CHAPTER I.

MARTYRDOM IN MISSOURI.

CHAPTER I.

Missouri Distinguished for Religious Persecution—Religious Liberty Secured to every Citizen by the Constitution of the United States, by every State Constitution, and every Department of the Federal and State Governments—Religious Liberty Protected and Enjoyed for two Centuries—The Stephen Girard Will Case—Mr. Webster’s Great Speech—Religious Rights Defined—General Assembly of Missouri Refuses to elect a Chaplain—Legalizes Sunday Beer Gardens—A Card—A Renegade Minister—Reflections.

The State of Missouri is justly entitled to the distinction of being the first and only State in the American Union to inaugurate and authorize a formal opposition to Christianity, as an institution, and to legalize a systematic proscription and persecution of ministers of the gospel, as a class. Her constitution, statute books and judicial proceedings alone reproduce the ordinances, enactments and decisions of the “dark ages,” without the papal superstitions and priestly conscience. Her prison walls and dungeons dark have revived the horrors of Spain without the Inquisition, and her civil and military officers, her courts and mobs, have re-enacted the cruel tyranny and the religious intolerance of Austria, with the papal “concordat” left out.

Her fertile soil has been stained with the blood of real martyrs, and the “seed of the church” has beenscattered all over her broad prairies and along her winding streams. Unmarked graves and marble monuments here and there fix the eye of God as he watches the dust of his martyred servants awaiting the resurrection, and a double portion of his Spirit is given to the living watchman in answer to the brother’s blood that cries from the ground.

The Spirit of the Divine Master, in whose service they fell, inspires charity for the living, and will not rebuke the tears that fall for the dead. We have both, and it is profitable to indulge them, while we accord to Missouri the distinction she has justly won in reviving the laws and repeating the religious persecutions which an enlightened Christianity vainly hoped had passed away with the barbarous times which produced them.

The right to worship God without molestation, according to the dictates of conscience, was not only secured by the Federal and State Constitutions, but was always sacredly preserved and defended by the three co-ordinate branches of the Federal Government, and by the executive, judicial and legislative departments of the several State governments, until it had become so thoroughly interwoven with every form and feature, every principle and fiber of our institutions, and had penetrated so deeply and permeated so generally the popular heart, that its defenses were considered impregnable and its sacredness inviolable.

Every attempt to abridge the religious liberties involved in the rights of conscience, from whatever quarter and under whatever disguise, has been met and resisted by a public sentiment that pronounced it the most dangerous and unwarranted invasion of thedearest rights of American citizens. The enactment of laws to restrain the liberties of the citizen in any other direction might be tolerated, but whenever and wherever the enactment of laws, the decision of courts or the exercise of power have impinged upon the rights of conscience, or placed religious institutions under disability, the American people have moved to a resistance that subordinated all minor differences and distinctions and put their hearts and lives, their all, upon the defense.

The strenuous efforts made to break the will of Stephen Girard, in the courts of Pennsylvania, in 1839 and ’41, and in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1844, are too fresh in the minds of American jurists and many of the American people to require more than a reference to one single item in this connection as an illustration.

The founding of the institution in the city of Philadelphia that bears the name of Girard, and his princely bequest for that purpose, would have passed his name down to the generations to come as one of the great benefactors of his race, but for one restrictive clause in his will; and it was in the light of that clause that the case assumed a national importance, and enlisted some of the ablest advocates of the American bar, prominent amongst whom was Mr. Webster.

After providing for all the college buildings that would be necessary, and the enclosure of the grounds by high stone walls, with iron gates for ingress and egress, he adds the following restrictions:

“Secondly—I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary or minister of any sect whatever shallever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in the said college, nor shall any such person ever be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to the purposes of said college.”

Mr. Girard had a right to dispose of his estate in any way that his wisdom might direct, provided, however, the rights of others were duly respected; and Mr. Webster’s unanswerable argument clearly sets forth the relations of Christianity to the State, and shows that such disabilities are in direct conflict with the institutions of the country, against the public policy of Pennsylvania, and every other State in which Christianity is recognized as the law of the land, and must be subversive of the dearest rights and liberties of the people.

What is the value of Mr. Girard’s bequest, however great or munificent, when it touches the very foundations of human society—when it touches the foundations of religious liberty, of public law, and endangers the well-being of the State?

The restrictive provisions of Mr. Girard’s will, in the opinion of Mr. Webster, distinctly repelled Christianity in the person of its accredited ministers; for whatever proscribes the minister of Christianity proscribes Christianity itself. The ministry is a part of Christianity, divinely instituted and authorized, and whoever makes war upon ministers of the gospel, as a class, makes war upon the Christianity they teach and represent.

In the light of these facts the State of Missouri, by her military and civil officers, her conventions, her General Assembly and her courts, has fairly won theunenviable distinction here announced, the painful history of which is recorded in these pages.

The ground work of this persecution was laid in the public mind years before its manifestation. The first out-croppings of the anti-Christian spirit was in the session of the General Assembly of 1858–9, in declining to elect a Chaplain, and in the refusal to repeal what was called the “Sunday Law.” The encouragement given to this infidel spirit by a large portion of the press of the State, and by many so-called benevolent associations of foreigners, and from other influential sources hereafter noticed, prepared the public mind for the legislation, the military and civil despotism, and the mob violence which authorized and executed a system of persecution, the history of which presents a catalogue of crime and scenes of blood and murder disgraceful to the State and revolting to the whole civilized world.

