STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 345 



committed by highwaymen, yet the one crime shocks the worid, while a 

 thousand crimes a thousand times more heinous, scarcely produce a 

 shudder, and why 'i The thousand are legal, the one illegal, committed 

 without license. And yet, foul as are the demands of hell's venders, 

 ruinous as are the results, the religion of the nation is willing to let this 

 monstrous ruin go on — charter and re-charter, provided only that it will 

 keep quiet on Sundays, and sing songs to the edification of the church- 

 going throng. The church is master of the situation, has monopolized 

 the moral teachings of the nation to the exclusion of all moralists, and 

 for all abuses she is responsible. For ages the church has taught that no 

 moral was pure, or its promulgator worthy of respect, unless a church- 

 man, and accordingly all outside moralists were ^hooted down, not only 

 by church men, but by those outside as well, showing that the church is 

 master of the general mind outside of church, as well as within, and 

 therefore wielding the helm of mind she is responsible for all abortions in 

 society. 



The religion of the nation not only allowed slavery, but defended it as 

 a divine institution, and since the death of the system as a military ne- 

 cessity, more than 30,000 have been murdered, the moral justice of the na- 

 tion excusing and forgiving the perpetrators without a pardon being 

 asked. The North, too, in the time guilty of robbery and murder 

 equally as revolting by the slaughter and plunder of Indian tribes. So 

 bold and relentless the robberies and murders, North and South, that it 

 can be said of a truth : "That on the side of the oppressor there is 

 power, and the poor have none to help." 



In the South the extermination of the Negro race is boldly advanced, 

 on the ground that freedom has spoiled them. And in the North the exter- 

 mination of the Indian race is boldly urged, on the ground that with them 

 civilization is a failure. But what have been the civilizing agencies sent 

 to the Indians other than frauds, cheats and whoremongers, with whisky, 

 beads and tobacco, and the dealing of the nation is to drive them from 

 their lands from time to time to those of less worth. 



That the churches have sent ministers amongst them I do not dispute, 

 but water can not rise higher than its fountain, nor will morals rise 

 higher than precept and example. The example is fraud, theft, adultery 

 and murder. Arab religion to the letter, the precepts being the same 

 that have deluged the world in blood for the last 1,500 years. And that it 

 is a depraved code the turmoil of the last 1500 years stands a bloody wit- 

 ness. In that lapse of time the creed has swayed the world. Prior to 

 that time the code had but few adherents save in Arabia. Though we 

 do not have our pilgrimages to Mecca, as do the Arabs, we have our set 

 days for fasting and thanksgivings, and for the same end, to take an ap- 

 peal from injured man to God, and the routine to obtain the pardon is 

 the same as that of the Arabs and that upon which the God of Isaiah 

 blew his indignation. 



And who shall demand that I shall respect what the God of Isaiah 

 hated 3,000 years ago. Let us hear him : 



