Faith & Spirit Quote by Gerrit Smith

Smith isn’t asking politely; he’s drawing a bright, almost apocalyptic line. The phrase “tell our legislators in advance” reads like a preemptive strike against the usual machinery of compromise. He’s advising constituents to warn lawmakers before the vote is cast, before the debate is “civilized” into procedure. That timing matters: it frames the coming conflict as inevitable, and it recruits ordinary people into a posture of vigilant refusal rather than deferential petition.

The sentence is built to escalate. “A right” comes first, clean and legalistic, then the emotional torque: “we will not, cannot bear.” The doubling is deliberate. “Will not” signals resolve; “cannot” claims moral and psychological impossibility, as if restraint would be an assault on the self. He’s turning political regulation into something closer to violation.

Then he detonates the strongest charge available in 19th-century American rhetoric: “a palpable wrong on God and man.” “Palpable” insists the injustice is not theoretical, not a matter of policy nuance. It can be felt, grasped, proved. By pairing God and man, Smith fuses sacred authority with human rights language, cornering legislators between blasphemy and tyranny. That’s not theology for its own sake; it’s a way of delegitimizing the state if it crosses this line.

Contextually, Smith’s abolitionist politics and reform-era activism relied on moral absolutism to shame institutions built on gradualism. The subtext is clear: if the law tries to restrain this “right,” the public’s allegiance shifts from statute to conscience, and resistance becomes not just justified but required.