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| African American Soldiers - Civil War - 1864 |
Preached by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, March 9th, 1862, at the time of the Emancipation Message from President Lincoln
Slavery vs. Liberty
It has entered also the temple of God; and we have the record of the evil influences exerted by slavery upon the morals and the beliefs of the people. It has drugged the priests at the altar. It has put false fire thereon, and in the lurid light of that fire it has read God's word backward, making the charter of liberty for the world to be the charter of despotism. The apostasy of the Southern churches is one of the most extraordinary that ever took place. Never was the foul virus and bitterness of slavery shown before as it has been in the prostration of the churches of the South, and the utter apostasy of the ministers of the Gospel belonging to them.
So manifest are they, that though all the statistics have been gathered by men appointed by pro-slavery administrations, and strained and doctored by them, it has not been possible for the utmost amount of perversion to present them so as not to have it stand out in living characters, that slavery degrades, demoralizes, and destroys. While on the other side it has been made to appear that liberty enriches, makes more intelligent, promotes good morals, and gives every element of prosperity. These results are not speculations; they are historic, tabulated facts.
Now that it has been done, I thank God that this gigantic mischief and evil has been wrought out. It has been a dreary history to go through, that of the last hundred years, while God has been developing these results; and yet, now that the work is done, I am glad of it.
Slavery’s Incompatibility
It is the result of the deliberation of a great, intelligent common people of its moral and political leaders. They have considered for themselves. They have heard both sides. They have examined the facts. And, without being biassed by one side or the other, the loyal States have come to the irreversible conviction that slavery is a gigantic mischief and nuisance, incompatible with good government on this continent.
Loyal citizens differ exceedingly as to the character of the African; as to the benefit of slavery or liberty to him; as to his rights; as to the best way of letting him go free; as to the disposal of him afterward; but I think it may be said that, while these discrepancies exist, there is a united and settled popular conviction that slavery is bad all round. Bad to the States that have it, and bad to the States that are united with them. And I think there is also a conviction that slavery must come to an end. I know it.
I think it may be said that public opinion has doomed slavery. We look upon it as a great dismal swamp. We look upon its influence as upon poisonous malaria rising up. Its evils have swept over the whole land, and all the country has had chills and fever. And now the nation has said, “Let us take quinine, and besides, not only that we may cure these results, but prevent their recurrence hereafter, let us drain that swamp!” And it is going to be drained into the Gulf. They may do the work; but if they do not, we will do it for them. That dismal swamp, by them or by us, is going to be drained. This nation is not going to have the chills and fever for another hundred years.
Abolitionists
I remember the first outbreaks. I remember well when William Lloyd Garrison lay in a jail in the South on the charge of using inflammatory language. I remember the great stir that there was in the churches when he came North and began in unmeasured, and I cannot say justifiable language, to denounce the mischiefs of slavery. The men are yet alive who were mobbed for the assertion of those truths that are now uttered by the President of these United States, when he declares that slavery is inconsistent with the safety of this government. I must read that sentence again: “The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self preservation.”
What measure? The abolishment of slavery. The President of the United States is not mobbed for that assertion. Mr. Lewis Tappan was, in his day; and Mr. Arthur Tappan; and Dr. Cox; and Mr. Garrison; and Mr. Phillips; and Mr. Alvan Stuart, of blessed memory. All these men, and many more, a large proportion of whom are yet at work with harness on, lost place, lost caste, lost preferment, lost influence with bad men, and only gained it with good, for the declaration of principles not so offensive as that which is made the very axis of the Message of the President of the United States, that this government cannot exist without the abolishment of slavery.
Though men were despised for holding and advocating the doctrines of liberty, yet such as those whom I have named, and many more, gave themselves willingly to contempt for the sake of justice and truth. They were the instruments that God employed. And what had they? They had no power in the Church, and no power in the State. They had no power anywhere. They had nothing but the invincible power of weakness. They had nothing but the righteousness of their cause. They had their faith in God. They had their love of Christ. They had their unwavering conviction that the right was with them. And this inspired them with intense enthusiasm. And continuing on, they have wrought out results the importance of which cannot be estimated. They have been the pioneers in this great revolution. They are men whose shoes' latchets we are not worthy to unloose. I revere them as the prophets of the American people.
