Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-05-02
FATHER FINNEGAK's REPLY.
Our Public schools.

MEssRs. EDITORS: Ny attention has
| been directed to communication which
appeared in your issue of Sunday morning,
In the spirit of fair play I would respect
fully demand the insertion of the follow
ing:
If the Catholics of Knoxville are, max
| ing an effort to secure for their children a
portion of the school fund they are acting
in accordance with the dictates of con-
science, and they have perfect right to do
SO, Would you compel us to support schools
from which we derive no advantage? If
| the Catholics of Knoxville are taxed for
| school purposes, then those who impose
the burden are justly bound to bestow the
money, in ratio of children, on schools
consistent with Catholic principles Of edn-
cation. We are not pleading for privileges
or exemption, but for the common freedom
of all. We willingly accord the same rights
to every other class of citizens. We claim
it for every sect and division of Presbyte-
riaps. We claim it for Baptists. We claim
| it for Episeopaiians. We claim it for Jews.
We claim it for parents that object to hav-
ing any form or semblance Of religion
taught to their children. If several sects
can agree among themselves, or can agree
| with the Infidels that want no religion,
then let them agree to run their schools in
common. But if one parent objects to any
given system Of schooling, and prefers to
have his children taught at home, he is en-
tilted, if he ask for it, to his pro rata of all
moneys raised for schooling purposes. .
The demand for a school where the
church of our forefathers will not be ridi-
culed is, forsooth ! demand marked by
cool assumption! Have Catholics no
consciences? ? Does your correspondent
suppose that those who have endured
famine and persecution, and have sought
refuge on these free shores from the ty-
ranny of hostile government, will prove
recreant to their principles, or cease in de-
votion to Mother Church Have your
common school, if you will the Catholics
of Knoxville have their own already. We
mean also to support them, with or with
out, city or State aid. We have done so,
when we boasted of fewer and poorer
members. Eradicate from your schools
every vestige of religion, and then as the
Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York
has well observed "you will make man
stronger, intellectually, without making
him stronger morally; you make him
more dangerous to himself and more dam
gerous to the community" And what
American is there with or without re-
ligion, who will not bow to the solemn
judgment of the Father of our country, set
forth so earnestly in his Farewell Address
"Of all disposition and habits,n he says,
(which lead to political prosperity, religion
and morality are Indispensable supports.
A volume could not trace all their con-
nectiOn with private and public felicity.
Let it simply be asked, where is the securi-
ty for property, for reputation, for life, If the
sense of religious obligation desert the
oaths. which are the instruments in Courts
of Justice. And let us, with caution, in
dulge the supposition, that morality can be
maintained without religion."s y "A -
Zone of Very Many" refers to the
city of New York-in his own way, does
he weep over the destruction of. the entire
system of public schools, which he believes
to be one of the events of the future! If
these schools were founded on just and
honest principles, if the history and read
ing books used in them were not (some-
times at least) caricatures on the Oldest
form of Christianity, your correspondent
would not now, with grief, behold this
school system standing on its last legs.
Those men who are at the present time
preparing system of common schools for
Knoxville, ought to learn lesson from
the past, and reflect calmly on what is
taking place in New York and other large
cities. L trust they will not in the Begin
ming commit mistake-that they will
settle ''this question distinctly and finally
now," and let me add, what must have oc-
Cured to Zone of Very Many let
them settle it for eUer. q 47ftH caHAs
The writer would insinuate thai, all this
trouble is put in motion by the Priest.
Religious education is as dear to the hum
blest Catholic as it is to the most exalted
Ecclesiastic. The Priest, too, 'acknowl-
edges supreme allegiance, not to the Gov
ernment which protects him, but to the
Popev' A base calumny, worthy of other
days, and which possesses the same amount
of truth as other charges, such as that
Catholics wOrshiD images and adore the
Blessed Virgin. Catholics recognize-in
the Pope the supreme, visible head of the
Church, and believe he has been divinely
appointed to feed the lambs, and to feed
the sheep. The Pontif is our head in
spiritual but not in temporal matters, and
I believe facts will prove that Catholics
are as firm in their allegiance to the au-
thorities that rule as the members of other
den ominations. M. j. FINNEGAN.
PROHIBITION IN MICHIGAN.-The new