St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1860-08-30

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lHoP1 FOR OUR -oot1sr1x.
! NO. 4.
WHOM Do1s IT coxcERN, ASp WHO IN ALI
j. LABOR =.
Four years ago, i. Methodist preachs,
was stamping the central counties Of New
York in behalf Of John G. Fremont and
the Republican party. He was noted alike
As sensation preacher in orotracted meet.
ings, and ~ an efficient stump orator in
the Presidential canvass. We listened to
one Of his harangues when, for three mortal
hours, he held the audience epell-bound,
and made many converts to the faith Of
the Black Republicans. One Of these on
returning from the hall, shouted, 'Why,
Elder - breaches Fremont nks>the
very ID" IT,. go. =:
He said in that discourse that he bad
just'come up from Bungtown city, where
he thought that unnameable region Of
which Dante, the poet, said so much, was
a little nearer the surface Of the earth than
in any other place lie had ever visited !;
and that there an auxiliary branch Of the
Know Nothing party had assumed the
guardianship of the Protestant religion.
1t was said by certain Democrats that, if
the Protestant religion had fallen inte such
hands as his, it was timesomebody took it in
hand. At that time there were many croak-
ers predicting anarchy, and civil war and
all that, and especially warning the clergy
to keep most profund silence at such an
awful crisis, declaring that in case Of civil
war the blood Of al the slain would lie At
the door Of such preachers as should pre-.
sumo to mention the words Liberty and
Slavery in the holy place and on the Ho.
" Day.
The good man looks down into the sty
Of political intrigue and party strife; with
a mingled feeling Of disgust and indigna-
ton, and hesitatcs as to whether duty bids
him advance or recede If he advance,
he is sure to be covered with the slime and
filth Of SANDER and defamation from some-
body, however pure his motives. If he
should stand aloof, and shut his eyes and
stop his ears, he must set aside the at Of
bis manhood and his identity as citizen.
# he shall recognize this fact, and the re-
sponsibility it involves, and step out upon
the arena Of political strife, he feels the
necessity Of leaving conscience behind OF
keeping it closely yelled, in order even to
gain hearing. Ou such times have We
fallen. And we ask not who shall take in
hand the guardianship Of IL. Protestant
religion but who are responsible for the
safe conduct Of this nation through the
tremendous ordeal before U.s.? Whom does
it concern, and who shall labor ?" We are
now within little more than two months
Of an election whose results must be such
as no patriot can look forward to without
thrilling emotion and heartfelt anxiety.
While the anxiety Of thousands will turn
on the question how the issue shall affect
their individual interest, their fortune or
their promotion, who shall be found ssf.ith
full among the faithless," thinking Of some.
thing else than the loaves and fishes, aud
working for the right? Shall the good
and the faithful have no influence in pol
tics, while their influence in society is its
only preservative? Shall it be eaid, As it
has been said, and that with singing re-
Iroach to our institutions, that one COM
mon pot7house loafer will carry more intfu-
encc in politics than four deaccns and a
dozen ministers? There are ways in which
even Christians may lift their voice in f.
vor Of liberty aud justice in the councils
Of the nation, without losing their chris
tan character or compromising their chris
tan principles.
One becomes astonished and sickened,
in looking through the journals that food
the land, to find how much any and every
question to which the word conscience
could with any consistency be attached, is
avoided and stunned. Every other mo-
tive-ambition, party spirit, the show Of
numbers, the pride Of talent and genius -
is appealed to, while the fundamentals Of
truth, equity and honesty are set aside as