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| Abolitionists - Eminent Opponents of the Slave Power -1864 |
Nobility, The Common People
We have an order of nobility in this nation. We call it the common people. We believe it to be the most sublime order of nobility that the world has ever seen. We give all rights to it, and all prerogatives. Whatever there is that can be given to any order of nobility, we give to our order of the common people. We rest in it. We have faith in its integrity, in its power of government, and in its substantial justice.
Now the power of this people to stand when betrayed by their Government; the power of this people to organize an army and navy for magnitude and efficiency second to none; the power of this people to hold all their passions in restraint, and to maintain unity and power under the most provoking and irritating circumstances; the power of this people to submit their pride and their very national name to the decree of their own chosen and trusted rulers; the power of this people to throw off a gigantic evil from their very vitals, and to compel and maintain national unity against the most enormous rebellion that was ever generated; the power of this common people, not only to do these things, but to do them justly, deliberately, temperately, magnanimously, as they will, is to read a lesson of self-government to Europe that has never been read before.
Russia's Emancipation of the Serfs
I want to call your attention, before making the applications, to two or three great coincidences that are very noticeable at this time. One is that the Czar of Russia, representing the extreme of monarchy, and the President of the United States, representing the extreme of republicanism, are, by a Divine Providence sent at the same moment on the same errand.
The Czar has issued a proclamation of emancipation to the serfs of Russia. On those plains where the plant of liberty has never grown before, and where the seeds of despotism have come up and flourished, the Czar has planted the seeds of liberty. God be thanked that he has raised up a Moses, not near the throne of Egypt, but on the throne of a prouder and vaster empire. While he has inspired him to issue a decree of emancipation to the serfs within his dominions, he has inspired these people to appoint a Chief Magistrate who has just issued a Message for the emancipation of the slaves.
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| "Paupers near the church" by Sergey Vinogradov |
Support of the States & the Press
Let Europe attempt to establish despotism on this continent! We have commenced the work of overthrowing oppression; and there shall be neither slavery nor despotism between the sounds of the waves on the shores of the Pacific and the Atlantic. This continent is for liberty.
During this period God has been pleased to reveal the hand of his power, and revivals of religion are breaking out in churches, and going all around the land. In the midst of all this gigantic agitation, blessings abound in the sanctuary. War and trouble in the State; peace and prosperity in the Church. What a strange coincidence! It is God's doing. God is in our midst.
I would hope that in every town and village in the loyal States public meetings might be appointed to accord instant and hearty sympathy to the Chief Magistrate of this nation. As the tide rolls into the Bay running thirty feet perpendicular, and abreast, so let the tide of public sympathy roll to Washington, and carry on this great inspiring work in the hearts of our rulers. It is the duty of this people to say amen, as the voice of the ocean, to this Proclamation.
Then, secondly, it is the duty of all the loyal States to prepare themselves to take part in this great work. They should lay aside all causes of division and alienation among themselves, so that citizens may stand together on a ground common to them all. Let the old feuds die out. Put out the party watch-fires, and throw away the weapons of war. Let newspapers forget the animosities that have been fomented by ill-concealed selfishness and rivalry. Let the old and the new come together. Let the conservative and the progressive find something in common. For once, let there be a glorious fusion of all sides for the sake of liberty. We have a leader.
It is among the marvels that all the papers that I have seen thus far have claimed it as the expression of their views. The Tribune broke forth into jubilee about it. Nothing can compare with the tranquil, placid pleasure that the World has in it. The Times has put down both feet and rejoiced on this platform. And the Journal of Commerce declares that its doctrines are those that it has advocated ever since it can remember! Now, it is said that misery makes strange bed-fellows. I think you will admit that liberty makes strangers. But we are all together. Do not let us go asunder.
I extend the right hand of fellowship to all papers, no matter what their former course has been, that earnestly advocate these acceptable doctrines of liberty. Let us forget the past. Let us not seek the things in which we differ. Let us not divide ourselves by raising questions of the future. One step at a time is sufficient. Let Congress accept this recommendation of the President. Let the people express their approval of it in tones that shall not be mistaken. Let the policy of emancipation begin.
If you are purposed, if you are willing to sacrifice something, and if you take hold of concordant hands, and cheer each other, and avoid things that are irritating, and stand together with your faces as though you would go toward Jerusalem, God will create a new heaven and a new earth for you; a Jerusalem shall come into our midst, Jerusalem of prefigured liberty.
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| Rev. Henry Ward Beecher - Late 40's/Early 50's |