Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-01-30
THANKSGIVING SERMON.
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have a majority in this country, and be
bound to take II and keep It," "There Is ere
long TO be a State religion in this country,
and that State religion is to be'the Roman
Catholic. ~ The Roman Catholic is to
WELD his vote for the purpose OF securing
Catholic ascendancy In this country. '(2.3
All legislation must be governed by the will
Of God, unerringly indicated by the Pope.
49, Education must be controlled by Cath
Ollie authorities, and under education, the
opinions OF the individual, and the utter
ances OF the press are included, and many
opinions are To be forbidden by the secular
to war and bloodshed."
"The Pope has the right to pronounce sem
tence OF deposition against any sovereign,
when required by the good OF the spiritual
order."-Rrownson's Review, lS49.
In September, 1851, Pope Plus TX said
that "The Catholic religion, with all its
votes, ought to be exclusively dominant in
such sort that every other worship shall be
banished and interdicted."
."Every other worship" will be "banished"
should this intolerant "allocution" ever
ind Itself In the company of a majority Of
the miniOns of Rome.
The Catholic Review, June, 1865, than
which there is no higher authority among
papal periodicals, says: Professionalism has
not, and never can have any right where
Catholicity has t~rinmphed." What need We
IuTbneT WlIneSST NO WOnue tnAt Lafayette,
himself a Catholic, said: ar the liberties
Of the American people are ever destroyed
they Will fall by the hands of the Catholic
clergy" Or, that Gladstone, England's
greatest statesman, said: N more cunning
plot was ever devised against the intelli-
gence, the freedom, the happiness and vir-
tue OF mankind than Romanism." Or, that
Rev. Charles Chiniquy, after spending fifty
years In that church, and more than half of
1t as a Catholic priest, said: "Rome is a con-
slant conspiracy against the rights and lib
critics of man, all over the woald, but partic-
ularly so In the United States" Romanists,
emboldened by the forbearance or blindness
OF Protestants, impudently tell us that "the
question is not whether the papacy be or be
not compatible with republican government,
but whether IL be or be not founded in Divine
right" and that question, remember, is to be
"unerringly decided by the infallible Pope
OF Rome"
2. OUR HOPES.
If such are our perils, what are our hopes?
We can consider only n few of the facts that
inspire our hopes and cheer us on To duty
and To destiny. A the facts of our nation
al history warrant the conclusion thai God
had a special purpose in creating us a peo-
pie" and that purpose Is not yet fully ac-
cOmplished. Sacred and profane history is
In proof that Providence Ordains the origin
OF nations, and assigns to each some special
mission. "For God hath made of one blood
all nations OF men for To dwell on the face
OF the earth, and hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitations."
"These memorable words of st. Paul, on
Mars Hill, were fulfilled in the origin, devel-
opment and missions of the three great ma
lions OF antiquity. From the Greeks came
our literature, as you know; and from the
Romans came our Jurisprudence, and from
the Jews our religion" 1t is not, therefore,
too much TO claim a special providential
mission for this great Republic. And the
scope and purpose OF that mission is to exalt
| ln0lyl0nAl man and nrntaaf him In MI htu
natural rights, by all the sanctions of con-
stitutional law. One of the greatest OF our
Christian statesmen has said that this is the
grandest mission ever committed to any
people, and that all that had preceded was
but preparatory to this result. In other
ages and In other lands, the government was
everything, the individual nothing. The
rlghtso OF the subject were disregarded by the
ruling king or monarch; and to control the
masses effectually, the common mind was
kept In ignorance and the conscience sub
Jected TO fear and superstition. But in re-
versal OF this arbitrary rule, our mission, as
a nation, was to declare to the world the sub
lime political facts that man has a natural
right TO himself, to the product of his hands
and skill, and to the pursuit of happiness,
and TO rise and stand on his merits.
z That individual man is greater than
the law. greater than the governments; and
that the function of civil government is only
rightly exercised when IL is exercised for the
welfare or the people, who are the source of
III POWcl. We nave, rs u government.
taken an advanced step, inasmnch as we re-
cognize liberty as the common inheritance
of all men. And our action has been the
tocsin note of freedom which has had re-
sponSe Wherever men have sighed for liber-
ty. The men who built the Union were pio-
neers OF principles which are now recognized
in the legislation of every civilized land.
And SO, we believe, our temple of human
freedom was erected upon a solid foundation.
we nave great faith in the conserving
power of our common school system of edu-
cation. Its influence upon the life of the
nation can not be Overestimated. 1t is the
"ieaven that IL TO leaven the whole lump"
The development of the mind of the pupil,
the acquisition of knowledge, is only a part
OF the object of the free school. One of the
chlef objects contemplated in its establish
ment was the production of American char
acter. Every civilized nation of the old
world has, In Its own way, established a sys-
TEN or education designed to fashion and
perpetuate a national type of manhood.
And In no nation has the mental training
OF the ruling class been neglected. But our
school system proposes to do what has never
been undertaken In this world before, that
Is To educate every child in the nation to be
a citizen, In the highest and broadcast sense,
of a republican State; to be an Ameri-
can. And, furthermore, IL is proposed TO
Americanize the children OF the hundreds
or thousands of foreigners who are crowding
TO our shores. The stability of our form OF
government, the perpetuity of our free in
stitutions, necessitates the existence of some
such agency as this. Some wise man has
forcibly called the public schools the princi-
pal digestive organ of the body polite"
By IL the children of different and dissimlIar
nationalities are asslmilated. Nor is IL at ali
necessary TO the argument to claim tina each
child is entitled TO an education; he NAV not
be. SO far as the State is concerned, he,
probably, Is not. But the ground npon
which our educational establishment rests
Is, that ignorance Is a menace TO the State.
The state educates In self defence. DR.. Jo-
sian strong says, "this may be low ground,
but 1t Is not marshy.'' We must stand nv
the peoples college," the free chool, and
resolve that by no word or vote of ours shall
one dollar of public money be appropriated
TO the support OF parochial schools,o o for any
other sectarian or d"enominationai purnose.
whatever. One of the bulwarks of our lib,
critics Is the public schools. "May the sword
of Justice cut off the hand that attempts TO
lock their DOORS"
We are warranted, also, to entertain hone
for the future from statistics which show
that In this county virtue predominates
over vice, There are more good men than
criminals; more honest men than thieves:
more loyal men than traitors; more intelli,,
gence than ignoranoei more wealth Than
poverty. So that we have the virtue, the in
telligence, the wealth and the patriotism 10
sustain us In the accomplishment of sub
nm national mission: There are unmistak-
able evidences, too, of a q%uickening of the
political conscience of the nation, as is evil
denced recently in the metropolis OF our
country, in the overthrow of the most COL
lossal and corrupt organization known to
history, since the Lord rained fire and brim-
stone on Sodom and Gomorrah. Not by the
action or any one political party was this
revolution brought about, but by a union of
the better elements of both, or rather, OF ali
parties. Surely no good citizen regrets the
triumph of truth over error, and ali should
rejoice IN the defeat of evil purposes.
Inc revival OF a spirit of lofty patriotism
now sweeping over the country, manifesting
Itself In the unparalleled growth and power
OF various associations for the protection of
American institutions, is a most suspicious
and hopeful sign of the times. These organ.