Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/149

136 but SO long as these two antagonistic ideas remain, each seeking to organize itself and get exclusive power, there is no peace; there can be none.

The question before the nation to day is, Which shall prevail—the idea and fact of Freedom, or the idea and the fact of Slavery; Freedom, exclusive and universal, or Slavery, exclusive and universal? The question is not merely. Shall the African be bond or free? but shall America be a democracy or a despotism? For nothing is so remorseless as an idea, and no logic is so strong as the historical development of a national idea by millions of men. A measure is nothing without its principle. The idea which allows Slavery in South Carolina will establish it also in New England. The bondage of a black man in Alexandria imperils every white woman's daughter in Boston. You cannot escape the consequences of a first principle more than you can "take the leap of Niagara and stop when half-way down." The principle which recognises Slavery in the constitution of the United States would make all America a despotism; while the principle which made John Quincy Adams a free man would extirpate Slavery from Louisiana and Texas. It is plain America cannot long hold these two contradictions in the national consciousness. Equilibrium must come.

Now there are three possible ways of settling the quarrel between these two ideas; only three. The categories are exhaustive.

This is the first: The discord may rend the nation asunder and the two elements separate and become distinct nations—a despotism with the idea of Slavery, a democracy with the idea of Freedom. Then each will be an equilibrious figure. The Anglo-Saxon despotism may go to ruin on its own account, while the Anglo-Saxon democracy marches on to national welfare. That is the first hypothesis.

Or, second: The idea of Freedom may destroy Slavery, with all its accidents—attendant and consequent. Then the nation may have unity of idea, and so a unity of action, and become a harmonious whole, a unit of freedom, a great industrial democracy, re-enacting the laws of God, and pursuing its way, continually attaining greater degrees