Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-04-19
CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION
. rHE REV. DIR. oHALMEE's SPEECH.
hi 1s2s. when the movement for CathO.

In 1929, when the movement for Catho-
lie emanc patton was agitatine the mind of
Great Britain, Dr. Chalmers delivered the
following speech before an immense meeting
in Edinburgh The Protestant will assent to
the benevolent policy which it inculcates,
while all will be charmed and convinced by
its splendid rhetoric and resistless argument.
To the surprising power of this speech the
great critic Jeffry bore striking testimony in
saving that it was his deliberate opinion
that never had eloquence produced a greater
effect on a popular assembly, and that he
could not believe that more had ever been
done by the oratory of Demosthenes, Cicero,
Burke OF Sheridan"
After Sir James W. Moncreiff and Mr..
Jeffery had addressed the meeting, Mr.. Chal-
mers rose, and after some preliminary re-
marks, proceeded TO say
I'VE are not pro-Catholic. We are not
hostile, neither are we indifferent 10 the holy
cause Of Professionalism. I cannot answer for
Others; but in vindication of myself, can at
least say it is in the spirit of ,levotedness to
that cause that ! come here, and because 10
this emancipation of Papists see for Pro-
testants still greater and more glorious
emancipation. The truth is, that these disa-
bilities have hung as dead weight around
the Protestant cause for more than century.
They have enlisted in opposition to it, some
/ Of the most unconquerable principles of ma
/ ture; resentment because of injury, and the
/ pride of adherence 10 a suffering cause. They
have transformed the whole nature of the
contest, and by so doing they have rooted
aud given ten-fold obstinacy to error. They
have given 70 cur side the hateful aspectef
tyranny; while on theirs we behold gener-
Gus and high-minded resistance to what they
deem oppression. They have transformed a
nation Of heretics into a nation of heroes
We could have refuted and shamed the hereto
out of his errors, but we cannot bring down
the hero from his attitude; and thus it is, that
from the first introduction of this beteroge-
neous element into the question, the cause of
truth has gone backward. 1t has ever since
been met by the unyielding defiance of a
people Initiated, but not crushed under a
sense of indignity; and this notable expedient
for keeping down the Popery of Ireland has
only compressed it into a frmness, and closed
it into a phalanx which, till opened up by
emancipation, we shall find to be impenetra-
BILE.
'Gentlemen would draw arguments from
history against us, but there is one passage in
history which they never can dispose of
How comes it that Professionalism made such
a triumphant progress in these realms when
it had pains and penalties to struggle with
and how came this progress to be arrested
| IL - - and
penalties in its turn? What have all the en-
actments of the statute-book done for the
cause of Professionalism in Ireland ? And how
is it that, when single-handed truth walked
1 through our island with the might and Prov
ess of "a conqueror, so soon as propped by the
authority Of the State the armor of intolerance
was given her, the brilliant career of her VIC
tories was ended? 1t was when she took up
the carnal and laid down the spiritual weapon;
it was then that strength went out of her.
She was struck with impotency on the instant
that from warfare of principle it became. a
warfare of politics. There are gentlemen
opposed to us profound in the documents OF
history; but she has really nothing to offer
half so instructive as the living history that
is now before our eyes. With the pains and
penalties to fight against, the cause of Refor-
nation did almost everything in Britain; with
the pains and penalties on its side, it has done
nothing, and worse than nothing, in Ireland
But after ALL it is question which does
4 not require the evidence of history for eluci-
dalton. There shines upon it an immediate
light from the known laws and principles OF
human nature When truth and falsehood
enter into collision upon equal Terms and dc
so with their own appropriate weapons, the
result is infallible Magma est veritas at pre-
ualebt. But if to strengthen the cause OF
truth YOU put the forces Of the atute-book
under her command, there instantly starts up
on the side of falsehood an auxiliary far more
formidable You may lay an incapacity on
the persons, or you may put restraint md linn
itation on the property of Catholics; but the
Catholic mind becomes ten-fold more impreg.
nable than before We know the purpose OF
these disabilities. They were meant to serve
as barrier of defence for protestants ogaias
the encroachments of Popery; and they have
turned out barrier of defence for Papists
against the encioachments of Professionalism
They were intended as a line of circumvalla-
ton around the strongholds Of the Protestant
faith and in effect they have been line Of
decentralization around the strongholds Of
the Catholic faith. 1t is to force those now
difficult and inaccessible strongholds that
, want this wall of separation taken down.
. When speak of force, 1t is the combined
{ fore of truth and charity that mean and
it Is precisely because believe u to be omui-
potent that ala al emsncipationist- 1t ]:
precisely because I agree with the Duke oi
; Wellington in thinking that, If the political
distinction were done away, the result would
be the spread of Protestanism in LELAND
, Had we been suffered to mingle more extern
sively with our Catholic fellow-subjects, and
to company with them in the walks of civil
and political business, there would at this day
{ have been the TRANSMISSION of another feeling
the breath Of another spirit among them
nor should W, have beheld as Tow the i'm
, practicable countenance, the resolute and I'M
4 Welding attitude Of an aggrieved and outcast
population W
q am sensible OF one advantage which ouI
. opponents have against us--and that is GER
tain command over the religious feelings Of
the population and yet am not aware Of
any public topic on which the popular and
prevailing cry ever ran So counter as it does n
present TO the whole drift and spirit of Chris
aanity What other instruments do we read
i, of In the New Testament for the defence and
propagation. of the faith but the Word of God
and the Spirit of God Z? How does the Apps
tie explain the principle Of its triumphs in
that age when the truth was so mighty to the
pulling down of strongholds? 1t was because
the weapons of his warfare were not carnal
He confined himself to the use of spiritual
weapons, the only ones by which To assail the
Strongholds either of Popery or Paganism. The
kingdom of God, which is not Of this world
refuses TO be indebted for its advancement "a
any other. Reason, and Scripture, and prayer
these compose, or ought TO compose, the
!. whole army off Professionalism; and it is by
!. these alone that the battles of the faith can
be successfully fought. 1t is since the admis.
sion of intolerance, that unseemly associate
within our camp, that the cause of Reforma-
ton has come down from its vantage ground;
and from the moment il wrested this engine
from the hands of its adversaries aud began