Only they are guiltless who commit the crime of contempt of such a
court. It behooves every man to see that his influence is on the
side of justice, and let the courts make their own characters. My
sympathies in this case are wholly with the accused, and wholly
against their accusers and judges. Justice is sweet and musical; but
injustice is harsh and discordant. The judge still sits grinding at
his organ, but it yields no music, and we hear only the sound of the
handle. He believes that all the music resides in the handle, and
the crowd toss him their coppers the same as before.
Do you suppose that that Massachusetts which is now doing these
things- which hesitates to crown these men, some of whose lawyers, and
even judges, perchance, may be driven to take refuge in some poor
quibble, that they may not wholly outrage their instinctive sense of
justice- do you suppose that she is anything but base and servile?
that she is the champion of liberty?
Show me a free state, and a court truly of justice, and I will fight
for them, if need be; but show me Massachusetts, and I refuse her my
allegiance, and express contempt for her courts.
The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable- of
a bad one, to make it less valuable. We can afford that railroad and
all merely material stock should lose some of its value, for that only
compels us to live more simply and economically; but suppose that
the value of life itself should be diminished! How can we make a
less demand on man and nature, how live more economically in respect
to virtue and all noble qualities, than we do? I have lived for the
last month- and I think that every man in Massachusetts capable of the
sentiment of patriotism must have had a similar experience- with the
sense of having suffered a vast and indefinite loss.
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