Irish repealers, the slaves of O'Connell and the scheming Jesuit Hughs of New York, resolve to defend the rights of Texas! The thing is too ludicrous. I shall not dwell upon it.

Let it not be inferred, from what I have stated above, that I believe
the Irish Papists to be naturally cowards. I will not do them this or
any other injustice. They are naturally a brave people. Unsubdued and
untampered with by their profligate priests and Popish superstition,
there is not a braver or more generous people in the world, and the
chains which now bind them to British slavery, would be snapped in six
months,—ay, I repeat it, Ireland would be free in six months, were it
not for the ulterior designs of the Pope and his agents, in urging upon
them abject submission to a power which, by a single effort of their
native strength, they could crush never to rise again. Well does the
Pope know, well do Jesuits and priests understand that if the Irish
nation freed itself from English rule, by its native arm, as the United
States did, they would also free themselves from the dominion of his
royal holiness the Pope, and the trammels of Jesuitism and priestcraft;
and hence arise the scruples of O'Connell, about violating the
British constitution. Hence the exhortation of Irish priests to their
downtrodden Irish slaves, to do everything constitutionally\ which means
nothing more or less than this:—let us priests, bishops and pope, act
for you; we are afraid to risk our own precious necks; we will negotiate
matters for you. You must feel indebted to us for everything you
possess; in the mean time come to confession to us regularly, bring us
every dollar you earn, and we will take care of your political as well
as your spiritual interest. Your bodies and souls shall be taken care
of by us.—I can assure the Irish Papists in this country and elsewhere,
that Daniel O'Connell and the Jesuit Bishops Hughs, Fenwick, and their
brethren in this country, have no more idea of emancipating them, than
they have of renouncing the Pope, unless with the view of making them
still greater slaves to the Pope and the infallible church; and it is
with this view they are now forbidding the use of the Bible, knowing
full well that the free perusal of its sacred pages would enlighten them
not only on the subject of their everlasting, but also on that of their
civil rights. Well indeed may we apply to the Pope, and to the Lord
Bishop Hughs, and each of his brethern the words of the poet,
"Loyal his heart, and church and Pope his past;
He for religion might not warmly feel;
But for the church he had abounding zeal."

We might well fancy these right reverend gentlemen addressing us in the
following words of the same poet. They do so, in fact, every day.
"Why send you Bibles all the world about;
That men may read amiss and learn to doubt?
Why teach the children of the poor to read;
That a new race of doubters may succeed?
Now can you scarcely lull the stubborn crew;
And what if they should know as much as you?"

There is not in history one solitary instance to be found, where the court of Rome, or Romish priests as a body, afforded aid to any people struggling for freedom, unless with the ulterior view of subjecting them to their own dominion,—a dominion far more despotic in its principles and tyrannic in its exactions, than any that has before been devised by human ingenuity; because that, and that alone, enslaves the soul as well as the body.

Many instances might be quoted of the truth of this, but I shall only refer to one of a recent date. While Poland was struggling for her liberty, as we are told by a modern and beautiful French writer, Lamennais, (Affaires de Rome, p. 110. Paguerre, 1844,) and the success of the Russians remained a doubt, the official Journal of Rome, did not contain a word which could offend the victorious in so many combats; but scarcely had they, the Poles, fallen,—scarcely had the atrocious vengeance of the Czar begun the long punishment of a nation devoted to the sword, to exile and to slavery,—when the same journal could find no terms sufficiently injurious, wherewith to stigmatize those, the noble Poles, who had fallen victims to fortune. Cowardly Rome trembled before the Czar. He said to Rome, would you live yet, place yourself beside the scaffold to which I have consigned those rebellious Poles, who had the audacity to attempt to free themselves from my government, and while they pass on their way to the gallows, curse you the victims;—and Rome did curse the Poles.

Atrocious, revolting as the conduct of the Czar has been towards the suffering Poles, yet there is something noble, something majestic in his treatment of Rome. He pays no regard to the insolent ecclesiastic of Rome, who would be lord of the universe. The Czar does not comprehend the meaning of those cabalistic words, spiritual supremacy. Let us contrast the conduct of this sovereign of Russia, with that of the sovereigns or executives of the United States, and the contrast cannot fail to make a forcible impression upon our minds. That of the Autocrat of all the Russians is so far truly independent; while that of one of our executives, in relation to the Pope, is truly spiritless and sycophantic. Witness the following letter of Mr. Van Buren, to the American consul at Rome, dated, Department of State, Washington, July the 20th, 1830.

"Your letters of the 11th of April and 5th of May, the first anticipating the favorable sentiments of his holiness the Pope, towards the government and people of the United States, and the last confirming your anticipations, have been received at this department, and submitted to the president; by whom I am directed to tender his holiness, through the same channel, an assurance of the satisfaction which he derives from this communication of the frank and liberal opinions entertained by the apostolic see towards the government and the people, and of the policy which you likewise state his holiness has adopted, and which is so worthy of the head of a great and Christian church, assiduously to cultivate, in his intercourse with foreign nations, the relations of amity and good will, and sedulously to abstain from all interference in their occasional difficulties with each other, except with the benign view of effecting reconciliations between them.

"You will accordingly seek an early opportunity to make known to the Pope, in terms and manner best suited to the occasion, the light in which the president views the communication referred to, and likewise you will assure him that the president reciprocates, in their full extent and spirit, the friendly and liberal sentiments entertained by his holiness towards the government of the apostolic see, and the people of the states of the church; and it is the president's wish that you should, upon the same occasion, offer his congratulations to the holy father, upon his recent succession to the Tiara, not from any hereditary claim on his part, but from a preponderating influence, which a just estimation of his talents and private virtues naturally had upon the enlightened councils by which that high distinction was conferred; and which affords the pledge that his pontificate will be a wise and beneficent one.

"You will take care, likewise, to assure his holiness, in reference to the paternal solicitude which he expresses in behalf of the Roman Catholics of the United States, that all our citizens professing that religion, stand upon the same elevated ground which citizens of all other religious denominations occupy, in regard to the rights of conscience, that of perfect liberty, contradistinguished from toleration; that they enjoy an entire exemption from coercion in every possible shape, upon the score of religious faith, and that they are free, in common with their fellow-citizens of all other sects, to adhere to, or adopt the creeds and practise the worship best adapted to their reason, or prejudices; and that there exists a perfect unity of faith in the United States amongst religionists of all professions, as to the wisdom and policy of that cardinal feature of all our constitutions and forms of government, those of the United States and separate states of the union, by which this inestimable right is formally recognized, and the enjoyment of it inviolably secured.

"M. Van Buren."