Year: 1859

OF the American Tract Society, great effort was
made to induce the Executive Committee of the
Society to publish tracts upon the slavery ques-
ton, but the committee-taking the ground that


the society had nothing to do, except to ballot for
officers had no right to interfere, and power to
instruct its officers, once they were ehosen-con-
trived to evade the question at issue In eonse-
quence religious storm has arisen in those quar-
ters and Indignation speeches have been poured cut
against the tyrannical conduct and usurpation of
the Committee We clip the following from
speech on the subject, by the Rev. H. W Beecher,
whose gun is as long and as loud as that of any
other:


should admire tO be an agent collecting money
| Tor TINS Society for short period laughter
l should address the farmers with Characteristic
eloquence, describing, first, the unspeakabe wants
OF the ignorant population Of our land and next


the unspeakable piety OF the members of the Ex-
ecutlve Committee OF the American Tract Society;
and next, of that mysterious power which God
has given to welding gold and silver to bring to-
| gether the much-needed piety of the one extreme
| to the much-needing ignorance of the other


= This Is your duty" should say to the farmers
who, with hard toll and laborious economy, have
been endeavoTing, penny by penny, to put their
sons through the academy or college, that they
may make ministers or missionaries of them, or
that they may become honorable civilians, or in
telligent laborers of any grade It is your duty
TO help IN this glorious cause Of tract Distribution
But, says the farmer, in his stupidity, what
VIII become OF my money if l shall give it-what
Will be done with tl' "Why, it is going into
the treasury of the Lord" 90 But what treasur-
er is that who holds the Lords bagl'' why,
| 1t is held by these deEout and sainted men who
ali daly
free discussion platform for the purposes of
the Lord" " But what is TO be done with our
money! What do they mean to print! What do
they mean to circulatel'' My friends, I should
be obliged to say, 4" You are meddling with mat
ters which do not concern you. 1t is your busi-
ness to give the money t is business to spend
1t. If you wish to know how it is spent, in due
time, after it is all gone, you shall find the tracks
| of 1t here in annual report


| Gentlemen, this American Tract Society is
multltorm and gigantic mill. 1t has its run of
stones. Some are appointed for wheat, some for
corn, but more for eObs and they do not profess


to consult the will of those that approach their
door with bags of grain they simply say to them,


This is what grind in this mill if you choose


to put your wheat into that hopper we will grind


wheat your corn into that hopper we will grind
corn; your cobs into yonder hopper, and we will
give you cobmeal; but we do not profess to be
directed any further by the will of our customers


than we choose. Here are Ourarrangements; take
| them if You please. If you do not like them, go


somewhere else. We shall grind just as we have
arranged to grind. We will put in no new stones


and make no alterations in our mill to suit the no.


tions of the people that live herabouts."


And so, the American Tract Society say, "Gen-


tlemen, pour your pocket grists into our mill
| We have arranged how this shall be spent. We


shall make no changes. We are not to be instruct
| ed We are not to be Influenced by the wild DEM


ocracy of popular deliberative bodies of old men.


daughter. IL is our business to use these sacred


funds; yours only to give US chance to use


them


And so l imagine that country gentlemen who


had, with very great pains and selEdenial, been


able to give twenty and fifty dollars, that they
might become lie-members and life-directors of


the American Tract Society, approached this great
city at it's recent Anniversary, and were present


in the Academy of Music. They have come, as


they fondly. supposed, to take some part in the


administration of affairs When they go to the


door of the Academy, he of the red ticket is put


on one side of the house and he of the white
ticket on the other side while he of the green


ticket is mounted up the place of privilege upon


the operate stage. The business proceeds. Some


thing seems continually to be going on behind the


scenes. There is whispering, and buzzing, and
consultation. a fore-arranged result is to be
| dragged through the assembly. One thing there
| certainty 10 HOI " uISCusSlOu Is W DC


lowed no free speech is to take any part in this
meeting. At length, when the hour has passed,
| our country member and director 90 out, and,
meeting in the passage-way, little puzzled as to


what they have done, one looks the other in the


face, and says" What did you do on your side
| of the house!' And the other replies, 4" And
what did you do on your side Z" and both join in
| saying, " w hat have they done on their side -
! will defy anybody on earth to tell what has
| been done, except that two men have been duped
and a third has got the money. Laughter
This is tolerably large game of thimble rigging.
| 1t is supposed that the little joker is under
this thimble but all the time it is neither under
this one nor under that one, but in a much better
| place-the executive pocket. And all this takes
| place under the sweetest names of religion and
devotion. These men propose no mischief with
out holy sigh they violate no right without
pious groan; they never decry free discussion
without lifting up their eyes to heaven they
wrest from no privileges, except with the clasp
ing and holding up prayerful hands In the act OF
prayer. These are all good men, who read their
Bibles think until some places in them must
have become worn out, and their contents forgot
ten. Surely men must be very piOus and very
holy who can stomach, without retch, conduct
that would put to shame a Democratic political
caucus.


was Yesterday urged vehementy to mingle in
this scene and to speak. But loathed and scorn-
ed the offer. Is it for man like me TO play frog
in such scene as that, and watch the sudden op-
portunity TO lump upon the stage, there to be
showed or put down, as might suit the convenience
of the reverend lawyers, tricksters or what-not!
believe in free speech, not for myself alone, but
never half so sacredly as for him against whom l
have exercised my speech. Free speech does not
mean my right to say what l please, but your
| right to speak back again. If there is anything
in this world sacred religion itself, it is the
Il L e IL -


to speak of its principles, to apply them to every
| phase of the human welfare and if this land and
age shall stand by and behold the destruction of
these most sacred rights on the very platform of
religious benevolenee, and in the very professed
service of religion by religious men, then we have