Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-02-20
coNvENTs--.Kfss BtNKLET's sr0l
From n Y Cbryain Adyoca,S

suggestions meYFith most favorable recep-
ton. and wep/yery extensively circulated
through the ans of other journals, religious
and secplarl We have waited patiently for
some NOV kent in our state legislature toward
embodviyin laws the undoubted sentiment
of the uple on this subject: but we have wal
ted i, I'm. Our Legislators are as much afraid
Of re y6nsibility as the Chinese ,and they shrink
fron,he very acts which, if performed, would
Them the popularity for which they sigh.
TBfe is but little manliness among our public
mn. They seek to be only the unthinking,
responsible indices Of party. They hope that
heir official conduct may be satisfactorily ne
Eative, and that at the next canvass there will
ibe 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 timd apostle, they follow afar
off, keeping relative position, which will war
rant them to hurrah for a victory, while 1T will
give them good start in a retreat. NJ ore 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 reformers whom the mighty surge of
American feeling lifted into public place have
found the fiery patriotism that glowed SO fierce
ly in the council-roorn, damped and chilled al
most 10 extinction in the ungenial 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
semblies have no business there. Let them re-
turn to the quiet walks of domestic life, which
many of them are well calculated TO pursue
with advantage to themselves aud the commu-
nity. The times require other men in public
places men who fear God, and only God.
Having appealed in vain to our Legislature,
we now appeal to the people. IS it your will,
men Of America, that women shall be held in
slavery, by foreign priests, in your midst p
There are scattered over our country hundreds
of strongly walled and barred houses, into
which young women are artfulIy inveigled,and
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
ouisitors were humane, contrasted with the |
| cruelties of the converts. To them there was |
at least speedy end. By the force of their
very violence they were brief, and under sharp |
most scraphic grandeur. In the convent, soul |
and body are racked by ingenious contrivanc- |
es until the one becomes exhausted of sensibil- |
itv 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 prestly ghouls, who have |
made her this. We will not insult you by ad- |
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 Bunkley, |
if there were no other, is abundantly sufficient. |
1t is plain statement Of facts, which bears |
the stamp of truth SO certainly that no unpre- |
JUDGED reader can read it and doubt its perfect
faithfulness. 1t 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 prestly art and |
the barbarity of priestly lust. We have moth |
ing in bar of all this but the simple denial of
Shall these dreadful places remain among |
us, and shall they be impsria in imperio, sov-
ereign estates of the priests, within which |
there shall be no law but their own will? 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 inveig- |
led into places where they are unprotected by
the law. Their very names are changed, and
thus the register of their baptism is virtually |
efIaced. They have ceased to live to society.
They are no longer components of it. Walls |
and Lars prevent escape. They are entombed;
shut in from all aid, from sympathy, from pro-
lection of law, the foul work of prostrating the
will and perverting the morals is begun. Day
after day. with perseverirg art, it is continu
ed. Hounds do not so rcmorselessly 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 wickedness.
What will You do about it7 All this mon
strous wckedness is powerless to resist the ex-
preston of your will. 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
have you TeGaneI converts to the United
States; and not suffer independent Pashalics
to be established here, within the domains of
which Oriental despotism may lord at pleasure
over helpless women. We would let the law