And in this Democracy, so-called, all the really
good people are in the business of forcing others to their own way of
thinking. I must tell you also of a branch of the Presbyterian church
which separated from the old church on the question of predestination
and infant damnation. Of Baptists, Methodists, and others there are
numerous sects, which in England would be frowned upon as various forms
of ludicrous non-conformism. De Tocqueville's book, for which my thanks
to you, dear grandmama, will preserve a very faithful picture of America
of this day.
"And it is refreshing, strengthening to the mind and clearing to the
eye, to see Douglas and to hear him talk about all these things. He
stands so clear, so pure of stock so to speak, amid all this variegated
growth of political and social heresy. The other day when I was in
Springfield I looked him up. Here he was talking of the Lovejoy matter,
which led him into a cataloguing of the abolitionists, the anti-Masons,
the Spiritualists, the Mormons, free lovers, old centralists, with the
Whigs. I think he is proud that he has no hobby in the way of an ideal
or ism. He seems unmagnetic to all such things. If he does not look with
suspicion upon the reformer and accuse him of masking some selfish
purpose, he is likely to think that the reformer is something of a fool.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160