xt7v9s1khn0z https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7v9s1khn0z/data/mets.xml Taffe, John. 1866  books b92-63-27078913 English H.S. Bosworth, : Cincinnati : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Reconstruction. Address to the churches of Christ in Kentucky  : and other loyal states, in regard to the treatment of church-members who have been engaged in the rebellion. text Address to the churches of Christ in Kentucky  : and other loyal states, in regard to the treatment of church-members who have been engaged in the rebellion. 1866 2002 true xt7v9s1khn0z section xt7v9s1khn0z 




AN ADDRESS



                TO THE


ClIURCHES OF     CHRIST   IN KENTUCKYV


     AND OTHER LOYAL STATES,


            IN REGARD TO THE


TREATMENT OF CHURCH-MEMBERS


    WHO HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN THE REBELLION.



        BY JOHN TAFFE, M. D.,
     Late Chaplain of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry.






           CINCINNATI:
       R. S. BOSWORTH, PRINT.
               1 8 66.


 
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           TO THE READER.


   The following pages were written, not with a
view to destroy, but to save, if possible, by leading
the guilty to repentance-to induce the Churches
to take proper action in the premises; and to
contribute somewhat to the diffusion of a healthy
loyal sentiment throughout the country.
                          BY TIHE AUTHOR.


 
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               ADDRESS.

   What should the Churches of Christ, in Kentucky
and other loyal States, do with their returned members,
who have been in the armies and councils of the
Southern Confederacy or elsewhere-aiding and abet-
ting in the effort to overthrow the Government of the
United States and dismember the Republic
  Let no one take counsel of passion or prejudice
in the decision of this question. These are unsafe
counsellors.  The ears of passion are too dull to
hear the voice of reason and of truth, amid the noisy
din and senseless clamor, with which she is ever sur-
rounded; and the eyes of prejudice too feeble to see
the truth through the thick vail that ever covers her
face.
  Let these both alike, then, be excluded from the
forum, the jury box and the judicial bench, and let
reason, in the clear light of the word of God, and of
the embodied wisdom and judgment of mankind,
decide the question. Let no considerations but the
interests of Zion, the good of those involved in the
question, the good of the churches and our common
country, be mixed up in the decision of this momen-
tous question. Let us remember that the eyes of
the allwise and benificent Ruler of the universe are
        (5)



 



upon us-penetrating the deep recesses of our hearts
and all the secret springs of our conduct, and that
to Him we must give an account on the great day of
retribution.
  What are the divine injunctions bearing upon this
subject, as they came from the lips of the Great
Messiah, and from the pens of His inspired apostles
When the chief priests and scribes, to tempt the
Messiah, asked him if it were lawful to pay tribute
to Ciwsar, He called for a penny: "Whose image
and superscription hath it" saith He. They an-
swer, "Cesar's."  And He said to them, "render
therefore unto aauar the things that are Ciesar's, and
unto God the things which are God's."-Luke xx:
19-20.
  Here Jesus enjoins upon the Jews not only the
payment of tribute to Caesar, but the faithful discharge
of every duty which they owed to Coesar and to God.
He enjoins upon them loyalty in its highest and most
comprehensive sense-making their obligation to
obey the laws and edicts of Caesar absolute and im-
perative, save and except (by implication), in those
cases in which the commands of Caesar might be in
contravention to the laws of God; in which cases it
was their duty to obey God rather than man, and to
take the consequences; but in no instance does He
license them to raise their arms to resist or to strike
down the government of Caesar.
  Judea had been conquered by the Roman arms,



6



ADDRESS.


 



and had become a Roman province. Caesar was only
another name for the Roman emperor who then
swayed a scepter over the civilized world. His juris-
diction over the Jews had been acquired by conquest,
and yet Jesus enjoins obedience to his authority in
the clearest and most emphatic language. Obedience,
then, to Caesar was obedience to God (save and ex-
cept in those cases in which the laws of Caesar might
be in derogation of the Divine law), and to resist the
authority of Caesar was to resist the authority of
God himself-for He has ordained political govern-
ments, and clothed them with the high sanction of His
authority. Jesus, therefore, in His answer to the
chief priests and scribes, only enjoins upon them
duties which had been always binding upon them from
the very relation which they sustained to Caesar and
to God. To the one as the ruler of the Roman empire,
and to the other as the great ruler of the universe.
  If, then, the obligation of the Jew to submit to the
government of Caesar was thus imperative, though
his authority had been acquired by conquest over the
chosen people of God, how much stronger is the ob-
ligation of Christians to submit to the government
of the United States, instituted by the American
people themselves, for the preservation of the great
heritage of freedom for themselves and posterity, in
all time to come! and how dreadful the sin committed
by them against God and the American people, in
raising their arms and aiding and abetting in the



7



ADDRB8S.


