The true Democrat., 1855-02-14
are now so held in England--to be politically


 ples upon which her institutions are based.
 America was the land of refuge from religious persecution-where the Methodist, the Quaker, the Jew, the Presbyterian and the Catholic could live inpeace and quietness in the enjoy ment of their political privileges and there re- ligous opinions. The mother country went on and worked out the problem through civil strife, mobs, heartburnings, pains, penalties and trea- son--untit she has learned by these lessons of sad experience that prescriptions and test-acts are all wrong-all founded in utter ignorance of those principles that will best develop the happiness and prosperity of the people-in ig- norance of those principles that will do most to destroy the very evils for which proscrp- tion is proposed as remedy. But the people of the United States, it seems, never having had the enjoyment of those curses-are about to give them tral-well, it is said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Would it not be singular reversal of conditions if, in the course of time England should become a land of perfect religious toleration (and she is now not far from t) and the United States a land ot test-acts and castes-a superior white caste-and a degraded one.
 If religious entolerance upon any pretert aohat- ever can gain foot hold in the governmental of the United States-any of the great principles upon which the free institutions of the country rest may be overturned.
 The experience of the last twenty years of the United States has furnished some interest ing problems forphllosophic reflection, and none more interesting than that which is naturally
 How o,1oo is the erperae,ace of one generaton--b bringing it to the knowledge of great practlcle moral truth-benefcial to the succeeding age with re- ference to that truth? Thinking men have ex- pressed their surprise, upon other similar occa- sions-that, in these United States, a0here one would suppose, the principles, upon which free dom rest, are best maderstood-tbere should be so Atrye portion of tue people, easily led astray. with reference to some of those principles as their conduct plainly demonstrates. The solu- ton, we think, is pretty easy. With the ma jority of the people these g eat principles are merely, at best, a0orhed out problems. The great truths arrived at-they take upon trust. Those social imperlectiors that first betrayed our fore fathers into perncious policy-c0ntinuaNyarise: by experience Mey learned the truth-but they are gone and their descendants fall into the ori- gina snare. A man applies to the after-part of his life, the truths which his experience has taught him--they are his rules of conduct- his constitution. Yet his maXims will hardly be as efectiUe upon the life of his son. though edu cated with great care, as upon the latter part of hs o,vn; but if that sons education Is neglect ed he will mHch more readily become the dupe of those deluslUe appearances and temptations, that the maXims of his sire warned him against. We have been broug ght to this state of things i'll d great measure, by many of our popular lead CTS who, through ignorance ortrom bad design, have taken great pains to make the people be- lieve that our freedom was not an acquired con- diton--JMa natural one. The consequence has been--a neglect, upon the part of the people, to impress upon their minds the nature of the means by which the principles of liberty were gradually developed, with sufficient indelibi- lity to influence their views and conduct: freed from every culiUated restraint, they follow their natural impulses as legitimate guides.
 The experience of one people or generation with regard to such errors, 1t seems, IS of but little benefit to any other. Arts and sciences capable of demonstration, one nation or one generation may learn of another and retain them; but truths with respect to those moral or poli- tcal evils which obtain an existence by appeal ing to our pride, our selishness-in short to our passions; 1t seems every nation, and, to a great extent, every generation will have to experience for itself ere it will be satisfied that human na- ture is the same every where.
 An American citizens has lived but to little purpose, if he thinks that, in any country pos sessing tolerable degree of political and civil liberty, an evil can be eradicated by policy of religious prescription, without at the same time substituting in its place, gre1ter .evH This question was decided many years since, in a most emp phatic manner, by the unanimous voice of the generation of that day upon this conti- nent, and since that epoch the experience ofotIer nations, whose institutions come nearer, and are approaching our own, have confirmed the wis dom of that decision.
 There belongs to human affairs certain amount of evil, ot which eue'y people, iHclud~
 ing those under the most favorable circumstall- ces, must bear its pecularsha Social evils , and mperfectons then wW De- The difficulty lies in knowing 01aen a0e ere in the most favora- be circumstances-when we are at the least amount of evil that our peculiar capacities can secure for us. Ignorance upon this point is the rock upon which individuals as we'll as nations too often spt-which nothing but the principles resulting from large experience can steer Us clear of. Constitutions perpetuate such rules as land marks in such difficulties, and here the value of our constitution lies One of those rules teach us that, however appearance may be to the contrary, the safest policy lies , in granting perfect toleraton to all religious opnops-and this principle was obtained, let it be always remembered, after the most tho- rough acquaintance and experience, with the Roman Catholic religion. And when this max i'm shall become unfounded in 4uth, upon this continent, the form of government will have become entirely subverted.
 Our desire for effect outruns practcability.-- We look for too much perfecton-expect to produce by six days labor, in the geology of morals and political science-tremendous re- suits, the underlying formations necessary to develop which, it will lrequire ages to construct. The alternatives of education and intelligence are processes too slow for this fastage; the ne- cessity for them is not understood or appreci- ated, and are, consequently, thrown aside for some six-esson kind of quackery Getting rid of scab by closing the outlet of the virus driving it to follow up its work of destruction upon the vitals within is the order of the day. We are no friend to the Roman Catholic re- ligion our enmity to it is too strong to perse- ho,yo In11bt hot, mol,