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PAST AND FUTURE: 
 
 OR 
 
 ROMANISM OF THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 TEE SAME WITH 
 
 THE ROMANISM OF TO-DAY. 
 
 "Give rao liberty er give me death.'-"— Patrick Henry 
 
 Y JEHU 
 
 SECOND EDITION, WITH AN APPENDIX. 
 
 CINCINNATI; 
 
 PllINT£D TOU THE AUTHORj 
 
 Ht JOHN ». THORJPE, WO. 74 WEST FOURTH STREJll'j 
 
 1852, 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 Recent events have imparted a new interest to the 
 long debated question concerning the political tenden- 
 cies of Romanism. The conflicts between the spirit of 
 liberty and the spirit of oppression in Europe, have 
 waxed warmer, and seem evidently approaching the 
 final struggle. The apparent triumphs of the former, 
 in 1848, gave to the Roman clergy an occasion for pro- 
 fessing a most ardent attachment for its principles , and 
 the late reaction has emboldened them to throw off the 
 mask, and appear more fully in their true character, than 
 for many years. In our own country they have proba- 
 bly felt constrained to speak out, lest their followers 
 should be carried away with the prevailing sentiments 
 in favor of liberty of the press and freedom of conr 
 science. Certainly it is high time that Americans un- 
 derstand this subject. Romanism is radically despotic, 
 and can never be otherwise. Its fundamental articles 
 of faith compel those who embrace it to be the ene- 
 mies of liberty; and, therefore, all hope of reform in 
 this respect is perfectly vain. 
 
 The writer of the following" pages wields a vigorous 
 pen, and has brought out some very important truths, 
 which may be safely commended to the very serious 
 consideration of all true Americans, and of all friends 
 of free institutions. Having himself been a member 
 of that communion, he may be supposed to know some- 
 thing of its spirit and principles, N, L, R. 
 
PAST AND FUTURE, 
 
 That point in progress is forever passed, 
 when time honored usages can receive the in- 
 discriminate homage of mankind, and be ad- 
 mitted as universal standards. 
 
 In by-gone ages of despotism and barbarism, 
 the will of the Monarch was regarded as the 
 supreme Law of the land, and to the iron scep- 
 tre of the tyrant, right or wrong, the down- 
 trodden subject was obliged to submit. 
 
 The age in which we have the happiness to 
 live, presents a very different aspect. The in- 
 quiry now is, not what our ancestors believed 
 or did, but what we, under existing circul^stan- 
 ces, should believe and do. 
 
 That our fathers groped their way in the 
 dark, and permitted others to think and act for 
 them, is no good reason why we should not 
 think and act for ourselves. Because they 
 tamely submitted, in former ages, to despotic 
 kings and rulers, shall we invite foreign mon- 
 archs to extend their dominion over us? It 
 was "while men slept" that the enemy sowed 
 
8 
 
 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 his tares ; and it is while the citizens of a 
 country are neglectful of their rights, and too 
 implicitly confide in the vigilance and integri- 
 ty of their public servants, that principles fatal 
 to civil liberty have been introduced. 
 
 The divine right of kings, the political 
 creed of olden times, was a doctrine which re- 
 garded the great mass of mankind as created 
 merely to subserve the interests of their rulers ; 
 as abject beasts of burden, doomed to fight 
 their battles and toil in their service, without 
 having a voice in making the laws by which 
 they were governed, and for the slightest in- 
 fringment of which they were liable to be se- 
 verely punished. Bare existence was then re- 
 garded as a blessing, and the Lord's anointed, 
 the vicegerent of the Most High, affected to 
 possess the power of life and death over his 
 subjects ! 
 
 After the lapse of ages, a better order of 
 things was introduced, and men began to think 
 that they were formed for a nobler purpose 
 than to be slaves to kings and despots. Self-, 
 government was found to be practicable, which 
 recognizes men in office not as rulers, but simply 
 as servants of the people, and as such, neces- 
 sarily responsible to the people for the manner 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 in which they discharge the duties confided to 
 their care. 
 
 Such a government can be maintained only 
 by free discussion; by securing to every one 
 the freedom of speech and the liberty of the 
 press, the two main props of civil and religious 
 liberty. Eelying, therefore, on the fact that in 
 this country, these great fundamental rights of 
 man are clearly defined and duly appreciated, 
 no further apology will be offered for the free- 
 dom of expression which may characterize the 
 following remarks, in which all reflections of 
 a personal character will be carefully avoided, 
 as every way objectionable, being wrong in it- 
 self and irrelevant to the subject before us. 
 
 We shall promise, then, that all civil gov- 
 ernments should be organized with reference 
 to the interests of the governed ; to bless and 
 benefit the people, and to elevate man physic- 
 ally, morally, and socially, to the highest point 
 of perfection of which he is susceptible in the 
 present life. 
 
 That such should be the primary object in 
 organizing a government, and the method adop- 
 ted in subsequent legislation, cannot be called 
 in question in a country where the prosperity 
 of the people is the governing motive ; and just 
 so far as civil government tends to promote 
 
10 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 this result, does it subserve the purpose for 
 which it was instituted. 
 
 How far civil government has hitherto pro- 
 moted this object, must be left to philosophers 
 and political economists to determine. 
 
 If we throw a retrospective glance on the 
 past, and review the history of nations, some 
 of which have long ceased to exist, we shall 
 find, that just so far as the voice of the people 
 prevailed, in that exact ratio did the rights of 
 man prevail and flourish. 
 
 Athens, once the pride of ancient Greece, 
 was a democracy; a government in which 
 every adult citizen participated in the work of 
 legislation and the administration of the laws. 
 Under this most liberal form of government, 
 the city flourished and became the seat of civ- 
 ilization and refinement. But this famous city, 
 the home of so many orators and statesmen, 
 where Demosthenes poured forth torrents of 
 impassioned eloquence in defence of civil lib- 
 erty, and where the Apostle Paul proclaimed 
 the unknown God, has long since been robbed 
 of her liberty, and exists now only in the glory 
 of the past. 
 
 But this form of Government, whatever may 
 have been its peculiar advantages, was not 
 adapted to countries of great extent, and could 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 11 
 
 be applied with the best results only in cities 
 and inconsiderable states and territories. 
 Hence the origin of delegation, by means of 
 which the great body of the people can accom- 
 plish, by their delegates, that which distance 
 and other circumstances prevent them from ac- 
 complishing in person. 
 
 Ancient Rome was, in substance, a govern- 
 ment of this description, a Republic ; but gen- 
 erally, unduly influenced by the military, pop- 
 ular generals and military chieftains bore too 
 great a sway, and liberty, after languishing for 
 a time under various forms of government, at 
 length yielded to the encroachments of despot- 
 ism. And, in casting our eyes over Europe at 
 the present time, how much of this despotism 
 of barbarous ages still remains, as a memento 
 of the past ! 
 
 Russia, Austria, Italy, and most of the other 
 kingdoms of Europe, are still governed by the 
 force of arms. The " Vox Populi Vox Dei,^' 
 is yet regarded as rank blasphemy and impiety, 
 when attempted to be applied by the people to 
 the purposes of self government; and the ghost 
 of the divine right of kings, is continually 
 made to re-appear, by base flatterers and syco- 
 phants, who seek only their own advancement. 
 In these unhappy countries, the press is fet- 
 
12 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 tered, and civil and religious liberty are un- 
 known, or only partially enjoyed, under nu- 
 merous and mortifying restrictions. In limited 
 monarchies, such for example as England and 
 Prussia, together with some of the minor gov- 
 ernments on the continent, a better state of 
 things is presented to our view; but it is only 
 in America that civil liberty is enjoyed in the 
 fullest extent. 
 
 Of all the nations on which the sun shines, 
 the American Republic is the only government 
 in which liberty is well understood ; the only 
 country in which the people possess the gov- 
 erning power, and are able to control their pub- 
 lic servants. 
 
 In this highly favored country, the sacred 
 deposit of liberty is confided to the custody of 
 the people; and so long as they continue to 
 feel the weight of responsibility which rests 
 upon them, it will (humanl}' speaking) be im- 
 possible for any earthly power to wrest it from 
 their giant grasp. 
 
 Having glanced at some of the nations of 
 Europe, and noticed briefly the despotism • 
 which still exists in most of them, we may, 
 perhaps, be permitted to dwell for a little while 
 in pleasing anticipations in reference to the 
 rising greatness of this wonderful country, (for 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 13 
 
 such it undoubtedly is) in which our lot is 
 cast. 
 
 But where shall we begin? The most su- 
 perficial view of this great government, so vast 
 in extent, and so replete with benefits and ad- 
 vantages of every kind, assumes the form of 
 fiction, rather than that of sober reality. 
 
