10 been tried and condemned. It has produced imbecility, anarchy and woe. Its principle of individual liberty is, however, embalmed in the fact of a free, consolidated Republic. The theory of a promiscuous conglomeration of men, miscalled society, is false in history, faithless in its principles, weak and self- destructive in its execution, and is among the phantasies of the past hour. Where it is galvanized into ghastly imitations of life, it is too horrid in its grimaces of freedom to engage the affections of any lover of Liberty and Law. Demagogues and religionists attempt now and then the revolting experiment. I was wrong when I said these counterfeits of liberty are past. For, since that sentence was penned, the newspapers have reported the words of a noted Abolitionist and boastful Independent—a man of acknowledged talent, of wide influence for his private virtues, and of some authority among a class of our fellow-citizens— a Representative man, therefore, or I would not think it seeming, in this house, on this occasion, to quote his words—who, as the orator at the late Puritan festival in Philadelphia, on “ Forefathers’ Day,” so called, pronounced with applause these words: “ Men need governments of restraint only as they are not developed and not free. As the individual becomes educated and strong in his whole nature, moral and intellectual, he needs no government, for God made the human soul sufficient for all its own exigencies. It is a perfect state. It is competent to entire sovereignty.” * *11. W. Beecher’s Oration in Philadelphia, Dec. 22, 1860. These statements arc put forth as the latest results of the cardinal doctrines of Puritan theology, and Puritan ethics, and Puritan politics. According to them, in Heaven, where man is perfect, there is no government. But to the Christian's faith in Holy« Scripture, such sentiments are shocking for their blasphemy. To a sinful man’s humility, they arc offensive for their arrogance. To a patriot’s loyalty, they are deserving of denunciation, as contravening all law, and as expressing the demoniac spirit of anarchy. Each man may “dothat which is right in his own eyes.” It is a singular example of the coalescence of extremes in
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