Carroll Free Press

CHURCH AND STATE.

We are informed, from a source that admits of no doubt, that the Wesleyan Church of Pittsburgh, of which the Rev. Edward Smith is principal minister, some time during the past fall or winter, excommunicated a man, who was a member of the church, for immorality, to wit: for voting for one Henry Clay, of Kentucky, a slave holder, to be President of the United States.

Some time since, the same church administered the Sacrament, and the said Smith extended the invitation to those present to commune, &c.—1. To the members who were of good standing. 2. To those of good report in other churches, and 3. To all well disposed, &c. &c. The man who had been excommunicated, as above, came forward to partake, under the 3d clause, when Mr. Smith, with coat off, seized him rudely by the hair of the head and thrust him outside the precincts of the sanctuary. Whereupon the immoral and excommunicated man prosecuted Smith for an assault and battery. The jury had failed to agree upon a verdict, was the last intelligence we had of the suit.

Verily the notions that Smith and his followers have of morality, are angelic. They are not adapted to the bosoms or business of men. We care nothing about the religious tenets of any man or set of men, we have no right to interfere with them. Happily, under our Government, a man's opinion about religious matters is private property, and no human authority has a right to call him to account for the proper exercise of those opinions. And also, a freeman has a constitutional and legal right to vote as he pleases, and he who would abridge that right in any way, is guilty of usurpation and tyranny.

And we do think that, for a church to undertake to call its members to account for the manner in which they exercise the elective franchise, is a gross and palpable invasion of the civil and political rights of the citizen, which ought to receive the condemnation of all good men.