The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-09-17
"THE SCHOOL QUESTION IN OHIO. ?,


Eugene Lawrence, in HarYeT'S Weekly,
of September Is. 1873, in an admirable
article, under the above caption, sets
forth in plain and unmistakabie terms
the evidence of the alliance between the
Democratic politicians and tie Catholic
priests 70 destroy the common school
system of the United States. The con-
clusion Of the article is as follows:
Ohio, most the central State Of the
Union, surrounded by it, swift rivers
and tranquil lakes, the home Of an in
telligent and cultivated population, full
of the promise of future progress and
prosperity, has been chosen by the Ko-
man Catholic priesthood as tiae scene Of
their first open attempt to enforce their
supremacy by Il political intrigae. For
tunate would l. be for the nation and
the continent shCnld they receive 20
complete an overthrow Is may show
them and their allies the real strength
of American principle. Within tn last
twenty years the rapid growth of the
pIpal power among us has poisoned the
sources of our civilization with European
barbarisms. From the union of the cor
upt Democracy and the papal priests
has sprung up class of politicians 10
whom the very name of freedom is obi
Gus, because it was ever the symbol OF
honesty and purity, who have willingly
sold their integrity for the profits OF
Office, and sunk into Il servile obedience
TO the foreign Church. Whenever the
Democracy and the papai priests have
triumpled together in our elections,
I.. 81. Il
vicious, thievish, brutal, and ignorant.
or else the companions and the allies of
thieves The Democratic politicians who
have ruled in our ultramontane centres
have usually been traitors, or even the
leaders of rebellion; public robbers, in
private vicious beyond example The
Cincinnati Enquirer, a Democratic pa
per, admits that the last Ohio Legisla-
ture, or at least that portion of it elected
by the Roman Catholics, and which
obeyed the commands OF the priests,
was the most infamous Assembly the
State had ever known; that they sold
their votes for petty bribes, and covered
up their crime by Il hasty adjournment.
The same class of men, or worse, have
ruled New York for twenty years by the
aid of the foreign Church. 1t is need
less, indeed, TO repeat the story of our
fate. Every year has produced a new
proof of Democratic corruption and
fraud, and of enormous robberies COM
mitted under the shelter of Il foreign
Church, which has never denied the
right of asylum to its own asSassins and
thieves. Democratic leaders piundered
the Sinking Fund of the State of 81, 0O0,-
600, the canals of a limitless sum, the
city of New York nearly OF its credit and
good name, and the nation almost of its
existence. In every other State where
the foreign Democracy has gained a
temporary control it has been equally
dangerous and daring-in Ohio, Con
necticut, New Hampshire, Missouri.
There is nowhere any difference in the
product of the conspiracy of the Demo
Gratis and the priests, and every politi-
clan who sells his honor and influence to
Rome sinks into moral languor and
decay. There is, indeed, no more curl
Gus subject of study than the effect of
the growth of the papal influence upon
our Democratic politicians and the swift
rise among them, under the teachings of
the foreign Church, of characters and
practices that would do no discredit to
the days of the Borgias. A Fisk, or
Tweed, is only the most notorious of a
dangerous throng of inferior politicians.
The note of reform has come from
Ohio In all its tasteful cities and viii
lagos its people rally against the growth
of papal barbarisIn. Admirable, pure,
and thoughtful men lead on the ranks
of the Republicans. Ii is as if the hon
esty and intelligence of the State had
risen in defense of knowledge and of
education, of American principles and
social progress. The ''sclOol question"
has given to politics a nobler aim; and
the Republican victory in Ohio in the
fall will be remembered by countless ana
grateful generations as the first impulse
of reaction and reform against that tide
of foreign corruption which for twenty
years has been slowly sapping American
institutions. EUGENE LAWRENCE.
DSsA
THE Catholic Telegraph, thc organ of
Archbishop Purcell, boldly takes the
stump for the Geghan Democracy. 1t
pictures in direful terms the disaster thar
would have befaIlan that party had it
been so blinded and infatuated as to re-
iect the claims of Saint Geghan for re-
election to the Assembly. 1t says:
Had the Democratic Convention re-
fused to nominate Mr.. Geghan, every |
Catholic citizen, who honored his man
hood and religion, would have vindica- /
ted both by withdrawing his support |
from the Democratic ticket. Catholic |
citizens would have punished the mean,
contemplate eowatdice which suggest |
ed the rejection OF Grghan's name. by |
political revolution which would have |
astonished Democratic bigotry.
Had Mr. Geghan been defeated, higotry |
would have assumed that his defeat was |
accomplished by the strength of their |
accusations, and the poltroonery of par
ty would have given TO it the color of |
truth. The desertion of Geghan would |
not have stilled the anti Catholic cru
sade, but it 29O1sld haze ytiJTed the in
dignation and resentment OF fifty thous-
and Catholic voters in this State.
Perhaps those Democrats who are op-
posed to introducing sectarianism in pol
itics will rebuke the Telegraph editor.
If threat to withdraw the support of
an entire church from political party
is not Introducing sectarianis.n in pol
itics," We. are at n loss to know what
would be so considered.
THE rapid degeneracy of the revolu-
tionary currency has often been de-
scribed, and BlantOn Duncan, who sup
piled the COnfederacy with rag money,
has recently told how fast its fall when
it ceased to be recognized He says:
In November, 1861. the carrency was
only worth IS cents in gold. In May,
1862, it was at so cents In November.
1862, As cents to so cents. In July. 1868,