this country protects our people against dangers from Jesuits, or any
other foreign source; and that our representatives will never betray the
trust which the people repose in them; or even if they did betray it,
the constitution provides for such a contingency. True, it does. But let
me observe, that our constitution never supposed nor made any provision
for such a contingency as that the people would betray themselves;
and still this case is as plain to me as the noon-day. It is not only
possible that the people of this country could betray themselves, but
they are actually doing it at the present moment.
I will admit that a courageous people, such as our citizens are, can be
neither cozened nor bullied out of their liberty; but it must be also
admitted, that an intelligent and generous people may cease to be
such; they may abet and admit amongst them the sworn enemies of their
constitution, under false ideas of toleration and liberty; they may want
the wisdom and judgment necessary to discern their danger in time;
and in the necessarily downward progress of degeneracy, it is not even
impossible,--such things have been before now,--that they may want
courage to ward off the evil when it stares them in the face.
Look back, Americans, to the history of by-gone days. The Tarquins were
expelled, and Rome resumed her liberty. Caesar was murdered, and his
whole race exterminated; but Rome remained in bondage. In the days of
Tarquin, the Roman people were not entirely corrupt; in the days of
Caesar, they were thoroughly so. You, Americans, may be betrayed, though
perhaps you may never betray yourselves voluntarily. But take heed, I
entreat you, of Jesuits. Our constitution makes it difficult, if not
impossible, to destroy our liberty by any sudden outbreak of popular
fury, or even by the treachery of a few. But if you, as a people, or
the majority of you, will concur with the few; if you will deliberately
suffer them to acquire a majority, your constitution is nothing better
than "a piece of parchment, with a bit of red sealing-wax dangling from
it." It ceases to be yours; it becomes the constitution of foreigners;
it is the property of Jesuits and Popish priests, the moment they get
the majority of voters; you, Americans, have nothing to do with it It
secures no rights for you, nor should it be longer called the American
constitution. Recollect that ten or fifteen years will give Papists a
majority of voters in the United States, nor should I be surprised if,
within half a century, the Pope of Rome was seen in New York or the city
of Boston, as he is now in Rome, on Palm Sunday, mounted upon an ass, in
blasphemous imitation of the Saviour entering Jerusalem, with thousands
and tens of thousands of Papists spreading palms upon the streets, and
shouting Hosanna to "our Lord God, the Pope."
This subject, Americans, is worthy of your serious consideration, to say
the least of it. You are jealous of your charters and your privileges;
perhaps sufficiently so. But you seem indifferent to the peril with
which your liberty is threatened by Romish priests, inculcating treason
in their confessionals, up to your very beards. What avail your laws
against treason, implied treason and constructive treason? What avail
your bills of rights, either national or state, when a priest, at your
very door, aye, under your very roofs, is insidiously instilling
into the ears of his penitents at the confessional, treachery to your
government, to your laws, to your religion, and even to each other? What
avails your trial by jury, when oaths lose their sanctity, and a Jesuit
teaches his penitent that no faith is to be held with Protestants; while
there are amongst you nearly three millions of people, who are taught
to disregard your laws, whose rulers,--the priests,--connive at its
infringement, and refuse themselves to be amenable to your civil or
criminal courts? Do not be startled at my telling you that they refuse
to be amenable to your courts. This is probably new to many of you; but
as I make no statement which I cannot prove, I refer you to the case of
the Romish priest, Carbury, in New York. It occurred some years ago, and
is duly reported.
This priest, Carbury, peremptorily refused answering, while on the stand
as a witness, any questions put to him by the court, in a case of great
importance affecting the government of the State of New York. He defied
the judge on the bench, the sheriff, and all other officers of the court
He contended that the constitution of the United States guarantied to
him the free exercise of his religion, and, by implication, the right
of hearing confession, and giving and receiving in the confessional such
counsel and advice as his church required of him to give. And such was
the sway which foreign Papists had in New York at that time, that the
court did not and dare not commit him to prison for contempt; though,
under similar circumstances, the officers of the court would drag an
American citizen to jail, as they would a common felon. But the priest
Carbury did no more than he was ordered to do by his church.