 As this great republic is in advance of every 
 other government in point of civil and social 
 privileges, so also are her material advantages 
 of a vastly superior character. A country 
 washed by two mighty oceans, and comprising 
 within its spacious limits ev^ery variety of soil 
 and climate, and capable of yielding the pro- 
 ducts of every land on the globe, whose laws 
 are made not to suit the convenience or protect 
 the rights and interests of the few, but to bless 
 and benefit all the people ; that all may enjoy, 
 as far as circumstances will permit, equal 
 rights and privileges^ and ultimately become 
 as happy, intelligent, and prosperous, as good 
 government and liberal institutions can make 
 them, is truly worthy of our admiration. 
 
 Shall America, then, on which the eyes of 
 all nations are turned with admiration — shall 
 this great, free, and glorious republic continue 
 to increase in every element of national great- 
 ness, until the powers of the human intellect 
 
14 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 shall become fully developed and applied to 
 every liberal and praise-worthy enterprise cal- 
 culated to elevate this nation above all the 
 nations of the earth — until other nations shall 
 emulate her glory, and imbibe her spirit, and 
 light the sacred torch of liberty at her altars ? 
 Shall all these bright anticipations of her fu- 
 ture greatness be fully realized, or shall some 
 unexpected calamity occur to prevent her on- 
 ward march — some dark and foreboding cloud 
 arise in her political horizon, to exclude these 
 fond hopes ? 
 
 In a word, shall America be permitted to 
 transmit her laws and institutions to the latest 
 posterity; and when revision and maturity 
 shall have given them an excellence and per- 
 fection of character, which shall recommend 
 them to distant nations, will no bitterness be 
 mingled with them at the fountain head — will 
 the source still continue pure ? 
 
 Americans live and legislate, it should be 
 remembered, not merely for the present, but for 
 the future ; not for this republic, or continent, 
 but for the whole world : for wherever this • 
 country is known, the world over, the influ- 
 ence of its institutions will be appreciated — 
 will exert a mighty influence. Preserve invio- 
 late this migjjty union of sovereign independent 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 15 
 
 States, and let that wisdom characterize the 
 legislation of the future^ which has left its 
 glorious and indelible impress o?i the past; and 
 the sacred influence of her power for good, will 
 be felt hj millions in the old world, and des- 
 pots will tremble on their thrones, and the 
 galling chains of nations wull be snapped 
 asunder by her magic touch. These are con- 
 siderations which interest alike the philanthro- 
 pist and the statesman — a subject in which we 
 are deeply and equally concerned. 
 
 Let us once more inquire, from what quar- 
 ter are we to look for that principle of oppo- 
 sition calculated to endanger the fair fabric of 
 civil and religious liberty, erected on this con- 
 tinent? — a monument, reared by. the hands, 
 and cemented by the blood of patriots and 
 warriors, who now slumber in the dust ! Are 
 we to look for cause of alarm, to that differ- 
 ence of opinion^ growing out of the long fo- 
 mented bickerings between the two extremities 
 of the union? We unhesitatingly answer, no; 
 for the citizens of this great and free republic 
 appreciate too fully the inseparable connection 
 between liberty and union, to admit of alarm 
 arising from this quarter. The great body of 
 the people possess too much virtue, intelligence, 
 and love of country, to permit the overthrow 
 
16 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 of liberty from causes like these. They know 
 that the eyes of foreign despots are fixed upon 
 them, who would exult at witnessing their 
 family quarrels, their internal strifes and ani- 
 mosities. Moreover, they have wise and dis- 
 tinguished statesmen in their Senate, who, by 
 their patriotism and wisdom, have allayed, from 
 time to time, those storms of passion arising 
 from prejudice and sectional interests, which 
 seemed to threaten the safety of the union ; on 
 the preservation of which, under God, the in- 
 creasing prosperity of this great country and 
 nation mainly depends. 
 
 Still there exists but two much cause for 
 alarm, but in another direction. It cannot and 
 should not be dissembled, that in the nature 
 and organization of the Romish Church, with 
 all the modified influences under which it ex- 
 ists in this country, there is cause for alarm to 
 our free institutions. If infant liberty was 
 crushed in Italy by French bayonets, at the 
 solicitation of the Pope ; why may not a simi- 
 lar course be attempted, at some future period, 
 in America? Romanism diflfers, most widely 
 and essentially diflfers, from every other reli- 
 gious system in this, that it owes undying and 
 eternal allegiance to a foreign sovereign ! 
 
 The English, or other European Protestant, 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 17 
 
 on reaching these shores, can renounce ex ani- 
 mo, in sincerity and with the entire approba- 
 tion of his conscience, all allegiance to his for- 
 mer sovereign; and this in spiritual as well as 
 in civil matters ; but not so the Romish immi- 
 grant from Italy or Austria, from Spain or Ire- 
 land, or any other part of the world. The 
 papal yoke is on his neck, and hear it he must 
 all the days of his life. The christian is de- 
 clared by St. Paul to be the free man of 
 Christ, but the Roman Catholic is emphatic- 
 ally the Pope's hond-man. As the spiritual 
 vassal of this great sovereign prince, every Ro- 
 manist is bound, at all hazards, and in every 
 portion of the w^orld, to do his bidding. His 
 tribunal is regarded by all his devout follow- 
 ers as an unerring tribunal, where all doubt- 
 ful points are rendered clear, and the path of 
 duty and the dogmas of religion are made 
 equally plain to all his spiritual subjects. He 
 speaks, and it is done ; he commands, and it 
 stands fast ; unless, perchance, it should be re- 
 voked by some succeeding pontiff, who, in the 
 plenitude of his newly acquired infallibility, 
 may feel disposed to brush off the act of his 
 infallible predecessor, thus demonstrating that 
 the living infallibility is to be preferred to the 
 dead. In the opinion of his devoted subjects, 
 
18 FAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 his commands have the force of decrees; and 
 his decree is supposed to be ratified in heaven, 
 believed in and submitted to on earth, and 
 dreaded in hell ! So great and terrible is the 
 power of the Pope ! 
 
 We do not, at the present time, notice these 
 extravagant pretensions of the papacy in their 
 reference to religious faith, but only as they 
 may affect civil liberty in this country. The 
 question is not v/hat extravagant notions men, 
 professing a belief in the supremacy of the 
 Pope, may see fit to attribute to this august 
 personage, but how far such a belief may af- 
 fect Roman Catholics, in their civil relations 
 to the government of this republic. It is not 
 in telling his beads, or saying his prayers in an 
 unknown tongue, that w^e would object to the 
 Romanist ; this is an inalienable right, which 
 he enjoys in common with every other Ameri- 
 can citizen; but the great question which 
 forces itself upon our mind is, can he bear un- 
 shackled allegiance to the constitution and gov- 
 ernment of this republic, while he owes alle- 
 giance to a foreign sovereign? This is a 
 point on which much indeed has been written 
 and said, but we confess that, to our mind, it 
 has never been made clear ; and we have se- 
 cret misgivings that it is impossible to remove 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 19 
 
 that objection which attaches to this double or 
 twofold citizenship, of which we are now treat- 
 ing. 
 
 The papacy has always checked the prog- 
 ress of civilization in every country where its 
 blighting and withering influence has been felt. 
 Like a stream of lava, rushing down the side 
 of Vesuvius or Mount ^Etna, it has rolled over 
 the fair land of Italy, sweeping away every 
 thing valuable in its desolating course. The 
 people of beautiful Italy, who inhabit a coun- 
 try blessed with a soil so fertile and kindly in 
 quality as to be capable of yielding annually 
 two harvests, are, by the oppressions and ex- 
 actions of their despotic rulers, reduced to the 
 most abject condition of distress. If the pa- 
 pacy could be shown to be favorable to liberty 
 and progress in the useful arts, in no other 
 country should we expect to find them in a state 
 of greater perfection than in Italy, the garden 
 of Europe, and once mistress of the world ; 
 but, alas ! how has the mighty fallen ! Italy 
 may still boast of her clear, blue skies, her 
 sunny fields, her delicious fruits, and the re- 
 mains of her gorgeous palaces and temples, now 
 crumbling into dust, but in vain shall we look 
 within her borders for a free, educated, and 
 prosperous people, to improve the natural ad- 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 vantages of their'"country. The numerous ad- 
 vantages of soil, and clime, and sunny skies, 
 avail them not; a dark cloud hangs over this 
 fair land, and obscures their brightest hopes. 
 A non-producing class of men have monopo- 
 lized all her sources of wealth, and, like 
 swarms of locusts, have devoured every green 
 thing in the land.* 
 
 Poor Italy is a down-trodden and a priest- 
 ridden country, where commerce and agricul- 
 ture, and the useful arts, exist in their most 
 feeble condition; and painting and sculpture, 
 their only remaining boast, had shared a simi- 
 lar fate, had they not been required to beautify 
 and embellish the gorgeous churches, the erec- 
 tion of which, together with the maintenance 
 of the priesthood, absorbed the wealth of the 
 land, steeped the people in ignorance and pov- 
 erty, and shrouded the minds of men in darkness 
 
 *In the city of Eome, which contains 170,384 in- 
 habitants, there are 34 bishops, 1,240 secular priests, 
 1,892 regular priests, and 1,467 monks. 
 
