Foreign conspiracy against the liberties of the United States: the numbers of Brutus, originally published in the New-York Observer

Front matter

CATH.

v

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Chapter I Page 13

The first impressions of the improbability of a Foreign conspiracy considered — Present political condition of Europe favors an enterprise against our institutions — The war of opinions commenced ; Despotism against liberty — The vicissitudes of this war— Official declarations of the despotic party against all liberty — Necessity to the triumph of Despotism that American liberty should be destroyed — The kind of attack most likely to be adopted from the nature of the contest— Reasons why our institutions are obnoxious to European governments — Has the attack commenced? Yes! by Austria — Through a Society called the St. Leopold Foundation— Ostensibly religious in its design.

Chapter II 25

Political character of the Austrian government— The old avowed enemy of Protestant liberty— Character of the people of Austria, slaves — Character of Prince Metternich, the arch contriver of plans to stifle liberty — These enemies of all liberty suddenly anxious for the civil and religious liberty of theUnited States — The absurdity of their ostensible design exposed — The avowed objects of Austria in the Leopold Foundation — Popery the instrument to act upon our institutions.

Chapter III . .33

Popery in its political not its religious character the object of the present examination — The fitness of the instrument to accomplish the political designs of despotism— The principles of a Despotic and a Free government briefly contrasted— Despotic principles fundamental in Popery r— Infallible testimony adduced — Papal claims of divine right and plenitude of power — Abject principles of Popery illustrated from the Russian Catechism — Protestantism from its birth in favor of Liberty — Luther on the 4th of July attacks

1*

CONTENTS.

the presumptuous claim of divine right— Despotism and Popery united against liberty of conscience, liberty of opinion, and liberty of the press — The anti-republican declarations of the present Pope Gregory XVI.

Chapter IV 45

The cause of Popery and Despotism identical— A striking difference between Pop?ry and Protestantism as they exist in this country— American Protestantism not controlled by foreign Protestantism — American Popery entirely under foreign control— Jesuits, the foreign agents of Austria, bound by the strongest ties of interest to Austrian policy, not American — Their dangerous power, unparalleled in any Protestant sect — Our free institutions opposed in their nature to the arbitrary claims of Popery — Duplicity to be expected— Political dangers to be apprehended from Popish organization— American Popery uncontrolled by Americans, or in America — Managed in a foreign country by a foreign power for political purposes — Consequences that may easily result from such a state of things.

Chapter V 51

Points in our political system which favor this foreign attack—Our toleration of all religious systems — Popery opposed to all toleration— Charge of intolerance substantiated—The organization of Popery in America connected with and strengthened by foreign organization— Without a parallel among Protestant sects — Great preponderance of Popish strength in consequence — The divisions among Protestant sects nullifies their attempts at combination — Taken advantage of by Jesuits — Popish duplicity illustrated in its opposite alliances in Europe with despotism, and in America with democracy — The laws relating to immigration and naturalization favor foreign attack — Emigrants being mostly Catholic and in entire subjection to their priests— No remedy provided by our laws for this alarming evil.

Chapter VI 61

The evil from immigration further considered— Its political bearings — The influence of emigrants at the elections — This influence concentrated in the priests— The Priests must be propitiated ; by what means— This influence easily purchased by the demagogue— The unprincipled character of many of our politicians favor this foreign attack —Their bargain for the suffrages of this priest-led band— A church and state party- -The Protestant sects obnoxious to no such bargaining— the newspaper press favors this foreign attack; from its want of independence, and its timidity—An anti-republican fondness for titles, favors this

CONTENTS.

foreign attack — Cautious attempts of Popery to dignify its emissaries and to accustom us to their high-sounding titles— A mistaken notion on the subject of discussing religious opinion in the secular journals, favors this foreign attack— Political designs not to be shielded from attack because cloaked by Religion.

