Excerpt from “The Nature and Importance of True Republicanism”

For Lemuel Haynes, true republicanism does not mean unchecked majority rule; it means a government of laws, moral restraint, and constitutional balance designed to secure equal rights.

Haynes, Lemuel - Excerpt from "The Nature and Importance of True Republicanism"
Lemuel Haynes

Lemuel Haynes spent his early life as an indentured servant, served in the Continental Army shortly after gaining his freedom, and spent most of his adult life in the pulpit—the first black man ordained as a minister in the United States. Haynes was the author of “Liberty Further Extended,” an argument for the abolition of slavery.

Editor’s Note
P

Paul Meany

Intellectual History Editor

Lemuel Haynes was the first Black preacher ordained in North America. His views on religion and politics are more documented than those of any Black American before the abolitionist movement of the nineteenth century. Born into indentured servitude, Haynes distinguished himself with a prodigious memory and aptitude for studying religious texts. Haynes would later become a spiritual leader in the majority White town of Rutland, Vermont.

Haynes’s indentured servitude ended when he reached the age of twenty-​one. His first act as a freeman was to join the Revolutionary Minutemen in 1774. For Haynes, the publication of the Declaration of Independence was an inspiring moment in his life. The promise of a new nation where all men are created free and equal inspired him to write “Liberty Further Extended,” an essay in which Haynes advocates for the abolition of slavery and indentured servitude.

Haynes matured from a young Revolutionary patriot into an established pastor and political thinker. He was ordained in 1785 and soon became the long-​time minister of a largely white Congregational church in Rutland, Vermont, where he served for roughly three decades. During these years, he lived through the ratification of the Constitution and the fierce Federalist–Jeffersonian debates over the meaning of republican government.

“True Republicanism” (1805) is Haynes’s defense of constitutional government in the midst of the fierce partisan struggles of the early American republic. “True Republicanism” responds to accusations that Federalists were closet monarchists and that strong constitutional structures were incompatible with liberty. Haynes rejects this; for him, true republicanism does not mean unchecked majority rule; it means a government of laws, moral restraint, and constitutional balance designed to secure equal rights.

Drawing on both Revolutionary principles and Calvinist theology, Haynes argues that liberty requires structure. Because human beings are morally fallible, popular power must be restrained by constitutional limits.

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Luke, xxii, 26.

“But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.”

The occasion of these words was a dispute among the desciples of Christ about superiority, as may be seen by attending to ver. 24th; And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. They had imbibed a strange notion that the Saviour was about to emancipate the Jews from the Roman yoke, and to restore their civil rights. Elated with the delusive prospect, they began to contend for posts of honor, and who should have the pre-​eminence in the new establishment. The insatiable thirst in mankind for preference has appeared in every age, and been a fruitful source of many evils. Our blessed Lord, to manifest his detestation against such haughty ambition, points his desciples to the gentile world, ver. 25th, “And he said unto them, The Kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.” Plainly suggesting, that for them to seek for posts of honor under the specious garb of sanctity, was symbolizing with the heathen, and acting perfectly inconsistent with the nature of that kingdom, he came to introduce; the lineaments of which are concisely drawn in my text: “But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve.”—

In which words we have the nature, and design of a free government, epitomised, by the unerring hand of wisdom. Liberty and equality are words very familiar at the present day, and may possibly be abused. That there ought to be a kind of subordination among men, none will dispute ; and that it is beneficial to society, is equally obvious. A veneration for parents, difference to the aged, and respect to officers both in church and state, are matters taught us in the word of God. The idea is implied in my text; a proud ambitious aspiring temper was what Christ went to discard. To be greatest was the design of the disciples, without a generous regard to the community at large; to get into office was the great object; blind to the interest of the commonwealth, the importance of the matter did not come up to view; but in a heedless manner they would thrust themselves forward, only to be called great. If from such selfish motives men crowd themselves into office, a similar administration may well be expected. It is of singular importance to ascertain the true criterion of greatness. When a man distinguishes himself by a proper regard for the general good, he is then worthy the name ; he rises to eminence, and commands a kind of veneration from all around him.—This is the true dignity the blessed Jesus taught among men and that shone conspicuous in his life. He that is greatest among you let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. Plainly suggesting, that it is the design of the appointment to office, to serve the public, and is the only test of true greatness.

The nature and design of a republican government;—Its peculiar Importance; —Together with a few observations favorable to independence, will very briefly be attended to on the present occasion.

1. Some of the features of a free government will be drawn. The word is so common among men, that it may be thought a definition is scarcely necessary; however, as people have annexed different ideas to it, a small attention to the matter may not be impertinent. The propensity of the human mind has such a preponderancy to evil, that it is more than possible it has proved a stimulus to vice ; and so our liberty become a cloak of licentiousness. That some have carried the point so far, as to break through every barrier of restraint, we have painful evidence: While others, to avoid this extreme, have fallen on Charybdis, and refused that liberty wherewith Christ has made them free.

