PERILS. — ROMANIS-M. 77 



6. We have seen that she approves the union of 

 church and state mstead of their entire separation. 



7. We have seen that she is opposed to our public 

 school sj^stem. 



Manifestly there is an irreconcilable difference be- 

 tween papal principles and the fundamental principles 

 of our free institutions. Popular government is self- 

 government. A nation is capable of self-government 

 only so far as the individuals who compose it are capable 

 of self-government. To place one's conscience, there- 

 fore, in the keeping of another, and to disavow all per- 

 sonal responsibility in obeying the dictation of another, 

 is as far as possible from seZ/-government, and, there- 

 fore, wholly inconsistent with republican institutions, 

 and, if sufficiently common, dangerous to their stability. 

 It is the theory of absolutism in the state, that man ex- 

 ists for the state. It is the theory of absolutism in the 

 church that man exists for the church. But in republi- 

 can and Protestant America it is believed that church 

 and state exist for the people and are to be administered 

 by them. Our fundamental ideas of society, therefore, 

 are as radically opposed to Vaticanism as to imperialism, 

 and it is as inconsistent with our liberties for Americans 

 to yield allegiance to the Pope as to the Czar. It is true 

 the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore denied that 

 there is any antagonism between the laws, institutions 

 and spirit of the Roman church and those of our coun- 

 tr}^ and in so doing illustrated the French proverb that 

 "Todenj^is to confess." No Protestant church makes 

 any such denials. 



History fully justifies the teaching of philosophers 

 that civil and political society tends to take the 

 form of religious society. Absolutism in religion can- 

 not fail in time to have an undermining influence 

 on political equality. Already do we see its baneful 

 influence in our large cities. It is for the most part the 

 voters who accept absolutism in their faith who accept 

 the dictation of their petty political popes, and suffer 

 themselves to be led to the polls like so many sheep. 