 The above note is inserted as it recently appeared in 
 one of the most respectable public journals of this city, 
 making the grand total of priests and monks, regular 
 and secular, 4,633 ! and should we add to this large 
 supply of male clergy, 3,000 female assistants, and 
 probably the figure is not too high, we have the as- 
 tounding sum of 7,633 of this non-producing class, 
 men and women, in the eternal city alone. 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 21 
 
 more dense than that which once rested on 
 the land of Egypt. 
 
 Although traces of the fine arts still remain 
 in the land, monuments to the memories of her 
 former painters and sculptors, her living artists 
 cease to produce specimens which even approx- 
 imate to the excellence which characterized the 
 productions of their predecessors. Having 
 long since completed the portraits of the virgin 
 and the saints, and exhausted all the subjects in 
 the calendar, the brush has passed from their 
 hands into that of our brilliant West ; and Ca- 
 nova having closed the catalogue of her sculp- 
 tors, has yielded the palm of glory to our own 
 immortal Powers ! 
 
 Italy, a land so highly favored by the great 
 creator in physical advantages, shouldexhibit 
 the largest amount of happiness of any country 
 in Europe, or perhaps in the world. 
 
 Private judgment has been carefully guarded 
 against, and " all false doctrine, heresy, and 
 schism," hitherto excluded from Italy. The 
 head of the church has also been head of the 
 government. Where, then, according to Ro- 
 man Catholic calculation, could we expect to 
 find so large an amount of prosperity, national 
 and individual, as in that country ? The gen- 
 uine fruits of the Romish religion, if anywhere 
 
22 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 on earth, might be expected to exist, in their 
 greatest perfection, in this land, unmarked by 
 the footsteps of heretics or schismatics, and en'\ 
 circling the throne of Infallihility I What, 
 then, are its fruits ? Poverty, oppression, and 
 ignorance ! But the bitterest fruit which it 
 produces is, depression of the immortal mind 
 of man ! Here the iron enters into the 
 
 SOUL ! 
 
 The proud despot of Eussia can send a man 
 to the frozen wilds of Siberia ; but once there, 
 the exile may muse at pleasure on the cruel and 
 arbitrary policy which sent him hither; but 
 the slave of Romanism enjoys no such privi- 
 lege. The Russian exile can at least enjoy 
 freedom of thought. The emperor cannot en- 
 ter within his breast and detect what is passing 
 there, or denounce it as treason " against his 
 crown and dignity;" but what the emperor 
 cannot do the priest can. He can enter into 
 the soul of his subject, and scrutinize his 
 thoughts and emotions, and scan his purposes 
 and designs ; arraigning him from time to time 
 before his tribunal, and directing the channel 
 through which his very thoughts must flow ! 
 Is this a system friendly to liberty ? If this be 
 liberty, what, I ask, is despotism ? 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 23 
 
 The serf of Romanism does not even enjoy 
 the liberty of thought ! 
 
 The pure religion of Christ is calculated to 
 make the wilderness bud and blossom like the 
 rose, while Romanism transforms the fertile 
 field into a desert. 
 
 This grasping power has always shown it- 
 self to be the enemy of education, so far as 
 the masses are concerned. 
 
 Romanism has uniformly placed the candle 
 "under a bushel," and confined learning and 
 science, as much as possible, within the walls 
 of the monastery and the convent. 
 
 Under the control of this despotic power, 
 the Bible is not the only sealed hook which 
 has no meaning of its own, but by its notes and 
 glosses must speak the language of its keepers. 
 We say the Bible is not the only book, nor 
 theology the only science, doomed to such 
 illiberal restrictions by these spiritual guides. 
 History, philosophy, and political economy, 
 are all, in Roman Catholic countries, subject 
 to the control of the ruling Church — are all 
 liable to fall under the ban of this spiritual 
 embargo ! 
 
 Rome attempted to control the motion of the 
 heavenly bodies by the action of canon law, 
 and sent the astronomer Galilio to prison. 
 
24 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 merely for asserting that the earth moved 
 around the sun. 
 
 Even language was regarded as identified 
 with heresy, particularly the Greek, which 
 Bishops, sometimes, were pleased to call "a 
 heretical language.'^ 
 
 These were the palmy days of popery, the 
 golden age of the Church, when priestcraft 
 bore sway and triumphed over the intellect of 
 man! 
 
 The learning of those times flourished, as 
 before remarked, within the w^alls of the con- 
 vent and the precincts of the cloister, locked 
 up in unknown language, translations of which 
 were prohibited to be made and read, under 
 pain of excommunication; a word which, in 
 those times of darkness, carried with it far 
 greater terror than at the present day, when the 
 thunder of the Vatican creates little or no 
 alarm. 
 
 Even during the late reign of Gregory XVI, 
 progress was vigorously opposed. Railroads 
 and factories, and any additional activity or 
 advancement, were regarded with suspicion. 
 
 These remarks hold good, with some modi- 
 fication, it may be, wherever popery is in the 
 ascendant in Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, 
 Naples, and every other country under the in- 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 25 
 
 fluence of this power. But of all countries 
 which have groaned under the weight of this 
 incubus, none have suffered so severely as that 
 bright gem of the ocean, [reland, the land of 
 orators and poets, where the human intellect, 
 unchained, soars aloft, and exults in deeds of 
 valor and patriotism. 
 
 Under the combined influence of English 
 misrule and Romish superstition, the most as- 
 tounding evils have been inflicted on this un- 
 happy country. The great body of the people, 
 uninstructed in learning and the science of civil 
 government, became an easy prey to those who 
 found their account in plundering them of their 
 property and legal rights. 
 
 If, in this work of spoliation, the English 
 government took the lead, by imposing on them 
 heavy burdens, in the shape of taxes and tithes, 
 for the support of the government and the na- 
 tional Church, the landlords and the priests 
 completed the work of destruction, by scraping 
 into their coffers what the former exactors had 
 left behind. 
 
 A million of human beings blotted from the 
 page of existence in one island by the frightful 
 death of famine in three years, is an event 
 which a nation of the same numerical strength 
 perhaps never before experienced. It is truly 
 
26 
 
 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 heart-rending to dwell on a scene of such des- 
 olating misery ; yet all this distress may be 
 charged to the account of Romanism, as its 
 grand agent and primary cause. 
 
 Popery and monarchy paved the way for the 
 introduction of that train of effects which 
 worked such unparalleled mischief in this un- 
 happy country — this congenial pair prepared 
 the way for that complication of evils which 
 fell with such crushing weight on this ill fated 
 and unhappy land. The great body of the 
 people, long unused to reflection and patier.t 
 thought, excluded from the benefits of educa- 
 tion, and unskilled in the arts of life, suffered 
 their governors, temporal and spiritual, to be- 
 come their masters, and ultimately the destroy- 
 ers of their lives. 
 
 And thus it has ever been, and it ever will be 
 the case, that where learning declines among 
 the masses, tyranny will take its place ; for 
 where the people will not think for themselves, 
 or are too indolent and ignorant to do so, there 
 will always be found at hand those who will 
 think and act for them : but it should be borne 
 in mind that they will also be paid /or this la- 
 bor of love. They will filch from the people 
 their rights and liberties ; this will be the 
 dear-bought compensation which alone will 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 27 
 
 compensate these choice spirits for their devo- 
 tion to the dear people. ^ 
 
 Liberty must be guarded by eternal vigilance 
 —by untiring labor and industry ; and no peo- 
 ple can be accounted worthy to enjoy its bless- 
 ings, who are unwilling to share in the cares 
 and toils necessary to its preservation. When 
 gross darkness had long covered the earth, day 
 dawned in the Morning of the Reformation ! 
 As the chains fell from the Apostle Peter at 
 the bidding of the Angel, so were the heavier 
 fetters of the human race burst asunder bp that 
 power which attended the Reformation ! The 
 human mind, chained and bound and pressed 
 down to the dust by Papal oppressors and Ec- 
 clesiastical Tyrants, awoke then from its slum- 
 bering trance of ages, to assert and claim its in- 
 herent and heaven-born rights ; among the very 
 first of which, is that right of every one, to 
 think and act for himself! 
 
 And this, I take it, constitutes the prominent 
 and distinguishing characteristic of the Reform- 
 ation : the exercise of Private Judgment^ in 
 opposition to the unqualified Dictum of the 
 Church ! It was this principle, so long dor- 
 mant, but now roused to activity^ which gave 
 that impetus to progress^ which remains to the 
 
28 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 present time, and will, in all probability con- 
 tinue, should we prove faithful to our trust, till 
 time shall be no longer. 
 
