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nor will he be likely to secure a very large share of the spoils. The vast majority of political papers are wholly one-sided, and no man can make the statements of any one of them the basis of opinion and action, save at the risk, if not the certainty, of being altogether deluded and misled. The vast majority of party journals absolutely betray their readers. Party editors refuse to publish what they know to be true, whenever the effect of publication will be unfavorable to their side. Many will go further, and deny the truth. Many will quote, if they do not coin, what they know to be false, if it promises to help "the party." Men otherwise respectable and truthful will do this. By some unaccountable hallucination they seem to think that with the types and "for the cause" they may say what they would scorn to say, and do what they would scorn to do in private life for themselves.

Partisan papers not only deal largely in general falsehood, but remorselessly assail private character. Unless a man is too strong to be safely attacked, long and faithful public service, the most generous public spirit, and the purest private morals will not save him from villainous abuse when he becomes a candidate for office. Some of the readers of the Review will remember the malignant accusations made against the public acts and the private morals of Andrew Jackson when he was a candidate for the presidency, and how the charges of murder and assassination were enforced by pictures of coffins on the cover of the electioneering pamphlets with which the land was flooded. They will also recollect that when the hero was actually in his grave, all parties united to honor his patriotism, and to place him in the list of great Americans. The history of his political rival is in substance the same. Accused of almost every crime forbidden in the decalogue, branded as a gambler and a political trickster without honor or principle, ready to sell his country for gold while he was a nominee for the presidency, he was no sooner gone from earth than his old opponents became almost fulsome in their eulogies. General Cass, in the senate chamber, chastening his language, as he said, to "the severity of truth," declared that he believed that Henry Clay "was as pure a patriot as ever participated in the councils of a nation, anxious for the public good, and seeking to promote it during all the vicissitudes of a long and eventful life." And the very party organs that had heaped up detraction without limit, were loud in their praises of the deceased orator and statesman. We are aware that the men of real power, the great leaders of all parties, generally leave this base work of political slander for others to perform. Still the work is done, to the shame and the disgrace of the nation, and the injury of private character and the public good.

However enormous and absurd the falsehoods uttered, they are uttered with the hope that somebody will believe them, and they are believed. The intelligent may read with discriminating eyes, detecting, through all the fog thrown around the subject, the good and the evil in public men and public measures; and many become puzzled and confounded, not knowing what to believe or whom to trust. But many receive with immeasurable faith all that comes from their own side, and reject, without inquiry, all that comes from the other. The lagging reparation that never comes till the death of the slandered man has rendered further lying politically useless, is merely a confession of the former crime, and has no value. It is a poor consolation to a true patriot and statesman to know that the curs which now snap their rabid teeth at his heels will slaver his tombstone with their false tongues, and howl their simulated woe over his grave.

The apathy of the better classes of citizens is another prominent cause of the foulness of the political pool. It may be to the credit of our government that men have so little fear of oppressive legislation that they become careless of exercising the elective franchise. Still this carelessness is not a good thing, especially when those most prone to neglect their duty are the very men whose influence is needed on the side of law and order. This neglect is an error, and almost, if not quite, a sin. There sits by our side, as we ponder these things, one of the purest of patriots and of men, a native citizen of these United States, who has been for sixty years a legal voter, and yet during that long period has never voted once. There may not be another case like this in the land; but all who know the facts are aware that many good citizens are lacking in the sense of obligation in regard to their duty as citizens. The national statistics show that when the most momentous questions are to be decided, and the popular excitement is greatest, hundreds of thousands entitled to vote do not present themselves at the polls. We count this an evil of colossal magnitude. Our people are not all friends of law, nor lovers of order. Some honor, others decry and hate. Some uphold right law, others would dethrone it and trample it under their feet. It is a dangerous thing for good citizens to be negligent. Our experiment of free government is not such a triumphant success as warrants the conclusion that good men are no longer needed at the ballot-box. Nor are we impressed with the idea that all will go right if piety goes into the closet to pray, leaving the ballot-box to "the world, the flesh, and the devil." We need works as well as faith. Religion must vote as well as pray.

Those who are guilty of this neglect apologize for it on certain

grounds, which are insufficient for their purpose. They say that the whole thing is not in the best odor among respectable people; that the polls are located generally at some place where good men do not care to be seen, and that brutal men hang about in crowds to swear, and push, and poison the air with alcoholic breath. Brutal men will swear harder, and drink more, if this will give them the entire control of the land. The falsehood and chicanery of the men who work the party wires produce deep disgust, but what then? If good men, for that reason, give up their rights as citizens, and leave the corrupt and the self-seeking to govern the country, it will be only the result for which these very men are laboring. To inquire and investigate, carefully, resolutely, and fearlessly, to act independently, to make these little sacrifices of ease and mental quiet, and encounter, one or two days in the year, that which reputable men would gladly avoid forever, is the price which intelligent patriotism must pay for liberty.

