“Let the Monster Perish”: Henry Highland Garnet’s Memorial Discourse to Congress

Today marks the 206^th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, which also makes it the 150^th anniversary of his last birthday in 1865.  Not coincidentally, it is also the 150^th anniversary of Henry Highland Garnet’s landmark sermon/speech in the House of Representatives (extended excerpt available here), in which he exhorted Congress to "Emancipate, Enfranchise, Educate.”

To commemorate the recent passage by the House of the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31^st, the House chaplin, with support of congressional Republicans and the Administration, invited Henry Highland Garnet to be the first African-American to deliver a Sunday sermon in the House to a general audience (apparently a common use of the chamber when the House was not in session), and to do so on Lincoln’s birthday. 

Garnet was in many ways an unusual choice for this role.  He had been a leader of what is often described as the black nationalist wing of the abolition movement.  In 1843 he had famously called for slave rebellion and praised Denmark Vesey and Nathanial (Nat) Turner.  And he had been a founder of the antebellum emigrationist movement. 

The fact that he was invited to deliver this speech shows just how far things had moved by 1865.  The war had affirmed Garnet’s violent resistance position and  obviated the immediate need for emigration. Garnet had worked to establish black army units and recruit black soldiers.  He was also serving as minister at the Fifteenth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.  Accompanied by his church's choir (which was considered one of the best in the country), Garnet spoke to a standing-room audience.  By all accounts they rocked the House.  

Being a 19^th Century sermon, Garnet used extensive references and allusions to the King James Bible.  A good portion of the sermon established that those who would end slavery stand on the only moral and civilized side of history and Christianity (Garnet wove together references religious, philosophical, and literary), no doubt an effort to praise and encourage supporters of the Thirteenth Amendment on the road to ratification (“Let the gigantic monster perish”). 

But it was what Garnett said next that I want to highlight.  Opponents of the Amendment had often raised the question of what would happen upon immediate emancipation, and white republicans had generally found it best to postpone discussion of specifics.  Garnet was not so circumspect.  “It is often asked when and where will the demands of the reformers of this and coming ages end?” he asked.  This was his answer:

When all unjust and heavy burdens shall be removed from every man in the land. When all invidious and proscriptive distinctions shall be blotted out from our laws, whether they be constitutional, statute or municipal laws. When emancipation shall be followed by enfranchisement, and all men holding allegiance to the government shall enjoy every right of American citizenship. When our brave and gallant soldiers shall have justice done unto them. When the men who endure the sufferings and perils of the battlefield in the defense of their country, and in order to keep our rulers in their places, shall enjoy the well-earned privilege of voting for them. When in the army and navy, and in every legitimate and honorable occupation, promotion shall smile upon merit without the slightest regard to the complexion of a man's face. When there shall be no more class legislation and no more trouble concerning the black man and his rights than there is in regard to other American citizens. When, in every respect, he shall be equal before the law, and shall be left to make his own way in the social walks of life.

We ask, and only ask, that when our poor, frail barks are launched on life's ocean--

                    Bound on a voyage of awful length And dangers little known,

that, in common with others, we may be furnished with rudder, helm and sails and charts and compass. Give us good pilots to conduct us to the open seas; lift no false lights along the dangerous coasts, and if it shall please God to send us propitious winds or fearful gales, we shall survive or perish as our energies or neglect shall determine. We ask no special favors, but we plead for justice. While we scorn unmanly dependence; in the name of God, the universal Father, we demand the right to live and labor and enjoy the fruits of our toil. The good work which God has assigned for the ages to come will be finished when our national literature shall be so purified as to reflect a faithful and a just light upon the character and social habits of our race, and the brush and pencil and chisel and lyre of art shall refuse to lend their aid to scoff at the afflictions of the poor or to caricature or ridicule a long-suffering people. When caste and prejudice in Christian churches shall be utterly destroyed and shall be regarded as totally unworthy of Christians, and at variance with the principles of the Gospel. When the blessings of the Christian religion and of sound religious education shall be freely offered to all, then, and not till then, shall the effectual labors of God's people and God's instruments cease.

If slavery has been destroyed merely from necessity, let every class be enfranchised at the dictation of justice. Then we shall have a Constitution that shall be reverenced by all, rulers who shall be honored and revered, and a Union that shall be sincerely loved by a brave and patriotic people, and which can never be severed.

This speech was published in 1865 in book form, with a long biographical essay by fellow black abolitionist (and physician), James McCune Smith.   This is a rich passage, bringing together many strands of black abolitionism/reconstruction, and I will have thoughts on it in a future post.

Comments

[rcg]

Fascinating! When did the practice of Sunday sermons cease?