Randolph, John - Continued

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It is impossible to specify the wars in which she has been engaged for contrary purposes; and she will, with great pleasure, see us take off her shoulders the labor of preserving the balance of power. We find her fighting now for the Queen of Hungary, then, for her inveterate foe, the King of Prussia; now at war for the restoration of the Bourbons, - and now on the eve of war with them, for the liberties of Spain. These lines on the subject were never more applicable than they have now become:

"Now Europe's balanced-neither side prevails; For nothing's left in either of the scales. »

— (1824.)

National Debt as a Curse A President of the United States would, in my apprehension, occupy a prouder place in history, who, when he retires from office, can say to the people who elected him, I leave you without a debt, than if he had fought as many pitched battles as Cæsar, or achieved as many naval victories as Nelson. And what, sir, is debt? In an individual it is slavery. It is slavery of the worst sort, surpassing that of the West India Islands, for it enslaves the mind as well as it enslaves the body; and the creature who can be abject enough to incur and to submit to it receives in that condition of his being an adequate punishment. — ( 1824. )

Raynor, Kenneth (American, Nineteenth Century.)

Revolutionists of Seventy-Six-The extension of our country's limits; the rapid progress of our civilization, our freedom, our religion, and our laws; the triumphs of our arms; the advancement of our commerce; our wonderful improvements in literature, in arts, and in industrial enterprise; in fact, the teeming wealth and luxury and comfort of our boundless resources, and the numberless blessings with which kind Heaven has favored us, -for the germ and development of all these, our revolutionary benefactors, who appealed to Heaven for the rectitude of their intentions, uttered the declaration: "Let this nation be free;" and lo! it was free! Sir, can we, their posterity, feel gratitude warm enough to requite the boon they bequeathed us? Can we speak in language glowing enough duly to sound their praise? Can we build monuments high enough to tell the story of their deeds? (From a speech in the North Carolina legislature, January 20th, 1855.)

fore hath it been wisely ordained that no set of creatures of our race shall be beyond the reach of their helping hand,-so lofty that they will not fear our reproaches, or so mighty as to be beyond our reach. If the lofty and the learned do not lift us up, we drag them down. But unity is not the only watchword; there must be progress also. Since, by a law we cannot evade, we are to keep together, and since we are to progress, we must do it together, and nobody must be left behind. This is not a matter of philosophy; it is a matter of fact. No progress which did not lift all, ever lifted any. If we let the poison of filthy diseases percolate through the hovels of the poor, Death knocks at the palace gates. If we leave to the greater horror of ignorance any portion of our race, the consequences of ignorance strike us all, and there is no escape. We must all move, but we must all keep together. It is only when the rearguard comes up that the vanguard can go on. (Girard College, 1898. From the text of the "World's Best Orations. ») Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore

(France, 1758-1794.)

"Solemn Crimes Committed by Law» Outside of civil society, let an inveterate enemy attempt to take my life, or, twenty times repulsed, let him again return to devastate the field my hands have cultivated, inasmuch as I can only oppose my individual strength to his, I must perish or I must kill him, and the law of natural defense justifies and approves me. But in society, when the strength of all is armed against one single individual, what principle of justice can authorize it to put him to death? What necessity can there be to absolve it? A conqueror who causes the death of his captive enemies is called a barbarian! A man who causes a child that he can disarm and punish, to be strangled, appears to us a monster! A prisoner that society convicts is at the utmost to that society but a vanquished, powerless, and harmless enemy. He is before it weaker than a child before a full-grown man.

Therefore, in the eyes of truth and justice, these death scenes which it orders with so much preparation are but cowardly assassinations,— solemn crimes committed, not by individuals, but by entire nations, with due legal forms. - (1791.)

Public Morals and Law - The first duty of the lawmaker is to form and to conserve public morals, as the source of all liberty, the source of all social happiness. When, to attain some special aim, he loses sight of this general and essential object, he commits the grossest and most fatal of errors. Therefore, the laws must ever present to the people the purest model of justice and of reason. If, in lieu of this puissant severity, of this moderate calmness which should characterize them, they replace it by anger and vengeance; if they cause human blood to flow which they can prevent,- which they have no right to spill; if they exhibit to the eyes of the people cruel scenes and corpses bruised by tor

Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore Continued

tures, then they change in the hearts of the citizens all ideas of the just and of the unjust; they cause to germinate in the bosom of society ferocious prejudices which in their turn again produce others.- (1791.)

