Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-09-03
Ihe schnnI nnrsllnn In polllics.

Gen. Garfield, of Ohio. is reported a hay-
inc. in recent interview, expressed the
lollowin. views on the school question,
which is so prominent an issue in Ohio:
81 am sorry that the Catholic question.
a. connected with the public school system,
is rapidly becoming an important element
in our politics In Ohio the Catholic eler-
w are trying to show that our public
schools are goddess and worthless. The
Democrats have practically indorsed this
position, and are thus striking blow at
the basis of our fundamental liberties. The
issue. which should never have been made
in this country, seems to have come.
have been looking over the literature OF this
question. and it seems to me that it is one
Of the greatest issues of the age. The
batteries that are levelled ut our school
system are planted on the Vatican. The
history Of the last fifteen years in Europe
and this country shows this. Look at the
syllabus of 1868. 1t is an 'anathema-ma-
ranatha' against all modern civilization.
1t declares that all men are not equal. 1t
denies liberty of conscience. it insists
that allegiance to a foreign, religious and
would-be temporal sovereign is superior to
fealty to our national life. 1t declares that
the doctrine that all men shall have the right
to worship GoG according to the dictates of
their own cOnsciences is perniciOus and un-
Christian. 1t makes proclamation that toll
Grafton of non-papists is unpleasing to the
Most High. Ii is bull against modern
thought 1t i defiance of modern progress.
The vice-regents of the Pope seem everywhere
=. L.. f, tho apevaliaol | nu
surprised and alarmed 10 see how loud the
papal anathemas are sounding in the midst
of our American cOmmonwealths. The con-
test which for seven years has been waged
in the Old World has come to the New. The
ground that papal authority has lost in
Europe il is seeking to regain here. Austria
has abolished the cOneordat but the red hat
has been elevated in America, and the doc
trines of the concordat haze been placed in
the Democratic platform in Ohio. The tenn
poral power has been abolished in Rome,
but the papists in America are reaching out
after the school fund In Switzerland the
the same contest is going on. The
only important thing that our good
friend CASTELAR, has accomplished in
Spain is to call attention to the
inroads of ecclesiastical dominion. In France
the Pope is gaining ground. In England
Gladstone is engaged in contest similar to
that of Bismarck in Germany. In Germany
the iron-handed Bismarck is fighting against
the power of the Vatican with the most re-
lentess hand. He found the emissaries of
the Pope trying to obtain possession OF uni
versity, church and state. He is proceeding
against them with that iron hand. He could
tolerate in the empire of the Hohenzollerns
no foreign power. He denied the right OF
contemporaneous sovereignty to the descend
ant of the Pepins. lie found that modern
thought demanded higher honors than to
have its banished name hang on St. Peters
door in the Inder Erpmyatorius. lie saw
that the encyclical and the nineteenth cent
ury made a sorry brotherhood, and he has
made successful war against it. Driven
from Europe. this power seems to be coming
here 1t is in our campaign in Ohio this
fall