USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Honor to the brave : a discourse delivered in the Old South Church, Reading, Mass., August 23, 1863, on the return of Company D, Fiftieth reg., Mass. vols. > Part 1
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HONOR TO THE BRAVE DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, READING, MASS., AUG. 23, 1863, ON THE RETURN OF CO. D, 50TH REG., MASS. VOLS. BARROWS
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01084 2356
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Honor to the Brave.
A
DISCOURSE
DELIVERED IN
THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, READING, MASS.,
AUGUST 23, 1863,
ON THE RETURN OF
COMPANY D. 5000 FIFTIETH REG., MASS. VOLS.
BY
THE REV. WILLIAM BARROWS.
PUBLISHED BY GENERAL REQUEST.
BOSTON:
JOHN M. WHITTEMORE & CO., 114 WASHINGTON STREET. 1863.
1^55429
BARROWS, WILLIAM, 1815-1891.
3349 Honor to the brave. A discourse delivered 4759 in the Old South church, Reading, Mass., August 23, 1863, on the return of Company D, Fiftieth reg., Mass. vols .... Boston, Whittemore, 1863. 19p.
BAILLY CARD "Table I. Killed in battle. II. Deceased. III. Wounded": p.18-19.
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BOSTON: PRINTED BY A. A. KINGMAN, 116 WASHINGTON STREET.
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قوا
THE SCRIPTURE LESSON FOR THE OCCASION.
II Samuel, XV, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX. .
AN ANCIENT SECESSION IN ITS BEGINNING AND GOING AND ENDING.
AND it came to pass that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate : and it was so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See thy matters are good and right. But there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said, moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that any man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and 1 would do him justice ! And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with, Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called ; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people in- creased continually with Absalom. And the king's servants said unto the king, Behold thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint. And all the country wept with a loud voice. And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up. And Absalom came into Jerusalem.
Then David arose and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan. And Absalom passed over JJordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. And it came to pass when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the
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Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, . for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat. For they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.
And David numbered the people that were with him, and set captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds over them. So the people went out into the field against Israel. And the battle was in the wood of Ephraim, where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David. The battle was there scattered over the face of all the country. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth, and the mule that was under him went away. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absa- lom hanged in an oak. Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him : and all Israel fled every one to his tent.
Then said Joab to Cushi, Go, tell the king what thou hast seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab, and ran. And behold, Cushi came, and Cushi said, Tidings, my lord, the king; for the Lord hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee. And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The ene- mies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is.
Then all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, the king saved us out of the hand of our enemies, and he deliv- ered us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he is fled out of the land for Absalom. And Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back? So the king returned, and came to Jordan. And all the people went over Jordan, and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel. And David cante to his house at Jeru- salem.
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DISCOURSE.
THE Bible is eminently a patriotic book. The love of coun- try, of government and of law it encourages and stimulates. The abettors of treason and rebellion it visits with rebuke and malediction. The principle of supporting the government of the land is most carefully taught in it. We are to " render unto Cæsar the things which are Caesar's." We are " to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates"; and that not only in fear but for conscience's sake. We are to support government from a sense of duty. We are not to speak evil of our rulers, but " honor the king," the head of the government. So are we to offer our prayers " for all that are in authority."
This duty of supporting government is also abundantly taught by illustrations, in the inspired record. So Caleb and Joshua only, as loyal to Moses, were permitted to enter Canaan. For speaking against him Miriam was smitten with leprosy ; and for open rebellion Korah and his company were swallowed up. Absalom in his revolt died as a fool dieth, hung up between heaven and earth, where traitors belong, and thrust through by the three darts of Joab, as the leader in a rebellion richly de- served. Mephibosheth turned rebel against his king, and unto Absalom, while his servant Ziba stood loyal with David. Hence we have that very early and very simple Confiscation act :
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" Then said the king to Ziba, Behold thine are all that pertained unto Mephibosheth." So in one act of his govern- ment the servant gained his emancipation and an estate.
There was a man of Belial, Sheba by name, who led off in secession from the kingdom of David, and made Abel of Beth- maacha, that primitive Richmond, his capital city and strong- hold. When Joab was about to carry it by assault a woman proposed to save the city and much life, by throwing the head of Sheba over the walls. Joab consented. " Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba and cast it out to Joab." And for doing this she is called " a wise woman." May every such one have as many daughters as the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law ; for it was a good way to end a rebellion. Would that some " wise woman" might save Richmond in a similar manner :- I did not add, and Charleston also.
