Page:Report of Senate Select Committee on the Invasion of Harper's Ferry.pdf/11

Rh The testimony shows generally how these contributions were made—occasionally in large sums paid directly to Brown, but more usually by collections made in the villages and towns throughout the country by itinerant lecturers. These lectures appear to have been patronized by the principal men in the States where they were delivered. Their topics were various, but all directed in some manner to what was called "the general cause of freedom;" sometimes for the creation of a fund to aid fugitive slaves in their escape; at other times with no definite character ascribed to them, except that the funds collected were to be used in promoting human freedom; and at other times, as would seem, for the personal expenses or to reimburse supposed losses of Brown. See the evidence of J. R. Giddings, pages 150, 151, and 152, of the testimony. He was a lecturer through the Northwestern States, one class of his lectures devoted, as he states, to "an exposition of the doctrines of the higher law," and which he expounds, at page 151 of the testimony, thus:

"What I mean by the higher law is, that power which for the last two centuries has been proclaimed by the philosophers and jurists and statesmen of Germany, Europe, and the United States, called, in other words, the law of nature; by which we suppose that God, in giving man his existence, gave him the right to exist; the right to breathe vital air; the right to enjoy the light of the sun; to drink the waters of the earth; to unfold his moral nature; to learn the laws that control his moral and physical being; to bring himself into harmony with those laws, and enjoy that happiness which is consequent on such obedience."

To the question, "In your lectures, was the theory of that law applied to the condition of African slavery in the United States," he answered:

"Unquestionably, to all. Wherever a human soul exists, that law applies. I mean by the term 'soul,' that immortal principle in man that exists hereafter, which is called the human soul; and wherever such soul exists there is the right to live; the right to attain knowledge; the right to sustain life, obey the laws of his Creator, and enjoy heaven or happiness.

"Question. Was that theory or doctrine of a higher law, in your lectures, applied specially to the condition of African slavery in this country?

"Answer. To all human beings, wherever they are."

And further, he states:

"I will say that the meanest slave who treads the footstool of God holds from his Creator the same right to live and attain knowledge and to liberty, that you and I possess."

And in answer to a further question, he states:

"The views given in my lectures go to this extent, that whenever, without going into any other State, we have the opportunity to sustain the right of a fellow-being, it is our duty to do it. I have never felt myself called upon to advocate nor to encourage the entering into other States to speak thus to slaves; but wherever, in my own State, where I can do it without violation of law, or enactments erroneously called