The Popish council of Lateran declares "it unlawful for a civil
magistrate to require any oath from a Roman Catholic priest." A work,
called the _Corpus Juris Canonici_, containing all the revised statutes
of the Council of Trent, the last held in the Popish church, has issued
the following proclamation to all monks, priests, bishops, and Jesuits:
"We declare it unlawful for civil magistrates to require any oath of
the clergy, and we forbid all priests from taking any such oath." The
Council of Lat-eran declares and announces to the Popish priesthood, as
well as to the whole world, "that all magistrates, who interpose against
priests in any criminal cause, whether it be for murder or high treason,
shall be excommunicated; and if he condemn any priest for murder, or any
other crime, he shall be excommunicated."
Thus we see that in our very midst, a Romish priest has but to go into
his confessional, and there he may become accessory before or after the
fact, to treason, arson, murder, or other crimes, and hold our laws and
our magistrates in utter contempt and utter defiance. This they have
done before, in the neighboring city of New York, and this they will do
again, whenever it suits their plans and purposes.
Pour in amongst us a few more millions of a people who believe and
sanction this doctrine; flood our country with a population subject to
a priesthood maintaining such doctrine as this, and what must be the
consequence? Vice, ignorance and laziness; just what it is in every
country where Romish priests are permitted to exist and exercise their
pernicious principles. There is a defect of moral principle and moral
honesty wherever the Popish confessional is to be found. I know the
reverse of this is believed by Americans, and not without some apparent
reason. Here I do not blame them. They are deceived, and often have
I wished, often and often have I resolved to undeceive them in this
particular.
Many and many a time have I resolved to be no longer a party to this
shameful imposition upon Americans. Many and many a time, have I
determined shake off from my soul any participation, directly or
indirectly, in fastening upon the minds of American Protestants that the
Romish confessional was the means of making Roman Catholic laborers
and servants more honest than they otherwise would be. It is not
so. Protestants know not the plans or schemes of Popish priests, in
anything. Fraud and imposition are reduced to a science in the Romish
church. Let me explain how the impression has got among Protestants,
that confessing sins to the priests is a very good thing "for the
ignorant Irish." "It keeps them honest." I can scarcely refrain from
laughing, when I hear this observation. It has been made to me by some
of the most amiable, benevolent, and charitable ladies and gentlemen
in this city of Boston, and elsewhere; and though I understood the
deception played upon them, I felt almost unwilling to remove so
charitable but delusive a dream. There is an old proverb, "it is better
late than never." Let me do so now. Justice to Protestants, and even to
the Roman Catholic laborers and domestics themselves, requires this at
my hands.
The _modus operandi_ of Romish priests is as follows: When a Popish
or Jesuit priest settles in a city or town, he looks about him and
ascertains what the character, circumstances, politics and religion
of the different families are. If he discovers that any particular
Protestant family is wealthy, entirely unacquainted with Popery, and
liberally disposed, he takes a note of the fact, and determines, by some
means, to form an acquaintance with the head of that family. This
is sometimes not easily done. It is not often that men of wealth are
desirous of the personal acquaintance of clergymen of any denomination.
They know that, pretty generally speaking, there is little to be gained,
so far as worldly goods are concerned, from a personal intimacy with
them. Of this Romish priests are well aware, and act accordingly.
When one of them desires an acquaintance with the head of a family,
he unceremoniously calls upon him, hands him some money,--more or less
according to circumstances,--and without any explanation tells him it is
his, and seems no way desirous of further conversation. The gentleman or
lady, who receives the money, of course, detains the priest or Jesuit,
and asks what he wishes him or her to do with this money; whether he
deposited it for safe-keeping, or whether he wished it paid over to some
one. The answer of the Jesuit is, sir, or madam, "the money is yours. I
received it in the discharge of my duty as a priest," and he departs.
