Ichabod S. Spencer

“ If this human government, the government of Law, cannot be maintained, therefore, there is nothing on earth valuable to us, which is secure for a single hour! If the Law cannot be enforced, then government is at an end and anarchy reigns, and all is confusion, uncertainty, and violence! Order, civilization, Christianity is not safe!
There is indeed a limit to the obedience due to human government. ”

“ This religious paper says,—"To the fugitives themselves ... this Law is no Law ... and to resist it even unto death, is their right, and it may be their duty.... To each individual fugitive, to every man or woman, who having escaped from bondage and tasted liberty, is in hourly peril of being seized and dragged back to slavery, we say,—Be fully prepared for your own defense. If to you death seems better than slavery, then refuse not to die—whether on the way-side, at your own threshold, or even as a felon upon the gallows. ”

“ I never read more wicked and abominable principles! They deserve not only the reprehension of every Christian, but the entire indignation of all civilized mankind! They advise private arming with bloody weapons—they advise violent resistance and murder—the murder of officers of civil Law engaged in the discharge of the duty which they have sworn to perform! ”

“ If men would be just towards one another of themselves, there would be no necessity of human Law, to compel them to abstain from injury and to perform their duties to one another.
Consequently, Law is a friend to the human race. It is the protector of the good man; and it punishes the bad man, only for the purpose of securing rights,—property, liberty and life. And even the bad would be worse off a thousand fold than they are, if there were no efficient Law to restrain them by its authority and sanctions. ”

“ Such is man, so limited his wisdom and so imperfect his holiness, that human laws must necessarily be imperfect, and must, therefore, necessarily operate hardly in some instances, upon more or less of the people. It is impossible, that the thing should be otherwise—in the very nature of the case, it is impossible. And if every individual were allowed to be the judge in his own case, whether or not the law operated so hardly upon him that he might disobey; then his obligation to obedience would mean just nothing at all, and Law would be nothing more to him than mere advice. ”

“ There is no middle way—there can be none. In such a case the whole authority and power of the government come into direct hostility and conflict with the violence which resists the execution of Law; and government must crush that violence, or that violence must crush the government. A government is at an end, a nullity, when it cannot execute its laws. Let it be carefully remembered also, that violent resistance to Law cannot be justified, when there is no righteous design to overthrow the government itself; for no man owes a half-allegiance to government, or can commit a half-high-treason ”

“ Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same, for he is a minister of God to thee for good." We are commanded to be "subject for conscience' sake." Magistrates "are God's ministers."—What could be plainer?—This is religion: not politics, but religion. Human government is "ordained of God." Magistrates are "ministers of God," to whom men are commanded to be "subject for conscience' sake."
This, therefore, settles the principle, on which obedience to human government is the religious duty of men. ”

“ If this protecting, guarding Law is not enforced,—if the Law is obstructed, or crippled, or baffled, or violently set at naught; then, the security of civilized society is gone, and our property, our liberty, our rights, privileges and life, just lie at the mercy of every unjust man, and any violent and excited band of the wicked!—So important to us is the potential dominion and regular administration of Law. ”

“ But, be it wrong—be it unwise and unconstitutional; there are civil courts to decide upon its constitutionality, and no man has any right to decide for himself that it is unconstitutional, and act upon that decision: if he had such a right, then every man would be his own Lawmaker, and public Constitution and Law would be nothing but a bugbear or a bubble! ”

“ The bad would do injustice to the good, if it were not for Law, and those magistrates appointed by Law, who are "a terror to evil doers." Conscience is not effective in the breast of every sinner, and therefore Law must come in, to hinder that injustice, which, without it, would not be hindered by individual conscience, and to compel that righteousness which, without it, individual conscience would fail to enforce. As individual conscience becomes more stringent, civil Law may become more lax. ”

“ Moreover our very rights in religion, our privilege to have the word of God and read it, to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, to preach the gospel and hear it, are rights and privileges, which, in this unjust world, we could not enjoy for a single year, aside from the protection and potential administration of human government. ”

“ Explicit divine law regulates all the particulars of the one class of duties; the particulars of the other class of duties are left to human law, or the regulations of human society.
But this latter class of duties, that is, our social duties, are not left to the individual judgment or independent choice of men, in such a sense, that they may obey or disobey human government just as they please. Not in the least. Human government is by the divine will. Obedience to it is obligatory upon men, by the will and law of God. ”

“ One thing is certain,—the perpetual abuse of our Southern brethren, violence, disunion, and bloody murder will do us no good,—whether we are bondmen or freemen. And when we think on this subject, let us aim to be cool, unimpassioned, deliberate, and give reason and religion their just influence over us. ”

“ Nor is it true, that the fugitive slave is made an "outlaw," and on that ground justifiable for bloody and murderous resistance of Law. He is under the protection of Law; and if any man injures him or kills him, the Law will avenge him, just as soon as it would you or me. He is not made an outlaw: common sense knows better. ”

