A PLEA FOR THE WEST.
By Rev. Dr. Beecher.
This work has just issued from the press. The Catholic question, which is an
interesting and very important one to the people of this country, is taken up
and discussed with much ability and candor. The following extracts we select
from the Boston Courier.
To the question of an objector, "Are not the Catholics sincere? why not,
then, let them alone" the author replies-
That they are sincere in their faith there can be no doubt. But what the republican
tendency of their faith is, depends on what they believe, and not on
the simple fact they they do believe it. If they believe in the rights and duties
of universal education, of free inquiry, of reading and understanding the Bible,
and in the liberty and equality of all religious denominations, and that they
are we are accountable only to GOD and the laws of the land, it is well. But
if they believe that the pope and the church are infallible,- that his ecclesiastical
jurisdiction is universal,- that he and the priests have the power of eternal
life or death, in the bestowment or refusal of pardon as they obey them,- that
no man may read the Bible without the permission of the priesthood, or understand
it as they interpret,- and that every Catholic is bound to believe implicitly
as the church believes, and that all non-Catholics are heretics, and heresy
a capital offence, and the extermination of heretics by force duty, then the
more anti-republican the elements of their faith are, the more terrific is their
sincerity, which on the peril of their soul would make them the instruments
of a foreign policy in overturning our institutions for the establishment of
those of their own church.
To another question, "Have not the Catholics just as good a right to their
religion as other denominations have to theirs?" we find the following
answer:-
I have said so. I only admit their equal rights, but insist upon them; and
am prepared to defend their rights as I am those of my own and other protestant
denominations.The Catholics have a perfect right to proselyte the nation
to their faith if they are able to do it. But I too have the right of preventing
it if I am able. They have a right freely to propagate their opinions and
arguments; and I too have a right to apprise the nation of their political bearings
on our republican institutions. They have a right to test the tendencies of
protestantism by an appeal to history; and I, by an appeal to history, have
a right to illustrate the coincidence between the political doctrines and the
practice of the Catholic church and to show that always they have been hostile
to civil and religious liberty. The Catholics claim and exercise the liberty
of animadverting on the doctrines and doings of Protestants, and we do not complain
of it.- and why do they or their friends complain that we in turn should animadvert
on the political maxims and doings of the Catholic church? Must the Catholics
have all the liberty- their own and ours too? Can they not endure the reaction
of free inquiry? Must we lay our hand on our mouth in their presence, and stop
the press? Let them count the cost and such as cannot bear the scrutiny
of free inquiry return where there is none; for though we would kindly
accommodate them in all practicable ways, we cannot surrender our rights for
their accommodation.
Dr. Beecher undertakes to show that, in the Catholic institutions for education,
there is a design to subvert the religion of the Protestant children, notwithstanding
promises and representations to the contrary, and in support of his argument,
quotes from the rules and regulations of various seminaries; from the letters
of agents and missionaries, and other public documents; and emphatically asks:-
And now in view of these disclosures, let me ask, can a Protestant professor
of religion, covenant to train up his children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, and then deliver them over to a Catholic education, and not violate
his vow? and can patriots swear to be faithful to the constitution of the United
States, and commit the education of their republican children to Catholic schools
and seminaries, and do no violence to their oath? Can Jesuits and nuns, educated
in Europe, and sustained by the patronage of Catholic powers in arduous conflict
for the destruction of liberty, be safely trusted to form the mind and opinions
of the young hopes of this great nation?- Is it not treason to commit the formation
of republican children to such influences?
It is time to awake out of sleep on the subject, and that the sanction of a
correct, concentrated, all-powerful public sentiment should stamp infatuation
and shame upon it. Nothing fills the Catholics with such amazement and high
hopes as the simple hearted credulity and recklessness of Protestants, in committing
their children to their forming hand; and nothing certainly can be more wonderful
or fatal in its influence on our republican institutions. |
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