CHAPTER XII.
The political duty of American citizens at this crisis.
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IN my last number I deemed it a duty to warn the Christian community against the temptation to which they were exposed, in guarding against the political dangers arising from Popery, of leaving their proper sphere of action, and degrading themselves to a common political interest. This is a snare into which they might easily fall, and into which, if Popery could invite or force them, it might keep a jubilee, for its triumph would be sure. The propensity to resist by unlawful means the encroachments of an enemy, because that enemy uses such means against us, belongs to human nature. We are very apt to think, in the irritation of being attacked, that we may lawfully hurl back the darts of a foe, whatever may be their character; that we may "fight the Devil with fire," instead of the milder, yet more effective weapon of "the Lord rebuke thee." The same spirit of Christianity which forbids us to return railing for railing, and persecution for persecution, forbids the use of unlawful or even of doubtful means of defence, merely because an enemy uses them to attack us. If Popery, (as is unblushingly the case,) organizes itself at our elections, if it interferes politically and sells itself to this or that political demagogue or party, it should be remembered, that this is notoriously the true character of Popery. It is its nature. It cannot act otherwise. Intrigue is its appropriate business. But all this is foreign to Christianity. Christianity must not enter the political arena with Popery, nor be mailed in Popish armor. The weapons and stratagems of Popery suit not with the simplicity and frankness of Christianity. Like David with the armor of Saul, it would sink beneath the ill fitting covering, before the Philistine. Yes! Popery will be an overmatch for any Christian who fights behind any other shield than that of Faith, or uses any other sword than the sword of the spirit of Truth.
But whilst deprecating a union of religious sects to act politically against Popery, I must not be misunderstood as recommending no political opposition to Popery by the American community. I have endeavored to rouse Protestants to a renewed and more vigorous use of their religious weapons in their moral war with Popery, but I am not unmindful of another duty, the political duty, which the double character of Popery makes it necessary to urge upon Amercan citizens, with equal force,—the imperious duty of defending the distinctive principles of our civil government. It must be sufficiently manifest to every republican citizen that the civil polity of Popery is in direct opposition to all which he deems sacred in government. He must perceive that Popery cannot from its very nature tolerate any of those civil rights which are the peculiar boast of Americans. Should Popery increase but for a little time longer in this country with the alarming rapidity with which, as authentic statistics testify, it is advancing at the present time, (and it must not be forgotten that despotism in Europe, in its desperate struggles for existence, is lending its powerful aid to the enterprise,) we may even in this generation learn by sad experience what common sagacity and ordinary research might now teach, in time to arrest the evil, that Popery cannot tolerate our form of government in any of its essential principles.
Popery does not acknowledge the right of the people to govern; but claims for itself the supreme right to govern all people and all rulers by divine right.
It does not tolerate the Liberty of the Press; it takes advantage indeed of our liberty of the press to use its own press against our liberty; but it proclaims in the thunders of the Vatican, and with a voice which it pronounces infallible and unchangeable, that it is a liberty "never sufficiently to be execrated and detested."
It does not tolerate liberty of conscience nor liberty of opinion. The one is denounced by the Sovereign Pontiff as "a most pestilential error," and the other, "a pest of all others most to be dreaded in a state."
It is not responsible to the people in its financial matters. It taxes at will, and is accountable to none but itself.
Now these are political tenets held by Papists in close union with their religious belief, yet these are not religious but civil tenets; they belong to despotic government. Conscience cannot be pleaded against our dealing politically with them. They are separable from religious belief; and if Papists will separate them, and repudiate these noxious principles, and teach and act accordingly, the political duty of exposing and opposing Papists, on the ground of the enmity of their political tenets to our republican government, will cease. But can they do it? If they can, it behoves them to do it without delay. If they cannot, or will not, let them not complain of religious persecution, or of religious intolerance, if this republican people, when it shall wake to a sense of the danger that threatens its blood‑bought institutions, shall rally to their defence with some show of indignation. Let them not whine about religious oppression, if the democracy turns its searching eye upon this secret treason to the state, and shall in future scrutinize with something of suspicion, the professions of those foreign friends, who are so ready to rush to a fraternal embrace. Let them not raise the cry of religious proscription, if American republicans shall stamp an indelible brand upon the liveried slaves of a foreign despot, the servile adorers of their "good Emperor," the Austrian conspirators, who now sheltered behind the shield of our religious liberty, dream of security, while sapping the foundations of our civil government. Let no foreign Holy Alliance presume, or congratulate itself, upon the hitherto unsuspicious and generous toleration of its secret agents in this country. America may, for a time, sleep soundly, as innocence is wont to sleep, unsuspicious of hostile attack; but if any foreign power, jealous of the increasing strength of the embryo giant, sends its serpents to lurk within his cradle, let such presumption be assured that the waking energies of the infant are not to be despised, that once having grasped his foes, he will neither be tempted from his hold by admiration of their painted and gilded covering, nor by fear of the fatal embrace of their treacherous folds.
