Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung? Is it
indispensable to any Northern man? Is there no resource but to
cast this man also to the Minotaur? If you do not wish it, say
so distinctly. While these things are being done, beauty stands
veiled and music is a screeching lie. Think of him,--of his
rare qualities!--such a man as it takes ages to make, and ages to
understand; no mock hero, nor the representative of any party. A
man such as the sun may not rise upon again in this benighted land.
To whose making went the costliest material, the finest adamant;
sent to be the redeemer of those in captivity; and the only use
to which you can put him is to hang him at the end of a rope! You
who pretend to care for Christ crucified, consider what you are
about to do to him who offered himself to be the savior of four
millions of men.
Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world
cannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer always knows
that he is justly punished; but when a government takes the life
of a man without the consent of his conscience, it is an audacious
government, and is taking a step towards its own dissolution. Is
it not possible that an individual may be right and a government
wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? or
declared by any number of men to be good, if they are not good?
Is there any necessity for a man's being a tool to perform a deed
of which his better nature disapproves? Is it the intention of
law-makers that good men shall be hung ever? Are judges to interpret
the law according to the letter, and not the spirit? What right
have you to enter into a compact with yourself that you will do
thus or so, against the light within you? Is it for you to make
up your mind,--to form any resolution whatever,--and not accept
the convictions that are forced upon you, and which ever pass
your understanding? I do not believe in lawyers, in that mode of
attacking or defending a man, because you descend to meet the judge
on his own ground, and, in cases of the highest importance, it is
of no consequence whether a man breaks a human law or not.
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