The Evening Argus

HORRIBLE FANATICISM IN THE PULPIT.
An Impious, Blaspheming Priest.
From the Springfield (Ills.,) Register.
We have been more than astounded, we have been utterly horrified in reading the report of a so called sermon preached by one Ellis, (Reverend Charles Hurbert Ellis) on the 23d of April last, in the city of Bloomington. This blood-thirsty, monstrous fanatic, almost in the presence of the illustrious dead, calls him to an account, as though he himself were a God. He vilifies and abuses the dead Lincoln in most unmeasured, most indecent terms. Not only so, but he, hyena-like, snatches from immortality the glorious names of the fathers of our country, and condemns them alike to infamy. He extols in one sense the assassin Booth, and affixes his crime upon the foreheads of Washington, Jefferson and Adams. He exhausts the fountains of mercy upon the memory of Booth, and blames him less than he pities. He criticises the conduct of the deceased president with malignant ferocity, and gives his memory to obloquy with the gladness of a demon. It is incredible that the good people of Bloomington could endure such a barbarian; we do not believe their endurance will continue. It is monstrous to suppose that such a fanatic, out-Heroding Herod, out-Beechering Beecher, out-Garrisoning Garrison, will be permitted, anywhere in this state, to poison the moral atmosphere with his atrocious calumnies, to do villainous sacrilege to the great names whom a grateful country has embalmed in our heart of hearts.

That our readers may judge of the animus and manner of this so-called teacher of the people, we append so much of his tirade as we have patience to transcribe. Hear him:

"Yes, I believe to day, before God, that as the primary cause of this horrid crime, Adams, Jefferson and Washington, in admitting slavery into the constitution, are more to blame than J W. Booth! I say nothing of the guilt as attaching to the perpetrator of the deed, nor of the guilt as belonging to those illustrious dead; I am speaking of the principle which produced it."

Listen to the blasphemer as he glorifies John Brown and interprets the will of Providence:

"God said to Abraham Lincoln, 'Obey me and thou shalt live.' Doubtless Mr. Lincoln knew that, morally, it was his duty to release the slave, but he ignored a call from God and stood upon the shallow pretence of duty written upon a parchment with the blood of the black man. He knew that the framers of the constitution did not desire slavery; he knew that God could not away with it, yet he had not the moral courage to step forth like a strong man in his might and do what his better nature told him was his highest duty. He sacrificed the demands of God that he might not offend a political party in the land, and permitted to live that always damnable wrong which finally murdered him. John Brown was, in this matter, a greater man than Abraham Lincoln, for he dared to do what God demands every man to do. He had the sublime moral courage which made for him an immortal name and decked his memory with the evergreen of heroism."

Ellis seems to glory in the assassination.
Of such material are assassins made:

“Thus looking upon Mr. Lincoln's character exhibited in his life as our chief magistrate, although a wise, conscientious, large hearted statesman, he, yet, is not the great man whom the nation sees to day through the bloody lens of martyrdom, the multiplying glass of sorrow. His treatment of slavery reflects but little credit upon him, and I believe it is altogether his own fault that enough of that cursed institution existed in Washington, all through these four years of bloody war, to assassinate him in the hour of its final overthrow in the southern confederacy."

The senseless, raving idiot accuses the late president of being his own murderer:

“I repeat it, no man living the past four years did as much to further the consummation of this foul conspiracy as did Mr. Lincoln himself! Of course, it was only through sufferance that he did it, but it was none the less fatal, because he did not see what he was doing. He held in his hand the power to strike down the assassin by a vigorous policy in regard to slavery at the beginning, but he did not have the moral courage to use that power."

Strange to say, Ellis does not desire the death of Booth; he deprecates his destruction.
One would fancy that so bloody a butcher would not stickle at whole hecatombs, to appease his thirst for blood. He wants him punished, but only by a life-long, solitary imprisonment. He says "capital punishment is a violation of the law of God"
He is not only a preacher but a lawyer.

"Traitors and fiends deserve the most terrible punishment -- that is solitary confinement."