The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-09-28

of Rawson gave glowing account Of the
happy condition Of Belgium, 10 which the
cause of godlessness was prospering finely,
and reported that & cugh some relics of &C.
clesiastical tyranny sal remained in that
country, not one man IN thousand ever saw
bible. 1t Is 10 DO regretted that the claims
o. Ashantee, Dahomey and Zululand to the
same distinction were not presented to the
meeting. Professor Rawson, who is evident
~ not professor of rhetoric, drew from his
facts "the lesson that the emancipation of
the mind Is marching forward to glorious
squelching Of the mists Of superstition and
bigotry." Surely if ignorance of the bible
is an evidence that emancipation is squelch-
ing mists, the negro unbelievers of Africa
may claim that when II comes to squelching
tho mists they are not to be ignored, and
they may also claim that in ignorance of the
English language they are tine peers Of any
liberal professor from New York.
The great triumph of the convention, how.
ever, WAS not when emancipation marched
forward to squelch the mists of superstition
and bigotry, but when it squelched Bob In
gersoll ana indicated the lnaliena6e right
Of liberal men to send obscene matter
through the mails. lngersoll has recently
been associating with sensible people and
otherwise untitled himself tor the vice presi
dency of Il Liberal League, and he attempted
to argue that it was not judicious for the
league to identify itself with the cause OF
obscenity; no even went so far as to say that
the government had the right and duty of
preventing the misuse Of the mails for
propagation of obscenity, and claimed that
liberalism should only ask That the law should
accurately define what constituted obscenity.
But the convention was almost unanimous in
favor Of the diffusion of obscene literature,
and sat on Mr., lngersoll with the accumulated
avoirdupois of hundred grandmothers,
whereupon Mr.. IngersolPs resignation as u
vice.president was promptly handed in and
as promptly accepted.
Ifths is the stand which intidelism takes
we think that even the bgots on the other
side who want to "insert God in the constitu.
ton" need not apprehend any danger from
the spread of inidelity, nor need any one
wonder why infdelity is on the wane. The
theory that "error ceases to be dangerous
when truth Is left free to come at IT. has re-
ceived ample confirmation in the course of
in6delsm in this country. Here no law of
church or state has put a check on 1t, and
the fanatics of of intiiel intolerance have en-
loved the same freedom as the fanatics of
religious intolerance. AT first hey made a
very bad use of their freedom. They acted
like that New York rough who was so i'm
pressed with the lesson of the cruclllxion that
he mashed the face Of the first jew he met,
excusing himself by saying that though
| the crime was committed several hun
bred years ago he never heard of it before
last night. The Liberal Leagues have been
steadily avenging the prosecutions which
ceased long before they were born, and seemed
| to think il was their mission to avenge on the
decent Christians os to-day the fagot fires OF
Smithfeld aud the sentences of Torque-
NADIA.
Blu. liberation has hurt them worao than
persecution could. Their Liberal Leagues
have become merely the platforms for the
stroling mountobanks Of every vagary, and
while they have attracted the odds and ends
the waste and refuse and dross of intelectu 81
energy, they have shown by contrast the
strength Of the religious principle against
which their puuy assaults are directed. Al
last they have openly declared themselves
against tho imposition of any check or OBJ
scenity, and though they hardly need this tc
array the decent world in firm and deter
mined opposition to them, their blind defense
of obscenity will constitute an epoch in their
decline and decay. They have only them
selves to blame il hereafter their advocacy
of any cause should he the greatest obstacle
TO its success, and If The word should refuse
to accord hesring to any suggestion which
comes from SO injudicious and ill-advised !
body.