The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-11-02
sECTARIAN TESTS IN POLITICS.

IlSt, OF Oatnonc his relgiOus creeu was utcHl-
ed sacred between him and his God; the only
| legitimate concern of the People was, with his
views of public policy, his competence and his
integrity We recollect well the first sermon
we heard boldly recommending the policy of
establishing a sectarian test at the ballot box.
A famous Doctor of Divinity was the preacher,
who subsequently distinguished himself by an
argument to prove that the slave relation was
not wrong one, and illustrated his theory
| by becoming himself the owner of slave i'll
| Missouri He insisted in his sermon upon the
duty of all PrOtestants to unite in support OF a
| straight-out Protestant candidate, against the
| Catholcs-and to the objection, that such a
policy would ultimately array sect againt Sect
| Methodists demanding the nomination OF
| Methodist candidate. and Presbyterans, Pres
bvterian candidate, his reply was, let 1t be so
| for his part, he would of course prefer to vote
for good. orthodox Presbyterian, Boy as we
were. every generous instinct OF our nature re-
VOTED at such teaching and the reason of ma
turer wears has but strengthened our adherence
of a policy, so narrow, so bigoted, so anti-Amer
lean. so utterly at war with the spirit Of Chris
tianity.
What We detested in Presbyterian minister,
we could not tolerate in a Catholic Archbishop,
or in bigoted organization got up to oppose his
dcmagoguism. When the Jesuits in different
localities made war upon our common school
system, demanded separate appropriations for
UNCONVENTIONAL schools, and endeavored to raj
l. IL Of rie
ballot box in support of their demand, we con-
tended against them, and rejoiced to see the
friends of civil and religious freedom, concen-
trating their forces upon candidates pledged to
resist so mischievous a measure. Such a
course wise. consistent, and necessary; it
accomplished the purpose. and a resort to it
on every repetition of such assaults would
have always been efiectual.
But, the case is entirely different, when
permanent political Party is sought to be or
ganized on sectarian bass-on the principle
of excluding Catholics from any Office of trust,
profit, or influence. We say, this is persecu-
ton for conscience sake-a gross violation of
the spirit of our Institutions and of Protestant
ism. If the principle be right, the Constitu-
ton of the United States and those of the
States ought to be altered, so as to make Cath
| olcs ineligible to office and if it be right to
resort to such prescription to put down Catho-
licism. why not exclude them too from the
| right of suffrage? The principle is the same.
In other words, why not eschew federation,
deny the rights of Conscience, subvert our Con-
Il L 4 Il
and the Grand Duke of Tuscany and go back
for precedent to the Internal law of the Colonies
against the Quakers, and the acts of Uniformi-
! tv in England, under which dssenters were
| despoiled of their goods and incarcerated?
We said in our article on Know Nothingism.
that Catholic might be devoted to his reli
| gious faith, and vet be loyal citizen. Every
mans observation bears witness to this. The
Catholic NAV acknowledge the supremacy OF
his Church in matters of faith and vet DENY il
in civil affairs. This is true, so far as history
and observation teach us of American Catho
lies generally. 1t is easy to quote from the
writings of the advocates of Popery, solemn
declarations about the supremacy of the Pope
in temporal well as spiritual concerns but
as a matter of fact, that supremacy is not as
can Catholics. To exclude from office. there
| fore, any man, simply because he is q Catholic
is the very essence of religious persecution
Adopt the principle. that you will vote for no
man who recognises or countenances in any
| way the doctrine that the citizen of this coun.
| cix-l oil 10, low
the Almighty higher than the Constitution OF
| the United States, and We are with you. That
| isa safe, sound. and vital Principle But pro-
scribe Catholics as such, in this country where
you have the power, and you justify Catholic
prescription of Protestants in countries where
Catholics have the power The thing is absurd
and wicked.
The numerical power of the Catholics in the
United States has been vastly exaggerated, for
effect, both by the partisans of that Church and
by alarmists. A few facts and estimates will
show this. In the american almanac of 1852
is table of the religious denominations of the
United States, their ministers and communi-
cants made up from facts and estimates. The
whole number Of communicates is set down at
| 4,l3l,639 No returns made for the Meth
odist Episcopal Church South If we estimate
the COMMITMENTS of this body at four hundred
thousand, we shall have a total, in round num-
bers, of 4,5co,000 OF these, the Catholics are
estimated at / ,233,350. The estimate embraces
of course the children who are members of
the Church but this is not the case with the
other denominations generally. The adult
Catholics, then, do not much exceed $780, 900.
or about one-ninth of the whole number OF
communicates of all the churches. But there
are in the United States about fourteen millions
of adults of both sexes, so that the proportion
of adult Catholics is as one in twenty-eght o.
the whole population-a proportion hardly
large enough to fill the country with alarm fol
the fate of our institutions
Our estimate of the number of adult Catho
lies is confirmed by glance at the Census o.
1850. Its returns show the following facts in
regard TO Churches, Church accommodations
and the value of Church Property:
Professionals Of all Churches
3i,Sl9; Church Accommodations, Is, 22S, GIG
Value of Property, $I7,442,sOl.
Roman Cdtholics.-Churches, LIP; Church
Accommodations, 620,950 Value of Property
Ss,973s3s.
The Protestants, according to this table, hav,
accommodations for twenty times he.numbe
that can be accommodated in the Cathoh