Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Politics volume 4 .djvu/292

280 gaol, watched him with ruffians, the offscouring of the town, and guarded him with foreign soldiers, hired to rend and kill whomsoever our masters set them on. Without hearing the evidence, this swift judge had already decided to destroy his victim, and told the counsel. Put no "obstacles in the way of his going back, as he probably will." The whole Commonwealth was in confusion. Boston was in a state of siege. A hundred and eighty foreign soldiers filled up the Court House. There had been an extemporaneous meeting at Faneuil Hall, an attempt to rescue the kidnapper's victim, an attack on the Court House, then unlawfully made a barracoon for our Southern masters to keep their slaves in. One of the volunteers in man-stealing had been slain, and ten or twelve citizens were in gaol on charge of murder. So, when I stood here, and looked into the eyes of the great crowd which filled up these aisles, I saw it was no time to treat of the Russian war against liberty; and my discourse of that wickedness turned into a "Lesson for the Hay," touching the new Crime against Humanity. Since then, no occasion has offered for treating of that dreadful conflict of the European nations. Now, when the Russian war is all over, the treaty of peace definitely settled, I thought it would be worth while to examine that matter: for the cloud of battle has lifted up, and we can look back, and learn the causes of the conflict; look round, and see the dead bodies, the remnants of cities burned, of navies sunk; can look forward, and calculate what loss or gain thence accrues to mankind; and so get possibly a little guidance, and a great deal of warning, for our own conduct. So, to-day, I had intended to preach a calm and philosophical Sermon of the Late War in Europe; examining at length its Cause, Process, and Results, for the present and the future, and its Relation to the Progress and Welfare of Mankind. I meant to look at that transaction in the light of modern philosophy, and of that religion which is alike human and Christian. But now, as before, a new Crime against Humanity has been committed. I must therefore lay by my speculations on that distant evil, and speak of what touches the sin at our own doors. So, this morning, I shall ask your attention to ,