The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-03-05


of their better citizens turned Tory
and tconfdeabl awaited 1.-The sharp
| chastiseme FSthe patriots by VIC
tQrtpus ssh army. Again the Old
WNrid interviewed and this time turned
L = tide for freedom. The Revolution
ary army was a melting pot where
Frenchman, German, Irishman and
Pole fused thousand antipathies in
the cause of liberty. At length even
exhausted France, not loving liberty
more but England less, sent the ships
and the army and the money which
freed America but incidentally was the
last straw to break the back of it's
finances and precipitate her own Rev.
Olution.
America in Travail.
America, free, was America gone
mad. Thirteen independent states
mutually jealous, bankrupt, clamorous
in their scorn of each other, disowned
their Continental Congress, defied
their creditors and went on a debauch
of freedom. Good fortune saved them
from the fate they invited. q
Then the Constitution, a document
in which hope and despair play lead
ing part, was drawn up after long and
secret and anxious discussions and
after delays, was adopted by the states
though it was almost foisted on some
of them. At last, in 1889, it began to
function. "If our new government
does WE'LL" said John Adams, the
Vice-President, to group of senators
one day at a recess of one of the earli-
est sessions, 81 shall be more surprised
than l ever was in all my life" 1t is
YIN. Maclay who records the incident
and he tells us that Charles Carroll
of Carrollton said that he hoped we'll
of it for it would be sufficiently pow
erful. ''If it is,' said Mr. Adams, Il
know not whence it is to arise. 1t can
not have energy. 1t has neither re-
wards nor punishments." Mr.. Carroll
replied that the people of America
were enlightened. Information and
knowledge would be the support of it.
Mr.. Adams replied information and
knowledge were not the sources of
obedience, that ignorance was much
better source.
3 Adams thus in May, 1889, gave ex-
preston to the despair which at
later day Henry Clay shared s,nt.
which did not disappear until the great
constitutional debates were registered
in the ensanguined rubrics of the Civil
War.
The Constitution.
All the wisdom derived from the
experiences Of peoples who priced lib
erty in the ancient world and the mod
ern had controlled those who COM
posed that historic document by which
we became a nation and by which our
nation still stands. Ancient Greece
and Rome and the Medieval Italian
Republics furnished the precedents to
correct and enforce the principles of
government which the British Consti-
tuition then, so eXtravagantly applaud
ed, had given to it's trainers.
1t is indeed a document of caution
and suspicion since the history of
SllONS IllClt lS IlOllllHS
desirable in government and nothing
more dangerous than freedom Yet
freedom it provides and in the fullest
measure and in manner hitherto un-
tried. All ancient city states, out
growths of tribes and families which
in old Greece affected political free
dom, supposed and compelled a con-
formity in the things of the spirit
which this new constitution of set pur-
pose ignored Representative govern
ment in some shape or other has been
often found in the states of the ancient
and the modern world But freedom
of conscience on so large scale was
nowhere. in existence for the Revolu-
tion of 1888, but recognized the Dis
senters while re-enacting it's savage
penal laws against Catholics and ig-
noring both Jews and unbelievers
To found state in which there was
not and should not be any agreement
among it's citizens about fundamental
things was to answer the demand of
suffering minorities in every land, but
at the same time it was to undertake
an experiment that seemed to leave
an open door to anarchy.
Religious Freedom.
! We need not attribute any higher
i motive than that of expediency to
Madison and his associates for the
amendment which made it impossible
to introduce state religion and which
by implication established eventually
a religious freedom in all the states
of the Federation. But whatever the
motive it was precedent that has
had to be considered in all the tumult
Iuous changes of governments that have
followed the course of the French
4 Revolution. Every country of Europe
has modified it's laws and it's restric
tions in the matter of religious wor
ship since 1887, and though few have
i approximated the detachment anc
fairmindedness which our laws have
always displayed in this matter, yer
the American model has ever re
mained a challenge and a persuasive
even in the most illiberal or fanatica
environments.
Il Chickering's of colonists.
To appreciate what the spirit Of th,