Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-11-26
Is ROMANIsM TO BE FEARED As A
POLITICAL POWER!

sire to make political capital out of the Protes-
tant spirit of the country, it is well to see
whether those who do not sympathize with the
Americans have not deemed it necessary to
take ground against the political intrigues of
Rome on this continent, and to warn the Amer
ican people against her ultimate designs. We,
therefore, deem it not untimely. or out of place
| to direct the attention of our readers TO the
following remarks, which appeared in theDem-
ocratic Review, the organ of the Democrats OF
the Union, in 1853. The language is as poin-
ted and forcible as any that ever appeared in
an American paper:
s'We feel,'' says the reviewer, ssAs all the
world feels, that the present Roman Catholic
Church organization is entirely and wholly a
political complot. 1t may be that the form of
belief thatChurch once possessed is wholly un-
changed and unchangeabe; but if SO, its mod
ern uvines are its most abonlinable profess
sion.''
s'For temporal existence it Frustrated itself
TO the use of Kings it loaded the Armada of
Spain with bulls and communications, and
joined its thunders to the canon law of Louis
XIV. 1t blessed Louis, the well beloved, in
his amours, and played at give and take with
Harley and Bolinbroke, with the Stuarts, with
Frederick, with Suwarrow, and wthCatharine.
1t pressed an ultramontane despotic Jesuitism
upon France in obedience to the interests of
its supporting despots till the invincbleFrench
people arose in their agony and chopped its
head off at the guillotine. 1t broke the Cave
of the winds and let out on the world Mirabeau,
n,,D Il, g.
Marat. 1t opposed, truckled to, excommuni-
Gated, and crowned with its oils and the iron
tossure of Italian sovereignty, Napoleon. 1t
compelled the abandonment of Josephine, seat
ed Austrian girl on the neck of the Empire,
sold itself TO the Holy Alliance, raised up the
younger Pitt, Castlereagh, to the rule of Eng
land, leagued in the third partition of Poland,
gave Lombardy to Vienna, and gave Sicily
more to Naples, Illuminated its thunders
against the Irish rebels of '98, petitioned,
through its servants, for the ssUnion' of their
country with theEDglsh monarchs, aud endor-
sed the hideous desolation of that land. Doubt
less for the benefit of the faith was all this
done; but then it follows that the faith is a
political object, and the Church political
these days. We have not sought it, it is pres
sed upon US; and not being towards we meet
it. We are called on to yield our intellect to
dictum which arrives at the absurd and vain
conclusion of demanding our bodies for the
uses of depots. We have seen this Church in
our own day purchasing the PapaI tiara one
time from a French prisoner, by administer
IN Of
and again from the zap OF a rIofy f,1iiance, the
majority of whose members, Tallcyrand, Cas-
tlereagh, George III, Prince Regent and Al
exander, were by its own decress, schismatics
or infdels We have all read the secret treaty
of Verona, and protocols attached, and know
how grateful tyrants were for the service Of
the Papacy against the people, and how earn
estly they guaranteed the States of the Church. .
to the Vatican, if the Vatican would continue
to act in their service. Again, we have seen
it, in 1S4S, restore itselfto the Eternal City,by
the bayonets of usurper. We have seen 1t
belle oil its promises of years, accept the hos
pitalities of a Neapolitan Lazzarone, shed its
vestments over Lord Russell, over Queen Vic
toria and her babies, over Francis Joseph,
Radetzky, Swartzenberg, and hail with un-
mitigated delight the triumph of rascality.-
We have seen bishop of Frejus make prayers
for the success of the vile and mean murderers
of innocence and unarmed people, and praise
God, with highest masses and professions of
the Eucharist for the same. We have seen it
everywhere protecting infamy and opposing
rights; and with brazen impudence it presses
on us even in this land, and in its character as
a political scheme of men abhorred from end to
end of this continent, demands that we swal-
low it, cross our paws reverently, and whisper,
in solemn accents, sWe believe y