public confidence, if the country is distracted, and its blighted, by the violence of faction and party.

prospects

The position in society, occupied by legislators and magistrates invested with the higher functions of government, gives them facilities, possessed by no other class of their countrymen, for advancing the great interests of knowledge, good morals, education, religion, and general humanity in their country, and even in foreign countries. These facilities, capacities, and opportunities of usefulness, furnished by the official situations with which the confidence of their country has clothed them, are a great moral trust, for the rightful and beneficial administration of which they are responsible. It is to no purpose to say, that these duties are indefinite in their nature, and prescribed by no statute or other written law. This is true, but the law of the land attempts to prescribe only a very small part of our moral duties; and we cannot omit to use beneficially any of the facilities we may enjoy, of doing good, without incurring the guilt of opportunities neglected and capacities of usefulness unemployed. There are sins of omission as well as of commission, perhaps they are not much less numerous or less aggravated; and the principle is unquestionably recognised and sanctioned by Christianity, that every man is responsible for the beneficial use of whatever facili ties, capacities, and opportunities of usefulness he may enjoy.*

The talents, which we are forbidden to let remain unprofitable in our hands, are our time, our wealth, our knowledge, our health, our influence, either personal or official, and whatever other powers, faculties, or opportunities were originally given us by the Almighty, or whatever he has permitted and enabled us to acquire, which can be turned to his glory, our own benefit, or the welfare of mankind. It is impossible for me to give even a general view of the facilities for doing good, furnished by the various and multiplied official situations which exist in this country, much less to enter into their details. They can scarcely fail to occur to any one, who is willing to avail himself of his official situation to make himself as useful as possible; and, if brought to the notice of men of an opposite spirit, it could do

* Matt. xxv. 14-30; Luke xix. 12-17; Rom. xiv. 7, 8.

no good. It is chiefly the spirit by which a man is influenced, that makes him useful or otherwise. Our legislators, besides procuring the repeal of laws having an evil tendency, are furnished with all the extensive means of official usefulness within the reach of legislative enactment and supervision. Knowledge, education, good morals, and religion depend very considerably for their advancement on legislative action.

It is made the constitutional duty of the President of the United States, and of the governors of the several States, to give information to the national and state legislatures of the condition and prospects of the country within their respective jurisdictions, to recommend measures for the suppression of evils, the reformation of abuses, and the amelioration of the existing state of things generally. These documents are communicated. annually, sometimes oftener; legislation usually takes its tone from what they contain; and the number and character of the subjects introduced into them depend entirely on executive discretion. What enviable facilities for doing good, do not these documents furnish to the patriot statesman? These instruments have not often contained any thing injurious to the great moral interests of the community; and, if we have sometimes had just occasion to complain of their having too little bearing on these all-important interests, still it is but justice to admit, that their distinguished authors have availed themselves in a very commendable degree of their high official situations, to advance education, science, morals, and Christianity.

Several of our state executives have taken a most praiseworthy stand in favor of literary, moral, and religious education, of associations for the advancement of science, and against gaming, lotteries, intemperance in drinking, and other nuisances of the moral kind. The navy of the United States, under instructions from the President, has sometimes, on its excursions to distant quarters of the world, been employed to obtain valuable information, to be turned to useful purposes at home. The officers of the army, too, scattered as they are through the Union and its territories, have sometimes been instructed to make themselves useful to their countrymen in the same way. Our foreign ministers and consuls, moreover, have occasionally employed

While we

their leisure and peculiar facilities to the same end. may express gratification, that so much has been accomplished, it is still to be regretted, that the rare and very peculiar opportunities of this kind, which have been perpetually occuring during the last half-century, have not been yet more productive of good. Objects of this kind are worthy of the careful attention and patriotic regard of all, who occupy stations of high official trust and responsibility.