Chapter VII 73

The 'political character of this ostensibly religious enterprise proved from the letters of the Jesuits now in this country— Their antipathy to private judgment— Their anticipations of a change in our form of government — Our government declared too free for the exercise of their divine rights — Their political partialities — Their cold acknowledgment of the generosity, and liberality, and hospitality of our government — Their estimate of our condition contrasted with their estimate of that of Austria — Their acknowledged allegiance and servility to a foreign master— Their sympathies with the oppressor, and not with the oppressed— Their direct avowal of political design.

Chapter VIII 83

Some of the means by which Jesuits can already operate politically in the country — By mob discipline — By priest police — Its great danger— Already established— Proofs — Priests already rule the mob — Nothing in the principles of Popery to prevent its interference in our elections— Popery interferes at the present day in the political concerns of other countries— Popery the same in our country— It interferes in our elections — In Michigan— In Charleston, S. C. — In New-York— Popery a political despotism cloaked under the name of Religion— It is Church and State embodied— Its character at head-quarters in Italy — Its political character stripped of its religious cloak.

Chapter IX 95

Evidence enough of conspiracy adduced to create great alarm— The cause of liberty universally demands that we should awake to a sense of danger— An attack is made which is to try the moral strength of the Republic — The mode of defence that might be consistently recommended by Austrian Popery— A mode now in actual operation in Europe — Contrary to the entire spirit of American Protestantism— True mode of defence — Popery must be opposed by antagonist institutions— Ignorance must be dispelled — Popular ignorance of all Papal countries— Popery the natural enemy of general education — Popish efforts to spread education in the United States delusive.

CONTENTS.

Chapter X 105

All classes of citizens interested in resisting the efforts of Popery — The unnatural alliance of Popery and Democracy exposed — Religious liberty in danger — Specially in the keeping of the Christian community — They must rally for its defence— The secular press has no sympathy with Protestants ; in this struggle it is opposed to them — The Political character of Popery ever to be kept in mind and ope posed — It is for the Papist not the Protestant to separathis religious from his political creed — Papists ought to be required publicly and formally and officially to renounce foreign allegiance and anti-republican customs.

Chapter XI 115

The question what is the duty of the Protestant community? considered — Shall there be an Anti-Popery Union 1 The strong manifesto that might be put forth by such a union — Such a political union discarded as impolitic and degrading to the Protestant community — Golden opportunity for showing the moral energy of the republic — The lawful and efficient weapons of this contest — To be used without delay.

Chapter XII 127

The Political duty of American citizens at this crisis.

Erratum. — Page 13, last line, for which read while.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

The following* Numbers written for the New-York Observer in the beginning of the year 1834, and during several weeks of confinement by indisposition, have been, perhaps, more extensively copied into the religious journals of the different Christian denominations than any communications, (with perhaps a single exception,) of the same extent since the establishment of religious newspapers ; and although the subject matter is almost altogether political, giving proofs of a serious foreign conspiracy against the government, yet the writer is not aware that a single secular journal in the United States has taken the pains to investigate the matter, or even to ask if indeed there may not be good grounds for believing it true. The silence of the secular press on a subject which has roused the attention of so large a body of the Protestant community may indeed be accounted for in part, perhaps altogether, from the all engrossing election contests which have agitated the country from one extremity of the land to the other ; for the writer would certainly be very reluctant to adopt the belief, which has repeatedly been urged upon him by many, that the secular journals dare not attack Popery ; he will not believe that dare not ever stood in the way of the

PREFATORY REMARKS.

duty of any patriotic independent conductor of the American press.*

At the solicitation of many citizens without distinction of religious denomination or of political party, the writer has consented to collect the numbers into a pamphlet, adding notes illustrative of many matters which could not so well have been introduced into the columns of a newspaper.

