Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1894-11-21
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 Ireland on the opinion, which will be found in part below:
 "The introduction of tue religious question into the political issues of tke country, consider to be with out foundation in reason, unjust to a large portion of our fellow citi- zens and disastrous to the Catholic church. l deny that the repub ican party has shown itself as sustaining the movement which has been set afoot by anti-Catholic bigols to ahridge the civic and religious lib critics of Catholics.
 An anti-Catholic movement does, it appears, exist in the United States s-that of the so-called A. P. A.-isln-a sort of renewal og the Know Nottingham of forty CT more years ago. Right here l will record my own convictions in this matter of A. r. A.-ism.
 "The safe remedy to countersct the influences of A. 2. A.-ism, aud to kill it out, is to remit 1t conh- dently to the good sense and the spirit of justice of the American people. Catholics can afford nowadays to despise in America the puny and imbecile opposition of bigots, and they owe it to their own dignity to do so.
 But whatever of A. F. A.-ism in itself. the republican party has neither assumed nor brought upon itself any responsibility for its existence or its workings. No one act of the party can be quoted to support different view.
 
 "ThAt there are among republi- cans a certain number of A. F. A. ists 1 have no doubt. But I put the question to the country-Are there not A. r. A.-ists among demOcratsi Is either party responsible for the individual opinions of some of it's membersi
 Tt would be an interesting task to balance the accounts of the re- publican and democratic parties on the anti Catholic bigotry of their members. Certain 1t is that some of the most ferocious outbreaks of Knownothing barbarism occurred in democratic cities aud states. Knownothing tickets boiled a much larger percentage of state votes in democratic Virginia and Maryland than in the republican states of the north and west.
 "While New Hampshire was a democratic state, the constitution refused to Catholics the right to hold office! So soon as it became a republican state, the constitution in this regard, was amended. In more recent years, in the state of New York, a Catholic, Francis Kernan, who had been nominated for the governorship on the democratic ticket, was slaughtered at the polls by the anti-Catholic bigots in his party. A Catholic, W. R. Grace, running for mayor in New York city as a democrat, found himself cut down to a small majority bS bigotsd democratic voters. A the reverse, when a Catholic, Carr sought the secretaryship of state on the republican ticket, his fellow republicans proved loyal to him.
 "As a plain matter of facL there are today, unfortunately, certain number of anti-Catholic bigots iu tue country, as there have been always in the past, and as there will be for some time, at least, in the future; but they divide themselve: between all political parties, and vote in them as bigots, whatever bs the formal and public platforms oi any or all of those parties. N one party has any special responsibility in this regard.
 Under republican national ad ministrations Catholics held office in larger proportion to the number of Catholic republicans in the country than they ever did under democratic administrations in pro portion Co the number of Catholic democrats. There IS, l am myself convinced, fair play for all religious beliefs under the rule of both oul great political parties.
 .
 "The church, allied to one politi cal party, is narrowed in her influ ence, dragged down from the high pedestal of universal teacher and guide, and exposed to meet the hatred and opposition of other par ties. She courts ruin to herself by identifying her power and interests with a portion of the population.
 "She has suffered too much in the past from a supposed protectorship which the democratic party pre- tended to exercise over her. Ol late she has been enfranchising her self from thas slavery, and there must be nb return to it. would have the church wrapped up in nc one political party, whichever 1t be.
 She cannot afford to be put iu political antagonism to another party; she herself as a church, and her sons as citizens, would suffer thereby most serious loss.
 
 q have no mission to give Catho- lies political counsel. In politics, priests and laymen stand on the same ground and they vote as the judgment of each one dictates. 1 can only bid them to vote with intelligence, sincerity, honesty and fearlessness-voting the democratic ticket if they deem il the better one for the country, or the republican ticket if this seems | the better.
 "But can counsel them, as do, to allow no cry of religious bigotry to sway them; to be moved by no sectional hatre to give credence to no vain rumors and accusations, ] If there are men who drag religion into politics, let it not be the Cath lies who, even under penalty of some sacrifice, must give to the country the highest example of exalted citizenship, and of politics utterly free from religious bias.
 "The peace and prosperity of