sh to say here what I
have written to several of my clerical correspondents, and desire to say
to them all.

Although I cannot enter into private correspondence with, nor grant
personal interviews to, such a number of your body, I am entirely
willing to respond in a public way to any replies to my arguments which
come under the following conditions:

1. On page fourteen of the introduction to my book Col. Ingersoll says:
"No human being can answer her arguments. There is no answer. All the
priests in the world cannot explain away her objections. There is no
explanation. They should remain dumb unless they can show that the
impossible is the probable, that slavery is better than freedom, that
polygamy is the friend of woman, that the innocent can justly suffer for
the guilty, and that to persecute for opinion's sake is an act of love
and worship."

Now, whenever any one of these gentlemen who wish to convert me will
show that the Colonel is wrong in this brief paragraph; whenever they
will, in print or in public, refute the arguments to which he refers,
and to which they object, I shall not be slow to respond.

2. It must be argument, not personal abuse, and it must be conducted in
a courteous manner and tone.

3. It must proceed upon the basis that I am as honest, as earnest, and
as virtuous in my motives and intentions as they are in theirs.

Now, surely these gentlemen cannot object to these simple requirements;
and since some of them are men whose names are preceded by a title
and followed by several capital letters (ranging from D.D. to
O.S.F.----which last I, in my ignorance, guess at as meaning Order of
St. Francis, but shall like to be corrected if I am wrong) they must
believe that to answer the arguments themselves is both simple and easy.

If they do not so believe they surely have no right to occupy the
positions which they do occupy. If they do so believe it will do much
more good to answer them publicly, since they have been made publicly,
and are already in the hands of several thousand people, who could not
be reached by any amount of eloquence poured out on ray devoted head in
the privacy of my own parlor (or writing-desk).

Therefore, gentlemen, permit me to say to you all that which I have
already written to several of you personally--that Col. Ingersoll's
paragraph, quoted above, expresses my own views and those of a great
many other people, and will continue so to do so long as your efforts