Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-09-06
Has the Church a new Champion?

questioning their honesty in this as well as in their
other pretentions to reform. 1t certainly must be
with very poor grace that party which has
been notorious for its abuse of the clergy and the
church, now take; up arms in its defence. The
| weapons must receive very bad handling.
No one can have failed to notice the avidity
with which the democratic press has ever been
ready to publish and magnify scandal against the
clergy, and the rdcule that has been heaped upon
them by its followers. But aside from the gener-
al detection of democratic morals, there must be
| another reason for this hostility to the clergy.
Ministers as class are largely republican, and
are everywhere known for their distinguished 10y
atty, and services to the Union cause. Every one
knows how ready democratic blood has always
been to boil up at the merest mention of pc itlcs
in the pulpit, and we all remember, nor can it be
forg often, the mad rage of democrats, when, in
the tt, ing and terrible days of the war, loyal min
listers everywhere urging, from their pupts,
men to stand up in defence OF the nations honor
and the nations life. There is hardly loyal
minister 10 the land but has suffered iudiguit,es
at the hands of some member of his par 50 for
| such temeiity. and we know of more than one in
stauce where loyal ministers have been bounded
from their pupts because they dared to utter 10y
al sentiment, therein! BE his said TO the immor-
tai fame of the clergy and to the eternal shame of
the democratic party.
Are we then to trust such defenders of the
church a, these And when we see them so great
ly exercised bt cause of the alleged infdeliy of
republican speaker, to believe it is bee tuse
of the iufdelty itself: Are they most afraid Col.
Ingersoll will bring harm to the church or to the
democratic party; 1t cannot be the former. for
their own cause is manifestly much dearer to them
than that of the church, and they are certainly
not identical It must then be the latter, for
| writing and smarting under the terrible blows he
is iuhctng upon them, and fearing the decima-
ton of their ranks, they see their only safety in
keeping without his reach So they raise this
moaning cry of nfdelity, knowing it is point
upon VIII ch all christians are peculiarly sensitive,
to keep people away from hearing him. A coura-
geous resort truly! Now we have no defence Of
Mr.. 1ngersoll's religious opinions to make. He
has a right to believe what he chooses, and he
alone is answerable. He does not come here to
promulgate, or advocate his religious views: so
Mr.. Pillsbury and his party may rest relieved of
any fears they may have Of danger coming to the
church from this source. His Only business is to
discuss the political questions of the hour and
with these alone he deals. That he is doing it in
a mastery and telling way thousands who have
focked to hear him know, and the craven fear of
the democracy, as evinced by the methods of de-
fence they take, attest. KNOX.
Mr.. Hale on the Stump.
Hon. Eugene Hale has been speaking very eff
fectvely to his constituents in the fifth district,
who are wide awake and will again return Mr..
Hale to Congress by the usual majority. All the
meetings which he has addressed have been large
and enthusiastic, and his speeches have given the
highest satisfaction. In his speech at Pembroke
after referring briefly to the fact that in twelve
short years from the war the same party that car
red the South into rebellion and sympathized
with the South at the North during the rebellion,
under the same influences at present demanded
of the American people to be reinstated in power,
he proceeded to discuss the situation of the coun
try and the accountability of the republican party
for the hard times; and alluding to Governor Til
dens declaration that the wolf was at the door OF
nearly every American seaold, while admit
ting that the times are not prosperous in many
parts of the country, that labor is unemployed,
bus mess ventures are many Of them not success
full he showed that like condition is found IN al
most every other country in Chrlstendom.
He read extracts from Dominion newspapers
showing that the Government is dischargng its
own employees upon its roads aud public works.
| and that in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia thou
sands OF laborDg men are oat OF e nploy ment ana
at the point of starvation. He described the con-
dition of affairs in Great Britain, Germany and
generally upon the continent, and in the South
American States aud dema nded of the democ attic
politician who sought to prejudice the republican
voter against his party by the cry OF "nard times
and the wolf at the door,, that he should point
out to that voter any other country on the face of
the globe where he could now emisrate to and
| better his condition.
| He took up tue statemen, Of Governor Tilden
that the extravaganza Of republican adm Illustration
| had produced The condition of the country, and
his famous charge that forty-fve hundred millions
| Of dollars had been spent and largely wasted by
republ can administrations 10 eleven years, show
ing that three-tourths of 1t had been expended in
| the payment of war expenses in 1860, or IN the
reduction Of the national debt, or in Interest of
the National debt, or in pensions to the soldiers,
their widows and chiidr, n, Or 10 the sinking fund,
| thus reducing the running expenses OF the Gov
| ernment 10 a figure smaller, when computed in
god than the expenses of the last democratic ad-
ministi alton under Buchanan.
| He met the prop osition of the democrats that
times could not be worse under democratic edmin-
| istration than now, by review of the course Of
| the democratic party in the House of Represen-
tatives, showing how utterly the party had failed
| to make good any of its promises, either for the
| improvement OF the methods of administration by
civil service reform, or even OF economy; demon
stratirg that in the expenses Of the House itself,
where it had full control and swing, a round mil
| lion of dollars would be added to the burdens Of
| the people as additional expenses of the present
House over and above that of any House that had
ever sat. He pictured the position OF the two
parties upon the question of the protection of
American industries, illustrating by Its effect in
the Pembroke Iron Works Companys operations,
the audience being largely composed of men in
some way connected now or in the past with this
| corporation.
lie showed the magnitude and extent of South
ern CLAIMS now pending before Congress, and de-
| cared that with full democratic power estab-
lished the whole weight Of the South would be
thrown in the direction of the payment of some or
all of claims as it was before the war thrown
in the direction of the perpetuation and the ex-
tension OF slavery. He closed by an appeal to
the people of Pembroke to consider well, not
simply the past records of the party, bat the dan
ger to the material interests of every Northern
community and of the whole country, of commit
| ting the Government to party that must neces-
sary be sectional in its influences from the fact
| that if successful its success must be owed to a
united South, with the three or four doubtful
IGs.- A.