In David's humiliation and flight from the capital, during the revolt of Absalom, whose heart has not been stirred to loyalty in reading the account of Shimci and Abishai? As David and his company fied by the way to Bahurim " Shimei went along on the hill-side over against him, [on the other side of the Rap- pahannock, ] and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him and cast dust" -- the true rebel that he was. It was more than Abishai the son of Zeruiah could endure, and so he said to David : " Why should this dead dog curse my lord, the king ? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head." A cool proposal, and in it I think I detect a kind of Northern spirit and accent. This Abishai is one of " the names of the mighty men whom David had."
Inspiration has made honorable and conspicuous record of such ; and the noble catalogue of them is made to follow imme- diately " the last words of David "; as if the dying words of the king and the names of the men who defended his throne should go down to posterity together.
The Scriptures delight to make prominent the names and actions of those who have shown a peculiar love of country and
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of government and law. Our text, with its list of military worthies attached, is a fair index to the spirit and record of the Bible in honoring the men who have nobly and through peril upheld the hands of government. The reason is obvious.
Civil government is of God ; and he honors those who honor it. God does not will the form but the substance of human government for any people. He wills that there shall be a political state of society, leaving the form to human choice and responsibility. So "the powers that be are ordained of God," and whoever resists them " resisteth the ordinance of God." The people accept the order of God and adopt a form and outline of government. When so adopted it is " the ordi- nance of God." He who attempts to change it contrary to the will of the people resists God's ordinance and comes under con- demnation. He who sustains a government thus established, and comes to its rescue, when in peril, has honor of God. In ancient days inspired pens enrolled their names among the worthies of their age, and the scribes of God wrote out their eulogies to be read wherever the Scriptures are read. So our text.
It is difficult, sometimes, to mark the line between an un- righteous rebellion and a righteous revolution. What should be justified and what condemned in these popular uprising's against government is a matter for separate judgment in each case. That a people may sometimes violently change their form of government and their rulers must be conceded. As a general thing the unsuccessful revolutionist is called a traitor, and the successful one a patriot. But a judgment so based on result alone overlooks the merits of the case.
In our present mournful struggle we are not left to the un- certainty of nice and doubtful distinctions on the question whether this stupendous rebellion be justifiable or not. Did a government ever more evenly distribute justice, more widely promote prosperity and more thoroughly dispense happiness among its subjects? The prosperity of this nation in all that pertains to true national growth for the last eighty-seven years
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is . without a parallel in the annals of history. Our present government has developed, nurtured and carried forward this growth. The States confederate in this rebellion have gained under this very government the resources so vast to start and carry forward for so long a time and with so much vigor so stu- pendous a revolt. A government worthy to be overthrown could not have made them so powerful for an assault on it. Their very strength is a proof of the fitness of the government to develop a nation. That it has been fairly administered they themselves admit. Said the Vice President of the Confederacy, in a speech before the Legislature of Georgia, in 1861, when the question of secession was pending before them : "What right has the North assailed? What justice has been denied, and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one single act of wrong, delib- erately and purposely done by the government at Washington, of which the South has a right to complain? I challenge the answer." This is strong, ample testimony. They had no cause for revolt, for complaint even, in any wrong inflicted on them by the government. Not only so. Even if they had had cause for complaint, they had no cause for revolt. Under our government the ballot box is a means of redress sufficiently ample and speedy. If the majority were against them that was reason enough for being quiet. This government was estab- lished by the people and for the people of these United States, and a majority must determine its officers and policy of admin- istration under the Constitution ; and the minority must yield. The Constitution holds us all to this. They were, then, without cause for revolt and disunion, and a solemn obligation rested on all citizens to prevent their success. We had no right to allow the breaking up of such a government, the dismemberment of such a nation, and the sacrifice of such a heritage. The prin- ciple on which they stood had, as its vital centre, the element of anarchy, and put every State, and all within each that we love and honor in peril. English progress toward a free gov- ernment from the days of Magna Charta, and all the gain of
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two centuries of experiment and success in this country were to be thrown aside. A return to feudal times and lordly barons was the proposition. From the furnace of affliction our fathers had obtained the first castings of a government by the people. This revolt would in practice break the model, and in principle destroy the mould. We had no right to allow it. The na- tions of the old world, groaning under oppression, some mute and others pleading, looked toward us for relief, and we had no right to disappoint them. It would have been a crime against the world's interests, to which we are a partner ; it would have been our unpardonable sin, to let the sun thus go back a painful distance on the dial of human progress. Their success would leave us broken and despised, another batch of Mexican or South American States. Our territory would be left as a huge ledge rising up between the Atlantic and the Pacific, our goodly ship of state wrecked and broken upon it, the tides of both oceans making through her and the wreckers of all nations phin- dering and dismantling her. The hands of the fathers, toil- worn and bleeding, left us this heritage to be enlarged, beauti- fied and passed on to children's children. Sacrificing it to the mad project of secession, we might almost look for the pre- mature resurrection of those fathers to protest against Southern perfidy and Northern imbecility. But I need not waste words or moments on common-place and threadbare principles and necessities.
