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Pe pir aimaremaenn
a nl
TRUTH IS POWERFUL,
‘VOu. Tr.
wee
Oe ee
HEW-YORE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1826.
\D WILL PREVAIL. : :
t
NO. 36, °
_- The following address from the friends of civil and religious
stiberty, in the District of Columbia, was unanimously voted at
the meeting held in Washington, the, particulars of which has
already appeared in the Truth Teller. We regret that the
crowded state of our columns precluded its publication sooner,
It will be perused with interest by the liberal minded of every
denomination. : Ba
YO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.
‘From a land where oppression is not felt nor feared, we your
friends, united ia our. ommon sympathies for your condition,
without distinction of party, creed, or birth-place, send you
eeti Woul.s’ we’ could ‘do more, ‘and make you
that the sons of Erin might: enjoy ‘such peace and security
jn their native land as their brethren do, in this land of their
adoption.. Unworthy should we be, of all the blessings Pro-
widence has bestowed upon us,” could we look with sordid in-
difference on the lot of a people, connected with us by so many
ties: of whose blood so much has been poured out in our, cause,
so much has mingled with our own, and who have been our
¢arly and our constant friends. ‘
Iv is not to stir up our feelings, already too accute, by the
reiteration of your wrongs, that we address you, The heart
sickening story of the long sufferings of Ireland, is already pro-
nuulgated and acknowledged, and marvelled at throughout the
christian world ‘and beyond.’ Happy for thé oppressed, if it
could be forgotten, thrice happy for the oppressor, could it be
for ever blotted from the sight and memory of God and man,
‘Lhe seventh century is now revolving since that fatal disu-
nion first tempted the invader to your shores, which has made
him ever since the master of your destinies.' Four of these
were marked with the blood and rapine which characterized
ages,’ piratical, and uncivilized; the remainder has been still
more embittered by religious rancour, not so many ages
of suffering have at length expiated the first fatal error, and
‘the present century, though begun in tribulation, yet prove to
you, a Sabbath and a Jubilee of peace and rest :
Let us not, then, too deeply probe wounds that we cannot
“cure, but assuage them rather with the cordial balm of hope.
‘— Hope, it is true, and Ireland have long been strangers, or if
the cup has some times reached her lip,’ as often has it been
tudely dashed to the earth. And now, even now, in spite o!
the growing light and reason of this age, does your country ex-
hibit the strange phenomenon of six out of seven millions of
a christian people wasting their energies from year to year,
in supplicating their fellow men, and if we believe it, their fel-
low christians, for leave to commune with their God, after the
dictates of their conscience and their ancient faith, without be-
und bosom of their own native Jand . .
. Mach, it is true,, has been already. yielded to the exigencies
too much, if the empire of mis-
“ing, for so doing, disabled and disqualified in the ‘very heart
alecided. d here let us pay a just tribute of respect to those
distinguished statesmen, orators, writers and clergy of the Eng-
Jish nation, whose talents have been so honourably displayed
in placing this question in its fair light, and dispelling the pre-
‘judices which hitherto had clouded it. Nor can we hesitate to
‘suppose that the present rulers of the English councils, will
gladly and speedily dedicate on the altar of conciliation, the
“Yast dishonourable trophy, the remnant of a bloody scourge of
ion, already worn to the very stump; that they will
prudently wash their hands of past crime and shame,
and throw them back to the account of the civil times that were
. + . ae
ee gone and cannot be revived. The question stands
palpable before the great tribunal of the ‘civilized
‘world, and if no other motive were to have any influence, the
fear of being. ranked with the blind fanatics and bigots who
. bring states to ruin, and of loosing that, ascendeacy which a
character for wisdom attaches to governments and nations,
‘must operate towards the change of a policy, which stands
condemned by all. . ' ios
We regret for your sake and our own, that the cause of your
_ country cannot, from your peculiarly distressing situation, be
-contemplated abstractedly from what we would willingly avoid;
‘ yeligious differences. “And we know that malice will endeavour
to make your misfortune, if possible, a crime,
.fix upon a political body, agitating a religiou! h
character of illiberal exelusion, and thereby to damp and chill
ahe warm sympathies that the jnstand humane are ever dispos-
ed to feel for the injured and oppressed. But wé consider the
.cause of the catholics of Ireland. contending for inalienable
_vights, as the cause, not only of Catholics and of Ireland, bat
(of all Lreland, and of the whole human family. © For if it be
once conceded that conscience can be ensiaved, where is the
neck that may not be made to feel the yoke? | Where is the
lespot, whether he be legitimate or has waded through blood
to empire, that will not think it lawful to array his own bad
passions, in the garb of heavenly zeal; and under the impious
pretext of vindicating the God of all justice and mercy, usurp
his judgment seat, aud set both justice and mercy at defiance?
