There is, sir, an incident of history which suggests a parallel, and
affords a lesson of fidelity. Under the triumphant exertions of that
Apostolic Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier, large numbers of Japanese,
amounting to as many as two hundred thousand,--among them princes,
generals, and the flower of the nobility,--were converted to
Christianity. Afterwards, amidst the frenzy of civil war, religious
persecution arose, and the penalty of death was denounced against all
who refused to trample upon the effigy of the Redeemer. This was the
Pagan law of a Pagan land. But the delighted historian records, that
from the multitude of converts scarcely one was guilty of this apostasy.
The law of man was set at naught. Imprisonment, torture, death, were
preferred. Thus did this people refuse to trample on the painted image.
Sir, multitudes among us will not be less steadfast in refusing to
trample on the living image of their Redeemer.
Finally, Sir, for the sake of peace and tranquility, cease to shock the
Public Conscience; for the sake of the Constitution, cease to exercise
a power nowhere granted, and which violates inviolable rights expressly
secured.
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