Litchfield enquirer., 1877-05-03
The Curse of Ignorance.

Ollc cnurcn 70 lCS mOnarcnlcal COnsglLutlOn controlled as it is by an army of eccle- siastics independent of the people and subject to the pope. Is not the ignorance of its laity after all the chief factor of its political power? Do the Catholic clergy l of the North really venture upon those gross attacks on the independence of the citizen which have characterized the &C., ton of the colored Protestant churches of the South in their endeavors to force 8 unanimous colored vote We have ynev- CT seen case of such impudent interfer- ence established against, the American Catholic church as the following instance of Protestant tyranny, reported in the New York Times of the 2Oth ult Henry De- mas, colored Louisiana State Senator, one of the most influential negroes in the State. saw fit to join the Nichols legisla- ture. He was immediately put to tort ure for "treason to his race" in the fol- lowing effective manner.
 His old friends and acquaintances turn. ! ed their backs on him in the streets, and he was in every way as completely ostra cized as are the wives and children of Southern Republicans by their Democrat l ic neighbors. Finding that this treatment ! was not likely to have any effect upon him, and that he was determined to stay 1 in the Nichols Legislature, number of 1 his old friends and few of his relatives set about what they called redeeming him from his sin. Their labors resulted in 1,s <nR< 1Tc AxvVa I1R1 was locked and barred against him, and hIs wife wrote him that she would never see nor communicate with him further un- til he had 'purged himself of his guilt and returned to his people," Still be re- fused to leave the Democratic House. Then all the machinery of the church was set to work against him. and on the Sun day following his desertion from the Re- publican ranks he was read out of meet ing aud refused admission to the sacred e0ifice in which he had at one time been the chief pillar. This was too much; he could no longer withstand the pressure mich was brought to bear upon him, and he went to humber of the prominent men in the Nichols party and told them he was going back to the Republican Leg islature. They tried by every means in their power to prevent him from doing SO, but to no purpose. He was deaf to their prayers, threats, curses, and entreaties. Then, by further offers of money and place, they tried to bribe him, but he could not be made to break his resolution. He returned to the Statehouse, took his seat in the Packard Legislature, and now declares that he would not desert it again for all the money in Louisiana. Demas' experience was not an extraordinary one; att cOLored traitors to Packard and the Republican Party are treGted by their ot0n people in the aOGy described, and, as 8 result, it may be stated, that of all the deserters from the Returning Board Leg islature who now occupy seats in the Nichols House, only two are colored men.
 Imagine the uproar that would follow such specimen of ecclesiastical tyranny over Catholic legislator at the North No doubt the American Catholic church exercises large political influence, but it Is far too shrewd to use it in any such gross way. No doubt, also, it's influence tends strongly to the perpetuation of that political uuanimity which Is the most dangerous characteristic of Irish Ameri- canism; but would it dare to punish "trea- son to the race" in the abominable meth ods above described, closing with the tightening of the theological thumbscrew upon the conscience of it's supersti- tious victlm? We imagine, in fact, that the Catholic priesthood are much too shrewd to nse all the political influence they really possess. Aware that in most States their church is an exotic of less than half a century's growth, they avoid as far as possible such action as would be likely 10 lnfame the ancient prejudice against them. The Protestant colored churches of the South are under no such bonds to keep the peace, and their inter- ference in politics has been extremely fragrant and pernicious from the first. The local exhorters of the slavery epoch have blossomed into politicians under Carpet Baggerry, using their position in the church as means of advancement in the State. Early. Reconstruction filled Southern legislatures with swarms of these incompetents, the fuency of speech they had learned at the camp meeting serving only to show in stronger light their absurd ignorance and incapacity.
 Many, too, became thoroughly corrupt and carried home to the church the taint they had contracted in the legisla- ture.
 This illicit connection of church and state has proved of incalculable detrimen, to both. The church has become polit ical engine for crushing out opposition to the politicians who control it, and every attempt to break down the color line. and reform politics has encountered this hate-
 ful combination of bigotry of race, and
 bigotry of religion, in the. interest oi
 selfish intriguers who feared every.
 thing and hoped for nothing from
 Reform.
 Whether or not intelligence without re-
 ligion can be trusted to govern a free
 State, Reconstruction seems to have prov
 ed the incompetence of religion without
 intelligence. Indeed religion without in
 telligence often intensiies rather than all levistes the curse of ignorance in authori
 ty. The ignorant citizen of free state is rendered douhly dangerous from the sn. perstition and bigotry with which his re. ligion is alloyed. On the other hand, we
 are inclined to believe that, with intel. Iligence. the dangers even of so en-
 croaching religious authority as that
 exercised by the Romish church, are
 greatly lessensd, if not entirely removed
 The South will never be we'll governed till it's territory is covered with good com
 mon schools, and till the seed of intelii
 gence, thus planted: has had time to pro duce it's natural fruit. In like manner $
 generation of common schools will effect.
 ually blunt the sting of that Catholic su perstion of which the North lives, in such