INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, To Co the Impartial Public; ON THE INTOLERANT SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. An intolerant spirit invoked against Catholics-Bigotry an implacable monster-The danger of fostering the mob spirit-Features in the present anti-Catholic crusade--Cruel treatment of a Catholic priest-Our adversaries virtually yielding us the victory in fair argument―Their numerous inconsistencies-The Newark outrage—The manliness of the American character-Whence danger is to be apprehended to the Republic-The "bats and the eagles"-Hoping for better things-The accusations against us-Is the Catholic Church intolerant?—Or uncharitable?—Latitudinarianism, not charity-Principles of the Church in regard to persecution-Has she ever persecuted as a Church?―Third canon of Lateran-The Inquisition-John Huss-Catholic and Protestant persecution since the reformation-Intolerance in America--Who originated it, and who gave the first example of toleration?-Parallel between Catholic and Protestant countries in the matter of persecution- Are Catholics the enemies of republican government?-What Catholicity and Protestantism have done for human liberty-Charles Carroll of Carrolton-Washington and the Catholics-The temporal power of the Popes-Declarations of Archbishop Carroll and the American Bishops--Letter to the Pope-Are American Catholics a separate community ?-Archbishop Carroll and Bishop Dubourg-Foreigners-What they have done for the country-" The foreign vote" -Foreign radicals and infidels-The naturalization laws-The common school system-What the Catholic Church says to her members-Her efforts to promote peace and order-Her charity for all mankind-Archbishop Kenrick's Pastoral. THAT a fierce spirit of intolerance has been lately evoked in this once free country, no candid observer of passing events will deny. Christians of a particular denomination have been selected, as its first victims; but no one who has studied human nature, as it is developed in the facts of history, will for a moment suppose, that the ruin of Catholics in this country will satisfy the cravings of this fierce Moloch of religious bigotry. As with the tiger, the taste of blood will but sharpen its appetite for new victims. So it has been in the past; so it will be in the future. Let no one deceive himself, nor suffer himself to be deceived, in a matter of so vital an importance to all who are sheltered under the glorious flag of our union. Once the barriers, which our noble constitution throws around the civil and religious liberties of all citizens alike, are broken down, no matter under what pretext of excitement, of political expediency, or necessity, there is no telling where the spirit of innovation will stop, or where the evils consequent upon it will be arrested. When a torrent has once broken through the embankment along its margin, it spreads devastation through the entire country; and the husbandman who has neglected the necessary precautions, while it was yet time, finds 19 out, when it is too late for remedy, that all the fruits of his patient toil have been swept away or destroyed by the raging waters. So it will be precisely, should the checks and balances, which the wisdom and forecast of our fathers have inserted in the constitution, be neglected or set at naught. The torrent of human passions, once it has overleaped this barrier, will overwhelm our beautiful country with ruins. All our dearly bought liberties will be virtually destroyed; property will be no longer secure; law and order will give place to passion and mob violence; the dearest of all human rights and privileges,—that of worshiping God according to the dictates of our conscience, will be annihilated; the beautiful earthly paradise of our happy republic will be changed into a frowning wilderness, filled with horror and desolation: finally, anarchy will take the place of order and good government. The worst possible species of tyranny is that of the mob. Far better be oppressed by one tyrant, than be crushed and torn by a thousand: far better have even a Nero or a Diocletian to lord it over you, than be ruled by that hydraheaded monster, called a mob. The solitary tyrant may have some misgivings, or retain some remnant of justice or humanity; he may at least be checked by a sense of personal responsibility, and may tremble on his throne at the fear of popular retribution: the many-headed despot has neither reason, nor justice, nor humanity, nor conscience, nor fear of God or man, to restrain him from deeds of violence. For the truth of this picture, we appeal with confidence to all history; from the period when an excited mob cried out against the Blessed Jesus at the tribunal of Pilate: Crucify Him! crucify Him !!-down to the other day, when another mob, composed of persons calling themselves Christians, raised fiendish shouts of triumph at the tearing down and trampling under foot of the Cross, which had ornamented the spire of a Catholic Church in Chelsea! At every time and in every place, the mob has always been the same ruthless, savage, untameable monster; the Christian scarcely less so than the pagan.' Unhappily, we need not go far back into times past, nor travel far from home, to witness the sad effects of mob violence. A distinctive feature in the present crusade against Catholics in this country, is precisely the invoking against them of this ruthless spirit. Five or six of our churches either burnt, or sacked, or blown up by gunpowder,-most of them while our citizens were engaged in the joyous celebration of the liberty-hallowed Fourth of July ;-street brawlers, generally 1 For more on this subject, we refer to the Chapter on Mobs, in this Volume, p. 619, seqq., and to the Article on the Philadelphia Riots, p. 596, seqq. |