Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-05-30
EBENsBURG, MAY 80, 1866.

colony has in itself better appreciation of
human rights and Christian freedom than
exists among its infolerant neighbors And
shall not, hope. be considered as departing
from the proprieties ofthese exercises, if ask
to present the facts of the tolerance or intoler-
ance of the colonies In another light
1t is q fayorite mode of attack with some
writer's Of all recent times. and especially with
certain demagogues of the present day, and
in our own country, to sieze upon the facts of
history and deduce therefrom argr ments
against the Catholic creed which these facts in
no way sustain-which they scarcely suggest
The intolerance Of certain Governments of
Europe. in which the Catholic religion is a
part Of the State, is made an argument against
that religion, as if Catholicity leaned upon the
State for support. and required intolerance
for its maintenance. Though equal intoler-
ance exercised by Protestant Government
connected with State religion is passed over
without comment, or as if su plying no argu-
ment against the requirements of that creed.
Denying, as We Of the Catholic Church must
deny, and as / do now deny, thatthere is aught
of political intolerance in the creed of the
Catholic Church. and asserting, as do assert.
that political man. and not the religious creed.
is responsible for the evils done in the name
of the Catholic faith. I look to no combination
of Church and State to sustain my assertion in
behalf of Catholicity. and appeal to no such
destructive or deteroiating association to prove
that Professionalism has been bellicose and in
tolerant.
The colonies, whence sprang the States that
constitute this nation, afford admirable means
of judging of the character of the religious
creeds transpanted to this soil, as no necessity
was laid upon any colony to enact laws intol-
erent of religious sects. no commands of the
parent government fixed the religious creed of
any association or rendered necessary the OBJ
servance of prescribed forms and ceremonies.
The whole were in remarkable degree inde-
pendent and therefore each may well be sup
posed to act upon the impulses or suggestions
most naturally springing from its religious
principles, without regard TO considerations of
State or municipal benefits. Nothing can be
more evident than that the emigrants who left
England to establish these colonies (the more
needy adventurer. the money-loving and the
involuntary immigrant excepted made il a
part of their plan to divest their new govern
nent of all that seemed to them oppressive in
its character and disagreeable in its operation
at home. to place themselves. where neither
prescription nor habit rendered necessary
countenance of custom and laws that operate
unequally, or that seemed by change Of
circumstances to have out-iyed the necessities
of time in which they originated. or the char
acter of the age that rendered them appropriate
or tolerable.
1t does not appear that all had definite
views of all that would result from their ne.
arrangements, or that they fully anticipated
the harvest that was to be gathered from their
planting. But great changes certainly were
contemplated by the leading minds--impor-
tant corrections of painful abuses. The tyr
amy of few over the rights of the many
was TO have remedy in the political associa-
ton in Plymouth, and no one can doubt that
Lord Baltimore fore-ordained the religious
tolerance thu distinguished his colonists and
planned for careful observation the scheme of
justice. kindness and equality with which his
people dealt with the Indians. What, then,
is the course adopted by the leaders of vari-
Gus colonies with regard to this recurrence to
first principles. this divesting themselves of
thu conventionalisms Of ages, under social and
political circumstances that need have no ope-
ration on this side Of the Atlantic Where
each religious creed was allowed to present
itself and its suggestions withoutthe intcrven-
ton of political influences. and to stand forth
unaffected by any concessions to temporal pow
eror the influences of persecution or favoritism
1 invite the curious in history. Finvite the
searcher after truth to investigate the subject,
and to see what was the effect of the divers
creeds upon the different colonies; that they
may determine which colony (regarded as
political body and an exponent of certain
views of forms of Governlnent) manifested
practice which involved not merely the great
est good of the greatest number, but which
invited the greatest portion of its members to
direct action in all Legislation that c,ncerned
the whole and which colony as the professor
and exponent of particular religious creed.
manifested the most of Christian charity-the
most Of s"-es..sc ...,cc 70 o.ners; wnca ai,owsa
the exercise of the largest liberty to all with
out making the possession or profession of
the various creeds (Which even at that day
distinguished the Christian world) claim for
special favor, or bar to domestic quiet, So
cial equality and political preferment.
1t appears 70 me that this is view Of the
subject that ought to be taken and as we seek
for truth. and truth only. We ought not 70
neglect the suggestion which the facts of the
history of such remarkable juncfure present
need not tell this audience again what were
the statutes and ordinances of the Eastern
colonies with regard TO those who professed
religious opinions at variance with the creed
Of the dominant sect. History furnishes the
record and there are none to deny or doubt
its correctness. And while quakerism. ana
baptism. anti-uomianism. unitarianism or any
other ism. than that which was the distinctive
ism Of the majority, was made the cause of
Imprisonment. stripes. banishment, and death
in one colony. it is lameutable truth that
the colony formed by the prosecuted. the
whipped and the banished excepted from the
operation Of its enforced toleration, the reli.