Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-08-16
An Address TO Protestant Clergy

An Address TO Protestant Clergymen.
The following communication from Rev.
Mr.. MITCHELL, of Jacksonville, will, we
nope, lie taken into serious consideration
Mr.. MITCHELL was in Jacksonville on Mon
lay 9th, and in Louisville on Tuesday, and
was stimulated to write by the awful scenes
which occurred so near him. We thinl, lie
5 very much mistaken in surprising that SO
few Of the clergy belong to the lod ses Their
has beon too marked in exciting
sectarian feeling, although many Of them, we
confidently believe, are misguided and delu-
ied men.
One fact should of itself be suAieien. to
prevent this display Of anii-chrstian effort
against Catholics, viz: their numerical hye-
yiority, and, of course, their inability to dc
harm.
BY the last census 185o), the "Church ac-
for Roman Catholics is only
for 675, 721-not one-sixth of the accommo-
daton for the Methodists, nor one twentieth
of that for all the sects eombined.-See De
Bows Census p. 1871.
The number of nominal Roman Catholics
is one million one hundred and seventy-three
thousand, instead of being as by natural in
crease it should have been, about four mil
lion. Census, p. 1881
For the State Sentinel
Thoughts on Know Nothingism for the
Protestant Clergy.
A painful conviction Of duty, not desire
to agitate, prompts the writer to address a few
thoughts to members of the Protestant church.
es on the subject OF the attempt now being
made to introduce their ministers and the
Protestant community into a crusade against
the Roman Catholic population of the country
in particular, and all men of foreign birth in
general; and thereby to create civil and social
disabilities founded on race and religion,
which attempt has engendered q spirit of muir
derous strife, the workings of which have
been horribly illustrated in the transactions Of
this week in the neighboring city of Louis
vile.
1t is not cur object to inquire who have
been the aggressors in this or that strife, which
has become Of but too common an occurrence
in the country. But the thing we deplore, is
that such outrages occur at all, and that Pro-
has been implicated in what looks
like prescription and persecution for opinion
sake-that christianity in its purest form has
been dragged into the strife now raging
the land, and made response
bic for tnat strife by the adroit man
agement of irreligious men, who have no
interest to serve but that of party, and who
being devoid of the true spirit of religion, are
unable to distinguish between its theory and
its practice, and are ever disposed to regard
the iniunctions Of christian charity as a re-
fined transcendalism, too highly sublimated to
be adapted to the latitude of earth, and fit
only for the society of Heaven.
In short, successful attempt has been
made to place Professionalism in false posi-
ton, and to surcharge it with bigOtry, and the
spirit of prescription; and what is the most
humiliating circumstance connected with the
transaction, is the fact that willy statesmen
who care not for the success of piety, have in
doclarinateG Us with the notion that our Pro-
testantism needs the rusty, defensive and Of
fensive armour, used in former time, which
was furnished by the God of this world,
wherewth to enable apostate christians to
destroy each other and devastatc the spiritual
kingdom Of Christ-and for the adoption OF
which Romanists of other days have been
justly reprobated.
But the question now presses itself on the
attention of the American public; IS aiis The
true spirit Of Protestantisnl, or IS IL not? Are
those measures, the natural production of that
spirit, or are they foreign gratis, unnatural
and dangerous to its life and usefulness? We
maintain the latter view, and believe it the
duty of every Protestant minister to use be-
coming efforts to redeem Protestant Christi
anity, from the false position in which m.
thinking men would place her.
It has been said that all the Protestant
ministers of the country are members of thS
secret political organization, called Know
Nothings This we deny, for we know many
who say they are not, and we know them e
be men of truth. "who speak the truth in tht
heart,Y and woull not make a false impress
sion to deceive, and we believe the number
of such to be far greater in the States, thar
of those who have become members of sucf
an order. But that some have entered Thu
political organization is not questioned, We
we maintain that they did so more from
the persuasion of interested partzans, thai
from the mature convictions of their ludg
ment and no doubt ere many months hav,
elapsed, the great mass of such ministers vii
reconsider their ground, and withdraw thei
endorsement of all proscriptive, policy, o
measures of any kind. But of those wht
choose to give the high sanction of their sa
cred office to political prescription, we mus
say, that such a minority cannot be the legi
innate representation of their brethren, o
their churches; and Iapprehend they maxi
no such pretensions; and if they do; we den,
that fraction of the Protestant ministry o
chucrhes, have the right or the power by an.
act of theirs to fix the charge of proscrip
tive spirit on the whole collective body O
professionalism.
To such, however, L would respectful.
I address a word. of remonstrance in humil
/ ity, actuated not so much from sympath
with and for the suffering foreigner although
! that would not be an unworthy motive, as b,
a jealousy for the character of that system 0
religion which claims to be the most toleran
on earth.
Can any evangelical minister point to tn
/ Great Teacher, which authorizes him 10 be
come an active member of a secular or eccle
siastical organization, having for its object tn
depression of any religion, however false, b
the use of political measures, coersive or pro
scriptive in their nature-is there a section j
the great commission that enioins this cours
of conduct even when the government an,
laws of a country iustifies the adoption c
such measures? We know Of none. Bu
when the spirit of the Constitution AMI law
of the land forbid such conduct, where is tn
divine commission to ministers Of the Gosp,
that enjoins such a violation of them, and /,
such purpose? The commission is, &c
teach all nations, baptizing them in the nan
of the Father, and of the Son, and of Il
Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe a
things whatsoever | have commanded you