The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-06-11


science acting for the individual forbdding him to
do evil act and conscience debating to him to do
good or what he may think good, without regard to
others, wherever be may find himself. If this prin-
cple were carried out fear that strange exhibitions
Of individual zeal would become very frequent. If
the supposed American should happen to be Nor
mon, he will have right to carry out the dictates
of his conscience in all countries. If he should hap
pen to be Milerite, visiting Rome it shall be his
privilege to pitch his tent in front Of St. Peters
church, then and there, under the protection of
General Casss doctrine, to speak and act according
to the dictates of his conscience. He win undertake
to prove that the end Of the world is at hand; and
by applying Figures, which never lie" to the Book
OF Daniel, and to Revelations, and calculating the
subject still more by exhibiting appropriate draw
ings of the big horn and the little HORNS with vari-
Gus references to the number OF the beast, descrp
tive OF Christ prove clearly that his doctrine Is
right. In the meantime, it might happen that this
supposed AntiChrist, the Pope, would be looking
down from some window Of the Vatican, unable to
as violating the rights of American conscience as
Swallowed forth by General Cass,
am not unmindful that General Cas- has ascribed
very high powers, anu, In my Judgment extrava-
CANT powers, to human governments, in supposed
right Of theirs to judge what is conscience and
what is not. And in this he betrays again the
faculty Of conscience as understood by me. at is
not" he says, "every vagary of the imagination,
nor every ebulton of feeling, nor every impulse Of
the passions, however honest the motive may be,
which can lay claim to the rights of conscience"
Again, the humble legislator has the right to sepa-
rate Prescriptions or unfounded pretensions at war
with the just constitution Of society from conscien
ous dictates properly regulated and operating WITH
their just sphere" Here General Cass takes away
rom individual conscience the very ri ghts which he
had claimed for 1t elsewhere, and he refers to the To-
gislator, because he is legislator, to determine
whether q doctrine held by the conscience Of man
is to be regarded as vagary Of the imagination, or
is consistent with the Just constitution of society," In
otherparts his position u.s. that there is no lord or
Judge Of mans conscience but God and the man
himself. However, find such mutual contradiction
in the phrases Of General Glass; as he touches now
one topic and now on another, that 1t may become
necessary for me hereafter to examine his speech
more in specific detail AS it is now spread out be-
fore me III thirteen fourteen columns of the Wash
ington Globe its dimensions horizontally considered
in the order of length and BREADTH become abso-
lutely appalling. Its depth is by frightful
Ia child could wade through it. Its other dimen-
sions would be its height and in that sense it may
be my duty to analyZe this immense mountain Of
words; and If in doing SO shall discover the
smallest mound of sound logic, practical common
sense or philosophical craftsmanship, General Cass
shall have the benefit of the discovery. cannot how
ever, close this communication, already too long,
without referring in proof of my position to one
OF the historical illustrations adduced by Gen. Cass
in support of his He refers to epochs in the civil wars
that resulted from the reformation in Germany and
in France. And because the word liberty of conscience
is said to have been granted to the Protestants in
both countries by their respective soveregns General
Sss seems 10 tnlnk tnat my luea OF nDerty Oh con-
science is reued by its having been granted in trea
ties according to General Casss quotation from
universal History, Vol. 26, p. 309." am quite
surprised that this very reference did not tend to
clear up the confusion Of ideas which prevails on
the subject The Protestants in Germany and the
Huguenots in France had freedom Of conscience
from the very beginning of their history 1t in
the exercise that freedom that they left the Catho
lie church and became Protestants. General Cass
will not deny this-that freedom of conscience they
had preserved through all the civil wars which end
ed for the time being. in the truce referred to by
him. 1t was in the exercise of that fire edom OF con-
science which was theirs, that they had taken up
arms and if it had been theirs during all this time,
how can General Cass say that it was only given to
them by the sovereign in 1882 and in 1861! He knows
the profound, but apparently simple maxim in law,
what is mine, cannot become more mine. For many
years freedom of conscience theirs already and
according to this maxim could not become more
theirs Now, if it was theirs already, l would ask
with great respect for General Cass and Universal
History how could it become more theirs by the
grant OF others! Consequently General Cass and
Universal History" must mean something
else than freedom of conscience. 1t must mean that
they should be allowed to retain whatever advantage
WI ether OF property or power, civil and religious,
which they had secured during the progress OF the
dispute. Between the outward exercise of their
freedom of conscience against the laws of the State
and the pretensons of the State sovereignty to pre-
serve order, the freedom of conscience was the pre-
text on one side, the sovereignty OF the State was
the plea on the other. And this granting liberty
OF conscience, referred to by General Cass, reminds
me of the aims given by traveller as mentioned in
Gil Bias, to poor man who had asked him for cha
rty in very piteous tone, but who had his muslset
le,elled at the same time. General Cass will no
doubt crticise the comparison as he has done other
fgurative language in my poor letter. So expert
enced an orator must certainly know that the value
of comparison is its suggestive property which al
ways depends upon its substantial agreement but
circumstantia difference as regards the thing to be
0ypu rnf,e aroI
Cass must surely be aware that the figure of an egg
is not comparison suited to the description of ano-
Their egg, they are both much alike; that to sug
gest the idea of piece Of chalk by comparing It
of the rules of rhetoric. General Cass has taken adj
vantage Of this even for the purposes of argument
when he assumed that because spoke of the de-
struction of property, whether in Boston in Phila
delphia, violation of the rights of conscience in
regard to those persons n whom such property be-
longed, am to be understood literally, and there
fore as recognizing that conscience can be violated
through the medium Of outward violence. did
not mean any such thing. No outward violence
can reach that fortress in the human soul, to
which conscience can always retreat, and from
which she can laugh to the attempts of men to
invade her stronghold l do not admit that from
the beginning Of the world up to this day there
has been violation of the rights, freedom, liberty,
or divine sovereignty Of the human conscience.
That is the portion of his nature which God placed
beyond the reach Of human power. His civil rights
reputation rendered infamous, the life of his body
sacrificed at the stake given to Wild beasts at the
Coliseum; but the sovereignty OF his conscience
above oil earthly powers has never in single in
stance been vanqu.sca hv The cruelty or injustice
of his fellow beings When, therefore, General Cass
takes advantage of my using language in reference
to this subject such that the rights of conscience
had been violated in Charestown in Philadelphia,
he forgets that there is among men order of Ian
guage appropriate to the science of any subject and
another which accommodates itself to the confusion
Of ideas in the popular mind. Persons who per-
fecty understand solar system do not hesitate to
speak of the rising and setting of the sun, at the
same time that they, in scientific point of view,
would maintain that neither phenomenon ever oc-
cms: that in reality the sun is the centre Of our
system and that all the planets the earth included
aie rising and setting and revolving around the
centre.
] stated at the commencement of this reply that
the necessity OF finding myself in an apparent COLI
sion with so distinguished man as General Cass
was less of pride than Of humiliation. The cir
cumstances under which my letter was written have
teen referred to in the foregoing part Of this com
mnnicat0n. never dreamed that that letter would