The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-02-28
INTOLERANCE RUN MAD.

INTOLERANCE RUN MAD.
Intolerance ran mad at Hoboken when
ministers of Protestant churches on Sun
day last attempted to prevent Bob" In
gersoll from lecturing on the Bible. They
prevailed upon a weakened Mayor to
close the theater in which Mr.. Ingersoll
was to speak. When he was confronted
with the law the Mayor was compelled
An appeal was then made to the Chief of
Police to interfere, on the ground that the
lecture might provoke a breach of the
peace, but this also failed.
Colonel Ingersoll delivered his lecture
In peace and quiet, and before an intelli-
gent audience. That he did not fail to
score the clergy VINO sought to prevent
him from exercising the right Of free
speech is not surprising. He very prop
erly said that the spirit manifested by the
intolerant clergymen was precisely the
subject him to the stake and the blazing
faggot because he chose to speak of the
Bible as he reads it. There was a time,
he added, when that kind of holy Office
was not only lawful, but held to be in the
service of God, but that time had passed
forever.
Tuesday night in the city of Savannah
intolerance in another form was mani
tested, and this time it was not sect
against an infidel, but religion against
religion. An ex-priest and his wife pro-
posed to lecture against the Catholic
Church. and thereupon bowling mob
assembled and broke the windows of the
building and attempted to lynch the
lecturers. As in the first case, so in this,
the manifestation was sin the service of
God,' in defense of ''the true faith" and
was the intolerance which forbids man
to think or speak except as another die
tates.
The Mayor of Savannah, vino is ew,
gave those who sought to induce him to
close the hall against the lecturer bit of
advice that is concentrated wisdom and
clean-cut sense. two qualities that do not
distinguish the intolerant religionist. The
Mayor said to the DIRECTORS: Those who
think they will be offended by the lecture
have only to remain away from it. Thus
no ones human right will be infringed,
and there will be no breach of the peace"
- ~ 49, IL
clergy be it said that he gave like advice,
but not until after the mob had gathered
and troops had to be called out to dispense
it and protect the lecturer from violence.
That clergyman then told the fanatics
that they were disgracing their religion,
that the ex-priest could do them no harm,
and, he should have added, can do the
truth no harm.
The truth can always afford to stand in
the light and to suffer any assault. The
religion that cannot hold its own in de-
bate. or refute charges laid at its door, is
a religion that it is better abandoned than
embraced. But it cannot be concealed
that the same teaching which propelled
the clergy of Hoboken against Ingersoll
led on the mob against Slattery. Be-
tween the two there is, in that respect,
not the slightest difference. Each teaches
that it alone represents the true faith
and that all others are false, and worthy
of suppression by force. In each case it
was the spirit of the stake and the faggot
The church, be it Protestant, Catholic
or other, which gives cause for intoler-
ance, which breeds the spirit of persecu-
ton, is at enmity with the institutions of
liberty, relic of savagery and the rule of
might.
1t is deplorable that in two cities in the
republic there should, within one week,
have been made manifest the truth that
there still exists that slavery of the soul
which makes men little better than
beasts
1t is to the honor of his race that Jew
should have risen up TO rebuke the
devotees of a religion that contemns
him. and to teach the fanatic and intoler-
ant that in this day and age free speech is
the dearest Of rights, and that the truth
never seeks to muzzle it.