The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-22
Dangers and Helps of the Republic.
By REV. A. A. THAYER, ID,
La Grange, Ill.

CdtnOllc Immigration lrOH lloiahu,
the bulk of emigrants have settled in
the country. In 1890, 10000 farmers
by profession came to our shores.
And in New England, and all over
the West and Northwest landed es-
tates are bought or rented more and
more largely by foreigners. An ex-
animation of the distribution of popu-
lation by the convenience of chart,
would astonish most of you-the evil
dence is so strong as to the vast
amount of our territory occupied by
foreigners. And if we had the like
convenience in political chart we
should be equally astonished at the
amount of foreigners who hold office
in this country.
Conflicting Religious Elements.
We are now ready to return to our
original query,-Will the Christian
religion save the Republic from the
dangers of mischievous foreign i'm
migration, and from the mobilization
of population in towns and cities?
Both providence and nature are full
of antidotes, of rebuttals and coun-
teracting forces. Every patriots heart
should be aglow with the thought
that not all immigrants to this coun-
try are vicious.
And further, that not all are Roman
Catholics. Protestant emigrants are
the antidotes, the counteracting
forces of the Catholics. When this
land of the free began to be filled
with fairness, the Irish Catholics has
tened into this country, in phenom-
email numbers first, because they were
the poorest. You will recall the po-
tato rot famines from 1916 to 1850.
Before that date there were single
landed estates in the south of Ireland
/ yielding $4,000, or SIS, 900, and even
$4,000 per year as net rentals of the
land. And when the famine came,
these heartless and lofty landlords
shipped over to this country thou
sands and tens of thousands of pau
pers and jail-emptyings. They were
landed here upon an enforced char
ity simply because the shipment at
the landholders' charge was cheaper
! than to be taxed for their support at
home. And we have received vast
hundreds of thousands of these dregs
of humanity from that day to this.
| Enforced Charity
We are indeed commanded to feed
the poor. But in this case we were
viciously forced to feed the poor to
fatten the money-bags of the rich.
Our country is turned into civilian
cess spool to receive the foul drip
pings of European oppression. Both
the priests and the landlords pauper
lied those unfortunate people. And
then, in utter reputation of human
ity, and in abuse of the first princi-
pies of decency and right, they turn
American hospitality into an aims
giving and dance over their victory
in meanness. In such immigration,
enforced charity and hospitality are
simply turned into enginery of con-
scienceless speculation. Is it the
highest privilege of the American
people to be victimized? 1t is no
SANDER, but simple adhesion to the
facts to say that the Roman Catholic
emigration, from the start, has been
the most dangerous and demoraliz-
ing and disturbing element in our
civilization. 1t has been with us but
not of us. 1t is the one only element
which owes allegiance to an intrigu-
ing, religious and foreign power. 1t is
the one element, with the old dragon
in front and priest at the helm,
steering always for political prefer
ment and national dominance. A fell
low who votes at the dictum of a
priest, is like Satan before Jesus.
The more you say, Get thee behind,
the more he pretends to own all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them. But God has sent pre-
ponderating Protestant element into
this country as future rebuttal of
the Catholic element. Through the
immigration of the one element with
out the other, our civilization would
have gone under. The dark ages
would have returned and the Vatican
been removed and planted, solidly,
on this side of the Atlantic. We can
not justly figure the Roman Catho-
lies above one-tenth of the popula-
ton. And while they want all the
offices they brazenly lay claim to half
by right.
Mr.. Hesing thinks that only
quarter of the employees in the Chi
cago post Office are Catholics. But
they are rightly entitled to only one