The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1860-10-31
WHOLE NO. 211.
Fruits OF Fanaticlsll1.
The following article is from the Presby
teriun, and supposed to be the production

The following article Is from the Presby
teriun, and supposed to be the production
of the Rev. DR.. N L. Rice, of Chicago.
FanaticiSm is zeal run mad. The feel
ings becoming morbidly excited upon one
idea, that idea becomes to the intellect what
a diseased excreScencc is to the body. II
assumes an enormous and monstrOus
growth a absorbs all the forces Of the
system. The whole mind runs into that
one idea and makes him who entertains j,
a mOnomaniac.
A few years ago, one Miller conceived the
idea tina: he had discovered by actual c.l-
culations in proph'cy that the world would
come to an end on certain day long since
passed. The day came and went, but the
earth and all things continued as they were
But meantime, this fond persuasion had
seized many other minds; tents were built
ascension robes were prepared; and hund.
reds became insane, and hopeless inmates
Of lunatic asylums.
More recently it was found that circle
Of persons, hand to hand upon table,
could somehow cause that table to move
Some conceived the notion that the pheno.
menon was due to the agency of spirits
| This idea seized upon superstitious natures,
and the phenomena of table-movng and
table rapping were made the media of com.
munication with the spirit world The
| idea Of such communication being started
others preferred for media persons in mes.
merized or clairvoyant states. Others again
combined the two. The result was that
many preferred those silly revelations to
those Of the oraclcs Of God and became in.
fidcl, lunatic, and mad
| And now we have the abolition mania,
which after running the ploughshare of di
vision through almost every branch of the
church, seeks to divide the national confe.
deracy by an attempted servile insurrection
and bearing its appropriate fruits in the
Harper's Ferry tragedy, and the insanity o.
at least one of thu abettcrs Of that abortive
but nefarious conspiracy. And whatever
else may be said Of him, the insanity o.
Smith shows that he was in earnest His
| whole mind was bent upon scheme which
was-too much for bis wits. His conscience
was blind to the wrong Of it until it was
terribly revealed to it in the late tragic de
noument. And the effect Of the recoil O
that evil which he encouraged, upon his
conscience, has been to subvert the reason
of brilliant but i'll balanced mind. 1t is
a fearful instance Of retributivs provi
dence upon him, who blind to every thing
else, drives a favorite end by wicked means
lie was once a believer in the Scriptures
but being seized with the abolition mani;
and not finding the violent emancipation o
the slave warranted by them, he renounces
them and became an intidel, and then ar
abettor of conspiracy, and now an inmate
of an insane asylum.
| Among the fruits of fanaticis,n we mus
add one other instance. 1t is that of Rev
DR.. Cheevcr of New York We have NJ
doubt of his piety. We have no doubt o
his sanctity on other subjects. On Gospe
themes he writes and breaches well. Blu
on the hobby of abolitioni>m he is a mono
maniac. On this he is neither Christian OF
rational. His spirit is bitter and lenuncia
tory, and his TRADES are the rawlings of
mailman. He has prostituted his pulpit t,
abolition harangues until he has driven tn
hest Of his people from his church. ant
been reduced to the humiliating act Of ap
p"aling by letter and female agent to tn
sympathy Of abolition charity IN England
to help upport it. How could he so de
grade himself, and forfeit the respect Of hi
more patriotic f, How citizens, and destro,
his usefulness as minister of Jesu
Christ? The most charitable mode of &C
counting for it is to suppose that upon thi
subject he is insane and worthy to accom-
pany Gerrit Smith at Utica. We are sorr,
to say it of one who has all the capahilitie
Of an able minister of Christ, but how tru
is it, that whom the gods would destro,
they first make mad"