 



effort that has been made to strike it down ! I say
Christians, because the churches have jurisdiction
only over their own members-those without will be
judged by the civil and military tribunals of the
country.
  Political governments are organizations ordained
of God for the punishment of evil-doers and for the
praise of them that do well, and are to be faithfully
and religiously obeyed as such. And no one can
have any reasonable apology for raising his arm to
strike them down, unless they fail of these great ends.
Then, and then only, may they be abated as public
nuisances. But in a representative democracy, like
that of the United States, with a written constitution,
which makes provision for any change or amendment,
which experience or advancing civilization may re-
quire, the better to adapt it to the great ends of free
government; and where the rulers are elected for
short terms by the people, and then returned to their
constituents, to give an account of their stewardship,
I can not conceive of any defect in the constitution
that could not be better remedied in a constitutional
way; nor of any wrong or oppression by the tempo-
rary rulers, that could not be better redressed by an
appeal to the people through the ballot-box than by
an appeal to arms. An insurrection in such a case
is attempted suicide-is an insurrection of the peo-
ple against themselves-a rebellion of the minority
against the majority, in utter disregard of the great



8



ADDRESS.


 
ADDRESS.



principle, which must from inexorable necessity,
control all free governments, namely, that the ma-
jority shall rule; and when they shall have declared
their will in a legal and constitutional way, that the
minority shall submit to their sovereign decree. But
in case of a rebellion of the minority against the
majority, should they succeed in such a strange and
hopeless enterprise, is there any probability, or even
possibility that they could institute a new form of
government that would better secure the rights of
the people, than the happy form of government under
which we live, with a provision in its organic law,
for any amendment in a peaceable and constitutional
way, which the American people may deem necessary
in the great charter of their freedom Every right-
minded man must answer this question with a broad
and emphatic NO!
  The teaching of the Apostle Peter upon the great
subject of submission to political rulers, is equally
clear and explicit: "Submit yourselves," says he to
his Christian brethren, "to every ordinance of man
for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme
(ruler), or unto governors as unto them, who are sent
by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the
praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God,
that with well-doing you might put to silence the igno-
rance of foolish men. As free and not using your
liberty for a cloak of maliciousness; but as the servants
of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood ; fear



9


 



God; honor the king." (1st Peter, ii, 13-17.) How
could submission to kings, and governors, and politi-
cal rulers, be more clearly and explicitly enjoined.
The Apostle Peter and his Christian brethren were
then living under the authority of the Roman empire,
and these injunctions of Peter apply to political
rulers in general, and to those of the Roman empire
in particular. And if such was the obligation rest-
ing upon Christians, to submit to the authorities of
the Roman government, often stained with crime,
and with the most cruel and relentless persecution
of Christians, with what additional weight does the
obligation rest upon Christians to submit to the be-
nign government of the United States, which had
never been felt as a burden, and had only been felt
in the benefits and blessings it conferred It had
never wronged the States that raised their arms to
strike it down, unless, indeed, it was in indulging
their whims and in gratifying their unreasonable de-
mands, as a too-fond mother sometimes does those of
her spoiled and petted children. The wrong, if any,
was not in withholding favors, but was in bestowing
too many.
  Paul is equally definite in teaching his Christian
brethren the duty of submission to their political
rulers. To Titus he says, (iii, 1). "Put them in
wind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey
magistrates," etc. The Jewish Christians had become
very restive under the Roman yoke; many of them



10



ADDRESS.


 



thought it incompatible with the dignity of a Jew and
a Christian to be subject to the authority of a heathen
magistrate. Hence the injunction of Paul to Titus.
He would have him to correct this error among the
Jewish Christians, and to enjoin upon all the Christian
brethren submission to the authority of their political
rulers, though that authority might, in the providence
of God, be vested in the hands of a heathen magis-
trate.
  The Roman government, with all its sins upon its
head, was one of the best of ancient times, and how
long and dark the dreadful night that followed, when
the sun of that empire set to rise no more!
  Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, treats this sub-
ject more in extenso, and in terms yet more em-
phatic. He says: "Let every soul be subject to the
higher powers. For there is no power but of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God. Who-
ever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the or-
dinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be
afraid of the power Do that which is good, and
thou shalt have praise of the same-for he is the min-
ister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that
which is evil be afraid; for he beareth not the sword
in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.  Wherefore
you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also



11



ADDRESS.


