The Last Gasp of the Anti-Catholic Faction [pp. 848-855]

The Last Gasp of the Anti-Catholic Faction.
cities. No one with his eyes open has failed
to see this with respect to New York, New
Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and
Buffalo. The foreign population of these
cities rule them. They present a majority
of thirty thousand in New York. What
may be their exact proportions in our other
populous cities, the writer has at present no
means of ascertaining. But from the number, the grandeur, and the costliness of their
cathedrals and educational institutions in
other cities-in such as Chicago and St.
Louis-we should judge that their number
is greater in proportion to their population
than it is in New York. This statement has
reference to the Papists. For the iiJ/del
proportion who come to our shores from
Europe, and who have been driven to infidelity by the tyranny and wickedness of Pa
pacy, have no sympathy with that system in
propagating its means of worship. All their
sympathies are with our free institutions.
Their licentiousness and disregard of the
Christian Sabbath are the fruit of their infidelity. Even for this the Papal Church is
responsible before God. But the Papacy, in
its spirit and in its policy and in its designs, is
opposed to our republican government. It
is the sworn inveterate enemy to every principle and policy which favors republicanism.
No bishop, no priest, and no member of the
Papal Church ever has been or ever can be
a loyal subject of a free government. Every
pretence or profession or act which they
avow to the contrary is the necessary outgrowth of wilful deception, hypocrisy, and
falsehood. Among the masses of her members an oath of loyalty may be the result of
ignorance; and it may be permitted to remain of binding authority so long as it does
not conflict with their first and paramount
obligations with their church. But with the
bishops, the priests, and the Jesuitical hordes
of their hierarchy, an oath of Toyalty or of
testimony is of no value as a test of truthfulness. Nay, it is often taken as a means of
deception, to accomplish some concealed
purpose. Their fundamental doctrines of
mental reservation and universal.rsbordinatipn to Rome necessarily exclude from their
virtues that of true patriotism. That this
hierarchy has for some years past been collecting, arranging, and concentrating the
elements of her strength in and around the
cities of the United States, is evident to any
one who has watched its progress. Her
power is abundantly manifest in the influence which she has exerted in the legislation
of our cities and our states, in the appointments of many of our highest offices of trust
and power, in the disposition and distribu
tion of our public charities, and in the con trol of our popular system of education; and
that the time has come, in their judgment,
when she can, with safety to herself, openly
assert her power, can be seen in the popu lar tracts, now numbering some thirty-one,
of her religious press, in the public discussions of her periodicals, in her politico-religious organizations, as well as in her open
and defiant Sabbath parades, and other desecrations of that blessed day. Let her
have full scope to her power and freedom
as a church, in a legitimate way. Let her
seek to build up her cause as a system of religion, the same as Protestant churches in
our country. But let her not attempt to
ride rough-shod upon the rights of Protestants by her noisy parades, with drum and
fife and boisterous shouts in front of our
churches upon the Sabbath-by her insolent and brutal outrages upon unoffending
Protestants when peaceably pursuing their
avocations. Let her no longer refuse to
listen to the respectful remonstrances of
American citizens against such encroachments. Public religious services and the
administration of the Lord's Supper in some
of our churches were almost entirely prevented by the noise and confusion of the
Papal parade on a late Sabbath. This nuisance has been repseated in New York and
Brooklyn in opposition to the respectful but
earnest petition of Protestant laymen and
clergy. On these occasions, several of our
largest streets were piled up with city passenger-cars, that were forced to stop running
on account of the procession. And what
was all this confusion, all this violation of
law and order, upon the Christian Sabbath
for? Why, simply that a single Papal congregation might lay the corner-stone of the
church of the'Immaculate Conception.'
Hundreds of quiet and orderly churches
must be interrupted in their worship, the
rights of large corporations must be trampled under foot, and the stillness of the Sabbath be invaded by the drum and fife and
shout of a drunken rabble, for the sake of a
single Papal congregation! Such occasions
are not without a purpose. They afford the
priesthood a fine opportunity of testing the
strength of numbers, of trying the patience
of the Protestant community, of gradually
corrupting their respect for the Christian
Sabbath, and of intimidating politicians with
a show of power. Their design is a political
one. There is no religion about it. Her
power is broken upon the' Seven Hills' of
Italy, and she is trying now to re-establish
it in the metropolis of America. But who
dare array himself against her avowed de
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