A Sermon Delivered Before the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Government of Massachuset

They therefore recommend that said Order, as reported, be adopted by the House For the Committee, CHAS. W. PALFRAY, Chairman. House of Representatives, January 21, 1864. Ordered, That five thousand copies of the Discourse delivered by the Rev. Dr. Stearns before the Executive and Legislative Departments of the State Govern¬ ment, on the 6th inst., be printed for the use of the Legislature. W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. SERMON. 2 Samuel, x. 12. BE OF GOOD COURAGE, AND LET US PLAY THE MEN FOR OUR PEOPLE, AND FOR THE CITIES OF OUR GOD: AND THE LORD DO THAT WHICH SEEMETH HIM GOOD. Thank God we have still a country. We have a country which treason, rebellion and the opinion of foreign nations notwithstanding, gives at this moment brighter promise of perpetuity and ultimate noble¬ ness, than it has given for a quarter of a century before ; a country whose prospects, compared even with a year ago, are as the broad-breaking dawn to the dark night of tempest which preceded it. The steadily waning power of the rebellion ; the remark¬ able contraction of the area which it dominates ; the great victories which electrified the country in mid¬ summer, and those which have recently crowned our arms ; the marked progress which has been secured in the military measures of emancipation, and the improved sentiment and intelligence of the people in reference to that much abused race who are the innocent occasion of this strife ; the change which has taken place in some foreign nations, from adverse dispositions and acts towards a real neutrality, if not co-operative sympathy ; the trial and growing strength of the Constitution, evincing its wisdom and power in proportion to the strains which are put upon it ; the new confidence inspired in our repub¬ lican governments by the calmness and strength with which they have put down domestic insubordi¬ nation and executed wholesome laws ; the manifesta¬ tion of suppressed patriotism in seceded States, and of the returning loyalty of thousands, perhaps millions, whom the rebellion had swept into its frightful vortex ; the healthful condition of our public finances and the wonderful prosperity of the loyal people generally, together with their ever¬ growing determination to maintain the integrity of the nation, however great may be the sacrifices, and however protracted the struggle ; — all these facts and considerations are adapted to inspire us with courage, and call out our gratitude. On this early day of January, 1864, at this first assembling again of the legislature of our honored Common¬ wealth, it is right and becoming that we express our united thanks to Almighty God for his goodness, and greet one another with a courageous “ Happy new year.” But though gratitude and courage are seemly, we have no time for glorying — hardly time for rejoicing. We must address ourselves to more serious thoughts and undertakings. When the life of a nation is at hazard ; when political earthquake has shaken the government and its foundations are still trembling ; when hundreds of thousands of peaceful citizens, summoned from their occupations, are marching everywhere in military array ; when precious blood is flowing, and aceldemas spot the land, and homes are draped in mourning, and tears are dropping, and all hearts are throbbing with anxieties ; — solemn thinking and earnest working demand our attention ; nor can I properly select any subject for consideration on an occasion like the present, not connected with the condition of the times, and the circumstances in which we are placed. It will be the business of the hour to reflect on some of the problems of social prosperity, and especially to inquire what we can do to defend, perpetuate, and enlarge the life of the nation. First of all, we must prosecute this terrible war to its righteous results. The rebellion must be put down. It must be put down, if there were no other reasons for it, because it is rebellion. Govern¬ ment is a nullity so far as it is impotent against or tolerates rebellion. Would any of the great Powers of the earth — would England, or France, or Russia, for any cause — tolerate rebellion within their dominions 1 And shall we for no cause X Never. But what we call rebellion, the insurgents call secession, and justify as a right. There is no such right. Secession has no foundation to rest upon. Its assumed basis is the idea of independent sovereignty in the States. But no State ever had such sovereignty ; no, not for a moment. From the beginning, and always, the States have been clusters of population, suspended from and nourished by some common vine. Originally they were British dependencies. The Declaration of Independence was not the declaration of separate colonies, but of a National Congress, which represented the colo¬ nies and expressed their unity. The 44 Articles of Confederation” adopted in 1781, were not the terms of an original league, so much as the principles of a union already existing. They declared, however, the unity to be perpetual , and they confirmed the declaration by irrevocable conditions, especially by the surrender and acceptance of territories, for the general good. When it came to be known, through the tests of experience, that the written compact intended to express and strengthen the pre-existing union was operating rather to limit its power and hinder its usefulness, the nation set itself to the construction of a National Constitution. It was framed and adopted by “ the people of the United States,” and was intended not to originate a union, but to make the existing union more intelligible and more perfect. When adopted, it was adopted not merely by the States as States, but more expressly by “ the people ” of the States as a people. It gave, expressed and everywhere implied, all the powers requisite for its perpetuity, and none whatever for its destruction. …