"If God Did Not Exist, It Would Be Necessary to Invent Him » - There are men who under the guise of destroying superstition, would establish atheism itself. Every philosopher, every individual, is at liberty to adopt whatever opinion he pleases, but the legislator would be a thousand times blamable who adopted such a system. The Convention abhors all such attempts; it is no maker of metaphysical theories; it is a popular body, whose mission is to cause, not only the rights, but the character of the French people to be respected. Not in vain has it proclaimed the rights of man in the presence of the Supreme Being.

The idea of a Supreme Being, who watches over oppressed innocence, and punishes triumphant crime, is altogether popular. The people, the unfortunate, will always applaud me. shall find detractors only among the rich and the guilty. I have from my youth upwards been but an indifferent Catholic, but I have never been a cold friend, or a faithless defender of humanity. I am even more strongly attached to moral than I am to political truth. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. (Jacobin Club. 1793.)

Rollins, James Sidney (American, 1812-1888.)

Southern Patriotism - Washington and Jefferson, Madison, Clay, and Jackson were not only Southern men, but they were all slaveholders; while if you will trace the history of slavery on this continent, you will find that the people of the Northern States were as largely instrumental, and profited as much, in the establishment of African slavery here as did the Southern people. Whatever guilt attaches to it in a moral or political point of view must be forever shared equally by the North and South. Sir, the great men of the South need no defense at my hands. There is not a page in your country's history that is not illuminated and adorned by their wisdom, their patriotism, and their valor. From the time that the first blow was struck in the cause of American independence until the breaking out of this "accursed rebellion," there is scarcely a battlefield whose sands were not moistened by the blood of patriotic Southern men. To them the world is largely indebted for the establishment of free government on this continent. And the cause of humanity and liberty in the distant regions of the earth has had no truer and warmer advocates in this Capitol than Southern men, whose eloquent words came,

"So softly that, like flakes of feathered snow, They melted as they fell. »

(From a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, April 24th, 1862.)

Rousseau, Jean Jacques (France, 1712-1778.) Immortality the Reward of Life-Let us not exact the prize before the victory, nor the wages before the labor. It is not on the course, says Plutarch, that the conquerors in our games are crowned; it is after they have gone over it. If the soul is immaterial, it can survive the body; and, in that survival, Providence is justified. Though I were to have no other proof of the immateriality of the soul than the triumph of the wicked and the oppression of the just in this world, that spectacle alone would prevent my doubting the reality of the life after death. So shocking a dissonance in this universal harmony would make me seek to explain it. I should say to myself: "All does not finish for me with this mortal life; what succeeds shall make concord of what went before."

"No Man Born With a Saddle on His Back» Gentlemen and brethren, it is for all men that come into the world once to die; and after death the judgment! And since death is a debt that all of us must pay, it is but a matter of small moment what way it be done. Seeing the Lord is pleased in this manner to take me to himself, I confess, something hard to flesh and blood, yet blessed be his name, who hath made me not only willing, but thankful for his honoring me to lay down the life he gave, for his name; in which, were every hair in this head and beard of mine a life, I should joyfully sacrifice them for it, as I do this. Providence having brought me hither, I think it most necessary to clear myself of some aspersions laid on my name; and, first, that I should have had so horrid an intention of destroying the king and his brother. . . . It was also laid to my charge that I was antimonarchical. It was ever my thoughts that kingly government was the best of all where justly executed; I mean, such as it was by our ancient laws; that is, a king, and a legal, freechosen Parliament, -the king having, as I conceive, power enough to make him great; the people also as much property as to make them happy; they being, as it were, contracted to one another! And who will deny me that this was not the justly-constituted government of our nation? How absurd is it, then, for men of sense to maintain that though the one party of his contract breaketh all conditions, the other should be obliged to perform their part? No; this error is contrary to the law of God, the law of nations, and the law of I am sure there was no man born marked of God above another; for none comes into the world with a saddle on his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him; not but that I am well satisfied that God hath wisely ordered different statious for men in the world, as I have already said; kings having as much power as to make them great and the people as much property as to make them happy. And to conclude, I shall

reason.

only add my wishes for the salvation of all men who were created for that end. — (Deliv ered on the gallows at the Market Cross in Edinburgh, in June, 1685. From the speech in the "World's Best Orations» where the text is from English state trials. -Cobbett.) Rush, Benjamin (American, 1745-1813.)

