Litchfield enquirer., 1829-06-04
- - .
 OWEN-IsM.

From Flint's Western Monthly Review, for Aprii.l Public challenged dispute between RoB-
 ERr OWEN, late of New Lanerk, Scot
 land ,and last of New Harmony, Indiana,
 Philosopher and Cosmopolite, and Rev. . ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, of tho sect com-
 monly called Free-will Baptists, of Beth-
 any, West Virginia, near Wheeling: the
 former denying the truth ofthe Chris
 tian religion on logical principles.
 The glove was first thrown down by MT. Owen, last year, in New Orleans. None of the ministers saw fit to take it up. But it was circulated extensively in the papers, that the ministers were chal- lenged, the world over, to a logomachic tilt with Mr. Owen, on the evidences of christianity. Mr. Campbell, who had gained extensive reputation by dealing hard and dexterous blows, as a polemic 1 theological disputant, at Lexington, Ken lucky, in a set disputation with the Rev. MT. McAuly, in some points between Presbyterians and Baptists, took up the glove, and publicly advertised, and his courage was up to the point of doing battle in this grand tournament, in the face ofah Christians, and moro especially before all the gentlemen and ladies that might as- semble at any given place, which should be central and convenient for the said dis puta,ion. MT. Owen, on his way from New-Harmony to Europe, took Bethany in his route, called on the Rev. MT. Campbell, aud ascertained satisfactorily, not. only the extent of his calibre, but the keenness of his metal, his disposition for fairness of fight, and the honest zeal for the truth, which, he was compelled to be- lieve filled the bosom of this gentleman. Having measured with his eye the proud dimensions, the brawny intellectual mus cle and sinew of this offering opponent 1; having ascertained to his satisfaction, that there was a happy mixture of Scotch shrewdness with Kentucky hard fight in the premises, he deemed it not unworthy a logomachic fame, ,won extensively in both hemispheres, to engage with MT. Camp tSesi, e. s~-.s~a1ss. -hMAala asisss tho Ciev of Cincinnati in tho month of April, and the year commonly called that of our Lord 1929. MT. Owen having settled the pre- liminaries of the 6ght, went his way as Homer would say, Be q GkeOss para tkinG pOluph hlOisbOiO M0lasses--went meditating upon the eventual disputation over the re- sounding sea, to Now Lanerk; talked, we dare say, about the social system and, no doubt, felt the germ of many an intel- lectual egg silently breeding within him, which in due time should hatch tho embryo of rout ruin and dismay to ministers, ,tithes, and match makers. The other bstook himself like a high mettled and good scl- dier of the church militant, to all tho black letter, long bearded sages, from Sancho- niathon and Herodotus down to Dr. Fish- back of Lexington. Meantime the letters from Dan to Beersheba, from lands end to the Shetland Islands, from Calais to Archangel, from Quaddy io Sabine, rung with the note of preparations of this grand tournament, with which our city was to be honored. Most of the papers gave it as passing article, without note or comment 1; and SO we received it in different papers, that cume to us over the sea. Not SO the enlightened, amiable, mild, most logical and erudite P0ndect, of eur city. 1t growled th.reupon, in tone, evincing that the writer had load Of most righteous bile on his bosom; regarding the ape preaching tournament with any feelings rather than those of delectaiion and quiet confidence in the omnipotence of truth. It rather seemed to the said Pandect, as though--that war, pestilence and famine were all concentrated into the most puis- sant mischief. But though this tasteful, evangelical ard siDgularly logical vehicle was moved to the interior against the said disputation, as most pestilent mischief, the Ohio still flowed downwards. The disputants, needing nothing this manifest displeasure, ate and drank, as ifin duty bound, as atkIete, on system of diet and regimen, in training for this eventual col- lision of intellect. The day of AN fe0ls also came; although the duration and se- verity of winter menaced that either the displeasure of the Pandect or the dismay of nature, in view of this threatened search into the privacy of her mysteries would never again revolve upon us the smiles and tears of April. In due time. we learn ed that the champion of the covenant had been waited down our stream from the rising sun in furnished panoply ,and fraught with abundant sylIogistic appointments from the ample magazine of Bethany. The European and philosopher had gained saltness on the Atlantic brine, had heard natural thunder in the tropical isles of Jamaica and Cuba; had deied the black vomit of Vera Cruz; perched in the em-