hall I not HELP him, in his struggle for
the rights which God gave him indelibly, when he made him a man? There
is nothing to prevent, but the simple requirement of my equals in the
State; the parchment of the law, which they have written." This is an
argument against the Constitution and not against the fugitive slave
law. It is an open refusal to comply with one of the stipulations of our
national compact. If it has any force, it is in favor of the dissolution
of the Union. Nay, if the argument is sound it makes the dissolution of
the Union inevitable and obligatory. It should, therefore, in all
fairness be presented in that light, and not as an argument against the
law of Congress. Let it be understood that the ground now assumed is
that the Constitution can not be complied with. Let it be seen that the
moralists of our day have discovered that the compact framed by our
fathers, which all our public men in the general and state governments
have sworn to support, under which we have lived sixty years, and whose
fruits we have so abundantly enjoyed, is an immoral compact, and must be
repudiated out of duty to God. This is the real doctrine constantly
presented in the abolition prints; and if properly understood we should
soon see to what extent it commends itself to the judgment and
conscience of the people.

[259] The doctrine that the executive officers of a government are not
the responsible judges of the justice of its decisions, is perfectly
consistent with the principle advanced above, viz: that every man has
the right to judge for himself whether any law or command is obligatory.
This latter principle relates to acts for which we are personally
responsible. If a military officer is commanded to commit treason or
murder, he is bound to refuse; because those acts are morally wrong. But
if commanded to lead an army against an enemy he is bound to obey, for
that is not morally wrong. He is the judge of his own act, but not of
the act of the government in declaring the war. So a sheriff, if he
thinks all capital punishment a violation of God's law, he can not carry
a sentence of death into effect, because the act itself is sinful in his
view. But he is not the judge of the justice of any particular sentence
he is called on to execute. He may judge of his own part of the
transaction: but he is not responsible for the act of the judge and the
jury.

THE BIBLE ARGUMENT ON SLAVERY.

BY CHARLES HODGE, D