It has been thought by some, that to secure the rights of conscience is a very important trait in a free government, and the essential part of it; such ideas are so vague and indefinite, as to cast but little fight on the subject: men can make conscience of almost any thing to carry a point. The scriptures speak of a feared and defiled conscience. How often is this noble fight in man obscured and rendered more than useless, through the prevalence of a corrupt heart, and the light in us becomes total darkness? In this way many will plead exemption from duty, and make a loud outcry against civil injunctions that would enforce their obligations thereto. When the dictates of conscience invade the rights and wellbeing of society, they are not to be gratified. When it becomes evident that a man is cloaking some malicious design against his neighbor or the commonwealth, under the sanctity of religion, it is quite suitable that he be impeded by the hand of the civil magistrate. The ideas then that we ought to connect with Independence, Republicanism, Liberty, &c. will admit of a very simple definition. By attending to the end, or design of it, we have the thing itself. It is to defend and secure the natural rights of men. By this expression is meant, those privileges, whether civil or sacred, that the God of nature hath given us.—To know what this charter comprises, we are to view them in their relation to society at large: When they are congenial with this object, we ought most cheerfully to fall in with the design, and view ourselves as breathing the very spirit and life of true liberty. This is that noble independence and republicanism taught in my text. Every deviation from this test, is inconsistent with true liberty, and ought to meet with some kind of obstruction from civil authority.

That I have not erred in the above description is evident, from the magnitude of the object proposed, viz. the general good: therefore most salutary to men, and only worthy of divine approbation.—It is true, men may disagree as to what will conduce to the general good, and so human laws be very imperfect. That the public voice is to decide on the subject, must be granted. Yet there may be so great a defection in a kingdom or commonwealth, as to vindicate the minor in withdrawing ; but so long as we remain connected with a society, I see no way but to submit, without an attack on the rights of men, and the principle of true liberty, unless where the real rights of conscience are evidently invaded.

Our beneficent creator has furnished us with moral and natural endowments, and they according to common sense, are our own: if so we have a right to use them in every way wherein we make no encroachments on the equal rights of our neighbor.—Others can have no demand on us for what they never gave or for which we are in no sense indebted to them. Every attack of this nature ought to be opposed with the same laudable zeal and abhorrence as if it had been made on our lives. As we stand related to God, it is true we are not our own, yet he allows us this prerogative to exert all our faculties, in behalf of the general good.—The laws of the commonwealth are to defend mankind in the peaceable possession of these invaluable blessings, which equally belong unto all men as their birthright.—As civil regulations respect the community, and all are equally interested in them, we at once argue their origin, viz. from the people at large. This is that genuine republicanism that we ought most earnestly to contend for, and is the very foundation of true independence; the excellency and importance of which, will in the next place be considered.

The benign influence of such a constitution and government, comprised in the above remarks, may be clearly deduced from the considerations, that it is falling in with the divine plan, and coincident with the laws of nature. These rights were given to men by the author of our being, as the best antidote against faction; to meliorate the troubles of life, and to cement mankind in the strictest bonds of friendship and society.—Those who oppose such a form of government would invert the order of nature, and the constitution of heaven, and destroy the beauty and harmony of the natural and moral worlds.

The troubles incident to men, have their origin from this source; nor can the body politic enjoy peace, symmetry and tranquility, until it resumes its order; but like a dislocated bone, will diffuse convulsion and pain through every member. The natural body is in health and prosperity so long as its constituted laws have their free operation; but when obstructed, sickness and death are inevitable.

It may further be observed, that a free republican government has the preference to all others, in that it tends to destroy those distinctions among men that ought never to exist. “All men are born equally free and independent & have certain inherent and unalienable rights,” to use the language of our own constitution, which coincides with the holy oracles, Acts 17.26: The more this can be maintained the nearer it answers the original perfect draught. If God saw such a state of society was most favorable to men, it ought still to be maintained. The destinctions only to be reprobated are such as have no true merit in them, but are merely nominal, such as birth, riches, empty titles, &c.—These were the things contended for by the disciples of Jesus, which he discards in the text; they would be great without goodness or without serving the public. Palm upon an aspiring mortal the flattering titles of King, Prince, Lord, &c. merely because he was born under a more splendid roof or lay in a softer cradle, than his neighbor, has more gold in his chest, and his farm is wider at both ends, or what thro’ mistake has a higher parentage, he will at once forget the only test of true greatness, and only value himself on his being able to tyrannize over others, and can look down on his own species with contempt. This at once throws the ballance of power into the wrong scale and enervates the bands of society. This has been the fruitful source of domination and blood-​shed which has denominated this world an Aceldama ; this has kept Europe at war with little cessation for more than nine centuries; and its influence has been felt in the happy climes of North America.—Blessed be God! the bloody flag could not be established on our shores; and while others are falling victims to the hard and cruel hand of tyranny, we enjoy peace, far from the din of war, and the hideous habitations of cruel oppressors.