Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-09-05
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE,.

Are Politics and Morality SeparabIe?
 l apprehend that nothing as a public question, has been more universally misunderstood for long time past, or, at least, mlsrepresented, than the mu- tual relations of politics and pure moral lty, and, what take leave to think, the lndlvlslble connection between them
 We every day hear 1t said, according as It suits the partial views of particular parties, that such and such d class of persons, priests especially, should take no part ln politics, their part being pure morality and religion. Now, those parties, for reasons of their own, choose to deter priests from the sphere of poli- tlcs, by harrassing them with doubts from within, and something like appro- blum from without, should they at any time assert right to any portion of that domain, which, they say, belongs exclusively to lay politicians. It is time to sift this question thoroughly, if it be a question, because so long as 1t is un- settled It can, by eX parte views of it and sinister misstatements, be applied
 to very fatal uses. Perhaps the ob-
 Jectors are right, but no one will deny that the subject deserves discussion.
 There are some subjects which from
 their very plalnness and self-evident
 meaning, it IS somewhat difficult to ap- preach, on which one can scarcely go astray, even If he wished it. To my
 mlnd thls seems one. It appears to me plain that the great evils, the positive ruin with which politicians have at va rious times swept the surface of society, often overW helmed and destroyed it, sprung generally from the extradition Ot religious belief, and the want of we'll dIrected moral sentiment. This seems 50 plain to me that 1 cannot escape the conviction, firm and undoubting, that to eliminate from practical politics the
 WholeSOme guidance or assistance of practical morallsts, priests especially, is to hand over society to it's natural ene- mes, and to intercept the influence of religion in those high departments
 where, heaven knows, iL is most needed, and where 1t would be plainly and surely conducive to the greatest good of
 the greatest humber. Ministers of re- ilglon are obliged to make themselves especially acquainted with the practical duties annexed to the various states of
 lie ln which spiritual subjects may be found. They are bound to know the duties of parent towards his children, ot guardian towards his wards, of a physician towards his patients. of lawyer towards his clients. Why? Is it tor ornament! Or Is it not rather to see to the enforcement of those duties, and Ill order that these various classes of
 persons may be instructed by his wis don, and guided by his advice and au- Ghorlty to avoid those countless and fatal
 pitfalls which lie scattered far and near
 Lo eaten the unwary steps of men. 1 should like to know then, when, w here and by whom were politicians exempted
 from their jurisdiction or their charges.
 Is the interest of d lawyers client a soli-
 tary unit ot more consequence in the eyes Ot religion than the life long vel fare ot millions, or to speak in reference to elections, will it be gravely main- tained that the interest which ought to
 be advocated in parliament, are of less importance than those which occupy
 the attention of a petty sessions court,
 or of the court of Queens bench. Who are they who say this? When
 was in the old land, at any public
 meeting called of the inhabitants of any
 considerable town i'll Ireland, I could
 without any guide or advice place my
 finger on the men, of all those present,
 who would be likely to say, no priests
 in politics. 1 would know them by that
 pursy and prim gentility which is sure to embellish the successful trader, or peculator as it may be, who unwitting-
 ly steps into pillory by aping to-day the manner and the sentiments he saw but
 at distance until yesterday, and which
 therefore he may caricature but must fail to initiate. His own class despises him, the class he affects laughs at him. These are the men who say that a
 prie& ts duty is to pray and by prayer to stand between the people and their calamities. l admit the truth of the proposition, but desplse the application
 of it that is insinuated, for I happen to
 know that to neg glect the human means that are within our reach and to pray for divine miraculous interposition may l conduce to ones personal ease and en- joyment, but is certainly not in accord
 ance with the principles of sound the ology or good sense. When one sees the resolute and pious priests, and arch bishOps-Walsh and Croke, etc, etc, whose hearts melt to the wrongs of their people-pointed at by knaves and pedants, and libelled by landlord news papers as exceeding their duty, it is full
 time to Say plainly that such men are | the very salt of their class, and that we
 can recognize no services within the
 sanctuary as fulfilling all the duties of l their order among people who are
 vanishing from the face of the earth, so completely as those are fulfilled by l them. 1 shall conclude for the present by expressing my emphatic conviction | that morality should be the recognized | basis of every political movement, and | that, what is truly to be deplored in this | matter is, not the interference of priests I in politics, but that hitherto their inter- | ference has been desultory and divided, and therefore unhaDDily ineffective