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CHAPTER X. FIFTEEN THOUSAND SLAVES TO ROME IN WASHINGTON; OR, AMERICANS UNDER THE SURVEILLANCE OF ROME

It will surprise the people of the great free republic of the United States to learn that

FIFTEEN THOUSAND DEPARTMENT CLERKS

are under the surveillance of Rome. This seems like a strange statement. The many will say it cannot be true. The fact remains. Romanism is the dominant power in the Capital of the United States. The war which Rome helped to bring on, and which she hindered as best she could when she saw it was to eventuate in liberty, resulted in her advantage rather than to her detriment. The reason for it is difficult to explain. Had Abraham Lincoln told the truth about Romanism to the people, the curse would have been wiped out. The reason he did not, and gave for not doing it, influences thousands at the present time, viz. : fear of a religious war.

It seems inexplicable that the power which assassinated Abraham Lincoln should have been fostered and aided by the people who slew slavery and who recognized the fact that Romanism was its chief ally. Who can think of Thaddeus Stevens patting this monster that slew the great Emancipator, without a shudder of horror, mingled with a feeling of incredulity. A strange fear of Rome came upon the politicians of all parties after the civil war was over. Proofs abounded of the disloyalty of this life-long foe of liberty. They were unheeded. They remain unheeded. From dozens of letters, and from unnumbered clerks in the departments, information is furnished that, after the 1st and 15th of every month, nuns have the free run of the departments, and can ask every clerk and every head of a department for money to help on the Church of Rome. Some of these letters are sad beyond expression. The wife of a Union soldier writes :”I am in —- Department. There are nine Irish to one American. The persecution to which I am subjected, in hopes of driving me out, is difficult to describe and hard to bear. They preach their religion and their politics. If a word is said against it, the air is made blue with profanity, and such words as, Get out, you heretic; we ll make it hot for you, are heard on every hand.”

to any of the Departments, and can do what she desires. Any one without the black robe and bonnet would be thrust out by the door-keepers. These are admitted by special order. Must this be borne? Is not this an outrage to Christian employees in a free Government? Drop the word”Christian.”Is it not an outrage on American citizenship? Has Rome any claim upon these clerks in the service of the Government? Suppose Baptists or Presbyterians should ask the privilege of going through the departments to solicit funds for church purposes, would the request be granted? Most assuredly not.

We have said the clerks were under the surveillance of Rome. Suppose they do not like it? What can they do about it? Seven men, members of the Grand Army of the Republic, some from Northern states, some from Southern, told how they were not only asked by these nuns to give twice a month, but that they were afraid not to give. They related how the heads of the departments are very largely either Roman Catholics, or afraid to antagonize them, and because one of their number expressed his mind in regard to the outrage of having these black-robed minions of Rome tramping through the departments and asking American citizens to contribute to the support of”The Harlot of the Tiber”his name was handed in as a man who had insulted a saintly nun, and at the close of the month his dismissal came, and no reasons given. They who refuse to give are reported, and when vacancies are required, their names are ready for use. The result need not be described. Fear of losing their places is everywhere apparent. It affects society, muzzles the press, and chains the pulpit.

If there is one doctrine distinctively American, it is that there must be a separation between church and State. If there is one doctrine distinctively democratic, it is that the State must support the representatives of the Church of Rome.

for Ireland, we need it in Washington. The Capital, the Departments, the President s House, the Post Office, the Foreign, and now the Interior Department, are under the domination of Roman Catholics, the instigators of the Civil War and the assassins of Abraham Lincoln, the life-long foe of liberty here, and throughout the world.

lies in the fact, that the men in office live, when at home, in different places, which are also under the dominance of Rome.

Several members of Congress related that it is the custom of the nuns to visit every member of Congress soon after he arrives : they ask for a contribution. If they give, well. If not, it is reported.

A Northern lady, a good Baptist, whose husband is independent of public patronage, rented rooms to a member of Congress. Hardly had he got his trunk unstrapped, before two nuns came. The girl let them in. They were asked to call again after the gentleman got settled. They were no sooner out, than the lady of the house said:”If those women come again, seat them in the hall, and don t let them in until I see them.”The next day they were seated in the hall, and she came down. The lady is utterly fearless, and has no respect for, nor fear of black-robed Sisters of Charity.

