The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-06-18

to his high trust.
When any branch of any legislature
of this Christian country bows to the
dictates of the gambling fraternity,
am so constituted mentally that l have
to infer a sale. And 1 am also so con
stituted that have to speak about it
as Christian minister. If 1t was wrong
| to draw an Inference and to express it,
why, ] am here to pay the penalty
Gentlemen, it Is human to draw infer
! ences. We all do it. For example, SEN
ator Johnson told you that there was a
| large congregation that night and that
the preacher lost his head and talked
through his hat. will mot ask you to
pause over the CORY and painful specta-
Gle of a trunlfless head or a headless
trunk, talking through hat. But the
point is, the senator drew an inference.
precognize his right to draw an infer
ence and to express public opinions on
my Judgment; and have no intention
Of summoning him before my church to
explain himself.
Here is Senator Coffey, who has hon
ored me with special attention He
draws differences, too. But he is scrip
tural in it, It is nothing less than judg-
ing by the fruits. Senator Coffey reads
my Sunday address and he says in eff
feet: Judging by the fruit that's a
mighty mean tree" He adds pleasant
ly: "Such scandalous, untrue, mean
contemplate statements as these are
beneath the dignity Of any decent man. ;"
Then he urges the appointment of
committee to investigate the state
ments.
Even Judge Cowell of the house, who
on his own confession never makes
mistake, is reported to have been on
the giddy verge of making a deduction
concerning the nature Of my summer
beverages But with the self-poise of
a. statesman, he held himself in hand
and once more INDICATED his claim to
inerrancy. But with this exception we
all draw differences or make deductions.
When a Statesman from the country
is found dead in a city hotel with the
gas turned on full head, but unllghted,
we infer or deduce that the statesman
died of gas. Yet we may wrong his men,
DRY, for it is always possible that he
died Of appendicitis or of unrequited af-
lection.
Yes, gentlemen, we all make deduc-
tions or draw differences; and all the
preachers make mistakes.
TNFBRENcEs WHICH ARE JUST
FABLE AND WHICH ARE IN
EvITABLE.
Now, gentlemen, the point for you to
determine is whether my Inference
about the pool bill was what the court
would determine justihable inference.
And I propose TO show you not only
that 1t is justifiable, but that to all 1t
was inevitable.
1 don't say things which affect the
good name of the legislature Of my state
without thought. My inference was no
snap Judgment. Before l spoke those
words 1 gave this matter mature con-
sideration. In the silence Of my study
[ had weighed the whole question with
a determination to wrong no man and
to shrink from no duty. I ranged the
whole field Of possibility In my
thought. What did I see? This: Here |
was the passage of a bill which would |
not simply bring cfaos into the crimi- |
nal law of the state but which would |
bring the gamblers driven out Of other |
states to prey upon us, and, worst of |
ALL would put the seal of Connecticut's |
and approval upon one of the |
deadliest vices and one of the darkest |
factors in the whole catalogue Of crime. |
For twelve days in the year the state |
must approve and protect the business
If the man who is debauching your |
youth and blasting your future; and on |
1858 days of the year the same state
must arrest and try and condemn and |
punish the same man for doing precise
Y the same thing in the same way, |
n the same plEee. The frayed and |
iimsy plea was the Improvement of the
lorse; the inevitable result was to be
he brutalizing of the man.
Now, then, gentlemen, every time
aced that situation / was confronted
" just two alternatives. said: Eth
II the men who voted for such a bill |
must have been bought to do so, or they
must have been SO dulled in moral
ense as to see no wrong and no harm
n giving to the vice and crime
# gambling the sacred sanction of law
could see no third alternative. Il
nay say that the press has since sug-
.ested an ingenious third
Now could not bring myself to be-
eve that the men whom we had sent
o Hartford were men with moral sensi-
ilities so blunted that matter like
his, sure to blight the whole future of
he state, could be disposed of without
qualm. Hence I was forced back to
he other conclusion that in a moment |
f weakness some members of the sem
tie had yielded to some kind Of pressure
rom what perhaps might be called la |
he euphemistic phrase of the senator |
rom CRANKY "the urging element" Is s
he inference justifiable? TO me it was
levitable.
Perhaps I may pause here to make
vo incidental remarks. First, you
eem entirely to have overlooked one
hing in my address. I took great
aims not to say that the bride was
golden Though knowing
lat the gambling fraternity were the
len to be benefited, I suspected that; !
ut I took particular pains to say that l
,lfish political ambition might find
g bride in something else than gold '
The other remark is this: 1 happen to
low just why there was such a dis :
ay of injured innocence when my case :
as before you on the 9Th of June.
here are times, gentlemen, when