683
THE AUSTIN PAPERS
JESSE U. EVANS TO AUSTIN
Harrisburg, July 27, 1831.
See Calendar.
SIDI~"'ER BACON l TO AUSTIN
Caney Creek July 30 th 1831
DEAR Srn No doubt you have heard many saysoes concerning me or my pub- ]ik addresses or Exhortations etc and from those tails .perhaps may have thought it was injuring the cause of your setling the af- fairs of the coloney with the Government 1Yhich has been the fur- therest from me I have been very careful not to abuse any privi~ lege that has been held out by. government or its Agents. My practice has been to go no whar where I hav not been invited and when and whare I have gone. And sung prayed Read a chapter in the Bible or testament and Exho[r]te the people to love God and each other: deal justly love mercy and walk humbly before God and the wourld. And to make their peace with God and try to show them by precept nnd example how to obtain that peace: And this far I thought we (or I) ware privileged: found[ed] on the first address of the Rev ifulcloon ;- No man perhaps feels agreater anxiety for your wellfare and that of the coloneye than I do and instead prejudicing the minds of the people against the Priest I am persuaded I have been the means in the hand of God of quieting many and reconciling their feelings. The whims superstition ignorance of a community cannot be helped. Ilut to sattisfy them on the best and ea.sest terms is the question and to do the most or greatest good to the wourld of Mankind : This has ocupied my mind for some months past. Religious policy is as necessary (and requires more) as state or National The fear of being compeled to become Romans or recanting some of their Religious tenets or habits on the part of the colonist and jealousy on the part of the government that they are not Romans- The plan that is most impresed on my mind on the subject is to cite some one who has preached or Exhorted in the coloney (as I understand I am not the onely one) before the priest as I presume from his [Muldoon's] third address he has all power on the subject: and let the accused produce testimony of what he has inculcated and .if it be adgudgecl to be Religion declare it so to be and put the sir name Roman to it and let him (or them) go on. My Bible teaches
• Bacon was a Presbyterian.
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