 While, previously to the dawn of the Ref- 
 ormation, the intellect of man was held in lead- 
 ing-strings ; civilization, and those arts which 
 result from the expansion of intellect were in 
 their infancy, such of them as were then born ; 
 and long would they, in all human probability 
 have continued in a state of protracted child- 
 hood or stultified minority, but for the light 
 which broke in upon the world at that eventful 
 period. 
 
 And -what can be so pleasing to the Philan- 
 thropist, as to trace the mental and material 
 progress, resulting from this great moral eman- 
 cipation ; the progress of learning and science, 
 of material comfort and civilization, which 
 have sprung up in all lands, visited by those 
 pure streams, then bursting forth in all their 
 pristine purity and svv^eetness, and carrying with 
 them, into all countries, through which they 
 flowed, every blessing which could be enjoyed 
 or secured by the joint action of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty. 
 
 And here, since objects strike the mind most 
 forcibly, and leave the most lasting impression 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 29 
 
 when placed in contrast, it may be well to 
 place in this manner, those countries which en- 
 joyed the light of the Reformation, with those 
 still under the dominion of Popery, — which 
 still remain under the shadow of papal darkness 
 and despotism, being "fast bound in misery 
 and iron". 
 
 Take for example the ancient and extensive 
 kingdom of Spain, and contrast it with these 
 independent and sovereign States of America, 
 touching civil and religious freedom ; and the 
 difference is almost as great, as between mid- 
 night and noonday. 
 
 In Italy, Spain and Portugal, the liberty of 
 speech and the freedom of the Press, and the 
 rights of man, are utterly denied ; or at best so 
 narrowed dowm and circumscribed, as' scarcely 
 to be worthy the name ; while in this happy 
 land they are enjoyed to the fullest extent, and 
 secured to every citizen by the Constitution. 
 
 We have already spoken of the material pro- 
 gress which has followed the Eeformation ; 
 wherever it has spread, it has stamped this 
 great feature of its character on our own 
 Country ! 
 
 A hasty glance at some of the cities of this 
 Union will fully illustrate this point. 
 
so PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 Detroit, nearly as old as Philadelphia, long 
 remained an insignificant village or depot for 
 hunters ; and until the war of 1814, which 
 paved the way for the introduction of Protest- 
 ant influence and activity gave little hope of 
 future expansion : since that period however it 
 has grown up into a City, containing a large 
 and flourishing population. 
 
 The same remark holds good when applied 
 to New Orleans, St. Louis, and Cincinnati ; 
 it is by the joint influence of capital and intel- 
 ligence, aided by the great motive power of 
 which we have been speaking, that these fair 
 cities have attained their present importance. 
 
 We might further notice in this place, that 
 the great body of English literature has been 
 the result of the Reformation ; Shakespeare 
 and Milton, Thompson and Cowper and Watts 5 
 and a long list of Poets, too numerous to men- 
 tion, have sprung up since the glorious Reform*, 
 ation, to breathe sweet music into the soul of 
 man ; while Addison, Johnson and Swift, 
 and a host of essayists, of orators, historians 
 and statesmen have appeared^ both in the old 
 world and in the new, to enrich our literature 
 and language, and to refine and elevate society 
 by their productions* Indeed there is scarcely 
 a book in the English language worth reading, 
 
FAST AND FUTURE. 31 
 
 that has not been written since the Reformation, 
 Man must be free before he can make desirable 
 proficiency in any science or art : the mind 
 scorns to remain bound and fettered, and utterly 
 refuses to act under the influence of coercion or 
 dictation ; suitable training and a right direc- 
 tion is all that it requires ; which leads me to 
 that topic, most worthy of our consideration in 
 a treatise on civil Liberty, to point out the best 
 method of preserving unimpaired, this inestim- 
 able blessing. — As ignorance has ever been the 
 mother of superstition, so, by parity of reason- 
 ing we may infer, other things being equal, 
 that learning and enlightenment will produce 
 freedom of thought, and all the attendant bless- 
 ings and benefits of well ordered society. 
 
 A sound education for youth is the first step 
 which should engage the attention of parents 
 and lesjislators. 
 
 Superior institutions will never be wanting, 
 to which the children of the wealthy or com- 
 paratively wealthy can resort for instruction ; 
 but the blessings flowing from the general dif- 
 fusion of education are so numerous, that exer- 
 tions should be made to extend it to every child 
 in the land. Every one should be taught, not 
 merely the rudiments of his language, but 
 should be instructed in all the solid and useful 
 
32 PAST AND FUTUHE. 
 
 branches of education. Hence the necessity 
 for District or common schools, to aid so im- 
 portant an enterprize ; these institutions, since 
 they are designed for the benefit of all, it is 
 only reasonable that they should receive the 
 support of all. Every man should be called 
 upon by the public authority, to contribute his 
 share, in proportion to his means, to establish 
 such nurseries of learning in every hamlet or 
 neighborhood in the land. 
 
 As our civil Liberty was at first secured by 
 joint effort, so can the general diflfusion of edu- 
 cation be most effectually promoted in like 
 manner. It was by pulling together, without 
 regard to sect or party in politics or religion, 
 that our patriotic forefathers secured for 
 their descendants the invaluable blessings of 
 liberty and independence ; and it is only by 
 acting in concert in advancing the scarcely 
 less valuable cause of general education, that 
 we can hope to secure the largest amount of 
 success in this great undertaking. 
 
 '' United toe stand,'' was the motto then, the 
 same union of strength is necessary to success 
 now, in extending the benefits of popular edu- 
 cation. The means provided by public au- 
 thority for the support of schools, by being di- 
 vided, would be frittered away, and in the end 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 33 
 
 prove nearly useless; particularly would this 
 mark be found to apply to schools in the coun- 
 try, where the sparseness of the population, to- 
 gether with other causes, must ever prevent, as 
 a general rule, more than one School in the 
 same vicinity or School-District. 
 
 Furthermore, there can be no good reason as- 
 signed for such a subdivision of the funds, ap- 
 propriated by the Legislature for the support of 
 common Schools ; the measure, indeed, is 
 fraught with danger, and replete with mischief 
 of every kind. 
 
 The peace and harmony of society are best 
 promoted, by that kind and friendly commin- 
 gling together for purposes of public utility of 
 persons maintaining, on minor points, some 
 slight diversity of opinion. 
 
 Such a measure, as the division of school 
 funds, provided for the support of general in- 
 struction, if carried into operation, would not 
 only interrupt the existence of this friendly 
 feeling, but would also annihilate a large 
 'proportion of the public schools, and most 
 probably subject great numbers to the mis- 
 fortune of being brought up in ignorance ; 
 or might be the means of placing them under 
 such influences, as would prove detrimental to 
 the advancement of sound education and the 
 
34 PAST AND FUTURE, 
 
 diffusion of liberal principles. Evils every 
 way injurious both to the community and 
 to individuals. "Divide and conquer" is 
 the policy of an influential and aspiring class, 
 *who might find such a division and apportion- 
 ment of the Public School funds conducive to 
 the consummation of their ambitious desis^ns. 
 
 But we again remark, that the noblest mon- 
 ument which can be erected to the honor of the 
 country, is an intelligent population !" And 
 since the great masses of the people are not 
 privileged with the advantages held out by the 
 superior schools and colleges, the standard of 
 education should be elevated, as far as possible, 
 in the district or common schools ; which 
 should be made accessible to every child within 
 their sphere of operation. 
 
 The District Schools should never be re- 
 garded as common in the sense of inferiority ; 
 but only, as the air we breathe, and the water 
 with which we allay our thirst ; in every other 
 respect they should be, as far as practicable, 
 superior schools ; for the blessings and bene- 
 fits of education, like light and air, should, be 
 freely enjoyed by every one. 
 
 We have already hinted at the general in- 
 convenience which would attend the distribu- 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 35 
 
 tion of the school funds, as respects the rural 
 districts ; we might here add, that we cannot dis- 
 cover any counterbalancing advantages which 
 would result from the measure. 
 
 We cannot see any good reason, why the 
 children of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Bap" 
 tists and Methodists, and even Romanists, Ma«- 
 homedans, and Pagans, may not be instructed 
 in the same school or college, without receiving 
 the slightest injury from such association. 
 
 Besides, there is no keresy or schism to be 
 found in Grammar, Arithmetic, Natural His- 
 tory, Geography, or in the higher branches of 
 Mathematics, Astronomy, or even in Greek it- 
 self ; and the Latin has been too long employed 
 in the sacred service of the church, to be feared 
 by any, except uneasy spirits or demons.*) 
 
 But another objection made to this friendly 
 and liberal association or union of all the vari- 
 ous denominations, has been that in the work 
 of education the denominational views of each 
 would be encroached uppn, or unduly influenced 
 by teachers and instructors. This objection 
 
 *) We have, as we believe, a well authenticated ac- 
 count of the laying of a spirit by the Rev. Mr. M , Ro- 
 man Priest in Patterson, New Jersey. This happened 
 only a few yeas since. 
 
