THE AMERICAN
THE AMERICAN
Subscribe Now.
THE A Mi- N.
BOe to Jan. I. .
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER. "AMERICA FOR AMERICANS." Wo hold that all men are A Merloni who tw Allegiance to the Dolled States without a menul reservation In favor of the Pope. PRICE FIVE CKNT8
Volume VI. OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY. JANUARY 17, 1S9C. . Ndmbib 3 "
PRESIDENT TRAYNOR.
The Superintendent of the
American Protective As
sociation Speaks.
Questions of Vital Importance to
the Order Ably and Fear
lessly Discussed.
Tothecffloert and other member! of
the A. P. A. of the United States:
Greeting: Viewed In the light of the
present critical condition of aMre
both at home and abroad, It . 0
much to prognosticate that the future
prosperity or decadence of the nation
for many tear to come will depend
upon the degree of patriotism and dis
interestedness that actuates tbe mem
bers of our national legislative body
during its present session.
Whatever the result, the patriotic
orders In general, and the A. P. A.
especially, are responsible therefor In
proportion as their votes and Influence
have been instrumental In composing
the Fifty-fourth Congress.
By the results of the labors of those
whom A. P. A. votes and influence
have elected to places of legislative
trust' will our beloved order be en
abled to judge whether tbe discretion
and acumen of its political boards and
its local officers have kept pace with
their good Intentions and patriotic vir
tues. While mistakes have been made;
while here snd there a candidate has
received the endorsement of our order
who already shows signs of repudiating
its principles; while many have re
ceived the suffrages of the organiza
tion as the least of two evils, 1 have
every reason to believe that In but few
cases could our selections have been
improved upon under existing condi
tions, or that many will prove recreant
to their trusts or pledges, or, if they
do, that they will not live long enough
politically to repeat the treachery.
We have reason to believe that we
have been instrumental in electing a
sufficient number of the exponents of
our principles to Congress to insure
the passage of these measures mcst
dear to us, and maintain the balance of
power in the Fifty-fourth Congress.
If they fall In this regard, the failure
will result either from their treachery
or our own negligence, and it may be
added in the latter regard that our
duty, so far from ending, as many ap
pear to suppose, with the election of
our candidates, has only just com
menced. The honest legislator is the child of
popular opinion, and thrives only upon
a diet of popular favor, and according
to the quantity and quality of bis diet
more than upon his own personality
depends his power and Influence among
his legislative fellows. Not only must
'we convince the representatives of pa
triotic sentiment that they possess our
unqualified support, but we must be
ourselves united upon the channels
through which we desire their labors
to be conducted; and, more Important
still, convince the people at large, and
our national legislature in session, that
.such representatives are exponents not
merely of their own wishes and desires
but of the principle! of several millions
of American voters who will avenge at
the polls any slight offered to their
champions or the measures which they
father.
In other words, having elected our
representatives, it now becomes our
duty to strengthen them with our
united moral support, that their voices
ana may oe an me more power
ful to accomplish the reforms we de
mand. From now until such legislation as
W6 desire 'has been accomplished, a
constant stream of petitions should flow
Into Washington from every city, town
and hamlet in the United States, de
manding these reforms.
Chief among the measures to be agi
tated are the following:
A bill to secure a just distribution of
federal offices (known in the last Con
gress as house M1118984).
A bill to establish a national univer
sity (known' in the last cession as house
bill 8949).
A bill to restrict immigration and
regulate naturalization (known as Lin
ton's bill, house bill 8774).
' Linton's joint resolution No. 11,
amending the Constitution prohibiting
for all timesectarian appropriations.
A bill to tprohibit advertisers or
others from using the national emblem
as an'advertising device.
A bill notyet formulated to open
to public inspection all monastic and
private or semi-public institutions that
are not under state control.
A bill not yet,formulated prohibit
ing the official recognition by the
UnltedJStates or any officer thereof of
any dignitary of any ecclesiastical body
m 1 w tezmym:mmm
mm mr
W.T .11, 1 1 I . 1 I t f W.X1 -
h mi li mw .injrnrrT mu i li u m v t - - 'mi
or church, or the official recognition of
such as the delegate or representative
of any church or ecclesiastical power.
A bill not yet formulated prohibit
ing any bedy of men other than mem
bers of the United States aruy and
navy and of the militia of the various
states from drilling or parading with,
keeping in any armory or using fire
arms or deadly weapons of any kind,
such act not to extend to the uniform
ranks of benefit societies except to de
bar them from drilling with, carrying
or keeping firearms.
To press these measures to a success
ful issue needs the constant agitation
of the patriotic orders and the un
remitting attention of their champions
until they become laws of the United
States. Not merely by petition direct
but by private letters to representa
tives, by mass-meetings and resolutions
of organizations, etc., should these
matters be urged.
