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Show I I !II ir I 22 potism. They can be safely relaxed nowhere. In the one case, they are enforced by the commands of the monarch ; in the other, they are referred to the protection of the people ; and in either case, if their dictates are violated, there is the same necessary and unavoidable consequence -the demoralization of the public character. Under the administration of a free go,·ernment there is the stronger obligation for personal restraint, because it is to the personal, and not the public power, that the good order of society is mainly entrusted. If the statute-book contained no law against arson, it would not follow that a midnight incendiary might wrap his neighbor's dwelling-house in llames. But the statute, necessary as it now is, may be safely repealed whenever society arrives at that state of perfection in which the moral principle will be strong enough to afford general protection. lf there is no law of the land that prohibits the free discussion of the most dangerous and exciting subjects of public inquiry- if the necessary freedom of popular government does not permit the arm of the law to stop the pen or the press, it is on the presumption- which, like other fictions of law, is sometimes strangely at variance with fact- that there is a moral and prudential principle, quite as operative and efficacious for the protection of society. It is on the presumption that they who have the power to move the mass of the community, will have the discretion to do it wisely ; that they, whose education, talents, and learning, "preaching to stones would make them moveable," will take care that they do not remove the foundation stones upon which the temple of national liberty is erected. When, therefore, we admit the perfect right of free discussion as uncontrolled and uncontrollable in our government of laws, we do it with the obvious qualification, that whatever of evil tendency the government does not restrain by force, individuals will restrain by inclination ; and that whenever there is a breach of the great law of general security, by inflammatory and dangerous discussions, the inefficiency of the govern- ' I 23 ment will be more than supplied by the reprobation of the people. There is a growing tendency to disregard this broad axiom, without which a democracy could not subsist. There is an increasing disposition to use to its extreme the liberty of the constitution, to forget that republican government is self-government, and that self-government involves on the citizen an obligation to do that for himself which the peace and good order of the S tate requires, and which, elsewhere, he is compelled to do by the irritating interference of public authority. I know very well that Dr. Channing disclaims "agitation" and all "indiscriminate and inflammatory vituperation of the slave-holder." But how much better than such vituperation are the highly-colored and exciting pictures of sin, ruin, disgrace, which this modern Angelo brings upon his canvass, in the freshness of instinctive life. How much more excusable are his strong appeals to duty and pride of character, and the lofty spirit of our people, which ring like the war-trumpet on the field of battle, to stir up the passions of mankind. But, are they true ? Suppose they are. How much is this a reason for quietness and peace. How much is the artist, whose splendid and costly engravings were lately burned by order of a court of justice, excusable, because every delineation of his pencil was most exactly faithful to nature. Truth, like nature, may not always be exhibited without the excitement of feelings, appetites, and passions, that a wise and practical philosopher would deem it dangerous to move. If a discussion of S lavery, in its actual state and condition in our country, excites in the people of the free States, indignation, resentment, and pity ; if it produces in New England horror, abhorrence, and contempt, it must lead to action, in which these convl1lsions of the mind will pour out its concentrated fires, or it will compel us to brood, in sullen malignity and silence, over the compressed passions that policy stifles in the heart. IV e must be open enemies or false and deceitful friends. If no action is proposed, and no safe action can possibly be devised for us, there is no alternative but sullen- |
