Part 7 (1/2)
he was asked ”I got it as a present,” he answered Then he related how one day he met with a rich man: ”I knocked him down,” he said, ”put my foot on his throat, and said: 'Give ave it to me” ”Pay your taxes for the erection and support of our Public Schools,” says the lord State to the poor and to the rich, ”or I sell your property” What a shahts In this country, whose discoverer was a Catholic--in this country, where the principle of religious toleration was first established by a Catholic nobleman, the famous and chivalric Calvert, Earl of Baltiely indebted for their freedoenerous aid of Catholic France--in this country, whose constitutional freedom has been struck down by the malevolent Puritanism _which in one breath declares that Catholics are opposed to education, and in the next insists that they shall be deprived of the means necessary for its maintenance_--in this country, I say, we Catholics are entitled to equal rights, and to a fair share, to a just apportionment of the annual amount raised by taxation for the support of our charitable and educational institutions
We ask only what is fair, what is just, what is right; and we base our deranted or received
If the State taxes us, as a religious and Christian people, for the education of our children, it ive us a Christian education If it cannot, or will not do that, it must cease to tax us, and leave the education of our children to ourselves If the Christian gives to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, he has a right to des to God
Again, the Constitution says, ”That no person shall be compelled to erect, support, or attend any place of public worshi+p, nor support any ion,” etc; and it says, ”That no private property ought to be taken or applied to public use without just compensation” Now let us apply these constitutional principles to State-schools, and see if our compulsory support of them is not violative of our constitution as well as common law Why is it ”that no person shall be compelled to erect, support, or attend any place of public worshi+p, nor support any ion”? Simply because he ”don't want to”; and he don't want to, ”because it is against his conscience”; and ”no human authority,” says the Constitution, ”can control or interfere with the rights of conscience”; that is all the reason, and no other The State believes that all places of worshi+p, andthat there is a difference of opinion a the people on that subject, wisely leaves such matters to their choice, and will not take private property for public use without compensation Why, then, is private property taken for Public Schools without compensation? We cannot use them in conscience, and we have seen there is no lawful power or authority to ”control or interfere with conscience” I ask, then, if I a that our compulsory support of an odious and infidel systeainst our consent, is not far worse than the support of any for to the Constitution, ”No preference can ever be given by law to any church, sect, or mode of worshi+p” This section is often quoted as the authority and reason for excluding religious teachings frorantly violated by the present syste a _preference by law_ to the _unbelievers_, and thereby discriainst the believers of all sects and denominations For, after all, there can be but two churches, or, if you please, sects, in the eye of the State--the believers and unbelievers To the for the various Christian denoainst all religious faith and belief Those certainly are the last, and for that reason, if for no other, are the _best or worst_ (as people may choose to view them) sect It is, then, this last product, this ”_caput mortuum_” of all sects and believers of every shade and kind, that is favored by the no-belief systeive any preference to any church or sect,” it is not, on that account, authorized to ignore and reject all; but, on the contrary, is obliged in justice to assist all or none, as, by this course alone, it avoids giving preference to any This is what the law contemplates, and the only course that comports with reason and justice
If it suits the _last sect_--the _unbelievers or no-believers_--to exclude ht; let them keep on as at present But if it suits the various other churches or sects to modify the system to suit their conscientious views and beliefs, to apply their own proportion of the school tax for that purpose, it is their undeniable and lawful right
There is one viehich the public will agree in regard to the Public Schools: it is that they cost too ement of the Godless Public Schools there is a costly array of ”Commissioners,” and ”Inspectors,” and ”Trustees,” and ”Superintendents,” and ”Secretaries of Boards,” and ”Central Officers,” all in league with ”Contractors,” to ”--so-called--out of the plan We have, now, contractors for buildings and repairs, contractors for furniture, contractors for books, contractors for furnaces, contractors for fuel, contractors even for pianos, and all ive the contracts do not make any money by way of commissions, do they? Ah! you know full well that hundreds of thousands of dollars are annually spent or squandered in running these Public Schools, and which are recommended, in a particular manner, for their _economy_!