Extent of Territory-Let every man exert himself in promoting virtue and knowledge in our country, and we shall soon become good republicans. Look at the steps by which governments have been changed, or rendered stable in Europe. Read the history of Great Britain. Her boasted government has risen out of wars and rebellions that lasted above six hundred years. The United States are traveling peaceably into order and good government. They know no strife,- but what arises from the collision of opinions; and, in three years, they have advanced further in the road to stability and happiness than most of the nations in Europe have done in as many centuries.

There is but one path that can lead the United States to destruction; and that is their extent of territory. It was probably to effect this that Great Britain ceded to us so much waste land. But even this path may be avoided. -(From an address of 1787, previous to the meeting of the Constitutional Convention.)

"With All Brave Men Their Work is First » - With all brave and rightly-trained men, their work is first, their fee second,-very important always, but still second. But in every nation, as I said, there is a vast class who are ill-educated, cowardly, and more or less stupid. And with these people, just as certainly the fee is first and the work second, as with brave people the work is first and the fee second. And this is no small distinction. It is the whole distinction in a man; distinction between life and death in him, between heaven and hell for him. You cannot serve two masters; you must serve one or the other. If your work is first with you, and your fee second, work is your master, and the Lord of work, who is God. But if your fee is first with you, and your work second, fee is your master, and the lord of fee, who is the devil; and not only the devil, but the lowest of devils,-the "least-erected fiend that fell." So there you have it in brief terms: Work first,-you are God's servants; fee first,you are the fiend's. And it makes a difference, now and ever, believe me, whether you serve him who has on his vesture and thigh written, "King of kings," and whose service is perfect freedom, or him on whose vesture and thigh the name is written, "Slave of slaves," and whose service is perfect slavery.

"Bag-Baron and Crag-Baron»- Has not the man who has worked for the money a right to use it as he best can? No; in this respect, money is now exactly what mountain promontories over public roads were in old times. The barons fought for them fairly:-the strongest

and cunningest got them; then fortified them, and made everyone who passed below pay toll. Well, capital now is exactly what crags were then.. Men fight fairly-we will, at least, grant so much, though it is more than we ought,-for their money; but, once having got it, the fortified millionaire can make everybody who passes below pay toll to his million, and build another tower of his money castle. And I can tell you, the poor vagrants by the roadside suffer now quite as much from the bag-baron as ever they did from the crag-baron.

Rutledge, John (American, 1739-1800.)

"Truth Being Known, Will Prevail »— Truth, being known, will prevail over artifice and misrepresentation. In such case no man, who is worthy of life, liberty, or property, will, or can, refuse to join with you in defending them to the last extremity, disdaining every sordid view, and the mean paltry considerations of private interest and present emolument, when placed in competition with the liberties of millions; and seeing that there is no alternative but absolute, unconditional submission, and the most abject slavery, or a defense becoming men born to freedom, he will not hesitate about the choice. Although superior force may, by the permission of Heaven, lay waste our towns and ravage our country, it can never eradicate from the breasts of freemen those principles which are ingrafted in their very nature. Such men will do their duty, neither knowing, nor regarding consequences; but submitting them, with humble confidence, to the omniscient and omnipotent Arbiter and Director of the fate of empires, and trusting that his Almighty arm, which has been so signally stretched out for our defense, will deliver them in a righteous cause. -(1776.)

Saurin, Jacques (France, 1677-1730.)

Partiality and Prejudice as Causes of Blindness-What is hatred? It is a close attention to a man's imperfections. Is any man free? Is any man so imperfect as to have nothing good in him? Is there nothing to compensate his defects? This man is not handsome, but he is wise; his genius is not lively, but his heart is sincere; he cannot assist you with money, but he can give you much good advice, supported by an excellent example; he is not either prince, king, or emperor, but he is a man, a Christian, a believer, and in all these respects he deserves esteem. The passionate man turns away his eyes from all these advantageous sides and attends only to the rest. Is it astonishing that he hates a person in whom he sees nothing but imperfection? Thus a counselor opens and sets forth his cause with such artifice that law seems to be clearly on his side; he forgets one fact, suppresses one circumstance, omits to draw one inference, which, being brought forward to view, entirely change the nature of the subject, and his client loses his cause. In the same manner, a defender of a false religion always revolves in his mind the arguments that

seem to establish it, and never recollects those which subvert it. He will curtail a sentence, cut off what goes before, leave out what follows, and retain only such detached expressions as seem to countenance his error, but which, in connection with the rest, would strip it of all probability.

