I did not live
there permanently, I certainly would want it so I could spend my
winter months there. But, after all, what I really want to do is
to destroy the idea of eternal punishment. That doctrine subverts
all ideas of justice. That doctrine fills hell with honest men,
and heaven with intellectual and moral paupers. That doctrine
allows people to sin on credit. That doctrine allows the basest
to be eternally happy and the most honorable to suffer eternal
pain. I think of all doctrines it is the most infinitely infamous,
and would disgrace the lowest savage; and any man who believes it,
and has imagination enough to understand it, has the heart of a
serpent and the conscience of a hyena.

_Question_. Your objective point is to destroy the doctrine of
hell, is it?

_Answer_. Yes, because the destruction of that doctrine will do
away with all cant and all pretence. It will do away with all
religious bigotry and persecution. It will allow every man to
think and to express his thought. It will do away with bigotry in
all its slimy and offensive forms.

--_Chicago Tribune_, November 14, 1879.

POLITICS AND GEN. GRANT

_Question_. Some people have made comparisons between the late
Senators O. P. Morton and Zach. Chandler. What did you think of
them, Colonel?

_Answer_. I think Morton had the best intellectual grasp of a
question of any man I ever saw. There was an infinite difference
between the two men. Morton's strength lay in proving a thing;
Chandler's in asserting it. But Chandler was a strong man and no
hypocrite.

_Question_. Have you any objection to being interviewed as to your
ideas of Grant, and his position before the people?

_Answer_. I have no reason for withholding my views on that or
any other subject that is under public discussion. My idea is that
Grant can afford to regard the presidency as a broken toy. It
would add nothing to his fame if he were again elected, and would
add nothing to the debt of gratitude which the people feel they
owe him. I do not think he will be a candidate. I do not think
he wants it. There are men who are pushing him on their own account.
Grant was a great soldier. He won the respect of the civilized
world. He commanded the largest army that ever fought for freedom,
and to make him President would not add a solitary leaf to the
wreath of fame already on his brow; and should he be elected, the
only thing he could do would be to keep the