That a vigorous and unexampled effort is making by the despotic governments of Europe to cause Popery to overspread this country, is a fact too palpable to be contradicted. Did not official documents lately published, put this fact beyond dispute, yet the writer had personal evidence sufficient to convince him of the fact and of the 'political object of the enterprise, while residing in Italy in the years 1830 — 31, from conversations with nobles and gentlemen of different countries, with the officers of various foreign governments, visiting and resident in the Roman and Austrian states, and with priests and other ecclesiastics of the Roman faith. Sometimes it was hinted to him as a check to too sanguine anticipations of the triumph of the experiment of our democratic republican government ; sometimes it was told him by the former class in a tone of exultation that a cause was in operation which would surely overthrow our institutions and gradually bring us under a form of government less obnoxious to the pride, and less dangerous to the existence, of the antiquated despotic systems of Europe. In addition to these hints to the writer, concerning the efforts making by the governments of Europe to carry Popery through all our borders, other

* A friend to whom this part was read smiled, and said “ you are sufficiently guarded in your language, but how many patriotic , independent conductors of the American press are there 1 Can you name one/?”

PREFATORY REMARKS.

American travellers will testify to similar hints made to them. By one I am permitted to say, that the celebrated naturalist, the late Baron Cuvier, known also as a zealous Protestant, inquired of him with marks of concern, if it were indeed true that Popery had made such progress in the United States, as to cause the exultation (which it seems was no secret) among the legitimates of Europe. And again, that a distinguished member of one of the Protestant German embassies, in Rome also made similar inquiries of him, having heard much boasting of the progress of Popery in the United States, adding this pertinent remark, “ they will he hammer or nails , Sir , they will • 'persecute , or he persecuted” These facts may be of so much importance in aid of the other proofs of a conspiracy which these numbers unfold, as to show that among the various higher classes of Europe the enterprise of a Popish crusade in this country is not only a subject of notoriety, but is viewed with great interest, and is considered as having a most important political bearing.

In the following numbers the writer has chosen to rest the evidence of conspiracy mainly on official documents published in Vienna, because they have been translated and published,* and are within the reach of any citizen of the country who chooses more closely to examine them. He has also availed himself of facts in the operations of Popish agents in this country, so far as their workings have been occasionally revealed.

The writer will add in conclusion, that he writes not in the interest of a sect or a party, for the question of Popery is not identified with either political party. He has lived too long in foreign countries to be able to identify himself with the local interests of mere party at

*In the New- York Observer, of the months of January, February, 1834.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

home, whether in religion or politics. The great demo - cratic features of his country’s institutions, as contradistinguished from the despotic, monarchical and aristocratic systems of Europe, were admired by him as they appeared more boldly relieved, viewed from abroad in such striking contrast to all around him ; and he is thoroughly persuaded that these democratic institutions, if suffered to have their unobstructed course, unobstructed except by the natural checks of education and religion actively and universally diffused and sustained, are more favorable to civil liberty and to the final triumph of truth, and consequently to human happiness, than any other civil institutions in the world. The writer entertaining these views has deemed it an imperative duty, at any sacrifice* to warn his countrymen, of a subtle enemy to the democracy of the country, and to conjure them as they value their civil and religious institutions, to watch the Protean shapes of Popery, to suspect and fear it most when it allies itself to our interests in the guise of a friend. Mistrust of all that Popery does , or affects to do, whether as a friend or foe in any part of the country, is the only feeling, that true charity, universal charity, allows us to indulge.

New-York, January , 1835.

FOREIGN CONSPIRACY

AGAINST THE

LIBERTIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Chapter I

The first impression of the improbability of foreign conspiracy considered — Present political condition of Europe favors an enterprise against our institutions — The war of opinions commenced — Despotism against Liberty— The vicissitudes of this w'ar— The official declaration of the despotic parly against all libe ty — Necessity to the triumph of despotism that American liberty should be destroyed— The kind of attack upon us most likely to be adopted from the nature of the contest— Particular reasons why our institutions are obnoxious to the European governments — Has the at'ack commenced? Yes! by Austria — Through a Society called the St Leopold Foundation— Ostensibly religious, in its designs.

Does this heading seem singular ? What, it will be said, is it at all probable that any nation or combination of nations, can entertain designs against us, a people so peaceable, and at the same time so distant? Knowing the daily increasing resources of this country in all the means of defence against foreign aggression, how absurd in the nations abroad to dream of a conquest on this soil ? Let me, nevertheless, ask attention, which I humbly offer

14 WAR OF DESPOTISM AND LIBERTY.

my reasons for believing that a conspiracy exists, that its plans are already in operation, and that we are attacked in a vulnerable quarter which cannot be defended by our ships, our forts, or our armies.

