The Captivity of the Republic

SPEECH OF REV. H. W. CROSS, BEFORE THE COMMITTEE

“Mr. Durborow.—Rev. H. W. Cross, of Ohio, will speak for five minutes. CAR 24.6

“Rev. H. W. Cross.—Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: The real object of my being here to speak a word, is in favor of intellectual honesty on the part of the orthodox churches. I am a minister of an orthodox church. ⁵ I notice in my territory that these church petitions are exceedingly delusive, as to the number of those that sign them or vote for them. CAR 24.7

“Now, for example, in one instance in our State, the Presbyterians passed a resolution, saying that we represent so many, aggregating a certain membership; and then the Christian Endeavor Society, composed of many of the same church members alluded to by that Presbyterian Church, will pass a like resolution, and say we represent fifty, seventy, or one hundred members. And then it will be brought before the Sunday-school. And many of the persons who are counted as voting for the resolutions, will have been counted three, four, or five times; and it is almost on the principle of voting early and often-which is so much opposed in secular politics. I am a witness to this fact. There was one petition claiming to represent eighty church members that signed the petition to Congress, but they were not present at all. It was at a Sunday-school, and the vote was taken by the Sunday-school superintendent, and there were children that voted for those resolutions that were not old enough to know whether the expression ‘World’s Fair’ meant the pretty girls in the next pew, or the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. CAR 25.1

“I deem it my duty to inform this committee of the facts in that case. The real animus of these petitions is religious. But you cannot tell by the wording of the petitions just what they mean; it is the spirit back of them that shows this. The columns of the religious press and the exhortations of class leaders and Sunday-school superintendents,—it is what they say to the few that were voting, that tell what these petitions mean. I deem our legislators thoroughly competent, intellectually and morally, to decide this question without any imperious dictation from any sect or group of sects, as to whether this opening of the great educational Exposition is consistent with the civil Sabbath. I notice a tendency in my own church papers, and in other orthodox church papers, to gloat over the fact that ‘we [that is, this group of denominations having this common idea] have been strong enough by our own strength, to grasp Congress; we have hurled Congress against the Seventh-day Adventists, against the Seventh-day Baptists, and against the Roman Catholic citizens, and against various other of our citizens.’ Now it seems to me that is hardly a desirable thing to do in this country. CAR 25.2

“I cannot speak to you, gentlemen of the committee, in the manner and to the extent that I had prepared myself, owing to the fact that I have but five or six minutes allowed me, and so I have simply presented these two points: that these petitions are exceedingly delusive as to the number who sign them, inasmuch as one and the same identical people have spoken many times, and in a great variety of instances, at conventions as individual signers, at Sunday-schools, as members of the Society of Christian Endeavor—the same persons have voted again and again. And when you come to figure out the vast aggregate, it is exceedingly delusive, and if the interests of the civil Sabbath— CAR 25.3

“Mr. Durborow.—Mr. Cross, your time has expired. CAR 26.1

“Mr. Cross.—Very well, then; I will leave my sentence unfinished. I bow to the decision.” CAR 26.2

Rev. Minot J. Savage, of Boston, who followed Mr. Cross, remarked upon this point:— CAR 26.3

“The former speaker has made reference to the statistics. I think, myself, that two much has been made of the statistics that have been presented. While the statistics were being read, I felt running through my mind a quotation from the Hon. Carroll D. Wright. I do not mean it as an insult to the gentlemen here; but it struck me as being so witty and so apropos that I present it. Carroll D. Wright said that, ‘Figures will not lie, but liars will figure.’ I do not mean, gentlemen, that these people are, consciously, liars; but when a man votes for a thing as a church member, and then votes for it as a member of the Christian Endeavor Society, and in the Sunday-school, and as a member of some temperance society, he does not make four men of himself in the process, and that ought to be remembered.” CAR 26.4

Another speech which most powerfully set forth this that the committee refused to hear from us, was that of Mr. Thomas J. Morgan, a laboring man from Chicago. He had his speech written out to be read. But after hearing some of the church representatives, he was so stirred by their misrepresentations, that he, when he came to speak, forgot all about his written speech, the passing of time, and everything else, till the Chairman told him his twenty-five minutes were gone. We give his speech here also. CAR 26.5