Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-08-03
From the New York Independent, July IL.
Free suffrage a Religious Safe
guard.
ny WILLIAM II. HOOPER.

The New York Obsora has done, and is
doing, an excellent work by showing the |
danger of our Institutions from the pres
encc of so large body of Catholics in this |
country. Bound together by the tie of
common faith that allows political and re |
ligious headship in foreign potentatc, all |
secrets developed through the confessional .
without mental culture, they constitute a
unit to be worked by one string in the hands |
of the pricstly body. Ii has been the mis-
fortue of the Irish Catolics to have been
united, not only against Protestantism, but
against all those ideas offrcedom and equal |
ity that should be the birthright of every
American citizen. They have, to a man,
been in favor of slavery; they are now uni |
ted to man, in their denial OF suffrage to
the blacks.
The dangcri is a growing one. The Gath
ole WorM informs us that in sos the Cath
olics were 100 900 in population of six
and half millions, or sixty-fifth of the
whole; while in 1880 they were 4j0, 600 in
thirteen millions, or one twenty ninth of
the whole, while in 1860 they were 4,4oO,
900 in 81 900, 600, or one-seventh of the to-
tai population. This population will con-
tue to grow; for Canada is pouring her lc-
gions into this country faster than ever be-
fore, while the termination of the war
throws the whole South and the magnificent
west open to foreign immigration. The
magnitude of the danger cannot be overes-
timatcd. But the Observer only tells us of
the danger; il points out no made of escape.
1t lifts up voice of warning; it does not
tell how to avoid the evil. We propose to
show complete means of obviating the
dagger.
There arc in the United States large
I body of men, their numbers increasing as
we move southwark, who are as ignorant
and uncducatcd as the Irish Catholics. But
-, they have no common religious faith, nor
does the confessional put them and their Sc
/. crets in the power Of any man or any priest
hood There are four millions of them; al
most the exact number that there are Cath
olics: all black, all loyal, and nearly all Prot
estant Likcthe Irish, they reason through
their feelings; unlike the Irish, they show
a great desire and aptitude for intellectual
improvement. Without any free school
system whatever their children are counted
: in free schools by tens Of thousands. Will"
in Washington, Norfolk, Richmond, New
bern, wherever northern philanthropy is
willing to teach, thousands of adult blacks,
laboring by day, study by night. They are
unlike the Catholic Irish, in being docile,
afTectionatc and gentle. Their love of mu-
sic and willing obedience, their religious as
| pirations are valuable characteristics. In
persistency of labor, for stern and rugged
work, the Irish are superior; for the more
beautiful qualities of humanity, the backs.
But the Christian especially notes the fact
the Irish are all Catholics, all hostile to til,
Bible, all haters of Protestanism, while
the blacks have an intense desire to reac
the Word of God, are nearly all Protestant
and all followers of Him who came to lei
= the oppressed go free.
The two classes arc the supplement o
: each other Each is rich in the qualities
lacking in the other. To the one the fran
chise is granted from his birth, or Il tempo
rary residence. The other must rise from
r poverty to be worth $3.50 before he car
vote in New York. In States west an,
South of New York he cannot vote at all
Now, if it is desirable to meet the positive
Catholic element in politics or religion by
one equally positive in another direction
we have but to clothe the black with the
same political power we have already givcr
the white. True, the black is uncultivatec
and ignorant but so is the Irish. In al
, our political debates on this question, w
u remember of no argument against "a bacl
voter that is not equally adverse TO an Irisl
J. one. And the black voter has these advan
c tages: his instincts are on the side of free
dom and Professionalism, he is more suscept
r iblc of cultivation, and he is not the tool o
4 priest or layman. The gift of franchise t
t the black nsures the perpetuity Of free ed
+ ucation and religion in our land. Give tn
+ black man vote, and every Southern
State will be loyal, every Northern Stat
C true to freedom. Refuse him the franchis
v and the rebellion will not be ended with tn
f generation that gave it birth.