Savonarola, Girolamo (Italy, 1452-1498.)

Compassion in Heaven-God remits the sins of men, and justifies them by his mercy. There are as many compassions in heaven as there are justified men upon earth; for none are saved by their own works. No man can boast of himself; and if, in the presence of God, we could ask all these justified sinners: Have you been saved by your own strength? all would reply as with one voice, Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us; but to thy name be the glory! Therefore, O God, do I seek thy mercy, and I bring not unto thee my own righteousness; but when by thy grace thou justifiest me, then thy righteousness belongs unto me; for grace is the righteousness of God. So long, O man, so long as thou believest not, thou art, because of thy sin, destitute of grace. O God, save me by thy righteousness, that is to say, in thy Son, who alone among men was found without sin.

Schurz, Carl (German-American, 1829-.)

Sumner and the Battle Flags-At the opening of the session of Congress in 1872, Charles Sumner reintroduced two measures which, as he thought, should complete the record of his political life. One was his Civil Rights Bill, which had failed in the last Congress, and the other a resolution providing that the names of the battles won over fellow-citizens in the War of the Rebellion should be removed from the regimental colors of the army, and from the army register. It was, indeed, only a repetition of a resolution which he had introduced ten years before, in 1862, during the war, when first the names of victories were put on American battle flags. This resolution called forth a new storm against him. It was denounced as an insult to the heroic soldiers of the Union, and a degradation of their victories and well-earned laurels. It was condemned as an unpatriotic act.

Charles Sumner insult the soldiers who had spilled their blood in a war for human rights! Charles Sumner degrade victories, and depreciate laurels won for the cause of universal freedom! How strange an imputation! Let the dead man have a hearing. This was his thought: No civilized nation, from the republics of antiquity down to our days, ever thought it wise or patriotic to preserve in conspicuous and durable form the mementoes of victories won over fellow-citizens in civil war. Why not? Because every citizen shall feel himself, with all others, as the child of a common country, and not as a defeated foe. All civilized governments of our days have instinctively followed the same dictate of wisdom and patriotism. The Irishman, when fighting for old England at Waterloo, was not to behold on the

red cross floating above him the name of the Boyne. The Scotch Highlander, when standing in the trenches of Sebastopol, was not by the colors of his regiment to be reminded of Culloden. No French soldier at Austerlitz or Solferino had to read upon the tricolor any reminiscence of the Vendée. No Hungarian at Sadowa was taunted by any Austrian banner with the surrender of Villagos. No German regiment, from Saxony or Hanover, charging under the iron hail of Gravelotte, was made to remember by words written on a Prussian standard that the Black Eagle had conquered them at Königgratz and Langensalza. Should the son of South Carolina, when at some future day defending the republic against some foreign foe, be reminded by an inscription on the colors floating over him that under this flag the gun was fired that killed his father at Gettysburg? Should this great and enlightened republic, proud of standing in the front of human progress, be less wise, less large-hearted, than the Ancients were two thousand years ago, and the kingly governments of Europe are to-day? Let the battle flags of the brave volunteers, which they brought home from the war with the glorious record of their victories, be preserved intact as a proud ornament of our statehouses and armories. But let the colors of the army under which the sons of all the States are to meet and mingle in common patriotism, speak of nothing but union,not a union of conquerors and conquered, but a union which is the mother of all, equally tender to all, knowing of nothing but equality, peace, and love among her children. Do you want shining mementoes of your victories? They are written upon the dusky brow of every freeman who was once a slave; they are written on the gateposts of a restored Union; and the most shining of all will be written on the faces of a contented people, reunited in common national pride.

Scipio Africanus (Rome, 234–183 B. C.)

Carrying War Into Africa - In fact even though the war were not to be brought to a speedier conclusion by the method which I propose, still it would concern the dignity of the Roman people, and their reputation among foreign kings and nations, that we should appear to have spirit, not only to defend Italy, but to carry our arms into Africa; and that it should not be spread abroad, and believed, that no Roman general dared what Hannibal had dared; and that, in the former Punic War, when the contest was about Sicily, Africa had been often attacked by our fleets and armies; but that now, when the contest is about Italy, Africa should enjoy peace. Let Italy, so long harassed, enjoy at length some repose; let Africa, in its turn, feel fire and sword. Let the Roman camp press on the very gates of Carthage, rather than that we, a second time, should behold our walls the rampart of that of the enemy. Let Africa, in short, be the seat of the remainder of the war; thither be removed terror and flight, devastation of lands, revolt of allies, and all the other calami

