The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-09-16

From Harper's Weekly.l
Religion and Politics.


leaders and newspapers deprecate the
dragging of religion into politics, by
which they mean that they disapprove
the Republican declarations against sec
tartan division of the school money. The
Democratic managers wish that the Ro-
man CATHOLIC vote should be Democratic.
They know that the price is concession
! to the Roman Catholic demands and as
it is an unsavory bargain, they naturally
do not wish public attention called to the
fact and terms of payment. 1t is an old
trick for the pickpocket to raise the cry
of Stop thief. If political conventions
take notice of assaults upon the public
school system, it is because such assaults
are made; and if the attacking party re-
grets that there should be any trouble,
it is because it is discovered. 1t may be
consoled by the assurance that the trou-
BILE will be constantly watched and ex-
posed until it is settled. 1t is not four
centuries since the Church of Rome un-
dertook to control and regulate
the politics of all Christendom,
and to-day, wherever it is strong enough,
to make political trouble, it does not fail
to do it. 1t is the fundamental principle
of Rome that it ought to direct every re-
lation and manage every institution in
human society, in virtue of being the i'm
mediate representative of Heaven upon
earth. And as this is claim which is
contemptuously rejected by the enlight-
ened common-sense of Christendom,
what is called religion-that is, the in
trigues of priestcraft-will be always
dragged into politics" wherever the &C.
clesiastical power sees good opening
How this has been done in the State
of Connecticut we recently showed. In
New York we are familiar with the effort
Its latest exhibition here was the propo-
sition to support the Roman Catholic pa
rochial schools with the public money;
and in Ohio the proceedings in regard to
the Geghan bill illustrate not only the
spirit and political purpose of the Roman
Church, but the means by which it seeks
to accomplish that purpose. For in eve
ry case the blow at the American princi-
pie of the separation of church and state
is struck by the hand of the Democratic
party. The story of the Geghan bill is
very simple, but it is very instructive.
Last winter Mr.. Geghan, a Democrat and
a Roman Catholic, introduced bill into
the Ohio Legislature providing that eve
ry inmate of a Jail or other public insti-
tuition should have such religious attend |
ance as he desired, and that ample and |
equal facilities" for religious ministra
tions should be furnished to all. The |
Gus, and as there was some delay, Mr.. |
Geghan wrote letter to the Enquirer,
stating that it was "a Catholic measure"
Catholics solely" because there /
was an unjust discrimination in such in
stitutions against Roman Catholic clergy
men. But no such obnoxious discrimi-
nation can be found in the laws of Ohio.
In urging his claim Mr.. Geghan declared
that the Roman Catholics had "a prior
claim upon the Democratic party" be-
caEse tWo-thirds of it was composed of
Roman Catholics, and if the Legis-
lative ma1erity hesitated, they
should hear from their constituents Mr..
Geghan's letter not being sufficiently per-
suasiye, the Catholic Teles--ah the or
gan of the Roman Catholic Arcnla-llap
Purcell, opened heavy fire upon the
Democratic leaders, openly telling them
that it would not be safe for them to Gig
more or. despise'' the fifty thousand Cath
olic voters of Ohio, and informing them,
with supreme arrogance, that the Demo-
cratic party ''is now upon its trial: Mr.
Geghan's bill will test the sincerity of its
profession" The Roman Catholic cler-
~ appeared in the lobby of the Legisla-
5ure to sustain the measure; and the
Democratic leaders yielded, and under
the most resolute and public ecclesiasti-
/
under Democratic auspices, the Roman
Catholic Church, whose political inter
ference is rejected even by Austria, has
dictated law of Ohio. The Telegraph
1eigned to express its approval, and i'm
said that "the unbroken, sol
ID vote of the Catholic citizens of the
State will be given to the Democracy at
the fall election"
The Democratic party in Ohio consents
to be the tool of ecclesiastical politics.
1t passed the Geghan bill under the
crack of the Roman Catholic whip. Is it
to conclude that it will pur- ]
sue similar course in regard to any
grievance" that the Roman political
managers may plead? Confessedly their
great grievance" is that the school mon
~ is not divided Schools which are not
Roman they denounce as Protestant or
Goddess, and insist that it is religious
persecution to tax them for their sup
port. They might as we'll argue that the
American navy is Goddess because it is
not oficered and managed by Roman
priests, and that it is gross injustice to
TAX Roman Catholics to support the ex-
oense of secular frigates. The State, as
such, the government, has nothing to do
with religion. The Roman demand is
that it shall have; that either the State
money raised by the school tax shall be
divided among the sects This is a de-
mand either that the State shall not ed
ucate its children, or that it shall foster
religious hatred, which is State suicide
The only possible danger of this calami-
ty lies in Democratic subservience to Ro-
man Catholic sectarian aggressions.
[From Harper's Weelly.l