The result of this piece of Jesuit acting is obvious. The gentleman
mentions the circumstance to his family, the merchant to his neighboring
merchants, the mother mentions it to her children, and to every mother
on her list of visitors, and all finally come to the conclusion that
the money has been received in the _confessional_; that some poor Roman
Catholic in their employment had stolen it, and that the priest in the
confessional caused restitution to be made; that, after all, this "going
to confessional was a good thing,--it kept the Catholic servants honest;
and if it were not for it, there would be no safety in giving them
employment." The husband tells his wife to throw no obstacles in the way
of her domestics going to confession, as he believed it was a check upon
their dishonesty, and makes up his mind that it is at least good policy
to sustain Popery and Popish priests. He calls upon the Jesuit bishop
or priest, touches his hat for him should he meet him upon the streets,
tells him he would be happy to see him at his house; and thus, by this
tedious, though sure process, does a reverend Jesuit priest gain his
end. The family is now at his mercy; and the best recommendation a
domestic can bring to this family, or any of their acquaintances, is
that of a scheming deceitful Popish priest or bishop, with whom, if
properly known, no respectable man would be seen walking the streets.
Often have I done this while a Romish priest.
This process, by which Popish priests and Jesuits often insinuate
themselves into the confidence of some of our most respectable
Protestant families, has in it something ineffably mean, contemptible
and wicked. There is something worm-like and vampire-like in the whole
process. The bold robber is an honorable man, compared with a skulking
Jesuit priest. The robber runs some risk in gaining possession of his
booty; he has, at least, the redeeming quality of personal bravery. The
eagle, which takes his prey to the very pinnacle of the loftiest rock,
though that prey should be the infant of the fondest mother, and there
devours it before the eyes of its agonized parent, must claim more or
less admiration for its boldness. There is a majesty in its flight which
diminishes the atrocity of the act: by one bound the noble bird gains
his point But the Jesuit, like the worm, like the loathsome reptile,
gains his by beginning at the root, at the base of domestic happiness
and virtue, and creeps and gnaws his way until he reaches its summit,
and then laughs as he sees it mouldering under his feet. But this is not
all. The Protestant family with whom he forms an acquaintance by these
dishonorable means, are not the only sufferers. Injustice is done to
the Catholic domestics in Protestant families. A palpable imputation of
dishonesty is thrown upon the whole body of them. An implied impression
is left upon the minds of Protestants that they are all dishonest,--that
they would all rob, pilfer and steal, if they were not forbidden and
compelled to make restitution in the confessional. But what signifies it
to a Jesuit priest, what Protestants think of poor Roman Catholics? If
they only believe that priests and Jesuits are saints, that is all they
care for. If priests can only manage to cause Protestants to attribute
the honesty of Papists to themselves, and can cause the Catholics to
hate and despise Protestants for suspecting them of dishonesty, their
point is gained, though at the expense of injustice both to Protestant
and Catholic. It is peculiarly unjust towards Catholic domestics, who
are really as honest as other people, if their priests will let them be,
and who might be as good citizens as others, were it not for priests
and Jesuits. Do away with the supremacy of the Pope and auricular
confession, and the foreigners who come among us from Ireland and other
Catholic countries, would be as peaceable, as industrious and as
worthy citizens as any we have, but never can these poor people enjoy the
blessings of freedom here or elsewhere, while they have any connection
with priests, confessionals, or popes. Americans are not inimical to
foreigners who conduct themselves with propriety, and pay a due respect
to the laws of their country; but they are inimical,--and it is their
duty to be so,--to all who traitorously interfere with their civil
rights; and it is not a little jugular, that among the millions of
foreigners which have fled to this land of freedom, none but Papists
have interfered with their laws, their institutions, or their customs.
