The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-10-09
From the Carthage MOI Advance
Religion and Politics.

Tis broadly known that religion and
| politics will not work in harness." one
or the other must be dropped Carthage
Patriot
That a democrat, standing over the
scattered remains of the late democratic
party, should arrive at the conclusion
that religion and politics will not work
in harness, is not greatly to be wondered
at. For those very disioin-ed conspicu-
ously unlovely and bad-smelling remains
of a party once so full of lusty life, bear
strong witness to the disintegrating
effects which inevitably result from re-
ligion and politics refusing to work in
harness-religion pulling one way and
politics another.
1t was a custom among certain nations,
before Christ's religion of Mercy had
! softened the hearts of rulers and judges,
to execute Indicators, by hitching horses
to the head and feet of the miserable
victims and literally pulling them joint
from limb. In quite similar manner
religion was hitched to the neck of the
democratic party, away back in Bu-
chanans administration, and drew away
from it the head and upper portion of
the trunk, including the brains and the
heart, while politics, hitched to the lower
eXtremities, took all the rest So far
then, as democratic experience extends,
the proposition of our neighbor would
seem to be as sadly true as the lamenta-
tions of jeremiah. but, to a mind uEbi-
ased by such heart-rending experiences
the same proposition appears almost ma
1ignantly false.
If by religion be meant a trustful re-
cognition and acknowledgment of the
Divine authority in human affairs. and if
by politics be meant the science of gov
ernment and the art of administration.
then to affirm that religion and politics
will not work together in harness, is vir-
tually to affirm that, in the most mo-
mentous of human affairs, men can get
along quite as well without God\as with
God. This is practical atheism
Now, the simple historical truth of this
matter is, that all the essential progress
the race has made in the science of gov
ernment, and in the arts of civilization,
is due to the fact that religion and poll
tics can be made to work in harness Tho
very existence OF our government, is due
to the harmonious working together of
these two forces, They worked in har-
ness, keeping exactly abreast, during the
colonial days of New England, when
Capt. Miles Standish and his God fearing
militia, legislated, fought and prayed
with equal JUNCTION and success. They
worked in harness admirably during the
trying times OF the Revolution. when the
prayers of Washington supported his bat
teries upon the field, and gave wisdom to
his counsels in the cabinet. They work
ed in harness perfectly in the destruc-
ton of that sum Of all villainies, Amer
can slavery, and in the suppression of the
Shareholders rebellion-the religion of
Beecher and Simpson pulling evenly with
the politics of Lincoln and Summer In
deed, the great republican party owes
the perpetuity of its power and the splen-
dor of its achievements, entirely to the
fact that it compelled religion and poll
tics to work in harness, and its lease of
power and life is dependent ON keeping
them together. If the Ameses and But
lers and Carpenters shall succeed in drop
ping religion out of the team and turn
ing It out to grass, we may confidently
predict that credit mobiliers, salary grab
bings and senatorial drunkenness and
debaucheries will bury the party so deep
that resurrection trumpet will never dis
turb its slumbers
The 1Gsaace is willing to stake all its
hopes of, success and usefulness on the
belief that the intelligence and moral
sense of the people OF the Southwest will
sustain 1t in the attempt to demonstrate
by its teachings from week to week, the
fallaey OF the proposition that religion
and politics will not work in harness. and
that one or the other must be dropped