📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 58
1I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their
2support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority
3of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side,
4without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
5already. I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to face, once
6a year, no more, in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily
7meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present posture
8of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and
9love for it, is to deny it then. My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with,--for it is,
10after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel,--and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the
11government. How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is
12obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed
13man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness
14without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action? I know this well, that if one
15thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--aye, if one HONEST man, in this State
16of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the
17county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may
18seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission.
19Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State's ambassador,
20who will devote his days to the settlement of the question of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being
21threatened with the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious
22to foist the sin of slavery upon her sister,--though at present she can discover only an act of inhospitality to be the
23ground of a quarrel with her,--the Legislature would not wholly waive the subject of the following winter. Under a
24government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place today, the
25only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out
26and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there
27that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race, should
28find them; on that separate, but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her but
29against her,--the only house in a slave-state in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their
30influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an
31enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and
32effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of
33paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a
34minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in
35prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their
36tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to
37commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is
38possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer
39is, "If you really wish to do any thing, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer
40has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of
41blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he
42bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now. I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender,
43rather than the seizure of his goods,--though both will serve the same purpose,--because they who assert the purest
44right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating
45property. To such the State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont to appear exorbitant,
46particularly if they are obliged to earn it by special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly
47without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man--not to make any
48invidious comparison--is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the
49less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; it was certainly no great virtue
50to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question
51which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The
52opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. The best thing a man
53can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor.
54Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. "Show me the tribute-money," said he;--and one took a penny
55out of his pocket;--if you use money which has the image of Cæsar on it, and which he has made current and valuable,
56that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Cæsar's government, then pay him back some of
57his own when he demands it; "Render therefore to Cæsar that which is Cæsar's and to God those things which are
58God's,"--leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.
🎉 全部完成！共 58 行