I have resided in the United States for thirty years or thereabouts,
and never have 1 heard a Protestant say that he has been ill-treated or
unkindly dealt with by Americans, on account of his foreign birth; and
I can declare, with equal sincerity, that I have never known a Roman
Catholic satisfied with our republican form of government, and who did
not avow,--when he could do so without being heard by Protestants,--that
he wished a Raman Catholic government established in its place. It is
a strange circumstance, but nevertheless true, that Americans have no
difficulties with any foreigners amongst them except the Roman Catholics
There are various denominations of foreigners in the United States,
but all others enjoy the blessings of liberty, quietly and thankfully.
Papists alone are dissatisfied; they alone refuse to hear to reason,
and seem inclined to govern by force. No Protestant priest in the United
States has ever been known to be controlled in the discharge of his duty
by a foreign potentate. None of them were ever known to harangue their
flocks and march them through American cities, with banners bearing the
treasonable motto, written in conspicuous letters, "Americans shan't
rule us" Popish bishops and Papists alone, have dared to do this.
I have always been, and I trust I am now, the advocate of peace; but I
will confess, that I am at a loss to know whether there is to be found
in any code of political, or even moral ethics, a single passage which
can justify Americans in permitting this outrage upon their laws and
upon their national character. It may be a salutary inconsistency, a
laudable apostasy, on the part of Americans, to permit this insult to
their country and to the memory of their noble and patriotic ancestors;
but if these ancestors, who now sleep in their graves, were living, and
saw this Popish flag with this Popish motto, paraded by foreign Papists
over their graves, I will only say, the insult should never be repeated;
there would be no one left to bear the standard.
I do not believe, that, from the days of Cain to the days of Bishop
Hughs, of New York, there has ever been witnessed so insolent, or so
inflated a condensation of treason, as was contained in that solitary
Popish motto, "Americans shan't rule us;" and it Americans were not a
people of singular forbearance, they would have levelled to the ground
every Popish church, and put to the sword every Popish priest and bishop
in the country.
The poor Irish Papists who marched through our cities, waving in the
very face of Americans, the flag which bore this treasonable motto to
which I have alluded, are not so much to be blamed; a majority of them
are but the children of impulse, whose passions are played upon by
designing priests. I repeat it,--and again and again I have repeated
it,--the Irish are naturally a well-disposed people. They would be true
to this country, and faithful to its laws and constitution, if their
priests and church would let them. This is evident in the contrast which
is visible between the Papists and Protestants of Ireland. There are
not in this country better men or more faithful citizens than the
Protestants of Ireland. Where can we find a man who values character
more highly than an Irish Protestant? Where is there to be found a man,
who contributes more, by his own example and that of his family, to the
preservation of virtue and morality, than a Protestant Irishman, in the
United States? I can say from my own knowledge of Protestant Irishmen
in particular, that they are temperate, frugal, industrious, and
eminently sincere in their professions and attachments. I mean not any
invidious comparison when I say there is no finer character than a
Protestant Irishman. He is in earnest in everything, in his words and in
his actions.
Americans, give him the hand of friendship; give him your confidence; he
will not betray you. In the hour of danger, he will stand by yourselves,
your laws, and your constitution. He will defend them with his strong
arm and brave heart; his religion teaches him to do so. But not so the
Irish Papist. Trust him not at least until he renounces his religion,
which tells him that you are heretics, and should be extirpated, and
that your constitution shall not rule him.
I am little inclined to moralize, but it is to me a sad reflection, to
see this contrast between the Protestant and Roman Catholic Irish; all
occasioned by that accursed thing called Popery.
Even the Christian League, so grossly abused by Papists, seem to
entertain no other feelings than those of hospitality towards them; but
in truth nothing is to be feared by Papists from that association. As
far as I know them by reputation, they are men of zeal, piety, and fine
talents; but they are no match for the trained bands of the Popish army.
They want discipline. It is true I know-nothing of them but through
their speeches, some of which have been published in our leading
religious journals. These I have read, and the League itself could
not give me credit for taste or judgment, did 1 not pronounce them
pointless, pithless, powerless, almost useless. They evidently overrate
themselves or undervalue the force of their opponents. The latter I have
reason to know is the fact.
