The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-09-10
CHURCH AND STATE.

4 III u NH IL
THE CATHOLICS AND THE COMMON SCHOOLS
SENATOR THURMAN's VIEWS ON
J THE GEGHAN BILL.
The radical party in Ohio have endeav-
ored to stir up religious strife by the cry
that the public schools are in danger from
the Vaccinations of the Catholic church.
Hon. Allen G. Thurman in a speech made
at Cleveland on last Saturday week took
up this question in all its bearings. After
| showing that there never was a public
measure adopted by the democratic party
| that gave to the Catholic or any other
| church any preference or advantage over
any other sect or body Of men, he demon
| strated that from the foundation of the
government the democratic party had de-
Tended the rights of conscience and oppos-
ed the union of Church and State. He
proved that the common school system in
Ohio was established and fostered by the
democratic party, and that the late demo-
cratic convention had adopted as a part of
the State Constitution the provision that
mo religious or other sect or sects shall
ever have any exclusive right to, or control
of, any part of the school funds of this
State" All efforts to interfere with the
status of the common schools had boeu
time and again voted down by democratic
legislatures. 1t was reserved for a repub-
lican Congress to attempt to destroy the
school system by the mixed school system
provided in the Civil Rights bill.
Passing by his eloquent vindcation of
the democratic party upon other topics we
quote in full his remarks upon the legisla-
ton Of the Ohio Legislature last winter out
of which the radical party is trying to
make capital. He said
In close connection with the false clamor
about the schools isanother false clamor of
priestly interference in politics. We hear
great deal about bill passed by the last
Legislature, commonly called the ''Geghan
Bill" and to listen to a radical stumper or
read n radical newspaper, a man, knowing
nothing else of the subject, would suppose
that that bill was a frightful enormity Civ
ing peculiar and immense advantages to
the Catholic church over the other church>
es in the State. But these alarmists take
good care not to produce the bill itself; be-
cause it is only necessary to read it to see
that there is no foundation whatever for
their denunciatiOns. There is not word
about the Catholic church in the Gephan
law, not a provision that gives to that
church the slightest preference over any
other church, not provision that is not
found in substance in the Constitution of
the State, and that was not found in our
old constitution. Ever since Ohio has
been a State, ever since the year of our
Lord 1872, the principles of the Geghau
bill have been II part of our fundamental
law. The old constitution declared s.tha.
all men have a natural and indefeasible
right to worship Almighty God according
to the dictates of conscience that no hu-
man authority can, in any case sohateyer,
control or interfere with the rights of con>
science; that no man shall be compelled to
attend, erect or support any place of wor-
ship, or to maintain any ministry against
his consent; that no preference shall ever
be given, by law, to any religious society
or mode of worship, and no religious tests
shall be required, qualification, to any
office, of trust or profit But religion,
morality and knowledge, being essential
ly necessary to good government and
the happiness of mankind, schools and
the means Of instruction shall forever be
encouraged by legislative provisions, not
Inconsistent with the rights of conscience"
The same provision, enlarged in its scope
is found III the present constitution, which
declares, article 1, section Z, that, '.Ar men
have a natural and indefeasible right to
worship Almighty God according to the
dictates of their own conscience. No per-
son shall be compelled to attend, erect, or
support any place of worship, or maintain
any form of worship, against his consent,
and no preference shall be given, by law, to
any religious society; nor shall any interior
ence with the rights of conscious be per-
mitted. No religious test shall be reqrlir-
ed, as Il qualification for Office, nor shall
any person be incompetent to be a witness
on account Of his religious belief; but
nothing herein shall be construed to dis
pense with oaths and affirmations Reli-
gion, morality and knowledge, however,
being essential to good government, it
shall be the duty of the general assembly
to pass suitable laws to protect every reli-
gious denomination in the peaceabe en-
.joyment of its own mode of public worship,
and to encourage schools aud the means of
instruction.
Now, this constitutional provision COM
pletely covers the Geghan laws, for what
man will dare to assert that the inmates of
our asylums, or even the convicts of our
pententiary, are less entitled to the rights
of conscience than other men, or less enti-
lied to the ministry of religion, or that they
can be compelled to attend any place of
worship, or maintain any form of worship
against their consent? The constitution
embraces every man woman and child in
the state, the guilty AS well as the innocent,
the prisoner as well as the freeman. The
Legislature can inflict penalties for the
commission Of crime, but there is one pen
atty it cannot infiict, one penalty that the
constitution imperatively forbids, and that
is, a deprivation of the rights Of conscience
And now, whas is the Geghan law? Let
me read it, and you will see that every
word / have said is strictly correct, and
that the clamor against it has not the slight
est foundation in reason or truth. 1t reads
as follows:
GAN ACT to secure liberty of conscience
in matters of religion to persons impris-
oned, or detained by authority of law.
SECTION /. BE it enacted by the general
assembly of the state Of Ohio. That as lib
! erty of conscious is not forfeited by reason
| of conviction of crime or by reason of de-
tention in any penal, reformatary, eleemosy-