to exist.
This declaration of Garrison's gave so powerful and eloquent
an
expression of a confession of faith of such importance to
men,
that one would have thought it must have produced a strong
impression on people, and have become known throughout the
world
and the subject of discussion on every side. But nothing of the
kind occurred. Not
only was it unknown in Europe, even the
Americans, who have such a high opinion of Garrison, hardly
knew
of the declaration.
Another champion of non-resistance has been overlooked in
the same
way--the American Adin Ballou, who lately died, after
spending
fifty years in preaching this doctrine. Lord God, to calmly and
meekly abide the doctrine.
How great the ignorance is of
everything relating to the question of non-resistance may be
seen
from the fact that Garrison the son, who has written an
excellent
biography of his father in four great volumes, in answer to
my
inquiry whether there are existing now societies for non-
resistance, and adherents of the doctrine, told me that as
far as
he knew that society had broken up, and that there were no
adherents of that doctrine, while at the very time when he
was
writing to me there was living, at Hopedale in Massachusetts,
Adin
Ballou, who had taken part in the labors of Garrison the
father,
and had devoted fifty years of his life to advocating, both
orally
and in print, the doctrine of nonresistance. Later on I received
a letter from Wilson, a pupil and colleague of Ballou's, and
entered into correspondence with Ballou himself. I wrote to
Ballou, and he answered me and sent me his works. Here is the
summary of some extracts from them:
"Jesus Christ
is my Lord and teacher," says Ballou in one of
his essays exposing
the inconsistency of Christians who allowed
a right of
self-defense and of warfare. "I
have promised
leaving all else,
to follow good and through evil, to death
itself. But I am a citizen of the democratic republic
of the
United States; and
in allegiance to it I have sworn to defend
the Constitution of
my country, if need be, with my life.
Christ requires of
me to do unto others as I would they should
do unto me. The Constitution of the United States
requires of
me to do unto two
millions of slaves [at that time there were
slaves; now one
might venture to substitute the word
'laborers'] the
very opposite of what I would they should do
unto me--that is to
help to keep them in their present
condition of
slavery. And, in spite of this, I
continue to
elect or be
elected, I propose to vote, I am even ready to be
appointed to any
office under government. That will not
hinder
me from being a
Christian. I shall still profess
Christianity,
and shall find no
difficulty in carrying out my covenant
with Christ and
with the government.
"Jesus Christ
forbids me to resist evil doers, and to take from
them an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a tooth, bloodshed for
bloodshed, and life
for life.
"My government
demands from me quite the opposite, and bases a
system of
self-defense on gallows, musket, and sword, to be
used against its
foreign and domestic foes. And the land
is
filled accordingly
with gibbets, prisons, arsenals, ships of
war, and soldiers.
"In the
maintenance and use of these expensive appliances for
murder, we can very
suitably exercise to the full the virtues
of forgiveness to
those who injure us, love toward our enemies,
blessings to those
who curse us, and doing good to those who
hate us.
"For this we
have a succession of Christian priests to pray for
us and beseech the
blessing of Heaven on the holy work of
slaughter.
"I see all
this (i.e., the contradiction between profession and
practice), and I
continue to profess religion and take part in
government, and
pride myself on being at the same time a devout
Christian and a
devoted servant of the government. I do
not
want to agree with
these senseless notions of non-resistance.
I cannot renounce
my authority and leave only immoral men in
control of the
government. The Constitution says the
government has the
right to declare war, and I assent to this
and support it, and
swear that I will support it. And I do
not
for that cease to
be a Christian. War, too, is a Christian
duty. Is it not a Christian duty to kill hundreds
of thousands
of one's
fellow-men, to outrage women, to raze and burn towns,
and to practice
every possible cruelty? It is time to
dismiss
all these false
sentimentalities. It is the truest means
of
forgiving injuries
and loving enemies. If we only do it in
the
spirit of love,
nothing can be more Christian than such
murder."
In another pamphlet, entitled "How many Men are
Necessary to
Change a Crime into a Virtue?" he says: "One man
may not kill. If
he kills a fellow-creature, he is a murderer. If two, ten, a
hundred men do so, they, too, are murderers. But a government or
a nation may kill as many men as it chooses, and that will
not be
murder, but a great and noble action. Only gather the people
together on a large scale, and a battle of ten thousand men
becomes an innocent action.
But precisely how many people must
there be to make it so?--that is the question. One man cannot
plunder and pillage, but a whole nation can. But precisely how
many are needed to make it permissible? Why is it that one man,
ten, a hundred, may not break the law of God, but a great
number
may?"
And here is a version of Ballou's catechism composed for his
flock:
CATECHISM OF
NON-RESISTANCE.
Q. Whence is the
word "non-resistance" derived?
A. From the
command, "Resist not evil." (M. v. 39.)
Q. What does this
word express?
A. It expresses a
lofty Christian virtue enjoined on us by
Christ.
Q. Ought the word
"non-resistance" to be taken in its widest
sense--that is to
say, as intending that we should not offer
any resistance of
any kind to evil?
A. No; it ought to
be taken in the exact sense of our Saviour's
teaching--that is,
not repaying evil for evil. We ought to
oppose evil by
every righteous means in our power, but not by
evil.
Q. What is there to
show that Christ enjoined non-resistance in
that sense?
A. It is shown by
the words he uttered at the same time.
He
said: "Ye have
heard, it was said of old, An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a
tooth. But I say unto you Resist not
evil.
But if one smites
thee on the right cheek, turn him the other
also; and if one
will go to law with thee to take thy coat from
thee, give him thy
cloak also."
Q. Of whom was he
speaking in the words, "Ye have heard it was
said of old"?
A. Of the
patriarchs and the prophets, contained in the Old
Testament, which
the Hebrews ordinarily call the Law and the
Prophets.
Q. What utterances
did Christ refer to in the words, "It was
said of old"?
A. The utterances
of Noah, Moses, and the other prophets, in
which they admit
the right of doing bodily harm to those who
inflict harm, so as
to punish and prevent evil deeds.
Q. Quote such
utterances.
A. "Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed."--GEN.
ix. 6.
"He that
smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to
death...And if any
mischief follow, then thou shalt give life
for life, eye for
eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for
foot, burning for
burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."
--Ex. xxi. 12 and
23-25.
"He that
killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
And if
a man cause a
blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done, so
shall it be done
unto him: breach for breach, eye for eye,
tooth for
tooth."--LEV. xxiv. 17, 19, 20.
"Then the
judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold,
if the witness be a
false witness, and hath testified falsely
against his
brother, then shall ye do unto him as he had
thought to have
done unto his brother...And thine eye shall not
pity; but life
shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot
for foot."--DEUT. xix. 18, 21.
Noah, Moses, and
the Prophets taught that he who kills, maims,
or injures his
neighbors does evil. To resist such
evil, and
to prevent it, the
evil doer must be punished with death, or
maiming, or some
physical injury. Wrong must be opposed
by
wrong, murder by
murder, injury by injury, evil by evil.
Thus
taught Noah, Moses,
and the Prophets. But Christ rejects all
this. "I say unto you," is written in the
Gospel, "resist not
evil," do not
oppose injury with injury, but rather bear
repeated injury
from the evil doer. What was permitted
is
forbidden. When we understand what kind of resistance
they
taught, we know
exactly what resistance Christ forbade.
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