The Columbian fountain., 1846-06-24
Rev. J.T. WARD, Assistant Editor.
PRICE ONE CENT.

suggests the notion Of divine ,heme,
whereas the article itself treated only ofone
of mans inventions-a very good one TO be
sure, but so only in subordnation to the
religion Of Jesus Christ
In accordance with these views, there
fore, we felt it to be our duty to transfer
the words to our paper, and give them their
proper direction. We did so, placing every
word we took from the Iris in the usual /,
marks which imply that words are borrow
ed. We did not name the source from
which we took the words, because we
deemed them no honor to the person, who
has 50 unhappiy used them. We designed
that our modest reproof Of the uniustfed
presumption and pretenton of the writer Of
the article in the Iris-should reach him,
and do him good without exposing him to
the just censure of every Christian man
whose attention might be called to his SEN
timents, as therein expressed.
! To our great surprise, we found in the
Iris Of recent date very strange notice
of what we had done in this matter, under
the head Of plagiarism. In order that
our readers may Judge of its merits, we will
present it in full:
From the Iris and Odd Fellows Mirror, OF June ls
PLAGIARISM.
In late number of paper published in
Washington, called the Columbian Foun-
tain, we find one of our editorials adopted
by the editor, without even hint as to its
origin. We would not complain SO much
of the sef.appropriating propensity of the
editor, had he not, by wicked and wilful
distortion Of one or two sentences, made
the article applicable to subject entirely
different to what it was written for. The
article alluded to, bears the caption-:sOne
Law shall bind all nations" The appIlca-
ton we intended to make Of it, was TO
show the influence of Odd Fellowship, in
controlling the elements OF social life, and
IN bringing contrary feeling in juxtaposition.
But the sage editor of the Fountain with
wonderful sagacity, has discovered that 1T
! may be made subservient to sectarian ends.
and hence has SO applied it. Sans apology q
for the woful Disagreement We would
greatly prefer to take The trouble Of writing
an occasional article Tor the editorial col
umns Of the Fountain, if needed, to having
the illusions Of our humbls pen SO horribly
mutlaed
Now, we hope our-neighbor will never
do the like again, If he does, we shall sus-
pect that the Fountain which sends forth
such impurities is very corrupt. -, .,5
Now, it is clear from the above statement
of facts, that the Iris ha, courted our open
dlsapproval ofits improprieties, and we do
not desire to shrink from our sacred obliga-
tion to do so.
First, then, as to the charge of "Plagia.
rIsm, " which is implied, or plainly made in
the caption of the article we have JUS, quo
ted from the lris--Plagiarism, word. the
true meaning of which, the author of the
above article does not know, If we NAV
Judge from his use of it in this instance
Does he claim to appropriate to his own
use all the words of the English language
And have we not as much right TO apply
any set of words 10 Christianity, our favo-
rite system, as he has TO Odd Fellowship,
which, without understanding even what il
IS, he chooses as his favorite? But we used
The words as he had put them togetberl
lust so; and we quoted them so, too. But
ne claims high prerogative; the words Of
he language are his--let all writers here
md elsewhere, now and henceforth, re-
nember-belong to him, and no one must
use them but himself If any should wish
editorials, he would rather write them than
nave his own put into any other form than
hat IN which he chooses to put them, how
ever absurd. So we had better resign ,ur
place, Tor If we cannot use our own ao.
guage, we are crippled indeed, not being
acquainted famllarly enough for common
use with any other. Moreover, even five
should take the pains to learn the ancient
Latin, or the modern French, we should be
to leave out of our compositions
some OF their words, because the Iris has
once used them, even though we should
put them Ia quotation marks.
We are utterly astonished at the extreme
OF arrogance and presumption of our broth
er OF the lris, especially when we consider.
that he processes to be under the law that
binds all in one, and brings its subjects IN
to harmony, peace and good will Certainly
the specimen that he gives US of the inhu
ence OF this law upon himself, and his con
duct towards one who has the privilege. of
membership in the Order where, accord
ing TO the Iris, this law alone exists, is not
u.fta A.