But a moral duty of still higher importance, and specially appertaining to those who are invested with high public functions, consists in their private influence, and the personal example which they set from day to day, in their intercourse with the private citizens. The dignity of the office, by an easy transition, passes over to him who fills it; and there is a natural propensity in the human mind to adopt the sentiments and imitate the conduct of those who are invested with authority. The example of the rulers of a country, like the impulse of a stone on the yielding surface of a lake, diffuses their influence around in concentric and gradually enlarging circles, to an extent which the eye can neither trace nor limit. The power which they possess of checking or accelerating the progress of extravagance, luxury, and vice, and of encouraging or discountenancing useful plans and institutions for the advancement of morals, the improvement of the people, and the increase of industry, by their personal aid, and still more by the general credit and esteem which their encouragement will afford, is not confined to those who are eyewitnesses of their daily life and conversation. Their example diffuses its effects not merely among those who are admitted to their tables and their society, but is propagated from one knot of imitators to another, until it spreads its influence through the country far and wide, and reaches and affects its most obscure corners. It is true, that the law is supreme in our system, and that it is so, is the chief glory of our institutions; still, notwithstanding this, enough of influence will always remain to those who are charged with the administration of the law, to render their sentiments, and more especially their example, highly injurious or beneficial to the community. The evil example of a very few men in high situations, may deluge an entire country

with infidelity and licentiousness. How often has it occurred in the history of the world, that the licentious principles and open immoralities of a profligate court have infected an entire nation with the virulence of their poison? The profligate Charles the Second, of Great Britain, infected every rank and order of society in the kingdom, with the moral poison which his sentiments and example infused.

There is at least one vice, which official persons, if they could be brought to combine their influence, might bring into such disrepute, as to expel it from society. I refer to duelling, which depends entirely for its reputation on the countenance given it by the distinguished and the influential. The good example of the same class of men in respect to gaming, intemperance in drinking, luxury, and extravagance of every kind, if less completely successful, still could not fail to be highly effective and salutary. The opposite example descends from them to men in more humble circumstances of life, until, like a flood, it desolates every village and neighbourhood with the overwhelming mischief and ruin which march in its train. In the most elective government, not all offices are elective, many are filled by appointment; and it is among the most solemn of the responsibilities of those who hold the appointing power, to select, for official trust, those among the citizens, who are most distinguished for industry, for understanding, for public spirit and for integrity, as well as to fill each department of the public service with men whose talents are best suited to its peculiar business, and to unite in each public officer, in the greatest practicable measure, purity of private morals with the lustre of official talents.*

* See Gisborne's Inquiry, Vol. I. p. 58, &c.

CHAPTER II.

DUTIES OF THE CITIZENS TOWARDS THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE.

NEXT to the moral duties of civil governors and magistrates arising from their official situation, come those which are due from the citizens towards those who are invested with any degree of official trust. That the New Testament ranks this among the most important of Christian duties, may be fairly inferred from the strong language which it is accustomed to employ. We are not only "to to fear God, but to honor the king";* which term is here used to represent civil government and magistracy of every kind. Again, St. Peter says, † "Submit yourselves, for the Lord's sake, to every ordinance of man;" that is, to every person whom men have invested with any degree of lawful authority over you, "whether it be to the king, as supreme, or unto governors," that is, all subordinate magistrates, "as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well."

They who are thus ordained by men to perform the functions of governors, are to be obeyed for conscience' sake; and are, therefore, said by St. Paul "to be ordained of God." "There is no power but of God," continues he; every form of lawful government and magistracy is sanctioned by the Almighty. "The powers that be are ordained of God," - even the idolatrous and persecuting Roman government had authority from God to exact obedience from those to whom St. Paul wrote; whence he infers, that "whosoever resisteth the power,' whoever refuses just obedience to his lawful rulers, "resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation." After some further pertinent instructions, he concludes with this comprehensive admonition, "Render therefore to all," i. e. to each magistrate in his proper depart

* 1 Peter ii. 17.

1 Peter ii. 13.