Rome's Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The case now before the jury of the American public

Our case is now before the jury of our countrymen. What say you, gentlemen? Is the charge that the Roman Hierarchy was implicated in the assassination of our martyred President sustained by the evidence which we have presented; or, has it been unjustly made?

We have no doubt of the verdict of the American people when all of this evidence, both circumstantial and positive, shall have been duly considered and weighed.

The case is too plain to admit of a reasonable doubt; and the charge of being sustained, we have before us matter for the gravest consideration, and calling for the wisest, firmest and gravest consideration, and calling for the wisest, firmest and most heroic treatment. That same foe to our liberties, secured to us in our Constitution and Governmental institutions, that so insidiously and malignantly sought to take advantage of our civil war, which it had had a great hand in fomenting, to overthrow and destroy our government, is still in our midst; and under the guise of friendship for and love to our governmental institutions, is gaining position after position, to be used, finally, for their destruction. There is an impending crisis, an irrepressible conflict, before us. The history of the assassination of our martyred President, which we have now before us, reveals the desperate character of the foe that we are called to face. It is unwise to shut our eyes to the situation that confronts us. It may not be a pleasant task to contemplate the greatest of possible dangers; but it will be wiser to do so than to shut your eyes and cry peace! peace! when there is no peace. Rome will never let go her hand, nor relax her efforts to establish her despotism until she shall have been completely despoiled of her power.

Then let the trumpet be sounded throughout the length and breadth of the land, to marshal the hosts of freedom for the conflict. Let us agitate, agitate and agitate; and then let us organize for the conflict. Let this be a war of discussion and agitation for the peaceful settlement of the great issues involved, that it may not have to be settled on the field of carnage and blood.

If it fails of the former, and much to be desired settlement, then there is but the other dread alternative left. It can never be a drawn battle; it will be a fight to the finish. Rome seems now to have the advantage in the contest: but it is only because the hosts of freedom are not fully awake to the issues involved. A wily Jesuit Arch-bishop has had the ear of the President recently elected; and has endeavored to control his cabinet and other appointments in the interest of his church; and the patriotic people, who voted for McKinley, have expressed great disappointment at the freedom of access which the wily Jesuit has to the executive head of our nation. They have felt mortified and grieved to see him take up his quarters in Washington, and for months giving his attention to the political, rather than to the spiritual interests of his church. They have felt that it was ominous of no good to see this Arch-bishop and Cardinal Gibbon cultivating such friendly relations with the President, evidently for the purpose of securing certain very desirable appointments. And they have felt disposed to censure the President for allowing this to be.

But they have no reason to find fault with the President. The Arch-bishop got the party down at St. Louis, when he caused the committee on platform to reject the resolutions offered to it by the representatives of the American Protective Association; the party having made this surrender to him, he felt himself to be master of the situation, and expected, of course, to have the President in his power, just as it has turned out that he has.

Neither would the case have been different had Bryan been elected. The party that nominated him would not have entertained these resolutions had they been offered in the Chicago convention; and the candidate could not have taken higher ground than his party.

It would only have been another Archbishop that would have taken him in charge, and the result would have been the same. We have, however, grounds for encouragement in the fact, now well known, that States, which the wily Jesuit had thought he had well fixed, have been smashed by the volume of protests that came to the President from all parts of the country. The patriotic orders were weak in the convention. but strong in protests.

It becomes us now to consider the cause of their weakness in the convention. Their weakness did not lie in lack of numbers, but in the want of an organization. The vote of the various patriotic orders in the United States outnumbers the Roman Catholic vote by at least three to one; and yet it was the Roman Catholic vote that could command the consideration of the political leaders of the land. It is easy to see why this was the case. The thorough organization of the forces of the Hierarchy is well understood. It is known that this vote can be wielded, virtually, as a unit by the priesthood, and that it can be secured by whichever party makes the highest bid for it. It is thought to be a balance of power vote in a presidential election, and the priests desire to have it so considered, in order to secure the highest price for it; not in cash, but in place and power. This is the secret of Rome’s power with the politicians.

And now the question of prime importance is, how is this power to be broken?

