The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-02-10

4bo Twenty third street Baptist church,
nroceded his series of sermons on "The
Ebnrchless Millions" this morning, at
association Hall, by the following re.
viow of current events:
Some time ago Senator John ]. In
..IIs of Kansas, went out of his way
a nublic interview to express the
nninion that the Decalogue and Golden
RnIe are out of place in a political
campaign. He also took occasion to
Soon his unmeasured contempt on
those who were panied at the corrup-
ton of modern politics. These people
bs characterized with whitening gall
as sexless sentimentalists. He ex-
nressed himself at that time in the fol.
lowing vitriolic style:
"The publication OF politics is an
irridescent dream. Government is
force, Politics is a battle for suprem-
acv. Parties are the armies. The
Dscalogue and the Golden Rule have
no place in a political campaign, The
o3iect is success. To defeat the an
tsgonist and expel the party in power
is the purpose. In war it is lawful to
deceive the adversary, to hire Hessi,
ans. to purchase m~ercenaries, to multi
ate. to kill and destroy. The COM
msnder who lost a battle through the
activity of his moral nature would be
the derision and jest of history. This
modern cant about the corruption of
politics is fatiguing in the extreme.
It proceeds from the tea custard and
syilsbub dilettanteism, the frivolous
and desultory sentimentalism of cpl
Genes"
This brazen utterance marks the
lowest depths of our political degrade,
ton since the foundation of the gov
eminent. For the man who made it
had just stepped from the chair of the
Vice President of the United States,
and was considered an ornament to
the party whose name he used and in
whose behalf he was accustomed to
periodically throw vitriol. This re-
msrkable efusion, followed by the
ta5ulated election returns from Kan
Tss in November and concluded by the
latest speech of this distinguished
gentleman in the Senate, would form
q good chapter in a political primer
for use in she public schools in Amer
lea. We respectfully submit to the
Senate the advisability of issuing it at
government expense as a public docu-
ment.
In this latest speech of the Senator,
he exhibits a wonderful change in tone.
In a speech on the silver question, he
goes out of his way to record a feeble
death bed repentance of the vile senti-
ments formerly expressed, as a sort of
desperate attempt to propriate the
angry divinity assembled now at To
peka, and bordering the question of
his successor. Here is the record of
that effort, in which he cut a somer
Gsult again over the Decaiogue and
Golden Rule, also performing other
remarkable feats in political gymnas
tics, for the benefit of the farmers of
the West. Here is his recantasion as
reported by a friendly paper:
"He then referred to a newspaper
interview had with him several months
ago, in which he had said that the
Golden Rule and the Decalogue had
no place in an American campaign. 1t
seemed superauous to explain that in
that utterance he was not intoxicating
a doctrine, but describing a condition.
His statement was a statement of fact,
not an announcement of faith. But
many reverend and eminent divines,
many disinterested editors, many in,
genuous orators, perverted this utter.
snce into a personal advocacy of i'm
purity in politics. He did not COM
plain. 1t was, as the world went,
legitimate political warfare. But it
was an illustration of the truth that
the Golden Rule and the Decalogue
ought to have a place in political cam
paigns. off thy enemy smite thee on
one cheek, turn she other" was a good
precept to follow. But he would not
observe that until that precept was
more generally observed than it had
been or was likely to be. If his politi
cal enemy smote him on one cheek,
Instead of turning to him the other he
would smite him under the butt end
OF his left ear, If he could. If that
oe political immortality, he must be in
Guided among the unregenerated."
This truly was a desperate effort
made in a desperate situation. 1t is a
desperate failure. AS an explanation
II explains nothing. AS a mitigation
II does not mitigate. The trouble is,
mat the Senator did positively and
po!ntedly endorse the facts in this so
JAILED condition" when he closed his
us'erance with his bitter denunciation
" tnose who were crying for purity
politics. This cry he called
modern can't" He declared that it
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