Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/251

238 reformer owns his own mill, which is turned by the stream drawn from his private pond: he put up the dam, and may do what he will with his own—run it all night, on Sunday, and the 4th of July; may grind just as he likes, for it is his own com. He sells his meal to such as will buy. He is in no danger of being turned out of his office; for he has no master—is not hired man to any one.

The anti-Slavery non-political reformer is to excite the sentiment, and give the idea: he may tell his whole scheme all at once, if he will. But the political reformer, who, for immediate action, is to organize the sentiment and idea he finds ready for him, cannot do or propose all things at once : he must do one thing at a time, tell one thing at a time. He is to cleave Slavery off from the Government; and so must put the thin part of his wedge in first, and that where it will go the easiest. If he takes a glut as thick as an anti-Slavery platform, and puts it in anywhere, head foremost, let him strike never so hard, he will not rend off a splinter from the tough log; nay, will only waste his strength, and split the head of his own beetle!

Still, this non-political, anti-Slavery party—averse to fighting, hostile to voters under present, if not all possible, circumstances—has been of most immense value to mankind. It has been a perpetual critic on politicians; and now it has become so powerful that every political man in the North is afraid of it; and, when he makes a speech, he asks not only. What will the Whigs or the Democrats think of it? but, what will the anti-Slavery men say; what will the Liberator and the Standard say of it? And, when a candidate is to be presented for the office of president, the men who make the nomination go to the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and say, "Whom do you want?" They go to the non-resistants of Massachusetts— men that never vote or take office—and ask if it will do to nominate this, that, or the other man. A true Church is to criticize the world by a higher standard. The non-political anti-Slavery party is the Church of America to criticize the politics of America. It has been of immense service; it is now a great force.

6. Besides that, there is the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon tribe, which hates oppression, which loves justice and liberty, and will at last have freedom for all. Look at its history for