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.
. . .
. . . 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."
. . .
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?
. . .
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."
. . . . . .
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 . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . .
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 . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
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.
. . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
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 . . .
. . .
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.
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
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 . . .
. . .
