The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-05-31
NUMBER 81.
A SEVERE CASJIGATiOV.


We do net know when have en- more
forcibly impressed with the impropr.rty Of lie
course of the Clergy, in their Interference ia,
palitics, than while peru ing the following x
tract from speech delivered by Mr. Hphard
OF N II in the House of Representatives on
the Nebraska Bill. The structures of Mr. lib
bard severe, as they are trnthnl and
ought to be silutary lessen to llis class fI
medd.esome persons
Mr. II. says:
Then, too, ministers Of The Gospel perverted
their sacred calling To the of factious poii,i-
clans. The pulpit was profaned with the Ian
guage of the musings. The regret Of sincere
Christians was excited, while the m ral sens If
the country shocked by railing anathem s
impiously fuIminat. d., as in the name aud by The
authority Of Deity himseli' This is not the
only occa ion upon which the "drum eccesias-
tic has beat to arms in the cause Of part san
warfare. II was so during the war of 1879,
when class OF clergymen made it their espe-
cial vocation TO decry the cause Of their own
country, and advocate that ofthe enemy. They
preached desertion, s,ciiion, and treason from
the sacred desk. They invoked the judgments
of the Almighty upon the officers Of the Gro
vernment, and prayed for starvation and death
as the need of soldiers who went forth amid
periIs and privations and bloodshed to fight the
battles OF their country. So was it at the time
Of the purchase Of Louisiana, the annexation of
Texes, the war with Mexico. and the compro
mise measures OF 1850
More recently, sir, the pending bill! has been
selected as the peculiar and almost exclusive OBJ
ject Of clerical denunciation. Some three thou
sand clergymen have come into the Senate
Chamber by memorial, protesting, they al
lege, Sin the name of Almighty God, and in His
presence, against this measure, 'breadth
of faith" "great moral wrong and denoun-
cling "the judgments ofthe Almighty" upon IFS
supporters! Who, sir, has ordained this new
union OF church and State, with these gentle
men for judges and arbiters of political affairs
Who gave them their high commission? Who
intrusted to their hands the judgments Of the
Almighty, TO launch at discretion upon the OBJ
jects Of their dspleasure:
ITO deal dannaiion round tie land
On each they deem Ills foe !"
Who sent them into the Political arena class
to handy epithets of partisan warfare in the
name of the Most Hgh-o apply such terms
to measure which the tenor of their manifesto
shows they did not understand, and which, per
chance, no one of them have ever read
They say they have a legal right thus TO min
gle in political affairs. So they have, thanks to
the liberality and toeration of the Constitution
and laws it is their daily business to blacken and
dencence. There is doubt Of their right,
Mr.. Chairman, and equally clear is the right Of
others to condemn their conduct, rebuke their
presumption, and laugh al their folly. As the
ministerial function, in IFS true acceptations is to
be revered, and its professions respected within
their proper sphere, when they abandon their
sacred calling to indulge in the passions and
mix in the personalities of political contest, do
they lose their claim upon our confidence and
regard Nay. more. sir, there is reason to fear
hat the forfeiture Of public respect generated
by such exhibitions may affect not only those
really culpable, but operate, though all unjustly
to the discredlt Of that holy religion whose
name is perverted to purposes repugnant to
| he pIecepts and practice oft Divine founder