The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-24

| where nobody talks back to the critic
seems TO unit many clergymen for wise
| and effective work in the field of political
| and social reform. He is apt to be credui-
Gus; he does not always remember that
the phrase ''the boy lied" explains good
deal Of reported scandal in this world; the
| clerical critic and reformer does not
weigh and traverse evidence. A few
months ago two clergymen in Minneap-
oils, named Morrill, and Allen, publicly
attributed to that city a condition OF
gross and general immortality that made it
the wickedest place in the United States.
A committee of the citizens were prompted
by these public charges to wait upon the
mayor and impress upon him the neces-
sity of drastic measures for the regenera-
ton OF Minneapolis. The mayor at once
provided for an investigation by the
grand jury. and this was the report:
Charges of gross immortality existing in the
city OF Minneapolis having been made by the
Rev. G.. l. Morrill, and the Rev. I. F. Allen, they
were subpenaed before the grand jury and their
testimony taken.
II developed that the charges made By them
were based only upon hearsay. Whereupon the
parties from whom they claimed TO have re-
ceived their information, and who were sup
posed to know the exact facts in the case, were
subpnnAed.
large number of witnesses were examined
and the charges were found TO be only idle gos-
sip and rumor, such are liable to arise and ex-
ist in any community, except in one instance,
whore one witness testified that he had pur
chased whisky once in drug store, and that
was over six months ago.
This grand Jury has no hesitation in saying
that IL regrets that the ministers of the gospel
should so fer lower their dignity to proclaim
from their pulpits and through the public press
OF this CITY the existence of evils and immoral
conditions o! affairs that "smell TO heaven,
based only upon hearsay and rumor.
The Rev. ]. K. Strong, who has so
grossly libeled the good name of Seattle,
is probably a clergyman of the Sam Jones
and Sam Small school of reckless pulpit
takers. Jones and Small recently de-
nounced the city of Atlanta, its civic and
judicial morality. publicly, very much as
the Rev. Mr.. Strong has Seattle. The
judge of one of the courts directed the
grand jury to investigate these charges;
jury. and confessed that they based their
charges upon hearsay evidence; that they
have no knowledge resting on personal OBJ
servation; that they could name no re-
spectacle witnesses or other sources of in
formation.
A still more remarkable instance of
clerical credulity was furnished by Bishop
Potter, of New York city, in his centen-
NAL sermon, when he denounced ''the
spoils system" and urged President Har-
rison to square his policy according to the
spirit of the days of Washington, describ-
ing the political morality of the present,
both in theory and practice, as a corrupt
departure from the days of the fathers of
the republic. Bishop Potter spoke hon
estly but recklessly out of historical
ignorance inexcusabie in a literary man.
AS matter of fact Washington was in
both theory and practice quite as practical
q politician as President Harrison, for in a
letter to Timothy Pickering, dated Sep
TENDER 9th, 1876, he said:
shall not, whilst have the honor to admin
lister the government, bring man into any Office
of consequence knowingly, whose political ten
cts are adverse to the measures which the gen.
eral government are pursuing, for this, in my
opinion, would be political suicide.
So far as the uncleanliness of politics
and their indecent spirit is concerned, the
field is relatively purer today than it was
one hundred years ago, when we remem-
Der that from 100000 of people we have
become 63,0O0,000. George Washington
was publicly accused of speculation in
corner lots in the capital he laid out;
John Marshall was charged with being
pamphlets of the days Of Washington,
Adams. Hamilton and Jefferson were full
Of vile charges against these great men.
The newspapers charged Washington
with reasonable design to make himself
king. and he was caricatured as a
dethroned king placed upon the guillotine.
Hamilton was charged with stock iobbing
with the public securities while secretary
of the treasury; and Jefferson and James
Monroe were the authors or instigators of
these charges of corruption. Hamilton
was stoned in public, and John Jay Hung
in effigy. Andrew Jackson was conspicu-
Gus defamer of Washington. Jefferson
was charged by the vile press of his dav
with incest and gross debauchery and
made the subject of obscene caricatures.
And yet, in face Of these authentic facts,
Bishop Potter recklessly charged that we
have fallen away frightfudy from the
public opinion of the days when the
fathers of the republic ruled our politics.
Why did Bishop Potter do this? Prob
ably because he was subject to the same
clerical credulity which led the Rev. Mr..
Strong 10 libel Seattle without making any
searching investigation of the truth of his
charges. He IS probably a professional
literary pessimist; il is his stock in trade.
his sheet-anchor, to preach pessimism.
The clerical sensationalist is a pessiuist
perforce OF his calling. because If he should
admit that the world was slowly but
surely growing better in all the essentials
of moral and spiritual purity tie knows he
would. from the sensational point of view,
have nothing to talk about. The passion
of such men as the Rev. Mr.. Strong is TO
be sensational, and he cannot be sensa-
tional unless he is pessimistic, because if
he spoke words Of trath and hone
Of Seattle nobody would be stirred so he
organizes and utters rhetorical fulmina-
ton that is calculated 10 scare or craze
people who know less than the Rev. Mr..
Strong. Seattle undoubtedly is full OF
sinners, like the rest OF the world, but il is
not exceptionally full of criminals. and
the Rev. Mr.. Strong as literary sensa-