The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-24
Church and State---A new Phase Of
- the War.
To the Editors Of The Dau-Booh

To the Editors Of the Day-Booh
GENTS 1T is evident the pulpit has a
tremendous responsibility in our present un-
happy strife, One of the most alarming fea-
lures of the war, which has desolated thous-
ands of cnce happy homes and involved the
loss of SO much fraternal blood, is the mission
of the Methodist Bishops to the South Bsh-
op Ames goes down the Mississippi to the
Gulf, Bishop Scott takes the Coast of Florida
and South Carolina, and Bishop Simpson pen
etrates the interior via Nashville and Tenn
essee They have not only availcd themselves
OF the presence of military power, but .actu-
ally go under the authority and direction of
the War Department at Washington, and the
Missionery Society of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church Bishop Ames has already en-
tered upon his work at Memphis, where, by
the prompt cooperation Of General Veitch,
the Westerly Chapel has been seized, its for
mer pastor driven off, and man after the
Bishops own heart, certain Rev. Mr. Bic
Mullen, of Indiana, appointed to that charge.
This reverend gentleman first sought to dis
tinguish himself at the head of a regiment,
but filling in this, he now sseks to crafty his
ambitious aspirations in the more congenial
ranks of Abolitonis1n.
Such is the programme And the progress
of the work, thus far has elected the highest
condemnation of the organs of the Church
The Christian AdUocate, the Methodist, the
Ladies Repository in short, all the authori-
ties of the denomination, the Press and Pull
pit, endorse and applaud this grand Episcopal
foray as something of which the Church may
well be proud.
The editor of the Meth.dist, who has been
most loud and vehement for the vigorous pro-
secution of the war and the emancipation of
the negro, has deseloped the hidden purpose
Of this extraordinary mission. After refer
ring to the importance of the enterprise and
the plan of its execution, he says :-"The or
der of the Secretary of War given to our
Bishops is for the tempt rayy occupation of
disIoyal churches in the southern States, the
permanent occupation of church edifces is,
we presume, not thought of by u.s." &c. Here
is frank confession of the real character of
this movement 1t is but another evidence of
the melancholy fact, that the professed SER
wants of Him, "whose kingdom is not of this
world" have found another master, and, in
the name Of false philanthropy, have engaged
in this politico-ycliyious campaign for other
purposes than the spiritual welfare of the peo-
pie. This explains the frequent visits of sour
Bishops" to the National Capital, and the
claim set up by one of them in paVticular,
''that the Methodist Episcopal Church had
the honor of electing Abraham Lincoln to the
Presidency of the United States, and therefore
nad TfSnC 10 demand the most ClSIlD2ulSHcQ
consideration of the Administration" The
intelligent public need not be told that this
is simply an Ecclesiastical John Brolon raid
upon the southern Methodist Church. Such
a crusade finds no parallel in history since the
time of the Midianites, who perished ct En-dor
when they impiously said: t'Let US take to
ourselves the houses of God in possession" )"
Where has the sense of decency fed But
it is a still greater marvel that men of Chris
tian principle and education, and especially
that men occupying the high and responsible
position of teachers of the religion of the
Prince of Peace, should use the influence of
their talents and position to give countenapce
and lend support to such goddess fanaticism.
Not content with the sad decentralization of
'fwhcre the Sabbath is made the day and the
house of God the place for partisan orgies"
where flags haunt in solemn mockery over the
pulpits; where the beautiful hymns Of Wesley
are exchanged for the vain-glorious, self-far-
tering gasconade of heathenish songs to a
miscalled liberty, where the Gospel of peace
has been cast out of its proper temples to give
place to a ''religion, aeAose Bi6ls as the Dec
ldrdtion of Independence, Uhose blood-staincd
God IS human freedona, aohose SaOsor as the
national flag, and ,chose devI Is sldUery,"
they now lead off in an abolition crusade upon
people from whom they themselves agreed
to separate in 1914. The very men who now
present to the world this humiliating specta-
Gle, Bishops Ames, Scott and Simpson, were
members of the General Conference of 1874,
and voted with the large majority in that body,
consenting to the secession of the Southern
Conferences if they found it expedient, and
their organization under separate govern
mont. These three clergymen voted Also
1t is believed, for the "plan of separation" !"
guaranteeing to their southern brethren pro
Est &c h. olu arfp
proceeds of the Book concern at New York
ond Cincinnati, and the Char tered Fund at
Philadelphia. The northern church, failing
to carry out in good faith their part of the
contract which had been agreed upon with so
N uch unanmity by the General Conference,
the southern commissioners instituted suit in
the courts respectively where the property was
located. After several years of litigation, the
case was finally decided unanimously by the
Supreme Court of the United States, in favor
of the claims of the South.
It will be remembered that in 1874 the
right of secession was openly advocated and
the principal organs of the church strongly
maintained the doctrine. in reference to the
southern conferences sWayward sisters, go
in peace" They now advocate q war cf inva-
sion of the southern States and churches for
the purpose of effecting the destruction of
southern shareholders and their property,
against whom the entertain such false and bit
ter animosity. For ii must be borne in mind
that the real dnin,us of Abelitionism has al
ways been hatred to the STAKEHOLDER and not
love to the slave. Yes, reverend gentlemen,
you and your followers will yet learn, but
alas too late, it is feared, to repair the mis-
chief you have dose, that not slaoery but
44bolitionisna, is the cause of this fratricidsl
war. You exult over ninety thousand SLAVES
liberated by the Federal arms, but you remain
obivious of the fact, that for evey. negro thus
freed, mere than jfue aohite men have been
slain in the conflict. And if it has taken
three years of such desperate fighting to make
an Hundred thousand negroes .tieeanae',, az
you are pleased to call them, how many years
of bloody fighting will it require to make
four millions free ? And, after all, it is SIM