The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1894-10-17
The A. P. A.
Ravenswood Crisis.

!
The loathsome spawn of the in
tolerant and proscriptive Know
Nothing organization, and annex of
the Republican party is just now
playing conspicuous as cruel a
part in the political world. Con-
ceived in hell, where fiends of ma
lightly and cruelty stood sponsors
at its baptismal font, it was launched
upon its mission of anarchy, infamy
and crime in brazen and brutal de-
fiance of every solemn ordinance of
God, every salutary statute of man,
every recognized principle of jus
tice, every lofty sentiment of hu-
manity, every tender attribute of
mercy, every calm appeal of chris
tan charity every righteous protest
of religion, every earnest and elo-
quent plea and prayer of the un-
defiled and unfettered Christian in
man-conscience. Its aim, object
and purpose are revolutionary,
reasonable and damnable, and its
banners are black with the charred
ruins of the temples of God, tho
asylums of orphaned childhood, and
the sacriicial blood of unoffending
innocence in the past. Its watch
words are treason to every tradi-
ton of liberty, and every sacred
safeguard of the constitution and
the republic. Its weapons are the
merciless torch of the incendiary,
and the muffled dagger of the as.
sassin. 1t invades the rights of
conscience, profanes the affairs of the
living God, snatches with coward
and cruel hand the surpliced priest
from the sacred shrine of his devo-
ton in the holy, awful hour of sac
riice-the Amounted nun as she
lifts aloft her splendid and spotless
soul in penitential pleading and
prayer for the SORROWS and sins of
every wondering child of God
and proscribes and persecutes the
Catholic citizen for clinging to the
church of his choice and the cher
ished creed of his fathers, which is
indeed and in truth the stella nadriS
of the ship-wreckcd soul. Let it be
known of all men, and writ with
fresher and more fiery emphasis
over the archways of the republic,
that civil and religious liberty is
the priceless birthright of American
freemen, and the foundation pillar
of this nation whose proudest boast
has ever been that it afforded an
asylum to the child of every creed
and the citizen of every Cline, to
the oppressed of the earth, of every
color and condition. 1t is this
glorious privilege and prerogative
of the American to worship his God
after the manner of his choice and
faith that has made our country the
proud exemplar of the republics of
history, and a hallowed beacon OF
hope to the down trodden and OPP
pressed of the despotisms of the old
world. Civil aud religious freedom
is the genius of the glory of our
constitution, the dazzling day star
and radiant rainbow of pride and
| promise, of splendor and strength
in the nations shield, and it was
the solemn and stern battle cry OF
the struggling patriots of the revo-
luton whose brave blood dubbed
forth into one sacrifcial stream to
cement the masonry in freedom IS
fabric and to dictate our fair land
to liberty, to humanity, and to an
unsectarian God. Who, but a Sec
tartan bigot, blind to the glory OF
his God, the honor of his country
and the happiness of his race would
light the torch of religious fanatic
ism and frenzy amid the happy
homes of freemen where the Prince OF
Peace is worshipped through the
medium of thousand different
creeds, from thousand different al
tiers, and whose myriads of majestic
spires towering heavenward appeal
in beautiful and blessed unison to
the protecting care of a common
God, who is the common Father OF
us all? Who, but an impious and
infamous political zealot with mind
and heart dwarfed and warped
by party prejudice. and deaf
and dead to every impulse and in
stinct of patriotism, and to all the
inspiring legends of liberty, would
tear from the sky of God the beam
ing banner of universal brother
hood hallowed by the tears and tolls
and trials sanctified by the sacrifices
and the sufferings, and consecrated
by the bravest and best blood OF
the best elements of the manhood OF