of chivalry forsaking the cause and taking refuge under the flag. which they once reviled and abused with all their heart. Cowardly poltroons! having neither the courage to fight, nor the manliness to meet the issues of the horrid war they have aided in lighting up, they fly to a neutral power, and chose to preserve their valuable lives by smelling the battle emphatically afar off. From their retreat, where they have slunk away from manly warfare, and can not be reached by the punishment of the civil law for their treasonable conduct, they continue to spue out their impotent wrath on all who do not think honor and patriotism consist in perjury and insurrection. While uttering every vile charge against the Federal Government and its supporters, they seem to forget that they have left their wives, their children and property under the guardianship of those they revile. Nor does it occur to them that, while their families and property enjoy the Federal protection, by their own advice and consent, they, by this fact, owe allegiance to the Government, and acknowledge that it has more honor than they have; since it indirectly protects them while they exert their utmost to destroy it. Yet these same cowardly vagabonds, in a venal press, both foreign and domestic, continue to send forth their periodical diatribes concerning Christian manliness, and at the same time scandalize decent ears by their slang, which is intended for wit. We have dissertations on New England ignorance from those who learned what little they know there. Every minister of the Gospel who thinks and speaks as if he considered obedience to the powers that be a Christian virtue, is taken to task for Erastianism, for the unholy converse between Church and State; unless forsooth his utterances are on the side of a treasonable and perjured insurrection, when, of course, the union between a schismatic Church and a seceded State is holy, and the offspring legitimate.

Thus we see the general sentiment prevailing among all the enemies of our country that no oath is binding when taken to support it. But upon what is this opinion founded? Is it that the United States, which they once acknowledged, and which still has all that constitutes a power, is not an organized Government? Certainly once they, by their own admission, owed and rendered obedience; and if this was proper then, it must continue to be so still, for the Government itself has never done any thing to destroy its right to exercise legislative sway. It performed all that a State

was required to do; gave protection to all rights and punished evil-doers. There being no justifying cause on the part of the Federal authorities for all this horrid work, it follows that it still possesses the legitimate sway over all its subjects, which includes all and singular of the inhabitants of the United States-as well those who are in hostility as those in loyal obedience. Hence it follows that the former are continually guilty of perjury for not doing those acts of fealty which are of perpetually binding obligation. The fact that any one, by factious opposition, chooses to think that he owes no allegiance to a State, does not make this true; neither does it excuse his conduct, nor free him from the condemnation awaiting those who resist the ordinance of God. But the proof to show that the people of the South do owe allegiance, is corroborated by their own conduct. For, in nearly all instances where our victorious arms have penetrated, the people, as soon as the might is displayed, acknowledge the right (which, of course, they would not do, if it did not exist, as they are fighting for their rights), sufficiently to subscribe to the oath, in order to secure protection in person or property. This is a tacit acknowledgment, and throws the burden of allegiance back on him who subscribes to the oath. For if the Government has no right to enforce its obligations, then, as before shown, it is wicked for a man to submit to them; and the decision must be made before the duty is assumed. But hightoned Southern gentlemen would not, of course, do any thing wicked, least of all swear falsely. The character of the power must be considered before we subscribe to it, else we, and not the State, must bear the sin of false swearing; and hence the duty is equally imperative, whether we consider the Government valid or not, provided we are in the possession of all the facts.

But for what is the oath taken, if not to secure some advantage? and when that is obtained, surely it is not in the province of morality to shake off the restraints which accompany such benefits. The one presupposes the other, and if the one be obtained. the other must be assumed. But the mind of the traitor is so thoroughly perverted, that he thinks it perfectly consistent with his morality-and so it is-to take advantage of the oath for committing, with impunity, those acts for which he must otherwise be outlawed as an enemy, and banished as an alien. It is often asserted by the very pinks of honor, even by those who term themselves ladies, that the oath to the Federal Government has no

binding force, and therefore can be taken to secure advantages, and broken with impunity. But aside from this monstrous blasphemy, which out-Herods the casuistry of the Jesuits, and exhibits a phase of degradation, which, we believe, and trust for the honor of our common humanity, was never before known, there is one element which gives the oath its validity and which insures the Divine punishment for perjury, which is entirely overlooked by them. When we swear, it is not to man merely, but to the Lord; and therefore we are pledged under the invocation of the Divine blessing on obedience, and the imprecation of the curse of God if we fail; and no consideration respecting the earthly power can avail to change the nature of this absolute obligation of faithfulAnd let it also be noted that when men swear in order to secure advantages, and when these are obtained they do not intend to be faithful to their vows, it is manifest that they prefer them, to the blessings which God bestows upon those who swear and change not; and dread more the earthly disabilities which they shun, than the wrath of the Almighty which they imprecate. So glaring is this open blasphemy, for it can be nothing else, that it is talked of as a good joke to take the Federal oath, ("to swallow the mule," in the neat and elegant phraseology of refined secession ladies,) and take advantage of the credulity of Government officials; and nothing seems to be further from the intention than to keep such oath, unless that there be any binding force upon the conscience to keep it sacred.

ness.

