, 1864-07-15
/

EDS. STATEsNAN:-Ths communication would have
been sent you last week had not heard it intimated
on the street THAT the Grafton of Rev. Mr.. Chamber
lain Would be published in your paper. Had il been
published, the public who were not present at the
tine of its delivery could have read and judged for
themselves whether the Orator actuated by prn-
ciples of patriotism in attacking the religious view
OF pecable loTtiOn OF this community, or wheth
er he Was actuated by asectariah motive iii attack
ing religious society who had representative an
0ete6 there to reply to his Sanders on the Catholics
Of this country and the Catholic Church in general
| had supposed that the DAYS Of "Knownothfhgism'
passed by but the Reverend gentleman showed,
practically, by one Portion Of hS Discourse that they
had not, and by his attack uPoh foreigners and Cath
olics disposition revive the principles of that dam
gerous organization. Which wrought 30 much mis-
chief in this country few years ago. He has but
recently come into this community and If his Grafton
the 4h is to be taken u sample of the religious
political principles he intends to attempt to inculcate
it requires great amount OF foresight to pre-
DICT that he will speedily acquire the unenvia-
bic nOtorety hele that he did in Portland by his Of
fcous ntcrnedhhg with all societys and sects that
did not come MP 10 his inGividual standard of re-
gion. The people mass, prone 10 believe that
under republican form Of government every man
has right TO worship God according to the dicta
of his own conscience, and that Catholic has IA
good light TO attend Fourth of July Celebration
without being nsulted as a. Protestant Tie iopn-
ders or tins government, (whose sacrifces and noble
deeds ne did not remotely allude to in his ora
tion) had, many OF them fed from de,pOt6 Europe
to escape the same kind of persecution which the
Reverend orator would nov subject their descendants
10 if hc had the power fE would have Been in better
taste on such OCCASION TO have referred to tbe no
Bile conduct of Catholic France Offering her serv-
to the Colonies in their time Of great ed instead
OF attacking the religion OF Such heroic men AS La
Fayette, KOsciuskO, Baron De Kalb, Robert Morris
CHARLES Carroll, and their kindred of the Revolution.
Patriotism would have dictated the use of his
Acknowledged oratorical powers in eulogising
their deeds and seeking to perpetuate their mem
cries
pronounce the charge made by the Reverend
gentleman that the Catholic Church here or else
where excludes, or seeks to exclude, the Bible
from its members, false, and l challenge the
gentleman to prove his assertion made on the
4th of July to the contrary Were the charge
even true, it was an insult upon a large por-
ton of his audience to make such a charge in an
address of the character his should have been on
that occasion. There were other portions of the
address that were equally out of place. His al
lusons to the downfall of Rome and Greece, and
his comparison drawn between the Greek and
Hebrew nations, in which he extolled the He
brew nation as being superior in every respect
to the Grecians in their palmy days, was unjust,
unfair and untrue. His address, all the way
through, was redundant with historical blum
ders and false conclusions. Nowhere did he re-
fer to the ''times that tried mems souls, or to
any event in the history of our country. The
present condition of the country, its past pros
perity the circumstances under which the Re-
pubic was founded, were all fruitful themes for
an oraton on the 4th of July; and it is to be re-
GREETED that after we had paid our money freely
to furnish the necessary refreshments, music,
&C., that we could not have been gratifed with
patriotic oration, on relevant subjects, instead
Of the insipid, untrue, political and sectarian