The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-12-04
INNS are offered, ana grand p4,ior o!sau
worth $3.50. For particulars address Alex
andcr Frazer, Secretary, Polo.
FIGHTING THE POPE.

F1GHTlNG The fofE.
Fearful of hazarding the future existence
of the party on a successful encounter with
the rag baby, of which the most prominent
wetnurses are leaders in their own ranks, and
not daring to 60 before the people on their
own foul party record, the radicals have about
fully determined to rely for success in the
next presidential campaign on crusade
agains, the pope. The keynote was sounded
by Grant himself in his speech at Des Moines
ana now the executive committee Of the "un
ION League of America have had secret
conyocstion and Issued an address in which
they endorse and back up the presidential
Elimination The pretext for the revival OF
this Know Nothing crusade against the Vat.
lean is, that the public shoots are in danger
The Roman Catholics, who are now supposed
to number about onetenth of the population
of the country, they say are leagued together
to put down our public schools, and the ig
norance and bigotry of the country are to bG
appealed TO ana aroused for their protection
Granting, for the sake of the argument, that
the Roman Catholics are hostile to the com.
mon school system as conducted in most OF
the states, the question occurs, precisely how
does it become the province of the Union
League to take up arms in defense of that
system? The League" is supposed to have
for Its especial mission the agglutination, con.
solldation and guardianship Of the Union of
the states, and this stepping aside from lis
peculiar vocation to intermeddle with a mat.
ter so outside of its natural range looks very
much like contemplate piece Of demagog.
ism.
But is it true that the Roman Catholics are,
in any legitimate sense, opposed to our pub
lic schools? AS conducted in parts of New
England and scattered localities throughout
the west, doubtless they are. Not only, in
many of the public schools of the country, is
the protestant bible required to be daily read,
but daily protestant religious services are re-
quired and antiRoman Catholic text books
are used. The Roman Catholics, who pay
their taxes equally with protestants to sup.
port these schools, would be no better than
heather if they did not oppose such schools.
But expel from the public schools all that sa-
vors of sectarianism, and place Roman Cath
olics, professionals, Jews and pagans on the
same footing, and the Roman Catholic oppo.
sition to the public schools would be no great
er at least than that of the zcalots of other re-
ligious denominations.
+, : l. ,o1I ola do 10 10
schools from the Roman Catholics would be
on other accounts in the last degree ridicu
lous, we're 1t not mischievous. Though the
Roman Catholic church is beyond question
an engine of great power, its numbers in
with the anti-cathOlic masses of
our population are so inconsiderable that a
crusade against that church would SAVIOR of
sheer persecution, and would make the hated
vastly more friends than enc
mics. AS now situated, the American people
have no notion whatever Of abandoning the
system of education which they have been at
such pains and at such cost to establish. No
political party advocates snch an abandon
ment As contemporary forcibly remarks,
at is so firmly imbedded in the convictions
and prejudlces of the American people, and
the foolish agents of foreign ecclesiastical
courts who assail it are so impotent, even
among their own followers, that their warfare
is ludicrous."
But il must be borne in mind that il is all
the more because the system is so strong that
it becomes good cry to proclaim it in dan
ger and to set up bowling over It,
The real wicked motive of it however is
apparent enough. 1t is to suppress and eli.
inmate from the issues of the next presiden-
tisl campaign those other questions which
radicalism shrinks from facing, and which,
If fairly brought to issue in the popular for
lm, the leaders of that party well know will
crush them out of existence beneath an ava
anche Of popular indignation and scorn.