The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-07-03
Hands OF.

We are not alone, as Catholics, in COM
menting on the offensive condact of the
President, Vice President and Secretary of
State of the United States, in afaxing theif
official signatures TO an article which conld
not fail to be Questionable to a large body
of citizens. The writer of the following is
a Protestant, and editor of the New York
Inesependent-and will not be accused of
Partially to Catholics. But even he is
compelled to protest against scandalous
peryersion of their official position and
titles:
It is an error of judgment in the Presi-'
dent, the Vice President and the Secretary
of State to have appended their official
signatures to the following document:
WASHINGTON, May 10.-Having heard
of the intended general conference of emf
nent divines, learned professors, and
others. from foreign countries and our own,
to be held 10 New York in September next,
under the auspices of the Evangelical Ali-
ance, we have great pleasure in expressing
our interest in that important assemblage
of great and good men, our approval of the
objects contemplated by it, and the hope
that its deliberations may tend to the adj
vancement of civil and religious liberty
and the promotion of peace and good will
among men.
"U. s. GRANT, President United States.
"SCHUYLER CoLFAA, Vice President.
"HAMILToN FISH, Secretary of State"
IF the above paper had been signed by
these three public officers, not in their Off
cial bit in their individual capacity, no.
body could have right to object. But
when the President, the Vice President
and the Secretary of State unite to lend
their official names to q document which,
- l1xy W NOV
ertheless, a sectarian confession of faith,
we point to the precedent as ill-judged,
dangerous and reprehensible. What is the
Evangelical Alliance, that the chief officers
of the United States Government should
officially approve or disapprove it's prinel-
ples9 1t is religious parliament, called
in the interest of q certain number OF other
sects. To be more explicit: it comes to-
gether in order to uplift standard OF Pro-
testant orthodoxy against UnitaTianism on
the one hand and against Romanism on the
other. Now, the United States Govern
ment is neither Protestant nor Roman;
neither orthodox nor heterodox. Con-
gress shall make no law respecting the
establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereeEn SO says the
Constitution. Our fathers meant, and their
descendants mean, to keep Church ana
State as far asunder as the East is from the
West. Any act on the part of the Federal
greater favoritism towards one sect, or
church, or creed, than toward another, is
the beginning of despotism. Such an Off
cial act by the Government, or any OF Its
agents, is unwarrantable, and ought not TO
be endured. Suppose, instead of putting
their official names to a declaration of sym
pathy with the Evangelical Alliance, these
signers had put their signatures to a SINH,
lar declaration in favor of the Ecumenicai
Council. Would not the whole Pro-
testant press have rung it's bells of
alarm The above paper commits the
President, the Vice President and Secretary
of State to an approval of the objects
that is, to a declaration against the Ro-
man Catholic religion. What if, following
their bad example, their successors in office
should officially approve the objects con- so n.
templatedn by the Vatican CouncllA .;Sns
The precedent which President Grant and
his colleagues have set is . tWo-edgeo