It is true his holiness has condescended to curse them. He sent recently
a bull formally excommunicating them as a set of damned heretics. I am
glad of this. It may arouse them to a greater concert of action.
But what if this League should succeed in that which seems to be after
all their leading object, the circulation of the Bible in Italy? Suppose
they even succeeded in suppressing Jesuitism altogether in that country,
what then? Would Popery cease to exist? Or has the _Christian League_
counted the cost at which this may be done? Have they reflected that
while they are mowing down the withered weeds of Popery in the morally
barren fields of Italy, that Jesuits are carefully collecting its seeds
and roots, and planting them in the new and rich fields of their own
country, where, in the homely but expressive language of our farmers,
one acre will produce more than ten in Italy? The whole course of this
League, as far as I am able to judge, is injudicious, and for the one
moral good that will be the consequence, fifty evil ones must follow.
Not a single member of this learned association would apply their rule
of action, in relation to Italy, to the management of any other
transaction in life. What farmer, for instance, would waste his time in
cultivating a sandy barren field on his farm, and leave uncultivated a
rich, loamy and productive one? Or would he try to cultivate both
without sufficient hands to do either well? Assuredly, no judicious man
would do so; or if he did, a failure and poverty would be the necessary
consequence. If the League desire success, they must strike at the root
of the evil of which they complain. Who, for instance, that had a tree
in his garden, whose fruit and blossoms were poisonous, would spend his
time, every spring and autumn, in plucking off those blossoms and
gathering up this fruit, with a view of getting rid of this troublesome
and destructive tree? Would you, gentlemen of the Christian League, not
smile at the individual whom you saw thus employed? Would you not, in
charity, say to him,--sir, you should root out that tree altogether from
your garden; but especially should you take care that if any of its
seeds has found its way into a richer garden or more valuable soil of
yours, to extirpate the latter first, as the poison which that will emit
will be much more rank, subtle and to greater quantity.
If Jesuitism were now confined to Italy alone, the members of the
_Christian alliance_ may, perhaps, be right. If there was but one tree in
the farmer's garden, and its seeds had not taken root in any of his
more valuable domains, he might take his own time in removing the tree,
either by cutting it down, or by gathering up its fruits and blossoms
to suit his taste, fancy or eccentricity. But when the seed of this tree
has taken root and begins to flourish luxuriantly, in the only spot
of land from which he expected support for himself and family, he is a
thriftless farmer that would not extirpate this tree root and branch,
fruit and blossom, from this valuable spot on which his own support and
that of a numerous family depended.
Let this rule be applied to the individual members of the Christian
alliance, or rather let each member apply it to himself. He cannot but
see that the poisonous seed of Popery has found its way to this country,
and taken deep root in some of its most verdant fields. I am aware that
these gentlemen will pay but little attention to my remonstrances or
warnings. Men entrenched behind the pride of opinion will seldom yield
to the summons of reason. For more than twenty years I have warned
Protestants, but to no effect, of an approaching foundation of Popish
priests and Jesuit principles. Suppose a fire should rage through one
of our most populous cities; suppose it should have extended to the
very middle of its lengthiest streets; would it be wise to go and try
to check its progress by seeking for the spot where it began? The whole
force of the fire companies and citizens should be concentrate it the
extreme point at which it extended; every effort should be made to
prevent its progressing together. Palaces, houses, hovels, goods, all
should be pulled down at every risk of individual property to stop the
conflagration. Suppose a prairie were on fire; suppose that prairie
belonged to the _Christian alliance_; suppose the loss of it involved
their own ruin and the ruin of their posterity,--would they, or any one
of them, go to look for the spot where the fire originated? Not they.
It would be madness to do so. Each and every one of them would turn up
their sleeves and never cease to labor until they cut a ditch deep and
wide enough to prevent the progress of the flames.