CALUMNY SELF-REFUTED. 233 United States and its supporters in the present war against rebellion, except that "the wickedness and crimes" of the latter "far exceed in atrocity and enormity those of the time of the French Revolution." CHARGE OF DISLOYALTY SUSTAINED. It may be thought that we have given far too much attention to the course of a single paper. Our apology is, that it is probably the only paper claiming to be "religious," within the loyal portion of the country, which is not friendly to the Government; that it is published and mainly circulated in a State which has repeatedly voted against secession, and which is at this moment, and has frequently been since the beginning of the war, overrun by guerrillas who are laying waste the country, and that the course of this sheet is well calculated to give "aid and comfort" to this mode of rebel warfare. And now we ask, can any candid man read the evidence we have adduced in the foregoing extracts,—all taken from a single number of the paper,-and say that The True Presbyterian is not a disloyal print?-that its editor, publishers, and correspondents, are not inimical to the Government which protects their homes, and that their innermost souls are not in full sympathy with rebels in arms who are seeking to overthrow it? No jury of twelve honest men could hesitate to bring in a verdict of guilty. CALUMNY SELF-REFUTED. This paper and certain secular prints from which it often quotes, denounce the Government for its tyranny and oppression, for its interference with the liberty of person, speech, and the press. Dr. Robinson says of himself, in the first extract given, that he has been "maligned, insulted, and robbed, by minions of the Administration." The reply to this is unanswerable. The simple fact that such men and such papers are permitted to live and labor to thwart the Government and to aid the rebellion, is an overwhelming disproof of its oppression. If the Government were really acting with stern justice, they would never more be permitted to trouble it. If they were pursuing such a course at Richmond, they would instantly have a lodgment in Castle Thunder, or be hung by the neck or the heels. This they well know. It would be no better with them if they were doing their traitorous work in Paris or London. There is no nation under heaven, but that of the United States, where such things would be tolerated for a moment in a time of foul rebellion, while possessing the power which this nation has developed. And yet, the Government is maligned as oppressive! The very paragraph which contains the calumny is its own refutation. THE REMEDY.-TWO EXAMPLES. We have If such is the guilt, what is the remedy? already indicated what would be done elsewhere. But we incline to the opinion that the Government would act wisely to allow such prints to go on unmolested; though many think differently. They unquestionably exert a powerful influence against the Government, and give to the rebel cause substantial "aid" and much needed "comfort." But they serve at least two good purposes. They afford to the world the best illustration of the leniency of the Government; and they give striking examples of the depth of human depravity. Both of these may have an important end to serve in the development and final elevation of mankind. An example may be given, however, of a remedy which eminent statesmen of a Border State approve. The Mary THE REMEDY.-TWO EXAMPLES. 235 land Constitutional State Convention, July 19, 1864, passed the following order, by a vote of thirty-three to seventeen: Ordered, That this Convention, representing the people of Maryland, hereby respectfully request the President of the United States, and the Commandants of Military Departments in which Maryland is included, as an act of justice and propriety, to assess upon sympathizers with the rebellion resident in this State, the total amount of all losses and spoliations sustained by loyal citizens of the United States resident in this State, by reason of the recent rebel raid, to compensate loyal sufferers. It is as clear as the light, that these raiders in the loyal Border States are encouraged by the sympathizers with the rebellion therein; sometimes by secret organizations, which the President's Proclamation of Martial Law in Kentucky declares, upon the authority of military men and others, to exist in that State; sometimes by information given to them; and powerfully by the disloyal presses in the Border States. Through these means, the raiding parties, and especially those guerrilla bands that are nothing more than highway robbers and land pirates, are emboldened in their work. The Maryland Convention has expressed its solemn judgment, proposing a remedy. At the very time that State was thus suffering, and the national capital was threatened, raiding parties were laying waste Kentucky, through encouragement given by "their friends" at home. If the remedy suggested by a body of eminent statesmen, is "an act of justice and propriety" for the longitude of Maryland, it would be no less so for that of Kentucky. If the rule were applied there, many men, now rolling in wealth, who have aided John Morgan, and ladies who have kissed his hand and wept tears of joy over his photograph, would be made penniless. If, under this "act of justice," that quality were meted out in the manner proposed, and the guilty were rewarded "according to their works." the edi tors, publishers, and correspondents of The True Presbyterian would be reduced to beggary. Another example is found in what the papers state, that Major-General Burbridge, commanding in Kentucky, has lately issued an order similar in principle to that recommended by the Maryland Convention, and even going much farther in retaliatory measures. We have not seen it, and cannot speak of its provisions; but if founded on "justice and propriety," as we presume is the case, it may turn out that editors and others who are sowing broadcast those seeds which produce such a harvest of desolation and blood through the fair fields of Kentucky, may yet receive their deserts in the visitations which will be made upon their persons and property. GOVERNMENT ORDERS VINDICATED. It will be appropriate, at this point, to notice one of the grossest charges which the "religious" journal above named has brought against the Government, and against every branch of the Northern Church. On application to the War Department, by the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and by Missionary Boards of the Baptist, Presbyterian, and other churches at the North, for permission to occupy the pulpits and vacant neighborhoods of the Rebel States, that the Gospel might be preached, the Government granted these requests, regarding the commission given by these several Church authorities as a guarantee that the men sent South would be loyal, and imposing no other condition. Orders were issued to the different military commanders to give persons thus duly commissioned by the Church, all proper facilities for their work, and to put the pulpits at their disposal. The Generals in command issued their orders accordingly. GOVERNMENT ORDERS VINDICATED. 237 This proceeding on the part of the Government has been denounced by the above-named paper; and that the Church should seek such authority from the State, has been paraded as one of the conclusive proofs of its utter apostasy. At least one religious body, the Presbytery of Louisville, complained to the General Assembly of the Church that its Board of Missions should thus seek to have the commissions of its ministers indorsed by the State; and, in this course, it saw nothing but shame and "ruin" impending. It is in regard to these measures particularly, that Dr. Robinson speaks so contemptuously of the Secretary of War, and of the orders of certain military commanders. In the same number of his paper before quoted, he speaks of "Secretary Stanton's letter installing Bishop Ames as Military Pontiff in a vast district, and the infamous Norfolk order of Gen. Wild ;" and also has the following: * * * What though Methodist and Baptist Mohammedans grasp the sword offered them by that "eminent Father in God," Secretary Stanton, to drive back their Southern brethren into the fold out of which Northern faithlessness to covenants and semi-infidel opinions had driven them twenty years ago. We had fondly hoped that so far as Churches are concerned, this disgrace might be confined to Northern Methodists and Baptists. To our mortification, and the disgrace of our own Church, we find the (Philadelphia) Presbyterian, a journal that will be understood to speak for Presbyterians because it once did,-for the public at large will not understand its miserable fall,-proposing that the Presbyterian Board of Missions should apply to the War Department for an order similar to the Methodist order! We have little fear that this Board will adopt the suggestion. Even should it be so run mad, the Church would be apt to stop supplies till a saner Board were put in its place. The Board here referred to did "apply to the War Department for an order," and obtained it, and if not entirely "similar to the Methodist order," it is nevertheless based |
