American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760–1805: Two Volume Paperback Set

22. Nathaniel Niles, Two Discourses on Liberty

PolWritV1_251-300.indd 257 2/21/12 9:51 AM [22} NATHANIEL NILES I74I-I82I Two Discourses on Liberty NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS, 1774 Niles was something of a universal man in the pattern of Benjamin Franklin but without matching Franklin's productivity or acquiring his fame. Achieving little success with several inventions in his father-in-law's Connecticut factory, he headed a party that settled new land along the Connecticut River, halfway to the north end of Vermont. From that base he preached and practiced a little medicine (though licensed to do neither), served eight terms in the Vermont legislature (augmenting three terms down at Hartford before he left Connecticut), occupied a succession of other offices, including three years as a Vermont Supreme Court judge, and made money from his farm. Niles delivered this sermon at the North Church in Newburyport on June 5, r774, only a few weeks after the British closed the port of Boston. The people of Massachusetts were not sure how much support they would receive from elsewhere in the colonies, but they knew the reprisal for radical activity would cause hardship for the people of Boston-the center of revolutionary activity. In this setting Niles begins with a careful, insightful, and dispassionate analysis of liberty. He calls upon the traditional American values of frugality and simplicity to see them through hardship. Then, in the last seven pages, Niles builds a rhetorical masterpiece that has to be one of the best examples available for conveying a sense of that time in our history. Even today it is difficult not to feel the power of the words. For both analysis and rhetorical power this sermon is at least equal to Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Only the first of the two discourses is reproduced here. [ 257 J PolWritV1_251-300.indd 258 2/21/12 9:51 AM [ 258} NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS, I774 ADVERTISEMENT. As what was said in public on the following subjects, was delivered, almost entirely extempore, the author finds it impossible to give an exact copy. Those things however, on account of which, he apprehends, a copy was desired, have been carefully preserved. The particular expressions could not be recollected, but the ideas are not lost. Several new thoughts on the subject are interspersed. The author's general design is to awaken in his countrymen, proper sentiments and emotions, respecting both civil and spiritual liberty. The former. without the latter, is but a body without a soui.-As the copy is so suddenly called for, the first, rough draught, goes to the press; and the author doubts not, but many imperfections wi/1 be observed in the stile and manner; which however he trusts are less evils, than a delay at a time when every means, however imperfect, is needful, that may inspire a genuine spirit oftrue liberty. He feels that he wants those advantages which many others enjoy, for becoming entirely acquainted with the various branches of civil liberty.-The main ideas alone are attended to. The inquisitive mind will be able to draw a number of important consequences. [5] SERMON I. I. CORRINTH. Chap. VII. ver. 2 I. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. At first glance, it is certain, this text refers to a state of personal servitude, and extends to every instance of the same kind. It is also as clear that the Apostle exhorts the servant to prefer liberty. This proves that the inspired writer himself, prefered liberty to a state of servitude; for he would not exhort another to prefer what was not preferable in his own esteem. Now, if Paul esteemed personal liberty a valuable inheritance, he certainly esteemed the liberty of a community a far richer inheritance; for if one man's enjoyment of it was a good, the enjoyment of two must be a greater good, and so on through the whole community. From the same manner of reasoning, the slavery of a community [6] appears to be a proportionably greater evil than the slavery of an individual. Hence, we may observe from the text, that CiVIL LIBERTY IS A GREAT GOOD. PolWritV1_251-300.indd 259 2/21/12 9:51 AM [ 259} NATHANIEL NILES 1741-1821 This is the proposition to which I ask your present hour's attention, and if it should appear in the sequel to contain an...