In conclusion, it is held that, if the blessing of the Most High rests upon that people or man who honors his name by faithful oaths, "who sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not," surely, also, the curse of God will follow whosoever is guilty of the horrid blasphemy which has been pointed out in the foregoing pages. And if this be the greatest sin of which a man can be guilty; if this prostrates his whole moral nature, as well as dishonors the blessed name of God, then surely must the secession movement be of colossal wickedness. For the public conscience seems to be thoroughly depraved, and this iniquity to sweep over those in insurrection like a flood. Nor is it confined to the enemy in arms. It is found wherever this insurrection has friends, either among those who give their substance to destroy our Government, or who, by their position, their animus, or their words, give moral support to the common enemy. It is not enough that we lift no hand

against the State we have sworn to protect, nor that we do not equip and send our sons or others to fight. We may, by unfaithfulness to our Government in this hour of its trial, do far more than the soldier in the field who kills our men. Our influence may weaken the common cause of our nation, and prolong the struggle for the destruction of the enemy, and thus jeopard our fealty to the State which shelters us. The outward formal obedience is not enough to make the oath of allegiance inviolate. We must be true in heart, as well as faithful in action, if we would acquit ourselves of duty. For this is what we bound ourselves to do when, by appealing to the witness of God for the rectitude of our purposes, we promised to be faithful to the power which He has delegated to man, and which is swayed by the Magistrate, who is the visible representative of that authority on earth.

ART. V.-The Men of Danville. No. 2.

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE REV. DAVID RICE.*

THE first of the Men of Danville-the founder of the Church in this place the founder of the first School taught in Kentuckythe seed of all the Presbyterian institutions of the State, and the founder and father of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, was the Rev. David Rice, to whose biography we propose to devote this paper. He deserves a fuller and more extended notice than he has yet received. His memory ought to be revived; it has almost faded from the recollection of the present generation, though a few remember the name, and still fewer the person of the venerable "Father Rice," as he was universally called. He was not only the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, but for long years its guide and counselor "in perils in the wilderness, and in perils among false brethren." It may be safely said, that the character of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky down

* An outline of the History of the Church in the State of Kentucky, by Robert H. Bishop-History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Kentucky, by Rev. Robert Davidson, D. D.-Annals of the American Pulpit, by Wm. B. Sprague, D. D.—-Collins' History of Kentucky.

to the present time, is, in large part, a reflex of his characterdistinguished for firmness, wisdom and moderation. The State at large owes also much to his labors. He was the founder, as already stated, of the first seminary of learning in Kentucky, which led to the establishment of Transylvania University, and subsequently to that of Centre College, and thus to the diffusion of much of the learning and intelligence which have illuminated the State and the neighboring sister States, which have, in part, sprung from her, and received largely the impress of their characters from Kentucky. While in Virginia he had taken an active part in the establishment of Hampden Sydney College, and had an important agency in obtaining its first two Presidents-the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith and the Rev. John Blair Smith.

David Rice was born in Hanover County, Va., Dec. 20, 1733. His grandfather, who was an Englishman by birth, of Welsh extraction, immigrated to Virginia at an early period. Having had a considerable estate left him in England, he crossed the ocean with a view to obtain it, but never returned; and it was supposed he was assassinated on board the ship on which he took passage. He left in Virginia a large family of children, one of whom, David, was the father of the subject of this notice. He was a plain farmer, and both he and his wife were members of the Established Church. They would never own slaves; he, because he considered it unprofitable; she, because she considered it morally wrong-thus embracing, in their combined sentiments, the two fundamental grounds upon which the opposition to this institution is founded: First, it is wrong; secondly, it is unprofitable. It is worthy of the profoundest notice, that the principles of this good couple of the olden time, old-fashioned and old-principled people, on the subject of Slavery, should be transmitted through their son to the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, and, more or less, to the people of the State generally to the present day. It will be seen, that David Rice introduced, even into the first convention of Kentucky for the formation of a State Constitution, a provision for the removal of this institution; and from him has descended and remained in the bosom of the Church, at all times, a deep sense of its evils, moral, economical, and political, and been thence. diffused, to no small degree, through the whole community.

David had religious impressions from an early period; he passed through many struggles and phases of feeling, with which only