Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-08-16
Miseellallfous.
SOUTHERN OUTRAGE.
The Duty of the Nation to Protect
Equal Rights in the South.
SERMON BY REV. DR.. BAYLIss ON "AssAssINA
TIoN FOR OPINIONS SAKE AS
AN ELEMENT OF FREE
GOVERNMENT"


last night to hear the sermon of Dr. Bayliss, sug
gested by the outrages upon the family of Sena-
tor Twitchell, in Louisiana, with which this COM
munity have become familiar by reason of the
funeral of Mrs. Helen f. Willis, in this city last
| week. Hundreds went away from the church be.
| cause of lack of room. The discourse was listened
to with the deepest interest, and three times the
audience broke over the restraints Of the time ant
place, spplauding loudly. when with earnest in
dignaton, the reverend gentleman spoke of the
insult heaped lupon the memory of the dead wo
man by the editor of the Sentinel, in comparing
her funeral to the funeral of street-car horse
But the sermon speaks for itself. 1t was as fol
lows:
Ps. xcIv., l-6; o Lord God, to whom ven.
geance belongeth o God, to whom vengeance
belongeth, show thyself.
Lift up thyself, thou judge of the proud. Lord,
| how long shall the wicked, how long shall the
| wicked triumph How long shall they utter and
speak hard things, and all the workers of iniquity
| boast themselves They break in pieces thy peo-
pie, o Lord, and atflict thine heritage.
They slay the widow and the stranger, and mui-
der the fatherless.
THE SERMON.
Without knowledge or intending it, the psalm.
ist has here given us picture of large proper
tions of the South, and has furnished a form of
prayer for the stricken ones.
The truth has been forced upon US, for we have
had among us during the past week a spectacle
which to many of us was appalling. We have
followed to the grave the remains of woman
who was killed by Southern cruelty and we have
seen following her, in his solitary sorrow, man
both of whose arms have been destroyed by bull
lets from rife in the hands of Southerner.
The woman is at rest. The angry surges Of Sec
tional hate will sweep over her no more. The
crack OF the assassins rifle cannot again disturb
her sleep. She has heard of the murder of her
kindred for the last time. Let us congratulate
her. The brother is not He still lvcs-lives
to remember the graves Of his murdered kindred !;
lives to look at the meagre stumps of his helpless
arms, and to be reminded of them every day of his
life, of the malevolent GOODNESS with which an
assassin, in open day, in the most conspiculously
public place in Southern village, deliberately
fired twenty-onc shots at him and his companions,
and then rode unmolested away. Lives also to
think that he has suffered all this in country for
whose freedom and unity he had received other
wounds in open war; Some of us have seen this
| man sitting in the deep shadow of his bereave-
ment, and absolutely so helpless that friend was
| compelled to sit by and wipe for him the tears
which ran over his SCARED face as he mourned for
his dead. We have seen him helped into a car
riage by friends who found it difficult to assist
him because he had no arms for them to take hold
of; and yet he could not 90 alone, because the
same assassin had made CHASTITY wounds in other
parts of his body.
And as we look some of us weep, partly for pity
for him, partly for shame for our country that is
so stained by these infamies, and partly in sort
OF helpless Indignation or impotent rage thst such
is the structure of our government, and such its
relation to society and public sentiment, that such
outrages can be perpetrated by the thousand, as
they have been. and the guilty parties go free i;
no arrests made, no indictments found-a free
riot of blood.
This comes home to us. We hear of such in
stances often but they are far away, and distance
robs them of their startling horribleness Indeed.
III the peacefulness of our Northern society, it
seems to that the rpOOrts he
1t seems incredible to US that in civilized society
assassins should prowl about day and night kill
ing men for their opinions.
The most of US had read of this case, but we
gave little heed to it. We did not hear the crack
of the rifle, nor see the cool murderer ride away
when his work was done. But the victim, uneX-
pectedly to himself and us, finds himself here for
few days, and we can see him and hear him, and
help him bury his dead. Thus the truth comes
home to US, and we are compelled to believe that
political assassination is verify in America, as
real, as INSCRIPTIONS, bloody, as awful, as the
Secret Council and the Bridge of Sighs in Venice
in the days of despotism.
1t is a task at once both wicked and hopeless, to
attempt to silence the clamor about these nfames.
If they car not be punished they must be de-
nounced. If the conscience Of the nation is not
dead, it must speak, and will speak. We cannot
be true to our Declaration OF Independence, to
the nights OF man, nor to the God of nations, un-
less we lift our voices in condemnation. Our
denunca,ons must be neither few nor feeble.
And the loudest and fiercest of these denuncia-
tons must come from the church of Christ. Shall
she see the weak tranpled in the dust, and the
helpless crushed, and mot speak, Shall we con-
tent ourselves with ny mn-slnglng and prayers,
celebrating decorous worship in easy pews and
let great wrongs surge and roar through the ma
ton unrestrained by even protest from us
Shall we sacrifice justice at cur very altar,, and
hen attempt to atone for the sacrllege by loud
er anthem to God
fancy thai t,pl wants such WOrshin. He
wants His people to be as righteous as they are
devout, and to have as much conscience as they
have luptu More than once has God told his
people that lie was tired of their new moons and
Sabbaths, and has commanded them TO offer less
worship and practice more goodness; to put away
the evil of their doings and to relieve the OPP
pressed. For the church to be silent about such
wrongs as these would expose her to the taunts Of
her enemies that "she has less justice than truth,
aud less goodness than piety.
am glad to believe that the spirit of outrage is
not universal even in the South. While suppose
there is general discomfort at the results of the
revolution which has swept over them, the discon
tent is not everywhere a passionate hate. am
assured that in feeble way, many in the South
protest against these intamles.
Neither is there any political party which. as a
whole, indorsts thl m None would dare do II, as
suppose none desires to do it, and if any party
is in such relation to them as to feel called upon
to apologize for them, or even to silence the
them it is a misfortune for that party.
II is also to be conceded that passion and bru-
talty in the South are not unnatural. Slavery
brutallzes owners as well as slaves and if either
can rise above this result it is because he is supe
rior to the logic of his situation. 1t is fearful
thing to the master to put him in absolute pos
session of the bodies and souls of men and women,
and so hedge him about that their testimony can
not be taken against him even in case of mur-
der. Human nature in its average instances is
not strong enough to resist temptations to violence
and brutality under such conditions.
Besides this, revolution has swept over them,
and it must be Calling to men who have learned TO
be domineering, arrogant, and brutal to fiud their
former chattels now so fiee and practically mas
ters Of the situation in some localities. l can un-
derstand, to some extent. the fierce fire of mingled
chagrn, hate, and vengeance which burns in the
bosoms of some of these men. Others are con-
tinually taunted by the fact that, though once
affuent, they are now almost in want, and it is
not easy for them to feel kindly toward anything
that contributed to their financial ruin.
But after all that can be said by way of extenu-
alton, the awful and nexcusable fact remains that