The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1850-03-25

ing US in the event of your furnishing no evil
dence against any Of the members OF our Di-
vision, to request you as an act of justice to
that Division, to. say in your paper that the
charge was not intended to'apply to any gifts
members. The undersigned, in pursuance of.
these instructions, waited upon youon the
9th inst, and delivered to you copy of said
preamble and resolutions, with list of the
names of our members and thereupon you,
promptly expressed to US yonr willingness to
furnish us the names of the persons alluded
to in your paper t and for that purpose re-
quested US to leave the list of names with
you: which was done. After this, nothing
was heard from you until the 18th inst. when
our ChairEsan again called OIL you, and you
handed him your written communication, da-
ted the 18th inst. We were surprised after
what TRANSFERRED during our personal interview
with you, that you should. take the position
you have assumed in your letter, and allow
US to say, that in our iudg ment your first i'm
pulse of duty was right, and should have
been lollowedH
You assume in your letter, that the only
question u.s. whether the charge made in your
paper, that certain Sons of Temperance in
this city are in the habit of violating their
pledges is true or sIanderous, and that if you
can satisfy yourself that some Sons of Tenn
perance (however few in humber compared
with the whole order) have been or are gull
ty you are justified in making the publca-
ton, and in Withholding the names of those
you believe to be really guilty We on the
contrary, take the position that the pubca-
! ton has a tendency to cast stigma on and
impair the usefulness Of an Order embracing
more than two hundred men, a vast majority
of whom you very well know. if you know
them at all, are not only not guilty, but above
suspicion and that the publication either
ought not to have been made. or if made, the
catalogue of names which you threatened to
publish ought not to be withheld when it is
(not demanded buD respectfully requested of
you by ; portion of the Order, through a com
mittee Of your neighbors, friends and patrons.
Again, you assume that we ask you t. act
as spy or inlormer to our Order, and that
its rules, regulations and ordinances, are a
secret to all not of themselves ~ Both of these
assumptions we deny. You voluntarily and
without any provocation from our Order, pub
lshed to the world, that you could and per-
haps would strip certain Sons of Temperance
of their hypocritical garb, and shower down
upon somebody catalogue of names that
would break certain moral crowns; and we,
instead ofcalling upon you to publish that
catalogue, as we might have done, respect
fully requested you to give us the names Of
such of the delinquents as belong to our Di-
vision, or if none of them belonged to US. that
statement of that fact should be published
And yet this is asking you to play the part
of the spy. Surely the fact that you did not
take this view of the subject or make this OBJ
jecton when we waited on you, is good evil
dence that it S not we'll founded +
You are also mistaken when you suppose
that our rules, regulations and ordinances, arc
secret to all not of ourselves i on the con-
trary our rules, regulations and ordinances
are as public as The Constitution of Indiana,
and may be used by all-but our forms and
ceremonies are secret. We admit that you
might probably make enemies of influential
persons who may be your friends, neighbors
and patrons, by complying with our request;
but this should have been considered before
the publication was made and fear of the
guilty should not deter you from doing JUS
tice to the innccent.T Besides as the mat
ter now stands, your publication casts just as
much suspicion on every member of our Or
der in this city, as it does or the thirteen thai
you say you can prove TO be guilty, and
whose names you refuse to dscover-and al
though you have not made us your enemies
1.-THE reasons why we changed our
mind have been given and should be salts
f factory.
: Here Is an honest difference of opinion
r We don't belive any such thing.
, SAccording to our education in the schoo
Editorial, an Editor has only 10 satisfy him
self of the truth of a matter to speak OF it tt
the public as a fact. And in this case, tC
satisfy the public of the truth of the charge
! we believe that the public will not demand
more than we should, as we have done
+, pledge them our veracity and honor tina
we have the names and can prove them five
!, see fit: guilty Of the charge.
. at is novel theory to US and to mankind
generally, that to say certain members OF any
fraternity sect or class of men, are not VIVA
: their pledges or professions demand they
q should be, is a stigma upon the body to whici
they belong. If this be true then almos
every sect or class of men, is laboring under
stigmas, and almost every man in the com
/ munity is a suspicious character so far as h
! is bound to his fellow men by ties of corporate