“ God knew all this when he ordained human government, and commanded us to be subject to it. Such government, with all its unavoidable imperfection and errors, on the whole is beneficial—indispensable—we could not do without it.—And rarely, very rarely indeed, is there a single instance of an individual man, here or beyond the Potomac, whom Law has injured more than it has benefited. Even if that Law unjustly takes away his liberty or his life, it may have done him more good than injury ”

“ Defend your liberty and the liberty of your wife and children, as you would defend your life and theirs against the assassin. If you die thus, you die nobly, and your blood shall be the redemption of your race. Should you destroy the life of your assailant, you will pass into the custody of the criminal Law ... under an indictment for murder; but the verdict of the community, and the verdict of almost any jury will be, justifiable homicide in self-defense.... ”

“ His will is the solid foundation on which it rests, (even though at first it may have been established by force,) and every man is religiously bound to regulate his obedience or disobedience to human government on this divinely revealed principle. "The social compact" may be a very good idea to employ for convincing an infidel in respect to the right of Law; but it is too low and loose an idea for a Christian; it falls far below the truth, and below the just solemnity of obligation.
The necessity of human Law results very much, if not entirely, from the injustice of mankind. ”

“ The importance of civil Law is vastly great. Its importance can scarcely be exaggerated by any representation. The most of our earthly happiness lies under the protection of human Law, and lies there by the will of God. We have not an item of property, in land, or houses, or goods, or chattels, or money, which the Law does not guard for us ”

“ Social duties come as really within the field of religious obligation, as any other duties. "The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor and performing the duties belonging to every one in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, and equals." As men, in any relationship we hold, neighbors, citizens of the state, children, parents, or any other earthly connection, religion extends its authority over us; and our conduct in each one of these relationships constitutes a part of our holiness or our sin. ”

“ Oh remember, you will be the best citizens, just when you are the best Christians;—and I do believe in my heart, you will do most earthly good to your fellow-men, just when you do them most spiritual good,—leading them, by example, by precept, and prayer, to "seek first the kingdom of God." ”

“ He has himself made all the laws which are needful, and all which can be justly obligatory upon us in respect to divine worship,—such duties as praise, prayer, preaching the gospel, and observing the sacramental ordinances;—and no human authority may either repeal these laws or add to them. But in respect to the duties which we owe to our neighbor, that is, to our fellow-man, in any relation he holds to us or can ever hold; God has left the most of these duties to the authoritative decision of human governments. ”

“ But the question is, whether it is the will of God that men should submit to the laws of the land, or aim to paralyze law, cheat it, cripple it, resist it, and thus overthrow the government of the country—a government at this moment more beneficial than any other that ever existed. ”

“ A man has no right to fling away his life for a mere sentiment, and leave his wife a widow, or his gray-haired parents without a son to solace them. There must be some fair prospect of great good to come from it, before one can justly fling his life into the scale, in a violent contest with the government. ”

“ No theme of earth could be more so. All our earthly benefits, and no small part of our spiritual privileges and hopes are wrapped up in it. Religion cannot prosper, if Law is not potential—if the minds of the people are to be perpetually agitated, distracted and tormented, by confusion, fear and uncertainty!
I have stated these great principles, and made these general remarks upon the subject presented in our texts, on account of some recent teachings which have been put forth as religious—put forth in religious publications, by ministers of the gospel. ”

“ Thus, they tell us, that each man receives a benefit from the power of society or government, which he could not secure by his individual power, and receives it in return for the individual natural rights, which he surrenders to the general society or government: so that, on the whole, this "compact" between him and the body politic is beneficial to him. ”

“ But seriously, it were far better, that these clergymen should attend to their own appropriate duties to which their Master has bidden them, than to be engaged in fostering excitements among their people, which never can result in any good, civil or religious. If we shall have the rebellion, disunion, and civil war, to which these evil principles and these excitements tend, the guilt of such clergymen will not be small! ”

“ He has thus made a difference betwixt these two classes of duties. The reason for this difference seems to be this; namely, man's wisdom can reach farther in ascertaining what is fit or right betwixt him and his fellow-man, than in ascertaining what is fit or right betwixt him and his God: and consequently, man can legislate in respect to property, and other matters of human right, but not in respect to prayer, and other matters of the first class of duties. Moreover, in respect to worship, God is himself one of the parties. ”

“ There may be a point where that obedience may justly stop, (a matter which we shall consider soon;) but the great principle before us now is an important one, namely, that human government and Law are things which exist by the will of God, and men are bound to submit to them on that high ground. ”

“ We all want men to be free; and no more do we want it now, than did the inhabitants of this country before we were born: the extravagant fanaticism and noisy zeal of the Northern abolitionists have not increased the sentiment of the country in favour of freedom a single item. ”