The wise founders of our constitution knew from experience,
that the bane of pure religion was temporal power ; that perse-
cution was not confined to one church ; that if christians had
been persecuted, christians had persecuted, and the more cru-
elly that the tender charities of that religion of gentleness and
peace once set at nought, the sheet anchor of the christian vir-
tues, faith, hope, and charity, was parted, and there remain-
ed afterwards nothing by which to hold... The history of Eng-
land and Ireland is a remarkable proof of this.: Catholics had
uted protestants, and ‘protestants had persecuted Catho-
; of which, if any should still doubt, let him look upon that
code for the prevention of Popery, touching which there can
be no misrepresentation, for it is recorded in rolls of Parlia-
ment, in statute books, and written in manuels of the law.
We cannot better give the character of that code, than in
the words of Edmund Burke.-—“ It was a truly barbarous sys-
tem; of which every part was an outrage upon the laws of na-
ture, and the rights of humanity; a wise and elaborate con-
trivance, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and
degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human
=o
ee
nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity
f man.” ,
“Wisely therefore was:it provided by our organic constitu-
tions, that no faction, majority nor legislative power itself,
should set up any dominant religion, or impede the free exer-
And well bas that wisdom .been proved by the
result, . Amongst the, various churches and shades of opinion
which prevade our extended territory and population, there is
but one universal article of faith established, and that is written
not in statute law, but in the very tablets of the hearts,’ It is
to love one another, and dwell together in unity and brother];
affection, To this last impressive command of the great au-
thor of the christian faith, both Jew and Gentile as well as
Christian, in full sincerity of heart, subscribe. And shall it be
violated by a Christion nation, boasting of its high civilization
and professing to civilize others.
A few months ago, whilst our Congress wasin session, a Ca-
The
tholic Bishop preached by invitation in the Capitol.*
ith the
Chaplain of the Representatives, a Protestant divine, wit
courtesy becoming a christian minister, ceded the place ap-
ropriated for the exercise of his Sunday's devotion. There,
from the Speaker's chair of that magnificent hall, iv presence
of the first magistrate and other constituted authorities, of
ministers foreign and domestic, ‘and an enlightened audience
of both sexes, after developing, the general principles of the
Christian faith, he took occasion, not for the sake of controver-
sy but of conciliation, to vindicate those tenets of his church,
of which the misrepresentations had been most prejudicial.
Tle was heard with respect and. attention, and his sermon was
afterwards published at the desire of many Members of our
Congress. a . 4 .
~ His general testimony, as may be supposed, concurred with
that heretofore given on so many occasions by foreign univer-
sities, and distinguished dignitaries of that Church, before the
Parliament of England, and recently by all the Catholic Bishops
of Ireland, But it required a more particular application to
the circumstances of the Republican Assembly which he had
touddress. It may be remembered that, when the question of
Catholic emancipation was first -agitated in Ireland, it was a
most prevalent objection to it, that the principles of that reli-
gion were adverse to those of English liberty and of the glo}
ous revolution which established it; that its members were in
the law phrase, “ incapable of taking or acquiring freedom,”
so deeply were they supposed to be imbued with the unconsti-
tutional and anti-revolutionary doctrines of passive obedience
d non-resistance. On this delicate point, we cannot do bet-
ter justice to his arguinents; than in his own words: ve ®
““It is again urged that ut least our church is aristocratic if
not despotic in its principles, and is not calculated fora re.
ablic, that its spirit is opposed to that of republicanism. This
objection could not be seriously urged. by any person who has
studied history, nor by any person who is acquainted with our
tenets. Look over the history of the world since the establish.
ment of Christianity, and where have there béen Republicy?
Have the objectors read the history of lvaly? - A soil fertile in
republics, and most devoted to our religion! What was the
religion of William Te3l? He was a Roman Catholic. Look
not only on the Swiss republics, but take San-Marino, this little
state, during centuries the most splendid specimens of the pure
est democracy, and this democracy protected by our Popes
during those centuries, Men who make the assertions te which
Lhave alluded cannot have read history! Amongst ourselves,
what is the religion of the vencrable Charles Carroll of Car-
rollton! Men who make these assertions cannot have read
our Declaration of Independence. | What was the religion of
the ‘good, the estimable, the beloved Doctor Carroll, cur first
Catholic Archbis! :op of Baltimore, the founder of our hierarchy,
* Rr. Enylaud, Bishop of Charleston.
the friend of Washington, the associate of ‘Franklin? Have
those men been degraded in our church because they aided in
your struggle for the assertion of your rights, for the establish-
ment of our glorious and our happy republics; No; they a
the jewels which we prize, the ornaments of our church, the
patriots of our country.