 



for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute
also; for they are God's ministers-attending contin-
ually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all
their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to
whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom
honor. Owe no man any thing, but to love one an-
other" (that is, discharge all your obligations), "for
he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." (Rom.
xiii, 1-8.
  Here the apostle enjoins upon his Christian breth-
ren submission to the powers that be, in the clear-
est and most emphatic language; and launches
against all who resist the power the most dreadful
denunciation. No sophistry can evade the force of
the injunction, or turn the edge of the terrible denun-
ciation. Both the injunction and denunciation come
clothed with the awful sanction of Divine authority,
and sound like an echo from Sinai's awful summit.
WHOEVER, THEREFORE (be he Jew or Christian or
heathen, WHOEVER HE MAY BE), THAT RESISTETH THE
POWER, RESISTETH THE ORDINANCE OF GOD; AND THEY
THAT RESIST, SHALL RECEIVE TO THEMSELVES DAMNA-
TION; because they not only resist the political
power, but in so doing, they resist also the ordinance
of God-defy alike the power of God and man, and
therefore shall receive to themselves damnation.
  The term powers that be, here applies to all po-
litical powers generally; but more especially to the
powers of the Roman empire, under whose jurisdic-



1 i



ADDRESS.


 


ADDRESS.



13



tion the apostle and his Christian brethren were liv-
ing. These powers are organizations, clothed with
the dread sanction of Divine authority, for the pun-
ishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that
do well; and are to be submitted to as a high and
sacred religious duty, due alike to the political power,
and to God himself; for He ordained and established
the power for the protection and security of human
rights.
  If then submission even to the Roman power,
often stained with the blood of the martyred heroes
of the Church, was a sacred religious duty; and re-
sistance to that power was resistance to the ordi-
nance of God; and damnation was denounced against
those who resisted the power, by an inspired apostle
who wrote as the Divine Spirit directed his pen;
where shall we find language to express with sufficient
emphasis the obligation of Christians, and of all citi-
zens, to submit to the government of the United States,
which stands out the wonder and admiration of the
world, as the best and most benign government ever
devised by the wisdom of man And where shall
we find fitting terms to declare the deep damnation
due to those who have not only resisted this benign
government, but have raised their traitorous arms to
strike it down, and in the mad effort have destroyed
the lives of half a million of men-have deluged the
country in blood-filled the land with widows and
orphans, with the maimed, diseased, and dying-the


 



asylums with lunatics, the poorhouses with paupers,
and burdened all the winds under heaven with the
,sighs and groans and lamentations of bereaved
widows, and orphans, and fathers, and mothers, and
brothers, and sisters, who refuse to be comforted
because their loved ones are no more They sleep
in unknown graves beneath a southern sky. They
went down in the shock and tempest of battle, or
died in the dreadful prison-pens of the South-ren-
dering up their lives to save the republic from dis-
ruption, and to perpetuate the great heritage of
American freedom, which these misguided church-
members and their confederates in crime sought to
destroy. And, 0, how many widows and orphans,
in poverty and in tears, wait and watch for husbands
and fathers who shall never come again, because
they died by the hands of these church-members,
and sleep their last sleep in unknown graves!
  If a true history of this rebellion, with all its at-
tendant circumstances of atrocity, shall ever be writ-
ten, it will stand out on the page of history as the
blackest of all the crimes in the dark and dreadful
catalogue of human guilt. And yet many, who have
been engaged in this dreadful work, come back from
the slaughter of their countrymen, with garments all
dripping with the blood of the heroic defenders of
our nationality, and of our heritage of freedom, to
resume their places in the churches, as if they had
only been absent on excursions of ordinary business



14



ADDRESS.


