AN EARNEST APPEAL
To the Moral and Religious Citizens of all Denominations, in the Counties of St. Lawrence and Herkimer.
Fellow Citizens:--The political affairs of our country have reached an important crisis. We are upon the eve of one of the most eventful and decisive political struggles in which the people have been engaged for many years. The fountains of the great deep of the popular will have been broken up, and the elementary principles of government are well nigh reduced to a state of chaos by the reckless career and ambitious aims of designing demagogues and unprincipled political adventurers. In this general upheaval of party organizations and dismemberment of old associations and affinities, former antagonisms have become assimilated, and formed intimate alliances with each other. many honest men find themselves now acting side by side with those whom they have all their lives heretofore bitterly opposed, and against their former warmest friends. In view of the strenuous and systematic efforts of the leading men and presses opposed to the democracy of the country, this is not strange. Thousands, doubtless, have thus been thrown temporarily from the great democratic track, who will unquestionably return again with the returning "sober, second thought" of the public mind.
Upon the general issue, therefore, we, the undersigned, members of the Democratic Corresponding Committee of the Country of Herkimer, do not now propose to speak.
Our object now, is simply to exhibit before the Electors of the 17th Congressional District the real character, in a religious sense, of a single candidate who is asking for their votes for a seat in Congress--Hon. Francis E. Spinner. And here, we desire to strip ourselves of all
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political prejudices and predilections, and to deal only and solely with NAKED, STUBBORN FACTS. We cannot believe, that any considerable portion of the intelligent, right-minded, morally disposed, to say nothing of the religiously inclined citizens of this District, irrespective of party, can by any possibility be induced to give their votes to a known, openly avowed, and even BOASTFUL, DEIST AND INFIDEL. And we are prepared to show, by the most undubitable evidence--by oft-repeated declarations and sober asseverations from the lips of Gen. Spinner himself, that he not only holds in utter contempt the universally acknowledged tenets and principles of the Christian religion, but openly and boldly mocks at the idea of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and denounces him as the an IMPOSTOR, the ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF A PROSTITUTED MOTHER
These are not vague charges, made merely for political effect; but they are solemn truths, susceptible of the clearest demonstration, by testimony of the most unimpeachable character. Men of the highest standing in our community, as citizens and as Christians, whose own ears have been astounded and shocked by gen. Spinner's avowals of audacious infidelity--even bordering upon atheism itself--stand ready at any moment, under the sanctity of a solemn oath, to swear to the several charges and specifications herein set forth. Let the following declarations from Francis E. spinner's own mouth, be duly weighed by every voter in the District. And let it be remembered that it is utterly impossible for Mr. Spinner to evade or deny the fact of his having uttered them:
Gen. Spinner, in the hearing of distinguished and highly respectable citizens of Herkimer County, has repeatedly been heard to declare, THAT JESUS CHRIST WAS THE SON OF JOSEPH, THE CARPENTER, AND IF NOT, HE WAS A BASTARD, and if he was the SON OF JOSEPH, THEN HE WAS AN IMPOSTOR, AND THAT THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS A FABLE.
These awful sentiments of Gen. Spinner, are susceptible of proof by the testimony of persons of unquestionable veracity, and the Democratic Corresponding Committee of Herkimer County
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hereby agree to hold themselves responsible for the truth of the charge, and will substantiate it with ample proof if an attempt to deny it should be made by Gen. Spinner or his friends.
But again, the fact of Gen. spinner's infidelity and disbelief in the Bible, together with the sneering, shameless epithets by which he characterizes our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,is of such common notoriety here in Herkimer county, that no proof whatever is necessary to establish the truth of his entertaining such abhorrent sentiments.
Gen. Spinner, also, in a recent conversation with one of his own Republican friends, in reply to a suggestion of this friend that he ought to be more cautious in uttering his irreligious views, and that his opponents would use them against him greatly to his injury, said: "I don't care; if they choose to make that an issue,there are infidels enough in the District to elect me. They would vote for the Devil if he was right on the Kansas question!"
As an evidence of the utter contempt in which he holds the religious institutions of the country, and the Clergy generally, at the opening of the last session of Congress, when balloting for Chaplain of the House of Representatives, gen. Spinner cast his vote for a notorious female infidel preacher, to fill that office--Miss Antoinette Brown! And to his shame be it spoken, Gen. Spinner was the only man in all that body who could thus debase himself. Miss Brown therefore, had Gen. Spinner's vote recorded in her favor for the office of Chaplain upon the pages of the House Journal, and HIS VOTE ONLY! This is history. Electors, look at the record, and you will find it so.
Gen. Spinner is an open violator of the Sabbath. He has been frequently seen with his gun on his shoulder, hunting in the woods on Sunday! It is but a short time since he was thus noticed by the citizens of the town of Warren, in this county. Scores of responsible witnesses will testify to this fact.
Now, in all candor, we appeal solemnly and directly, to every moral and religious citizen of this 17th Congressional District, to say, whether he is willing to cast his vote for any man, no matter what party
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puts him in nomination, who is known to hold ideas and sentiments like these? Our Congressional halls have sometimes been stigmatized as a "bear garden," in consequence of the lawless and reckless character of the Representatives who have succeeded by shrewd political management in obtaining seats therein; but suppose the entire body should once be composed of men of the precise stamp of Gen. Spinner--men openly repudiating the verity of the Holy Scriptures--spurning, and disdainfully setting at naught the divinity of Jesus Christ, and contemning the revered and fundamental principles of the Christian Religion. What a spectacle would our country preset before the civilized nations of the earth!--A nation of infidels! Even France, in her sacrilegious attempt to abolish the Sabbath, manifested no deeper hatred of the Christian religion, nor a more hearty contempt for the commandments of God, than would such a Spinner-stamped Congress in this boasted Christian republic.
Electors! Will you aid in verifying Gen. Spinner's prediction that "there are infidels enough in this District to elect him?"
Will you entrust to the hands of such a man, the responsible office of Member of Congress?
Will you, can you, as accountable beings, as moral citizens, as Christians, as respecters of God, and as friends of your fellow men, give your suffrages to a man who thus sets at defiance and breaks over all the bounds of moral and religious accountability, and impiously sets up his own puny wisdom, not only above that of the wise men of all ages, but even above that of the Creator himself? Can you do it?
Corresponding Committee of the County of the Herkimer. Herkimer, Oct. 27, 1856.
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