Thus we have attempted to point out some of the practical defects of our political life as they seem to an outside observer. We have also tried to search out the origin of these defects. In regard to the remedy, a sentence or two must suffice. The evil has a double source, ignorance and wickedness; and we have no faith in any remedy except one that aims to lessen ignorance and wickedness. When there is more intelligence among the people, and the fear and the love of God have greater power over the popular mind, the evil will begin to decrease. We need more spelling-books and more Bibles, more school-houses and more churches, more truth and more love of the truth. The wrong will be rebuked, and the right will be vindicated, just in proportion as the popular heart beats with a wise love of the right and an intelligent hatred of the wrong. The word of God, read, understood, believed, alone furnishes a firm foundation for free institutions. None else will stand when the winds blow and the waves beat.

We subjoin, as an appropriate conclusion, the most excellent passage in the Pastoral Address of the late General Conference, referring to this subject:

"6. The political influence of the Church cannot be profitably exerted by the Church as a body, but only by individuals as citizens. But in using their rights and influence as citizens, we have occasion to admonish all to let their manner of using be marked with moderation, preserving constantly the dignity and sobriety of the Christian; and let your influence as individual Christians be exerted with wisdom; and we cannot refrain from saying that one of the wisest ways of exerting your influence is, to attend the pri

mary political meetings, and give your voice for good and true citizens to hold the places of public interest and trust. We add, that as the pastors of the Churches are "separated unto the Gospel of God," as says St. Paul, while they ought to exercise their individual rights as citizens in voting, it is not meet or profitable to the pastor, or the Church in which he serves, to stand forth in a political canvass, so as to make the impression that he has given himself unduly to worldly affairs, and to this extent failed to devote himself to the holy ministry unto which God has separated and consecrated him."

ART. IV.-EARLY METHODISM IN THE BOUNDS OF THE OLD GENESEE CONFERENCE.

Early Methodism within the Bounds of the Old Genesee Conference, from 1788 to 1828; or, the First Forty Years of Wesleyan Evangelism in Northern Pennsylvania, Central and Western New York, and Canada. Containing Sketches of interesting Localities, exciting Scenes, and prominent Actors. By GEORGE PECK, D. D. 12mo., pp. 512. New York: Carlton & Porter. 1860.

THE history of Methodism the world over is most extraordinary. It abounds in incident unequaled in the annals of any other period or portion of the Christian Church. It is, indeed, a history of marvels almost from beginning to end. The youngest of all the evangelical Churches, the Wesleyan body, is now much the largest. Though less than a century old in America, and not much more than a fourth older in Europe, it numbers its millions of adherents. Wherever the Protestant religion has found lodgment, or has been able to command patronage, there Methodism is now exerting its saving agency. It is felt indeed to be a power in the earth.

Its greatest triumphs have, however, been achieved in the New World. The state of society here has been found, from the very beginning, to be well suited to the aggressive character of Wesleyanism. The popular mind has been taken by it on the very wing. Where all has been excitement and activity, expansion and enterprise, the masses have been compelled to pause and listen. The voice of one crying in the wilderness has been heard, and the wanderer called back to his father's house.

Nor is there any other portion of the American continent from which more striking examples of the truth of what has been said can be selected, than that covered by the history named at the "Old Genesee" may well challenge a comhead of this article.

parison, so far as the success of Methodism is concerned, with any other portion of the nation-one might almost say, any other portion of the globe. The moral and relative changes affected by it can hardly be appreciated by the present generation. Fifty years since, in all these regions, Methodism was deemed either contemptible, or utterly beneath contempt. Wherever its heralds went, they were sure to be regarded and treated, with here and there an honorable exception, as the filth and offscouring of all things. They were saluted with gibes, and groans, and derisive songs, and in some instances with foul-mouthed blasphemies, nay, with even personal violence.

But how great is the change! Those whose memories enable them to compare that time with the present can hardly imagine themselves in the same world. Contempt has given place to respect, prejudice to candor, neglect to deeply interested attention. So complete has been the revolution, that a Methodist preacher of respectable talents and attainments, would now find a cordial welcome and a comfortable support in almost any neighborhood within the geographical area comprehended by the history before us. The actual increase in the number of ministerial laborers is wonderful. Some idea may be formed of the rapid extension of the work, when it is stated that what Dr. Peck denominates "The Old Genesee Conference" comprehended the whole of the two Canadas, and the territory now included in the Black River, the Oneida, the Wyoming, the East Genesee, and the Genesee Conferences, together with considerable fractions of the present Erie, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York Conferences. Where less than fifty ministers were employed half a century since, there are now from nine hundred to one thousand: and yet the actual demand is far from being supplied. Nor is this increase in the number of laborers wholly attributable, by any means, to the increase of population, great as this unquestionably is; but quite as much, perhaps even more, to the change in public sentiment touching Methodism and its authorized teachers. The latter are no longer regarded as a set of ignorant and fanatical propagandists, but as men capable of instructing and blessing the public. They have been found not only honest and pious, but competent and eminently effective. And considering what, as instruments in the hands of God, they have actually accomplished for this part of the country, it would be strange indeed, if candid and discriminating men did not award to them a high character both for talent and moral goodness.

Nor is the salutary influence they have exerted to be seen in the moral history of the country merely: they have contributed

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