It can only be done by a compact and thorough organization of the entire patriotic vote of the country. This vote is sufficiently large to control the entire situation; but is powerless in its present disorganized condition. It is vain to think of gaining the victory over Rome through either of the two dominant parties. They have gotten so demoralized, through long subservience to Rome, and know so well the power of its organization, and have so little dread of the patriotic organizations in their present scattered and disjointed condition, that nothing short of a crushing defeat will ever cause them to follow the dictates of patriotism. It will take a new party. The flame of patriotism must be aroused to the height of a sublime endeavor. Men must be taught to follow the flag, rather than party. We must have a party that will boldly take its stand on a platform of American fundamental principles. It must declare for the immediate incorporation of the XVIth Amendment into our National and State Constitutions. This will settle, for good, the question of the appropriation of public funds to any sectarian purposes whatever, and secure the complete separation of the Church and State.

It must also declare for such amendments to our emigration laws as will exclude all undesirable classes from coming to our shores: such as criminals, paupers, illiterates, vicious, and all who are in any way disqualified for making good and desirable American citizens. Then, to those admitted, the limit of their probation must be extended to such a length of time as is necessary to enable them to become acquainted with the nature and to catch the spirit of our institutions. The right to vote must be based upon a qualification of intelligence. The rightful jurisdiction of the civil power must be exercised over all private institutions in which people are held under surveillance and control for the preservation of the rights and liberties of their inmates. No property held by any religious society, other than actual houses of worship, should be exempt from taxation. Now, whatever party can rise to the highest of these requirements for the protection of our institutions, and will incorporate these measures in its platform, should receive the undivided support of the American Protective Association, and of all of the other patriotic organizations, and individual citizens; provided, that in connection with these, it shall embrace all other reforms in our policy that are essential to the prosperity of our country. A party that is sound in its Americanism, and patriotic in its purposes, may be safely trusted to find, ultimately, the right side of all other questions.

The People’s party ought in addition to its other reform measures, to be able to arise to the height of these requirements; but it will perhaps be found to be too much under the influence of the politicians, who seem to think that to set themselves against the Romish Hierarchy would be fatal to the success of any party. It will, in all probability, be found necessary to organize the patriotic forces into a new party, that will have the courage to accept, and to meet the issues presented fairly and squarely; and to take the name that logically presents itself: “The Protestant American Party.”

They are but the garnered fruit of the tree of the Reformation. The foe we have to fight is the same that they had to contend against. The contention is in a part, at least, over the same issues; for it is the civil claims of the Papacy, and not its religious dogmas, that we are, in the present field of operations, called upon to resist. These latter we accord to it the right to hold, and to teach; believing with Jefferson that “error is harmless whilst truth is left to combat it;” so, that, however erroneous, and soul-destroying we may think its dogmas to be, they must still be held to be under the domain of reason, and to be overthrown by truth; and so, not under civil control. But the claim of the Papacy to supreme civil jurisdiction must be met, according to its nature, in the field of politics. To admit this claim is to surrender all human rights, and human liberty, to the keeping of a fallible fellow-mortal; and to enthrone him as a despot. This is what is done in theory by every loyal son of the church of Rome; and to bring all mankind into the same bondage with himself is ever to be his supreme endeavor.

Every Roman Catholic priest, of whatever grade, believes the Pope to be Christ’s vicar on earth, and to stand to the human race, in all matters, spiritual and temporal, in the place of God. This places him in the position of supreme authority; so that all civil power must be dispensed under his direction and control. Every priest not only believes this, but is put under the obligation of his oath of ordination to use all the means that may at anytime be in his power to bring the whole world into the acceptance of this dogma, and to submission to the Pope’s authority.

This is what the whole body of the Romish priesthood in the United States are engaged in today; and it means the subjugation of our Protestant civil institutions, and the surrender of our liberties. Here we have Romanism pitted against Protestantism, and its success simply means the destruction of our government, and the enthronement over us of the Prince of all Despots.

