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open rebellion, and are among the leaders in the revolt. What the Government has done is to recognize these facts, and to assume control of the property which these fugitive rebels left behind them, and which had been used against the Government. So far as this church property is concerned, the Government might have confiscated every dollar of it to its own use by the regular operation of military law; for, notoriously, these abandoned pulpits. were the places which bred and fostered treason, and without which the rebellion would never have had more than an abortive birth; and they were the most powerful instigators of the war against the Government, up to the very moment its armies reclaimed the ground on which they were built.*

When Admiral Farragut captured New Orleans, he or General Butler might have taken Dr. Palmer's Church for a hospital, or for any other military purpose, and the Government might retain it forever as such, a standing monument to the infamy of his treason; for the trustees, elders, pew-holders, and all claiming an interest in the property, had permitted him from that pulpit to assail the Government with his unwonted eloquence, and to urge the people to open rebellion against its authority. All property, public or private, used in open aid of war, is liable to

“When once we have precisely determined who our enemies are, it is easy to know what are the things belonging to the enemy (res hostiles). We have shown that not only the sovereign with whom we are at war is an enemy, but also his whole nation, even the very women and children. Every thing, therefore, which belongs to that nation,-to the state, to the sovereign, to the subjects of whatever age or sex,-every thing of that kind, I say, falls under the description of things belonging to the enemy."-Vattel, b. 3, ch. 5. "We have a right to deprive our enemy of his possessions, of every thing which may augment his strength and enable him to make war. This every one endeavors to accomplish in the manner most suitable to him. Whenever we have an opportunity, we seize on the enemy's property, and convert it to our own use; and thus, besides diminishing the enemy's power, we augment our own, and obtain, at least, a partial indemnification or equivalent, either for what constitutes the subject of the war, or for the expenses and losses incurred in its prosecution,-in a word, we do ourselves justice."-Ibidem, b. 3, ch. 9.

condemnation on its capture. No principle of public law is more fully laid down by all writers on the Laws of Nations and the Laws of War than this; and it applies to the vast majority of Church edifices throughout the South. By their being used as among the most powerful means for sustaining and prosecuting the war, the Government has an indefeasible title to use them if it can capture them; to eject disloyal ministers and people from them, and to appropriate them to any proper purpose in maintenance of its just authority.

But what has the Government actually done? It has preserved these Churches for religious worship, and has simply taken a course which would secure loyal men to occupy their pulpits. This is the whole case, and the Government stands justified, while in fact it might have appropriated them to other uses.

And what has the Church done? Its course is fully vindicated both by the facts and the law.

And yet a howl of indignation has come over from the city of Toronto, week after week, and has taken form in traitorous paragraphs in the city of Louisville, and its senseless bellowings are echoed through the land to frighten pious and timid women.

VINDICATED BY REBEL AUTHORITY.

If Dr. Robinson is willing to receive instruction touching the relations of Church and State, bearing directly upon the point in hand, we refer him to a teacher whom at least he ought to respect. It comes from the pen of Dr. Thornwell. It is found in the "Address of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America," which was republished in Louisville with commendation, and with which Dr. Robinson probably had something to do. The following

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sentences from that Address are all that are necessary for our present purpose.

When the State makes wicked laws, contradicting the eternal principles of rectitude, the Church is at liberty to testify against them, and humbly to petition that they may be repealed. In like manner, if the Church becomes seditious, and a disturber of the peace, THE STATE HAS A

RIGHT TO ABATE THE NUISANCE.

That is good doctrine, and we commend it to Dr. Robinson's acceptance. It comes from a man for whom he has always, with ourselves, had a high admiration. And besides, it is the doctrine of the whole "Confederate General Assembly," for this Address was "unanimously adopted by the Assembly." It is true, indeed, that they write their own condemnation, for no nation under heaven ever tolerated a class of men within it who were more "seditious," and were more influential "disturbers of the peace," than these same men have been during this whole rebellion; but that does not affect the matter; it is sound doctrine, nevertheless.

We insist, then, that the case shall be tried upon their own principles. The Government has done nothing more than carry out the law as here laid down. If any fact is well established, it is that the mass of the Southern Churches, led by their ministers, have gone heart and soul into the rebellion and the war against the Government. These Churches have been recruiting agents for the rebel armies, and many of their ministers are now commissioned officers in them. For this course of the Southern Church, the Government, upon their own showing, "has a right to abate the nuisance." This only is what it is doing, and the manner of the abatement is mild and gentle, infinitely

so than what simple justice would sanction, but probably dictated by sound policy. It merely forbids these "seditious" men and "disturbers of the peace" to occupy

the pulpits they have profaned, and turns them over to men who will preach the Gospel instead of treason, and who will enjoin obedience to lawful authority instead of rebellion against it. Its course stands approved by the laws of God and man, as these laws are understood by the rebels themselves. It is condemned by certain men in the Border States and elsewhere, because they are hostile to the Government and in sympathy with its enemies.

We have now shown, in a few examples, that there is disloyalty of the rankest kind among the ministers of the Gospel in some parts of the loyal States. These cases will serve to illustrate others. That such deeds should be permitted, is proof of the leniency of the Government; that they should pursue such a course, is proof of their deep guilt, and of their utter insensibility to the prime obligations of citizenship. We shall see, in a subsequent chapter, how such things are regarded, and what punishment is justly due them, in the judgment of their Southern friends.

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CHAPTER VII.

THE CHURCH, NORTH AND SOUTH, ON DISLOYALTY.

THE contest in which the nation is now engaged for its life, has brought into discussion, both among politicians and churchmen, many important principles regarding men's duties and rights under civil government. Among them are the relations of the Church and the State, in the different spheres marked out for them by that divine authority on which, as organizations, they both rest; and the responsibilities and immunities of citizens in regard to their civil and religious character.

The principles involved in these branches of the general subject are always theoretically important. At the present moment, within the United States, they are more practically and vitally so than they have ever been before. They affect more numerous classes, a greater multitude of individuals, and more widely extended interests, relating to the political, social, and moral welfare of the whole people, in every section of the country, than has been the case at any previous period in our history. Personal liberty, of speech, of the press, and of action; reputation and character for good citizenship and for piety on the one hand, and a wreck of these on the other; property, and even the means of earning one's bread and educating one's family; the good or bad name which a man will consign as a heritage to his children; the punishment from the authorities of his country, if he prove false to her interests in a time of civil peril, or, if he escape that, the judgment which may overtake him from God; these are only the obvious bearings which the case presents.