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THE MASK THROWN ASIDE.
A charge of hostility to American institutions, against any sect or class in the community, is a very serious one, and only requires evidence to support it, to draw upon all its doings the watchful eye of American freemen. Is it asked, what evidence should you think sufficiently strong to substantiate the charge? I answer, the general principles of the sect would be sufficient, but its own declarations of hostility would certainly substantiate the charge. If a Presbyterian journal, in commenting on the trial of the rioters at Charlestown, should make remarks like the following, the evidence would doubtless be considered complete:
"A system of government which admits a feeling of alarm in the execution of the laws from the vengeance of the mob, which Mr. Austin" (the prosecuting attorney,) "distinctly allows to be the case—a vengeance exhibited by letters to the public officers and threats to the public authorities—may be very fine in theory, very fit for imitation on the part of those who seek the power of the mob in contradistinction to justice and the public interest, but it is not of a nature to invite the reflecting part of the world, and shows at least that it has evils. A public officer in England, who would publicly avow such a fear of executing his duty and carrying into effect the law of the realm, ought and would be thrust out of office by public opinion. This one fact is condemnation OF THE SYSTEM OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS, confirmed lately by numerous other proofs."
Now, could hostility to our institutions be more strongly expressed? and were Presbyterians or any other Protestant sect, thus boldly to avow its political antipathies, every political journal would seize upon this evidence of treason, and trumpet it through the whole country. Why then are they now silent? This treason is actually uttered, nor is it less humiliating, or less dangerous that it is flung in our faces by a set of foreigners in the employment and pay of a foreign government, instead of native citizens. The very words I have quoted are from the Catholic Telegraph, a Roman Catholic journal, edited and published at Cincinnati. Let it be borne in mind too, that a Catholic journal is under the supervision of the Bishops, who exercise a rigid censorship over it, that it speaks the authorized sentiments of the sect, and we shall then perceive something of the importance to be attached to these anti‑republican declarations. They are indeed a precious, an invaluable testimonial to the People, of the duplicity of their professed friends. Every where in the land hitherto, Papists have been loudest in professions of attachment to American republican institutions. They have now thrown off the mask. They unblushingly declare, that "our system of government, though very fine in theory, is not of a nature to invite the reflecting part of the world," in short, that it is an experiment that has failed: that "American institutions stand condemned by a single fact in the trial in Boston, and by numerous other proofs." And what has brought out this precious confession; what has occurred to make it a fit time to lay aside the disguise in which they have till now deceived the democracy of the country? What has produced this sudden revolution in their opinion of our form of government? Let us look into this matter.
A body of native citizens is excited to indignation by rumors, (whether true or false alters not the case,) that an act of foul play, such as the history of those nuisances, (convents,) in all countries have abundantly furnished, had occurred in the Charlestown nunnery. This mob, instead of being met with efforts to appease it by immediate explanation, as would have been the case in any Protestant seminary in the land, (for Protestants have no secret mysteries in their discipline,) this mob, I say, is kept for days in an excited state by mysterious manœuvering, on the part of the Catholics, and by irritating threats from the Superior of the Convent, that, 20,000 foreigners under the orders of the Bishop would take vengeance upon the citizens, if they dared to commit any injury upon the Convent, and this threat was uttered in sight of Bunker's hill. Under this provocation the outrage was committed. And is it a matter of surprise? I know of no one who justifies the illegal violence in burning the Convent, but I unhesitatingly say, that the feeling of indignation which animated the populace, was a just and proper feeling. It was roused by the belief, that a young and helpless female had been illegally and cruelly abducted from her friends, and subjected to a secret tyrannical punishment. The feeling, I say under this belief, was not only honorable to the Charlestownians, but had they viewed such an outrage with indifference, they would have shown themselves unworthy of American citizens. Their error, (and it cannot be defended, however it may be palliated by the gross insult which they received,) consisted in suffering their just indignation to flow in an illegal channel, and instead of rallying round the laws, and strengthening them by a strong expression of public opinion at a special meeting of citizens, they leaped the bounds of law and committed a crime which the Papists are trying every possible means to cause to react in their favor. But allowing that no palliating circumstances attended the act of the rioters, that no excuse could be pleaded for them as acting under the impulse of the most stinging insult that could be given to any people by a foreigner; what have these acts to do with our "system of government," or with "American institutions?" In England, forsooth, they manage things better. There are never riots in England! London, Manchester, Bristol, I suppose were never agitated by riots! Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Nismes, St. Petersburg, Brussels, Frankfort, Rome, Constantinople, none of these places under various systems of government, are ever witnesses to riots!! But this Popish enemy to our institutions may say, it is not the riot but the threatening letters sent to the prosecuting attorney to intimidate him in his duty, that tells against the government. Indeed, and who wrote the letters? Is it quite certain that they were not the production of some Jesuit to fan an excitement which was so likely to be turned to the advantage of his schemes? Threatening letters are much in use in a certain Catholic country called Ireland, under a monarchical system of government. But suppose these letters were not written by Jesuits, but were the production of some wicked, or thoughtless person, what then? Is our form of government the cause of the writing of anonymous threatening letters? Would any other form of government prevent this evil of so alarming magnitude in the eyes of the Catholic Telegraph? Can it be prevented in England, or in any other form of government in the world? Yes, there is one government which could probably prevent it. It is one in which the Inquisition is established, and by means of which, aided by the confessional, all that is considered necessary for the good of the church, could be brought to light, or rather to the ears of those most interested in knowing all secrets that bear upon their own power. How soon we shall be prepared for such a change of government to suit the designs of these busy, foreign emissaries, depends on the continuance of the character for sagacity, intelligence, and virtue of the American people.