 The above was given us by a highly respectable clergy- 
 man of the city of St. Louis. 
 
36 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 must prove groundless when we remember that 
 under the parental roof, and in the Sunday 
 School, an abundant opportunity is offered for 
 the inculcation of religious instruction, in that 
 mrinner most pleasing to parents and guardians. 
 Indeed five days in the week, are amply suf- 
 ficient for the work of secular instruction ; the 
 remaining two may, at the discretion of the 
 parents, l;e devoted to such a system of re- 
 ligious trai.iing as they respectively prefer. 
 
 But should the Bible be introduced as a 
 text-book in schools 9 
 
 The introduction of this book of books, has 
 been made one of the principal objections to 
 the great union of the people for the advance- 
 ment of education. 
 
 If admitted, the schools are pronounced sec- 
 tarian in their character' — if excluded, God- 
 less and Infidel institutions ! 
 
 Jesuits and Romanists in general, object 
 alike, on both views of the subject, to that 
 course, ickich alone can insure the largest 
 amount of education and sound instruction 
 for the great body of the people ! 
 
 The Bible is not like the dogmas of men, 
 calculated often to mislead, but without note 
 or comments " able to make wise unto salva- 
 tion " ; and besides the sacred treasure of di- 
 
FAST AND FUTL'KE. 3? 
 
 vine truth, of which it is the bearerj it con* 
 tains the most ancient and interesting history 
 in the world— the history of the Creation, and 
 of man, the lord of the Creation. The 
 Prophets and the Psalms contain poetry never 
 equalled by the ingenuity of uninspired man^ 
 while its precepts teach us lessons of mercy and 
 compassion to our lellow men, under every ex- 
 igency of life. Our duty to God and our duty 
 to our neighbor, are there most distinctly 
 taught, and yet in a manner free of all sectarian 
 bias. — . 
 
 Who then, regarding the good of the com* 
 munity, and the due expansion of the human 
 intellect, would bar our this book from schools 
 and other institutions of learning ? 
 
 There is in the holy Scriptures enough on 
 which all denominations are fully agreed, to 
 make the Bible invaluable to them ! 
 
 But the objection raised to the admission of 
 the Bible into schools, is attempted to be put 
 on the ground of the faulty or incorrect trans» 
 lation of the Sacred Scriptures, in general usa 
 among Protestants, This is merely an evasion, 
 on the part of Roman Catholics, v^ho are really 
 opposed to the distribution of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures among the people, in any language or 
 translation, And in their schook and semi* 
 
38 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 naries, when were they ever known to teach a 
 boy to think or reason independently on any 
 subject, whether on civil liberty or religion? 
 When, and to whom did they ever put the 
 question : " how readest thou, or how thinkcst 
 thou ? " The true state of the case is, that 
 their pupils have nothing to do v/ith thinking, 
 except as per?nitted by their spiritual guides ! 
 Indeed there is scarcely anything more to be 
 deplored than that of introducing sectarian strife 
 and diversity of religious teaching and opinion 
 within the walls of the District or common 
 School. The country expects every one to do 
 his duty as a good citizen ; but could such a 
 narrow-minded measure be made conducive 
 to good citizenship? Instead of proceeding 
 to examine the constitution with independence 
 and liberality, the youth who had been trained 
 under sectarian influence in the school, would 
 be disposed to associate his particular religious 
 belief with the constitution of the country. 
 
 Humanity} and compassion^ and all the 
 milder virtues, as they might be styled, are un- 
 folded in the Sacred Scriptures for our admira- 
 tion and imitation, **All things whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even 
 so to them^^j is the fraternal burden which the 
 author of this bkiied book has gently laid upon 
 m alL When the Diiclplis of Christ? urged 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 39 
 
 by a generous but mistaken attachment to the 
 person of their Master, desired that they might 
 be permitted to call down fire from heaven to 
 consume the churlish villagers who refused 
 them hospitality, he rebuked their blind zeal, 
 and assured them that they knew not what 
 spirit they were of; and thus, when any set of 
 men would lock up this treasure of Divine 
 truth, or exclude it from schools and semi- 
 naries of learning, the most charitable construc- 
 tion which we can put upon their conduct is, 
 that they know not what spirit they are of. 
 Had this spirit of humanity been inculcated 
 more generally, and impressed betimes on the 
 minds of the young, this world would have 
 been a far fitter abode for man than it now is. 
 Religious persecution would have been un- 
 known, benevolence would have pervaded every 
 heart, and men of every nation and of every 
 creed, would have been, in very deed, a band 
 of brothers. 
 
 We have said, in the former part of this ad- 
 dress, that civil liberty had just cause of 
 alarm J in this country, from the encroach- 
 ments of Popery. The manner in which the 
 Pope treated, and still continues to treat, his 
 Italian subjects is a sufficient proof of his op- 
 position to free institutions. And with what 
 
40 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 sincerit}^ can Eomish Priests and Prelates, in 
 America, persist in asserting their preference 
 for Republican institutions, when they so lib- 
 erally aided the Pope in his late exile, not in 
 not in recovering his spiritual jurisdiction^ 
 for this was never lost, but in regaining his 
 temporal sovereignty over the poor Italians, 
 who, but for this aid, and the cooperation of 
 Republican France might have gained their 
 Liberty and separated Church and State, a dis- 
 solution of partnership which the Romish 
 Priesthood in this county formerly affected so 
 much to admire. The cruelty perpetrated in 
 putting down this struggle for liberty in Italy, 
 fully illustrates the character of the Papacy. 
 
 The Church of Rome is the same persecut- 
 ing cruel enemy of civil and religious liberty 
 now, that she was in the depths of the dark 
 ?ges ; it is her boast that she never changes, 
 and though all things around her bear unmis- 
 takable marks of mutation, she remains forever 
 the same. Her method of suppressing liberty 
 has ever been open and aggressive when she 
 possessed the power, and when she judged the 
 exigency required it. But in her aggressions 
 on those who differed from herself in matters 
 of faith, never probably did her zeal blaze with 
 greater lustre than on the eve of St. Barthole^ 
 
PAST AND FUTURK. 41 
 
 mew's day, in 1572, when thousands perished 
 in a single night. The Protestant, after the 
 usual salutations rf the night, surrendered him- 
 self to sleep, or still lingered in the social cir- 
 cle, when the deep peal of the great bell of the 
 Metropolitan church aroused him to meet the 
 knife of the midnight assassin — There was in 
 this horrid transaction such a compound of hy- 
 pocrisy^ cruelty and barbarity, as very rarely 
 can be met with in the annals of crime. Ruf- 
 fians, with white crosses on their shoulders, 
 rushed suddenly upon their unsuspecting vic- 
 tims, sparing neither age nor sex ; and ere the 
 beams of the morning sun illuminated the spires 
 and domes of Paris, husbands and wives, par- 
 ents and children w^ere weltering in their blood, 
 a sad spectacle to men and angels. 
 
 But how was the intelligence of this cold- 
 blooded butchery received at Rome? With 
 every demonstration of joy. The Sacred Pon- 
 tiff ordered the bells to send forth their mer- 
 riest chimes, and Te Deum laudamns to be 
 chanted in the churches, in token of gratitude 
 to the Almighty for this signal victory over the 
 enemies of the church ! — Not even content with 
 giving such proofs of his exultation on this oc- 
 casion, he ordered a new coin or medal to be 
 struck in the Holy Papal mint on which was 
 
42 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 engraved " Hugueriotorum Strages '', the Mur- 
 der or Slaughter of the Huguenots ! 
 
 But time would fail us to speak of the great 
 <' Sacramental host of God's elect ", which in 
 different times have fallen before this implaca- 
 ble enemy of God and man, who has exalted 
 himself above his fellows, and so long lorded 
 it over God's heritage. 
 
 But if anything were wanting to finish the 
 picture of that cruelty, which has ever charac- 
 terized the papal Government, it is the worse 
 than savage treatment inflicted on the christian 
 hero and patriot Ugo Bassi, who, from attach- 
 ment to his country, joined himself to the val- 
 iant and patriotic little army, who so nobly con- 
 tended for their Country's Liberty, — for that 
 Liberty which is the sacred birth-right of 
 man ! 
 
 The result of this struggle, like that of un- 
 happy but glorious Hungary, is still too fresh 
 in every mind to require any additional remark 
 to recall it to memory : Liberty was subdued, 
 by brute force, and the rev. ugo bassi, the 
 virtuous and patriotic Priest and his brave com- 
 panions, fell into the hands of their despotic 
 enemies. 
 
