Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-08-16

shall drive thee from men till thou know that the
Most High ruleth in the kingdom Of men and
giveth it to whomsoever he will" 1t was God ap.
pearing again as the avenger of public wrong.
Again there was great feast in Belshazzar's
hall. The song Of the reveller and the shout Of
the satrap mingled in chaotic uproar Lascivious
| ness added to the mad exhilaration of the wine
cup. Despotism had condcscended to revel, and
| courters Wed with their masters in hilarious sin
| But there was iniquity in that kingdom also
| Gods people had been plundered and enslaved
also to increase the wealth and spendor of BIAS
phemous king. Suddenly mysterious hand APP
| peared, and traced strange words on the illu-
minated wall. The blasphemy hushed and
the revelry was still. Gods prophet came and the
writing on the wall proved to be Gods dcclara-
ton that great empire had filled up the cup of its
| iniquity. and on that night was Belshazzar
| SIAM" and Darius Medean, took the kngd dom.
| We read such facts as these with little purpose
| if we fail to that God is concerned in national
history, and that lie Is always against wrong and
| the wrongdoers. lie waits in patience while men
approach the elimination of their crimes. 1t some
times almost seems that He who fought for Israel
| against Egypt, and for Daniel against Ncbuchad-
Ut zzar, has grown indifferent since them or is
| weary of tie endless struggle. This, however. is
a great mistake. God changes not. He hates the
outrages of Coushatta as much as lie did the
wrongs of Babylon. Think you he is so deaf as
not to hear the shrieks that startle the midnight
air of the South Is He needless while orphans
prays Think you that the smell of this reeking
holocaust does not reach his nostrils i? Shall He
| note the dying sparrow under the shrub on the
meadows verge, and not know heed when
| freemen die by violence for opinions sake
| Let us not deceive ourselves concerning the as
sumed indifference of God, allow ourselves to
| be silent about a giant wrong because at some
points it touches the verge of politics. We must
end these outrages by righteousness, or there is
room from history to fear that God will end them
| by such means as he may see fit.
WHAT ARE TIE REMEDIES?
What shall be done
l answer, first must speak, and in no uncer-
| tain way. very much fear we have been too ST.
| lent. The whole subject has been made polt-
cal question and the pulpit has been dumb under
this view of it. 1t is not pleasant to be made the
target for taunts and criticism. Aud the &C.
cumuatng wrong has gone on unrebuked even
| by the pulpit. never spoke upon it in public my
SELF until the scenes of the past week startled me
| from my apathy.
| And yet imagine that all the wrongs committed
in this land for fifteen years past turn pale in the
| presence of this one. Every bad passion which
flames in an Indian massacre is more than parallel
| led here. We burn with vengeance for Custer
and his brave band and yet the dead who have
been slain by these outrages in the South more
| than five times the number of both armies which
confronted each other on the plains before Custer
| tell. and we must speak. We cannot be true
to our broad mission of right and charity and be
silent.
| The church of Christ with an open Bible before
| her, can take but one view on the question. To
be indifferent concerning it would be to give the
lie to all her professions of broad charity and love
for the right. Shall we send millions of money
| TO heather lands for the education and salvation
of foreign nations, and then quietly sleep on while
in own land the assassin's rifle crashes through
the night accompanied by shreks of women
whose husbands are murdered, and the walls OF
orphan children: Shall we sympathize with the
Servans in their struggle for freedom against the
! Turks, and then smile and call 1t fun, or scowl
| and call it politics, while negroes run through
our own streets and fields trying to dodge the
bullets of murderersi If there were no politics
in it the church would be unit on it, and fail to
see how her duty is at all different now. Her
| Bible, her Saviour, her God, her martyrs, her
heaven, all her history and all her hopes pledge
her to one view of the subject. These murders
are "evl, only evil, and that continually" and
are to be punished and stopped.
The government should handle the case with
less delicacy. We so afraid of military inter-
ference in this country that too often the ways of
justice allowed to be wholly perverted for lack
of it. There must be somewhere in this nation
power which can quell this dark and dreadful
spirit If it cannot protect its own citizens, it is
time for revolution, either in public opinion or in
the structure of our Constitution and laws. The
time has come for this sin to cease, and the Gen
eral Government, if the State governments will
not do it, should be encouraged and empowered
to put stop to it.
The ballot-box must be protected. The freed
must be guaranteed to them. Toe shotgun
gumen to deter them from the exercise of the
franchise must be prohibited. The government
may not dictate to any man how to vote, but it
must at all hazards guarantee him protection in
legal voting. Otherwise free government is at
end, and our much boosted Constitution becomes
the sport of mobs.
| confess that | am astonished at the way in
which this subject is treated by some among us.
1t is not enough that when one speaks a word
a., IT,.
ridiculed and censured, but the dead themselves
are Knocked at. The funeral of Mrs. Willis has
been compared to the funeral of street-car horse.
1t is not enough that she lost all her kindred by
violence that she shivered through long night
of horror; that her last look through her glazing
eyes was upon a brother who had been made arm.
less and helpless by an assassin; not enough that
this educated, refined woman, against whom no
accusation was ever brought, in her last de lirium
still supposed that murdeiers were lowering near;
not enough that she is dead; but citizen of In
dianapolis must 60 and tear open her grave and
outrage her memory by laughing at her funeral
as if 1t had been the funeral of a horse.
She was stranger to me, but should be as
cowardly as he who assaults the dead if did not,
forgetting my own share of the insult, in her
name resent this outrage to her memory. And
/ hatter myself that | live in a commudity in
which the man who wrote that insult stands alone
in his unutterable meanness. l want the world to
know that this man does not speak for lndianap-
oils. when he employs this simile.
But we are all too apathetic. We have no just
sense of the enormity of these offences. Taunts
make us cowardly, aud prejudice make US ndif-
ferent. 1t is easy for us to sit in our safe and
quiet homes and forget the woes of the world.
1t does not become me here to suggest how men
shall vote. l merely state the case and leave the
logic of it to carry you whittier it will But will
say that voting now, in view of all this, is no
trifling affair. Every ballot has in it veal or woe
for the mperiled people Of the South. Before
this question every other subject in our rational
politics dwndes into insignifcance.
Shall this dominion of riot and blood be given
loose rein until terrorism bursts upon the South in
an universal tempest, or shall the government be
encouraged and empowered to crush 1t with
stronger hand?
The question before us now is not one of finance,
but Of the rights of men. Let us pray for guild
ance, and vote knowing that we shall give account
thereof to God.
Devine & Howard have the endorsement of the
following physicians: &. w. Martin, M. D., W.
S. Hill, NJ d., q. +. Brickett M. D., W. Bolan,
M. D., II. ii. Iiil M. D., j. o. Webster, M. D.,
L. J. Croker, NJ. d. eod-ttf