Who among us is not aware that a mighty struggle of opinion is in our days agitating all the nations of Europe ; that there is a war going on between despotism on one side, and liberty on the other.* And with what deep anxiety should Americans watch the vicissitudes of the conflict. Having long since achieved our own victory in the great strife between arbitrary power and freedom, having demonstrated by successful experiment before the world, the safety, the happiness, the superior excellence of a republican government, a government proceeding from the people as the true source of power ; enjoying in overflowing abundance the rich blessings of such a government, must we not regard with more than common interest the efforts of mighty nations to break away from the prejudices, and habits, and sophistical opinions of ages of darkness, and struggling to attain the same glorious privileges of rational freedom ? But there are other motives than that of curiosity, or of mere sympathy with foreign trouble, that should arouse our solicitude, in the fearful crisis which has at length arriv-

* See Note A, Appendix.

AMERICA INTERESTED IN THE WAR. 15

ed, a crisis which the prophetic tongue of a great British statesman* long since foretold, the war of opinion , threatening the world with a more frightful sacrifice of human life, than history in any of its blood-stained pages records. Happily separated by an ocean-barrier from the great arena where the physical action of this bloody drama is to be performed, we are secure from the immediate physical effects of the strife; but we cannot remain unaffected by the result.

Of European wars arising from the craving of personal ambition, from thirst for national glory, from desire of territorial increase, or from other local causes, we might safely be ignorant both of cause and result. No armed bands of a conqueror flushed with victory, could give us a moment’s alarm. But in a war of opinions, in a war of principles, in which the very foundations of government are subverted, and the whole social fabric upturned, we cannot, if we would, be uninterested in the result. Principles are not bounded by geographical limits. Oceans present to them no barriers. All of principle that belongs to despotism throughout the world, whether in the iron systems of Russia and Austria ; or the scarcely less civilized system of China, and all of principle that belongs to pure * Mr. Canning.

VICISSITUDES OF THE WAR.

American freedom in the United States, or in the mixed systems of Britain, France, and some other European states, are in this great contest arrayed in opposition. The triumph of the one or the other principle, whether in the field of battle, or in the secret councils of the cabinet, or the congress of ministers, or the open debate, produces effects wherever society exists. The recent convulsions in Europe should not pass unheeded by Americans. The three days’ revolution of France, the reform in Britain on the side of liberty ; the suppressed revolutions of Italy and Poland on the side of despotism ; the yet doubtful victory of the two principles now in contest in Portugal and Spain ;* the crooked diplomacy, the contradictory measures, the faithless promises of the despotic cabinets, all show that the war of principles has indeed commenced, and that Europe is agitated to its very centre with the anxieties of the contest.

No open annual message reveals frankly to all the world the true internal condition of the oppressed nations of Europe. From the well guarded walls of the secret council chamber of the imperial power, documents seldom escape to show us the strength of the opposing 'principle . Despotism glosses over all its oppressions. The people are

* These numbers were written in January and February,

DECLARATIONS OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE.

always happy under the paternal sway. They that plead for liberty are always enemies of public order. “Order reigns in Warsaw,” was the proclamation that told the world that despotism had triumphed over Poland, and none now may know the number of her sons of freedom still at large, still unexiled to the mines of Siberia ; yet it is great ; for Russia, and Prussia, and Austria, have leagued anew against unconquerable Poland ; and the agony of determination, the desperate resolution which the Russian Autocrat has just uttered, tells the secret of the yet unvanquished spirit of Polish patriots, and at the same time discloses the plot of mighty efforts , of united efforts , of persevering efforts utterly to extinguish liberty.

“ As long as I live,” says the Emperor, “ I will oppose a will of iron to the progress of liberal opinions. The present generation is lost, but we must labor with zeal and earnestness to improve the spirit of that to come. It may require an hundred years ; I am not unreasonable, I give you a whole age, but you must work without relaxation.”

