Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1847-07-14
The C0thOlies--ParfiZa Interfe.
renee Rebuked.

The Cath0lies--Partiza Interfe.
| renee Rebuked.
In all our reading Of late we do not re-
collect to have stumbled upon more sea-
thing or well merited rebuke than that
which is administered BY the Freeman's
Journal, the organ Of Catholicism in the
United States, to those political editors
who have lately raised such an incendiary
hue and cry about '.the administration and
the Mexican Church properly" and who
have assumed to dictate TO and prejudice
the minds Of portion Of our naturalized
fellow citizens against their government,
by exciting their religious prejudices. We
regret that we have not room to publish
the article entire, and must content our.
selves with few extracts, merely as an
admonition TO wing editors in Iowa to be-
ware how they NEEDLE with edge tools.
In allusion to the gratuitous advice to
Catholics above advertcd to, the Journal
/
says:
"To say that we feel slight gratitude
for such kindness is but,a poor return Of
acknowledgment To- its authors; and yet,
we should be hypocriticaa!f we professed
| any other. Their advice; may be well
meant, but we are not fauered by the es-
innate Of US which induced them to offer
it. We beg leave to assure them that Ca
tholics are constituted both physically and
morally very much like other people that
they are endowed with the ordidary facul.
ties Of the human mind, just like the ave-
rage standard of the human race that they
possess will, memory, and understanding,
as other men do--that they have physical
and moral sensibilities will laugh when
they are tickled, and feel resentment when
insulted, very much after the fashion Of
other christian denominations.
i They even claim TO have common
sense ! and if this high attribute of huma-
nifty be sufficient to guide their protestant
fellow citizens in deciding all knotty ques-
tons of religion, they think that they are
quite moderate in assuming that it will be
sufficient TO direct then, in questions of 20
litics, in which experiences teaches us
that intallibility is moi anticipated in the
decision, and has rarely been realized in
the result, Of general elections for public
officers"
The Journal thus aludes TO the readi-
ness with which cert,in political editors
are In the habit, whenever they imagine it
calculated to subserve their own selfish
ends,o appealing to Catholics, as Catholics.
The paragraph which follows it, although
nothing more than any well informed
mind would expect from the same quar-
ter, speaks sentiment very different
from that which appears to form the
ground work of the estimate which wing
journals have been in The habit of putting
upon the patriotism Of our adopted citi-
zens.
First, however, we shall begin by ere
pudiation--and we repudiate in their name
any advice which may be rendered to Ger
man or Irish Catholics on political ques-
ions y hicn is not addressed, at the same
time, to the people of all other countries,
and all other religions dwelling in these
United States. Politically speaking, we
Catholics have no interests apart from the
general interest of our fellow citizens, and
when we are appealed to, in the spirit Of
these political journals, we feel bound to
rebuke the dictation, as unmeried and Of
fensive. We know our duty as well as
the Express, or any other paper can point
It out to us. We understand our obIiga-
tons to God, TO our country, as we'll as
any Protestant denomination in the land,
and il is time that we should resent the
insolence which assumes that our religion
and our patriotism are incompatible in the
present circumstances of the country.
As regards the justice or The injustice,
the policy, or the inexpediency of the
war with Mexico, we are competent to
form, and free to express our judgment,
as well as the editors of political newspa-
pers. We deplore the existence Of the
wa w wv NV r. paw w uCSluc tIldt
it was not necessary, or that it is unjust
we think that by wiser diplomacy re-
suits as advantageous as can be realized
by it, might have been secured wihou,
bloodshed; but when war was Judged by
the supreme authority Of the state to be
necessary-when our country became en-.
gagged in 1t, we can only desire its speedy
and successful termina len, and feel bound
as good citizens, 10 co-oI erate in bringing
about a contamination so deyoutly Ia be
wished. II the Sovereign Pontilf of Rome
were the temporal mead of the Mexican
nation, our sense Of duty, in the actual cir.
cumstances of the two countries would
be precisely the same"
How must the perusal OF the above sen
timent cause the blush of shame to crimson
the cheeks Of those wing editors who have
been i'll the habit of warning their readers
against foreigners and foreign influence, as
danganerous to the perpetuity of our re.
publican institutions? How must they
blush for very shame, while native and to
the manor born, who, in the midst of a war