kes the trouble to answer critics.
His recent address over the dead body of his friend John G. Mills
has called forth a storm of denunciation from nearly every pulpit
in the country. The writer called at the Colonel's office in New York
Avenue yesterday and asked him to reply to some of the points made
against him. Reluctantly he assented.]

_Question_. Have you seen the recent clerical strictures upon your
doctrines?

_Answer_. There are always people kind enough to send me anything
they have the slightest reason to think I do not care to read.
They seem to be animated by a missionary spirit, and apparently
want to be in a position when they see me in hell to exclaim: "You
can't blame me. I sent you all the impudent articles I saw, and
if you died unconverted it was no fault of mine."

_Question_. Did you notice that a Washington clergyman said that
the very fact that you were allowed to speak at the funeral was in
itself a sacrilege, and that you ought to have been stopped?

_Answer_. Yes, I saw some such story. Of course, the clergy regard
marriages and funerals as the perquisites of the pulpit, and they
resent any interference on the part of the pews. They look at
these matters from a business point of view. They made the same
cry against civil marriages. They denied that marriage was a
contract, and insisted that it was a sacrament, and that it was
hardly binding unless a priest had blessed it. They used to bury
in consecrated ground, and had marks upon the graves, so that
Gabriel might know the ones to waken. The clergy wish to make
themselves essential. They must christen the babe--this gives them
possession of the cradle. They must perform the ceremony of marriage
--this gives them possession of the family. They must pronounce
the funeral discourse--this gives them possession of the dead.
Formerly they denied baptism to the children of the unbeliever,
marriage to him who denied the dogmas of the church, and burial to
honest men. The church wishes to control the world, and wishes to
sacrifice this world for the next. Of course I am in favor of the
utmost liberty upon all these questions. When a Presbyterian dies,
let a follower of John Calvin console the living by setting forth
the "Five Points." When a Catholic becomes clay, let a priest
perform such ceremonies as his creed demands, and let him picture
the delights of purgatory for the gratification of the living.
And when one dies who