The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1855-07-13
MISCELLANY.
The American Party.

There is no demand whatever for great
national movement against the Catholic
Church. The recent excitement in the coun-
try has been, in the main, the result of a
corrupt movement of unprincipled politi-
clans, to excite the Protestant feeling of the
people and to ride into power upon the tide.
They have run foul of the great maxim,
which they have so conspicuously set forward
among their principles, as if for the pur-
pose Of exposing the profligacy Of the whole
movement, by violating in practice what
they praise in theory. 1t is absurd to deny,
that making the mere religious sentiments
Of man the reason for refusing to vote for
him, is violation of the great principle of
religious liberty. 1t is allowing a principle
of discriminating the political aspect of a
vote to be sound and just which would be
wicked and unprinciplcd, if embodied in a
law. If our neighbors make their dislike
to our Presbyterian sentiments the ground
Of their refusing to vote for US, it is pcfectly
useless to disguise that we are under politi-
cal responsibility for religious opinions
that, quoad hoe, we are suffering for them.
The Objectionable feature in this view OF The
case is, making religious opinion unattended
by any viciousness Of action growing out of
it, ground for an universal discrimination
in political affairs, affecting permanently
large masses Of citizens. This is our first
and great objection to the American or
Know Nothing party; it is violating the
very principle Of religious liberty, which it
nrofcsscs to conserve; and has adopted a
construction OF that principle which strips it
Of all nract;cal force. leaving it dead letter
in the statute book, and abandoning ITS con
troll over the political action Of the people.
We ojcct again to political movement
against the Catholic Church, because there
is no necessity of it, provided the people Of
the country will properly employ the legiti-
mate agencies of opposition which are in
their power. The simple and sufficient con-
dition of the preservation of the Republic
from the arts Of Romansim, is the full and
efficient support of the Protestant Church
the complete and animated maintenance Of
the domestic missionary enterprises Of the
various Protestant denominations. This is
the great conservative element Of our politi
cal systemic sustain and vivify it with the
vigorous energy which it ought to possess
and it need not he feared that any Of the
great social Or political interests that are
conditioned upon it will ever come to harm.
1t is the only-not less than the only egiti-
mate power, which can bc effectively en-
ployed to restrain Popery and maintain the
institutions of our Government. All perse-
cution, no matter how disguised in form or
limited in extent, will inurc to the benefit
of the body enduring it. The policy, then,
of restraining Popery by political disabili.
ties inflicted upon the individual Catholic,
is suicidal in the extreme. 1t will concen-
trate and intensity the attachment of its
members, and render them more and more
unapproachable by Protestant instruction.
twill create sympathy, and thus open wide
the door to proselytsim, and it will put the
Church in an attitude fir more attractive as
the victim Of an unjustiiablc' crusade than
it is at all entitled to assume form its intril.
sic charms. How. long is the world to be
learning the lesson and never coming to the
knowledge of the truth, that all means but
reason and love to affect the opinions Of men,
only result in strengthening attachment to
their original convictions9 The principle
of this opposition to Popcry is vicious, and
the more completely it is carried into effect,
the more disastrous will be the result. The
more complete the political victary over
Popery, the more it will be benefited. The
only eaective-as it is the only lawful, gen.
cral and permanent agency of opposition to
the Popish Church-is the true Protestant
Church of Christ under its various forms.
We have no right to complain of the inefi
cheney Of a means until we have employed
it fully and tested all its capacities. Let the
people Of the United States double their
support Of the great domestic missionary
work, and they may safely abandon all po-
litical agitations against the Catholic Church.
We object again to the American party,
that it is condensing the Catholic and Eor-
eigh element in our population into politi.
cal body, distinct from the mass Of our
citizens, armed with all their power to do
mischief and animated by all that hostility
whichis natural to men suffering under an
ostraeism of their religion and birth, pro-
vokedG By; an attempt to diminish their full
equality with other citizens. Now what
does Know Nothingism propose to do for
the remedy of this eyilwhich It has created I
1t only proposes tosrender the Catholic and
Foreign citizen ineligible to Office. Itleaves
them the power to vote, and the right Of un.
limited emigration in the future--the two
great means of mischief if they are pleased
to use them. There can be no remedy .fol
the Popes control over the Catholic vote
except initaking away the elective franchise
altogether Now tits, 10 say the least, of it
The most manly and honest policy, to pro