The Relation of the Individual to the Republic

HIS EXCELLENCY MARCUS MORTON, GOVERNOR, HIS HONOR HENRY H. CHILDS, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AlfD THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION, ON WEDNESPAY, JANVAEY 3, 1844. BY E. H. CHAPIN, Pastor of the Unlversalist Church In Charlestown. DUTTOH AND W£NTWORTH, FRINTERS TO THE STATE. 1844. ^«^^- ^l J HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Jan. 4, 1844. Ordered, That Messrs. Frothingham, of Charleatmcn^ GiBBENs, of Boston^ and Lathrop, of Hawley^ be a Committee to present the thanks of the House to the Rev. Edwin H. Chapin, for the Discourse delivered by him, yesterday, before the Government of the Commonwealth, and to request a copy thereof for publication : and Ordered, That the same Committee cause the usual number of copies of such Discourse to be printed. CHARLES W. STOREY, Jr., Clerk, SERMON. I Corinthians, xii. 26. AND WHETHER ONE MEMBER SUFFER, ALL THE MEMBERS SUFFER WITH it; or one MEMBER BE HONORED, ALL THE MEMBERS REJOICE WITH IT. 1 TRUST that our assembling here to-day is not a mere form ; but that devoutly recognizing the reason for which our fathers instituted this service, we che* rish not only their custom but their sentiment. Next to the abolition of all religious ordinances, there is nothing so ominous as a hollow and weary observ- ance of them. Nay, this is even worse than violent irreligion, for that is too unnatural to last long, and its terrible earnestness will produce reaction. Rather no observance than a heartless one! If we feel that there is no efficacy in it, then for us it has no propriety. But I will believe that you sympathize with this occasion. Under a deep sense of that individual responsibility which cUngs to us in every department T of action, you have come up to this sacred place, worn by the footsteps of many generations, and hal- lowed by the prayers of those who have long since mouldered into dust, to invoke the wisdom that alone can guide through the perilous mazes of public life, and, in these calmer moments, to ponder some truth that may control the zeal of political excitement.

I alluded, just now, to the sense of individual responsibility that presses upon us in all our conduct. The importance of the individual in the republic^ and the mutual obligations which rest upon him and upon the State^ form the essential ideas of the discourse to which I now invite your attention. The words of the text were applied by the apostle Paul to the christian church ; but they are applicable to every Commonwealth, and should be written in letters of light upon all its institutions. They suggest the one- ness and the common weal of the body politic, and yet maintain, for each of its members, a distinct and prominent individualism. They give a peculiar sig- nificance to the grand truth, that the aggregate which forms the State is made up of units, each containing a moral force, each comprising the law of duty, the light of reason, and the power of will. They declare the relation of all to each, of each to all. There is a tendency in our day to move in masses, to rely upon numerical strength, to triumph by asso- ciated action. But there is danger, lest in the con- sideration of concrete results we forget those single sources from which they issue. There is danger, lest we neglect to ask what is the ultimate object of this combination,— -does it render back to each individual that additional good which is to be expected from it? And these are considerations for the republic. It is not a separate interest. It has no distinct life of itself. Its pulses throb in the streets, the marts, the homes of the land, — wherever there is moral per- sonality, — wherever there is human responsibility, — wherever there is a man. When private virtue is hazarded upon the perilous cast of expediency, — when the transactions between you and me are vile, when the foundations of principle have rotted away in the individual heart, then the pillars of the repub- lic, however apparent their stability, are infected with decay at the very centre. But if each spirit is informed by truth and loyal to conscience, then the Commonwealth has unfailing resources, from which, through all external defeats, through all internal re- verses, it imbibes perpetuity and power.

But the indissoluble connection between the re- public and the individual, presents itself in a two- fold aspect. Not only is every man solemnly obli- gated to the State, but the converse of this is also true. From the physical welfare of its citizens the State derives its economical prosperity, and, therefore, as a dictate of the most obvious selfishness, it is bound to difiuse a healthful vigor through those spheres of personal enterprise that revolve within its ample circle, each maintaining a private interest, yet con- flicting with none, and connected to the great com- monwealth by vital ligaments which run through all. But as the physical prosperity of a State is not its highest condition, so the whole welfare of its mem- bers is not comprehended in this ; and their whole welfare, so far as is practicable, it is bound to secure. And, passing by other interests, permit me to dwell upon the obligation that rests upon the State to assist the moral development of its citizens. Nobly was it said here, upon an occasion like the present, that " the individual is not made for the State, but the State for the individual ; '' and it performs an ineffi- cient service, indeed, if it fails to secure his moral good. Although it is but the aggregate of individual minds, it does and it must react upon those minds for good or for evil. Something else is derived from it besides protection, or those advantages that nour- ish our physical interests. …