The true Democrat., 1855-10-02
For tue Irue UemOcrat Capt. Pike vs. Catholicism.

RESPECTED FRIENDs:-After mature re- flecton upon subject that has for some time engrosSed much of public attention, I have in justiceto to myself and others, come to the con- clusion that the character influence and stand ! ing of Captain Alber: Pike in Arkansas no lon- | ger will allow me to pass over some historical | blunders and gross smlsrepresentationS of Catho- | lie doctrine, of which he has been guilty, with that marked and silent contempt, which decen- cy and sef-respect would require from me on other occasions. 1 have known Capt. Pike for years; l have regarded him as a friend, honora- | ble, kind and intelligent, and if know myself would be the last in Little Rock to entertain a deliberate suspicion that he would at any price.
 Intentionally, do to another what he would not wish another would do to him. This ndsipu- table principle recognized by the heather, did suppose governed the conduct of the noble Captain in his relations and actions towards those, in his mind, benighted people, who have every right to dissent, as they do from him in worshpping their Creator according to the die tates of their consciences, when by so doing, they inj jure no man nor violate any law of socie- ty. But alas. how wofully disappointed was I Ill my estimate of the great champions respect and veneratlon for principle acknowledged by Christian, Jew and Heather, when l read his stu died and written apology of the 24th ultimo, for his prescription and hostility to Catholics and foreigners huma,auna est er1a,e. The first for nldaJle objection that Capt. Pike labors to urge in his celebrated apology against Catholics exer- cising the rights and privileges of American citizens, is based on the mendacious assump- ton that they, as general rule, aRnut in the Pope cica and temporal po,oer to interfere ID po- Htical matters ig His country erceptsng the Ffeneh | To,t1 n111 oyce,choro II d.. as printed and published at his own request in the Gazette:
 q come now to the eighth article, or the ant-Catholc feature of the platform. I an- nounced my principles on this subject dis tinctly and emphatically to tue State council ot Arkansas, on the Both of April last I then said, and has been some months in print, it is absolutely certain that except the French in Louisiana and elsewhere, the Catholics, as a general rule, admit the power of the Pope to direct their conduct in civil and political mat ters."
 Bless my soul where or from what source did the learned president of the State council of know nottingham derive sufficient knowledge to enable him to assert boldly and absolutely that Catholics, living at,the distance of some five, six and eight thousand miles from the small Italian States, admit in the sovereign of those States a temporal power to regulate their conduct in political matters, as American citizens. The charge is talse it is as base as it is unprincipled. It is calumny that had not its growth in Arkansas. It is, ] tell Capt. Pike, of foreign origin, repeated by him. but not invent ed, and can easily be traced to those aristocra- tlc schools of intolerance persecution and pro- scrlpton when, by the laws and statutes of England, 1t was made high treason for a Cath ollc to hold any correspondence with, or receive any pull, writing or instrument, written print ed from the Pope of Rome or his agents on spiritual and ecclesiastical mattersv The same English whig and know nothing proscription which is an insult to the age, was revived in | the Parliament of 1851, and is known bv the name of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, but this last fanatical stain on British freedom remains dead letter on the statute book, for the want of sax on patriotism to enforce it. By this proscriptive statute it IS PROVIDED that any Catholic Bishop who shall SIGN HIS NAME AS BISHOP OF ANY SEE held in OLD CATHOLIC TIMES in England, Ireland and Scotland shall forfeit the sum of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS STERLING for the FIRST OFFENCE, and for the second, transportation from the land of his fathers. The SAME STATUTE, worthy of the DoMITIAN AGE, and which oRI- GINATED with Lord John Russell, now polit- cally dead, provides FURTHER, that should any Catholic Bishop communicate by writing with the Pope or act upon any communication re- ceived from Rome, or perform the functions of his office without FIRST submitting his case, as it may be- to committee of the TITHB EATING BODY, and receive a PERMIT, he shall forfeit a like sum of one hundred pounds for the first offence, and for the second shall be exiled, one half of the fine in both cases, to be given as a REWARD to'a spy in the dark, the other half to go to her Majesty, the supreme head of the