New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-26
THURSDAY, DECEMBER %, 1872.
Erroneous Notions About Reis'
Clous Liberty.

The jealous ministers, who have protested
40 angrily against the singing OF secular songs
in the public schools, manifest such truly
deplorab!e ignorance either OF the Constita-
tion and our institutions, or such incurable
incapacity of interpreting them properly, that
the attempt to enlighten them Oh tho sub
iect, seems to be hopeless from the outset.
Can they not understand that our Govern
ment has nothing, whatever, to do with re-
ligion; that it is simply secular one, that 1t
is prohibited by the Constitution from making
any religious establishment in favor OF any
creed or sect, and that just its secular charac-
fer is one of the chief guarantees OF our re-
lisious liberty. Will it by no means enter
into their heads that though the majority
rules in politics, in religion the smallest frac-
tion-nay, the single individual belonging 10
some particular creed, is entitled to the same
rights and the same consideration as the most
numerous body, and that in the United States,
at least, the adherent of confucius or Ma
homet is entirely the equal of the Methodist
and the Episcopalian? Indeed, if they could
rise at all to fair and impartial considera-
ton of the case, it would not fail to become
clear to them, that while ostepsibly clamor-
ing for liberty Of conscience for themselves,
they claim, in fact, privileges at tho expense
Of those who do not believe like them. Our
public schools are most cminently secular in
stitutions, since they are the means Of secu-
lar instruction furnished by the State, the
secular Government, which, as such, neither
can have any religion at all, nor provide le-
eally and constitutionally for any religious
teaching or ceremony without overstepping
its authority. All the instruction given ought
consequently to be strictly limited to secular
matters, and even the singing of sacred songs
If put to the test-would not be found adj
m;ssible, since every one of them gives OK
preston, more or less distinctly, to some
creed or the other, which thus would be ia
yored at the expense Of any other. Those
jealous Christians object to secular songs,
and want sacred ones in their place, but
would they consider themselves accommo'
dated if. for instance, invocations OF the Vir-
gin Mary and of the Saints were to take the
place Of their own old familiar hymns? By
no means! They would protest just as In
dienan.ly az they are doing now, and IT
pressed, would tell plainly that they want
their Methodist hymns, and yet, it does not re-
quire much brains locomotive how utterly OBJ
jectionable these hymns must be to Catholics,
how unpalatable to Unitarians and Cniver-
.alists the illusions to hell and the devil, in-
dispensable as they are to good staunch
Methodist, who, in fact, would not know how
TO get along comfortably without them. 1t
will not do to answer that the majority of
the children attending the schools In ques-
ton, belong to the Methodist denomination
for that would virtually establish the princi-
pie of the right Of the majority to exercise an
odious supremacy over minorities. Our
friends must necessarily know besides, that
if they are 80 anxious to promote that which,
to them, is the true faith, they are fully en-
titled under our laws, guaranteeing full re-
ligious liberty to all, to establish denomina-
tional schools of their own, admission to
which will be made conditional on pro-
fession of Methodism; tohave all their school
books adapted to the standard OF Methodism;
In short, to make the promotion Of Metho-
dism their highest, if not their only, object.
We shall be glad to know them thus enl-
ployed, but unless they choose to do so, they
would better devote themselves entirely to
sacred matters and leave secular ones to
those to whom they properly belong, since
they have clearly shown that they have
neither tact nor judgment to deal successfully
with worldly affairs.