 But not to prolong the painful recital, Bassi 
 is condemned, by an Austrian court-martial, to 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 43 
 
 be shot! — For what? Simply for what so 
 many brave men did in this country in 1776 — 
 for contending nobly in the cause of Liberty. 
 But hard as his fate was in being condemned 
 to suffer death at the hands tyrants, it was but 
 the fate of war — the result to be expected from 
 defeat ! We leave him, then, in the hands of 
 the bloody soldiers of a haughty despot, while 
 we proceed to notice the treatment he received 
 from the Rofnish Vriesthoob — men who once 
 ministered with him at the same altar ! Surely 
 these holy men, bound by the sacred vows of 
 religion to be mild, and merciful, and just, will 
 pity poor Bassi, and do everything in their 
 
 power to mitigate and assuage his grief Mark 
 
 the compassion they discover for the unhappy 
 man. They rush upon him, like ravening 
 wolves upon the defenceless flock : The Priest 
 must be displaced from the ministry, excom- 
 municated from the church, and handed over to 
 the tender mercies of Satan, so far as these men 
 possessed the will and malignity to send him 
 thither. But not content with the bare exercise 
 oi these clerical powers and prerogatives, these 
 blood-hounds proceed, with the malice of De 
 mons and Infernal spirits, to flay the skin from 
 his hands, and to tear the scalp from his bleed- 
 ing head ; under the hypocritical pretext of 
 
44 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 honoring God and advancing the sacred cause 
 of religion ! — As a suitable punishment for 
 treason and heresy, as the means of vindicating 
 the claims of Religion ! '^' ) 
 
 To honor Religion 9 — The Religion of that 
 merciful and compassionate Redeemer of men, 
 of whom it is said by the evangelic Prophet : 
 ''A bruised reed shall he not break." Oh, 
 merciful Saviour, how every way dissimilar was 
 thy spirit from the spirit of those who boast, 
 that they alone, of the thousands "who profess 
 and call themselves christians," are thy true 
 disciples — the only called according to thy 
 purpose ! Oh, what a monstrous libel is the 
 cruel despotism of Romanism on the blood- 
 bought Religion of the Son of God ! What 
 greater dissimilarity could be imagined to exist 
 in the widely extended universe of God, than 
 that which distinguishes Romanism from the 
 mild and merciful religion of Jesus Christ ! 
 Christ came into the world, to save — not to 
 destroy — to pardon — not to condemn : While 
 on the contrary, Romanism seems to delight in 
 devising new modes of torment for the punish- 
 ment of its unhappy victims. 
 
 *) The substance of this tragic account was obtained 
 from a most respectable Religious Journal published in the 
 citv of St. Louis. 
 
PAST AND FUTURE. 46 
 
 Instead of assuaging the griefs of mankind, 
 and cheering them on their pilgrimage through 
 life, the church of Rome delights in pressing as 
 much of bitterness as she can, into every one's 
 cup, for the good of his soul and the honor of 
 religion. By her anathemas and excommuni- 
 cations, her fasts and penances, she would seem 
 resolved to make the world a howling wilder- 
 ness -the fit abode of hermits and monks, rather 
 than the cheerful residence of social beings ! 
 
 As dispensed by Romish Priests, how, I 
 would ask, can the Gospel prove, as its name 
 imports, " Good tidings " which shall be to all 
 people ? — Did it speak this language when it 
 charged the Priests to tear the scalp from the 
 bleeding head of Bassi ? 
 
 But why select this from among the thousand 
 bloody acts which have marked the cruel pro- 
 gress of Romanism ? 
 
 Where are the thousands, and tens of thou- 
 sands, snatched, by this nursing mother, from 
 all the ties of friends and kindred, and con- 
 signed to the gloomy dungeons of the Inquisi- 
 tion ! 
 
 Romanism has ever been the enemy of civil 
 and religious Liberty ; and if she has some- 
 times appeared to espouse the rights of the 
 People, it has been to punish the insolence of 
 
46 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 some haughty Monarch, whom she regarded as 
 a rival in power. 
 
 Rome can hear no Rival. She can ac- 
 knowledge no superior ; hence her eternal en- 
 mity to the various governments of the world. 
 
 " Trw^A," she avers by her dignitaries, '^ has 
 ever been hostile to error ^^"^ and she assumes 
 that she only has the truth ! — that she only 
 knows how to explain and enforce it : and this 
 she has done, by that attitude of antagonism in 
 which she has opposed progress and humanity, 
 and the sacred rights of man, under the specious 
 pretext, that they are errors^ and opposed to 
 the honor and interests of religion ! 
 
 The exercise of private or individual judg- 
 ment is regarded by Romanism, as rebellion 
 against God, as impiety and blasphemy, as 
 treason against heaven and the church, as 
 fraught with every conceivable mischief to re- 
 ligion. 
 
 And here, it cannot be denied, that Romanism 
 and the Protestant or Reformed religion, are 
 in a condition of antagonism ! Both possess 
 vitality, both contend for the mastery. Should 
 the former succeed in her ambitious designs, 
 the darkness of by-gone ages would again re- 
 turn. The clouds would return again after the 
 rain — after the refreshing showers of the early 
 
PAST AND FUTURE, 47 
 
 part of the sixteenth century. The dark clouds 
 of ignorance and superstition, it is much to be 
 feared, would once more cover the horizon of 
 the church, and divine truth would again be 
 obscured. 
 
 Formerly, physical force was employed in 
 settling differences on the subject of religion 
 and civil liberty. Now it is to be hoped, that 
 a better method will be resorted to, that of ar- 
 gument — not brute force ; alike dishonorable 
 to the head and heart — to the intellect and 
 the moral sensibilities. 
 
 But A BATTLE MUST BE FOUGHT ; but it will 
 
 not be fought by the dim twilight of the middle 
 ages, nor in priest-ridden Italy or Austria, but 
 in the full blaze of the nineteenth century, and 
 on the free soil of America ! The priests will 
 not find the despotic kings and emperors of the 
 old world at their side, to support them in the 
 prosecution of their ambitious and politic de- 
 signs ; but the free and independent people of 
 America, who will yield to no foreign influ- 
 ence nor submit to any authority, civil or re- 
 ligious, which cannot be made to coincide with 
 the rights of freemen. And on these points 
 they are accustomed to judge for themselves. 
 
 For information on the first point, they go 
 not to the President, but to the Constitu- 
 
48 PAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 TioN ; and for light on the second, they resort 
 not to the Priest, but to the Bible ! 
 
 On the manner, therefore, in which this sub- 
 ject is approached, may the prosperity of this 
 great Republic and the happiness and intelli- 
 gence of unborn millions be suspended. 
 
 The influence which the Pope exercises over 
 his subjects, is the most despotic that can be 
 imagined ! 
 
 Popery leaves to man nothing but the hu- 
 man form, and holds him accountable for the 
 manner in which he exercises every faculty of 
 mind or body ! How, therefore, can such per- 
 sons, — bound by oaths and obligations written 
 in blood, and enforced under the pains and pen- 
 alties of the divine displeasure, bear true alle- 
 giance to these free and independent States of 
 America 9 
 
 Impossible ! — the thing is utterly impossible ; 
 and until some method can be devised, by 
 which darkness can be blended with light, 
 truth with falsehood, meekness with arrogance, 
 and mercy with cruelty and savage barbarity, 
 it will be worse than idle to assert, that civil 
 and religious liberty have nothing to apprehend 
 from the usurpations and encroachments of 
 Popery ! 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The author of the preceeding pages has 
 charged Romanism with being unfriendly to 
 progress, in whatever sense the term may be 
 legitimately understood, in its application to 
 civil and religious liberty, and the right of 
 private judgment. 
 
 In this second edition of the little work, 
 which he now presents to the public, with 
 such slight alterations as he hopes may make 
 it more interesting and acceptable to his read- 
 ers, he will prove, by quotations from a most 
 respectable Roman Catholic journal, "The 
 Shepherd of the Valley," published in the city 
 of St. Louis, under the protection of one of 
 the most distinguished prelates of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, that the views w^iich he has 
 advanced, so far from being rejected, are con- 
 firmed by the Roman Catholic Church of the 
 present age; thus showing that Romanism is 
 ever the same, both with respect to date and 
 country, and aims to control republics as well 
 as monarchies. 
 
50 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the introductory part of this little book, 
 the author observes that, " of all the nations 
 on which the sun shines, the American Re- 
 public is the only government in which liberty 
 is well understood — the only country in which 
 the people possess the governing power, and 
 are able to control their public servants." 
 
