The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-02-24
The Moral side in Politics.


some Of the religious press, because they
eudeavored to bring the great principles
of our religious faith to bear upon politi-
cal questions. For attempting to realize
the abstract truth in the concrete act, they
were publicly arraigned as Intermediates
i'll other mems business, and rs detracting
from the high sacredness Of their profess
sion.
AS this was said in the excitement of q
holly contested election, VIC were not at
once inclined to view it seriously. We
could not believe it to be the settled con-
viction of any large class even amongst
politicians, that politics ought to be entire
" divorced from religion. Much to our
sorrow, frequently recurring events tend
to convince us that the fact is even So
that somehow the people are possessed
with the idea that a mans religion has
nothing whatever to do with his politics.
! We consider this most alarming
symptom. 1t is prin,a .tacia evidence
that this nominally Christian government
is not administered upon any of the prin
ciples of Christianity. 1t betokens great
deficiency in some quarter = either that
there is no vitality or power in the Chris
tan religion that can give it comprehen-
siveness enough to encircle question of
national policy; or else, that there is a
persistent wickedness in our public men,
and pervading the whole organism Of par
ties, that dares to set at defiance the re.
straints imposed by the pure doctrines of
Slim who spake as never man spake.'
1t requires no argument to show where
to locate the blame. Whenever we witness
any man or body of men denouncing the
criticism of the enlightened pulpit, and
bidding defiance to its teachings, we may
be very sure that some wickedness is de-
signed that will not bear the light
scheme in progress that justice and hui
mainly would alike condemn.
When the petition of the three thou
sand ministers WAS sent to Congress,
praying that the Missouri Compromise
might stand intact, they were called fools
and fanatics, their remonstrance was UNI
needed, the villany was accomplished, and
its bitter fruits we have painfully witness
ed in bloodshed, civil war and anarchy.
The whole course of the government from
that time to this, in relation to Kansas,
has been in complete abnegation of every
moral obligation and every benevolent
impulse. 1t has been systematic attempt
to govern without law an attempt TO
rule over the free citizens of republican
Territory as the Despot of Austria rules
over the abject people of conquered Hun
gary.
The action Of the government in other
1 fbfttl.CuitIS ID Oh TIC SilIlC
grounds. 1t manages the affairs of this
nation seemingly without reference to the
fact, that the people are educated in the
midst of Christian institutions, and owe
all their enlightenment and prosperous
| civilization to the benefcent influence of
Christianity. Therefore, Christian peo-
pie, as ours pretcnds to be, certainly is
not asking too much when it demands
recognition, by the administrators of the
government, of the eternal, immutable
principles of Truth and Justice, and of the
binding force of the "Higher Law" 1t
is simply demanding that our agents.
the men whom we have chosen to repre-
sent our opinions and carry out our mea-
sures-shall conform in their acts to the
high dictates of Christian philosophy and
Christian love. This we have a right to
demand, and they no right to refuse. A
nominally Christian nation, like ours,
ought in its public measures, and through
its public men, to recognize the Christian
sentiment of the people. We are grieved
to say, this is precisely what it does not
do. Our government could no more dis
regard the precepts of religion were its
executors infidel or pagan.
The root of this evil lies in the practice
by the people of regulating their political
conduct by a standard different from the
one they apply in their private relations;
and in the habit of regarding things which
are crimes in private life, only so many
evidences of acuteness and fitness for par
ty leadership, when practised in politics
This idea quite extinguishes, practically,
the belief in Gods cognizance of all sin,
in the perfect accountability of every per-
son to the Interchangeable principles of the
moral law, and in the necessity of apply
ing the maxims of Christianity to public,
even more than to private, life. 1t is de-
moralizing in its effects upon the people,
and damaging to Christian character. 1t
is to this point that we desire the efforts
of the pulpit to be directed. 1t is the
peculiar province of clergymen to arrest,
if possible, the progress of this error
They ought to insist, as we do, that