When the government was assaulted and the nation's life endangered by armed assault, we could do but one thing, draw the sword. We had come to one of those crises, one of those terrible exigencies, when our religion not only allowed but de- manded that we should fight. Our religion is a religion of government, of law, of loyalty, and so if need be of war. When his government is set at nought and his rights are in- vaded, even God is "a man of war." In this imminent peril of the heritage of the fathers, our deepest and the world's wide interest, what had this great people to do but leave the plough, the bench, the anvil, the spindle and counting-room, the quarter-
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deck and forecastle, the bar, the academy, and even the dying patient and the sacred desk, and arm for a common defense ? " There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought." And so may we, for the best government and habitation and heritage of the saints this side heaven. The sword never was drawn in a holier cause, for a nobler right, or against a more iniquitous wrong, than when we commenced to repel the assault by arms on our government. May that sword be a stranger to its scabbard while a rebel carries a gun or wears an cpaulet to threaten the nation.
When the war was actually opened by personal and bloody encounter between the government and its organized and armed enemies, there was some division of feeling and of action in the North. Some expended their love of country in looking up and locating and reprobating the causes of the rebellion. while the most gave heart and hand to its suppression regardless of the causes. A part of that apologetic inquiry into the causes was with a loyal feeling ; not a little of it for political and hobby purposes ; and much of it had a sympathy with the rebels. But while the fact was generally conceded, even by the rebels them- selves, that there was no cause of complaint sufficient to war- rant their movement, the simple fact that they were in armed rebellion should have turned every true heart and hand against them. That there is highway robbery, a mob, a rebellion, is enough to draw every man firmly to the support of the govern- ment. It does not concern the loyal citizen to know why the highwayman wanted money, what fancied or real wrong stirred the mob, or what cause moved the rebellion. In either case, and each alike, the aet is wrong and must be reprobated and suppressed. "If Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies ; let them implead one another." They must not raise a mob in Ephesus.
While the war has been in progress there has been some division of opinion, and want of harmony and alacrity of action, because of scruples on the constitutionality of some laws and
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measures for its prosecution. Because of these scruples there has been some passive neglect and some active opposition to government measures. All this active opposition is resisting " the ordinance of God," and is wrong. There are four de- partments to our government, each clearly marked off from the others. There is the Legislative to enact laws, the Judiciary to pass on their constitutionality and interpret them, the Executive to enforce them, and the department of the peo- ple at the polls, to appoint the men to these three departments. When the people have voted they cannot go a step farther and legislate, or two steps farther and settle constitutional questions, or three steps farther and execute law. Their power ends with their ballot, and they have afterward only to obey. Criticism, discussion, remonstrance, and appeal to the judges of law through court process, are in order, but never forcible resistance to law. And what the Legislature or the Congress enacts is law, till the judiciary declares it otherwise. Our scruples, then, must give place to obedience. They may never justly stay the law. A law may be greatly offensive to us for any or several reasons, yet, while a law, we must obey it, and furnish as much cordial cooperation in its execution as lies in us. The most that a refusing conscience may do is passively to neglect the law and frankly meet the penalty of neglect.
Ilence all this public and forcible combination, and this secret plotting against government measures for the prosecution of the war and the suppression of the rebellion, is wrong. It lacks the spirit of the good citizen. It lacks loyalty. These meas- ures must be assumed to be lawful till the proper tribunal de- clares them to be otherwise. And these remarks are as perti- nent to other days and unpopular laws as to the present. I am speaking of a popular blade that has cut different hands at dif- ferent times. No one has a right to draw it. The principle of forcible resistance to a law from conscientious or constitutional scruples has in it inherent iniquity. That principle is the nut- shell of anarchy. So far as it prevails government is impossi- Ve. And I will add in this connection the remark, though it is
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not a very theological or religious one, that the Executive even as the voting department, is shut up to obedience to law. The Executive may no more legislate than the people ; and though exalted, he is not above law as his rule of official life. No exi- gency or crisis can lift him above or put him beyond the guid- ance of law. With this we are fully provided ; and a nation in its head or body never needs a constitution so much, and never needs so sacredly to adhere to it, as in great exigencies and crises. The mariner never needs the lighthouse so much as in the starless and stormy night.
