New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-01-07
THE PAPACY AND THE ELECTION
Progress of Catholic Intrigue in Ameri-
can Politics.

Whatever may be the result of the cleo
ton of 1876, whatever difficulties and
dangers may still surround it, there can
be no doubt that the intelligence of the
country has exerted itself with unusual
vigor in its centennial year, and has pro-
nounced decided condemnation of the
policy of the papal and Democratic party.
Wherever the teacher has ruled and COM
mon schools prevail there has been no
tendency to reaction, no desire to revive
in the New World the religious and secu-
lar distinctions of the Old. To create an
ignorant commonalty and ruling caste,
to fill the country with charity schools
and sectarian seminaries, to menace the
press, drive out free speech by force and
even use violence to insure the political
subsection of the masses, are the aims and
practices only of the least intelligent
sections of the nation; and we have the
not unusual spectacle of the intense ig-
norance of the degraded quarters of
few Northern cities, Joined to the wholly
| illiterate sections at the South, making
an almost successful attempt to govern
and destroy the republic. For it is not
possible to believe that under such in
fuences free institutions can continue to
exist unframed. With Mr.. Tilden at its
head, with the papal Democracy of New
York city, and the ruling Confederates of
the South controlling the country, we
could see on the one side only the triumph
of foreign superstition, and on the other
of the lowest traits of barbarism. The
Southern magnnte rules over his ignorant
constituency by nearly the same means
with which Feejee chieftain holds his
saVages in awe; and the Kellys and Til
dens OF New York are the perhaps uncon-
| scious servants of the potent superstition
of infallibilism.
1t is clear proof of the good sense of
the Northern sectien of States that they
have given an almost unanimous rebuke
to this strange alliance. They, at least,
have not been seduced by the extrava-
CANT promises of the papal faction, nor
hurried away by that passion for
"change," of which Mr.. Charles Francis
Adams has avowed himself the easy vic
tim. Wise men do not leap precipice
for change, and the prospect of Confed-
crate rule at Washington would seem a
plunge into an unknown abyss sufficiently
terrible. In the North the papal faction
has been able to gain only four States out
of twenty-five for its Southern friends,
| and sixty-five electoral votes to 166. The
| chain of free States, almost in an I'M
/ broken line, encircles the less Gull
tivated portions of the Union. The
| Eastern have given AN immense and
unusual majority for Republican
ism; the great Northwest, destined to
become the most populous and powerful
section of the country, the granary of the
world, has united once more in the de-
tense of free schools and liberal progress
Nebraska, Nevada, Kansas, keep up the
golden line of intelligence; and all along
the Pacific shores the sentiments of pa
triotism and of union have set at defiance
the unholy league of Southern insurgents
and papal priests. 1t is indeed, pros
pect full of hope. There is safety for the
republic so long as these great and intel
ligent communities keep watch over its
best interests and rule in its politics; and
it is certain that, however the Eastern
section of the Union may be tainted OF
overborne by European influences, the
principles of 1776 will be upheld by the
uncounted millions of educated and in
dustrious citizens who are to people the
| wonderful region that spreads from the
Mississippi to the Pacific.
The real victory Of the papal faction
has lain almost wholly in the large East
ern cities, and chiefly in New York. The
State of New York, in the face of many
encouragement, has given its usual ma
iority for union and good order; the city
of New York, the centre of ultramontan-
ism, has overcome the will of the rest OF
the State, and forced it into the hands OF
Kelly and Tilden. The unhappy condi-
ton of the metropolis, its intolerable gov
eminent, its rising and almost ruinous
taxation, its enormous debt, the swarms
of papal priests md their followers, who
live on its revenues, the vast outlay fol
Roman Catholic seminaries, the financial
ruin that seems possible to await il
in the future, are strange features
in our national life that could nevel
have been looked for; yet it il
this unlucky city that, under its ultra
montana tyranny, has nearly given a com
plete victory to the papal faction in thu
nation. There is, in fact, something al
most ludicrous in the condition of tn
great, intelligent and wealthy metropolis
suffering itself to be governed by strang
Adventures and foreign priests-by 1
class of persons SO stupid or so unpatriot
ic as often to have nearly wrecked tn
country in which they found shelter
and lending its aid to that violent faction
at the South whose only aim is to live b,
the plumber of the industrious North
Our citizens Of New York seem to lavisl
honors upon those who rob thsm, and ad
, mire the dexterity with which they ar
eased of their surplus gains. Our CAPT
talists, who hire guard to protect thei
money vaults from the burglar, are pow
erless before official thieves. For twent
years New York has been the victim of
, Roman Catholic tyranny, and each sue
, ceeding lustrum has seen its resource
squandered with increasing prohigacy
aud new throngs of worthless adventurer
pressed into its political Offices or main
J tanned by its plumber. Its government
nOtoriously bad; It's death rate is highe
than that of any other city; its official
! are often disreputable; its taxation rise
almost to the pitch Of confscation; Il
, revenues are wasted upon Roman Catholi
} seminaries, protectories, founding asy
/ lums; the foreign church despoils it in
} way that la any European city would pr'
duce revolution or a general conhsoatio
] of the papal gains; and its Democrat
and German leaders, closely linked wit
} the ultramontane politicians-with He
} | " or q key-oOnsent TO the tyrann
I Of the papal church, and invoke the il
] reference of the foreign priest in Amer
can politics.
Z Several other cities have fallen in sin
, liar way under Roman Catholic inhuenc
and nave succeeded In breaking tho gel
] erei union Of the Northern States. NJ