“What do you want?”

“To see the Member of Congress”

“What for?”

“To see him.”

“He has a wife, and don t need the attentions of other women.”

“We wish to see him for the church.”

“He is not a Roman Catholic, and has a better church, which he helps support.”

Then the old nun claimed she wished to go into a private room to fix her shoe.”Fix it here : you are not afraid of me, are you?”

Then she spoke up, and asked :”Do you refuse to let me see a Member of Congress in this house?”

“I do.”

“Then we will take the number of this house, and it may be to your injury.”-

“All right; take it, and advertise it, if you choose; my house cannot be made a run-way for Romish hirelings.”

It is a simple fact, that the house is always full of occupants, and is felt to be a retreat from the incursions of Romanists.

Is there any good reasons why the Roman Catholic church should become a universal beggar, and yet house the Pope in the largest palace in the world, and feed her cardinals, bishops, lady-superiors, priests and nuns on the fat of the land?

Was there ever a set of dupes like Romanists, who, as a rule, live in squalor, while the money drawn from the poor is placed on the largest structures of the land.

More wealth is under her control than is possessed by the representative of any nation, sect, or faith. Her wealth is a secret. Out of Peter s Pence comes a great patrimony. Rome claims to be beneficent, and so becomes the recipient of bounty from the State, as well as from individuals. No sect is less so. No people give so little to any object outside of their own communion.

fifteen hundred feet in length, eight hundred in breadth, with twenty courts, miles of galleries filled with pictures and statuary, two hundred stair-cases, eleven hundred rooms, the construction of which has cost more than one hundred millions of dollars, and yet he is the pensioner of the whole world!

As a rule, the people who belong to the Church of Rome are poor. In Roman Catholic countries where Romanism rules supreme, they are very poor. In Ireland, in the Roman Catholic districts, the men and women sleep in ditches and herd with pigs. It is surprising that, in New York, Romanists, living in tenement houses, in garrets and cellars, are content to abide in squalor, while the archbishop, whose iron hand was laid on every free impulse, and all who sympathized with it, lives in a palace, and is fed on food that befits the table of a king. The Pope has for his own use four Palatine cardinals, three prelates, and a master, ten prelates of the private chamber, amongst whom are cup bearers and keepers of the wardrobe, two hundred and fifteen domestic prelates, and more than four hundred women. Then follows two hundred and forty-nine supernumerary prelates of the private chamber, four private chamberlains of the sword and cloak, Roman patricians, a quarter-master, major, a correspondent-general of the post, one hundred and thirty fresh private chamberlains of the sword and cloak. Next come two hundred and sixty-five honorary monsignori, extra urbem, six honorary chamberlains of the sword and cloak, then eight private chaplains; then two private monsignori of the tonsure, or, barbers in short, but monsignori just the same; then eighteen supernumeraries. In all, one thousand and twenty-five persons; besides the Palatine administration and the tribunal of the major-domo, the Swiss guards the gens d arms, and a legion of servants. Does it not need a brazen effrontery, which is astonishing, to send priests and nuns all over the world to extract the pence from the pockets of the poor, to keep in luxury this army of men, for the most part privates, who earn not a dollar, and are utterly worthless as aids to humanity? If it be difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, how shall he who inherits the Vatican enter there, who has treasures of all sorts, many precious gems, countless works of art, vessels of silver and gold, and more than a thousand servants? On his head is not one crown, but three. He is borne on the shoulders of men. He compels his votaries to kiss his toe, and enjoys an income of millions.

In the United States, the attempt is being made to rival Europe. The Cardinal s palace in New York, built of marble, tilled with choice works of art, cost an immense sum. The dwellings of bishops and priests are planned on a magnificent scale. The gate into Rome is not strait, and the way is not narrow. They can carry with them bad politics, bad principles, bad practices and bad lives, and yet if they will give their consciences to the priests, and believe what they are taught concerning penance, absolution, forms and ceremonies, the conditions of becoming a Roman Catholic are met. A change of heart is not in the programme. A blameless, pure life is not in the bond. It is not strange that error thrives beneath the shadow of Romanism. Rum-selling is not a sin, and if rum-drinking were even a disgrace, few are the priests who would be respectable. Mormonism fattens on polygamy, and Mohammedanism, that painted a heaven in which lust should have full play, and the bestial nature supremacy, won a large following, and holds it, because the carnal heart can there find full play for passion and desire. Romanism is a match for either Mormonism or Mohammedanism. The priests practice polygamy under another name, and find in the church a carteblanche for the promptings of the natural heart.

