Daily Democrat and news. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1859-1864, 1860-05-16

The following letter vas written some
time since, BY = well known Surgeon Of
Ut. Louis, TO that Inscriptions old land
pirate, Henry Ward Beecher. The
writer handles the Reverend sinner
without gloves:
A EsisrSiy Letter. fall Of lsssshsssy lsvs.
70 ssensy ~ ard Dssehss, the , chs Dsews
Preacher.
ST. LOUIS, Dec. 9Th, 1859.
To THE Rev. HENRY WARD BEEcHER
This is the morning of the an.
niversary of the ''crossing Of the Della
ware" by George Washington, and the
battle OF Trenton. The Governor OF
Missouri has appointed to-day a day OF
thanksgiving IN memory Of the achieve
ments Of the Father OF his country"
And 1 keep il with two-fold feeling 0!
tilisl duty, for George Washington aud
my own father, who was with him on
that dreadful night and the two succeed
ing days. / do most heartily thank
God, my Father in Heaven, for their
deIiverence in that most perious ad-
venture. ! thank Him that He parted
the ice as He did the Red Sea, to safely
land on that stormy night that small but
heroic band to battle with the enemies
of liberty, and made them successful
against five times their number. l
thank Him for the freedom and pros
perity Of our common country, North
and South; and l thank Him for the
preservation of our Union beneath the
hollow of His hand. But above all
things have thanked Him that He has
not made me such man az Henry
Ward Beechcr, with heart full of such
black ingratitnde tor the achievement
Of human liberty by that heroic band
| thank Him that not one drop of blood
flows in my veins, or the viens of my
family, for disunion; and there still
lives the same love of liberty in my
humble bosom, that impeIled them to
battle and to cross the Delaware, and
would me to cross the Mississippi to
battle with the foes of this Union-the
only hope for civil and religious liberty
for the human race. Sir, let me reason
with you, and carefully read what |
write you, that you may see yourself as
others see yen. You profess to be a
Christian, yet in no wise do you follow
in the footsteps of your Master, or are
actuated by the spirit Of HIS religion.
HIS WAS Of peace, yours of the sword.
Ills was forbearance, yours assault, even
unto death, upon your friends and coun-
try. He purchased no weapon, even to
be turned upon his enemies while yours
is the religion of the bowie knife and
rifle. His was mercy, yours is murder.
You would turn the brutal negro upon
the unsuspecting white man and the de-
fenceless white woman, and see them
g!oat on murder and rapine. He would
gather little children to his bosom, while
you would cousign innocent white girls
of the African. therefore cannot ad-
dress you As minister of the Christian
religion, or a follower Of Jesus; but as
a heartless, unfeeling, uncompromisiEg
knave, too wise to act without deadly
purpose, too little religion to be bigot
or fanatic, but possessing the power to
make fools and fanatics of others. In
your church recently, you have raised
money to excite instruction in my ma
tive country, and when the damning
deed is done, say with hypocritical cant,
II did not do it; that no force should be
used except moral suasion." You send
men to apply the torch to your neigh
boris dwelling, and excite black men to
murder white men, then say you only
wish to liberate the sldre. Such con-
duct no reason can justify, no honest
Christian approve. Jesus Christ lived
in a province of the Roman Empire
and never excited feelings of anger in
man against his fellow-man, and never
plotted treason against the Government
under which he lived, but said, "reuder
unto Caesar the things that are Caesars,
servants be obedient unto your mas
tiers" and that, too, when there we're
s'xty-three millions of white slaves in
the Empire.
1t, sir, your excuse for such conduct
is, that you wish TO confer a boon
upon the human race, why prefer the
black and inferior race to the white
why spare the one and butcher the 9TH
er! Or. if your philanthropy must be
exercised, why not begin with your
"moral suasion," your bowie knives.
Shapes rifles, and bloodshed in Africa.
the parent country, where the field is
wider and the harvest ripe. But, sir.
turn IN at home and look upon yourself
cleanse first the Lazar house of YOUR
great Eastern cities before you begin
the work of reform in kentucky and
Virginia, and when your work is fin.
lshed at home, if not partial to color, we
would invite your ph'lanth,opic efforts,o
ASIA, where there are four hundred mil
hons more degraded than the African of
your own country. Why excite men to
fanatlcal deeds which must destroy the
country and themselves Why press
the Southern States to disunion. when
destruction will fall alike on both North
and South If this Union is ! ssolyed
we must OF necessity be engulphed in the
maelstrom of European politics and
European wars, and 60 down forever as
nation or republic.
Pause then, sir, and lift the veil Of the
future which is just before you, and stay
the fanatlcal hand now lifted to strike.
II 70" DO not, like Macbeth, your own
sleep will be murdered and the sleen Of
thousands. You shall rovo,