This is language without ambiguity, bold, undisguised ; it is the clear official disclosure of the determination of the Holy Alliance against liberty. It proclaims unextinguishable hatred, a will of iron. There is no compromise with liberty, a hundred 2*

WE MUST EXPECT THEIR ATTACK.

years of efforts unrelaxed, if necessary, shall be put forth to crush it for ever. Its very name must be blotted from the earth. What ! and is there a Holy Alliance, a “ union of Christian princes,” leagued to extinguish the kindling sparks of liberty in Europe ? and will they make no effort to quench the great altar-fires, that blaze in their strength in the temples of this land of liberty ? An oversight like this would seem to be too palpable for the wisdom of the despotic cabinets to commit. This conquest must be achieved, or liberty will never die in Europe.

With declarations before us, thus officially put forth by despotism, of such exterminating hostility to liberty, is it not possible that an attack on us may be made from a quarter, and in a shape little expected? Should we not at least look about us? Nations may be attacked and conquered too, with other weapons than the sword. The diplomatic pen, as England can testify, has often wrested from her that territory which her sword had won. W e need not look, therefore, to the ports of Europe to see if fleets are gathering. We are safe enough from ships. Nor need we fear diplomacy, for we have “ entangling alliances with none.” Where, then, shall we look ? What shape would attack be likely to assume ? Let the nature of the contest aid us in tae inquiry. It is the war of opinion ; the war of

REASONS OF THEIR HOSTILITY.

antagonist principles : the war of despotism against liberty. But how can this contest be carried on in this country? We have not the warring opinions to set in array against each other. One principle is certainly absent. We have no party in favor of despotism. This party is to be created. If then a scheme can be devised for sowing the seeds, and rearing the plants of despotism, that is the scheme which would find favor with the Holy Alliance, to subserve its designs against American liberty.

Is it asked, Why should the Holy Alliance feel interested in the destruction of transatlantic liberty ? I answer, the silent but powerful and increasing influence of our institutions on Europe, is reason enough. The example alone of prosperity which we exhibit in such strong contrast to the enslaved, priest-ridden, tax-burdened despotisms of the old world, is sufficient to keep those countries in perpetual agitation. How can it be otherwise? Will a sick man, long despairing of cure, learn that there is a remedy for him, and not desire to procure it ? Will one born to think a dungeon his natural home, learn through his grated bars, that man may be free ; and not struggle to obtain his liberty ? And what do the people of Europe behold in this country ? They witness the successful experiment of a free government ; a government of the jpeojple ; without

20 INFLUENCE OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS.

rulers de jure divino, (by divine right :) having no hereditary privileged classes ; a government exhibiting good order and obedience to law, without an armed police and secret tribunals ; a government out of debt ; a people industrious, enterprising, thriving in all their interests ; without monopolies ; a people religious without an establishment ; moral and honest without the terrors of the confessional or the inquisition ; a people not harmed by the uncontrolled liberty of the press, and freedom of opinion ; a people that read what they please, and think, and judge, and act for themselves ; a people enjoying the most unbounded security of person and property ; among whom domestic conspiracies are unknown ; where the poor and rich have equal justice ; a people social and hospitable ; exerting all their energies in schemes of public and private benefit without other control than mutual forbearance. A government so contrasted in all points with absolute governments, must, and does engage the intense solicitude, both of the rulers and people of the old world. Every revolution that has occurred in Europe for the last half century, has been in a greater or less degree the consequence of our own glorious revolution. The great political truths there promulgated to the world, are the seed of the disorders and conspiracies, and revolutions of Europe,

WE ABE ACTUALLY ATTACKED BY AUSTHIA. 21

from the first French revolution, down to the present time. They are the throes of the internal life, breaking the bands of darkness with which superstition and despotism have hitherto bound the nations struggling into the light of a new age. Can despotism know all this, and not feel it necessary to do something to counteract the evil ?

