all men admit to be an absolute right, but, as we think we have proved, a divine right, to make that constitution, to establish that close and perpetual union under it, and to set up the form of government, and to ordain the magistracy which is created by it. Therefore, these things are all unalterable and supreme, each in its sphere, while they continue to be the last sovereign expression of the will of the nation-that is, until the nation shall, with equal formality and distinctness, make known its sovereign will to change one, or other, or all-the Constitution-the Union-the Government-the Magistracy. Now, if the sovereign acts had ceased at this point, the indefeasible right of this society, as of all others, still remained, no doubt, to pass onward, at whatever time society should resolve to do so, and by new formal and sovereign acts, equal in dignity and force with those formerly performed, to do anything society may lawfully do, under the ordination of God. But, in attempting this, or even in attempting much lower changes in its institutions, under such circumstances, which, vague as they might be accounted, are much more precise than the general conditions of societies in which important changes have been attempted; we should have been obliged to run the gravest risks, and to encounter the most serious dangers. But our sovereign acts did not cease at the point indicated. On the contrary, the federal constitution-like all our American

constitutions-makes express provision for its own amendment, and points out how this shall be done. This natural right of society of which men speak so much-this divine ordinance of God which we have proved-has been taken by the fathers of American liberty, and made a civil and constitutional right, and its orderly exercise secured by exact provisions. From that moment it is voting, and not fighting, that should determine all things. From the beginning of time till that moment, it had been fighting and not voting-which had determined all changes in human society. We are in the midst, therefore, of the most aggravated treason of which it is possible to conceive, from a speculative point of view; and practically so atrocious is it, that without a pretext having, originally, even an appearance of justification for attacking anything by force-everything-society itself, the national life, the constitution of the nation, the union of the states, the government existing in the country, the laws made in pursuance of the constitution, and all the magistracy in whose hands is the making, the exposition, and the enforcement of those laws-everything is set upon with a fury never exceeded in the annals of mankind. And to make the event utterly disgraceful to the age in which it occurred, two of the three greatest nations in the world-England and France-have manifestly desired the success of a treason so detestable; and, claiming to be at the very summit of Christian civilization, have shown an eagerness for the failure of our great destiny, which would have been shameful in the most debased peoples, an eagerness, as yet hardly kept in bounds by the enormous force this nation has shown itself capable of putting forth, and which they will not restrain a moment after they believe its flagrant indulgence may be gratified without extreme peril. May God reward them, in his good time and way!

It is, perhaps, important to clear up somewhat further the chief idea developed in the preceding paragraph—and some others of very great importance closely related to it. As we have already said several times, God has allowed very great latitude to society, as to the mode in which its inherent functions should make themselves manifest; and it can not be denied that, while his Gospel may have free scope under every possible form, so also every possible form is capable of being

turned to the exclusion of that Gospel; any more than it can be denied, that the personal knowledge of God unto salvation, is capable of reaching the individual soul, in every condition in which a human being can exist in this world; and we may add, the proportion of human conditions which men visited with divine grace must afterward forsake, or lose the grace of God, is extremely small compared with all possible conditions, whether we take the Word of God simply, or that Word as expounded by his gracious dealings with men, as the rule of judgment. What is the best form human society can put on, in order to answer best the ends of its divine institutions, may, perhaps, be answered well enough by saying, that form is best for each particular society which will most effectually put the powers of the state in the hands of those most fit to exercise them, and will the most permanently keep them there. Not long ago, nearly all Americans would have said, the freer the form a people can be trusted with, the better: and one of the terrible evils of our present condition, is the doubt that it seems to cast over the security and permanence of free institutions and the pretext thus afforded for arresting the progress of personal liberty in all countries. We suppose, however, that even yet, few will be found anywhere, mad enough to deny that free institutions, such as are presented under the constitution and laws of the United States, are allowed by God to those who desire them. This is all the admission our present argument requires. Under such institutions, the whole body of the magistracy is elected by the greater part of the citizens-and the continued existence of the institutions of the country, in the form at any time presented by them, depends upon the adherence to them, in that form, of the great body of the citizens. Now, if any portion of the citizens of a free state, less than the majority-nay, we might say less than the constitutional majority-is at liberty to revolt against the magistrates, to defy the laws, to overthrow the constitution, to break up the national life, to subvert society; their right to do so, under such government, is a conclusive proof that free governments are incompatible with the existence of society, and in opposition to the will of God; for God has forbidden such actions in that society ordained by him! It is far more; it is incontestable proof