Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-02-21
Ter III ont apDoemtr.
oRqrrLEBoao, FRIDAY. FEB. e, ls45.
BISHOP oNDERDoNK.s TRIAL.

our part in giving publicity to these details, we
have word TO say upon the subject
1t is objected that no good end is obtained by
publication; that the world has nothing to do with
the beyond the result that the authority of
the tribunal alone, would have satisfied the public
mind Of the justice Of that result.
We say, the world has something 10 do with other
matters than results, and we trust the time is far,
very far distant when a high dignitury of the
church is to be degraded from his sacred Office his
character ruined, his fair name destroyed, and he
subjected to the pity, the contumey and the scorn
OF the world, by the fiat Of secret conclave Of ir
responsible men pronounced upon evidence that is
never TO the light of day. Publicity, the broad
est publicity 70 all judicial or ecclesiastical pro-
ceedngs, affecting the rights property character
of individuals, The great palladium of civil and
religious liberty Destroy this, and you restore the
unmitigaed cruetes of the star chamber and the
inquisition and no man would be safe from the
intrgues and machination of envy and hate. In
every Of the kind under consideration, justice
to the accused and justice to the great cause of
human rights imperatively demands either that the
trial be public one or that full and complete re-
port of the testimony upon which the accused is
condemned, be given 10 the public.
|
utter faacy of the position that the authority of the
tribunal alone will satisfy the public of the justice
of its decision. The decision itself was divided |
one Out of the seventeen Bishops constituting the
court, six of them comprising among their number
men of distngushed ability aud learning and ire
proachable character, dissented from the decision.
The Bishop himself appealed from their decision
to the higher tribunal of public opinion. His
friends, among whom Of the most dis |
ngushed clergymen in his and other diocescs,
denounced in no measured terms the decision of
the court, the result OF prescription and party
strife and set at naught "ihe authority of the tr-
bunal.' The Church itself was divided by Earring |
and conflicting opinions Under these circum- |
stances it was absolutely necessary to uphold "the
authority of the tribunal ITSELF and TO give any
moral effect to their decision that full publication
should be made. II has been made and spread be-
fore the public, and that public with great nnSnimty
acquiesce in the justice of the decision. A great
good has been accomplished vice in high places !
has been rebuked, and the Church has won golden
laurels by the judicious performance OF of the
most delicate and difficult Of christian duties that
of disciplining unworthy members.
But it is said the disgusting details of the trial
are calculated to corrupt and vitiate the mind and
destroy the morals of those who read them. We
think not. We scarcely conceive of book
less likely to promote RIGHTEOUSNESS than this trial.
Vice, stripped of its gded trappngs is presented in
its naked and disgusting deformity and the lesson
that "your sins shall find you out is taught with
wonderful power and effect
We know there are some minds that contfive TO !
extract evil from every thing, and whose base and
nj Nv IL
ofheaven. They cannot look upon fine picture !
or see beautiful woman, think of the most holy
relations of life without having their lusfu desires
excited to fame. They even turn TO holy writ
for food for the hellsh fires that burn within them
That their minds shall not be corrupted that their
hearts and imagnations may be kept intact from
evil and impure thoughts, shall beauty more be
Portrayed Shall women be shut up in harems and
veed from the eye of man ? Shall marriage be an
nulled, and the Bible become sealed book
Upon such subjects say "Honi soft qui maiy
pense,' evil to him who evil thinks. To the i'm
pure all things become impure. The pure will not
be corrupted by such publications as the trial of
Bishop Onderdonk. Should we put the question
to each of the many thousand directors to this pub
licatIon, who rcgardul of the morals of 9TH
ers, whether their morals had been corrupted by its
perusa, or their mnginaions vitiatcd, we doubt
not that each would answer in the negative
and say it was not for his own morals he feared
but for those of others. Nay more, think if they
were candid, and know what virtuous resolutions
are, they would one and all say those resolutions
have been strengthened and fortified by this perusal
Why not then, have the same confidence in your
fellow man that you have in yourselves, and be-
leve that upon them, the causes will produce
the effects?
We have said thus much upon this subject be-
cause we have been implicitly censured in neigh
boring print, for publishing portion OF the trial in
question. We think we have as sincere and ten
der regard for public and private morals as our
neighbors, and we would sooner cut off our right
hand, and pluck out our RICH, eye, than we would
pollute our columns with matter aimed at, or cal
culated 10 destroy either If in this we should err
(for we cannot but remember that TO err is human)
twill be an error of the judgment only.
Our readings of history have long since con-
WINGED us, that ages Of the greatest asfidiOusness
have not been those of The highest pirtue, and that
squeamishness and false delicacy flourishes hest
upon the soil of corrupt, and depraved heart.
| We close this subject by giving the following
article from the Journal of Commerce. the sent-
ments of which we most heartily adopt. We APP
prehend as an opinion it deserves at least much
respect as the opinions Of those who deprecaie the
publication in question, and impugn the motives of
those who have aided in that publication
awe see that in some quarters the Bishops are
blamed for publishing the trial Of Bishop Onder-
donk because the book is of immoral tendency
We go with the bishops in this business, and the
more because we notice that this expenditures
/ - II