The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-11-14

The present factional fight in the Re-
publican ranks is the cause of much dis
sention and i'll feeling between the mem
bers of the two wings of the party, the
half-breeds and the stalwarts, and in many
cases is causing hatred and bad blood
where nothing but kIndliness reigned be-
fore For instance: Col. Robert G. Inger
soil, the distinguished ATHEIST, has always
stood among the most respected leaders Of
his party. In the national conventions,
he has occupied prominent position and
performed valuable services. In the cam
paigns, he has been the foremost orator.
When it used to be announced that Mr..
Ingersol was to address the people on
political question, the rush for seats was
almost unprecedented. Ministers of the
all good republicans, and
damned each other, and the public in the
effort to get within good hearing distance
of the speaker. That he was the greatest
infidel alive did not count with these good
christians. 1t was true, he abused the
Savior like a pick pocket, but he abused
the democratic party too. The same
tongue that denounced Jesus Of Nazareth
as an impostor, vagabond and thief,
was equally hard upon the democrats. and
good republican preachers and laymen for
got the one in the exquisite pleasure they
enjoyed in listening to the other. In pri-
vate life, Mr.. Ingersoll has never had oc-
casion to complain of lack of courtesy
on the part of his political confreres In
the early days of the Washington career
of the first presidential thief, the Great
Fraud entertained the Great Infidel at the
white house, broke bread with him, and
took him riding behind the presidential
horses on Sunday afternoons. And surely
none of our readers have forgotten how, dur
ing the heat of the canvass last fall ,Beecher,
the foremost republican preacher of the
country, in public pulpit in New York,
embraced IngersoIl, and how the two ex-
changed VOWS of eternal constancy and de-
clared their mutual belief that humanity
was imperfect in its make up, prior to the
appearance of both upon the stage of &C
ton called the world.
But we fear that we see signs of a dis
turbance of this beautiful state of feeling
between Ingersoll and christian republican
ism, at least of the half-breed kind. Mr..
IngersoI is the counsel of the star route
thieves, or supposed thieves. A Chicago
preacher, who, as long as 1ngersoll merely
abused the religion of Christ, regarded him
''as a worthy opponent and respected his
opinions" now publicly denounces him as
a man whom the preachers in the future can
have only contempt for. The half-breeds
hate the stalwarts as heartily as they
hate the democrats, and half breed preach
er, believing that this stalwart infde1 re
publican is opposed to his particular side
of political party, now denounces HIM as
"a man who is for money defending thieves,
and rascals," and it suddenly dawns upon
the mind of the half preachers that
Ingersoll, who could find nothing too good |
or too sacred for him to tear down or pull |
up, actually INDUCED, ''in all this smut |
at things revered by good men
for the paltry nickels his door-keeper gath
cred in"
And the conviction forced upon our
mind by all this is, that in the opinion of
a republican preacher either to reyile Christ
is slight offense,-in the opinion of re-
publican preacher. but to differ with him
on even a minor political question, is to
deserve temporal and eternal damnation.-I
Bloomington Bulletin (Dena).