SPEECH
OF
REV. SAMUEL J. MAY.
Fellow Citizens:—
We have not come here to array ourselves against the government of our country; but to denounce a most tyrannous act of our government. Ye Lave come to speak as freemen may, and freemen should, against high-handed oppression, execrable cruelty; and if we are not allowed to do this, what advantage is there in being freemen? We have not come to set our feet upon law, but to put the stamp of reprobation upon that, which is an outrage upon law. We have not come here, to declare our independence of the State or of the Confederacy to which we belong; but to declare that neither our State nor our Confederacy is independent of God, independent of the obligation that is upon all men "to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly." We have not come to countenance our fellow-citizens of this city and county, in trampling upon the majesty of law; but to say what we think and feel of their having lifted the iron heel of a mean and cruel despotism from the neck of a poor fellow being. We have not come to insult our Chief Magistrate, and the Legislators of our land; but to admonish them that even they cannot with impunity set God at defiance, and may not compel us to insult him. God is King of kings and Governor of governors, Ruler of rulers. "God is love." "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of law."
The first and greatest of all commandments is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." On these two commandments hang, from them depend—that is, with them must be consistent all laws, which should have, or can have, any binding obligation upon the consciences of good men. Only such laws as may be deduced from these commandments have any divine authority."