There has been, and yet is, some hostility, active opposition and even disobedience to the constitutional measures of the government in suppressing the rebellion, because persons know, as they think, those measures to be ill-judged, foolish and pos- itively hostile to the national good. But such opposition is all wrong. My obedience to civil and military authority is not conditioned on my belief that the command or measure is a wise one. An officer in a lawful way calls for my service, time or tax. I must obey, not because I think the demand wise, but lawful. I may think it exceedingly unwise, but that must not lessen my obedience. It is a demand of government, and as such I must yield to it. The wisdom or the folly of governmental measures is not a question with the good citizen that is to affect his obedience. He will prove his loyalty by obeying a foolish order as quickly as a wise one. For it is the call of govern- ment, " the ordinance of God," and it is a call not for his wis- dom or advice, but his service. At the same time the citizen retains the liberty of opinion and of expression on the measures of his government. And adverse criticism with obedience is not rebellion. One can like the government and at the same time dislike the administration of it ; and he may show his liking by his obedience, and his disliking by his criticism. There has been not a little shuffling and declaratory logie to show that the government and the administration of it are one and the same thing, and that one cannot oppose by criticism any measures or policies, without opposing the government itself, and so being
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rebellious. And very hard names have been given accordingly. If this reasoning be true we have all had metallic heads in turn, for we have all been dissatisfied and criticised ; and it is a ques- tion for time and the practical working of policies to show who has been in the right. But really a government and the adminis- tration of it are not one and the same thing, but two things, and a person may sustain the former and find fault with the latter. A watch and the running of it are two things ; and a wish to vary the running by a slight change in the regulator is surely no hostility to the watch.
But the good citizen will sustain by obedience the govern- ment, even in what he esteems its follies. If the duty be put on him he will execute what he knows to be its mistakes. In the matter of criticising the measures of government, one should use great caution and discretion, specially when the government is in a struggle with a powerful enemy. And the critic should not awaken or leave a suspicion in any candid mind that he will not render his full service in sustaining the very measures he objects to so long as they are the measures of the government.
So much have I deemed it proper to say in this place on the duty that men owe to government, as the ordinance of God, even when they doubt the validity of a law, the righteousness of a law, or the wisdom of the measures adopted to admin- ister it.
I am aware of the danger I incur by these remarks, of being accused of trenching on political grounds in a sacred place ; but I willingly run the personal risk for the common advantage of setting forth the divine precept of Christian duty to the govern- ment, viz., To sustain the law and the constituted authorities always and everywhere, whether we like or dislike the law, the officer administering it, or the policy of administration.
" These be the names of the mighty men whom David had." They had no constitutional questions that kept them from enlist- ing. They had no such feelings against the present administra- tion in Israel as led them to discourage recruiting in any of the cities of Judah. They allowed no disturbance when a draft
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was ordered in Jerusalem. . The men who did that were the fol- lowers of Absalom. When called on to go out against Ama- lek, Moab, or the Philistines, no home interests held them back. No blood circulated in their veins for private purposes when the public good asked for it. When ordered of the king to smite the enemies of the government, they had no conscientious scru- ples that blunted their spearheads or took the edge off from their swords. And when Joab led one of the three army corps against the rebels under Absalom, he did not slack his hand be- cause Amasa, his first cousin, commanded the secessionists. " These be the names of the mighty men whom David had," and inspiration delights to honor them with an imperishable record.
So shall their names stand in the annals of our history who have saved the Republic. The roster and roll shall be handed down from father to son, proclaiming the men who breasted the storm and put down the Great Rebellion. And now as they return to us, thinned in their ranks, war-worn and wasted, smitten with disease, wounded and mutilated by the enemy and honored by victories, it is meet that we welcome them with bell and banner, open doors and cordial hands. Rescued from the rotten hulks of rascally contractors, escaped from the seventy days' quarantine, slowly drawn out like Israel's seventy years at Babylon when they hung their harps on the willows, protected through a sixty days' exposure to shot and shell in the trenches before Port Hudson, bringing with them the trophies of that stronghold, and their share in the honors of a very suc- cessful year in the war, we welcome them back to their homes and ours and to the house of God where our fathers worshipped. They come back to ns from the camp and the hospital, the picket and the march, the trenches, the skirmish. the open field of struggle, and the very works of the enemy, frowning, and bristling and smoking with deadly defiance. The fatigue, expo- sure, hard-hip, and imminent peril, the discomforts and self- denials, the poor fare, seant fare and no fare at all, the weary, wasting days of utter exhaustion or acute sickness, and the long
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