The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-05-14
THE PRES s.
CINCINNATI, SATURDAY.. q
d0kREsf oNbEEcE, containing ifnbofSAne rows,
solicited from any quarter of the world!
NO NOTICE taken Of anonymous correspondence
We do not return rejected communications.
why do Men Persecute Z


or throug gk the weaEnoss of their convic-
tions of the truth Of the doctrines which
they seek to impose upon mankindH This
is an important question; for even now,
at this day, persecution for opinions Sake
is one of the leading facts of our socis&
condition. 1t is true that we do not burn,
hang torture or imprison man who is
unable to believe ss we do; but there are
found, on ali occasions of the expression
of heterodox opinion, enough who can
find it in their hearts-perhaps who deem
it their bounden duty Ito threaten, de-
nounce and prescribe There is no hatred
like the oDIUM THEoLoaIcUM; and that our
teachers of religion are not roasting each
other upon the public squares of the city,
as a special amusement for the populace
on holiday occasions, is a fact which is
due great deal more to the force of un-
baptized public sentiment than to power
of any supposed charities that may be
located in their respective bosoms.
Mr.. BUCKLE, in his truly great and pro-
gressive work, the History of Civilization
in England, makes conviction the parent
of persecution; while Mr.. NASH, the au-
thor Of treatise -" Morality and the
State"-which, although orthodox in sem
timent is not without its progressive as
pect, holds that it is the absence of real
conviction which inclines men to punish
others for the crime of unbelief In his
remarks upon the class of religious per-
secutors, Mr.. BUCKLE says:
"Such men as these are not bad, they
are only ignorant; ignorant of the nature
of truth, ignorant of the consequences of
their own acts. But in moral point of
view, their motives are unimpeachable.
Indeed it is the very ardor of their sin
cerity which warns them into persecu-
tion. 1t is the holy zeal by which they
are fred, that quickens their fanaticism
into deadly activity. If you can impress
any man with an absorbing conviction of
the supreme Importance of some moral or
religious doctrine; if you can make him
believe that those who reject that doctrine
are doomed to eternal perdition; if you
then give that man power, and, by means
of his ignorance, blind him to the ulterior
consequences of his own act, he will in
fallibly persecute those who deny his doc
trine; and the extent of his persecution
will be regulated by the extent of his sin
cerity."-p. 1872
On the other hand, Mr.. NASH:
when man begins to see that an
old supposed truth is in reality an error,
the first impule is to get angry, and per-
secute those who have thrown into his
mind the light by which the error is dis
covered. Prosecutors are generally men
in this mental condition; men who feel
the past passing away from them, in spite
of the labors of their intelligence and the
exercise Of their authority '-p. 81.
An exchange of sides between the rep
resentativeS of orthodoxy and heterodoxy
upon such point, is curious, indicating
corresponding imperfection in the philo-
sophical systems of botI the writers -
the heterodox having, in this instance,
broken over into orthodox ground; and
the orthodox, perhaps without being
aware of it, lapsed into an opinion deci-
dedly heretical AS it is orthodoxy that
persecutes, it will not do for orthodoxy to
admit that the spirit of persecution is the
offspring of wavering faith; it will
therefore become the duty of the author
of I" Morality and the State" to recant,
and undergo a penance suitable to his
offense from which, it is not uncharita-
BILE to wish him safe deliverance.
In spite Of the high authority of Mr..
BUCKLE, we are inclined to believe with
Mr.. NASH, that it is the want rather than
the superabundance of faith which is the
parent of intolerance. Persecution
other things being equal has usually
been violent and cruel in proportion to
the arrogance Of the demands in whose
behalf it originates Religious systems
and institutions, as they grow old lose
their spirituality-which is their truth
and at the same time enlarge their re-
quirements of general belief and obedi
ence. The assent of the reason to these
frequently monstrous demands will be
weak in proportion to their extent and
irrationality--and this as well in the party
that claims as in that to whom the CLAIM
is presented. Every new claim will bt
followed by new mental protest agains
the system in the name of which 1t i,
urged, of which each party will be equally
cognisant and which, as it produces {
tendency to resist upon one side, will, by
a natural antagoniSm generate determi
nation to coerSe upon the other.