Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-07-10
PROM
Feuians and the NegrOes-The
Clergy and the decentralization
CoIIege-Bad Business.

second angle; turns up, as every other
helpless thing turns up, not because he
chooses, but because he has no choice.
The latest sensational crop-out hereabout
is the-trod5le on the Big River, where
the Irish 'long=shoremen desire the mo
nopoly of their peculiar profession. A
great many steamers have been burned
at the Saint Louis wharves during the
year past, and others have strangely
blown up or snsgged or somehow gotten
into trouble below.
Recently, one or W. formidable COM
binations to carry the Fenian point by
strikes having failed, the amiable cham
pions of free ireland served written no
ices upon the officers of the Atlantic and
Mississippi Steamship line, the chief
through line on the river, advising them
that further eastrophes would be sure to
happen to their steamers if the nagrrs
were not promptly discharged. This line,
which has lost nine beats worth from
$4,000 to S15O,OOo each within the last
eight months, seems to have been singled
out for especial vengeance. Since the
notices referred to were served, land of
course quite disregarded) a loaded shell
Sisguisedas q lump of coal, was discovered
by a fireman just in season to save it from
the furnace and a new version of the tu-
ulsr-boiler-unaccounta the
DRY is already popular among the
river men. All of this is far better
for the negro than for the Irishman, of
course, and some more of it is only need
ed to make the FeniRn element about as
estimable south of the Canada line as it
is north Of it. If the negro had been half
as stupid or half as selfish as his tradi-
tional prosecutor, abolitionists would not
have been half as numerous as they were,
snd the war would not yet be finished.
A profounder pity will reach even the
Irish, and a society for their civilization
would rank in the forefront of the most
truly p~hilanthropic charities of the day.
THE CLERGY AND MAsoSs.
at the recent session of the General As
ISOLATION of the Congregational Churches
of Illinois, held at Ottawa, q deliver
anee" upon the subject of oath-bound Sc
cfet societies wasa feature of the session,
and the invisible fraternities are troubled
about it.
AT the last previous annual session, held
at Peoria, 8 committee was appointed to
consider the subject carefully, and mskea
judicious report. The committee was con-
stituted of three of the wisest men in the
body: DR.. Edward Beecher of Galesburg.
Prof. s.. z. Bartlett of the Chicago Theo-
logical Seminary, and President Blanch-
ard of Wheaton College. As the views
of these gentlemen were essentially alike,
it was agreed that DR.. Beecher should
write the argumentstive report, and DR..
Bartlett the draft Of the resolutions, Pres
ident Blanchard preferring to take no
active part because his views had been
somewhat prominently urged upon several
occasions, and were better known than
those of his colleagues.
When the year came round, the COM
mittee reported, and the report was
adopted without q division-slmost with
out debate. The resolutions contain the
result of admirable logic of DR.. Beeeher's
%exordium, and as they represent the senti-
ment o. q very large body of very intel
ligent and influential men, although upon
a question which is fairly open to debate,
l think it can hardly be amiss TO reprint
them.
RESOLUTIONS.
Resolved l. That in dealing with secret
organizations, this Association recognizes
the need of a careful statement of princi-
piles and q wise discrimination of things
that differ.
2. That there sre some legitimate con-
ceSlments Sof an organized character
such as the privacies of the family and of
b~uhiness firms, the temporary -concealment
Of public negotiations at critical staeos,
the occasional withdrawal of scandals
which could only disturb and demoralize
communities, and the secresy of military
combinations; norare we prepared totally
to condemn all private plans and arrange
ments between good and true citizens, in
great emergencies, to rezist the machine
tions of the wicked.
3. That organizations whose whole OBJ
ject anl general method are well under
stood, and are known TO be laudable and
mofal-such as associations for purely lit
erary or r%eformstory purposes-are not to
be sweepingly condemned by reason Of a
thin veil of seeresy covering their precise
methods and procedures; yet we deem
that outer veil of secresy to be unwise and
undesirable, inasmuch as it holds out need
less temptations to deeds of darkness, and
gives unnecessary countenance TO other
and unlawful combinations; and, when
ever the act Of membership involves an
unconditional oath of promise of submits
sion, adhesion, and coneeslment under
all circumstances, that compact is a grave
moral wrong.
a. That there are other widespread or
ganizstions-such as Free Masonry
which, as we suppose, are in their nature
hostile to good citizenship and true relig-
ion, because they exact i~niatory oaths of
blind compliance and coneealment, in
compatible with the claims of equal JUS
tice toward man and a good conscience
toward God; because they may easily.
and sometimes have actually, become
combinations against the due process of
law and government; because, while
claiming a religious character, they, in
their rituals, deliberately withhold all re-
eognition Of Christ as their only Saviour,
andIof Christianity as the only true reHg-
ion because, while they are in fact moth
ing but restricted partnerships or eompa-
MES for mutual insurance and protection,
they SYSTEMATICALLY parade this character
less engagement as a substitute for broth
erly love and true benevolence; because
they bring good men into confidential re-
lations to bad men, and because, while. in
theory, they Eupplant the Church of
Christ, they do also, in fact, largely tend
to withdraw the sympathy and active zeal
of professing Christians from their respec-
tive churches. Against all connections
with such associations we earnestly advise
the members of our churches, and exhort
them, be We not ~unequslly yoked together
with unbelievers.
WHEATON COLLEGE.
This vigorous and prosperous Young
college, located but Is miles from Chics-
60, has just closed its Commencement ex-
ercises, and entered upon a new collegiate
year with much encouragement. Prof
J. ClWebster, late of Hopkinton, Massa-
chusetts, was i~naugurated, and takes a
chair already handsomely endowed by
his former Practitioners and other perso-
nal friends. The institution is we'll loca-
ted, has 8 larger attendance of pupils
than some of our millionaire universities.
is out of debt and is sure to become a
power in the land. Its success is largely
due to the indefatigsble labors and cour-
sgeous self-denial of President Blsnch-
ard, who assumed his chair when it had
scarcely an integral leg, and in the face
of the gravest endorsements has made
II a chair in which any man might ba 1lad |