February 12, 1865---"Anathema maranatha"

FEBRUARY 12, 1865:      

It is Abraham Lincoln’s Fifty-Sixth birthday. 

 

The Reverend Henry Highland Garnet, a former slave and now pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., becomes the first African American to speak in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., when he is invited by Radical Republican members of the House of Representatives to address a Joint Session of Congress in order to commemorate the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment His lengthy sermon, entitled, “Let the Monster Perish,” appears (edited for space) below:

“ ‘For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.—Matthew 23:4.’

In this chapter, of which my text is a sentence, the Lord Jesus addressed his disciples . . . He admonished them to beware of the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees, which was distinguished for great professions, while it succeeded in urging them to do but a little, or nothing that accorded with the law of righteousness.

In theory they were right; but their practices were inconsistent and wrong. They were learned in the law of Moses and in the traditions of their fathers, but the principles of righteousness failed to affect their hearts . . . They demanded that others should be just, merciful, pure, peaceable and righteous. But they were unjust, impure, unmerciful—they hated and wronged a portion of their fellowmen, and waged a continual war against the government of God.

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 . . . I shall speak this morning of the Scribes and Pharisees of our times who rule the state. 

Allow me to describe them. They are intelligent and well-informed, and can never say . . . "We knew not of ourselves what was right." They are acquainted with the principles of the law of nations. They are proficient in the knowledge of Constitutional law. They are teachers of common law, and frame and execute statute law. They acknowledge that there is a just and impartial God, and are not altogether unacquainted with the law of Christian love and kindness. They claim for themselves the broadest freedom. Boastfully they tell us that they have received from the court of heaven the Magna Charta of human rights that was handed down through the clouds and amid the lightnings of Sinai, and given again by the Son of God on the Mount of Beatitudes while the glory of the Father shone around him. They tell us that from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution they have obtained a guaranty of their political freedom, and from the Bible they derive their claim to all the blessings of religious liberty. With just pride they tell us that they are descended from the Pilgrims . . .  

But others, their fellow men, equal before the Almighty and made by Him of the same blood, and glowing with immortality, they doom to lifelong servitude and chains . . .  and declare that "the best possible condition of the Negro is slavery."

In the name of . . . God I denounce the sentiment as unrighteous beyond measure . . . Anathema maranatha.

What is slavery? Too well do I know what it is. I will present to you a bird's eye view of it . . . I was born among the cherished institutions of slavery. My earliest recollections of parents, friends, and the home of my childhood are clouded with its wrongs. The first sight that met my eyes was a Christian mother enslaved by professed Christians . . . The first sounds that startled my ear and sent a shudder through my soul were the cracking of the whip and the clanking of chains . . . But those shores are fairer now . . . Maryland, the unhonored grave of my fathers, is now the free home of their liberated and happier children.

Let us view this demon, which the people have worshipped as a God . . . Its work is to chattelize man . . . Great God! . . . Slavery is snatching man from the high place to which he was lifted by the hand of God, and dragging him down to the level of the brute creation, where he is made to be the companion of the horse and the fellow of the ox.

. . . Slavery preys upon man, and man only. A brute cannot be made a slave. Why? Because a brute has not reason, faith, nor an undying spirit, nor conscience . . . But who in this vast assembly . . . will say that the poorest and most unhappy brother in chains and servitude has not every one of these high endowments? Who denies it? Is there one? If so, let him speak. There is not one; no, not one.

But slavery attempts to make a man a brute . . . Its terrible work is not finished until the ruined victim  . . . faintly cries, "I am happy and contented. I love this condition."

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The caged lion may cease to roar . . . But is he contented? Does he not instinctively long for the freedom of the forest and the plain? Yes, he is a lion still. Our poor and forlorn brother whom thou hast labeled "slave," is also a man . . . God made him such, and his brother cannot unmake him. Woe, woe to him who attempts to commit the accursed crime.

Slavery commenced its dreadful work in kidnaping unoffending men in a foreign and distant land, and in piracy on the seas . . . 

. . . Go to the shores of the land of my forefathers, poor bleeding Africa . . . nevertheless beloved by all her worthy descendants wherever dispersed . . . Behold a hundred youthful mothers  . . . filling the air with their lamentations.

Why do they weep? . . .  Their babes have been torn from their bosoms and cast upon the plains to die of hunger, or to be devoured by hyenas or jackals. The little innocents would die on the "middle passage," ? or suffocate between the decks of the floating slave pen, freighted and packed with unparalleled human woe . . . tell me what works of iniquity there remain for devils to do?

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It is the highly concentrated essence of all conceivable wickedness . . . It teaches children to disregard parental authority. It tears down the marriage altar . . . It feeds and pampers its hateful handmaid, prejudice.

