American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1858-01-22
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AN''S VA otN EHV SENNC' Ally plAhNApiS
promulgated while she was yet q colo
ny, after more than two hundred years
ofpracticnl Interpretation, was embed
led in the present Constitution.
Those principles declare that men
shall worship free from the control Of
the State, and the State shall govern
free from the intrusion Of religious
socts; and these fundamental priuci
Piles, acquiesced in from the beginning,
have been unassailed until our own
day. r..... .r.. .... .r. ,-...
Nor do they ruinously compete tn
our native industry, and devour our
substance. We have seen this swarm
of immigrants everywhere elevated, in
five short years, to the power and dig
nifty Of citizenship, without regard to
character or fitness, laws and language
of their new home. We have seen
them hunted up on the eve Of an cleo.
ton, whose result they are to deter
mine, with all their principles of mon
archy or anarchy about them, as for
eign in heart, as if they had never
reached our soil; and openly Offering
their votes and influence to those who
will recognize their claims, as the for
eign voting population, to share in
the division Of office.
1t would be unjust, nor do design
to include in this description, all who
have sought our shores. ..na 90. B, sau.
There are some, and they are not a
few, who have, from proper motives,
found home amongst us; and who
have not abused nor sold the privile-
ges Of their citizenship. There are
many Of those amongst US, of foreign
birth, who have by a long life of i'll
dustry and good order, shown their fit
ness for these privileges and it is wor-
thy Of observation, that this very class
arc among the most decided in their
opinions as to the necessity for some
check and restraint upon this indis-
crimlnate naturalization. ... ...., Hr.
The people of this State have been
called on to rcbuke, and have rebuked,
an lnSldlous attempt to clude and cvade
these principles, in the cndeavor of
certain persons to destroy the public
schools Of the State, and on their ruins
to erect with the money Of the State,
sectarian schools Of opposing religious
parties. -.... ~. ...
To divide the public school fund, a.
mong tho sectarian schools, in proper
ton to their scholars, is to foster and
promote, by means Of the public money
religious differences among the people
of tho State. 1t is to make religious
sccts pensioners on the public treasury.
1t is at once bride in money to relig-
ious sccts TO obtain control of the State,
so that their scctarian missionaries may
be paid from the public purse. Yet it
cannot be denied that such an attempt
has been made by designing men a.
mong US, against which the result of
the late election has entered the protest
Of our State. ......
1t has equally condemned the policy
of those, chiefly foreigners, who shared
in, and who have not yet forgotten the
practices and abuses permitted abroad;
who acknowledge an allegiance superb
or to the laws and constitution of the
State, and who openly violate, or ST.
lently cVade in their system, that prn-
cipIe proclaimed in the .35th article of
the Bill of Rights. All history has
shown the evils which flow from the
accumulation Of property and money,
in ministerial and sectarian hands
That it then becomes a power for the
promotion of religious dscord, is dan
gorous to religious purity, and hurtful
to religious freedom.
The people of Maryland early set
forth what should be the policy of their
government; and in the latest express
sion of their opinion, they have warned
those who have been concerned in, or
who hoped tc profit by these attempts,
that they are trcspassing on fUnda-
mental principle of her constitution.
To you, gentlemen, has been confi-
ed the duty Of protecting and extend
ing the great right to free instruction
of every child in the State, without re-
gard to soctarian differences, in her
public schools. The people have shown
that they will confer political power on
those alone who admit that right free
from religious interference, and who
refuse to acknowledge any higher au.
thority, in such matters, than the Con
stitution and the laws of the land
They ask 10 man his religious creed.
They will trust their liberties and laws
to no man who does not acknowledge
that law as his only rule Of political
conduct. 10 those who clamor for
political ends, about "civii and rclig-
ioua liberty" the people Of this State
answer that Hejr laws first proclaimed