The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-09-23
From Harpers weekly.l
The School Question in Ohio.
By EUGENE LAWRENCE


tors and politicians deserves more than {
passing attention. 1t indicates the revl
val in the New World of that absurd self
| esteem and overweening vanity with
which the papacy in the Middle Ages
| looked down upon princes and people.
/ A Borgia or Sixtus ", hid his crimes
| under the cloak of religion, and persecu
| led heretics as the lord of an infallible
| faith; and pride has ever been the distln-
! gushing mark of the most notoriously
vicious of the Popes Their bishops
among us seem to have inherited the un-
apostolic trait. Their newspapers, the
organs of the bishops speak in a tone OF
autL ority certainly not authorized by
| their grammar or their style. They re-
peat week after week their coarse COM
ments upon American manners, morals or
education. Yet what priests or bishops
say to US would scarcely deserve attention
had they not won so firm a hold upon
the leaders of the Democratic party
Heretofore they have ruled the Democ-
racy in secret; now they do so openly,
and no one can any longer fail to see that
Plus TX. and his survile court his bish-
ops and priests, are guiding our boldest
and most daring politicians, that Rome has
touched the sacred source of trans-atlan-
tic freedom, and would poison it forever.
contests the priests and the Democrats
will be naturally arrayed. Governor AL
len, of Ohio, may lament in innocent sur
prise that sectarianism has entered into
our politics Timid editors may share
his alarm; but the fierce and relentless
agents of the papacy have begun in New
York or Ohio war upon American in
stitutions that can never cease until one
or the other of the two contending prin-
cipals bites the dust, and Governor Allen
and Governor Tilden know at least the
fearful despotism to which they have
tied themselves.
Hence the imperious tone of the papal
priests has become singularly odious to
Americans They aspire to command
where they should obey without a MUIR
mur they demand from a free govern
ment privileges which none of their own
governments have ever conferred; they
require implicit confidence not only from
their own followers, but from American
Governors and legislators; they guide
their body ofsupertitious members to the
ruin of their enemies; they threaten, ter
rify, and subdue. One of our city news
papers ventured to print an account Of
the San Minguel massacre, and some Sc
we're comments of an ex-priest upon the
priesthood; it was soon warned by an ul-
tramontane journal that it had surpassed
the limits allowed it by the Church"
and was loaded with coarse abuse. 1t
was required to humble itself before the
priests, and to promise, apparently, that
it would never again report any news that
might give offense to its European mas
ters. Truth, it seems, is not to be told
by our newspapers, less it touch the SEN
sibilities of these good Christian people
IL a.
A censorship of the press is already be- |
gun among US. Fortunately in Ohio ed
itors are allowed more liberty, and the |
pretensions are treated in |
q manner that may well serve as a model |
for timid thinkers in the East. Intense |
prevails throughout the State |
that the Roman Catholic press should !
have promised the Democratic party a
complete victory in October by the aid of
''the Catholic vote" and the intelligence
and honesty of a well-educated commu-
nifty snow a natural alarm at the thought
of sinking again under the control OF the
priests. Says the Cleveland Her
aid, always the active defender OF the
school, august 2l), I'VE have believed
it (the school question: Ito be the grave
question of the year, and have SO treated
it. The Republicans of the twelve West
ern Reserve counties will vote this fall to
the last man. And to a man they will
vote the Republican ticket. And they
will do this because every fibre in West
ern Reserve Republicans body is tingling
with the school question" The bold and
intelligent Cleveland Leader, too, has
carried on the contest against the me-
nacing and unsparing foreign Church with
singular address. 1t has felt that while
the whole Roman Catholic press of the
State was demanding change in the
school law, and boasting, not vainly, of
its control over the Democracy, no honest
American journal could be silent for
shame. Its valuable services in the cause
Of knowledge are felt by its countrymen,
and all the Republican journals in Ohio
have united in a generous defense of ed
lcation. Says the Cincinnati Gazette,
"A Democratic triumph is a Catholic tri-
1mph; Republican triumph Catholic
lefeat" This sentiment is echoed in
every Republican journal and in every
manly nature in Ohio. That single and
foreign sect should enter into American
politics with extraordinary arrogance, de-
iy our laws, contemn our manners, and
offer its whole vote to the Democratic
eaders for set price is something ON
Nous in our history, and which seems to
nave startled even the most ardent parti-
IlSan. MANY O6HOCrdLSi we are IOIu,
will leave their party to avoid being fore
ID into the service of the Roman priest
lood, few honest Germans can any Ion
ger be found on the side of the papal in
1ovators in Ohio.
Judge Taft, cultivated and thought
ul German, has in recent speech ex-
posed to the people of Ohio the real de-
igns of the papacy. 1t is because the
bishops and priests fear the Pope, he
kinks, that they have shown so decided
hostility to the public schools, and (
lothing will satisfy the Papal Curia but
he complete destruction of the system.
It is the papal impulse and the terrors of
Rome that urge on the priesthood in Ohio;
he laity, he hopes, are more tolerant,
md may at last soften the rashness of
heir spiritual guides. Unhlppily Judge
Taft overlooks the fatal element OF this
singular contest which prevails through
,ut all civilization, and of which Ohio
eels only the opening thrill. 1t is the
people who seem to follow most abjectly
he teachings of Rome. The Catholic
Telegraph promises to the Democracy the
solid, unbroken Catholic vote. Not a
man is to be missing, not aeserter to
be spared. At the meeting of the Ger
man Catholic charitable societies. where
It was believed strong opposition would
be shown to the ultramontanes, all re-
sistance was crushed by the nod OF a sim
gle priest, and the whole society pledged
itself to war against knowledge and the
common schools. In New York the
whole Irish Catholic population have gone
year after year in solid mass to the polls