74 POLITICAL LIFE-II 



insisted that Roman Catholic bishops and priests had 

 wrecked every country in which they had ever gained 

 control; that they had aided in turning the mediaeval re 

 publics into despotisms; that they had ruined Spain and 

 the South American republics; that they had rendered 

 Poland and Ireland unable to resist oppression ; that they 

 had hopelessly enfeebled Austria and Italy; that by St. 

 Bartholomew massacres and clearing out of Huguenots 

 they had made, first, terrorism, and, finally, despotism 

 necessary in France ; that they had rendered every people 

 they had controlled careless of truth and inclined to des 

 potism, either of monarchs or l bosses &quot;; that our pris 

 ons were filled with the youth whom they had trained in 

 religion and morals; that they were ready to ravage the 

 world with fire and sword to gain the slightest point for 

 the Papacy ; that they were the sworn foes of our public- 

 school system, without which no such thing as republi 

 can government could exist among us ; that, in fact, their 

 bishops and priests were the enemies of everything we 

 Americans should hold dear, and that their church was 

 not so much a religious organization as a political con 

 spiracy against the best that mankind had achieved. 



6 1 Look at the Italians, Spanish, French to-day, &quot; he 

 said. l i The Church has had them under its complete con 

 trol fifteen hundred years, and you see the result. Look 

 at the Irish all about us; always screaming for liberty, 

 yet the most abject slaves of their passions and of their 

 priesthood. 



He spoke with the deepest earnestness and even elo 

 quence ; others gathered round, and some took his tickets. 

 I refused them, saying, &quot;No. The question of all ques 

 tions to me is whether slavery or freedom is to rule this 

 Republic,&quot; and, having taken a Republican ticket, I went 

 np-stairs to the polls. On my arrival at the ballot-box 

 came a most exasperating thing. A drunken Irish Dem 

 ocrat standing there challenged my vote. He had, per 

 haps, not been in the country six months; I had lived 

 in that very ward since my childhood, knew and was 



