Bedford inquirer and chronicle. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1854-1857, 1856-04-25

"a war which Is SAID to spring from pre-
judice. That is untrue. certainly have
no prejudic 9, (never having been member
of any church, My partialites run with
| the Protestants, because in youth was
trained in that faith, and in manhood learn
! ed, from the history of the past, that the
Protestant has always been the church of
freedom. [Cheers.I No, sir, we stand by
the constitution. The fathers who made it
intended, as we do, to secure to all men
the right to worship Almighty God aceor-
ding to the dictates of their own conscien-
ces. To do this effectually, we intend
there shall be no apion Of Church and State.
! [Cheers.l
We viii let the Catholic and Protestant
each have unlimited freedom Of religion, and
the unrestrained right to adopt and prac
tice any form OF worship; but we say
to all, you must not bring the combined
power ef your Church, especially if it be
| governed by head in a foreign land, hol
ding no sympathy with our institutions to
control the american ballot box
! [Cheers.l
If there be any Catholic in this country,
who is not satisfied with this sort of relig-
ious liberty, / tell him the sooner he sspacks
up his duds" and goes back, the better for
him; because Sam is after all such persons.
Cheers But our Catholic friends COM
plain that they are particularly marked in
this movement. Ii they are, who is to
blame' Ii they are specially looked after
! BY the Americans. it is because in those
countries where Papal power prevails there
is no genuine liberty either ciuli or retig-
ious. [Applause.l
Inshaping our political action on this
point we must be governed by the lights of
| the experience Of she past. If we dc not
fndin our own political history, facts enough
to Justify the most yigilent scrutiny into
the movements of the Jesuits, we need bat
cast the eye over the pages of history or
over cd ocean into Southern Europe; for
warnings to Us that ssthe price of liberty is
eternal yigiIence," and that it can do no
harm to guard against an abuse of the po-
litical power Of the Pope of Rome in Amer
lea. Applause.
Intimely blended with this question is
the question of freedom to the Bite
How stands that point! We End IN many
States, cities and towns, an open war on the
part of our Catholic fellow-citizens against
the use Of tac Bblo--that profoundest
| teacher Of wisdom TO all men--in cur
schools Of learning. They fight these bat
i ties with a zeal that can originate only in
a fanaticisn that strikes down tue genius of
religious liberty. Again: You 60 to Italy.
You take your passports. under the great
| seal of the Government Of the United
States of America. You take your trunk
containing your wearing apparel and Pro-
testant Bible perhaps an old family relic,
the last present of dying mother. When
you cross your line to Papal power your
passport With the broad seal viii admit your
person, aud your shirts, your old boots,
&C.; but they viii not pass that good old
book you love, if not for its coutents, on
account of the associations that entwlne it
with your hearts Oh, no the officer Of
government under the power Of the Pope
will not tolerate IFS Introduction, and under
no circumstances can you ever acquire po-
litical power there; yet at the same time
under the liberallty of American law, We
allow the Church of Rome to send here and
circulate without restraint its form of the
Bible by ship loads, accompanied by thou
sands of members of that Church, with
whom We divide the sovereign powers Of our
government
Now, Mr. President, ] do not know that
this plank is in your platform, flor | have
not examined it and am sick Of piatforpas;s
but it is ID mine: / would have ssSam,"
when he gifts strong enough, land he will
grow and strengthen daily,) exact Of all the
nations of the earth with whom we are in
friendly intercourse, equality in all things
-[cheersl specially equality in all that
pertains TO religious liberty-Icheersl--
and the right of Young America, or Old
America, to take with him, wherever he
may rightfully 60, any form Of the Word
of God which suits his religion, whether it
be Catholic or Protestant. Prolonged
cheering.l
/ Aud again sir, All men must de- In
this great land of ours, the spirit of Ameri-
cans cesures to the wayfarer who is smitten
by the fell destroyer without regard to the
place of his birth or the peculiarities of his
religion, the freedom of funeral obsequies.
How is it in Papal lands with the fallen
Protestant American? Sir, you are not
allowed to consign his mortal remains to
their resting place in mother earth, with as
n ~ liz