The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-01-27

From the Bufalo EKpri
Tue Catholic Demand.

rFrom the BuRaIo Express
The Catholic Demand.
Mr.. T. G. O'Brien writes very hon
est, straightforward letter to the New
York Tribune, in which he plainly pre-
isents the demand of the Roman Cath
oltcs IN the matter of our schools and
our public school moneys: He says
] ave don't object to Protestants
reading the Bible in schools if they
wish, or using any school books they
prefer; but, as Irish Catholics, We
fWant to bring up our children in our
own way, and teach them to be good
Catholics. This we cannot do in mix
! ed schools, and we want to educate
them in the true faith, with our own
books, and by good Catholic teachers.
We don't want to mix up with Pro-
Itestants, and Jews, and Infdels, in
school matters, because we want our
children to grow up in the Holy RO-
man Faith, like their fathers, and not
imbibe the loose and irreligiOus indie
pendence of the age. Now, our reli-
gious guides and teachers have fully
declared our purposes in such articles
as the one seud you; and therefore
what we want is our proportion of the
school money according to the num-
Der of our scholars, and to teach our
children in our own schools. This is
what we are striving to obtain, and,
from our past success in obtaining what
we want, we know we shall get our
proportion of the school money and
have our own schools"
That is honestly said, at least, even
to the blunt impertinenre of the final
boast. But Mr.. O'Brien and his feI-
low Catholics must not be too sure
that their past success in getting what
they want is guarantee of triumph
upon this final demand. There are
some liberties that the American peO-
pie will not allow trucking legislators
to take with their institutions, and we
think that the breaking up of the
common school system is one Ofthem.
They have cherished it too long, with
too much pride and with too deeply
seated conviction that it constitutes
the real foundation of republican de-
mocracy. The ballot box itself is not
a more sacred and inalienable herit-
age in the estimation of the born
American citizen, than is the public
school hOuse-the school house of the
common community, free, open, hedged
by no differences of class, condition, or
creed. Be it remembered, now, by
our Catholic friends who have been
received into the citizenship of the
United States by adoption, that the
natives of America, holding these deep |
rooted feelings upon the subject Of
common edUc ttion, are the majority.
The power as well as the right is theirs
to maintain their institutions as they
have founded them, and it will not be
well-will not be we'll upon many ac-
counts to crowd them to the defen-
sive exercise of their power as the
majority, in a matter that involves (
the feeling which this does.
We say plainly to the Roman Cath !
Olic citizens Of the United States that .
this common school is our system of
educatiOn-the system of the republic /
fashioned neither to suit their form |
of religion nor any form of religion |
but to suit the idea and practice of de
mOcracy and they must not under
take to tear it down. 1t will not be
safe for Catholicism to try a down
right clpnch with democracy in the
United States, because the temper of
this democratic people, with all its toll
erance, grows ugly when the blood is
up. We who believe in, and cherish
and mean to maintain the American
system of common schools "dOn't Ob-
ieet'-using the language of Mr..
o Brien-to the Catholic schools which
our Catholic fellow citizens may see tit
to set up for themselves, outside ofour
common system. We don't object to
heir bringing up their children in
their own way and teaching them ''tO
be good Catholics" But that is their
and theirs alone.
The public-the State-has nothing :
% do with making children "good
"Or good Presbyterians,"
1r "good Methodists." We founded
)ur public school system for no such
purpose, but simply and solely for the
making of ''good citizens" by i'm
parting to our children the means of
intelligent culture. To that purpose
,f secular education alone can public
moneys be devoted, and all special
Orms of educatiOn--mOst especially {
I'll religious fOrms-are totally and alb /
Olutely without the domain of public q
policy in a free State. That we should j
,verturn our whole doctrine of repub- J
lean government, as we'll as revoIu /
iOnize one of its fundamental institu- {
ions, to accommodate the interests +
nd wishes Of a single sect, is little '
90 much to ask of US in the United ?
'.ates. We say, in all kindness to
ur Roman Catholic friends, that they
Iad better deliberate well before they
iress the movement against the Amer [
can common school system to an ex- I