" * * * *
"The Slave Act violates the Constitution, and shocks the public
conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, it
offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment can be entitled to
support. As the throne of God is above every earthly throne, so are
his laws and statutes above all the laws and statutes of man. To
question these, is to question God himself. But to assume that human
laws are above question, is to claim for their fallible authors
infallibility. To assume that they are always in conformity with
those of God, is presumptuously and impiously to exalt man to an
equality with God. Clearly, human laws are _not_ always in such
conformity; nor can they ever be beyond question from each
individual. Where the conflict is open, as if Congress should demand
the perpetration of murder, the office of conscience, as final
arbiter, is undisputed. But in every conflict, the same queenly
office is hers. By no earthly power can she be dethroned. Each
person, after anxious examination, without haste, without passion,
solemnly for himself must decide this great controversy.
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