The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1853-06-15
From the Chicago Tribune


This subject came up before the Presbyterian
General Assembly at its late session at Buffalo.
DIR. Cox remarked that the question was two
fold
First1s it lawful for church member 10
marry the daughter of his sister?
Second-After such marriage is contracted,
can the person contracting it retain his standing
in the church,
The report was in the affirmative on both ques.
tions Many such discussions and conclusions
would make the Assembly by word and
Kissing in the whole land. The Buffalo Com.
mcrciat .adrertiser, points the finger of shame
in the following well deserved language:
We suspect the fact to be that some Of the
reverend gentlemen have pretty nieces whom
they are dcsirous of marrying and that the flesh
is too strong for inward grace. The resolutions
themselves are not expressed in a confident
tone, but with some hesitation, as though the
| reverend body doubted whether the sanction
which they gave to them was altogether right
Without considering the matter theologically,
or upon the law OF the case, we consider such
fAnarriages akin to incest. 1t is one degree re-
moved from that offence, and whosoever enters
into marriage with his niece, his own sisters
child, commits an act repugnant to the laws of
| common sense, and in violation Of those laws of
conscience and of that moral feeling which God
has implanted in every human heart Such
Legislation is more becoming gang of Mormons
| than body of educated, christian sentlemen.-
The 9th resolution, viz: that no forfeiture Of
church standing ought to result from the mere
circumstance of the above reaton,l is a sane
ton of such practice by the Church, and we are
surprised that the Rev. DR.. Cox, respected
and able member of the Assembly, should not
have reported in strong terms against this kind
of connection.
We hold that man who would marry his
own flesh and blood ought to ''forfcit his church
standing," the General Assembly to the con-
| trary notwithstanding and when preacher or
layman does this, he violates the law of Cod
He has no right, Independent of any other con-
| sderation, to breed idiots, and entail upon
innocent posterity those terrible consequences
which our Creator has adjudged to follow the
| sins of the fathers to the third and fourth gen
Grafton If the act has been forbidden by no
positive law, is that any reason why this assem-
bly, should indirectly sanction il? The law has
not in its terms pronounced it murder to roast
man alive, but the offence nevertheless would
be punished with DEATH The divine law may
not have forbidden this special case for it prob
ably never entered into the Divine mind to con-
! ceive that man would venture on such a viola
lion of his own nature, or that the General As
| sembly Of the New School Presby teran Church,
| in the month Of May, 1853, would have express
ed any doubt on the question. The world is
| bad enough without any ecclesiastical assistance,
and if the Assembly do not wish to make work
for the clergy, they had better pegat've all ap-
plications for license to commit sin, and so far
| as in them lies, help to make the world better
| instead of worse.
In behalf of the young bachelors too, we
| wish to say that the Assembly has no right 10
invite withered elders, with bald heads and ra-
ther slim legs, oprowl around among their cher
ry checked, bright eyed neices, aud coax them
| by their potentiaty of lucre--as DR. Cox would
! tsay---to link fresh blooming and charming youth
| to deerepid and used up humanity. Your nieces,
y reverened gentlemen, with all their life and
bloom, belong to generation younger than
you. You should have married yone Gees mo-
theirs; and how much more becoming to have
| called her daughter whom you now seek for
wife Don't put your nieces into refrigerators
to die with cold, but give them to young r,en
of difirent blood, who will love, cherish and
care for them they deserve; for rely on it,
the Sc nieces who think you delightful old un-
cles, will hate you as husbands