The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-07-27
COMMUNICATION.

THE following communication was in
tended for the TELEGRAPH last week but was
delayed to give place to other matter
FRIEND MCKINLEY: saassl-
s'CathoIic's ~" laughing Ez66'usion "(?) in
your last issue requires some notice (else
he may feel bad) and then | am done
with this subject. dir
We believe that the decaying flesh of
good Catholic in his "consecrated
ground" will be no less offensive than
that of the odd fellows, sleeping in the
Potters feld-which field it seems Cath
olic' imagines to be the orthodox "pur-
gatory, of which all good protestants have
such holy horror!" Laughable truly
Catholic does not see how this act Of a
priest, on a dead body IN Madison, can
effect the writer. This one man power.
to outrage our sensibilities, in order to
reduce the world to bondage, affects
every good citizen, and if "Catholic" is
so very slave to an arrogant hierarchy
as not to sec it, it is high time he walked
up to discover the power for despotism,
involved in the question. He may not
see how mob-violence in New York city
the last week can effect me or our free
institutions too dull to discover that an
outrage to one is wrong that each and
ali should redress. He probably could
not see how an Unjust tax of Sd per pound
on tea, affected any Americans liberties,
especially such men as John Han
cock & George Washington. They need
not drink tea any more than a catholic
need be an odd fellow = Laughable
truly land if "Catholic" is too stupid to
see the point, it is not for me to furnish
him an intellect He should know, how
ever, (if an American Citizen, for thus
I address bim) that it is in accordance
with our free institutions, to have the
control of our cemeteries, as far removed
from the ghostly one man po,osr, as pos
sible-that the right of decent and hon
ored burial of our loved ones, catholic,
protestant, odd fellows and all, be in the
surviving relatives and citizens, and not
under the control of any minister, priest,
potentate or pope to outrage our ten
derestsympathies, and liveliest affections,
by any ,tyranical dictation in this respect,
for such uniformly uses the power In the
selfish interests of despotism, to control
unwarrantably the religious acts and
beliefs of the living. Thus the blind
leading the blind both fall into. the
ditch.
Catholic probably knows that he has
as much right and interest in our Gene
terry, 'paid for by tae8s' as any Of our
citizens That he can as others do obtain
an excl usive right to dot" therein for
his and his children's burying ground,
land have it "consecroted' if he chooses,
and reap the sole advantage (?) of such
conservation, by fencing in, and thus
combining it to his particular lot-and
should he or his sons become odd fellows,
and refuse to Confess to a priest you
might be sure your corpse would rest in
your own consecrated lot, and not be
subject to any indignity from priestly
power, by burial as a suicide, or muir
deref, in the public "Potters field. You
know, or should know, that such "lot"
is forever freed from debts, anC taxes !;
that no street shall ever run through it \;
thata body being once buried in it, it
shall be inalienable and descend to the
heirs of the first proprietor forever; that
he and they may adorn it with monu-
ments, trees, shrubbery and flowers as
they please and at all times have free
access to 1t, and there reverently, loving.
| ~, mournfully, bury their precious ones
and friends, without calling ON any
priest for the key; and the right oil
action is secured to recover five times the
damage done to the premises, be he who
he may that does it. rr.frs
Would it not be well for Catholic tc
| look inward and not strike outward, fol-
an exponent of his dictionary bigotry"-
advocates for comforting on all, the rights
we claim for ourselves and enjoy, ar,
seldom tinctured with "bigotry." I
regret that catholics" animus and ig
norance of outstanding principles ap
pears SO prominent in the sneering false
hood ssthat catholics have m rinhta 4ha