A deception, because it claims to have been built on St. Peter in Rome; when there is not a scintilla of evidence that Peter ever saw Rome. He was the apostle of the circumcision. He went to Babylon, and from there wrote his epistles. Paul went to Rome, and called the names of the prominent ones he met; but never mentioned Peter, who lived and died in the East. But Romanism without Peter in Rome is a failure; and so the lie, that he came to Rome, lived there twenty-five years, was in the Marmantine Prison over which St. Peter s towers, and died crucified head downwards, in the place upon which the Vatican stands, where the Pope lives, all this is unblushingly lifted into prominence as if it were a truth, when all history knows it to be false.

Romanism is a fraud because it pretends to have power which does not belong to it. Tradition usurps the place of Scripture, it subordinates the inward and spiritual to the outward and visible; it obscures and stifles the life of faith and love, by its absorbing attention to the things of sight and show; instead of relying on Jesus, who is the Christ, and was offered once for all, it makes a new Jesus and a new atonement at every Mass; instead of having one mediator between God and man (1 Timothy, 2:5), it makes the mother of Jesus both a mediator and a God, and treats, likewise, its thousands of other canonized (real or unreal) saints as mediators, to be prayed to and honored for their superhuman merit and power. By its connected doctrines of confession and penance, and absolution and indulgence, it places the consciences, persons, and property of many women and children in the power of the priest; it speaks lies in hypocrisy, sears the conscience as with a hot iron; it changes the truth of God into a lie, and worships and serves the creature more than the Creator; it turns the consolations and comforts of religion, the means of grace, and the hope of glory, into so much merchandise, to be disposed of according to the vender, and the ability or necessity of the purchaser; in fine, it sets forth another gospel than the free gospel of Christ, another standard than the perfect law of God, other ordinances and other conditions of salvation than those which the Lord Jesus has established. It has fellowship with darkness .rather than light, and is in affinity with Satan and his angels, rather than with Jehovah. And yet, bad as it is in character and in practice, the Republic of the United States gives to this assassin of President Lincoln, to this enemy of all righteousness, to this instigator of the civil war, rights denied to the representatives of Jesus Christ s Gospel, and compels fifteen thousand employees of the Government to give to its support, or to have their places endangered, and their living confiscated!

Romanism is a fraud, because it claims to be in line with apostolic succession, when there have been at least thirty schisms in the church. Two popes have claimed St. Peter s chair at one and the same time, and fought and led armies to maintain the supremacy. In 1414, the Council of Constance cashiered three popes, John XXIII., Gregory XIII. and Benedict XIII. as deserving the deepest execration, and as guilty of most horrible crimes.

Popes have been guilty of the most horrible practices. What matters it though Pope Joan was taken with the pains of childbirth on a public parade, though mistresses and harlots had control of the Chair, Rome as unblushingly holds out her pauper hand and cries Give! as if she had a good history, and was backed by a decent life! Romanism is indifferent to Scripture and public opinion.

Romanists want a Peter for Rome, and they get him. In spite of Scripture, they will hold on to him; and for all Scripture can do, Peter may yet become a second Romulus, suckled by a wolf, and the founder of the Eternal City. It would be as true as much of the history they are making for the youth of America.

Is it not enough to tolerate Romanism? Shall the free people of America be compelled to give to its support? Shall this church be permitted to dominate the State? This is being done in many portions of the Republic. Shall a halt be called?

This question must be answered. Romanism is for the first time uncovering its intent in America, and revealing the fact that the spirit of hellish hate which dominated the organism in Spain, and also in Italy, characterizes it in the Republic, where, it was said, free institutions were to change its purpose and modify its nature. A good time to answer the question has come. Freemen are at last beginning to understand that freedom is in peril. Romanists who hope for better things are tiring of the old despotism, and are beginning to seek for the new life.