The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-30
RELIGIOUS.
FoREIaN coLoN1Es IN AMER1cA.

are we a NaGlon!-Have We AnV Dis
tlnct Nationality?-Have We Right
to a National Life?-Have We Anv
Rights Incident to the Existence of a
Distinct Nation?-What is Our Mis-
sion as a Nation?
The Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr.. pastor
of the Twenty-third Street Baptist
Church, preceded his sermon this
morning at Association Hall by the
following review of current events:
We have been recently startled by a
remarkable scheme for the colonization
of America by foreign powers. The
audacity and impudence of the plan is
sublime, Its utter disregard of the
fact that this Republic has a national
spirit, or is entitled to existence as a
nation, seems to be entirely overlooked.
The author of this remarkable scheme
is one Herr Cahensly, a member Of the
Prussian Diet. His ignorance of the
temper of the American people seems
to be unfathOmable. And yet his
scheme seemsto have awakened awide
response in Europe, and steps are being
actually taken for it's successful en-
enforcement. The plan of this great
man is outlined by one of our leading
dailies as follows:
THE PLAN OUTLINED.
Heproposestopreserv the languages
and race distinctions of immigrants to
this country. That is to say, he would
like to establish Frenchmen, Germans,
Italians, Poles and other foreigners in
separate communities or colonies, with
schools in which they shall be taught
in their native tongue by native school
teachers, with churches in which the
services shall be conducted in the tongue
of the congregation, by priests who are
of their own nationality. "In this
way" he remarks, 1.-THE people who
come to America will be kept separate
from the rest of the people, and will
continue to cherish not only the faiths
of their ~fatherland, but to a large ex-
tent the customs and habits Of the
nations whence they came"
AN UNPROPITIOUs TIME.
This is great scheme bui it is apity
for it's prompter that it vas sprung at
the time it was sprung. The American
people are not in a humor just now to
take such an insult with the spirit of
meekness. Our nerves are yet strung
by our little New Orleans episode. The
echo of the guns in the hands of that
mob have not yet died away. The
events that preceded that fearful catas-
trophe are yet too fresh in the minds
of our people. The attempts of foreign
powers recently to instruct us in the
forms of government, the threats of
second rate foreign powers, have at
last aroused in some sense the spirit of
the nation. We are not in a mood to
be trifed with. It is well that it is so.
AMERICA CALLED TO LEAD THE WORLD.
This nation is in urgent need Of a
revival of the spirit of true national
ism. Men who love the nation believe
that God has called this nation to a
divine work. We believe that we are
entitled to the right of nationality.
That we I called to lead the forces of
freedom for the nations of the earth.
This work can only be donei in the asser-
ton of a distinct nationality.
SOCIETY AFFLICTED WITH SNOBBERY.
Foreign elements now dominate
whole sections of our Western States.
The language is foreign. The habits
and customs are foreign. Even the
public schools have driven out the
English language in many places. Our
city governments have been dominated
by foreign rather than American infu-
ences. Society is afflicted with snob-
berry, and the rheumatic traditions of
dying a~ristocracy have poisoned the
atmosphere of American social life in
it's great centres.
UNDERMINING THE NATIONS LIFE.
On the heels of this comes a propo-
sition to destroy the influence of Ameri
canism in the Catholic Church, to de
throne the American element, in short,
and set up a foreign hierarchy to feed
on American Catholicism. This is a
serious proposition. The Roman
Catholic Church speaks to the con-
sciences of at least s, 200, 900 of our peo-
pie. The Catholic Church in America
has been largely Influenced by the
spirit of the American nation. The
head of the Catholic hierarchy in
America, Cardinal Gibbons, is an
American of Americans.
The attempt to reverse this order of
government, to tear down the infu-