It has divided our national councils. It has engendered deadly strife between brethren. It has wasted the treasure of the Commonwealth and the lives of thousands of brave men, and driven troops of helpless women and children into yawning tombs. It has caused the bloodiest civil war recorded in the book of time. It has shorn this nation of its locks of strength that was rising as a young lion in the Western world . . . It has desolated the fairest portions of our land, "until the wolf long since driven back by the march of civilization returns after the lapse of a hundred years and howls amidst its ruins."

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Let us here take up the golden rule . . . Is slavery, as it is seen in its origin, continuance and end, the best possible condition for thee? Oh, no! . . . Then how, and when, and where, shall we apply to thee the golden rule . . .  

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The other day . . . the light of Liberty streamed through this marble pile,  and the hearts . . . of patriotic statesmen leaped for joy, and . . . our national capital shook from foundation to dome with the shouts of a ransomed people . . . 

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Moses, the greatest of all lawgivers and legislators, said, while his face was yet radiant with the light of Sinai: "Whoso stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." The destroying angel has gone forth through his land to execute the fearful penalties of God's broken law.

The Representatives of the nation have bowed with reverence to the Divine edict, and laid the axe at the root of the tree, and thus saved succeeding generations from the guilt of oppression, and from the wrath of God.

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Down let the shrine of Moloch sink, And leave no traces where it stood; No longer let its idol drink, His daily cup of human blood. But rear another altar there, To truth, and love, and mercy given . . .  

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When all unjust and heavy burdens shall be removed from every man in the land. When all invidious and proscriptive distinctions shall be blotted out from our laws, whether they be constitutional, statute or municipal laws. When emancipation shall be followed by enfranchisement, and all men holding allegiance to the government shall enjoy every right of American citizenship. When our brave and gallant soldiers shall have justice done unto them. When the men who endure the sufferings and perils of the battlefield in the defense of their country, and in order to keep our rulers in their places, shall enjoy the well-earned privilege of voting for them. When in the army and navy, and in every legitimate and honorable occupation, promotion shall smile upon merit without the slightest regard to the complexion of a man's face. When there shall be no more class legislation and no more trouble concerning the black man and his rights than there is in regard to other American citizens. When, in every respect, he shall be equal before the law, and shall be left to make his own way in the social walks of life.

We ask, and only ask, that when our poor, frail barks are launched on life's ocean, bound on a voyage of awful length and dangers little known, that, in common with others, we may be furnished with rudder, helm and sails and charts and compass. Give us good pilots to conduct us to the open seas; lift no false lights along the dangerous coasts, and if it shall please God to send us propitious winds or fearful gales, we shall survive or perish as our energies or neglect shall determine. We ask no special favors, but we plead for justice. While we scorn unmanly dependence; in the name of God, the universal Father, we demand the right to live and labor and enjoy the fruits of our toil. The good work which God has assigned for the ages to come will be finished when our national literature shall be so purified as to reflect a faithful and a just light upon the character and social habits of our race, and the brush and pencil and chisel and lyre of art shall refuse to lend their aid to scoff at the afflictions of the poor or to caricature or ridicule a long-suffering people . . .  

If slavery has been destroyed merely from necessity, let every class be enfranchised at the dictation of justice. Then we shall have a Constitution that shall be reverenced by all, rulers who shall be honored and revered, and a Union that shall be sincerely loved by a brave and patriotic people, and which can never be severed.

Great sacrifices have been made by the people; yet, greater still are demanded ere atonement can be made for our national sins . . . 

The great day of the nation's judgment has come . . . 

Upon the total and complete destruction of this accursed sin depends the safety and perpetuity of our Republic and its excellent institutions.

Let slavery die . . .  

Honorable Senators and Representatives  . . .  I cannot refrain this day from invoking upon you, in God's name, the blessings of millions who were ready to perish, but to whom a new and better life has been opened by your humanity, justice and patriotism. You have said, "Let the Constitution of the country be so amended that slavery and involuntary servitude shall no longer exist in the United States, except in punishment for crime." Surely, an act so sublime could not escape divine notice . . .  

The nation has begun its exodus from worse than Egyptian bondage; and I beseech you that you say to the people that they go forward . . . Let freemen and patriots mete out complete and equal justice to all men and thus prove to mankind the superiority of our democratic, republican government.

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Then before us a path of prosperity will open, and upon us will descend the mercies and favors of God. Then shall the people of other countries . . . behold a Republic that is sufficiently strong to outlive the ruin and desolations of civil war, having the magnanimity to do justice to the poorest and weakest of her citizens. Thus shall we give to the world the form of a model Republic, founded on the principles of justice and humanity . . .

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