The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-27
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
Another Grand Appeal by senior.
Cnstelar in the Snnnish diOrtes

inc champion OF the party of intolerance, will
neglect to read with eagerness the address by
him published below. On the 4th instant the
Cortes resumed the discussion of the proposed
establishment of the Roman Catholic as the re-
ligion of Spain. An article declaring that "the
nation obliges itself to maintain the worship
and the ministers of the Catholic religion was
Incorporated in the Constitution by vote
of l76 to &C. and then the question came up on
an addition in these words:-
The public or private exercise of any other
worship remains guaranteed to all foreigners
resident in Spain without more limitations than
the universal rules of morals and right. If any
Spaniards profess any other religion than
Catholic, all the dispositions of the foregoing
paragraph are applicable to them.
On this Senor CASTELAR, spoke as follows-
SENoREs DEPUTADos-My position at this
moment is very disadyantageous, having to
speak after the magnificent address the Chamber
has just heard from Senor Echegaray which
places him amongst the first orators of our coun-
try and with the knowledge that another orator
of the most glorious that our soil has produced
has to succeed me-SenOr OlOzaga, In this
manner myspeech will be placed, like humanity,
between two hcavens-between a great recOlec-
tion and great hope / do not rise in any way
to answer by anticipation the speech of the re-
nowned orator who has to follow me. The
generation to which belong has been born with
great respect for all our grand parliamentary
glories, and in this generation no one shall excel
me in admiration and respect. Here have no
wish that there should be conquerors or con-
quered, for believe the gOries of all our parties
are gories of our country. We have no enYes
one OF another, and Spain will not tread under
foot her great men rs the "Ophelia' of Shake
speare trampled under foot the flowers of her
crown. Gentlemen a duty OF conscience, which
l esteem sacred, as are all my duties impels me
TO speak once more on the question Of religion.
neither the Congress nor the country need fear
that shall attempt to raise or venture any pro-
positions upon this transcendental problem |
know well the dividing line which separates the
legislator from the philosopher. Beyond this
place. in the colleges we have the right to dis
cuss the dogmas and to weigh them by the inde-
pendent criterion OF our reason. But here, in
this Chamber, we have only the right to examine
the relations of the Church with the State. the
relations of religion with politics. (Cries of
Good good
Gentlemen, if any hard word if any nconve-
nient phrase, If any theory more is less venture
some, has proceeded from these benches, attri-
butte 1t not to our desire, but to the necessity
which spirits so long enslayed and forbidden TO
express their ideas feel of giving utterance to
them, when they find themselves playing, for the
first time upon the shores of liberty. The re-
sponsibility of those irrCvcrences of language,
in my opinion, more than upon us recoils upon
those religious magnates-thOse episcopal and
archiepiscOpal magnatcs-WhO in former times
which we ought to record for our experience,
although not Tor our revenge, forced the hand of
thought in the weak, and who had not one word
OF reprobation or censure to condemn the dis
orders and crueltics of the strong Those arti-
fetal chains have been broken. Thought rushes
forth restlessly and promiscuously, like the lava
OF the volcano. And we must not ask of any
new thought that it be just to that which pre-
ceded it. Christianity was not so with Pagan
ism. In those gods and gOddessCs of old-eter-
nal models OF the sculptors art, to which all the
generations have gone to define the
secrets of fOrm-the first heroes of Christianity
only saw the lurking smiles of the Devil. The
renaissant was not so with the middle ages. In
those Gothic cathedrals sublime expression of
religious thought souls as great as those of
Michael Angelo, of Bravante, and of Herrera,
only saw the marks of ignOmny where were
written up the barbarous in art and the barba-
rous in man, Consequently, it is no surprising
thing that the generations who have had 10
power hitherto to manifest the depth of their
religious and philosophical thought, neither in
the college nor in the press-it is no wonder that
they should come here and turn implacable
against those powers. which. forgetting that true
force is moral force, snatched away the first of
our possesslons-the involability of the con-
science. This symptom may really atilict super
fcial men, but men of elevated spirit and right
mind, especially conservatives, will deduce two
grand lessons from what has occurred first, tha
ii is impossible, by repressiye laws to stay the
progress and even the extravaganza of thought.
Another thing will be seen also, which il is
necessary should be made perfectly clear and
P,
reasons, either philosophical or moral, there are
those who dissent from the religion of the State.
Those who oppose the idea of the religion of
State have taught two things to the conservative
parties, who are those who are destined sooner
or later to rule, whatever may be the form of
government-namey that repressive laws
amount to nothing; and secondly, that after four
centuries of Catholic unity and religious intole-
rance, after gagging of the press which pre-
vented the depth of the conscience to be seen,
thought has come forth like the eruption of a
volcano and that the work of the committee is
justified, for there are those in Spain who have
separated themselves from the religion of the
State Now, gentlemen, direct myself espe-
cially, in the first place, TO the absOlutists How
can you avoid these differences? What means
would you employ! These are the ancient mea-
sures, the measures which the Cardinal Arch
you burn the dissentients as they burned
the philosophers and the Protestants? Would
you eXpel the dissentents as they expelled
the Jews and the Moors No! You cannot
employ the ancient measures Would you en-
ploy the modern measures-that is to saw that
he who is not a Catholic shall uOt be public
functionary, cannot exercise civil and political
rights? Then you would have to place in this
Constitution general exceptions for those who
do not profess the religion of the State. Know
you what once succeeded when conscience was
prosecuted, when thought was stited, and when
they wished TO rob whole nation of its rights /?
The race took its Bible, its book of religion,
embarked in vessel, crossed the seas, arrived
in America, and there founded, under the heaven
God comedies to all beliefs, a new temple for
their new faith.
awe have heard it said before that all abso-
lutely all, ask that the State shall protect and
defend Catholicism, because it is the only true
one 1t is said that on this side of the Chamber
there are predictions against Catholicism. In
vain many orators of the minority have said that
.yhi1a dafendinp the liberties thew were at the