THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

163119

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

1899.

ENTERED,

According to Aot of Congress, in the year 1835, by

WILLIAM C. BROWNLEE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of NEW YORK.

STEREOTYPED BY FRANCIS F. RIPLEY,

NEW YORK.

TO THE

AMERICAN YOUNG MEN,

THE

FUTURE CITIZENS, AND MAGISTRATES, AND MINISTERS

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

YOUNG GENTLEMEN:-I come before you not as a sectarian; nor as a polemic. I come before you to beg a hearing on a subject, not only of the deepest interest to our holy religion, but involving, as I verily believe, the very existence of our liberties, and the perpetuity of our Republic.

In the Roman Catholic religion, we have detected an invading enemy, audaciously conspiring, under the mask of holy religion, against the liberties of our country: we have dragged it forward into the light; we have stripped the vizor off its face; and have brought it up to YOUR tribunal, for public judgment in the case.

It is a system of mere human policy; altogether of foreign origin; foreign in its support; importing foreign vassals; and sending a most baneful foreign influence over us. Its pope, and his priests, are politicians; men of the world, and mere men of pleasure. It is, as a system, in the hands of a foreign despotism, precisely what the Koran is in the hands of the

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grand Turk, and his muftis. It is a tremendous weapon wielded against peace and good order-the hilt of which is at Rome.

It is as intolerant in polities as it is in religion; it claims to tax the subjects and citizens of every country; it has interdicted nations; dethroned chief magistrates; dissolved civil governments; suspended commerce; annulled civil laws; and, to gratify its lust of ambition, it has thrown whole nations into utter confusion. It wages a war of extermination against the freedom of the press; and against the rights of human conscience, and the liberties of man. It aims at universal power over the bodies, and souls of all men and history proclaims that its weapons have been dungeons; and racks; and chains; and fire and sword! It is now annually pouring in upon us, its armies of resolute men,-prelates, priests, monks, nuns, and hundreds of thousands of the very offscourings of the European Catholic population! And be assured, young men of America, that just as certainly as these sons of Belial shall reach the power which they lust after, in this land, they will enact upon us all the bloody scenes of Roman Catholic Europe; which will make the ears of every American citizen to tingle! Under ALMIGHTY GOD, the protector of our Republic, it is in your power, young men of America, to cause this enemy's "arm to be clean dried up, and his right eye to be utterly darkened!"

I am, Young Gentlemen,

Your fellow-citizen, and humble servant,
W. C. BROWNLEE.

New-York, Nov. 1835.

The Dedication to the American Young Men.
The Introduction...

...3

..13

PART I.

SHOWING THAT POPERY IS A FATAL ENEMY TO RELIGIOUS

LIBERTY.

CHAP. I. POPERY IN ITS PRINCIPLES AND SPIRIT IN NO

RESPECT CHANGED FOR THE BETTER.

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This important fact denied by two very opposite classes,

- namely-Jesuits and ill-informed Protestants. Appeals to
young Americans on the subject. An outcry, made for effect,
by some against our free discussion; as if we were institu-
ting an actual persecution for religion. This not strictly a
religious controversy:-it is a defence of our civil and reli-
gious liberty, against a dangerous foreign enemy. A popular
objection raised against those who oppose the inroad of
popery, namely-What can such a mere handful do against
the United States? Two questions respectfully submitted
in reply to this. Proof of serious danger to our free institu-
tions. Our too liberal Protestants receive no thanks from
the Jesuits, for their officious apologies volunteered in their
behalf. A serious question proposed, touching nominal
Protestants, who continue to favour papists.

CHAP. II. POPERY A FATAL ENEMY TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY..44

Religious liberty never to be shackled by any law of man,

or any human systems. Without religious liberty, no people

can be truly said to enjoy civil liberty. The men whose

religious creeds and practices tend to destroy, or in any

degree, abridge religious liberty, are natural enemies to civil

liberty. 1st, This fatal tendency charged on popery. Its

first principles necessarily tend to destroy the natural rights

of conscience. It prohibits the use of the Holy Scriptures

in the people's vernacular. It denounces Bible Societies.

It imposes on the human conscience, a novel system of

mere human invention: and it imposes this false religion on

the conscience by civil penalties, wherever it has the power.

2d. This tendency charged on popery, because it has the

necessary effect of corrupting the public morals, and abridg-

ing the freedom of thought. Proof from national facts. It

tends to dissolve the very bonds of civil society. Proof of

this. It declares, as one of its dogmas, that No faith is to

be kept with heretics, where it has the power; and it dis-

penses with the most solemn oaths, and dissolves the bonds

of a people's allegiance to their government. Proof of this
from historical facts.

CHAP. III. 3d. ROMAN PRIESTS INCAPABLE OF BEING TRUE
REPUBLICAN CITIZEN...

55

Proof. They are the subjects of a foreign despot. They
are sworn by the only oath which can bind a priest, and to
the only sovereign which they confess to be their superior.
Copy of their great oath. Specimen of the haughty claims
of Romish priests. Quotation, in which they teach that a
priest is as superior to a magistrate, as a man is superior to
a beast. Specimen of the effects of this insufferable haughti-
ness. The Confessional. Popery organized on these dan-
gerous principles, even in our own republic. The pope ad-
mitted to be the superior of papists, even in temporal things.
This, of course, denied; but there is no point more suscep-
tible of proof. Specimen of proof. 4th. POPERY THE RES-
OLUTE ENEMY OF POPULAR EDUCATION. Proof from their
dogmas, and national facts. Their Indexes. Our best Eng-
lish Classics all proscribed. Proof. Case of Galileo and
modern astronomy. Doblado's Letters on the state of edu-
cation in Spain, quoted.

CHAP. IV..

......

67

5th. THE ROMISH PRIESTS WIELD A TREMENDOUS POWER
over their people, by their doctrine of Intention. Explanation
of this thing. Specimen of its practical application. Priests
gravely assume the power to convey grace by their intention,
through each of their seven sacraments. A seven-fold wea-
pon thus wielded by these ghostly tyrants, over the people's
consciences. Specimen. Papists believe that their desti-
nies in time, and for eternity, are always and entirely in
their priests' hands. Hence the secret of the priest's un-
bounded power over them. 6th. The Confessional another
dangerous instrument of spiritual despotism. Priests seat
themselves in the temple of God, and in his throne-they
pardon sins, not declaratively merely, but judicially. This
another source of their dangerous power over the victims of
their superstition, Curious anecdote. 7th. The Romish
priesthood lay claims to the extraordinary POWER OF DAMN-
ING SOULS. Proof. 8th. Purgatory another singular weapon
of their destructive influence. Its meaning. Nature. Use.
The Romish priesthood sets out with the astonishing claims
to the power and authority of bringing any soul out of purga-
tory, at the proper prices fixed by their church. The natural
effects of all these claims of sacerdotal influence. The pa-
pists are thence in the hands of their priests, who can wield
them, if they please, against all law, all order, all government!
CHAP. V. 9th. POPERY HOSTILE TO LIBERTY AND RIGHTS
OF CONSCIENCE........·
.......83
Anecdote of a person at the Confessional, who ventured