"The Catholics of the country, thinking themselves now sufficiently
numerous to be an American Catholic church, a great stimulus has been
given to proselytism. This has awakened fear and persecution; which
last has again been favourable to the increase of the sect. While the
Presbyterians preach a harsh, ascetic, persecuting religion, the
Catholics dispense a mild and indulgent one; and the prodigious increase
of their numbers is a necessary consequence. It has been so impossible
to supply the demand for priests, that the term of education has been
shortened by two years."]
Now, I venture to disagree with both these gentlemen: It is true, as Mr
Tocqueville observes, that the Catholic church reduces all the human
race to the same standard, and confounds all distinctions--not, however,
upon the principle of equality or democracy, but because it will ever
equally exert its power over the high and the low, assuming its right to
compel princes and kings to obedience, and their dominions to its
subjection. The equality professed by the Catholic church, is like the
equality of death, all must fall before its power; whether it be to
excommunicate an individual or an empire is to it indifferent; it
assumes the power of the Godhead, giving and taking sway, and its
members stand trembling before it, as they shall hereafter do in the
presence of the Deity.
The remark of the author of the _Voice from America_, "that aware of the
implacable aversion of the people to monarchy, the priesthood are
accustomed _studiously to adapt themselves to this state of feeling_,"
proves rather to me the universal subtlety shown by the Catholic clergy,
which, added to their zeal and perseverance, so increases the power of
the church. At present Catholicism is, comparatively speaking, weak in
America, and the objects of that church is, to become strong; they do
not, therefore, frighten or alarm their converts by any present show of
the invariable results; but are content to bide their time, until they
shall find themselves strong enough to exert their power with triumphant
success. The Protestant cause in America is weak, from the evil effects
of the voluntary system, particularly from its division into so many
sects. A house divided against itself cannot long stand; and every year
it will be found that the Catholic church will increase its power: and
it is a question whether a hierarchy may not eventually be raised,
which, so far from _advocating the principles of equality_, may serve as
a _check_ to the spirit of democracy becoming more powerful than the
government, curbing public opinion, and reducing to better order the
present chaotic state of society.
Judge Haliburten asserts, that all America will be a Catholic country.
That all America west of the Alleghanies will eventually be a Catholic
country, I have no doubt, as the Catholics are already in the majority,
and there is nothing, as Mr Cooper observes, to prevent any state from
establishing that, or any other religion, as the _Religion of the
State_; ["There is nothing in the constitution of the United States to
prevent all the states, or any particular state, from possessing an
established religion."--_Cooper's Democrat_] and this is one of the dark
clouds which hang over the destiny of the western hemisphere.
The reverend Mr Reed says:--"It should really seem that the Pope, in
the fear of expulsion from Europe, is anxious to find a reversion in
this new world. The crowned heads of the continent, having the same
enmity to free political institutions which his holiness has to free
religious institutions, willingly unite in the attempt to enthral this
people. They have heard of the necessities of the West; they have the
foresight to see that the West will become the heart of the country, and
ultimately determine the character of the whole; and they have resolved
to establish themselves there. Large, yea _princely, grants_ have been
made from the Leopold society, and other sources, chiefly, though by no
means exclusively, in favour of this portion of the empire that is to
be. These sums are expended in erecting showy churches and colleges,
and in sustaining priests and emissaries. Everything is done to
captivate, and to liberalise in appearance, a system essentially
despotic. The sagacity of the effort is discovered, in avoiding to
attack and shock the prejudices of the adult, that they may direct the
education of the young. They look to the future; and they really have
great advantages in doing so. They send out teachers excellently
qualified; superior, certainly, to the run of native teachers. [The
Catholic priests who instruct are, to my knowledge, the best educated
men in the states. It was a pleasure to be in their company.] Some
value the European modes of education as the more excellent, others
value them as the mark of fashion; the demand for instruction, too, is
always beyond the supply, so that they find little difficulty in
obtaining the charge of protestant children. This, in my judgment, is
the point of policy which should be especially regarded with jealousy;
but the actual alarm has arisen from the disclosure of a correspondence
which avows designs on the West, beyond what I have here set down. It
is a curious affair, and is one other evidence, if evidence were needed,
that popery and jesuitism are one."
I think that the author of Sam Slick may not be wrong in his assertion,
that _all_ America will be a Catholic country. I myself never prophesy;
but, I cannot help remarking, that even in the most anti-Catholic
persuasions in America there is a strong Papistical _feeling_; that is,
there is a vying with each other, not only to obtain the best preachers,
but to have the best organs and the best singers. It is the system of
excitement which, without their being aware of it, they carry into their
devotion. It proves that, to them there is a weariness in the church
service, a tedium in prayer, which requires to be relieved by the
stimulus of good music and sweet voices. Indeed, what with their
_anxious seats_, their _revivals_, their _music_ and their _singing_,
every class and sect in the states have even now so far fallen into
Catholicism, that religion has become more of an appeal to the _senses_
than to the calm and _sober judgment_.