The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-29

they shown a due appreciation for the bless
Ings OF civil and religious liberty? We're they
royalists or traitors in the mighty struggle
that the colonists waged for human freedom
In the council chamber where the Declare
ton OF Independence was formulated they
were to be found.
In the fierce conflict OF the Revolution the
Catholics joined their fellow-colonists with all
their energy and all their resources for the
common cause. No Catholic traitor is held up
TO our execration during the struggle.
They shared the decks OF American ships
with saucy Jack Barry, the first commo-
dore of the American navy. They stood beside
the Irishman's son, Andrew Jackson, behind
the cotton bales of New Orleans, in defense of
their country, and with him they stood within
the hallowed precincts of the Catholic church
OF New Orleans when grand old Bishop Du-
bourgh voiced in lifting phrase the thanks of
his country to the hero who had routed the
forces OF Pakenham. And in later days they
stood with Shields in the fierce conflict of
ChuruDusco. and two Jesuit priests as chap
lalns accompanied the Catholic soldiers in the
army OF General Taylor as they went to plant
the stars and stripes above the halls OF the
Montezumas.
In the later days of the Republic, when the
grandest govern mental fabric of the world rs
history seemed to be trembling in the balance,
we know that they went forth in companies, in
regiments and brigades, by thousands upon
thousands, to battle for the integrity OF our
Republic and the conservation and develop
ment OF our liberties.
CATHOLICS WANT no UNION OF CHURCH AND
STATE UPON AMERICAN SOIL.
Have Catholics ever advocated the union of
the church and state on American soil? Have
they ever, under any proyocations, engaged in
crusade OF religious repression or intoler-
ance? The student of history can answer these
questions without any trouble in favor of the
Catholics.
The first settlers in the COLONY of Virginia
were Englishmen, loyal subjects to their king
and church, and the grant to Sir Walter Raleigh
contained an express proviso that the laws
should not be against the true Christian faith
now protested in the Church of England, !" and
as soon as the state of the colony admitted it
was divided into parishes in each of which
was established a minister of the Anglican
church, endowed with fixed salary in tobacco,
a glebe house and land with the other neces-
sary appendages.
Ia 1913 the colonial Legislature of Virginia
decreed that no minister should preach or
teach publicly or privately, except in con-
foImity with the constitutions of the Church
of England. Puritans were banished from the
soil OF the colony and civil enactments were
made against the Quakers.
New Amsterdam, afterward New York was
settled by traders from Holland There the
Reformed religion as set forth in the doctrine
and discipline OF the Synod of bort was main
tanned by the emigrants, the colonial clergy
being approved and commissioned by the
Chassis of Amsterdam.
And when this Dutch colony passed into the
hands OF the Duke of York, a Catholic Gov
ernor, Colonel Thomas Dongan, convoked the
Assembly, and the first act passed by that body
on the Both OF October, 1858, was charter Of
liberties declaring that
mo person or persons WHO profess faith in
God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be in any
way molested, punished, disquieted or called in
question for any difference of opinion or matter
of religious Government.
But these liberal laws making all equal and
harmoniZing with the ayowed doctrines of
Protes tantism did not survive the Catholic
rule which have promulgated them.
And how was II in Maryland, the colony es.
tablished by the Catholic Lord Baltimore
In answer, | will use the words of Bancroft
the American historian. He says: "The apollo
gist of Lord Baltimore could assert that his
government, in conformity with his strict and
repeated injunctions, had never given dis
turbance to any person In Maryla for matter
of religion; that the colonists enjoyed freedom
of conscience not less than freedom of person
and estate, as amply as ever any people in any
place in the world. The disfranchised friends
of prelacy from Massachusetts and the Puri-
tan from Virginia were welcomed to equal lib
erty of conscience and political rights in the
Roman Catholic province of Maryland
Such liberty continued TO be the rule in
Maryland until the Professionals got the upper
hand and prosecuted the tolerant Catholics
And we find that this power OF regulating
religious matters has been wisely handled by
the trainers of the constitution of every
American State.
Judge Thomas M. Cooley author of the work
on Constitutional Limitations" thus speaks
on the subject of religious liberty:
"a careful examination of the American
constitutions will disclose the fact that nothing
is more fully set forth or more plainly ex-
pressed than the determination of their