The Arkansas banner., 1844-07-17
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN DANGER.
THE cATHoLIes-NATIYE AMERICANS-MoBs,
 BURNINGs, AND MURDERS.

An effort appears to be making, with the view of virtually depriving that sect of Chris tians called Catholics, from enjoying the lib- erty which in this country is guaranteed by our Constitution and laws to all sects and all religions. What cannot be done by law, is attempted thorugh faisehood, misled public opinion, and excited mobs
 With pain and indignation we have seen efforts by misrepresentations most foul, to make the Catholics, as sect, responsible for the late riots and murders in Philadelphia.
 The New Y ork Journal of Commerce, a politieo-religious newspaper, on the 30th ul- timo, contained an article with the following caption, viz:
 "THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MURDERS IN PHILADELPHIA"
 Beginning with an assumption that Roman Catholics were the murderers, the Journal goes on to sustain its position. It thus states the case, viz:
 sThe material facts are, that political meeting of American citizens, convened for the purpose of discussing questions of public importance, was fired upon, several persons killed and wounded, the assembly broken up and driven from the ground, and the Ameri- can flag under which they had assembled trampled under foot; that when, few days after, the meeting re-assembled for the same purpose, and under the same flag, fire more deadly than the first was opened upon them from buildings in the neighborhood, loop holed beforehand, and with the use of arms which from their number and character proved that the attacks had been planned deliberately, and by other persons besides those who were present at the time This attack was resisted, and the houses from which it proceeded were set fire to, upon which an extensive conflag- ration ensued. The armed men were driven from their positions, and mob was gathered which continued several days, during which time two churches were burned, and other acts of violence committed upon property. but no lives taken. The men who composed the deliberative assembly were protestants, and chiefly natve-born citizens; the men who fired upon them were Roman Catholics, and chiefly, if not wholly, of foreign birth'
 The Journal, we are compelled 10 say, misstates the facts, and arrives at a conclu- sion which the real facts show to be absurd if not wicked. That conclusion Is, that s.the attacks had been planned dehberatcly." .
 That handful of Roman Catholics. ill one of our great cities, should deliberately plan an attack on protestant assemblage, implies not only want of common sense, but of that instinct which teaches even the brute creation to regard.-their own personal safety. What, in the conception even of a child, must be the consequences of an attack by Catholics on Protestants, where the latter outnumber the former hundred to one: What but the destruction of the Catholics themselves !- What but the burning of their own houses, the destruction of their furniture and goods, and turning out their wives and children, to wander through the country houseless and starving Does the Journal really believe the Catholics would deliberately enter upon a career of this sort with their senses aboni them, even if as deprayed as its editors sup pose them io he
 This is not all, Those who have read the accounts as to tic commencement of the riot. cannot have forgotten thai the presence