 After the many ardent professions, in high 
 places among the Roman Catholics, of strong 
 attachment to this republic and our free institu- 
 tions, "The Shepherd of the Valley" gives 
 utterance, and no doubt with great sincerity to 
 the following language : 
 
 " The Church, it is true, does not admit the 
 doctrine, so universally received in this coun- 
 try, that republicanism is the only legitimate 
 form of civil government : that freedom is im- 
 possible where this form is not established. 
 She does not profess to recognize the United 
 States of America as the censor of nations, 
 nor does she, w^e believe, iji any way, inti- 
 mate a preference for a republic over other 
 forms of government, considered in themselves. 
 Where it [a republic] lawfully exists, she com- 
 mands her children to respect and obey it, and 
 that is all.'' 
 
 The most careless reader can scarcely help, 
 noticing in this extract from " The Shepherd 
 
APPENDIX. 51 
 
 of the Valley," a most striking contrast and 
 palpable contradiction, to those oft repeated 
 professions of loyalty and attachment for re- 
 publican institutions, which, from time to time, 
 have so profusely garnished the public orations 
 of the Most Rev. John Hughes, Arch Bishop 
 of New York, and which have been used, se- 
 cond-handed, by men of less intellectual 
 strength, who have followed in his wake. 
 
 These gentlemen, until quite recently, have 
 been accustomed to laud, with imited voice, 
 our free institutions to the skies; Lut now they 
 "command their children to respect and obey 
 them, and that is all." 
 
 What a falling off is this ! And to what 
 cause are we to ascribe it ? To what are we 
 to attribute this haughty and imperious front 
 which they now present to our institutions ? 
 Simply to reliance on their numerical strength 
 in this country. 
 
 But the <' Shepherd of the Valley" is not 
 content with showing his utter indifference for 
 republican institutions ; he does more. In his 
 clerical and pastoral character, he declares his 
 most decided disapprobation of them; and 
 like a faithful son of his venerable mother, 
 denounces and curses them. He calls our na- 
 tional faith ««the religion of the devil." "It 
 
52 APPENDIX. 
 
 seems," lie adds, ''a harsh tiling to say; but 
 we are not of those who think ivith Richlieu, 
 [Query — whether ever Richlieu said it ?] that 
 language was given to man to enable him 
 to conceal his thoughts. We think so, and 
 therefore we say it. The advocate of freedom 
 of speech should not object to that." Nor do 
 we, good " Shepherd of the Valley," but give 
 you full credit for sincerity. To use your 
 own language, we think "the devil speaks out 
 like an honest devil," when he declares from 
 the lips ot Romish prelates, or from their pub- 
 lic journals, that popery has no sympathy with 
 our republican institutions. 
 
 In the course of his remarks in the foregoing 
 pages, the author observes, that " Romanism 
 differs most widely and essentially, from every 
 other religious system in this, that it owes un- 
 dying and eternal allegiance to a foreign sov- 
 ereign." 
 
 This charge against Romanism, the " Shep- 
 herd of the Valley" makes good, when he as- 
 serts, that "it is not true, as some say, that the 
 Catholic is left by his Church free to adopt 
 any political theories which it suits his tempo- 
 ral interests to espouse for the time." Here, 
 again, we give the " Shepherd" credit for sin- 
 cerity ; and although we have often been told 
 
APPENDIX. 53 
 
 that ill the exercise of their political rights and 
 privileges, the Roman Catholics were as free 
 as the Protestants, yet we never believed such 
 persons, but regarded them as being either ig- 
 norant or interested, and therefore not worthy 
 of entire confidence. The "Shepherd" gives 
 us the true statement of the case, for w^hicii we 
 thank him. 
 
 But the worthy *' Shepherd of the Valley" 
 proceeds to give a very plausible reason why 
 men should not be permitted to exercise the 
 right of judging for themselves, in political 
 atfairs. "The civil power," he says, "has 
 its limits ; it may overstep them, for it is not 
 infallible like the Church : when it does so, 
 obedience at once ceases to be a duty. The 
 question of the justice or injustice- of a civil 
 enactment is one, however, which the individ- 
 ual is not competent to decide the fact of the 
 necessity of a tribunal capable of determining 
 a point like this, is presumptive evidence in 
 favor of the claims of the Church ; and the 
 fact that the Church is such tribunal, is a 
 sufficient answer to all those who declaim 
 against her, as the enemy of the rights of man. 
 Civil liberty cannot exist without the Church." 
 (Roman Catholic, of course.) " Where she 
 is not recognized, anarchy or despotism must 
 
64 APPENDIX. 
 
 of necessity prevail. Grant that no tribunal 
 exists, capable of pronouncing when the State 
 transcends its powers ; when man is freed from 
 the obligation of obedience, and when it be- 
 comes sinful to obey ; and you either establish 
 despotism by asserting that every State enact- 
 ment must of necessity be obeyed, or destroy 
 government altogether, and introduce universal 
 disorder, by applying to practical life, that 
 most absurd of all doctrines, the doctrine of 
 the right of private judgment.''^ 
 
 Such startling language as this, is calculated 
 to awaken the keenest apprehension in the 
 mind of every one who regards either national 
 or individual liberty. The government and the 
 individual citizen are here represented, by the 
 " Shepherd of the Valley," as alike incompe- 
 tent to form a correct judgment of the validity 
 or propriety of a legislative enactment ; as ut- 
 terly unable to determine '' when man is freed 
 from the obligation of obedience, and when it 
 becomes sinful to obey." No other tribunal 
 or body can determine this most important 
 point, save the Church of Rojne. Are reflect-, 
 ing American citizens prepared to subscribe to 
 this doctrine, so distinctly announced by the 
 " Shepherd of the Valley " ? Are they ready 
 to give up themselves and their country into 
 
APPENDIX. 65 
 
 the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, and 
 as her bond-men, submit to any terms she may 
 be pleased to dictate ? 
 
 We have been long accustomed to that 
 watch-word, " Hear the Church," as falsely 
 applied by the old lady of Rome to her spirit- 
 ual dictation, but were not altogether prepared 
 for its direct application to the affairs of civil 
 government also. 
 
 We had always supposed that the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, was the tribunal 
 of final appeal to w^iich legislative enactment 
 should be brought for adjudication ; but the 
 good " Shepherd of the Valley" teaches us 
 our mistake, and tells us that we must bring up 
 all such enactments to the Court of Rome for 
 final settlement. Privilege ! privilege ! with a 
 vengeance. No marvel, under this view of the 
 case, that the " Shepherd of the Valley " 
 should regard the Roman Catholic Church as 
 the great sine que non in the science of gov- 
 ernment, as the only means of prolonging the 
 "existence of civil liberty." We only add, 
 in this place, that we most sincerely pray, that 
 it may be long before this great republic will 
 consent to carry up appeals to the court of 
 Rome, or crouch before papal power. 
 
 We still feel slow to yield our assent to the 
 
66 APPENDIX. 
 
 assertion of the " Shepherd's," viz.: that the 
 only hope of this great republic is suspended 
 on the progress of Romanism in this country. 
 How, we beg leave to ask, can Romanism 
 prove a blessing to this country, when it has 
 been a curse to every other country on which 
 it has been fastened? 
 
 True it is, that in the estimation of this pa- 
 per, that most detestable ''doctrine of the right 
 of private judgment" would be rooted out of 
 the land, yet in sober truth, in what respect 
 we should become gainers by the change, is 
 difficult to determine; but the "Shepherd" 
 tells us so, and as obedient children of the 
 Church, we should have nothing to do but sub- 
 mit to the dictation of Holy Mother, who can- 
 not err! 
 
 Little as we can discover in the person of 
 an old Italian priest, some thousands of miles 
 distant, to engage our attention and challenge 
 our respect, yet it is only by swearing spiritual 
 allegiance to this old imbecile, that the " Shep- 
 herd" can promise us even prolonged exist- 
 ence AS A nation — the only way the " Shep- 
 herd can devise of saving the country ! 
 * But we proceed to shew that the " Shep- 
 herd " feels a strong preference for monarchical 
 institutions. He continues in this liberal 
 
APPENDIX. 67 
 
 strain : " We must be loyal to our republican 
 institutions, because they are legitimate here.'^ 
 Mark the reason he assigns for the necessity of 
 this prolonged loyalty on the part of Roman 
 Catholics in this country. But he immediate- 
 ly adds: " Were we subjects of a monarchy, 
 however, the case would be reversed, and we 
 should then be compelled to true obedience to 
 the existing order, so long as it preserved its 
 claims to our obedience, by setting us the ex- 
 ample of subbordination in its own submis- 
 sion TO THE LAWS OF GoD AND THE ChURCH ! " 
 
 Here we have it ; so long as the existing gov- 
 ernment, whether republic or monarchy, sub- 
 mits to the Roman Catholic Church, so long 
 the Church will command her subjects to obey 
 the civil government, and no longer! 
 
 No comment that we could offer, would 
 place this Romish domination in a clearer or 
 stronger light, than that in which it is placed 
 by this last extract from the '- Shepherd." 
 
