The mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado County, Calif.) 1863-1943, 1865-07-15


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If The people. ever get another respite |
from tHcitement and etrit. We hope they |
will End time = investigate the eAases Of
the perpetual tvomda IN which they hass;
besn involved o. SO many yeaEs. II W
are not mistaken, they will end the pran.
cipal cause to be the bigotry, intolerance
and ambition.of ignorant and fanaiical
priests, who profess to teach the win of
the, Almighty in secular affairs ignorant,
not 10 the learning Of the schools, nor,
'esFhara the requisites :: =: 80. =: i=-1:=cs
but in everything pretnsnaax TO-. human
nature and civil government. It is no
disparagsment that faithful minister Of
the gospel may lack the qualities Of &C.
complished craftsmanship. The discredit
and the common misfortune begin when
he assumes to act the statesman, without
the stAtesman's training. As general
thing. ministers know but little about
political subjects. Political subjects, it
is presumed, interest them but little
Their time 10 supposed to be devoted to
the Investigation and calculation Of more
sacred II not more important matters. -
They may be safe guides in religious,
but experience has demonstrated that
they are not in q political, point Of view.
The reason is abvious. One subject they
may understandable other, they arc ig.
nOrant OF, because they have not the
time even If they had the inclination, to
examine It thoroughly. Politically, there
fore, they, are unsafe teachers.
The blunders of the clergy have been
conspicuous upon several occasions, with
in the last ten years. They organized
the Know Nothing party, and esSayed to
legislats what they called Romanism out
of the country but after = struggle of
singular bitterness for several years, they
were defeatedF The good sense Of the
American people would not indOrse their
intolerance and bigotry; and the result
of their intolerance and folly is what
might have been expected from the use
of improper means. Next, these clerical
statesmen took up tho slavery question.
Few Of them ever saw . slave, or had any
idea Of the practical workings of the slave
system. They had heard Of some of its
incidental evils, which they mistook for
the evil ITSELF They saw an individual
sold, but they did not see the millions Of
white Christian men and women laboring
assiduously for the moral and social vel.
fare Of millions Of blacks whom God had
committed to their care. Hence they in.
duced this war,in which millions of whites
and blacks have been slaughtered. In
dwelling upon the imaginary evils Of
slavery, they entirely overlooked the destf
tuition; ignorance and suffering of the
white sufferers in their midst. For the
latter they had no sympathy. They
made no appeal to the benevolent and pa
triotic for them.
AS class, political parsons have be-
come q set Of pernicious agitators.-
Whether their calling is found less lucta,
tive, or deemed less honorable than here.
tofore, we arc not able to say; but many
Of them seem to have abandoned it it part
or in whole, and are 6rst and last in the
arena Of politics, and all Of them eager and
importunate for the honors and emolu.
ments Of official station. We are per.
suaded that there will be no pertinent
peace in this county until these fahatictl
and truculent agitators are driven Into
the pulpit or out Of it. In the first case,
they will agitate their own congregations
only in the last, they will have no more
influence than belongs to common and
recognized politician. The clergy have
engineered all the so-called reformatory
movements Of the last few years, and the
results of their wretched management are
seen, in part, in the moral and material
desolation which pervades the whole
country. 1t is time fo- the people to set
their seal Of condemnation upon these
bigoted and mischievous agitators.