. Let us look around us. Is despotism doing any thing in this country 1 It becomes us to be jealous. We have cause to expect an attack, and that it will be of a kind suited to the character of the contest, the war of opinion. Yes ! despotism is doing something. Austria is now acting in this country. She has devised a grand scheme. She has organized a great plan for doing something here, which she , at least, deems important. She has her Jesuit missionaries travelling through the land ; she has supplied them with money, and has furnished a fountain lor a regular supply. She had expended a year ago more than seventy-four thousand dollars'm furtherance of her design !* These are not surmises. They are facts. Some official documents giving the constitution and doings of this Foreign Society , have lately made their appearance in the New- York Observer, and have been copied extensively

* From the best authority, I have just learned, Dec. 1834, that $100,000 have been received from Austria, within two years I

WE ARE ATTACKED BY AUSTRIA into other journals of the country. This society having ostensibly a religious object, has been for nearly four years at work in the United States, without attracting, out of the religious world, much attention to its operations. The great patron of this apparently religious scheme is no less a personage than the Emperor of Austria, The Society is called the St. Leopold Foundation. It is organized in Austria. The field of its operations is these United States. It meets and forms its plans in Vienna. Prince Metternich has it under his watchful care. The Pope has given it his apostolic benediction, and “ His Royal Highness, Ferdinand V., King of Hungary, and Crown Prince of the other hereditary states, has been most graciously pleased, prompted by a piety worthy the exalted title of an apostolic king, to accept the office of Protector of the Leopold Foundation.” Now in the present state of the war of principles in Europe, is not a society formed avowedly to act upon this country, originating in the dominions of a despot, and holding its secret councils in his capital, calculated to excite suspicion 1 Is it credible that a society got up under the auspices of the Austrian government, under the superintendence of its chief officers of state, supplying with funds a numerous body of Jesuit emissaries who are organizing themselves in all our borders,

UNDER THE CLOAK OF RELIGION.

actively passing and re-passing between Europe and America ; is it credible, I say, that such a society has for its object purely a religious reform ? Is it credible that the manufacturers of chains for binding liberty in Europe, have suddenly become benevolently concerned only for the religious welfare of this republican people ? If this Society be solely for the propagation of the Catholic faith, one would think that Rome , and not Vienna should be its head-quarters ! that the Pope , not the Emperor of Aus - tria , should be its grand patron ! It must be allowed that this should be a subject of general and absorbing interest. If despotism has devised a scheme for operating against its antagonist principle in this country, the strong hold, the very citadel of freedom, it becomes us to look about us. It is high time that we awake to the apprehension of danger. I propose to show, why I believe this ostensibly religious society covers other designs than religious.

Chapter II

Political character of the Austrian government, the power attacking us — The old avowed enemy of Protestant liberty—Character of the people of Austria— Slaves — Character of Prince Metternich, the arch contriver of plans to stifle liberty— These enemies of all liberty, suddenly anxious for the civil and religious liberty of the United States — The absurdity of their ostensible design exposed — The avowed objects of Austria in the Leopold foundation — Popery the instrument to act upon our institutions.

The documents to which I have alluded, exhibit so much of the correspondence of the “ St. Leopold Foundation,” as it was deemed advisable to publish in Vienna. They consist of letters and statements from Jesuists, bishops and priests, residing or itinerating in this country, and whose resources are derived chiefly from the Society in Austria. In documents thus prepared by Jesuists, (the most wary order of ecclesiastics,) to draw forth more liberal supplies of money from abroad, and then submitted to the revision of the most cautious cabinet of Europe, that so much only may be published as will attain, their object in the Austrian dominions, while all that might excite suspicion in the United States is concealed, we must expect to find great care to avoid 3

CHARACTER OP ACSTOXA, any unnecessary exposure of covert political desgns. The evidence therefore of a concerted political attack upon our institutions, which I conceive to lurk under the sudden and extraordinary zeal of Austria for the religious welfare of the United States, will not depend altogether on the information derived from these documents. Such an attack is what might be expected from the present political attitude of the European nations, in regard to the principles of despotism and liberty ; from the powerful and unavoidable effect which our institutions exert in favor of the popular principle ; and also from the known political character of Austria.