The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1859-04-21
70 THE EDITOR OF TIE COURIER

TO THE EDITOR OF THE COURIER:
.. .... Sri have
been little surprised at an article in your
paper of March 3D., with the signature of
Thomas Fowler, and purporting to be a re-
ply to mine of February 18th. As it does
not impart even an instalment of the light I
solicited, should not trouble you about it,
were it not for some inaccuracies, and some
eccentricities contained in it.
The writer says have represented him as
a Democrat" I'd "for the Democracy, adj
vocating Slavery as of Divine origin"
have read my article mos. carefully over,
and l can find no such thing; he is there
charged with nothing of the kind; and were
it so, for what purpose would he complaint
what result does he EXPECT? Does he deny
being Democrat? NJ! Then what if !
had called him one 9-and whether he dis
claimed advocating slavery for his party or
not, matters little, as every one understood
the thing to charm. 1t certainly was not
the Republican party who contemplated and
threatened treating Mr.. Taunton to a pelting
with rotten eggs. .. ....
| think he misrepresents Mr.. Taunton on
the subject of exclusion from church men,
bership-he did not propose to exclude
"apologists" of slavery, as the gentleman
says; but it's defenders If l insult or
wrong man, may apologize, but not defend
that wrong. You see there is little differ
encc in the two words. Mr.. Taunton stated
that certain Christian churches exclu led
shareholders from their communion, and in
order to be consistent they should exclude
pro-slavery men, also. This is different
version of the affair from that given by Mr.
Fowler Mr. Taunton, no doubt, reasoned
mentally thus "Thes, churches hold slave
ry to be sin, and if it is, then those who
uphold and abet that sin are not the ones
with whom we ought to partake of the sac
red emb'ems.' l don't see how to resist
this reasoning; for if these churches are
right Mr.. Taunton is right, also-his concl,;-
SONS legitimately flow from Mar premises
Mr. Fowler finds great fault with his op-
ponent for b 'nging witnesses on the stanl,
whose private 'ws were not in accordance
with their public acts AMI speeches / can
not see that ANYBODY is to be censured for
this. IfMr. Clay wrote one thing in private
and said another in public, the reasons for
doing so were best known to himself. If at
one time of his life he pennei living, moral
truth, all he C uld say in after-life would not
subvert it. The drift of Mr.. Taunton's
argument on this point was, That
most Of TIE prominent men of the Revolution
had testified to the injustice of slavery, and
dcplored it as a grievous wrong. Those
opinions, openly expressed, are before the
world, and were never retracted by those
who uttered them-promin. mt among these
is the Father of orr Country--if they have
ever retracted those opinions, it is incumbent
upon the abettors of slavery to prove it. Let
them, also, produce, i; they can, the names
of great men of those days who held that
slavery was not a moral wrong. If they can
not do this they must concede the general
position contended for, to-wit: That tn moral
sense of the Revolution was aerayed against
the gigantic wrong.
That public men often fnl themselves be-
tween the upper and neither will-Stone, is too
true. The force of circumstances sometimes
compel this, whilst men not unfrequently so
place themselves, when no public emergency
demands it. Thus, for example, Mr. Bu-
chanan preached and subscribed to the doc
trine of popular sovereignty, until he was
warm in his chair at Washington, and then
he kicked it overheard, as in the Kansas
case. Again, every man knows that Poly
gamy is unnatural and anti-christain, and
should not be tolerated but the sincere be-
levers in Popular Sovereignty dare not touch
the moral leper, because their pet political
idol would fall to pieces With such men,
Popular Sovereignty is of infinitely more i'm
portance than the Christian religion Once
more, every man knows that to steal Cuba
would be national and moral wrong, yet
some in the North, and nearly all in the
South go for the 'potent solicitation
other words, for stealing il. l might multi
ply instances, but these are enough to show
that Mr.. Taunton was not astray in his dec
laration. The idea meant to be conveyed as
understand it was, that private convictions
sometimes had to give way to public policy,
and very small amount of candor would
have so interpreted it. Mr. Fowler seems
to be in an excellent humor with himself
when he asks me show can you be on the
fence get, when you were never on it till
non?" This is like whistling while the fire
bell tolls. But will tell him; he and bis
opponent hoisted me on the fence between
them, and from that time until writing my
appeal for light, l had been there-will that
do?
Next in the gcntleman's article comes an
offer of $l5 bribe to you, to give him my
name. That is rich indeed. DR.. Franklin,
the Prince Of Printers, It's true, refused a
larger sum with scorn; but then only think,