Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1880 — Christian Statesmen at Chautanqua. [ARTICLE]

Christian Statesmen at Chautanqua.

The Young Men’s Christian Association meeting at Chautauqua, yesterday afternoon, was a large one. It is said that fully 10,000 persons were present. The meeting was also one of exceptional interest. The 10,000 spectators were treated to a rare exhibition of Christian statesmanship in the persons of Schuyler Colfax and James A. Oar-

field, who occupied conspicuous seats on the platform. Schuyler Colfax made a speech. Garfield was not invited to speak. This discrimination was not duo to any difference in the quality of Colfax’s Christian statesmanship and Garfield’s. As the master of ceremonies explained, it was because Garfield is a candidate for a high office, while Colfax is not. In this contrast lies the great interest of the spectacle. Both Colfax and Garfield were bribed with Credit Mohilicr stock. They both received dividends from Oakes Ames. They both swore, in the name of God, that they had held no stock and received no dividends. They were both convicted of perjury as well as of bribery, both denounced ns bribetakers and perjurers by the press of their own party, aud both equally degraded in tho esteem of honest men. But now Colfax is forgotten by the greater part of his fellow-citizens, despised by those who have not forgotten him, and unnoticed except when lie intrudes his presence upon gatherings similar in character to that at Chautauqua. Garfield is the candidate of tho Republican party for President of the UnitedAStnteq. The “Christian statesmanship ” of men like Colfax and Garfield is no blot on Christianity. No one seeks to connect the two things, except the hypocrites themselves, the ninny hammers who are imposed upon by cant, and the malicious enemies of religion. —New York tiun.