Realizing the seriousness of the
situation for them, and comprehending
at last that the American Protective
Association is here to stay, the Jesuits
will concentrate their power at Wash
ington during this Congress to defeat
every measure that will tend to deprive
them of the power acquired by them
under corrupt and unpatriotio admin
istrations, and to introduce measures
shrewdly planned to secure more. The
situation, for the priests, has become
desperate, and desperate conditions
will necessitate desperate remedies.
All that papal money, influence and
terrorism can accomplish to retard the
growth of patriotism and increase the
power of ecclesiastlcism in our republic
will be resorted to, for by such means
only can the priesthood hope to Impede
the torrent of patriotic sentiment that
is sweeping over the land.
A thousand different expedients will
be resorted to to divert the attention
of the people from the real issue, to de
ceive the nation as to the true source
of the dangers which menace it.
Red-fire measures will be introduced,
that bills of merit may be smuggled
away or lost in committee. Gorgeous
displays of spectacular rhetoric will
fritter away the precious time so that
it may not be devoted to legislation
most needed to redeem the country
from the enemies who threaten its in
stitutions.
Of equal importance with the acts of
the present Congress is the presiden
tial election. Many of the prospective
candidates upon tbe Republican and
the Democratic tickets, respectively,
have, either by their hostile attitude
toward the principles of the patriotic
organizations or their subservient de
meanor toward the representatives of
the pope, placed themselves beyond
the pale of our assistance, or our recog
nition, except as enemies.
XWWMWWVJXZXJ -zrj
THE MODERN GLADIATOR.
Oome one. oome all, this School shall flu
Prom lta firm base aa soon aa I.
, Of these, President Cleveland stands
prominently forward as a man entirely
undeserving the respect or confidence
of our order, by reason of the many
unoatriotio acts which have marked
his second term; the truckling- spirit
toward the priests of Rome exhibited
by him; his practical recognition of the
pope as a temporal monarch, and the
appointment of papists to offices of
trust so far in excess of their numer
ical proportion. Perhaps the mett
glaringly disgraceful act in this direc
tion, because the most unjust to our
loyal and patriotic American army
officers, was the appointment of Colo
nel Copplnger, the ex-papal guard, to
the position of brigadier-general of the
United States army.
At the outbreak of the war, Arch
bishop Hughes, of New York, per
suaded the president to appoint twelve
Roman Catholics to captaincies in the
new regiments organizing for the reg
ular army. One of these appointees
was the present General Copplnger,
who had served in the corps of papal
guards in Rome, perhaps the best
drilled and most aristocratic bedy of
troops In the world. General Coppln
ger is said to be the last of these pa
pist captains. Copplnger has been
only three years a citizen ot the United
States, 1 am Informed on good author
ity. It is doing no injustice to Mr. Cleve
land to assert that if the United States
had been a papal country and the pope
a temporal sovereign, our president
could not have given more recognition
to the papacy as a temporal power
than he has during his present term of
office, commencing with his obsequious
present of a magnificently bound edi
tion of the American Constitution to
the pope and concluding with the dis
graceful promotion of Colonel Coppln
ger, who is worthy of notice only, and
that notoriously, as a fervent adherent
of the Pope of Rome and an ardent
admirer of papal institutions two facts
sufficient in themselves to eternally
debar him from any public office In the
gift of a fr.e nation or any of its repre
sentatives. Upon the other hand, Allison, who
Is mentioned as a presidential possi
bility, is not such a one as in the light
of his past acts the order can con
sistently unite with. Mr. Allison's
passive, If not active, co-operation with
the papacy, during his many years of
service as chairman of the senate com
mittee on appropriations, in securing
money and special privileges for the
eleemosynary and religious Institutions
of Rome in this country, especially in
the District of Columbia, is notorious,
and a fact even yet more suspicious Is
that, although a Republican, he has
hitherto received the support of the
Democratic papists of Dubuque, Iowa,
v ' ' W r . : r-
i -
1 ' ' J-
a. m nc- ii, -. -. -.i,r.f-
from whence he comes; and, even more
significant still, employs and has em
ployed for years past the papist Joseph
Morgan as private secretary.
In his position as chairman of the
senate committee on appropriations,
Mr. Allison has had magnificent op
portunities afforded him to declare
and place himself on record upon the
matter of sectarian appropriations,
The fact redounds infinitely to Mr,
Allison's discredit that nearly all the
measures for tbe aggrandizement of
the papal clergy through governmental
appropriations have become law dur
ing his term of office as chairman of
that committee.