ties with which, for fourteen years, we have been afflicted. It is sufficient that I have delivered my sentiments on those matters which affect the state, the dispute in which we are involved, and the provinces under consideration; my discourse would be tedious and unsuitable to this audience, if, as Quintus Fabius has depreciated my services in Spain, I should, on the other hand, endeavor in like manner to disparage his glory and extol my own. I shall do neither, Conscript Fathers; but young as I am, I will show that I excel that sage, if in nothing else, yet certainly in modesty and temperance of language. Such has been my life and conduct, that I can, in silence, rest perfectly satisfied with that character which your own judgments have formed of me.-(From an oration in Livy.)

Sergeant, John (American, 1779-1852.)

Militarism and Progress-I would ask : What did Cromwell, with all his military genius, do for England? He overthrew the monarchy, and he established dictatorial power in his own person. And what happened next? Another soldier overthrew the dictatorship, and restored the monarchy. The sword effected both. Cromwell made one revolution, and Monk another. And what did the people of England gain by it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing!

Seward, William H. (American, 1801-1872.)

"Consolidate Without Centralizing » —We came together to-day to celebrate the end of civil war. We will come together again under next October's sun, to rejoice in the restoration of peace, harmony, and union throughout the land. Until that time I refrain from what would be a pleasant task,- the forecasting of the material progress of the country, the normal increase of population by birth and immigration, and its diffusion over the now obliterated line of Mason and Dixon to the Gulf of Mexico, and over and across the Rocky Mountains along the border of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. I say now only this: Go on, fellow-citizens ! increase and multiply as you have heretofore done. Extend channels of internal commerce, as the development of agricultural, forest, and mineral resources requires. Improve your harbors, consolidate the Union now while you can, without unconstitutionally centralizing the government, and henceforth you will enjoy, as a tribute of respect and confidence, that security at home and that consideration abroad which maritime powers of the world have of late, when their candor was specially needed, only reluctantly and partially conceded. May our Heavenly Father bless you and your families and friends, and have you all in his holy keeping until the rolling months shall bring around that happy meeting in 1866; and so for the present, farewell. (Auburn, New York, 1865.)

"The Irrepressible Conflict»- Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think that it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of fanatical agitators, and, therefore, ephemeral,

mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will become either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free labor nation.- (Rochester, October 25th, 1858.)

Higher Law - We deem the principle of the law for the recapture of fugitive slaves unjust, unconstitutional, and immoral; and thus, while patriotism withholds its approbation, the conscience of our people condemns it. You will say that these convictions of ours are disloyal. Grant it, for the sake of argument. They are nevertheless honest; and the law is to be executed among us, not among you; not by us, but by the Federal authority. Has any government ever succeeded in changing the moral convictions of its subjects by force? But these convictions imply no disloyalty. We reverence the Constitution, although we perceive this defect, just as we acknowledge the splendor and the power of the sun, although its surface is tarnished with here and there an opaque spot. The Constitu

tion regulates our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain and devotes it to the same noble purposes. (From a speech in the U. S. Senate, March 15th, 1850.) Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (England, 17511816.)

Filial piety - Filial piety! It is the primal bond of society. It is that instinctive principle which, panting for its proper good, soothes, unbidden, each sense and sensibility of man. It now quivers on every lip. It now beams from every eye. It is that gratitude which, softening under the sense of recollected good, is eager to own the vast, countless debt it never, alas! can pay, for so many long years of unceasing solicitudes, honorable selfdenials, life-preserving cares. It is that part of our practice where duty drops its awe, where reverence refines into love. It asks no aid of memory. It needs not the deduction of reason. Pre-existing, paramount over all, whether moral law or human rule, few arguments can increase, and none can diminish it. It is the sacrament of our nature; not only the duty but the indulgence of man. It is his first great privilege. It is among his last most endearing delights. It causes the bosom to glow with reverberated love. It requites the visitations of nature, and returns the blessings that have been received. It fires emotion into vital principle. It changes what was instinct into a master passion; sways all the sweetest energies of man; hangs over each vicissitude of all that must pass away; and aids the melancholy virtues in their last sad tasks of life to cheer the languors of decrepitude and age, and, Explore the thought, explain the aching eye!" -(Against Hastings. 1788.)

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