002

could ask, all that we have ever asked.

Our opponents, have availed them-
selves, of prejudice existing against us, because of
our religious faith, to send out a formidable
host to accomplish our destruction. We have
had no privilege, no opportunity of defending
ourselves from the false, foul, and unjust
aspersions, against us before the nation. The
Government has not condescended to cause
an investigating committee or other person
to be sent to inquire into and ascertain the
truth, as is, customary in such cases.

We know those aspersions to be
false, but that avails, us, nothing. We are
condemned unheard and forced to an issue
with an armed, mercenary mob, which has
been sent against us, at the instigation of
anonymous letter writers ashamed to father
the base, slanderous falsehoods, which they
have given to the public; of corrupt officials,
who have brought false accusation against
us to screen themselves, in their own infamy;
and of hireling priests and howling editors
who prostitute the truth for filthy lucre's sake.

The issue which has been thus
forced upon us compels us to resort to the
great first law of self preservation and stand
in our own defence, a right guaranteed unto
us by the genius of the institutions of our
country, and upon which the Government is based