The New York herald., 1875-08-24
Religion I'm Politics.

we read with regret the speech OF GeneraI
Noyes, delivered at Bellefontaine, Ohio, few
days since. In this speech the General
alluded TO the war made by Gladstone in
England, Bismarck in Germany and Victor
Emmanuel in Italy upon 'the temporal pre-
tensions of the Pope of Rome, to show that
while His Holiness was losing his authority
in government affairs in Europe he was turn
ing his eyes toward 'this Republic, with its
free institutions" The Governor pointed out
the fact that the Catholic Church in America
has risen in eighty-6ve years from numer-
ical ratio of one in one hundred and thirty
one to one in six, and has become arrogant
and selfasserting eff it has become neces-
sary" says the Governor, ''to be Catholic in
order to be a democrat there viii be fewer
democrats"
The introduction of the question into the
Ohio campaign gives it a morbid and unnat-
ural importance. 1t has no business there.
There is no real issue behind Catholicism
and Professionalism. Speeches like Governor
Noyes' are the efforts of the demagogue to
obtain votes by appealing to the religious
impressions of the masses 1t has always
been the pride of our country that we grant
absolute liberty of conscience. We think
that the leaders of the Catholic Church have,
in many cases, been ill-advised and strenu-
ous in their devotion to their faith. We
think the movement last summer, for in
stance, in New York by which it was pro-
posed to divide the school fund so as to
allow the Catholics to receive their share of
the general school money was mistake 1t
would be blunder in violation of all the
principles of republican government to con-
sent that the public funds for the education
of the young should be controlled by any
Christian denomination. This would be to
drift into the very condition of affairs which
has led to the troubles in Germany and
Italy. Even apart from the mistake in pa
triotic point of view of endeavoring to revive
this question of religion there comes the
further question of apprehending the power
of the Catholic Church. AS Governor Noyes
showed, the Catholics in America are as
one in every six. In other words, this is a
country containing five Protestants to one
Catholic. The United States is a stronger
Protestant country to-day than British Amer
lea, Germany or Great Britain. 1t has the
strongest Protestant power in the world.
Nor does the Catholic Church make any un-
usual advance in this country. Its increase
comes largely from Ireland. But our emil
grafton from England and Wales and Scot
land and Germany and the Scandinavian
countries makes us question now whether the
larger part do not belong to the Protestant
faith. There is no fear that the Catholic
Church will become dominant power in
this country. The tendency of modern
thought, especially in liberal nations, is to
swing away from the teachings of that faith.
Even good, devoted Irish people complain of
the difficulty they have in keeping their
children who are born in this country within
the circles of the Church Therefore to ap-
peal to the Protestant feeling against the
Catholic religion is to ask the country to rise
up and stamp on sect which is only repre-
sented by one citizen in six
1t is not wise to pursue the discussion. If
the republicans in Ohio cannot carry their
State without invoking that dreaded phan-
tom, religious intolerance" then they
should retire from politics. We regard the
public man who appeals to the religious pas
sions of the people to serve his political
interests as the worst kind of demagogue.