Let us then have the courage to take a name that immediately suggests the issues involved in the contest, and the nature of the contention, and thus raise a banner that will draw to its support every lover of liberty, and foe of despotism. Nothing would more alarm the foe we have to fight than this party name, that would so clearly indicate the real matter at issue; and nothing would more cheer and encourage the hosts of freedom.

I am aware that this proposition will be met with the objection that it would be unwise and dangerous to introduce the element of religious differences into our political contests, and especially, to make this the basis of party organizations.

But it is sufficient to meet this objection with the simple truth, that it is the civil claims of the Romish Hierarchy that we resist; and these come clearly under the domain of politics. In this resistance we do not interfere with, or even call in question, the Papal system of religion. Every American citizen, who had had his mind expanded with the Protestant ideas of civil and religious liberty, will ever stand ready to accord to his Roman Catholic fellow citizens the same right to protection in their rights of conscience, in matters of religion, that he claims for himself; but he will at the same time see to it, that under the guise of religion, he shall not be allowed to undermine the very foundation of these privileges.

Our country must be maintained as it is now, the land of liberty, under the protection of Protestant institutions. Let us then declare to the world this purpose, by bringing it under the control of a “Protestant American Party.”

The Hierarchy has never had to encounter anything in this country that has given it so much concern as does the present patriotic awakening. It affects, however, to regard it with contempt, but at the same time redoubles its efforts to tighten its grasp on the politicians. It is to them that it looks for help, and appeals for aid. It tries to hide the real issues, by its usual resort to misrepresentation and falsehood. It represents it as a revival of know-nothingism. In this it is not so far wrong. The A.P.A. is, however, built on a broader foundation, as a result of a wider knowledge, and more extended experience of the deadly hostility of Rome to our civil institutions; and so upon a better comprehension of the safeguards that are necessary for the protection.

It represents this, and all the other patriotic organizations as founded on bigotry and for the purpose of religious persecution, and so, as being un-American and unpatriotic. And all this is to throw chaff into the eyes, that they may be closed to the threatened danger.

But in this way many well meaning people and true friends of our institutions. and lovers of our country’s flag, are being deceived, and lulled to sleep. Now, why does Rome resort to this line of defense? It is because all of the facts are against her, and so, as they cannot be denied or controverted, her policy is to hide them out of sight, by changing the line of vision. Rome knows; and every American citizen ought to know, that these anti-Catholic agitators are unearthing her purposes, and uncovering her plans to get hold of all the departments of our Government; and then give to the Pope all that he claims as Christ’s vicar; supreme control over our civil institutions; that he may wield the civil power for the upbuilding of the so-called church. We have only to turn to the pages of history to learn how he would use this power. We want no more of his interference with our God-given rights. We want no more union of church and state; and the danger lies more than anything else, in the seeming incredibility that there should be any persons found at this late day, and in this land of ours, who would favor a return to the rack, the thumbscrews, and other instruments of inquisition torture, for the promotion of the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Let the incredulous look at Rome’s boasted declaration: Semper eadem. (Always the same.) Let them also scan the declarations made by Romish priests of every grade, in recent years, in the Roman Catholic Journals and Periodicals, and they will learn that all that Rome wants is the power to enable her to revive these mild methods of propagating her version of the Gospel of Christ. Why doesn’t she meet the charges that are made against her openly and fairly? When it is charged that she is storing away arms in the basements of her churches, why does she not proffer the keys, and invite inspection? When it is charged that she is restraining helpless females of their liberty, for the basest purposes, and inflicting upon them untold cruelties to bring them under subjection to a lecherous, drunken priesthood, why does she not open her doors, and appeal to the civil magistrates to make the most rigid inspection and examination, that they may thus show the charges to be false? This she has never yet done, and never will do; neither will she permit it to be done as long as she can find means for successful resistance.

In the name of liberty, in the cause of humanity, let us compel her to submit to such inspections. In the name of Protestant Americanism, let us set up our banners for complete subjugation of this corrupt, unscrupulous, and dangerous foe to liberty, and murderer of human rights.

Let it be known to the world that American freemen will ever stand on the watch tower, and will compel the submission of all within the domain of our government to submit themselves to its rightful authority—that there can be in this country in civil affairs no power greater than the State.