They and others, whom wecount as our members and esteem
for their virtues, have been the intimate and faithful associates
of many of our best patriots who have passed from our transi-
tory scene, and of some who yet view in’ consolation our pros-
evity’ What is the religion of Simon Bolivar? © What the
religion of the whole population of our republican sisters upen
the Southern Continent? | We are always assailed by specula-
tion. We always answer’ by: facts. “Have we been found
traitors in your councils, unfaithfulto your trust, cowards in
your fields, or in correspondence with your enemies? Yet we
have been consulted for our prudence, confided in for our fide-
lity, enriched your soif with our ‘blood, filled your desks with
our energy, and thi i
the land of our ancestors because of the injustice of its rulers,
we told our brothers who assailié you in the day of battle that
we knew them not, and we adbéred to ‘those who gave to us a
place of refuge and impartial protection, ‘Shall we then be -
told that eur religion is not the religion calculated
lics, though it will be found that the vast majority of republican
states and republican patriots have been and even now are
Roman Catholics? It is true, ours is algo the religion of a large’
portion of empires, and of kingdoms, and’of principalities
The fact is so for an obvious reason, because it is the religion
ofthe great bulk of the civilixed world. “Our tenets do not
prescribe ‘a i
‘ c kings, or
by emperors, or by princes, or to associate in republics, Upon
this God has let us free to make ovr own selection. “Fhe deci-
sion upon the question of expediency -as to the form of (gov-
ernment for temporal or civil concerns, i¢ one to be settled b:
society and not by the church. We therefore bind no nation
or people to any special form, the forza which they may adopt
lies not with us but with themselves.’ What suits the genins
and circumstances of one people, might be totally unt. for
another; hence no special form of human government for civil
concerns has been generally. established by divine authority =
but the God of. order who commands men to dwell together in
pence, has armed the government which has been Properly es-
administration; whilst it continues within its due boands to
discharge properly its constitutienal obligations, itis the dur:
of each good member of ‘society to concur in its support, and
he who would resist its proper authority, ‘would in this case
resist the ordinance of the God of ‘peace and of order, and as
the apostle says, would purchase damnation for himself, This
principle applies alike'to all forms of government properly es-
tablished, and properly administered,‘ to republics and to
kingdoms alike. {t is then a mistake to imagine that oyr'church
has more congeniality to one species of tivil government than
to another; it has been fitted by its Author, who saw-the flué
tuating state of civil rule, to. exist independently of an and
to be suited to either.» Its own peculiar forms for its eternal
regulation, may and do continue to be
eeu “ tempered a adhered to under every
We make no apology for the adoption of this passage, nor of
the conclusion which isin these words
“Religion, that holy name has too
this end, that man might flatter himself with having the sanc-
sion of heaven for the indulgence of a bad passion. In these
happy and free states we stand upon the equal ground of relig~
ous right, we may freely love and bear with each other; and
exhibit to Europe a contrast to her jealousy in our affection.
'y enquiry we shall correct inany mistakes, by which our feel-
ings have been embittered: we shall be more bound together
in amity, as we become more intimate ; and may our harmony
and union here below produce that peace and good will that.
may be emblematic of our enjoyment of more lasting happiness
in a better world.”
Let us now return to the grounds of our hope, of approach.
ing peace and contentment for our long vexed country.
Our reliance is not altogether onthe justice of your com-
plaints of general misgovernment, nor on the Catholic claims
which we still must think a point of general concern, nor on
the eloquence and energy with which they are advanced. Nor
even on your Monarch’s recommendation to his Parliament at
Westminster ; nor on the tenderness of that Parliament; still
less on aay resistance that vou can or are disposed to make to
the will of those to hold your destinies in their hands.- Nor on.
your dutiful submission; though each of these ‘motives ma
serve to grace that necessity, which, if we do not much deceive
ourselves, comes borne upon the current of events, We coun
niore upon the strong and palpable interest of England hers it
Ifthe principles of commerce be not equally favorable to th :
rowth of all the virtues, they have this of good, that the: tend
to dissipate ignorant prejudices and narrow jealousies. 7 And
if the uew scicace of political econowy deserves to be invoked*
often been abused for ~
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