The Irish standard., 1905-06-03
able may have been their objection.

United States, but unquestionably II
includes much the largest single body
of religious believers, though the pop
ulation of Protestant proclivities
counted together, may be more. The
population not included in any Chris
tian church membership, however, is
unquestionably much more. Happily
the sentiment expressed by the Bos,
I, ton paper and by our correspondent
has never prevailed among the Roman
Catholics of this country, strong as
they have been numerically for more
than a generation. 1t has never been
| raised by them in a political conven-
| ton. They suffered too much half a
century ago by an attempt to apply
the religious test in politics, and that
suffering would be repeated if they
themselves should venture TO raise it
now.
In the city of New York the Roman
Catholic population is especially
strong. The leader of the predominant
political party is Roman Catholic,
yet so far from making that religious
faith a test for political candidacy he
was strenuous in advocating the nomi-
nation of the present mayor of New
York, man not Roman Catholic,
and he is not less earnest in urging
his denomination. Probably the vast
majority of Roman Catholics in New
York voted for Mayor Mcclellan and
they will vote for him again next No
vember. Never have the Roman Cath
olics in a national convention of either
of the great political parties under
taken to apply a religious test to
didate of their faith should ever be
nominated for the presidency he would
be supported Or opposed by Roman
Catholic voters on political grounds
only. They know very we'll that any
attempt to raise the religious issue
would be resented by the great major
ity of the American people, whether
Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews
or infidels, and be of disastrous effect
on the church projecting it into po.
litical canvass.
THE introduction of any question
of the sort discussed by the Boston
paper and by our correspondent is an
indiscretion-nay, it is a fragrant Of
fense against our political system, the
very genius of which excludes it from
consideration. 1t is a forbidden sub
ject."
While it is true that the circunl-
stance that only minority of the
officeholders in Massachusetts are
Catholic is no justification for the
complaint that Catholics are discrimi-
mated aaginst, yet when such circun-
stances become SO numerous that they
constitute the rule and not the excep-
tion they furnish pretty good evidence
that what the Republic mas to say is
true, and while it may serve no good
purpose for Catholics to complain
and thus aggravate an already
unfortunate condition, yet it is
begging the question for the Sun
to assert that the religious question
is one wholly outside the domain OF
American politics. That it should be
wholly outside American politics every
good American will agree, and most
Catholics have hoped that such a con-
dition might exist. Every schoolboy
knows that what the Sun says about
the constitutional provision is true and
yet the merest tyro in American poll
les knows that the religious question
is potent one on election day. The
editor of the Sun is we'll aware that
neither of the great political parties
would dare to nominate a Catholic for
president of the United States. The
fact that certain public men are con-
nected by marriage with Catholics has
been sufficient in the past to destroy
their chances. 1t will be remembered
that when the Democratic party was
assembled in convention at Chicago in
1896, and Mr.. Bland was the leading
candidate for the nomination that it
became whispered about the conven-
tion hall and hotels that his wife was
a Catholic, and one of his closest
friends, realizing the damage that such
rumor was to his candidacy, teie.
graphed to him at his home at Le-
banon, Missouri, asking him if what
was rumored was true, and received
the prompt reply that it was true.
Mr. Bland was not nominated.
1t has always been maintained by
many friends OF James G. Blaine tina
he was defeated because Of What Rev
Burchard said at a reception rendered
Mr.. Blaine by the Protestant ministers
cf New York on the eve of the presi-
Dental election of 1884 Others nave
asserted that the fact that some OF
his relations were Catholics defeated
him. We are not among those who
would subscribe to any OF these asser-
tlons, and yet the fact that they are
constantly made proves that the Sun
is wrong when it says that the re-
ligious question is not IN the domain
of American politics.
What the Sun says about the nu-