The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-17
Beecher on Fisk.


Beecher on Fisk.
We have read with very great interest the
graphic delineation OF the character OF the
late James Fisk, Jr., and his confederatea'
| jaw Gould and Judge Barnard, lately pro-
|iduced in the New York Tribune. 1t de-
scribes the first especially as a sensual, cum
ming, wicked, base, selfish, unscrupulous,
i,brutal, indecent, shameless thief and de:
bauchee--a man who succeeded in amassing
wealth and power by fraud and wrong, and
made o boast Of it. And we wondered how
| it was that great community endured the
domination in business and the Intrusion IN
society Of q beastly tyrant and remorseless
| robber like this. But We wonder no longer
when we read the following:
EXTRACTS from Sermon BY Rev; Henry laI ward
! Beecher on the Tammany FRAUDS
.uThose eighteen. upon whom the tower In 81.
Iloam fell and slew them, think ye that tney were
| sinners above all men that dwet IN Jerusalem
ten You, nat; but. except ye repent, ye small all
| likewise perish" ;,
nThInk We that those six or seven on whom
the New York Times has fallen, are sinners
above all that dwell in New York? Nay.
say to every man that smuggles goods; to
every maa that sells on false invoices; TO
every man that fashions things deceitfully; to
every man that carries on business which ne
Is afraid to Lave the light Of Gods eye resi-
upon; to every man who swears falsely IN re-
gard to Ills affairs, and gives In false account
of his income; to every man who hides his
prosperity to get rid Of paying his lawful
and Just taxes-I, say to every such man, you
are as guilty as these detected villains. Ah! If
all the men who have been guilty of fraudin
New York were to have tower fall on them;
there would be funerals for ffty years to
comew
.tThe criminals are only mirrors that you
NAV see yourself IN. Look, at them and see
what you are when you are dishonest. LOOK.
at them and see what you are when you
swindIe your neigbbor's store. That is all
they have done. Look at them and see what
you are when you cheat at the customhouse.
That is all they have done. Look at them
and see what you are when you swear falsely
|! in regard to taxation. That ls allthey have
done. What have they done Stolen 30
have you. Lied. So have you. Been raise
to their oaths?- $50 have you. Men might
have necklaces of beads almost uncountable
Erepresenting their wrong deeds, and they
would not all, be. represented. One string
about their. neck could not carry them all. II
| Is notorious, fagraut laxity of morals In busi-
ness, that breeds these things"
/ -
"Neither ought we 10 be surprised, it seems
to me, when we consider what has been the
conduct of political affairs among men. what
has been the abuse of trust, what has been the
Judgment OF the public about right aud wrong
10 regard to public affairs, and what are the
ideas into which the young are educated.
What rs politics 1t is supposed to be game,
and at that game of cunning; a gamblers
game; game of cards; a game OF loaded
dice; game in this respect, that the lower
| Instincts, the baser faculties, largely predom-
mate In the conduct of public affairs. 1t has
come to be believed that shrewdness 10 public
life must be winked at; that you cannot pull
up the tares without pulling up the wheat
also.n
"And so men are robbing the community all
the way through. They organize system
OF spoils, by majority here and there; and
they are filled full of frauds. And by and by
when man little more comprehensive, and
organized little more skllfully, carries off the
very gates OF the Treasury, as did Samson
the gates of GAIA, On his back, we atone for
our misdeeds by crying out, Thief! thief!
thief! thietp AS it that man were more q
thief than you are! AS II that man stole, and
Won did not steal! AS If he connived at steal
ing, and you did not connive at stealing"
=.
ssThe old. carcass .lles decaylng in the sun.
| 1t is covered all over with vermin. Go to-day
and cleanse it, removing every maggot Take
| them all away, and. leave it clean. Go back
again tomorrow, and there will be as many
more. The carrion corruption rs there which
breeds vermin. Though every one OF these
men, as some ill-advised persons have sug-
eested, where hung to lamp.post before bis
i own door, as an example; or, though tney
were convicted, and were obliged to dlsgorge,
and Sing Sing were engorged, what then
The same conscience remaining, and the same
facilities for fraud remaining, would you be
any better OFF,"
We thank God that when the Republican
party proposed, in it's stupendous states
manship, to punish South Carolina byreduc-
ing her people to the same level Of official
corruption, Uhey could not pollute our
social morals,) they were obliged, first to
manufacture q neao people from ignorant,
helpless negro slaves, and then import the