Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-14
THE DEFIANT DIXON
A Minister'S Indictment of Col.
lngersoll.
HE GAINS A POINT IN COURT.

The Pope of Unbelief Required to Meet
the Ciergyman's Charges just as They
Are Set Forth in His Reply to a Suit
for Libe1-Dixon Stands Pat and
Pleads Justification-His Allegations
and Their Foundation.
NEW YORK, June 1.-THE motion of
Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll to strike out
three of the defenses of Rev. AMI C.
Dixon, of the Hanson place Baptist church
of Brooklyn, in the coloners action to re-
cover s., 900 from him for alleged libel, has
been denied by Justice Lawrence. of the
supreme court. The action is brought to
recover damages for these alleged libelous
words: |Infidelity fosters impure litera-
ture. A few years ago it was found that
pictures and impure publications were
passing through the mails. Anthony Com
stock decided to stop it, On investigation
whom should he find representing pub
fishers of impure literature, but Colonel
lngersoll. paid to pollute the minds of the
young of this generation"
Dixon Pleads justification.
In the first defense Mr.. Dixon admits re-
sponsibility for the language and pleads
its truth in justification. He then makes
three defenses, which Colonel Ingersol
held were irrelevant and not proper sub
jects for defense in the action. In the first
of these Objectionable defenses the defend
ant sets forth that in February, 1878,
Colonel IngersOl, as chairman of COM
mlttee, presented petition to congress
for the repeal of sections 1,TS5, S,S7S, 3, 1913,
$3.50 and ?, 4gl of the United States re-
Nised Statues, which, in part, prohibit the
transmission of obscene literature and
other articles through the mails
IngersolI's Monster Petition.
The petition contained about 10000
names and was Z, 100 feet long. Vice APP
peared against the petition and it was
killed. In the next defense it is stated
that in 1882 book was written at Chicago
entitled Thinkers, Principally Upon So
cial Science. What They Think and
Why" by Van Buren, Denslow, LII d.
Colonel lngersoll wrote an introduction TO
this book, i'll which he commended it and
said: IN my judgment this book, filled
with original thoughts, will hasten the
coming of the blessed time"
Holds the Colonel Responsible
Mr.. Dixon says that in commencing this
book Colonel Ingersoll must be response
bic for the following Propositions which
the author makes:
THAT it is right and proper to lie."
THAT 1t IS right and proper to steal"
THAT 1t is right and proper TO be IN
chaste."
The Mosaic Law of Chastity.
Mr.. Dixon also holds Colonel Ingersoll
responsible for this statement of the au-
thor in the book: $50 the laws forbidding
unchastity were framed by those who in
the earlier periods of civilization could af-
ford to own women, for the protection of
their property rights in them against the
poor who could not. 1t will be observed
that in the Jewish decalogue the rule,
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
Is Introductory to the kindred rule, nor
his OK, nor his ass, nor anything that is
thy neighbours"
The Woman Had No Rights.
"The will and preference of the wife in
question is no more regarded or assumed
to exist than that of the OK, nor does the
decalogue forbid woman to covet her
neighbours husband. The fitness of the
existing union is not considered Chas-
tity begins, therefore, as an element in the
law of the strong for the government of
the weak concerning property"
The Preachers Last Defense.
In the last defense, to which Colonel
lngersoll objected, Mr.. Dixon said:
For years he has been making speeches
for pay and otherwise, and writing books
and pamphlets attacking christianity, in
which he has blasphemed God, denied the
inspiration of the Bible and sought to
weaken the sancity and authority of the
moral law