Monongalia mirror. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1855, 1854-08-05

merican on their shores. The only
trouble in connection with this patriotic
purpose is, that when we define oul
rights hastily, whether as regards prin
ciple or an international boundary line
it may happen that after having asked
more, we may finally be compelled te
take less. Whether as regards private
contracts or public treaties. it is well
known law that it requires two or more
parties to make bargain. 1t must be
within the recollection Of General Cass
that few years ago we had fixed a
northwestern boundary line on which
we had determined to stand or fall. But
this was before the consent of the other
party had been obtained; and when the
matter came to q bargain, we allowed
the other party to undefne our position
and 10 slide US off from our chosen line
to another two or three hundred miles
south of it.
l have been quite amused at :he elo.
quent denunciations by General Cass,
Of absurd maxims and wicked preten-
sions on the part of civil governments,
to control conscience, to dictate or pre-
scribe to their subjects what they shall
believe. In that part Of his great speech
l have the pleasure to agree with him.
1t is probable however that he thought,
as many of his readers will have thought,
that he was dcnouncing Catholic priuci-
piles. The fact, however, is directly the
reverse. The juris,s and the govern
ments that fell under the real weight of
his cesure were of his own school. A
brief retrospect of the condition of Eu'
rope both previous to, and since the
Reformation, will make this point clear.
All the States Of Europe had been Cath.
olic. The people of those States had
but one religion. That religion was
older than their civil governments. Con-
sequen,ly, their civil governments never
dictated to them what they should be-
lieve. And when General Cass speaks
Of the arrogance and impiety of civil
governments debating to their people
what they shall believe or what they
shall not believe, he makes without per-
haps being aware of it, an exception in
favor of Catholic governments down at
leas. to the period of the Reformation.
Ehe civil laws of those countries were
| in many respects exclusive and intoler-
ant Bu. then, since. all for l might
use the word all, though occasional ex-
cep,ions arose. were Of the same faith,
and had no desire q change, the laws
were substantially inhocuous in the ab.
sence Of objects on whom they might
be executed. Then came the Reforma-
lion. The Reformation resulted in the
formation Of States on the anti.C Catholic
or Protestant basis. In these the form
of the new religion was determined on
by the civil Governments. | am not a.
ware of single Catholic State, except,
perhaps, it be Spain, which has since
passed any laws especially directed q.
cainst Protes,ants. On the other hand
| do not know q single Protestant State
in which the Government did not at
tempt and carry out by especial laws
those very acts which General Cass SO
eloouen,ly denounces. When General
Cass finds jurists sustaining such pre-
tended rights of the civil Government,
he may be sure tina. they do not belong
to the school of St. Thomas Acquinas,
or Suarez or the other great pnblici,ies
,ha, have been so numerous in the Cath
olic Church. These were men who
never pu. on the philosophers cloak
wi, view of playing the tribune either
towards their countrymen or their race.
They were men who derived their prin-
ciples of human law, of government,
whether civil or ecclesiastical. from the
same supreme and eternal source
They fiat.ered neither kings nor people.
They feared God and feared few besides.
IRev were not the men who wrote of
the divine right of kings. They held
,ha, Government is BY divine right, but
that the individual sovereign or ruler in
such government, is of human right
And il it had been possible for General
Cass to have consulted their pages, he
would have discovered ,ha. they main
tanned the rights and dignity Of human
nature from the highest to the lowest
member of society.
There is no difference between Gen.
Cass' conception of conscience as q
moral faculty and mine. He however
be,rays the rights and liberty Of con-
science, as understand it, by identify.
inc ibis moral faculty with the outward
action. which are supposed to manifest
i. dictates from within. No civil gov.
erDmen, e,r tbs. ever existed has or ever
had either the righ. or the power, phys
;cal or moral, to coerce or exsinguish
mans conscience. /, is beyond the
reach of government. They might as
well a,,enp, to pass laws regulating the
exercise OF memory, as regulating the
decisions Of mans conscience. This
fIeedom Of conscience, however, Gen.
Cass has identified with outward action,
and on the other hand, by recognizing