 



or pleasure. And the churches, either from sym-
pathy with their treason, or for the sake of peace,
seem disposed to receive them without repentance,
without admonition, and without reproof; forgetting
that treason is rebellion against God, and that the
wisdom which comes from above is first pure and
then peaceable; and that they are required to put
away from among them every wicked person, and to
withdraw from every one called a brother who walks
disorderly. We here drop the Bible aspect of the
subject, with a view of considering the offense in a
civil and political point of light, and then of group-
ing both views together.
  The Constitution of the United States declares that
"treason against the United States shall consist only
in levying war against them, or in adhering to their
enemies--giving them aid and comfort." It also
clothes Congress with power to declare the punish-
ment of treason. This Congress has done, declar-
ing, besides other penalties, that the offender shall
be hanged by the neck until he is dead.
  "In England," until a very recent date, "the
punishment of treason was most terrible and appal-
ling: 1. That the offender be drawn to the gallows,
and not be carried or walk, though (usually by con-
nivance, at length ripened by humanity into law), a
sledge or hurdle was allowed to preserve the offender
from the extreme torment of being dragged on the
ground or pavement; 2. That he be hanged by the



15



ADDRESS.


 



neck and then cut down alive; 3. That his entrails
be taken out, and burned while he is yet alive; 4.
That his head be cut off; 5. That his body be divided
into four parts; 6. That his head and quarters be
at the king's disposal." (" Though the king might
dispense with all these items of punishment save the
hanging.") Such was the dreadful punishment pre-
scribed by the law of England for treason. And
why this terrible punishment, so shocking to the
sensibilities of modern civilization It was because
in the judgment of England, as well as in the com-
mon judgment of mankind, embodied in the solemn
form of law, by all nations ancient and modern,
treason is the highest crime which man (considered
as a member of society) can possibly commit. For
it strikes at the very existence of all social order,
and imperils the lives, the liberty, and the property
of the entire community; and is in itself an aggre-
gation of all crime-involving robbery, arson, mur-
der, and almost every other crime in the calendar
of human guilt. Our ancestors, therefore, in some
instances, punished with these circumstances of ex-
treme torture a crime that upheaves, as with the
throes of an earthquake, the very foundations of
society, and opens a bottomless fiery abyss, in which
millions may be ingulfed. This barbarous punish-
ment has happily passed away with the iron age in
which it originated, and the abrogated law prescrib-
ing it only remains on the records of the dead past



16



ADDRESS.


 



as a monument of the horror with which our ances-
tors viewed a crime fraught with such incalculable
woes.
   The treason of Kentucky rebels is of the deepest
and most atrocious die, because not only committed
against the United States, the mildest and best gov-
ernment in the world, but committed also against
their own State of Kentucky (if indeed treason can
be committed against a state). Their crime, there-
fore, stands forth in all its naked deformity, without
any plea, not even the miserable heresy of state
rights, to mitigate its dreadful atrocity. The same
is true of the rebels of other loyal states. They
are justly regarded by the President of the United
States as more guilty than those of the disloyal
states; and are, therefore, excepted from his am-
nesty proclamation. And shall these guilty men,
with damnation denounced against them by the law
of God, and confiscation, disfranchisement, and death
denounced against them by the laws of their coun-
try, be permitted to come back-take their seats in
the congregations of which they had been members,
and enjoy again all the privileges of membership,
without repentance and without reproof The
churches that suffer these things become partakers
of these men's sins and render their damnation sure.
For as certain as a righteous God rules over the
universe, and as certain as he has denounced dam-
nation against those who resist the powers that be,
          2



17



ADDRESS.


 



just so certain, does this terrible denunciation rest
with more than ordinary weight and solemnity upon
these guilty men; and also that other denunciation
that " no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."
For they are murderers in the common judgment of
mankind, embodied in the form of law by every civil-
ized nation under heaven. For by the laws of the
civilized world, where a number of persons combine
to destroy the life of another, and all are on the
ground, aiding and abetting in the act, or stationed
sufficiently near to afford aid and assistance if neces-
sary, all are principals in the murder. Those that
strike the mortal blows, are principals in the first
degree, and the others are principals in the second
degree. All are held equally guilty of murder and
punishable with death. And in treason there are
no accessories, all are principals. These men,
therefore, are not only traitors, but murderers,
though perhaps some of them might not with their
own hands have actually killed any one, yet they
were on the ground making the effort to kill, and
aiding and abetting those who did actually kill by
thousands and hundreds of thousands our patriotic
soldiers, who had gathered around the life of our
nation to save it from destruction by armed traitors.
  Will the churches, then, admonish these men of
the dreadful sins they have committed, and endeavor
to lead them to true repentance and to a throne of
grace, that they may obtain mercy and forgiveness-



