Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1856-02-13
NOT AFRAID OF THE POPE.

aFs
1t appears that there is at least one Know Moth
ing member Of Congress who is not afraid of the
Pope. This gentleman is Mr.. Eustis, of Louisiana.
The Know Nothings of Louisiana, it is known, do
not subscribe to the ilberal and proscrip,ive doc
trnes of their brethren elsewhere in relation to the
Catholics. On the 7th instant, Mr.. Eustis delivered
in the House of Representatives speech, from
which the following is extract 1t will strike
ry one that he crowds his brother Know Nothing,
Mr.. Reade, of this State into close place. His
marks, in relation to the interference of Protestant
ministers in politics, especially just and pointed
Hear what he says
Gentlemen talk about the Papal power The
honorable gentleman from North Carolina Mr..
Reade, the other day asked tic honorable gentle
man from Georgia. [Mr. Stephens,] whether he
would vote for Catholic whose religious opinions
he suspected of being hostile to the general interest
of the country. What right has that gentleman to
challenge the nationality Of his peer his equal and
require him to purge his conscience, before he can
hold communion with him on the footing of the
American citizen? What right have you to de-
nounce him as traitor to his country, and compel
him to stand before your bar criminal-as
individual hostile to the institutions of your coun
try!
tell you, gentlemen, you have just as much right
to put your hands in another mans pocket, to
if the money he has belongs to him, as to take that
position towards the American Catholic-as to dare
to presume to ask him whether he cntcrtains opin-
ions hostile to the institutions of this country.
Gentlemen ought to recollect that here, in this
Congress, there is not single Catholic priest And
for my part opposed to all religious interference
with political affairs. | favor of maintain
ing and keeping up the divorce between the Church
and State which has been established by our great
fathers. But, sir, that very same which
makes me deadly enemy of Catholic interference
nnr fnfI aLt,s I,i,r~h
trymen when see the Protestant Church soiling its
robes by dragging them in the nire of politics.
ICries of Hear, bear!' and GoodI] Your Leg
islaturcs are filled with gentlemen who wear white
cravats and black coats. ['llcar, hear, and laugh
teri Yonr Congress has large proportion of these
clerical gentlemen. And ask you with all due
respect and courtesy to gentlemen Of the CLOTH to
show me Catholic priest accredited agent of
the Church of Rome in this Hall. Laughter, and
cries Of Hear heart Gentlemen who talk about
the Pope of Rome ought to recollect that that poor
old man, who is an object of SO much terror to them,
is in the custody of guard of French soldiers.
But Mr.. Clerk, have consumed more time than
desired to have done. | will simply close my re-
marks by asking the gentleman from North Carolina
MIR. Readr] where he gets the authority for thus
black baling his peers, his equals, the Cathocs!-
where he gets the authority for stamping them as
the mere tools of the Pope of Rome:-where he
gets the authority for considering them as unworthy
of participating in the great councils of this coun-
try? Docs the gentleman find his authority, will
he find it in the Constitution of the United States?
viii the gentleman find it in the treaty between
France and the United States, by which the terri
tory of Louisiana coded to this country. and by
which the reig GUS rights of its inhabitlnts
guaranteed them? Will the gentleman find it in the
Farewell Address Of the Father of our Country-in
that address which is often quoted by the ora
tors of the American party q? WAL the gentleman
find it in that great book, the Bible, which SO
much vencration has been wasted so unproftably
in the Philadelphia platform? will tell the gem
tleman where he will find it, He will find in the
teachings and in the inspiration of that dark spirit
of fanaticism which is the of the Anglo.Saxon
The gentleman will find it in that spirit by
which Professionals were driven from New England
by their fellow Protestants, in colonial days.
He will find it in that spirit which made the Eps-
copaans Of Virginia drive away their Puritan bre-
thren from that State. And where did these perse-
cuted Puritans and Protcstants in general go? What
spot did they choose asylum in order to be
protected from their Protestant prosecutors? will
tell the gentleman where they went in those colonial
times They went to the colony of Maryland to
that colony whose inhabitants under the intlu-
of :" the aggressive policy of the Church of
Rome and its corrupting tendencies" Yes, these
Puritans sought refuge in that colony which first
in the United States established the law protecting
every man from religious persecution"