Whatever doubts some may have hitherto had in regard to the existence of a foreign conspiracy in the country, I think the case is now become too plain to need further proof. Indeed so bold are these foreign emissaries in the utterance of their anti-republican dogmas, so unblushing in their attacks upon our institutions, that we are often led to exclaim what does this mean? Are these men fools, or madmen? or are they so strong in their support from abroad, that they feel secure in bearding American freemen in their own homes? The latter supposition alone satisfactorily explains their conduct. Austria is now playing a desperate game against liberty, for the safety of her own throne, and for that of her allies. It is the last hazard, and her object is gained if she can destroy the influence of our prosperity upon the people of Europe, a prosperity the natural result of our popular free institutions; and this latter object is effected if by any means, no matter how, riot and disorder can be produced in this country, to be pointed at as the effect of republican government. Americans! Friends of liberty; Friends of order; examine this subject, and decide with your usual sagacity and discretion. You have a busy, a crafty, a powerful, a dangerous set of foreign leaders, controlling and commanding a foreign population, ignorant and infatuated, intermixed with your own population, and who at a single signal from the Pope or from Metternich when the cause of despotism shall require the deed, can spread disorder and riot through all your borders.
Shrink not, Americans, from looking at the truth. You may boast of your peace and prosperity, you hold them both at this moment, at the mercy of Austria! She has a disciplined band of foreigners in the midst of you, who in any season of excitement, she can make to fill your streets and dwellings with fear and confusion. She may not think it prudent or expedient just now to exercise her power, but she has the power, through Popish priests, who hold in check, at their pleasure, the elements of discord, and whose favor you are compelled humbly to conciliate as the price of your tranquillity. And this power is daily increasing, not merely by foreign immigration, and foreign money, but, with the deepest shame be it spoken, by the assistance, direct and indirect, of Protestant Republican Americans, who, with a facility most marvellous, fall into every snare and pleasant baited trap that Popery spreads for them.
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*** As the last sheet was printing, an article of intelligence was received, bearing importantly on the subject of this volume. Bishop England, the busy Jesuit, whom I have had occasion before to notice, has just put forth an address to his Diocese, at Charleston, on his return from Europe, from which we make the following extracts
"During my absence I have not been negligent of the concerns of this Diocese. I have endeavored to interest in its behalf several eminent and dignified personages whom 1 had the good fortune to meet; and have continued to impress with a conviction of the propriety of continuing their generous aid, the administration of those societies from which it has previously received valuable succor. In Paris and at Lyons I have conversed with those excellent men who manage the affairs of the Association for propagating the Faith. This year their grant to this Diocese has been larger than usual. I have also had opportunities of communication with some of the Council which administers the Austrian Association; they continue to feel an interest in our concerns. The Propaganda in Rome, though greatly embarrassed, owing to the former plunder of its funds by rapacious infidels, has this year contributed to our extraordinary expenditure; as has the holy father himself, in the kindest manner, from the scanty stock which constitutes his private allowance; but which he economizes to the utmost for the purpose of being able to devote the savings to works of piety, of charity, and of literature."
"The prelates of the Church of Ireland, are ready, as far as our hierarchy shall require their co-operation, to give to them their best exertions in selecting and forwarding from amongst the numerous aspirants to the sacred ministry that are found in the island of saints, (Ireland,) a sufficient number of those properly qualified to supply our deficiencies. I have had very many applications, and accepted a few, who, I trust, have been judiciously selected."
We have here additional confirmation, if any were wanted, that in countries where Church and State are closely united, and where consequently every religious association, (totally unlike our religious associations, which have no connection with the government,) is directly connected with political objects, there is a great and special effort making to effect certain objects in the United States. We have no less than three great societies, all formed to operate on this country. THEY say religiously, but let Americans, who know that Austria makes no movement which is not intended for political effect, judge whether religious benevolence towards this benighted land, or a deeper and more earthly feeling of political self-preservation prompts her "continued feeling of interest in our concerns."
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