alable law. If we are to be told that this is a part of the organic
law, sunk down deep into national compact, and never to be
repealed,--then neither you nor I can answer for the consequences. But
now we can say that it is nothing but an act, that may be repealed
tomorrow. Take from us that great argument, and what can the defendant
and myself do? What can the defendant say to discourage colored men from
the use of force? You take from him his great means of influence. I
never have been one of those, and I think the defendant has never been
one of those, who would throw out all their strength in denunciations
against Southern men born to their institution of slavery, and pass over
those Northern men who volunteer to bring this state of things upon us.

But as a citizen, within constitutional limits, addressing his
fellow-citizens at Faneuil Hall, (where I think we have still a right to
go,) discouraging his fellow-citizens from violence, writing in the
newspapers and arguing in the courts of law to the same purpose, saying
to the poor trembling negro, I will give you a habeas corpus! I will
give you a writ of personal replevin! I will aid in your defence! There
is no need of violence! That is the position of the defendant. If he
held any other position, if the defendant had made up his mind that here
was a case for revolution, that here was a case for civil war and
bloodshed--if I know anything of the spirit of the defendant, he would
have exhibited himself in a far different manner. He would have resigned
his position as a counsellor of this court, with all its profits and
honors; he would put himself at the head instead of urging on from
behind a class of ignorant, excited men, against the execution of the
laws.

For he knows perfectly well--an educated man as he is, who has studied
his logic and metaphysics, and who is not unfamiliar with the principles
of the social system--that an intentional, forcible resistance to law
is, in its nature, revolution. And I take it, no citizen has the right
forcibly to violate the law, unless he is prepared for revolution. I
know that these nice metaphysic rays, as Burke says, piercing into the
dense medium of common life, are refracted and distorted from their
course. But an educated man, with a disciplined mind, knows that he has
no right to encourage others to forcible resistance, unless he is ready
to take the risks of bringing upon the community all the consequences of
civil