18



ADDRESS


 



remembering that he who converts a sinner from the
error of his way, shall save a soul from death and
hide a multitude of Bins Great as are the sins
these brethren have committed, I do not regard
their cases as hopeless; but their repentance must
be deep and thorough if they would obtain forgive-
ness from a righteous and merciful God. They
must heartily forsake and repudiate the sin-do
works meet for repentance by making amends, as
far as possible, for the wrongs they have done; and
must then seek forgiveness from God and also from
the churches of which they are members, and then
according to the law of the Lord, upon public admo-
nition, they may be restored to church fellowship.
For those who sin are to be rebuked before all, that
others also may fear (1 Tim. v, 20). And those
who oppose any church action in the cases of these
misguided brethren'are (unwittingly perhaps) the
greatest enemies to their spiritual and everlasting
interest.
  But brethren say, " 0, these brethren are just as
good as we are !" Brethren may say this of them-
selves, because they probably know themselves bet-
ter than I do; but with all my imperfections upon
my head, in the name of all that is true and of good
report among men, I protest against being included
in any such category. This sweeping remark levels
all distinction between loyalty and disloyalty; be-
tween righteousness and iniquity; between obe-



19



ADDRESS.


 



dience to God and the powers that be, and treason
against all government both human and divine.
What strange judicial blindness has fallen upon the
moral vision of men as they stand amid the moral
and physical desolation that has been wrought by
the roaring, raging tempest of treason in its wide
and dreadful sweep! Like men lost and bewildered,
they have utterly lost their moral bearings, and in
their moral dementia they call evil good and good
evil-put darkness for light and light for darkness,
and thus incur the woe of the prophet. Who shall
anoint these blind eyes that they may see or un-
stop these deaf ears that they may hear Who
shall clothe the dry bones of this desolate valley
with flesh, and breathe into the renewed forms the
breath of life, that they may live again  Who shall
be able for these things Is there no hope for
spiritual Israel 
  Another brother says, "These brethren are just
as conscientious as we are, and therefore we ought
to receive them without any mention of the past."
I do not know whether these men are so conscien-
tious or not. I can not penetrate the deep of the
human heart, and pronounce upon the consciences
of rebels; and I do not exactly see how any one
can do it that has not traveled that road as well as
the way of loyalty; and even then that would only
be the experience of one person, and would by no
means prove that such was the experience of all



-)o



ADDRESS.


 



rebels. I doubt whether any sane mind can be so
perverted as to come to such a conclusion as this.
Still some persons are given over to strong delu-
sions that they may believe a lie and be damned,
because they receive not the love of the truth. The
conscience may become strangely perverted and
estranged from the way of righteousness. What is
properly called conscience is only a moral feeling,
and like all the other feelings of the human heart,
is blind. It follows the decisions of the understand-
ing upon moral questions as inseparably as a shadow
follows a substance in the sunshine; so that if the
understanding errs in its decisions, which are mere
intellectual processes, conscience errs with it; if the
understanding stumbles and falls into the ditch, con-
science falls in after it. If the understanding or
intellect, then, has been trained to call evil good
and good evil, treason loyalty and loyalty treason;
to call rebels patriots and patriots rebels (as was
done in the South to work up and perpetuate the
rebellion), and therefore errs in its decisions, con-
science errs with it. So true is this that Jesus told
his disciples that " the time would come, when those
who put them to death would think they did God
service." But did He say to his disciples, they are
therefore just as conscientious and as good as you
are No verily, such confounding of good and evil,
of righteousness and iniquity had been utterly fatal



21



ADDRESS.


 
ADDRESS.



to His Divine pretensions. (He taught if the blind
lea(l the blind both shall fall into the ditch.)
  Paul was one of those misguided men. He de-
clares that he had lived in all good conscience from
his forefathers. Even when dabbling his hands in
the blood of the saints for doing the very things
which the Messiah had commanded them to do, he
was acting in all good conscience. But was he there-
fore innocent and as good as they Was this his
view after his mind had been enlightened by the
Word of God No! looking back afterward on this
career of blood, he most feelingly and in deepest self-
abasement upbraids himself as the chief of sinners.
And in all his after life, with a broken and contrite
heart, and with a burning zeal always at a white
heat, amid hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness,
obloquy and disgrace, stripes and imprisonment-
amid perils by land and by sea, among heathen and
among false brethren, with a restless energy which
knew no languor or abatement, he labored by night
and by day to save others from the dreadful gulf of
ruin from which he had been rescued by the mercy
of God, and to make some amends for the great sins
he had committed-presenting in his wonderful
labors of love a spectacle of moral grandeur that has
no parallel in the world's history. 0, then, teach
these returning rebels that only in deep contrition
and a hearty repudiation of their sins, and earnest
prayer to God for mercy, can they expect forgive-



22


 
ADDRESS.



