New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-04-20
POLITICS IN THE PULPIT.

PORTLAND, ME.
To The Rec EDWARD Y. HINCKs.
SIR: In The Portland Advertiser of April IL
appears fast-day by you, entitled THE Need OF
Civil Service Reform shown by the Passage OF the Sill
yer Bill"
One OF the most strenuous rules Of faith and practice
in the Congregational churches is that weknOWn Ill
recon II thy brother shall trespass against thee so
and tel him his fault between thee and him alone II he
shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother AS mem
Der in good aud regular standing OF one Congregational
Church while you the brilliant leader OF another as
native and citizen OF the State which is tine Affection
ate sometimes stern, mother Of your own STATE eo
personal responsibility for your good behavior; ana
therefore propose, accordance with mmemorai COh
gregationa usage to tell you your fault between you
and me alone, in love and the spirit OF meekneSs
The text OF your is, Shall count them pure
with the wicked balances. and the bag OF deceiIIu
weights This, however. is not really your text II -
but q catchword The actual text whose spIt Drea'u'S
through your sermon is thank thee that am ho' %
other men are extortoners, UNJUST aduerers or even
as this publican in Congress
In speaking Of the late discussion OF great Nouoha
financial measure Of the passage OF the Silver BILL you
rule out the possibility OF all honest difference OF OPINION
and assuming more than Papal infallibty, YOU pro-
pounce al those Congressman who not on your side
of the question thieves and robbers. Not content win
this simple assertion and dSdainng so prOane process
as the production Of evidence yOu administer 10 yOse
the benefit Of clergy claim TO be the mOuhpeco Vi
Heaven and
is on your side against bimetaic standard These are
your words: THE men whom we have elected to make
our laws have committed in name deed which is
stain upon our National honor and an offence against
righteous God Speaking our representatives, they
have said that prefer TO pay our debts ID scant
measure order that may defraud our creditors OF
q part OF what we owe"
You make these statements without the shadow OF an
attempt to prove them. With one breath OF your
reverend lips you relegae thousands of your fellow
citizens to the criminal classes and produce not ot or
little OF evidence. You give sign OF having SO much
as looked into the question yourself You are
politically but an echo of echoes yet you rise mp in your
priestly Office and deal out condemnation upon your lay
brethren with lavish and lordly hand
NO EVIDENCE.
The only thing which even hOvers on the borderland
of evidence for your extravaganza OF assertion
ia in the side remark: The Nation had so often de-
cared its purpose Of paying its debt gold dollar for
gold dollar" For lack of anything more tangible III
your loose expecoratiOn Of speech must pertorce
avail myself Of this, and bid YOU name TO that wider
congregation whom you address through the neWspa-
per the law or statute bond or other instrument
which was ever uttered by this Nation, promising "to
pay gold dollar for gold dOlar! Your assertion Is eX-
plicit unmodifed No man, least OF all minister OF
the Gospel could be excused for making such state
ment without knowing whereof he affirmed.
But this Is what you have done. You had
only TO turn TO the statutes OF the Uhted
States and you would have found that never
did Congress utter word about paying gold dollar
for gold dollar" Never can you find in law or COM
pact expressed implied that this Government agreed
10 pay gold alone In every statute Congress agreed
10 pay "con" and where it specified further, it speci
fed "gold or silver" In every case where you find
"god" you will find the words or silver" imme-
diately added you HAD been willing to re-
lnquish the doctrine Of plenary inspiration
when applying yourself to politics, and had
done so secular thing TO look into the history Of our
bonds you would have found that prior to July IA,
1870, all bonds OF the United States simply agreed to
pay so many dollars" without specifying the kind OF
dollars ard hence the mischievous Greenback move
ment to pay the bonds in paper The interest was pro-
vIded for in coin" but the principal simply in dollars
BY the OF July IA 1870, to provide for the refund
ing Of United States deb at lower rates OF interest
was specially enacted that the bonds were payable In
the standard coin of that date Under that acl nearly
twelve hundred millions of the bonded debt have been
refunded and the Greenback movement that had men
aced our public credit destroyed That the silver
dollar was at that date one Of the stand
ard coins" of the United States-fun legal
tender-I presume that you will not venture TO deny
Even after the assumed demonstration OF silver in
1873 the bonds Of the United States all contained the
same specific provision. Only last Summer a $500
United states of the per cents, which was
SO happy as to hold for a heetng moment gave me time
enough 10 read on its face the definition and lin
itaton of the Governments liability TO pay IN the
standard coins as they existed July Ii, 1917
WHAT ARE THE GROUNDsi
On what ground, tban do you charge upon scores OF
your felow-etzens, every one Of them picked men,
nearly every one of the with sterling and stainless
reputation for honesty YOURSELF what ground do
YOU attempt TO fasten upon them charges OF dshonor
and disgracel Upon what ground do you lay the
wicked balances and the deceitful weights OF tho
prophet at their doori Is it that the silver dollar
weighs only 412l2 grainsl Is anybody deceived or
IN he
openly and publicly proclaimed thatthe slverdoar shall
weigh lust 4l2la grainsf Was not that its exact legal
weight when the bonds were issuedl Bring forward
OF the United States bring forward from
the stores OF your inspiration Thus saith the Lord
that the silver dollar Of the Nation shall weigh more
than 2lo grains am not now speaking OF the wis
dom OF the silver lar OF the wisdom Of its weight
but simply Of its morality YOU Reverend sir affirm that
it stain upon the National honor and that the men
who legalzed il upon level with bank robbers Did
you reflect that than twOthrds Of both branches
of Congress voted for the Silver Bit Is 1t too much
70 ask of the sefrespeet which should mark you as
American citizen, Of the charity which should
adorn you as a Christian minister, presumption, at
least in favor the honesty of motive and uprghtnes
of intention of these your cOuntrymen, VINO were called
upon to deal with a great National aud International
question Yet you, so ignorant that you do not know
the primal and essential facts Of the silver question: so
uneutured that you do not know that such knowledge
IA mperatve or that such facts exist you utterly with
out authority and without responsibility, rise In your
pulpit and lend all the sancy OF your holy office to the
declaration that forty and Senators and 200 Rep
resentatiyes from all parts Of the Nation, after pro-
onged and patient and persistent discussion, acting in
the gaze the whole world full fronting the record OF
history face with the immediate disaster OF fall
ure wfuy stained the honor Of their country deibe-
rately aud designedly plunged the Nation into fraud!
Reverend sir, not man IN Congress, saint or sinner,
would dare TO tre with either House by the wild asser-
ton which you so giby promulgate from the pulpit,
that the Nation had often declared Its purpose Of
hnlar q COLD dnllarn and II In