"Running the Churches."
In a late epistle of Lincoln upon ecclesiastical matters, he states that he is not capable of "running the Churches," and that he does not intend to take charge of any Church on any side.What the creature means by "running the Churches," we were at a loss for some time to comprehend. His letter is a reply to a petition from St. Louis, requesting that a certain clergyman of that city be reinstated in his pulpit. The rail-splitter demises to do it, and says he "cannot undertake to the churches." As he has found no difficulty in running his armies, and has got them to such a perfection of speed that nothing on two leg can overtake them, we marvel that he don't try his hand on the Churches. If they didn't run when they saw him coming, it would be because they are better Christians than we think they are, and go on the principle of resisting the Devil and he will flee from office of President, once filled by statesmen and gentlemen, he said he "intended to run the machine as he found it." It is in the same sense that he talks of " It is in the same sense that he talks of "not running the Churches. " He means that he will not undertake to regulate and govern them; that he will not add the office of Bishop to that of President, that he will not wear a cassock over his coat of mail; that he will not wear the livery of Heaven while be is engaged in the work of Hell, and be canonized upon the calendar as the Right Reverend David Abe If he don't mean this, we are at a loss to know what he does mean. The United States ought to organize a bureau for the interpretation of Abraham's vernacular. The illiterate vulgarian has a slang of his own which is almost as difficult of comprehension as the dialect of the London thieves. What a creature for a President ! If a romance should represent the Chief Magistrate of a great country delivering himself in the style of Abraham Lincoln, it would be condemned as violating all the laws of probability and nature. But in this instance, as in many others, truth is stranger than fiction.
Nevertheless, we think we understand the policy which is indicated in this letter declining to reinstate the St. Louis clergymen. The Confederate clergy are to be turned out of their pulpits, as in Norfolk and Portsmouth and, perhaps, set to work in the streets, like Rev. Mr. Wingfield, with a ball and chain, and when the President is petitioned to restore them to their sacred offices he vulgarly and cunningly replies that he can't "undertake to run the churches." He runs the Southern clergy out, and runs Abolitionists in, but he can't take charge of any church on any side. His subterfuge is as vile as his language is vulgar. Need any man wonder at the brutalities of his underlings, when the prince of all blackguards sits in the Presidential chair of the United States?
