Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1856-02-02
Religion and Religious Prescription.

/ Religion and Religious Prescription.
The election of a Chaplain to the House,
seems to have been4 pass cssistorna', over
when the assembled wisdom Of Louisiana
experienced much difficulty in passing.
On the Cd day of the session, Mr.. BEEenkH
offered the following resolution
Resolved. That the sessions of This House
be daily opened with prayer and the SPEAK
cr be requested to invite the clcrsyiaen IN
| charge OF the several churches IN Baton
Rouge, to be present alternately, and otilciate
on the occasion.
Mr.. Locoul moved to lay the said resolu-
| tio. on the table. A division being called on
that question, resulted ia 20 yeas and 44nays;
consequently the said resolution was adopt
ed .
On the next day a reconsideration Of the
| vote was had and the substitute adopted pro-
| yiding for the election Of a Cathoic Chaplain.
This substitute was proposed by a member
Of the American party. dofbtless for the rpr-
pose Of repeIing the charge of Catholic pro-
scription, so industriously urged against that
party in the last election the Democrats
were caught in the trap, but both parties soon
| discovered that in their anxiety to cor3ciliate
| the Catholic vote, they had actually nlsda an
| odioi1s distinction between the several re-
ligiol,s denominations in favor Of the Cath
| olics aid thereby subjected themselves II the
charge of prescribing praeSaants! This il
was found would never answer, aud on every
day Of the session, until last THURSDAY, all
attempts to extricate themselves from the
unfortunate dilemma proved abortive. Ie
rescind the resolution, would exasperate the
Catholics; to elect 4 Chaplain under the reso-
IN North Louisiana, would operate seriously
against the party. The whole matter was
finally settled by the adoption Of a resolution
authorizing the Speaker to invite such cler-
gymen Of Baton Rouge, as he thought proper
to open The House with prayer.
This was the proper course to. have pursued
in the first instance and we cannot refrain
from expressing our condemnation OF that
spirit Of ~demagogueism which would Iander
to the preiulices of one deHonan alton at the
expense of the other, even though that spi.it
may have originated with our own party. II
American principles can only be sustained by
such a sacrifice, the so5ner they are abaii;
doned the better. 1t is unnecessary fer IFS 10
say that we have no preiudices against Cath.
! oil cS, or preference for Pretestants., But the
| principle upon which we joined the Ameri-
can party, was that OF the largest religious
religious denominations and on this account
alone, whatever may have been the motive
| Of the mover of the resolutionto elect Cath
Ollie Chaplain, or the motive of those who
sustained that resolution, whether they be
members OF the II american party OF Demo
cratic party, we uahesitatingly declare that
they did not represent the true sentiment OF
the American party.
However anxioffs~We are to remove the
false impression that the American party of
Louisiana is opposed to Catholic religion, we
can never do so at the sacrifice of that favor
tie principle of our party, " Religious tolera-
ton to all, tavoritism to none"
In this connection, we take pleasure in
| stating that our own representative (Hon. Fl.
NJ. FAvRor) voted upon the Chaplain reso-
luton in strict accordance with the true prin-
cipies of our party, for which we know he
| will receive the approval of Our citizens.
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