The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1854-09-01
HAVE WE GAINED OUR FREEDOM ONLY TO LOSE
THE PRINCIPLE OF TOLERATION?

General Washington belonged to secret society lie
was chosen member of the Masonic fraternity He adorn-
ed that order by his yaor and his virtues He beahed
into il the patriotic instincts which still distinguish IL
and he made it less memorable for devotion to the
country than for attachment to the preceps of practical
bencyoence and morality Let imagine General Wash
ngton invited to Join one of these societies so
much the fashion, and what would have been his response
Woe to the man who sought to insult that ustrous sage
and hero with such proposition Not only would the
invitation have contemplated fatal aront to the masses of
his own rank and fe-to those who hiher to fight
for the freedom they and their children might afterwards
enjoy "under their vine and their fig tree with
none to modest to make them afraid it involved
humiating and deadly blow at Lafayette, his bosom
friend and his companon-n-arms II said to Washing
ton, sHere is your favorite and your brother who
has left behind him the honors and the attractions OF
great court-the nowery path of ease-the golden
pores of civic ambonand has brought hither AN army
to fight your bates-yet he be osracsed here
under the very flag which he has gallantly protected
even here over the graves the Fenchmen who have fallen
that that flag might trumphanty wave even here must
he be told that he is dsgraced and that ungrae
The rule that excluded and nsued Lafayette moreover a
piled with no less efficacy to Mercer ST. Clair Steuben
would have done the work for them while that of being
Catholics would have dsfranched Others no less brave
who had escaped the crime of seeing the light of day in
other lands.
An illustration is sometimes better than argument !;
and that we have given though not original is at least
true
We have indeed done little in this experiment of free
government if after all boosted equality we have not
yet agreed among ourselves to respect the liberty of con-
science That which was of the first rights conceded
one of the first established-durng early struggle
for freedom proves to be in the most danger In
deed before the revolution of l776 religious tolera
ton prevailed in the colonies There were localities IN
deed where naticsm ourished but the different re-
lgious persuasions were not interrupted even by
the Crown. 1t regarded as right that could not
be invaded taken away; and when we went to war
it was because another right less DEAR had been out
ragged and denied
fearful reflection that nearly eighty years after the
declaration of independence was proclaimed to the nations
of the earth powerful party should rise in this country
to annul right common to all our people, right
so sacred that King George dared not against our
forefathers, to lay his hand upon it.
Knownothngismi -Amercanism intensified An
adopted citizen is only DISTINGUISHED himself but his
children citizen born upon these shores is cast-out
under this creed his father born abroad But to be
Catholic is than to be foreigner That is an
neradicable faint 1t damns through endless genera
TONS II your fathers had lived in the days OF poca-
hontas and King Philip you excluded from position,
you are degraded into Inferior you made political
Pariah for being Catholic. If before this new order
rose like disease in midst eminent citizen had
been able prove his courage the tented field, or TO
redeem the sinking prospects of the country had ri-
umphed in the Senate amid the acclaim of grateful peo-
pie all his deservngs would be dsegarded if tested by the
know-nohing standard he proved to be either Catholic
or foreigner The spirit would tear from the high
position he adorns and dignes the venerable Roger b.
fancy The spirit would outrage the grave OF
Charles Carroll of Carrolton Even the Deist would
escape where the Catholic fell and the traitor who denied
both God and his country would stand better with this
modern prescription than he who walked in the light OF
his own belief and worshpped God after the fashion of
his Catholic fathers