Washington telegraph., 1856-06-11
THE FEBRUARY PLATFORM.

l
investigation of the general proposition
which we consider the basis of the ninth
section of the February Platform to wit ::
ssUnder the operation of the present sys-
tenn of naturalization, the foreigner is
made the equal of the native and seeks to
become his superior" found in our
last issue that the American party had
arrayed themselves against the suprema-
cy of the dogmas of the Romish institu-
ton, and the efforts, publicly avowed, of
the organizations of foreigners banded to-
gether-working, it is true, under differ
ent names, but all tending to the same
point-the subversion of our present form
of government. As we remarked last
week, it is the policy of our opponents to
deny the correctness of our premises
The onns of proving their validity falling
upon US, We appeal to facts-to facts on
ly. So tenacious are our opponents of
place and power, that we are almost led
to believe they really do not see the dan
ger with which supine non-resistance
to palpable encroachments upon the poll
cy which is the publicly recognized theo-
ry of our government, is fraught- They
affect to sneer at what they term our idle
fears; but is this indifference to danger
assumed or real? Does it follow after,
or exist with, an intelligent understanding
of what is going on around US? Or is
it the result of failure to examine the
portents that loom up on our political
horizon These are suggestive queries ;
and while We shall not presume to an
swer for our readers, VIC wish to present
to them few facts, having an intimate
connection with those things, concerning
which, it is the duty of Americans to
enquire, and leave them TO answer of
these things in the affirmative or the neg
ative, as their Judgment shall order them
to do.
OF the Romish institution Concern
ing it there is no one thing more clearly
established, than that, as a consolidate
power, having its agents and sub-workers
in every known cline, it arroeates to it
self, In terms, and with no ambiguity
an universal spiritual dominion, holding
all men, at all times, in its opinion, if not
by its power, bound to it for a release
from the Judgment to cone, or BY it, to
sufferance of the EXTREMIST penalty of
the violated law /; thus operating upon the
devotion Of its zealots and the fears of
the blind confessor of its supremacy with
an influence to which no obligation of
whatsoever nature it may be, can offer
any resistance. Yesl operating as it does,
upon the superstitious fears of those who
regard it as the repository, the temporal
dispenser of eternal life or eternal death
of everlasting woe or everlasting bliss, ii
becomes in It's nature and because of Its
attributes, the paramount earthly power,
and has not through fifteen centuries fail
ed whenever it could use mi ght as the ad
junct of its assumed right, to declare,
pronounce and uphold itself, the arbiter
of all things temporal and spiritual, the
founder and destroyer of empires, the
crowner and deponent of kings, the In
fallible teacher into whose divinely con
stituted nature, all opposing clements
should resolve themselves and become in
tegral but powerless constituents of tre
mendous whole, which, as the temporal
executor of the will of the Almighty, was
in all things his representative. But, say
the apologists of this conspiracy against
the rights of men, the Romish Church
does not claim at this day temporal do
minion That the church does not clam
it, is perversiOn of the admission of tn,
recognized expounders of the faith
That it is not exercised by it, is differ
ent thing that the church will not ye
exercise it, is not settled fact Tht
skill of the defenders of the faith, seek
ing to rivet more powerfully than eve
the chains by which those who now bov
to the chair in which it is said st. Pete
once sat, and laboring with consummatt
tact in the great work of proselyting, t.
which they devote their lives and ener
gIes, keep the temporal supremacy a
which they aim the concealed object o
their undying hopes; they make the spir
itual supremacy which they boast of exer
cising, the cloak by which they concea
the real nature of their whole PLAN
You ask if these things of the church ar
true. The unity of the design of the ed
iice which the Ronish institution woul,
rear. to faith, which sees in the bowin.
down of human being to a senseless i'm
age, the practical working of the spirit O
|