The refusal of the General Assembly to elect a chaplain, December, 1858, derives its importance, not from the fact, but theanimusof the debates, and the sentiment reflected by the action.

The journal of the House of Representatives, of Dec. 29th, 1858, contains the following:

“Evening Session.—Mr. King, of St. Charles, offered the following resolution:Resolved, That the House do now proceed to the election of chaplain. Mr. Edwards, of Dallas, offered the following amendment to the resolution: ‘And that the individual members of this House pay said chaplain for his services out of their private means;’ which, on motion of Mr. Sitton, was tabled by a vote of 79 to 43.

“Dec. 30th, 1858.—The House resumed the consideration of the regular order of business, viz., the election of chaplain, when Mr. King, of St. Charles, nominated Mr. Leftwich; Mr. Brisco, of Cass, nominated Mr. Williams; Mr. Boulware, of Callaway, nominated Mr. McGuire; Mr. Lenox, of Miller, nominated Mr. Litsinger; Mr. Davis, of Buchanan, nominated Mr. Welch. Mr. Ament moved to reconsider the vote on the adoption of the resolution to proceed to the election of chaplain, pending which motion Mr. Morris, of Barton, nominated Mr. Crow. Mr. Welch moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table, which was negatived by a vote of 49 to 69.

“Afternoon Session.—Mr. Ament offered the following resolution as a substitute for the resolution of Mr. King, of St. Charles, in regard to the election of chaplain for the House: ‘Resolved, That the speaker be authorized to invite, each alternate week, the services of the respective resident ministers of this city, in opening, daily, this House with prayer.’”

This resolution awakened a lively discussion, which consumed much of the time of the three succeeding days—at a cost to the tax-payers of the State of not less than $20,000—and was finally passed under the operation of the previous question. Several efforts wore made afterward to reconsider, but to no effect. The Senate, after some discussion, adopted a similar resolution.

The debate upon this resolution was very spirited, and drew out the sentiments of the people’s representatives quite fully. Party lines were drawn clearly between the chaplain men and the anti-chaplain men,and this resolution was considered by both parties a compromise upon the vexed question. But why compromise such a question? Why make it a vexed question at all? Former Legislatures had elected chaplains and paid them, and thus recognized Christianity, not only as an element of national character, but as an accepted institution of the State, the doctrines of which were confessed in the oath of office and in all judicial tribunals, and the institutions of which conserve the highest interests of public weal, as they appeal to the most sacred guardianship of the State.

If the position taken by Mr. Webster, in his great speech before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Girard will case, is accepted as true—and it is so accepted by all the right-thinking men of the country—there is nothing in the New Testament more clearly established by the Author of Christianity than the appointment of a Christian ministry; that the ministry is a necessary part of Christianity, divinely ordained for its propagation, and whoever rejects the regularly authorized minister of the gospel rejects the Christianity he teaches and represents; whatever repels the ministry repels Christianity, for it is idle, and a mockery and an insult to common sense, to pretend that any man has respect for the Christian religion who yet derides, reproaches and stigmatizes all its ministers and teachers.

The action of the House of Representatives was spread upon the journal, but theanimusof the members could only be gathered from the speeches, and then only by one who was present to hear and see. The kiss of betrayal precedes crucifixion.

It was in view of the spirit developed by this action,more than the action itself, that three of the resident ministers of the city held a council, and after due deliberation published the following card in the city papers:

“A CARD.

“We, the undersigned, resident ministers of this city, believing that the discussion just closed in both branches of the General Assembly, on the office of chaplain, is a virtual repudiation of the claims of Christianity by that body; and that the action had is only a compromise measure, designed to reconcile the hostility of members somewhat to that office; and believing that for us to comply with any request to officiate in that capacity, under existing circumstances, will compromise the dignity of our office and the gospel which we preach; therefore,

“Resolved, That we will not sacrifice our self-respect and ministerial dignity to the enemies of Christianity by officiating in the office of chaplain for either branch of the General Assembly.

(Signed) “W. M. Leftwich,Pastor M. E. Church, South.“S. D. Lougheed,Pastor Presbyterian Church.“R. H. Weller,Rector Episcopal Church.

(Signed) “W. M. Leftwich,Pastor M. E. Church, South.

(Signed) “W. M. Leftwich,

Pastor M. E. Church, South.

“S. D. Lougheed,Pastor Presbyterian Church.

“S. D. Lougheed,

Pastor Presbyterian Church.

“R. H. Weller,Rector Episcopal Church.

“R. H. Weller,

Rector Episcopal Church.

“Jefferson City, Mo., Dec. 31, 1858.”

It is due alike to Christian integrity, ministerial fidelity and the truth of history to state that Rev. Mr. Lougheed did subsequently officiate as chaplain to the Senate, upon the solicitation of one or two members of that body, and under the operation of the unrescindedaction of December 31st, 1858, after he had solemnly affirmed and formally announced to the world, through the public prints, that to do so would “compromise his self-respect and ministerial dignity.”

This same session of the Legislature was made famous by the failure to repeal what was known as the “Sunday Law,” which was passed merely upon its title, and in disguise, by the previous session, and which legalized the opening of beer gardens, play-houses, and many other places of drunken licentiousness on the Christian Sabbath in St. Louis. Pending the effort to repeal this unchristian law the discussions in both Houses and in the public press assumed an importance and a gravity which greatly alarmed the Christian people of the State for the freedom and safety of all religious institutions, and awakened the faithful watchmen upon the walls to the real issues that the enemies of Christianity would make, and to the real danger that threatened the peace and well-being of society in the not distant future.

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