23



ness from God for the great sins they have com-
mitted, and that only on these conditions can they
again be received back into the churches. Any
other course would be disloyalty to the King of
kings. And any other course must utterly destroy
the saving power of the churches. How can the
churches rebuke any minor 8ins, when the crowning
sin of the age, nay, of the ages, goes unrebuked
Church-members will spurn and spit upon your
authority, if you attempt to lay the hand of disci-
pline upon them for dancing, gambling, lying,
defrauding, drunkenness, or any of the common sins
of the age, when the crowning sin of the ages-com-
prehending within its terrible sweep the sum of all
sin, goes utterly unrebuked. How would a church
appear after deciding that this great sin in the per-
son of one of its members should go unreproved,
and yet at the very same meeting should take up a
young sister, and exclude her for dancing, or a
young brother, and exclude him for cheating his
neighbor in a horse-swop; or an old brother, and
exclude him for getting drunk Would not this
look like keeping the church pure  It would look
very much like straining out a gnat and swallowing
a camel. That church would then be prepared for
the coming of the Lord!
  We will suppose that the above case occurs in a
church, where members are tried in committee of the
whole, and that after the church has decided that


 



the returned rebel has committed no offense deserv-
ing reproof, he holds up his hand for the exclusion
of the sister or brother in the supposed case.
Would not this look like Satan reproving sin 0,
shame on such trifling with divine authority! Save,
0 save, my Christian brethren of every denomina-
tion, the Church of Christ from such defilement and
ruin; and save, if possible, these misguided brethren
from the terrible judgments of God that await them,
unless they repent, do works meet for repentance,
and sue for mercy at a throne of grace, and when
you think that God has received the returning peni-
tent then you may receive him and restore him to
the privileges of the church; otherwise it is your
duty to withdraw from him and from all others
called brethren who walk disorderly.
  But, again, brethren would have no church action
in the cases of these brethren, because they were
honest in what they did, and thought they were do-
ing right. Why, some of those concerned in the
dreadful tragedies in Washington, if any credit is to
be given to their statements, thought that they were
doing right! And this was the plea urged in de-
fense of Payne. His counsel asked him why he
attempted to assassinate Mr. Seward, and he replied
because he thought it was right. His counsel en-
deavored to show that he was a regularly educated
assassin, and having graduated in this profession,
when he found a case suited to his taste, he ad-



24



ADDRESS.


 
ADDRESS.



dressed himself to the accomplishment of the work;
and his counsel, with the audacity of a spirit fresh
from pandemonium, urged his acquittal on that
ground, because it was simply in the line of the pro-
fession to which the man had been educated, and of
which he was a regular graduate! And it is very
possible, that these good, conscientious brethren,
who have returned from the innocent work of
slaughtering their fellow-citizens, because they stood
in the way of the destruction of the life of the na-
tion, are pretty much of the same way of thinking!
  Shall the murderer, when the hand of justice is
laid upon him, turn and raise his blood-red hands
and reeking dagger toward heaven, and declare he
is innocent, because he is conscientious in what he
has done, and thought he was doing right, and there-
fore justice has no claim upon him Shall the
hand of justice be palsied by such a plea and shall
he release the criminal from his grasp  This is the
strange doctrine that is now brought to our ears.
Then close the sanctuaries of religion and the halls
of justice, for the religion of our fathers and the
genius of justice that presided over the tribunals of
our country have taken their flight from earth, the
landmarks of virtue are effaced from the records of
time, and all distinctions between virtue and vice,
righteousness and iniquity are swept away by the
rushing, raging flood of evil that bears away on its
resistless tide the hopes and fortunes of men! -Has
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pandemonium been established on earth and has
virtue fled from the abodes of men Stay, 0 stay,
my brethren, this dreadful springtide of evil, that
threatens ruin alike to both church and state, and
let the law of the Lord be enforced though it sift
the church as wheat.
  But, says another good brother, " We do n't notice
the cases of these brethren, because we do n't suffer
politics to be brought into the church." Pray, my
good brother, what do you mean by politics 
Many use this term very flippantly, who know not
what they mean nor whereof they affirm. The term
politics, according to Mr. Webster, in its largest and
mo