Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-07-09
DEFENDING TEEE COMMUNISTS.

DEFENDING THE COMMUNISTS.
As might have been expected, the three
foSmost men in the United States TO
undertake defense Of the Communists
Of Paris have been Wendell Phillips,
Henry Ward Beecher and B. F. Butler.
The first sees nothing in the atrocities Of
the Commune but what might have been
expected. The second, regards it as
quite natural that men who have been
hurt by their own reckless conduct,
should seek to vent thsir anger on The
thing that hurt them. The third, justi4
fes The destruction Of the Column of
Victory in the Place Vendome
IS an set 'fn accordance with the
spirit Of free institutions. The Posi-
twists and Communists in New York also
heartily endorse these ut;erances, and
supplement them by an outpouripg of
downright bl&sphemy. At s recent meet
ing of this band of diGorganizers, the
principal speaker declared that theology
has always been, and viii continue to be
the cause and sanction of a. war" That
God and his priests are its authors and
abettors." "Pnests and capitalists, diet
tartists, parasites, metapbysicians and
Ioafcrs" are warned that humanity
has no need OF them "Cease, "
said The speaker, $50 be an obstruction,
or you must, as Wendell Phillips has said,
go to the lamp p. St in New York, IS
wei as in Paris. ~ From all which, says
the Baltimore Gazette, we gather that
the Communists are the self chosen Apes
ties Of a rev Dispensation. In their
creed, God is brutal tyrant, deyotipg
nations to the slaughter of each other,
AID priests are his appointed agents to in
cite men to the bloody work. Disciples
OF VOltaHe, and DiderOt, and Paine, these
Communists hold the Christian religion
TO be a lie, and those who profess to be-
lieYe in it hypocrites, or worse.
They hate the wealthy, despise
the learned, ard would hang at the
lamp post all who are wiser or better
than themselves. During their brief rule
in Paris, they despoiled and desecrated the
churches, and murdered many Of those
Who miuistcred at their altars. Their defi~
milton Of liberty is the right to indulge in
the grosssst lcentiousness, and of hu-
manity that sill who are wealthy, and all
who are learned, deserve 10 be hanged.
They liberated criminals from the jails;
they closed tie courts of law; they pro
hibitcd the issue of newspapers that dared
to criticise ,heir actions, a8d they crushed
out free speech. Yet their admirers tell US
"a revolution vas never more peacefully
conducted Il was q revolution that was
forced upon the law-abiding people of
Paris 8. the cannon's mouth, and by the
menacng CLEAN of bayonets. 1t was a
peace inspired by terror. Mems lips
were sealed; spies swarmed every where,
and those whose fears impelled them to
seek safety in flight from the city, were
Numbered by thousand. This peaceful"
revolution begsn with the capture of
arms; was kept up by Inquisitoral
searches AID seizures, and closed with
the burning Of public edifces and the
brutal massacre of innocent prisoners.
Yet this is the Commune that Wendell
Phillips praises; tina! had in it, according
to Butler. go many Elements of good and
60 few of evil, and Of which the Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher says apologet-
ica)ly:
''It is a sad thing thst the palaces are
burned; but It does not transcend the i'm
agitation, how men aGOuld have such o
spite as they NANTES e. in the burning of
them. The boy pieiigur,s the man.
Who ever, driving the c VS. a-field, bare
footed, and making has.t, AID striking
lis foot against q stone, has not, while
suffering from the singing pain caused by
the blow, beaten the stone, that was
not al fault, because it hurt
h,m2 And when men, running
against The stone bulWsIks Of
churches and cathedra!s, on. Of which
have come sharp pangs AID pains, and
Against palaces, which, to them, have no
pyelical associations, and out OK which |
have come their Oppressors, and that are
looked upon SIS honid and hideous places |
which have been the den Of those OPP |
pressoTs-as mClesn places where de- !
youring bToods of despots have swallow
ed IN their hberties-I do not wonder
that there should be the feeling, Put |
the torch to everything that tends toward
the old tyranny!'"
"Of couIse." adds Mr. Beecher can't
mgIy, 'ft was rot justified, but it may !
thus be explained" The veriest cut
throat that ever piled his calling could not |
make q better defense. He might plead |
as Byechgr virtually does: "The man was
Ticn, 80 l robbed him; he was offensive |
to me, so l killed him." So, likewise, |
Wendell Phillips bids capitalists beware |
of the lamp post, and Butler declares that |
The burning of palaces and grand historica |
edificcs is u patriotic duty. And theseare
the teachers whom cur Radicals applaud |