Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/185

172 old man, in his latter days, stirred up the nobler nature that was in him, and amply repaid for the sins of omission. But the other Presidents, a long line of them—Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison (they are growing smaller and smaller), Tyler, Polk, Taylor (who was a brave, earnest man, and had a great deal of good in him—and now they begin to grow very rapidly slall), Fillmore, Pierce-you find a single breath of freedom in these men? Not one. The last slave President, though his cradle was rocked in New Hampshire, is Texan in his latitude. He swears allegiance to Slavery in his inaugural address.

Is there a breath of freedom in the great Federal officers—secretaries, judges? Ask the Cabinet; ask the Supreme Court; the federal officers; they are, almost without exception, servants of Slavery. Out of forty thousand government officers to-day, I think thirty-seven thousand are strongly pro-Slavery; and of the three thousand who I think are at heart anti-Slavery, we have yet to listen long before we shall hear the first anti-Slavery lisp. I have been listening ever since the 4th of March, 1853, and have not heard a word yet. In the English Cabinet there are various opinions on important matters; in America, they "are a unit," a unit of bondage. In Russia, a revolutionary man sometimes holds a high post and does great service; in America, none but the servant of Slavery is fit for the political functions of Democracy. I believe, in the United States, there is not a single editor holding a government office who says anything against the Nebraska Bill. They do not dare. Did a Whig office-holder oppose the Fugitive Slave Bill or its enforcement? I never heard of one. The day of office, like the day of bondage, "takes off half a man*s manhood," and the other half it hides! A little while ago, an anti-Slavery man in Massachusetts carried a remonstrance against the Nebraska Bill, signed by almost every voter in his town, to the post-master, and asked him, "Will you sign it?" "No, I shan't," said he. "Why not?" Before he answered, one of his neighbours said, "Well, I would not sign it if I was he." "Why not?" said the man. "Because if he did, he would be turned out of office in twenty-four hours; the next telegraph would do the business for him." "Well," said my friend, "if I held an office on that condition, I