The true Democrat., 1856-01-15
Another Letter from Prof I,ono. street.
 Onaversity of Mississppi, } December 18th. 1855. {
REV. WILLIAM WINANs D n

IlEN. w LILLIAN WINANS D. D.
 My dear old Friend" received your let ter addressed to me through the columns of tn, Natchez Courier, nearly three months ago; ant postponed my answer to it, at first, that i might not appear just before the Mississipp elections. Again, that it might not appear dur ing the session of the Memphis conference; the Memphis Appeal being the chosen medium o it's publication and the Oxford paper beine then suspended. And yet again; that it mighi appear during the winter vacation of this insti tuition.
 In what follows, hatter myself that neither you, nor the party which you serve, will fnc any thing objectionable in the maotiye whicf prompts It, whatever you may think of its mat ter and form. The appearance of your lette (from whig) in paper published some hun. dred and forty or fifty miles from your resi- dence, edited by a Know Nothing candidate fol congress, one of my most wanton and impla. cable malignerS just in time to spread fully over the State before the elections. was all doubtless purely accidental. But allow me to felcitate you upon your good fortune, in having been led by your impartial judgment to take side. with the Know Nothings against your dea, old friend" and brother; for had you happen ed to reverse your position, your organ would nave gwen you specimen of its naturalzed southern sympathies that would have eaten in. to your tender sensiblities like screw-worm: and your Know Nothing brethren would have taught you that love- -feasts are poor oontrivan- ces to knit hearts together, compared with Know Nothing lodges.
 You regret that you have seen but one of my letters. So do I. Had you seen them all. you would have had more charity for my motives than you evince and more charity for yourself, than to have dropped some expressions and in. timations that find in your communication. You would have learned that my controversy with the Know Nothings was not of my seek ing. That it was forced upon me, by Know Nothing islanders unmitgated and unreenting islanders which struck at my dearest interest," and my most sacred relations. That 1 bore all these for a long time in silence and in patience even until 1 saw this political party" as you are pleased to call it, while protesting aloud against my teaching of politics in the Universi. ty, whispering the students of my charge into It's midnight gatherings, and there binding them by oath upon oath to everlasting fidelity to its own political creed. I now spoke out boldly in my own defence, and against this par. ty. Not against its principles, but against its mode of propagating them. In strict truth there was not one word of politics in my first letter, If understood the term. 1 said nothing about foreigners and no more than this about Catholics: {" 1 am no Catholic. Pu. Methodism and Romanism on the field of fair argument and will stake my all upon the issue; but 1 am not such coward as to flee the field of honorable warfare for savage ambush fighting; or such fool as to believe that a mans rel- zion Is to be reformed by harrassing his person. Nor am quite so blind as not to see that when the work of crushing churches is begun in the country, It Is not going to stop with the over- throw of one." This was ust such letter as you tel me you would have indulged Not so with either the saints or sinners of the Know Nothing party. They assaled me from all sides, and in all modes. Not one of them gravely answered my objections to the Know Nothing discipline and dealings. They chose rather to assal me personally, in language, as unbecomlng in them, as it was undeserved by me. Even my literary bagatelle, the amuse- ment of my idle hours five and twenty years ago, was held up to view as test of my fitness morally and intellectually for the sacred office and responsible station to which 1 have been called. And yet these public assaults, undetal- ed m their severity, were kind courteous and plous, compared with the private communica- tions which were addressed to me under the all- thors' names, in answer to this letter. They all agreed however III one particular at least and that was, that if 1 had never meddled with politics before l had done it now, and that this was crying sin in an instructor of youth.- You perceive then brother, that you grossly misrepresent the Know Nothings, when you accord to me the right of opposing them in any way.
 That should not have very exalted opin- ions of them, after what 1 have suffered from them, think you will own Was quite natural. Have little charity for me then if |" no man. damus from bishop, no influence of presid- ing elder, no dogmatism or dctaton of learned doctors" no combination of christians and poli- ticians, no power of numbers, can awe me into respect for them
 You say, q defy you, my brother to speci fly anything in Know Nottingham, of equal tm- pitude, (my italics) with this attempt to enlist church organization, in a crusade against poli- tical party, no matter what that party may be- That was a hard word, brother, which 1 under scored It would have inspired considerable indignation, had you not been kind enough to embrace in its application, Mr. Wesley, your. self, the main body of your church, and the whole body of Know Nothings. Mir. Wesley endeavored to enlist not only his own people but all Americans, all Englishmen and Irish men against the American party of 1776. Was he guilty of turptude in so doing? nay, my brother. Turptude involves intentional error and Mr. Wesley was not the man to commit that. He really belived that the colonies had no just grounds for revolt against the mother country; that they were periling everything | o1, i,,o ob oI in fraternal ties, upon mere political abstrac to its utmost extent to reduce the colonies tC submission. That was the noblest political party that ever was formed, and if it be turpi. tude to enlist church organization against any political party, no matter aCkat ttat party ma. be, where does Mir. Wesley stand? Is the mo- dern American party (ts name was Sam, wher took the pen against it) more holy, more pure more noble, more dignitied than the old Anne rcan party? If then I believed, as 1 verily did believe, that the Know Nothings were about to rend churches, infams passions, sun der friendship, and kindle the flames of civi war, why might not use my best endeavors tt turn our church at least away from it, without incurring the guilt of turpitude." But this ii only by the way. I will show you presently that you have mistaken my designs in this church matter entirely.
 Recapitulating the incidents which enlivenec and cemented our friendships (wherein you represented my feelings in describing your own. you say, "we together have warred strenuously against the malignant tendencies of abolition fanaticism, and we suffered together in tha ruthless warfare" True, your efforts in tha struggle were gallant, noble, powerful; mine were the weakest of my life, and therefore, t( myselft the mostmortifying. But against whom were we contendng, brother? Against polit' cal pa'ty, which had brought its baneful prin ciples into our church. What was our aim when argument failed to exact justice from tha party? To set all southern Methodism, all parties, all men who respected religion, right and far dealing against it. What was the is sue of our labors? The almost entire with drawal of southern and southwestern Metho dsts from all connection with the northern branch of our church, and the establishment o
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