Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-10-03

paid him the compliment of a serenade, and
while returning thanks, he was hooted. hisscd
and id by Known Nothing mob. Nor
was the end yet. To complete their pcrfdy
10 add the capetoDe to their infamy-tos
completely nullify the constitutional privilege
of free speech-it was necessary to outrage
that sacred instrument in the city that gave
it birth The time was not wanting, nor did
the opportunity escape. a meeting was cal
led in the Fourteenth Ward of this city, to
discuss questions that affected the public veal,
when instantaneously. small triangular pieces
Of white paper were nailed on the boxes and
doors and trees, calling the secret traitors to
their haunts The word was passed from
lodge to lodge, that the meeting must be
all members should go prepared The meet
issq aous broken s1,, and in order that it should
be done without any serious disturbance, from
forty to sixty police officers were detailed to
superintend the outrage. These officers, sworn
to protect the rights Of citizens. thus booted
and spurred, together with ruffian crowd
that boosted themselves American, rode rou-
ghshod over the freedom of speech Is there
nothing unconstitutional in this? lCries of
there is, there is. ss
The Constitution declares that the s'freedom
of the press shall not be abridged" yet in
the city of Louisville, an infuriated mob of
the members of this order attacked two news
paper Offices, burned their signs, and would
have sacked the buildings. and given them to
flames, and for what? Because they dared
to exercise the rights guaranteed by the Con-
stitution, in denouncing reasonable conspi-
racy (Applause) Day after day the Lou
isp;ue Journal, the Know-Notlling organ,
was crammed with offal of abuse. Nothing
was too sacred for its polluting touch. Adop-
ted citizens of all climes and all religions
were followed with hound like ferocity, until
incendiarism, murder and riot, became the
presiding deities of a city SO often consecrated
by the presence of the immortal Clay-(im-
mense applause.) Oh my fellow citizens,
has If come TO this? Is the Constitution an
unmeaning thing? Is our liberty but shad-
ow? Is the press to be stihcd by the shouts
and groans and daggers and incendiary torches
of ruthless mobs? Can this be done and the
Constitution be preserved? Look to it, that
the press. the great light of the world. goes
not out in the darkness of unrelcnting fanati-
cism- (Great applause
The Constitution declares g there shall be
no religious test asa qualification for Office +"
Yet this g ow-Nothiug" party in direct
conflict with this express provision establish q
religious test, that If carried out would soon
make funeral pyre for the republic Our
fathers in the wisdom, separated the govern
ment entirely from any 81 establishment or
religion" !" Taey had read to advantage the
history of the past, and knew that freedom of
conscience in all its fullness, could not essist
where there was a union of Church and State.
Consequently they drew the line of demarca-
ton broad and deep-as broad and deep as an
ocean of water is State separated from Church.
and when either begins to infringe upon the
other, from that moment our liberties decline
(Cries of g Right, right.)
Again-the maintenance of any one reli-
gious establishment can only succeed by the
prescription of all others-and is there an
american citizen here tonight, who loves his
God and venerates the Constitution, who
would be willing to see any one religious
establishment" rise upon the ruins of all No,
my friends-freedom of conscience is our
dearest rights To worship God according to
the dictates of conscience is our duty, and no
power on earth shall wrest it from US. Pro
longed cheering) | care not what garb they
assume. They may come the silver yelled
prophet of Khorassen, and their bigotry be
hidden by its flashing splendor. but we will
tear off the veil and expose its hideous visage
they may come with the Nessus robe of
prescription, and seek to clothe in its poisoned
folds the young giant of America, but we
will put to shame the Borgias of the republic
they may come, draped in the sombre gar
ments of religious intolerance, and seek to inn
pale the rights of conscience upon the pixies of
a politico religious soldiery-but in spite of
all, the soul will aspire to its Maker, in its
own forms, and they cannot and shall not pre-
vent it. Cloud and long continued applause.)
Again-the crushing out of one sect, would
be the prelude to the crushing out of another,
SO that no man would be secure in his reli-
gious rights In addition. a war of religion
of sects, would produce its natural fruits
Rank INFIpELITY-and who In this vast as
semblage desires that such a plant should find
root in American soil Take warning from
the past; forget not the time when the grave
yards of Paris, bore upon their portals Death
is an eternal sleep. Forget not the promis-
cuous prostitute elevated to a goddess of rea-
son! What fiightful scenes took place! France
got drunk with blood. to voJnit crime" 1.-THE
throne was overturned, nobility banished,
priesthood overwhelmed, virtue prescribed, J"
all the bonds of civil society burst asunder,
and Fsance becapse a vast theatre of carnage
and blcodshed. The scaffofd was the stage,
the scene shifxr was death, the instrument
for finishing the tragedys the guillotine, and
Frencbmen were the victims. Conyulsion
followed convulsion; the kingdom was shaken
to its centre and the demon of infdelity hand
in hand with strife arose all CORY from that
bed of carnage aud stalked through the streets
of the metropolis. God of our fathers and
our fathers sons, protect America from such
an alarming catastrophe Enthusiastic APP
MIA ] ~ =