Here
is a despotic mandate "to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
execution of this law." Again let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I
set myself against any requirement of law. This grave responsibility
I would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the
Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice, by the comprehensive
Christian Law of Brotherhood, by the Constitution, which I have sworn to
support, I AM BOUND TO DISOBEY THIS ACT. Never, in any capacity, can
I render voluntary aid in its execution. Pains and penalties I will
endure, but this great wrong, I will not do. "Where I cannot obey
actively, there I am willing to lie down and to suffer what they shall
do unto me"; such was the exclamation of him to whom we are indebted for
the Pilgrim's Progress while in prison for disobedience to an earthly
statute. Better suffer injustice than do it. Better victim than
instrument of wrong. Better even the poor slave returned to bondage than
the wretched Commissioner.
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