New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-29

title Of any kind whatever from any king
prince or foreign State.
This would forbid any oficeholder of thu
United States from receiving the hat as Z
present, or the Office of Cardinal as title
but it could not exclude citizen not al
oftlceholder from accepting the same com
piiment. His holiness not being king o.
prince, and scarcely foreign State, is il
an anomalous condition not contemplated
by our constitution, so that case of those
honorable hats might be sent and dis
tributed without any loyal exception
There is far higher reason than popular
tolerance which protects the hat from
criticism. When men become American
citizens they realize that others accord te
them the right Of religious opinion
They find that Jew and Gentle, Protest
ant and Papist can serve in the same
ranks, sit on the same jury, deal together
as partners in property or trade, and
separate on the day which each
may call it's Sabbath and worship
the same God, or His Trinity, according
to such mode as each may deem most &C.
ceptable. Experience has taught that this
federation of spiritual faith, with this CO.
operation in temporal actions, is not in
compatible with the greatest national
force and religious vitality. When, there
fore. any variety of religious faith which
has held a neighborhood monopoly in
Europe comes across the ocean with the
paraphernalia that may have struck awe
into the hearts of its worshipers, it is met
on coming ashore, and before it has even
unpacked its regalia, by some &C.
climated member of the same faith,
who says: "You are welcome. I have
long hoped to see the day when
the ensignia of our beloved faith might
be displayed in the eyes of free people.
But ] must in candor tell you that they
are not people to be moved by mere
spectacle. Show them the beauty and
truth of our creed. Demonstrate to them
the practical usefulness of those doctrines
which make the poor the inheritors of
their rights in this world as Of their sal
walton in the next. Teach our charities,
our virtues, our intelligence, and you will
win the approval of a people who have
had guaranteed to them the right to choose
their own way among the many paths
placarded by the ticket agents of each as
the shortest to happiness by three hours
and twenty-five minutes"
An established religion transplanted to
a free country becomes more vital and
more attractive. 1t is just as when men
prepare for any other competitive exam
nation. When the price is neither wealth
nor high ecclesiastical station, those who
enter the contest are naturally sincere
men, and better examples than elsewhere
md under an established system. A cler-
3yman of any persuasion entering the
field Of competition for the cure of souls
will find the Methodist circuit rider as
poor and as pious as the order of St.
[gnatius. He will meet the Presbyterian
u Episcopal clergyman as threadbare
md as earnest as any Carthusian
ever was, teaching and preaching with
out pay. He will find the Baptist
aboring alike with the most intelligent
md the most ignorant. With all these
md with each of these will any competitor
nave to contend. 1t will be in vain to rely
lpon the mere force Of precedent or the
external infiuen noes Of spectacle. We
therefore, look with curiosity wholly I'M
'lloyed with apprehension upon the i'm
of the red hat We do not look
'pon it as in any respect part of the
scarlet abomination' which our in
uriated English ancestors denounced.
We do not object even to the ultra doc
rine announced by a correspondent of
he Bulletin:
In the evening Father Ryan, "the poet
'riest of the SOUTH preached at the Cathe-
ral with his usual poetic eloquence and
erse logic. l failed to discover the Il aw in
he argument by which he apparently
roved cOnclusively, if a man be Christian
t all, he can not consistently be otherwise
han Catholic.
Certainly, if any man thinks this, let him
ay it. If any man disputes this, let him
ontrovert it, But let there be neither
'astile nor Inquisition about it. Plate
sked, "What is TRUTH Thomas Jeffer-
on said, Error ceases to be dangerous
'hen reason is left free to combat it.
he United States then offers an arena
pom which men may dispute in bloodless
ombat upon the great questions which
ave divided, distracted and enslaved the |
Iorld. Whether the athletes arrive in |
be nervous nudity of truth, or arrayed
/ the self-sufficient armor of sectarian |
Tolerance, will have little effect upon the
,sult of the combat. The black skull |
ap Of Geneva, the broad brim of the |
uaker, the shorn crown of the monk,
r the cropped poll of the Roundhead,
ave exactly the same respect in America
the reddest hat in Rome.
WANTED, NOT RHETORIC |
Our contemporaries have at last begun
, roaoorixo tho foc that 10