The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1855-08-18

tired is engendered against the descendants
and countrymen of those brave men whose
heroic valor assisted in achieving the liber.
ties which we now enjoy. In the same
manner, and often at the hour midnight, he
gropes his way back to his family again to
repeat the hundred-timetold lie of no con.
nection with this order. So much falsehood
in the family circle, where the utmost conf.
dence, truthfulness, and harmony should OK.
ist, has direct tendency to produce suspi-
cion and mistrust on the part of wives and
mothers towards their husbands and sons:
hence we find in every town where coun.
Gil exists the female portion Of the commu-
nifty are speaking out boldly their moral
indignation against an order whose innu.
ence is so manilestly banefnl upon oil who
are conncctedswith it whether nearly or re.
motely.
He who does not here behold the sure
workings Of decentralization and ruin must
indeed be poor moralist. -
But all these are evils of small magni.
tude and consideration when compared
with some other gigantic wrongs with which
it labors to curse our land. The scatter.
ing of few pieces of red paper of pecul.
lar shape obliges every brother" to arm
himself with bowie knife and revolver or
other deadly weapons, and follow tho beck
OF their leader even to the shedding Of
blood. The Cincinnati, Louisville, St.
Louis, and other fearful and Bloody Know
Nothing riots, are bnt the legitimate work.
ings of the order and but the beginning of
such scenes as were enacted on the soil of
France under red republican rule.
Those who control and manage the affairs
of this corrupt concern are in it for the
spoils of Office; and no means. however
are left untried to compass this
end i4 N ~
The order is engaged in crusade against
religion; it revives the old spirit of perse.
cution for opinions sake, and of course
rallies around its standard thousands who
are always found more willing to fight
against Catholicism than to practice their
own profession. Odious religious tests
which have been successfully reasoned down
and removed from the statute of our State
are speedily dragged from their loathsome
tomb and quickened into life. No Cath
olic is to be tolerated, no matter how sin
cerely he may revere his Maker; he is to
hold no office in the gift of the people, have
no part in the government nor interest in
any of its concerns, while the atheist, deist
debauchee, infidel, Mormon, or Buddhist,
is recognised as good and worthy brother.
They have fearful apprehcnsions that the
Catholic Church will soon overrun and pos
scss the country, to the ruin alike of re-
publicanism and religion; and. all this, too
when that church is in the most rapid de-
cline in the old country, and while ii is on.
ly continuing in its fold moiety of those
who reach our shores strong in their attach
ment to its cause. These apprehensions.
then, are entirely unfoundcd in fact and op-
posed to common sense. 1t is only trick
,f crafty political managers to bring to
heir aid the religious element Of their coun-
ny, while it is generating dissensions sec.
,arian animosities, and the rankest intoler-
,nce. =1,4
History and experience alike teach that
lopeople were ever prosecuted for opinions
'ake without coming out in the end vastly
increased in numerical strength and public
avor. 1t is saying, both old and true
~ oh HtSSo, bHC Dloou vi Iiic Wuftyf lH the
ced Of the church." No form of religion
las been put down by persecution of its pro-
essors.
This order swears its members never to
'ote for foreign born citizen to fill any
'flice in the gift of the people. Thus birth
,lace, rather than virtue and intelligence.
S made a qualification for places OF trust
md responsibility What an absurdity is
ere! The Know Nothing principles and
'ractice would elevate a Benedict Arnold
0 the presidency, and at the same time
'roscribe such men as Lafayette, Hamil.
on, Montgomery, Gates, Steuben, De-Kalb,
st. Clair, Morris, and a host of
oble and gallant men who freely spent
heir treasures and shed their blood in our
,lorious struggle for liberty. And are the
'eople Of Connecticut prepared to adopt
uch principles as these-principles which
re at war with the machinery of the Amer
can government? We have to much con.
dence in their intelligence and honor to
elieye they will long submit to this great
yrong. We feel confident that there are
t this time thousands in the order who are
~, Il In ,1,, a;t,,o toJ to o,,salyo,