Wm. H. Seward, in his famous Rochester speech, electrified the people by declaring for a Higher Law than the Law of the Constitution. The nation trembled at his temerity; for was not the Constitution, if not absolutely infallible, our bulwark of defence? And very few could sanction a doctrine so perilously radical. But "the slow results of time" have proved the inspiration of that speech from above, and to-day we rejoice in greater freedom than the old Constitution ever guaranteed in the emancipation of the people, both black and white.
Again the people are stirred in their hearts: for a woman, with "the courage of her convictions," has declared for a Higher Law than the so-called "Laws of Health." She experienced nothing but pain and sorrow while holding allegiance to these laws, but has found, like Paul, that it is better to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord," and has thus gained strength of body and peace of mind.
As in the former case, although the law guaranteed equal rights to all, the cry of the slave arose continually—so in this, although the people have abjectly obeyed these "Laws," and a man scarcely dares put his head out of doors in any kind of weather, because it has been decreed that such weather is harmful, still the whole land groans under the burden of sickness. Disease, like a Great Red Dragon, stalks abroad, sorrow and desolation everywhere marking its pathway, and materia medica is powerless to stay its onward march.
