The true Democrat., 1854-08-23
Xiiterature, 9gritnlture, Gonrn1trt&, Ga1tatipr,
MORNING, AUGUST 23, 1854.

| "When infdelity, heresy and schism, are clearly and directly crimes against society, they are justly punishable by the civil authorities , How that case is to arise, or who is to judge whether they are crimes against society or not, you do noti inform us; but the case having arisen, you assert that 1t is right to imprison, or oth- erwise punish, even (of course) to faying alive, or burning any heretic, say Protestant Throughout that article you take care to place toleration for heresy on the ground of expedien cy; and you never renounce the right nav, the duty of punishing for that crime.
 And all your miserable echoes of the Press. from the Mississippi to Boston Bay, vied with you in adulation of Austria, and heaping infa nous names on the gallant republicans of Italy and France; nay, they improve upon your doc- trines of intolerance Qor you could not restrain the fouls within the bounds of your prudent exahple) until the land reverberates with ana themas on the liberty; and men might almost fancy they heard the thunders of the Vatican bursting on the Alleghanies and saw the tide of the Mississippi reddened by the fires of an Inqusition.
 This, l say, has been your work, Dr. Ores tes; hence has come whatever of bitterness and ferocity is to be found in the Native American party; this outrageous carcature of Catholicity, held up to Americans by you, (after you had tired of all the other religions,) has been the principal spring, and is the only excuse for the furious anti-Irish spirit which is now raging.
 One leading idea of the Native American party is alone sufficient to prove this. They say, there must be drawn distinction between Citizen of America" and Subjects of the Pope." They have got the idea-it was from you and your echoes they caught it-that a Catholic must be bad citizen And if you and your echoes were true opponents of Cath olicity, they would be right. In that case will make no scruple to avow that no Catholic is lit to be citizen of any country; and not con- tent with disfranchising 1 would extermin- ate them.
 1t IS only by distinctly separating themselves from you, by emphatically denying you and all your works, that Irishmen in America can ever become as one with their native fellow ci- tizens. In the meantime do protest and de- clare, on the part of my Catholic fellow-coun- trymen-frst, that they do not want to burn heretics-secondly, that they do not regard re- publicans on either side of the Atlantic, as Gin famous wretches, "-and third that there is no part of the American Constitution valued by them more highly than the part which makes it impossible for you, Doctor, with all the Pro- paganda at your back, ever to "punish D sin gle human creature in America for "infdelty. or heresy or schism.''
 For the name Radical" which you are pleased to give me; was certainly in Ireland a Radical. In America Gas soon as 1 have the honor to be a ctizen) 1 mean to be steady Conservative In Ireland the whole govern mental and social system need to be cut up by the roots, in order that some justice might be- gin to be done there. Therefore I was Radi- cal. Here, where there are institutions worth conserving, l am Conservative. Men do not usually preserve worn-out garments. or decay ed ofal, or rotten eggs, or dead men's bones (except occasionally for reliquaries) s)-but they try to preserve what is good and fresh and fair that it may long be a blessing and glory to mankind.
 Yes, in America, you must call me conserva- tive; and be assured that there is nothing shall be more solicitous to conserve than the abso- lute civil rights of every man to be heretic, n- fdel Catholic, Jew or Mormon, at his good pleasure.
 l remain, Dr. Brownson,
 Your Obedient servant,
 JOHN MITCHELL.