But aside, for a moment, frorand and ih-paid professors, teachers, superintendents and assistants, costing the people of every city and State hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, there is another army, yea, a volunteer arreater power--God--who, for His love, and that uncomparable rehich only God bestows, devote the the poor, the needy, the orphan, the houseless, the homeless, the forlorn, the despised, as well as the randiloquent printed reports in costly binding; they have no official stenographers or reporters to noise their proceedings in ” papers”; they have no ”Polytechnic Halls,” fitted up with pretentious libraries, and all the surroundings of upholstery, and heating and cooling apparatus; but winter and summer, early and late, they keep the even tenor of their ith an ”_eye single_” to their humble and laborious duties
In nearly all the cities of America, in those busy and worldly centres of traffic and trade, of luxury and wealth, with their average of good and evil, virtue and crime, this ”_volunteer army_” distributes itself noiselessly, quietly, and as it were obscurely, not heralded nor preceded by the e its conquests and asserting its quiet influence in lanes and alleys, gathering up the little children, taking the them in the service of God and society
Youline of little boys or girls, two by two, extending to the length of a block or ularly they are assorted, the tallest in first, and ranging down to the little ones, whose busy feet are trying to keep up with the column Youchildren), and your attention was arrested, and perhaps you know not how all this order in this beautiful panoraht about Well, with these boys you may have observed twoline If you saw this for the first time you ure and costue-fashi+oned robe, the white collar, the collected air and mien, all bespeak the _Christian Brother_ These men, nevertheless, are ”profoundly learned in all the sciences of the schools” They have abandoned home, family, friends, and have devoted themselves,
If, on the other hand, the long line are girls, you may have observed two ladies; one at the head, the other at the foot You will at a glance conclude they are not of the world Their costume is of the homeliest cut and quality, but scrupulously clean; there is a so about their very presence that impresses you with reverence and respect, and you must be a very hardened sinner indeed if you did not feel the better of having even their shadow fall upon you These silent, collected, but impressive women are ”_Nuns_” of one order or another They, too, have left all to serve God in the persons of these little children They have reater than the world can appreciate or understand, and which only the Divine Master can reward Their whole life is a silent but an eloquent serospel in action You will remember they are women like others of their sex, and mayhap have been flattered and petted, and once filled with the natural vanity and expectations of their sex; but all these they have put _behind_ them, and henceforth and forever their walk, and life, and conversation is with God, and in the service of His little ones Noill be easily seen that the personal influence of such men and women over the life and ranted that the influence of father and ood or evil So it is with teachers Children are shrewd observers, and are apt to take some one as a prototype and exemplar This one they copy as near as may be These ”Christian Brothers,” and ”Nuns, or Sisters,” are good models; they teach the children to pray in the best of all ways--by praying themselves first; they try to impress on these tender souls sentiments of love, obedience, and respect to their fathers and mothers, and, above all, their duties to our dear Lord They acco and ending all their daily lessons with a little prayer or devotion For the rest, they give them, in their schools, a plain, practical education
Every day (we are told) there are instances of h rounds to the lowest one in the ladder of wealth Business ulphed in the sea of financial e but their personal resources to depend upon for a living Clerks, salesmen, and others find themselves thrown out of e places which they are co a livelihood How many men are there in every city to-day, some of whom have families dependent on them for support, who bewail the er days? There are hundreds of them There are men in every city who have seen better days, men of education and business ability, who envy the mechanic, who has a sure support for hireat mistake when they i hiencies
No matter how favorable a boy's circumstances eneral enters the battle of armies: with a reliable reserve to fall back upon in case of disaster Every man is liable to be reduced to the lowest pecuniary point at soe of his life, and it is hardly necessary to refer to the large proportion of men who reach that point No man is poor who is the master of a trade
It is a kind of capital that defies the stors to a man when all else has been swept away It consoles him, in the hour of adversity, with the assurance that, let whatever may befall him, he need have no fear for the support of himself and his fa of a shaard a trade as so disreputable, hich their children should not be tainted Labor disreputable! What would the world be without it? It is the very power that her than the throne of the aristocracy has ennobled labor, and he ould disparage it must set himself above the Divine principle, ”In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread!” A trade is a ”friend in need”; it is independence and wealth--a rich legacy which the poorest father ard as old
Nohat kind of education is necessary for a tradesman to carry on business successfully? Only a plain, practical education; that is to say, that kind and ae of daily ordinary use and appreciation It is reading, writing, arithe of the Gere, sufficient to speak it
If we look around ill see that all the important and every-day duties of life are carried on by the use of industry, coht almost be said that the failures are to be ascribed, in part, if not to over-education, at least to the coue ambition and desires which they invariably excite, but rarely serve to satisfy Why, I could find, for instance, in the history,proof of my proposition Not that I leave it to be inferred that there is not, in these newspapers, the evidences of every kind of acquiree, and those who have made it the _power_ and _success_ that it is, have worked with these ordinary instruive one instance when there are so many on every side--so much so that the success of what is called the learned class is so rare, that itthe exceptions
