ational
Capital, and whose point is every where in the States. A weapon so
terrible to personal liberty the nation has no power to grasp."
* * * "In the name of the Constitution, which it violates; of my
country, which it dishonors; of humanity, which it degrades; of
Christianity, which it offends, I arraign this enactment, and now
hold it up to the judgment of the Senate and the world." * * * *

"The Slave Act violates the Constitution, and shocks the public
conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, it
offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment can be entitled to
support. As the throne of God is above every earthly throne, so are
his laws and statutes above all the laws and statutes of man. To
question these, is to question God himself. But to assume that human
laws are above question, is to claim for their fallible authors
infallibility. To assume that they are always in conformity with
those of God, is presumptuously and impiously to exalt man to an
equality with God. Clearly, human laws are _not_ always in such
conformity; nor can they ever be beyond question from each
individual. Where the conflict is open, as if Congress should demand
the perpetration of murder, the office of conscience, as final
arbiter, is undisputed. But in every conflict, the same queenly
office is hers. By no earthly power can she be dethroned. Each
person, after anxious examination, without haste, without passion,
solemnly for himself must decide this great controversy. Any other
rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond
question, and degrades all men to an unthinking, passive obedience.
The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed; those of
Heaven must at once be performed; nor can any agreement constrain us
against God. Such is the rule of morals. And now the rule is
commended to us. The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering
fugitive, guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast,
while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads
the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a
despotic mandate, 'to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
execution of this law.' Let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set
myself against any provision of law. This grave responsibility I
would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the
Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice; by the
comprehensive Christian Law of Brotherhood