Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-02-20
coNyENTs---MIss BUNKLEY,s BOOK.
From n. Y. Christian Advocate.


Some weeks ago we called the attention OF
our readers to the subject of converts, and we
were gratified to find that our remarks and
suggestions met with most favorable recep-
tion, and were very extensively circulated
through the rleans of other journals, religious
and secular. We have waited patiently for
some movement in our state legislature toward
embodying in laws the undoubtcd sentiment
ofthe people on this subject: but we have wal
ted in vain. Our legislators arc as much afraid
Of responsibility as the Chinese ,and they shrink
from the very acts which, if performed, would
give them the popularity for which they sigh.
There is but little manliness among our public
men. They seek to be only the untllinking,
irresponsible indccs of party. They hope that
their official conduct may be satisfactorily ne
gatiye, and that at the next canvass there will
be no wrong-that is, independent-action TO
charge them with. They do not aspire to lead
the public mind they only hope to follow it,
and, like the timid apostle, they follow afar
| off, keeping relative position, which will war
rant them to hurrah for victory, while it viii
| give them good start in retreat. More than
anything else they dread to meet the cry of
| persecution. BY the threat of this the great
! American party has already been overawed
and the reformcrs whom the mighty surge of
American feeling lifted into public place have
! found the fiery patriotism that glowcd so fierce
! ly in the council-room, danped and chilled al
most to extinction in the ungcnial region Of
! legislative publicity. The Americans, the Pro-
! testants, the freemen OF the country must try
| again. Men who can do nothing in public as
| semblics have no business there. Let them
turn TO the quiet walks of domestic'lif which
many of them are well calculated TO pursue
with advantage to themselves aud d8tIe commu-
nifty. The times require other men in public
| places men who fear God, andfonly God.
Having appealed in vain to our Legislature,
we now appeal to the people rs it your will,
men of America, that womens shall be held in
slavery, by foreign priests, fn your midst 2
There are scattered over our country hundreds
of strongly walled and barred houses, into
which young women artfhlly iaveigled, land
from which they are not permitted to depart.
! In these places their lives are one continual
| scene of oppression, cruelty, outrage and dis
| grace. The torments inflicted by Spanish in
| quistors were humane, contrasted with the
| crueities of the converts. To them there was
| at least speedy end. BY the force of their
very violence they We're brief, and under sharp
/ bodily pain the soul was often exalted to al
most seraphic grandeur. In the convent, soul
and body are racksd by ingenious contrivanc-
es, until the one becomes exhausted of scnsibil-
| ity, and the other Of nervous energy; and the
| lively, romantic girl, pure from her mothers
hearth, is transformed into soulless thing /;
with affections dead at the root, with the mind
! broken at its springs passive living corpse
| in the hands of the priestly ghouls, who have
made her this. We viii not insult you by adj
! ducing proof that all this, and more is true
! You can read, and you have read, and you
! have thought too, about this matter until you
need no statement of evidence TO determine
your judgment. The book of Miss Bunllley,
| if there were no other, is abundantly sufficient.
| It is plain statement of facts, which bears
the stamp of truth so certainly that no unpre-
! judiced reader can read it and doubt its perfect
faithfulness It corroberates all that we should
| reasonably infer, had we no positive testimo-
ny; it is corroborated by the official reports of
Catholic authorities, and by many other wit
nesses, who, like herself, have been so happy
as to escape from the coils of pricstly art and
the barbarity OF priestly lust We have moth
ing in bar of all this but the simple denial of
the parties accused of this horrible wictedness.
Shall these dreadful places remain among
u.s. and shall they be imperia in tmperio, SOW
ereign estates Of the priests, within which
there shall be no law but their own wilI2 This
is the question for you to decide. God made
man the protector of women, and there is no
obligation laid upon him by his Creator which
an American is so ready TO fulfil. Yet here in
America there are hundreds of women inveg
led into places where they are unprotected by
the law. Their very names are changed, and
thus the register of their baptism is virtually
eifaced. They have ceased TO live to society.
They are no longer components of it. Walls
and tars prevent escape. They are entombed;
shut in from all aid, from sympathy, from pro-
lection of law, the foul work of prostrating the
will ana perverting the morals is begun. Day
after day, with perseverirg art, it is continu-
ed. Hounds do not SO remorselessly pursue
the hare as the priests and accomplice nuns
hunt down and worry out the wretched victim,
lured from her fathers house by willy agents of
these dens of silent, unrestricted wickcdness.
What will you do about it 2 All this mon
strous wickedncss is powerless to resist the ex-
preston of your viii. We would not have you
interfere with religious rights or even super
stitions; we would have you vindicate the SOW
ereignty of your laws and bring, every woman
in the land under their protection. We would
l,n1-o ,-o11 ronnr,n,- cnnuantS Ia hn I-nitnd