The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-04
DID SENATOR INGALLS, PLAeIARIzEi
A Serious Charge, with Alleged Proof
and an RrnIana tim

| A Serious Charge, with Alleged Proofs
and an Explanation.
In The Kansas City Times Of May IL
| Mr.. Charles Carroll Carlton bluntly
charges that most Of Senator Ingalls, fu.
neral grafton on the late Representative
Barnes, of Missouri, was taken with slight
! changes from a sermon delivered 80 years
ago by Jean Baptiste Massillon. the emf
| nent French prelate and orator. The sena-
tors grafton was delivered Feb. %, 1889
| and was one of singular beauty and logi-
cal force. The passages in question are "a
| follows:
! FROM SENATOR INGALLS, ADDRESS.
As looked for the last time upon that coun-
tenance from which, for the first time in so many
! years no glance of kindly recognition nor word
! of welcome came, reflected upon the tmpenetra-
! bic and insoluble mystery Of death. But If death
| be the end, If the life of 'Burnes terminated upon
this bank and shoal Of time IL no morning is to
dawn upon the night in which he sleeps then sor-
| row has no consolation, and this impressive and
solemn ceremony which we observe today has no
more significance than the painted pageant Of the
! stage. II the existence Of Burnes was but a
troubled dream, his death oblivion, what avais it
that the senate should pause to recount his vir-
| tues and that his associates should assemble in
| solemn sorrow around his voiceless sepulcheri
| dead if they are but dust; no cenotaph should be
rearF to preserve for posterity the memory Of
! their achievements If those who come after them
are to be only their successors in humiliation and
! extinction
Unless we survive, the ties Of birth, affection
and friendship are delusive nockery; the struct-
ure of laws and customs upon which society is
based a detected imposture the codes of moral
ity and justice, the sentiments Of gratitude and
| secration. If in this world only we have hope
and consciousness, why should their inculcations
be heeded2 Duty must be chimera. Our pas
sions and our pleasures should be the guides Of
conduct, and virtue is indeed a superstition If
life ends at the grave.
This is the conclusion which the philosophy Of
negation must accept at last Such is the felicity
of those degrading precepts which make the cpl
taph the end. If these teachers are right, if the
life of Burnes Is like arrow that is spent, then
we are atoms in a moral chaos; obedience to law
is indefensible servitude; rulers and magistrates
are despotS tolerated only by popular imbecility;
justice is denial of liberty; honor and truth arc
trivial rhapsodies; murder and perjury deris-
i've jests and their harsh definitions are frivolous
phrases invented by tyrants to impose on the
timidity Of cowsCds and the creduity of slaves.
If the life of Burnes is as q taper that is burned
out, then we treasure his memory and his example
in vain, and the latest prayer Of his departing
spirit has sanctity to US, who soon or late
must follow him. than the whisper Of winds that
stir the leaves Of the protesting forest, or the
nurmur of waves that break upon the complain
ing shore.
FROM BISHOP MASsILLON'S SERMON.
If we wholly perish with the body, what an i'm
posture in this whole system of laws, manners and
usages on which human society is founded. If we
wholly perish with the body, these maxims Of
charity, patience, justice, honor, gratitude and
friendship which sages have taught and good men
have practiced, what are they but empty words
possessing no real and binding efficacy? Why
should we heed them, if in this life only we have
hope! Speak not of duty What can We owe 10
the dead. to the living to ourselves if all are or
will be, nothing! Who shall dictate our duty if
not our own pleaSures-if not our own passions?
Speak not of morality. 1t IS mere chirnera
bugbear of human invention, if retrbution ter
inmate with the grave If must wholly per
ish, what to us are the sweet ties of kindred?
what the tender names Of parent, child. sister,
brother, husband wife or friendS The characters
of a drama are not more Elusive. We have no
ancestors, no descendants; since succession can
not be p-edicated Of nethingness. Would we
honor the iilustrious dead? How absurd TO honor
that which has no existence. Would we take
thought for posterity? How frivolous TO concern
ourselves for those whose end, like oar own, must
soon be anniailation. Have we made promises
but Jest The last ipjnnctions Of the dying
what sanctity have they more than the last sound
of a chord that is snapped, Of an instrument that
is brokeni
To sum up GIl: If we must wholly perish then
is obedience to laws but iGsensste servitude;
rulers and magistrates are but the phantoms
which popular imbecihty has raised up; justice
is an unwarrautable infringement upon the lib
erty of men, an imposition, usurpation; the law
Of marriage a vain scruple; Inodesty prejudice;
honor sRd probity such stuff as dreams are made
Of; and incests, murders paTricides, the most
heartless crualties and the blacklist crimes are
bat the legitimate sports Of mans irresponsible
nature; while tho harsh epithets attached 10
them are merely such as the policy of legislators
has invented and imposed on the credulity of TIE
people. Here is the issue TO which the Wanted
philosophy of unbeIievers must inevitably lead
Here Is that social felicity, that sway OF reason,
that emancipation FROM error, Of which they
eternally pirate, as the fruit Of their doctrines
Accept IN cir IaaxiI1s and thu whole world falls
back into frightful chaos; and all the relations
Of life are confouneed; and al ideas Of vice and
virtue are reversed and the most inviolabie laws
of society vanish, and al moral discipline per
ishes; and the government Of states and nations
has no longer any cement 70 uphold it; and al
the harmony Of the body polite becomes discord;
and the human race IS no more than an Assem-
blage OF reckless barbsria1s shameless, reTnorss-
less brutal denaturaliEed. with no other law
than force. no other check than passion, no other
bond than irrehgion. no ether God than self
Such would be the world which frnpiery would
make. Such would be this world were a belief in
God and immortality TO die out Of the human
heart.
Senator ingalls, when asked SIS TO the
charge was quite anxious 70 explain, and
declared that he had been approached with
2 proposition 10 suppress Mr.. Cartons
letter If 500 were paid. The price seemed
excessive, - he added, and the offer was
declined" He then gave this explanation:
In my youth began the study Of French with
out : master, and IN a volume CT exercises found
this with other extracts, credited 70 one,
which I translated and copied into common
place book Esore than thirty years ago. was
struck by its stately and soE1ber eloqueuce. Il
seemed % ne then, as it has always Seemed 20
rne since tie most fo7c.sle and Impressive pre-
sentatieu OF the strongest arguments IN support
Of the Immortality ~ tke human soul l never
had the sermons OF Nsssillon is nv possession.
and never had one Of them knowingly, either in
the original or il Translation have used the
same hae CT thought and the language % ny
paTsphrase hundred times bSTe ne aOu6t IL
conversation, II spe,scAes and = letters when
ever have had occasion 70 dwell upon the mys-
terry OF existence beyeRd the grave, ard shall
continue 70 do 50 whenever occasion se-TeS
The writer and orator WHO repeats and preserves
such thoughts ana rescues then from zee dusty
osnYloa Q. farEQsssz easEsrsz csu1E.1 - lnesz-