Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-17
POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS THUG.
GISM.

From the Albany (N Y) Argus. March 81
The Rev. Mr.. Fowler, of Chicago, pub
fishes sermon in the Republican of that
city, preached on the 25th ultimo, in which
he assumes TO expound the duty of Chris
tians in the present political crisis" 1t is
bitter TRADE against the usurped power of
the Executive, and rhapsody Of admira-
ton for the blacks. He exclaimed: "The
negro carries in his arms the veal or woe Of
this continent )" and he asked: " Let Con-
| gress falter, and yield to the aggressions and
threats of the Executive, and admit the un-
washed, bloody traitors Of the South, and
where are our guarantees? Who could
breathe freely under ruler who has usurp-
ed the power of Congress? We have resisted
invasion and subdued insurrection. We are
now 10 resist despotism and sustain our re-
presentatives"
The questions here askedare not answered
except in this way:
Every time the nation has compromised
in men or measures, she has paid the pen
atty. In 1910 the Wings compromised by
electing pro-slavery Vice President, and
Harrison suddenly died, 50 that Tyler might
favor the annexation of Texas In 1850,
Taylor, avowedly opposed to the fugitive
slave law, was..disposed of to give room for
man that would sign the fugitive slave law.
In 1856 Northern man was elected with a
fire-eater; and fearing his Northern educa-
ton, and not knowing in advance the mean
ness of the material of which Buchanan was
made, they tried to poison him. In 1864 a
compromise Vice President was elected, and
Mr.. Lincoln was murdered Immediately
after Inauguration. Whenever pro-slavery
Vice President had been put on with an anti
slavery President, the President has not sur
vived single bill Of moment If Hamlin
or any radical man had been put on the
ticket for Vice President, | believe we would
have had Mr.. Lincoln for President to-day
When the Baltimore Convention nominated
Andrew johnson, they unwittingly signed
the death warrant of Mr.. Lincoln"
Such weak and wicked natures as this Rev.
Fowler, Mrs Swisshelm and others, do great
harm when they set afioat such falsehoods
as these. They dishonor the nation by at
tributing to it customary and habitual crime
of this kind; and they invite retaliation.
If the South assassinated three Presidents
and attempted to kill the fourth, what is the
duty of the North2 Is it not to deal with
assassins in their own way? Is not that the
lesson which is to be learned from the Chi
cago pulpit-that and the spirit of inhamed
hate that would work out this theory of re-
taliation to bloody conclusions.
What are the facts? Gen. Harrison was a
Virginian by birth, and received the votes
of majority of the slave States. He was a
strong-headed opponent of abolition, as all
his life and correspondence showed. His
death, which occurred amid all
ings of family and friends, was without sus-
&C u lo 4of
overwork and excitement, produced by the
clamor and pressure of Office seekers. John
Tyler had been placed upon the ticket to
prove to the people that the United States
bank question was not political issue in the
contest. The whig politicians, in attempt
ing to force his signature to a bank bill,
were guilty Of deceit and dishonesty, and
he, in resisting, worthy of all praise. The
abolition cause was neither advanced nor re-
tarded by his death.
Gen. Taylor was from a slave State-the
owner of 400 slaves, and most decided op-
ponent of abolition. When Mr.. Seward
proclaimed the doctrine of the 'higher law"
the organ of the administration, the Re
public denounced the dogma in the most
earnest language. The administration was
preparing for a crusade against abolition,
taken i'll on a northern tour) brought Mr..
Fillmore to the chair, who simply carried
out the policy of his predecessor.
There was some gronnd for suspeeting an
attempt to poison Mr. Buchanan. He had
lust beaten Fremont, in regard to whom the
minds of the blacks were filled with strange
and exaggerated superstitions. The circum-
stances Of the crime, if crime there was
pointed to some negro as the author The
conspiracy against Lincoln embraced john
son as well; and the object, so far as there
was one, was TO produce anarchy. Nothing
is clearer than that johnson was to be
victim. 1t failed, ard he brought the assas-
sins to justice and execution.
The death of Lincoln, leaving johnson as
his successor, was regarded as a calamity by
the South Lincoln was about to grant
general amnesties and to bring about the re-
storation of the States on conditions far less
onerous than those since imposed. The
abolition pulpits spoke of the assassination
as an act of providence furnishing ill-timed
lenity, and placing the rod of authority and
the sword of execution in sterner hands.
Among the wretched plotters of that in
famous crime, who suffered on the gallows
or by the bullet, there was one hardly more
guilty than the man who from the pulpit
deliberately poisons the well-springs of pub
lie sentiment, and, in the garb of religion,
by falsehood and infammatory Indictment
stimulates weak minds to deeds of blood.
Their religion is thuggism. Christianity
recoils from the impure contract Of their
stained hands.