thus noticed another officer of the Church militant :—" A company of about ninety men arrived here yesterday from the parishes, under the command of the Rev. Richard A. Stewart, as captain. Cap- tain Stewart is a worthy clergyman, of the Methodist persuasion, who allows nothing to prevent his discharge of that duty every citizen owes his countiy in the hour of peril ! " The Reverend Captain, it seems, so exerted himself in the hour of his country's peril, as to acquire at least that honor which cometh from man ; for on his return from the wars, we again find him noticed in the Picayune of February, 1848. In an account of a Taylor meeting in New Orleans, it is said, " Mr. Stewart, of Iber- ville submitted a resolution, nominating General Zachary Taylor as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. A member of the Convention rose to second the resolution, and said, ' that as the mover might not be known to aU the Convention, he would announce him to REVIEW OF THE .MEXICAN WAR. 263 / them as the Reverend Colonel Stewart, of Iberville, the fighting clergyman F (immense applause.) "
It is however due to justice'^ to acknowledge, and to ac- knowledge with gratitude, that the sacred office has rarely- been desecrated by a vindication of the Mexican war ; and that in numerous instances ecclesiastical bodies and indi- vidual pastors have, with Christian boldness and fidelity, exposed and denounced its wickedness. Nor was oppo- sition to the war confined to the» clerical profession. The whole religious community, especially at the North, were, with few exceptions, unanimous in reprobating it ; and indeed, had it not been for the acts and efforts of poU- ticians, of men striving to keep the offices they had, and othei-s striving to gain the offices they wanted, the great mass of the people would have regarded the war with abhorrence.
The moral sense of the nation was, moreover, impaired by the sentiment industriously cultivated by the politicians of both parties—" ftur country, right or wrong." This sentiment was of com'se intended to vindicate each party, for the support it gave to the war, by insinuating that devotion to country is more imperative than moral obli- gation.