As to those who are able, and desire further infores, convents, acade brethren,” of the various denorace and light given the their children up in Christian morals and education They have their own schools, and support them, or they send their children to Catholic institutions, and will not have them tempted or corrupted by the evil influences, moral, social, and intellectual, that emanate and surround those ”_whited sepulchres_”--the Godless schools--as the miasm emanates and surrounds the pestilent marsh In all these schools the children are carefully trained in Christian practices, prayers, and religious duties, as well as taught a good, plain, practical course of studies In fact, they are truly _educated_; while in the Public Schools they are si to their instinct The Jews also teach and bring up their children in the religion of their fathers, at their own expense; so that more than one-half are, fortunately for theood order and well-being of the State, educated outside of ierous pest-houses It is on this element of our population that the future of the State depends; for if we are to have a sound public conscience and a controlling conservative influence in public or private affairs, we must, under God and His Church, obtain it from a true Christian education
At these parish schools, supported by voluntary aid, the expenses of pupils per year is under seven dollars; at the Public Schools, it is, I am informed, about thirty-two dollars; so that it costs about four tiive the poor, miserable, shallow, infidel instruction in the Public Schools, as it does to give a good Christian education in the denoe, to educate 20,000 children in denominational schools saves to tax-payers not less than the _sht hand scandalize thee, cut it off and cast it from thee; for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than thy whole body be cast into hell”--(Matt v 30) By the present Public School systehts and duties that belong alone to parents; it scandalizes the tax-payer, because it takes ht to take; it scandalizes society, because, instead of teaching virtue, it teaches vice; it scandalizes the youngtheious duties, it inspires theion, and turns them into actual unbelievers, and thus destroys the very life of society and the basis of every government; it scandalizes all nations, because there is not, and there has never been, any nation inculcating education without religion
By its present system of education, the State has weakened, and will finally break up and destroy, the Christian family The social unit is the faer to A a nation of isolated individuals, without family ties or affections The fa We have broken away fro associations that gathered round it, and live away froe and influential class of wolect, but disdain, the retired and simple domestic virtues, and scorn to be tied down to the ery, they call it--of wives andthe faith, the virtues, the habits, and the manners, without which the family cannot be sustained This, coupled with the separate pecuniary interests of husband and wife secured, make the family, to a fearful extent, the mere shadohat it was and of what it should be What reraces and virtue of woreat facility of obtaining a divorce _a vinculo matrimonii_--a facility by which the laws of rant to lust the widest e and adultery Nohen the faoes too, or ceases to be worth preserving God made the family the type and basis of society; ”male and female made he them”
By its present system of education, the State makes war on God and His Christ, and says, with Lucifer, ”Non servio”; and this is the daring rebel against God and His law, that would claim the innocent children of the Christian fa them, as Satan, its master, did the Saviour, riches, and honors, and power, if they will but fall down and worshi+p it How incoood e the obligations of its co, ”Get behind inning” The State, in this subject of education, represents the world; and religion, as well as experience, teaches us its folly, its wickedness, its treachery and its aives a stone” It proradation It is blind, and it attenorant, and it offers to teach and direct the young It will not receive the law, and it claiher law_,” and ”_would be as God_” There is the danger; and it is against this the fight ious freedom, our temporal and eternal happiness
Surely it is tiood Christians of America to cry out to our rulers, ”And now, O ye rulers, understand; receive instruction, you that judge the earth”--(Ps ii x) Do not force any longer upon a Christian nation an educational systeer our children without religion--to infidelity, and consequently to revolution Do not teach the youth of Aion; they will not be long faithful to you if you make them unfaithful to the faith of their fathers You, and all the classes in society who delight in seeing the influence of religion weakened or destroyed, never seem to realize, until it is too late, that you are sure to be the especial victims of your own success The man who scorns to love God and His la shall he continue to love his neighbor? The man who has said ”there is no God,” is he not on the point of also saying ”lust is lawful,” ”property is robbery”? If you raise instruious principles, God will use these very instruan system of education will ultian nations, where the poor were cohts--it was easy to hold theed Discontent in the lower order of society can no longer be seneral; and, unfortunately, the very element, without which education is often a curse, is oious education has been separated froion, the poor are unable to control their passions, or to bear their hard lot They see wealth around theion, they see no reason why that wealth should not be divided ahbors roll in splendor and luxury? If the poor were ignorant, they would not, perhaps, notice all the sad privations of their state; they would not, perhaps, feel them so keenly But they are partially educated, and ”a little learning is a dangerous thing”
They know their power, and, not having the soothing influence of religion to restrain them, they use their power They have done so in France and elsewhere, and if they do not always succeed in producing revolution, and anarchy, it is only the bayonet that prevents them Such is the abyss that yawns beneath the feet of our country, and into which the advocates of _education without religion_--perhaps some of the to force upon this Christian nation an anti-Christian, an anti-Arievance is not simply an affair of taxes, or so ht bear, as we have to do in other cases of injustice, for righteousness' sake But we have a duty to God, ourselves, and our children We recognize the office and obligations of the State as _tee in it an absolute and _unconditional_ authority We do not admit the doctrine of _passive obedience_ We will not and cannot surrender the education of our children to its dictation and control, for that is a trust placed in our hands by a higher power, and for which ill have to answer, at the last day, on our salvation I ask--aht in all that I have said upon the State and its Godless systeht to ask for a verdict of ”Guilty” If there are still soht, then let them, without delay, be operated upon for _ah time to inquire what should be done to correct the systereat question; it demands a speedy and satisfactory solution The interests it involves are commensurate with time and eternity