We are not only to be of one heart and one mind in resisting profanity and intemperance, but in resisting tale-bearing.  Let us not speak evil of others.  This is beneath the character of a gentleman, and certainly beneath that of a christian:  consequently no gentleman or christian will indulge in it.  It is the employment of low, ill-bred minds, and therefore none will engage in it, but those who are destitute of reputation themselves.  This vice has no excuse, and must therefore originate in the basest motives.  They intend to bring their fellow creatures down to a level with themselves, and thus lessen them in the good opinion of others, and destroy their peace.  And though they may effect their object so far as the good opinion of the virtuous is calculated to give us happiness, yet the approbation of a good conscience, arising from the conviction of innocency, can never he rooted from the heart of its possessor by all the calumnies of earth. This God has secured in all the secret chambers of the soul, and forever barred it against the breath of slander.  There he takes up his abode and holds communion with the contrite spirit.  The real merits and consolations of virtue are secured to its possessor by the impartial legislation of righteous heaven.  Intemperance in its effects, compared with slandering, is harmless; at least so far as producing discord is concerned.  The peaceable drunkard, compared even with that church member, who is continually sowing discord in society, is an angel.  Slander is but the infectious breath or a foul spirit, that poisons the healthful atmosphere wherever it is breathed, and breaks the quiet repose—­the calm serenity of neighborhoods and families, as it were, with an electric shock.

Political slander is as infectious and destructive to the harmony of the nation, and the security of our government, as private slander is to neighborhoods and societies.  No sooner is a candidate held up for office, than all the party dogs of war on both sides are let loose and set to barking.  Immaterial how fair may be his character, how inviolable his veracity, or how unsullied his honor and integrity, they will make him appear to be an outcast from society, covered with the darkest blots of infamy.  Immaterial how great may be his qualifications, or how splendid his talents, they will, by that species of logic for which slanderers are famous, prove him to be a fool.  These dissentions do not expire when the candidates are elected.  They are carried to the capitol of our common country and blown out in more than wordy war.  There, we have reason to fear, the volcano is gathering, and that the day is not distant when it will disembogue in more than the thunders of Etna, wrap our political heavens in a blaze, and melt its elements with fervent heat.  Anarchy and confusion will seize the reins of government, and drive us to the oblivious shades of departed empires.  If we continue to go on in our political slanders as