Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-05-18

Aloii ZIG nearS OH iuahco, haeieui "hu unAiiu
ness!
Surely they are nice words to have taught to
our children, and noble sentiments for them to
cherish towards our public men
4 come now, sir, to the last extract from this
sermon to which | wish to call attention. After
announcing the passage of the bill by this body,
he describes the scene on the Sd of March as
follows
g They passed IL in the night ftta 70 time for such
deed Of darkness, and then Just before tie morning
darn, achen inquiry and Gishonor are accustomed
TO seek their hiding-places. these destroyers Of die
national Jauh and peace sought theirs"
Mr.. President these are all the extracts to
which / deem it necessary to call the attention
of the Senate and the nation, to show the char
acter of these political anti-Nebraska sermons
that are being preached upon the Sabbath day,
in our pulpits, throughout the free States. |
submit the question to the Senate and to the
country, who is the best friend of our Christian
religion, he who assumes the sacred place to
convert it into meeting where angry passions
| shall be aroused, and epithets of calumny and
| SANDER hurled on others, or he who would keep
the politician within the sphere Of his own
| proper limits, and the preacher within the
sphere Of his religious and clerical duties? Sir,
| | am glad to find that, although the political
preachers have made such strenuous efforts,
| they have been able to bring so few men to en-
| dorse their conduct.
! 1t is well known that there is an organiza-
| ton by which copy of the New England pro-
! test has been sent to every preacher of every
| denomination, in all the free States Of this
| Union, for his signature. Every minister has
been appealed to, and yet they have been able
to bring to their support but comparatively
small number This shows that the great mass
| of the Christian ministers, the great mass OF
preachers Of the gospel, abhor this attempt to
prostitute religion into the means Of elevating
men into power. The great mass are unwill-
ing in the pulpit to utter SANDER and falsehood,
and caumny against public men in a place
where no answer can be made, and no vindica-
ton can be put forth. submit, sir, whether
it is fair as between man and man, whether it
is honest, on the part of ministers of the Cos
pei towards their congregations, to pursue
such course They take a partisan view OF
the subject in these sermons. They fix the
character of each public man. They endorse
this man; they condemn that. They endorse
this political party; they excommunicate that.
They give what pretends to be a true statemeni
OF the facts of the question; when that state
ment is derived from the address and speeches
of the abolition confederates, and eontradicted
by the records of the country and these re-
cords are not allowed to be produced. If these
statements are put forth upon the stump we
can refute them. If they should be put forth
| anywhere else than in the pulpit, or except
| upon the Sabbath day. we can disprove them.
What would these gentleman think of me il
| | were to violate the holy Sabbath day by GO
| ing into Chicago, and on that day making a
stump speech in vindication of the Nebraska
| bill? Ii they have right to discuss it on the
Sabbath day in opposition, may not expose
their ISLANDERS by indicating the, truth2 Sir,
this is an attempt to convert the Sabbath into
| the great day of the hustings, to make it a
great day of electioneering, to get people out
on the Sabbath for the purpose of hearing
stump speeches and in the most convenient
| Of all modes, for if you wish to blacken the
| character of a man, you can do it then with
security and with IMMUNITY because no man
can rise up and expose the SANDER, although a
dozen living witnesses may be present and
know it to be a SANDER.
say, sir, that the purity of the Christian
church, the purity of our holy religion, and the
preservation of our free institutions, require
that church and State shall be separated; that
the preacher on the Sabbath day shall find his
text in the Bible; shall preach " Jesus Christ
and him crucifed J" shall preach from the Holy
Scriptures, and not attempt to control the po-
| htcal organizations and political parties Of the
day. Now, | undertake to say that this preach
| er, in the sermon from which have quoted,
| used language in regard to me which no gen.
| tleman could use on this floor without losing
his character as a gentleman unworthy of the
association of honorable men, He used Ian
guage in regard to me in that sermon which
he could not be permitted to use in any decent
mans dwelling. He used language which
could not have been used in the presence OF
any friend OF mine upon any street or in any
public place. You may search all the diction-
aries in vain for an offensive epithet-one either
OF calumny, of opprobrium, or of insult, which
cannot be found in that political sermon.
understand the object. 1t is to bring up a
crusade against my private character; to ope,
rate in the elections for the benefit of certain
politicians 1t is not, perhaps, improper to re-
mark that, even in this sermon, the clergyman
who delivered it used the very language OF
document which first emanated from per
sons holding seats on this floor, over their
own signatures. | say, then, there is rea-
son to believe that each of these clergy.
men, who has enlisted in this political cru
SADIE, has been made the mere tool and in
strument--in many cases unconsciously-of
the conspirators on this floor against the pr
vate character of gentlemen whom they dare
not meet in an open and fair field. The great
body of these preachers have been misled.
do not believe that, of the FIVE hundred whose
names are appended to this memorial, there
are more than ten who will not repudate the con-
spiracy and the conspirators when they shall |
fully understand the facts. The question which |
submit to the country is, whether politicians
here shall be allowed to use the pulpit to issue
Islander and calumny which they dare not utter |
in the face of the man against whom they are
directed.
These, sir, are the questions to be presented |
to the people; these are the questions involved |
in this controversy. intend to speak plainly |
here, and, when / go before my constituents, / |
shall speak equally plain, and call things by |
their right names. If this war upon private |
character, upon motive, upon men, with view |
to their disgrace, as is the avowed object, is to |
be pursued, we shall find some responsible men
who will have to take, as well as give, blows |
Thus far have acted on the defensive. in
tend to keep on the defensive. i intend to con-
tinue to act in the defence of my own charac