The true Democrat., 1855-08-14
For the True Democrat Hon. Jere Clemens Letter on Know Nothingism.

Hon. Jere Clemens Letter on
 Know Nottingham.
 have just read over, very attentively, "Jere Clemens " late letter. and consider it the most supelyfcial effort yet, from third degree "Ameri. cans,'' in defense of know nothingi 'm--Super- to me to look at every thing through monarch ical or some other ideas inconsistent with those principles which belong in 2 pecuAo1 manner to our government, and from which alone euery rights The social condition of things out of which this government arose, and from which lta principles were educed and became necessary consequences, they seem to have entirely forgot ten The machinery oi society has become to them So complex as to totally obscnre from their beiogged minds the simplicity of those original prlncipl ples--the nature of those inalen- able rights; or they have made up their minds that the "grcat experiment. has failed, and that usnrpation and grab should be the order of the day that nagh gives right
 We see no difference Jetoeeu Me e9ort that is now making throughout the United States, to deprive one portion of the communitv-sover- eign equals 10 those of every other pcrtion-of inalienable rights which belong to them as such sovereign equals, at1l claim cf poioey to regulate the affairs of their families aud their private business; 1t is the same ill nature, only different in degree of usurpation. This great community of citizens that make up the Unit ed States, equals (speaking in reference to Catholics,) in every respect, i'll regard to the right of conducting its affair; and providing for the general welfare. Every e1ciusIrs political right the revolution abrogated and destroyed.
 lu other countries, in many instances, one man enjoys the right of controlling the govern inent for many of his fellow countrymcn, in ctAer words, portion governs for the wLolo-- th2 ght hcre is q legal one growing out of an appropriate ancient unequal condition oi society and never entirely reyolutionized; JH he7e-il any such rights were transplanted by royal au- thority from the mother country-the revolu- ton etectuaiiy abro gated them, and set every man from W Washington to the most obscure Cr tzen upon political equality, to gouern las ot0n qFura tor Aimsey whether he be Lutheran, Moravan Methodist, ~ Catholic for the con- stitution which the people of the Uaited States made for their government declares that:
 No rel glous lest shall ever be required a. a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States
 .- T l thrr,, rha,,7 could come the authority or right to give one citizen or portion of citizens privileges that an- other portion should not enjoy?
 This necessary o,lyi,.al equo1ty among the people, that existed at the foundation of this government, the people dld, far as lay ill their power, perpetuate and hand down to be enjoyed by all their posterity. And, when the constitution, (which was intended to perpetuatc this equal condition which the revolution gave birth to- fails to secure the same among the c- tizens, the original principles upon which the rights of the people are founded will be sub vertcd, an inclemcntary arstocracy will have commenced; when no security will be left for our liberties, but the prejudccs caprices of the times; the Catholics prescribed to-day, the Untarians or Quakcrs tomorrow. And why not has not all this been so before? It was not the Catholics who rcrsecuted the Puritans and imprisoned Jshn Bunyan, Richard Baxter or William Penn.
 Mr. Clemens say8 there is no proposition to change the constitution none to pass a law inconsistent with 1t. The American party un- dertakc 10 show precisely as the whig and de- mocratic parties undertake to show for them selves, that it is safer for liberty, safer for the Union, safer for religion to place none but Ame- rican Protestants in office
 Above, have given an ertpact of this con- stitution And would it be Jess in harmony with it to say-place none but American Pres byterians or Methodists in office? The consti tuition is a rule which the sovereign people have made for their own government and every one of them is bound by it; is as as much stop ped from requiring religious test IS a quali6- cation to hold office, as is any other member o the government, for i'll this government a sim pie citizen is as much part of it's machinery as is the President of the United States.
 The freedom of people is never destroyed at single blow. The means by which they are induced to undervaue the great safeguards of their liberties, are insiduously effected, stel Jy step, until the spirit in which their institu tions were first conceived, is entirely changed and subvertcd; the great principles of their lib critics which once seemed to them little les than axioms, becomes obscure and mystifed tt their understandings, until the written lines up on the Parchment Charter that once conveyed ideas of right, so true to nature, to liberty ant happiness, becomes Obsolete-deod letter-no worth preserving. If had Sabnus' by me could give from him the philosophy of the in sidious process in manner, infinitely clearer than can be obtained from my humble brain and I will leave it to the respected and learned author of Sabinus himself to say, if there eve was greater stride attempted towards the de struction of charter of freedom than the on under consideration.
 Mir. Clemens is boiling over with the old En glish no Popery" hue and cry about the per secutors of the Protestants, and the claims 0 the Pope to rule in temporal as well as spiritu al concerns, etc. How any well balanced hon est mind that is acquainted with the no Pc pery" war for the last l5O years, can seek to in troduce it here 1 cannot conceive. 1 hav known some old fashioned protestant zealot who would not give Campbellite preacher