The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-03-12
OF MAN,
The Bill of Rights Like an Echo
to the Declaration of
Independence.
so SAYS BISHOP KEANE, ON
The Amendment to the Constitu.
ton, Before a Large
Audience.

Audience.
/ It was a large and appreciative audi
ence that gathered in the Academy o1
Music in Washington on Sunday Feb
ruary 49, to listen to Bishop Keane Of
the Catholic University on ''The Rights
of Man."
It was announced that Senator Cor
man would introduce the Speaker, but
for some reason he was unable to be
present. The Right Reverend lecturer,
however, needed no formal introduction
! toa Washington audience, and at the
appointed time stepped to the front of
[ the stage aud began his address. Upon
the platform were seated several of the
clergy Of the city, and in the audience
were many Of the representative Catho-
lies.
The lecture treated of the declarations
of rights which were the foundat of
the French and American revolutions,
attributing the different results to the
attitudes toward Christianity. Inciden-
tally, the bishop antagonized the pro-
posed amendment to the Constitution
which prohibits States from appropriate
| ing money for the benefit of church insti-
| tut;ons.
Did the declaration of rights of the
French constituent convention fail be-
cause it was lie? he asked. The reason
of it's failure is rot to be found here. The
| constituent convention had it's origin in
condition Of things which humanity
could not endure and had no right to tol-
crate. In l776 Americans accomplished
revolution on similar principles which
we can bat admire. As there we're deeds
ofviolence connected with the assembly,
50 there were at Lexington and Bunker
Hill, Under more favorable circumstan-
ces Mirabeau might have been Wash
ington.
The introduction to the bill of rights
reads like al echo to the Declaration of
Independence Read with the dispas-
sionate eyes of an American or an Eng
lishman there ia nothing in it contrary
to the Declaration, to the English bill OF
rights, passed century before, or to the
Magma Charta, nor would it be displeas~
ing to the Prince of Peace, who has made
all men brothers, regardless of distipc-
tions. It is not in the bill that the rea-
son for failure is fonnd, but in the fact
that Christ alone has made civilization
based on the rights of man. All civiliza-
tions preceding it were founded, not on
the rights of man, but On the might of
empire. Aggrandizement of the State
was the main thing to which the indi~
vidual and the family were originated.
The skepticism of the seventeenth CEN
tury had reached it's height in the cyni-
cism of Voltaire. Dead to the Spirit of
Christ, the upper classes became an in
cubus on those below. What Voltaire
had done for the upper classes Rosseau
had accomplished with equal craft among
the lower, convincing them that religion
was their enemy.
The constitutional assembly was com
posed Of men boiling over with the
teachings of Voltaire and Rosseau. But
they we're their heirs to seventeen CEN
turies of Christianity, 80 that their dec
laration sounded like the teaching of the
Gospel itself. But with them was not
the spirit of that divine system. They
spoke for liberty, and soon the prisons
were full OF hapless multitudes who diff.
fered from them; they spoke for equality
and the strife of ambitions followed;
they spoke for fraternity, and soon the
guillotine was too slow to do their
slaughter.
But, though they had done away with
Christianity, even Robespierre saw there
must be religion, and the religion of rea-
son was proclaimed, and lascivioue
woman was placed as the priestess on
the altar of Notre Dame. France seemed
going to ruin until Napoleon laid her
under the domination of his masterfu]
hand. Child of the revolution that he
was, he had the spirit of Voltaire. He
even recognized that without Christian
ity France could not stand, but, while
restoring the church, he sought to make
religion subservient to his will. The
spirit ct Voltaire and Rosseau has ling.
cred in France even until to-day, making
us wonder if that government opposedt "a
Christianity will ever succeed.
| Let us turn from poor France to an
other experiment conducted at almost
the same time. Most Of the American
oolonists who lighted the fires Of ou1