New-York tribune., 1873-03-01
THE "CHRISTLAN STATESMENp

One of the specially phenomenal features Of
the recent Congressional investigations and ex-
posures is the fact that nearly if not quite all the
incriminated parties are men of religious pro-
fessions-of the class which has of late come
to be known, in distinction from the average
bad politician, as "Christian statesmen Con-
spicuous among these were Vice-President
Colfax. Vice-President-elect Henry Wilson,
Senators Patterson of New Hampshire, Harlan
of Iowa, and Pomeroy of Kansas. The fact
that such men have been besmirched has been
commented upon variously; by some in sorrow,
by others in Indignation and anger, and by
Others still with mockery and flippant satire.
There is danger in all this of doing great injus-
tice to the cause which these gentlemen have in
some measure assumed to represent, and
of importing into our consideration of the
subject, elements which are external and
foreign to it. That these gentlemen were, or
professed to be, "Chrlstian statesmen" claim
ing to be governed in their action by higher
and purer motives than their fellows, and to
bring to the test of conscience and duty their
whole political conduct, is not fact to be
considered by Congress in weighing their
offense; it has no pertinency or relevancy be-
fore that tribunal. They are not tried there
upon their professions, but for their acts. 1t
should not be better or worse for them in the
judgment meted to them there that they
assumed to be more virtuous than others, that
they were Pharisees or hypocrites.
But it is question Of some interest in men,
tai philosophy, and indeed in the history
of political progress and Christian civilization,
how far they were weak, and how far wicked;
how far they corrupted politics by coming
into political life, or how far they were cor
rupted by it, and whether their Christian pro-
fessions made them worse by promoting Op-
pOrtunities for evil, or better by throwing over
them some restraint. And these are questions
which the people will do well to consider with
unusual thoughtfulness and care. II is a sort
of brutal instinct with the majority of people,
when an exemplary life has been wrecked in
great temptation, to jump to the conclusion
that the poor fellow who has come to grief
has been always bad, but has concealed it; that
there is no such thing as sudden fall
nothing anywhere ever but fostering
guilt and exposure. y is never charita-
BILE; sometimes it is terribly unjust: In
the charitable judgment of their fellow
citizens, the representative good men who
have been found out in this transaction are
not deliberate and intending hypocrites and
rascals. There are easy steps in their descent
and smooth processes in their casuistry by
which, if one but takes the trouble to trace
them, it is manifest enough that while they
may be grossly guilty they are not entirely
bad. No sensible person will for a moment
credit the suggestion that these gentlemen
practiced deliberate hypocrisy in their re-
ligious professions, using them as a cloak for
the pursuit Of political promotion and unlaw-
full gain. And yet there is such profound dis
trust everywhere of professions of morality
and religion, such hostility, or perhaps more
properly jealousy, of men who assume superior
virtue, that when such man falls,
the disposition is not only to charge him with
hypocrisy but to hold the cause of morality or
the Christian Church responsible for the
habitual rearing and training of rogues. Nothing
could be wider of the mark or more sweep
ingly injurious and unjust. The Christian
Church is not responsible for these men or
their acts Were they never 30 pure and up
right, they could not add luster to the name
it takes from its divine founder; be they
never 80 base. the baseuess IL only their own.