 Wliether priest or prelate, or whoever may 
 have been the author of the article, the drift of 
 the artful writer is evidently this, viz.: to place 
 the Romish church above the civil govern- 
 ment, and to dictate the manner and matter of 
 legislation. However disguised by Jesuitical 
 cimning and sophistry, the ultimate design of 
 
68 APPENDIX. 
 
 the party is here hinted at, in language too 
 obvious to be misunderstood by any reader. 
 
 But the ''Shepherd" does not attempt to 
 defend the Church of Rome from the charge of 
 DESPOTISM. Indeed, he confesses that "the 
 Church cannot be defended from the charge of 
 favoring despotism, if a monarchy is essentially 
 a despotism, for she would interfere to protect 
 the just authority of the throne, no less than to 
 shelter the people, as she has done a thousand 
 times, from an abuse of that authority." We 
 clearly discover, in this last extract from the 
 " Shepherd of the Valley," an acknowledg- 
 ment of that authority over civil government, 
 which the Church of Rome, with the Pope at 
 its head, pretends to claim, as a prerogative by 
 divine right, and which he tells us she has ex- 
 ercised " a thousand times." Those who are 
 wont to sympathize with the Romish apostacy 
 in this country, do sometimes tell us, by way 
 of apology for that spurious Church, that al- 
 though the Pope did formerly, during the dark 
 ages, depose kings from their thrones, and give 
 their kingdoms to others, releasing their sub- 
 jects from their oath of allegiance, yet that now 
 the thing is quite changed, and that they lay 
 claim to no such power ! But does the 
 " Shepherd of the Valley " confirm this gra- 
 
APPENDIX. 59 
 
 tuitous apology? No, nothing of the kind; 
 and, let the author remark here, that the Church 
 of Rome gives little praise to those who at- 
 tempt to apologize for her conduct, at the ex- 
 pense of her immutability! 
 
 Notwithstanding the Saviour of the world 
 unequivocally declares, "My kingdom is not 
 of this world," yet ever since the bishop of 
 Rome obtained (partly by gift and concession, 
 but more by usurpation,) the proud title of 
 Sovereign Pontiff, he has claimed this right, 
 and still exercises it over Spain, Portugal, Aus- 
 tria, Naples, and wherever ignorance and su- 
 perstition prevail. 
 
 The governments support the papacy ; and 
 the papacyj in return, sanctions their despotic 
 acts, and commands the people to yield obedi- 
 ence to their arbitrary rulers, under pain of ex- 
 communication I 
 
 The "Shepherd'' further informs us, that 
 "the Catholic has no mission to propagate de- 
 mocracy.'^ We never supposed he had; we 
 might as well look to the Emperors of Russia 
 or Austria for the exercise of such a mission, 
 as to expe t it from the Church of Rome, 
 
 While the "Shepherd" proclaims the Church 
 to be " indeed the friend of the people, the 
 only refuge of the individual and the masses in 
 
60 APPENDIX. 
 
 every time of trouble," yet it adds : *' It i§ 
 false to say, that she prefers the liberty cap to 
 (he crown, or the liberty-pole to the sceptre." 
 
 This last quotation shows how strongly the 
 great Metropolitan Shepherd is attached to re- 
 publican institutions ! Verily, the Church of 
 Rome cannot be defended from *^ favoring des* 
 potism," when she cordially approves the gov- 
 ernments of Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, 
 and Naples, and has used her best exertions to 
 extinguish liberty in Europe generally, wher« 
 ever her influence has extended. 
 
 But the " Shepherd" reserves his most spirit- 
 ed attack for the castigation of Protestantism : 
 *' The Church, we hear, is hostile to liberty ; 
 obscures the dignity of human nature ; would 
 trample under foot the rights of man i is every- 
 where leagued with despots againgt their un- 
 happy subjects ; and opposes, and always has 
 opposed, all intellectual and social progress. 
 In short, in this country, the devil speaks out 
 like an honest devil. He takes up his old cry 
 of rebellion; he persuades men that none but 
 tyrants would demand obedience and submis- 
 sion ; he proves that the Church does demand 
 obedience, absolute and implicit obedience, 
 from her children to herself, and all legitimate 
 "Civil rulers, and he flatters himself that his 
 
APPENDIX. 61 
 
 task is done, and in very many cases the devil 
 is right. When he has done this he has made 
 out his case, and confirmed in their rebellion 
 against the Church, all who are determined to 
 maintain the supremacy of man. Dr. John- 
 son said that the devil was the first whig. By 
 this he meant that he was the first created be- 
 ing that rebelled against his legitimate ruler. 
 lie would have done better had he said that 
 the devil teas the first Protestant.'^ 
 
 In a similar strain the "Shepherd'' con- 
 tinues: '^ Liberty and authority are not re- 
 concilable on Frotestant principles.^' And 
 once more, to the same efl^ect : " Protestantism 
 as it really is not a religion, not a positive sys- 
 tem or collection of systems, but the incarnate 
 demon of rebellion against all authority and 
 law. As such, the Catholic is bound to flee 
 from it as from a pestilence ; is bound to use 
 all his influence in every way [fire and faggot 
 not excepted] to check and put it down." 
 
 In a recent number of the " Shepherd of the 
 Valley," the WTiter, after asserting religious 
 toleration to be the work of the devil, and 
 deeply to be deplored in " this miserable coun- 
 try," uses the following language ; " Religious 
 toleration and civil toleration are, however, we 
 admit, things perfectly distinct. The first, 
 
62 APPENDIX. 
 
 every christian is bound to condemn; the second, 
 he will and must approve, wherever it is expe- 
 dient." Note, here, it may, in some cases, 
 be expedient to kill heretics, and then every 
 true christian (Catholic) " must approve " of 
 it ! '^ We will say, however, that we are not 
 in favor of roasting heretics , but we are not, 
 therefore, going to deny the facts of history, or 
 to blame the saints of God, and the doctors and 
 pastors of the Church, for what they have done 
 and sanctioned. We say that the temporal 
 punishment of heresy is a mere question of ex- 
 pediency ; that protestants do not persecute us 
 here, simply because they have not the power; 
 and that where we abstain from persecuting 
 them, they are well aware that it is merely be- 
 cause we cannot do so, or think that by doing 
 so we should injure the cause that we wish to 
 serve. We are all intolerant — all of us [i. e. 
 all Roman Catholics] who believe." 
 
 The reader must be convinced that the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church is truly hostile to repub- 
 lican institutions, individual liberty, and the 
 protestant faith, which, under God, is the prime 
 author of all our blessings, national and social, 
 and, therefore, to be cherished by every true 
 republican and sincere friend of his country. 
 
 By way of applying these remarks, we add, 
 
APPENDIX. 63 
 
 that principles will and ought to be freely and 
 fully discussed in this country. The spirit of 
 the age and the genius of our government re- 
 quire it. And yet, strange to say, not only 
 Roman Catholics, but even some protestants 
 are to be found, who are utterly averse to free 
 discussion ! Protestants should remember, that 
 religious liberty and free discussion go hand in 
 hand. To look upon free discussion, then, in 
 the light of persecution, is all wrong, and dis- 
 covers a prejudice and narrowness of mind, bet- 
 ter adapted to down-trodden Italy or priest-rid- 
 den Austria or Spain, than to free republican 
 America. Free discussion, whether in refer- 
 ence to politics or religion, in a government 
 proceeding from the people, is all important, 
 and should be so regarded by freemen U 
 
 Those great principles which lie at the foun- 
 dation of civil and religious liberty, call for 
 patient investigation, in order that freemen may 
 duly appreciate their just rights, and have wis- 
 dom to defend them against every hurtful influ- 
 ence. 
 
 Americans are not easily intimidated by de- 
 nunciations, either from popish journals or 
 presses. The time has passed for this bravado; 
 this spirit of defiance, this priestly blustering 
 
64 APPENDIX. 
 
 aad cursing belongs to ages which have passed, 
 we hope never to return. 
 
 Let such men as Archbishop Hughes, O. A. 
 Brownson & Co., see how very unbecoming it • 
 is to attempt to palm the tyranical government 
 of the Church of Rome on free America. How 
 every way incompatible such gross denuncia- 
 tions as the following, with their oft repeated 
 protestations of loyalty and attachment for 
 republican institutions : They denounce our 
 national faith as *' the religion of the devil." 
 The Protestant religion as " no religion," but 
 a moral pestilence," -' a system of anarchy, 
 which every consistent Catholic should labor 
 in every way in his power to check and put 
 down." 
 
 Thi^ is neither the age nor the country to 
 denounce Protestants from the pulpit, as hav- 
 ing forfeited their lives to divine justice," be- 
 cause they refuse to submit to the authority of 
 the Pope. To these agents of the so styled 
 holy father, we would say, *' bless and curse 
 not ; " and to our readers and patrons beg leave 
 to add, that while we hold fast the Bible,. the 
 constitution, and free discussion, we shall have 
 nothing to fear. 
 
 THE END.