Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1893-07-14
ADisgrace to the Church.

I# Disgrace to the ChurCn.
A man is charged with crime, he il
tried by clean. strong. lntellige jury
and found guilty, and the trial is con
ceeded by all to be rs fair and open as
ever trial could be. he is sentenced to the
penltentiary and is serving his time; the
defense applies for a writ Of error, the
supreme court suspendends sentence
pending a review of the case in October,
the prisoner is brought back to the
county Jail where he started from seek
ing bail, the court finds it cannot III &C
cordance with law accept bail and thus
turn convicted felon loose upon society
and the prisoner goes back to his cell in
charge of the sheriff. This is the legal
standing Of Wilson, the man tried and
convicted of rape. This case is getting
to be notorious owing to the determined
effort of men and even woman to secure
the release of this convicted man. Some
people have publicly stated that if this
man Wilson was to confess his guilt they
would not believe it, God help such
minds Yet it is this virtue destroying
sentiment that is laboring to release o
guilty man. The LEADER regrets to
state that church members are engaged
in this unholy effort to destroy the
majesty of the law and render justice q
farce, and by these acts we are led to.un-
derstand that virtue should not be de-
Tended nor crime punished. The LEAD
Err boldly challenges any man or woman
to show one just ground for reasonable
belief of The mans innocence, and the
LEADER will hereafter cease to discuss
this most damnable conspiracy to brow
beat and bulldoZe q whole community.
Can any law abiding community, can any
church, can any christian, can any de-
cent God fearing law abiding citizen
sanction or countenance an effort to de-
stroy the ends OF justice? 1tIseems to
the LEADER and all who have discussed
this disgraceful condition, that this man
Wilson is using. the church TO fortify
himself against punishment. Heretofore
it has been the recognized duty of this
grand old pioneer church to denouncc
fraud, crime, hypocracy and every
species Of wrong doing, and when a
church ceases to do its.duty in this re-
pect it ceases to expound the law as
taught by Christ. This is not case
against "Old Man Moulton," nor is 1t a
case against the church or a preacher
thereof, but it is a case of the people of
the state against crime and the man has
been convicted. If members of the
Methodist church aim to cOndOne the
crime of member of that church be-
cause he is member, then the heroic
struggles Of old Peter Cartwright have
been in vain. The crowning act oe the
disgraceful proceeding on the part of
these promoters Of crime was the taking
OF the prisoner to the Methodist church
last Sunday by Sheriff Pierce. where the
criminal was given semi-reception, and
where people who believe him guilty
were forced to accept the disgrace in
silence. The presiding elder and the
resident minister, we are informed. do
not approve Of this tacit approval of
crime by sentimental gush, then why
permit it. Why not take the bold and
righteous stand and denounce the crime
lovers and purge the sxcred cloth Of
Heaven from the apparent support thus
given criminal. 1t would seem that
the Sheriff has allowed himself to be the
dupe Of designing hypocracy. No one
for moment belives that the prisoner
was taken to church through any honest
christian motive. He was taken there in
bold defiance of public sentiment and
common decency. and there met with q
welcome which said: we be-
lieve you innocent Where will you find
q parallel tor such brazen impudence.
It is not so much the act that we con-
demn as the terrible example to criminal
If the prisoner needs the aid Of
christian grace the sheriff can furnish q
preacher, and the other prisoners IN the
Jail. perhaps. need the services of
preacher rs much rs Wilson. Let the
Methodist church proclaim its innocence
of any effort to defend u man convicted
Of crime against society, and the people
will be satisfied with nothing less.