Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/269

Rh strong over the weak appears in all the collective action of men—ecclesiastical, political, social, domestic; the god, the king, the noble, the master, the husband, the father,—all are tyrants; all rule is despotism—the strong for his interest coercing the weak against theirs. In such a soil, slavery is at home, and grows rank and strong.

But in an industrial community, with a printed Bible bought by the parish and belonging thereunto; with a minister chosen by the laymen^s votes, ordained by their hands, paid by their free-will offerings, nay, educated, perhaps, by their charity, criticized by their judgment, removable at their will; with a creed voted in by the congregation—and voted out when they change their mind; with no monarch ruling by divine right, but only a governor chosen by the people at their annual meeting; with no "nobles," no "gentlemen," but an elected assembly, a general court,—sworn on a constitution made by the people,—democratically making laws; with magistrates chosen by the people, or responsible thereto; with democratic trial by jury for all men; with the idea that a man's nature is before all the accidents of his ancestry or estate—the old domestic Despotocracy must gradually become impossible. Labour will be thought honourable—idleness a disgrace. Productive activity will be deemed a glory, and riches its result, the greatest of all mere outside and personal distinctions. The tools must be for whoso can handle them. So the threefold movement, destroying the triple tyranny already mentioned, must presently achieve the emancipation of man from all personal servitude and domestic subordination: the substance of man must be inaugurated above the accidents of his history. This must be done not only in the Church, the State, the community, but also in the family. It must set the bondman free. If the Church, State, and community rest on natural law, so likewise must the family as well.

To accomplish this, two things were needful. This was the first.

1. To affirm as a principle and establish in measures the idea that all men, rich and poor, strong and weak, are equal in all their natural rights; that as the accident of birth makes no man priest, king, or noble, with a right, thence derived, to rule over men against their will in the