Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-02-27
Judge Thnyer ON the Clergy.
If the cause of Treason, alias Democracy,

III the cause OF treason, Gn0S democracy
does not prosper under its present leadershi
in this city, it is not to be attributed to tn
lack of any of the essential qualifications i
the character of the man to oppose energet
cally every scheme of sound philosophy, pol
tics or morals. 1t is pretty generally know
in this community that Judge Thayer is no
believer in thereafter" and goaded by al
irrepressible ambition he plunges into tn
disturbed arena Of politics, ready to exer
any means, however base and damaging t
the public veal, by which his ends may hav'
any promise of attainment
Thus we find him endeavoring with devil
ish pertinacity to foment discord and strife il
the North, for the purpose Of overthrowins
the constituted authorities and obliging tn.
Government to succumb to armed traitors
In perfect harmony with the spirit of his op
position to that form Of Government which is
founded on principles of equal rights and
justice to all its subjects, he has neglected nc
opportunity to throw out contemptuous in
situations against the religious institutions Of
our fathers, and to stigmatize and villify all
that class Of preachers who hesitate not to
deliver to their hearers the whole counsel of
God, without regard to whether it trenches
on private or political grounds. Because in
this hour of deception, falsehood and con-
fusion, when the spirit of the clergy, it was
10 ho Goa hsI - n ~
and the very elect had been brought to hesi-
tate and to doubt-because in this most
gloomy hour seven vigilant watchmen on the
walls of Zion have, in this community, raised
the voice of admonition and encouragement,
the wrath of the adversary is fiercely aroused
and he belches forth his deuunciations in the
following fendish style
The Orthodox clergymen of the North,
with few honorable exceptions, have been
tho prime movers and instigators Of this re-
bellion. They famed the flames, piled on
the fuel and laughed to see the conAagration
spread and threaten the destruction of the
Union. They forgot God, the gospel moral
ity and virtue, and they dragged politics up
into their pulpits, and did more in the last
ten years to bring disgrace upon the church
than all the ungodly men and women living.
They have interfered with the holy mission
of Jesus, piled stumbling blocks in the way
of sinners, and put back the spread of the
gospel an hundred years. Had two-thirds of
the pulpits Of the North during the last ten
years been occupied by in6dels, libertines and
thieves, they altogether could not have inflict-
ed such lasting injury upon the cause Of
Christ as have the clergymen who occupied
those pulpits. If it be true that the wicked
who die in their sins suffer the torments of
burning he'll, then ought just God to change
the punishment from the heads ofthe sinners
to the heads of the political preachers.
How very tolerant, how amazingly forbear-
ing, is the community before whom such an
article may be ventured! Are debauchees
and harlots to be insultingly, yet safely pa
'raded as the ministers elect Of God, more
abundant in their labors for good than tn.
virtuous and fearless men whose names are
thus traduced? Is there, we should like to
know, a single individual not identified in
spirit or in conduct with the licentious, the
Incorporate and insubordinate," who does
not feel like repelling SO foul and infamous
slander?
The particular persons to whom the Judge
has reference need no apology. They res
pectively have an interest in the warmest re-
CARDS of nearly all our readers, as we'll as
many of the readers of the Courier. The
malicious assault upon their motives and
characters should be keenly felt by those who
best understand the falsity and wickedness
of it, and should be resented in the most ef-
fectual manner by touching the financial re-
sources of this monstrous calumniator.