The true Democrat., 1856-01-22

move would be seconded by the Catholic 'alty! For what have they given up wife, children and friends and fled to this land, had thought of perfect liberty? Why sirs, perhaps they had heard of the immortal Washington; who fought the battles of the revolution, that his beloved country ght become an asylum for the op- pressed of all nations. May be they had whis- pered to them, the wise and God-like provision of the American constitution, that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States'-or perhaps on the ocean wave-from the heart of some American 'ar, they heard chaunted the tribute of the patriotic Key: ''The s.ar spangIed banner in triumph eh;ii wave. O,r the land of the free,
 And the home of the brave"
 If they were Catholic, they were not unmnd- | ful that Lafayette had been here, that the descendants of Carroll were still here, and that Gods country for all Gods people was to be found here. These, and other pleasant reminis- cences have famed the cmbers of expiring hope, and the heart made buoyant, with the dreams of this American elysium, they crossed the blue wave, reacLed this boasted land of liberty, abjure, it might be Catholic government that they may receive a kind and beneticent protec- ton in a constitutional republic. If the Ca tholc or foreigner is ostracised will he not say, may he not say, that American liberty is a sha- dow unsupported by reality? But the Know Nothings say, they prescribe nobody, only, that the foreign born or Catholic, is not fit to be voted for, unworthy of confidence in any sta ton or department of government. That it is enough for such, that they be permitted to re. main here breathing American air, and eating American bread That it is honor enough for them that they make up the bullet material of roads, that they must be satisfied to their hearts content to live under and be subservient to laws, that they have no voice in enacting.
 They say that democrats refuse to vote for whigs and "vice-versa,' and that it is not re- garded as prescription.
 The distinction is broad and unmistakable When A votes for B, as rule of action, he compares his political qualifications with those of his adversary. The one is politically better i qualified than the other. He is more intelligent his political tenets are thus and SO; consequent | ly a filter instrument to do the State some ser vice. than he that opposes.
 The voter is then within his province, iudg- ing of things as it is his province, his impera- ative right to do. Thus whigs vote for whigS democrats for democrats; but what does the un- constitutional contrabani Know Nothing do?
 A presents himself as candidate-B the Know Nothing says, l acknowledge your qua l lifcations but you are Catholic, you do not science do not teach you to worship God as we do. The constitution is farce, and religious liberty bubble We not only intend to assume the direction in all things temporal, butto usurp the power Of Heaven itselfand place upon your foreheads the seal of condemnation.
 What right has one man to pass upon another mans religion? That one poor miserable spe- cimen of mortality, should undertake 10 Kick another out of heaven, has always hecn to my mind contamptibIe bigotrv Man may sit in judg upon mans politics, but not upon his religion.
 The Catholic to my mind, has shown himself intrinsicaly as patriotic as the Protestant. No page of American history can be produced that will prove to the contrary. But l do recollect that to that dsgraceful abolition tirade fulmi- mated in the United States Senate, by the north ern abolition clergy, not a Catholic signature was to be found.
 But they refer you to OReily's deserton in MeXico-true-and refer them to the manor born'' Protestant Americans fleeing from the face of the enemy, impressed with the sentiment that distance ends enchantment to the view" Suppose again that Catholic priest and aty- all in the United States had designs upon the government, still for the lack of numerical strength. the probability of success is so ex- tremely remote as 10 dissipate at glance all serious apprehension. Inmy opinion Giddings, Hale, Seward and Greeley will often times laugh over the clanking of Uncle Sans dry bones, before the Pope Plus, or O. A. Bronson will pluck laurel from his brow. Who is it. that is upheaving, uprooting, and nullifying the government day after day, and hour by hour2 Is 1t the Catholic or the foreign CT? No, but the ''native to the manor born," Protestants unfortunately, that how lay in- trenched on the plains of Kansas, establishing the temporal power of he oJolttioaists, and sound ing the death-knell of the constitution and the Union.
 This Is a government of laws, supposed to reflect the wishes and tastes of the people, The constitution is the base of this governmental superstructure. That instrument as it now stands, tolerates no religious discrimination. If Know Nottingham is triumphant-is not the practical effect, to establish Protestant supre- macy?
 This being the case in the exercise of the voting franchise, will it not follow that the con- sttution, State and federal must be modified, being unsustained by the popular voice.
 Then we have church and State united.- Then wemust have an Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Babtist government. For Epis- copacy thinks Babtsts heretical, and Baptists return the compliment. Wesley thought the Presbyterian schsmatics other denomina- tions illuminate anathemas against Alexander Campbell, whilst Campbell says all of their creeds were obtained from other books than the Bible.
 Protestants entertaining opinions as diverse as these, what would be the next step after demolishing the Catholics? for they must walk the plank if Know Nothings succeed-they must walk out of public confidence and out of la constitution thnr must mallc off Aranr;car,