nd
not for the judgments of others, and therefore when the execution of a
law or of a command of a superior does not require him to sin, he is
free to obey.

Again, in those cases in which we, as private individuals, may be called
upon to assist in carrying the fugitive slave law into effect, if we can
not obey, we must do as the Quakers have long done with regard to our
military laws, _i. e._ quietly submit. We have no right to resist, or in
any way to impede the operation of the law. Whatever sin there is in it,
does not rest on us, any more than the sin of our military system rests
on the Quakers.[259]

And finally as regards the fugitives themselves, their obvious duty is
submission. To them the law must appear just as the laws of the Pagans
against Christians, or of Romanists against Protestants, appeared to
those who suffered from them. And the duty in both cases is the same.
Had the martyrs put to death the officers of the law, they would in the
sight of God and man have been guilty of murder. And any one who teaches
fugitive slaves to resort to violence even to the sacrifice of life, in
resisting the law in question, it seems to us, is guilty of exciting men
to murder. As before remarked, the principle of self-defense does not
apply in this case. Is there no difference between a man who kills an
assassin who attempts his life on the highway, and the man who, though
knowing himself to be innocent of the crime for which he has been
condemned to die, should kill the officers of justice? The former is a
case of justifiable homicide, the other is a case of murder. The
officers of justice are not the offenders. They are not the persons
responsible for the law or the decision. That responsibility rests on
the government. Private vengeance can not reach the state. And if it
could, such vengeance is not the remedy ordained by God for such evils.
They are to be submitted to, until the government can be changed. How
did our Lord act when he was condemned by an oppressive judgment, and
with wicked hands crucified and slain? Did he kill the Roman soldiers?
Has not he left us an example that we should follow his steps: who did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed
himself unto him that judgeth righteously. On this principle did all his
holy martyrs act; and on this principle are we bound to act in
submitting to the laws o