The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1854-12-03
From the Mobile Register,

ro cuuRcH AND STATE-RELlGlOuS FREEDOM.
The Irish Militia Regiment the Meagher Grenadiers,
# Jersey CITY held meeting last week and passed resoln
% ebukng the Catholic priests for their denunciahon
n them the Sunday before and Directing to the Interior
% Of the priests in matters OF civil or military chaFac-
Tor Al the ball Of the Grenaders John Mitchell made
iuiant speech concluding sentiment in three words,
bee words of power-words that shall yet once more
make the knees of yrants smie togeheriberty, equali-
w. Maternity
We wish the Protestant would take their turn, and
k the Protestant priests who at the NdSth actively
.aed in large numbers in interfering in politics 1t is
Isted that $500 Of these reverend partisans signed
memorial to overawe Congress by the power OF their
yorctitv on the Nebraska question. All over New
ENGLAND Protestant clergymen dropped the Gospel to
zach poIitcs and turned from rebuking individual sins
ranst Heaven and conscience to denouncing the Ne
hska iniouity In New York, find the Young
usr Christian Association out in favor Of the Maine law,
and Hedging themselves to oppose all political candidates
bo are against that This is antamount to Ia
Ling the political field by Christian association In
Pennsylvania the temperance cause was also dragged mo
e contest by reverend demagogue5 who preached 1t from
h s,nmn and turned it into packhorse for their
avn faction and candidates. What means this ming
ling of the clements of religion and politics. and what will
e the end of 2 What has got into northern cergymen
rn politicians and stump orators Are we TO have
practical union of Church and Sate| Is our pure and
bolv religion to be defled by the dust and rancor and
all upchartabeness of the party arena2 And are ecce-
as,ical bodies and Christian associations and benevolent
and moral reform societies to illuminate their bulls and
auahemas against all who stand in their way through the
sacred medium of the American ballobox? These are
startling questions and full of warning 1t really looks
five were on the eve of religious warofa all the most
wicked and deplorable We hold that of all human acts
Of Goddefng presumption that is the most preSumptu-
ous which undertakes prosecute fellow-moral
count of religious belief What pigmy, who treads
this earth without being able to call the next moment of
time his own and whose every respiration may be his
who is surrounded by the wonderful mysteries of this
mysterious world and has better clue TO the deeper and
more awful mysteries that lie beyond the curtain of the
next life than his -moralwhet man. with all the
dread pains and uncertainties of mortality his finite
head will dare TO prosecute his fellow for not taking the
road to Heaven which he poor worm like the rest has
pronounced the one If there is anything that hate
with all the intense instincts of the education and sentiments
ola freeman it is religious intolerance We detest in the
form the inquisition of old abhOr in the form OF
Protestant bigory in this enlightened age We sec
10 difference between Protestant and Catholic intolerance
Neither have right flourish soil cousecrated by the
grims and martyrs of civil and religious liberty to
bounded freedom in matters of conscience and perfect lib
dy worship God according to the dictates Of each mans
own conscience.
That man is no friend to religion who will stain the hem
its pure robes by trailing it in the filth of secular con-
He is hypocrite, wearing the ivery of Heaven to
serve his base purposes The same is true Of all mora
reormers He is no friend his country and is blind tC
the concessions which alteration of liberty requires
who losses his mission of benevoence into the field OF poll
tics comminges it with that stream of public opinion
and public duty bearing upon the administration of thu
civil government which should flow pure and undisturbet
by foreign issues from the ballot-box
Heretofore the States OF the South have been preserved
b the blessings of God and by the conservative character
of their people and Institutions free from these disgracef
scenes Here liberty of opinion in matters of religion has
oexisted with ali the conditions of peace and wellor
lered soeiety Let behold -tha example set at ht
North warning, to be avoided and not to be initiated
with all its concomitant evils Let enjoy freedom
and property securely under the laws and beware how
catch the wild spirit of that turbulent liberty which
the North is fast dssoving the constitutions OF the govern
and society into the original element of anarchy ant
chaos