While Mr. Reed, another prominent
aspirant for presidential honors, pos
record less unworthy of con
sideration, his constant association
with and recognition of papal officials
render him anything but acceptable to
our order unless his guarantees for
the future are much more in keeping
with our principles than his actions in
the past.
There are as yet no indications that
the Democratic party has in view any
more worthy candidate than the pres
ent incumbent of the pre sidentlal chair.
It would be manifestly unfair, however,
to prejudge the result of the party con
vention, although, at present, no presi
dential possibility from the Democratic
quarter has presented himself that the
A. P. A. or its sister orders could con
sistently vote for. There are some
noble-hearted and patriotic Democrats
of political standing, chiefly in the
south, who would do honor to the
White House; but it Is hopeless, in the
present priest-ridden condition of the
party, to expect that any one not bear
ing the papal brand and the endorse
ment of the "Catholic vote" can secure
recognition as a presidential possibility
at the Democratic national convention,
or, receiving it, could secure a victory
at the polls unless supported by the
entire patriotic vote.
Unless much more substantial pledges
are given to the patriotic orders that
the reforms demanded by those bodies
will receive more attention in the fu
ture than they have in the past at the
hands of the Republican party, there
are but few presidential possibilities
whose devotion to reform principles is
equal with their chances of success.
Among these W. S. Linton, of Mich
igan; Senator John H. Gear, of Iowa;
Governor W. O. Bradley, of Kentucky,
snd Ex-Preldent Harrison rank the
highest. Mr. Linton's standing among
the patriotic orders, as well as with all
other patriotic Americans, is unexcep
tional. His memorable fight against
the Indian-appropriation robbery in
the Fifty-fourth Congress demonstrated
most fully his courage as an American
and his abilities as a statesman; and
ffW.XfiT -r-
1 1 - -
'SVlt mf.i;l
mm
while Mr. Bradley has not signalized
his worth and capacity to this extent
in so public a manner, his record Is
that of a most uncompromising patriot,
to whom our principles, if not wholly,
are for the greater part acceptable,
and who, if elected, could be relied
upon to pursue a course of courageous
patriotism, uninfluenced by any enemy
of the nation either at home or abroad.
In alllaace with Mr. Linton, Con
gressman (now Senator) Gear placed
himself on record as an ardent and
courageous exponent of the principle
of non-sectarianism In the affairs of
state, and one in whom patriotic citi
zens cannot but fuel implicit confidence.
While General Harrison, either from
Inclination or force of circumstances,
during his presidential term of office,
upon one or two occasions showed an
undoubted inclination to make conces
sions to the papacy inconsistent with
his position, we are forced to lose sight
of these shortcomings in his persistent
retention in office of General Morgan
while the papal clergy throughout the
land were clamoring for his remeval,
and his determined re'usal to appoint
Colonel Copplnger to a high military
position, although constantly subjected
to great political and ecclesiastical
pressure to compel him to make the
appointment.
While it is neither my duty nor aim
to bring any presidential aspirant or
possibility into undue prominence
through this circular, I deem it my
duty to mention those prominent men
who have done most during the present
decade to earn the gratitude of our
organization and the American public
at large. Events may yet develop a
candidate whose prospects of success
his ability, loyalty and devotion to tbe
best Interests of tbe nation being equal
would be greater than any of those I
have mentioned; and to such we should,
as a matter of prudence and consist
ency, give our support.
The Republican party, at the next
convention, will have an opportunity
to declare to what extent it feels itself
indebted to the patriotic orders during
the past three years. During the past
four years Thomas Carter, of Montana,
an uncompromising papist, has held
the reins of Republican power as chair
man of the national committee, while
Harrity an equally loyal Romanist
in the Democratic party, performed a
similar office for that body. It now re
mains to be seen whether a papist or a
loyal American citizen is to run the
next Republican campaign. This is,
possibly, merely a straw in the presi
dential controversy, but it is a straw
which, to my mind, will Indicate be
yond a shadow of a doubt which way
the political wind blows, and whether,
in the event of a Republican filling the
presidential chair for the next term,
"iuiif'i)ii,; h
bo will be goverm d by American sen
timent and a spirit of patriotUm In dis
charging tbe duties of LU tfflce, or,
like m many of his predecessors, lend
his ear and bend his knee to the vice
papal court at Washington and fill our
public offices with the enemies of the
ation.
These are matters worthy of most
serious rr flection, and so I entreat the
loyal citliens of America to regard
them, for In their light they may read
the future of the nation for the next
four years.
It is with a full coniclouiness of tbe
gravity of the declaration that I assert
that tho first indication which any
party or its repretonlatlves gives of
truckling to the papacy or any of her
subjects during the coming presiden
tial campaign should be the signal for
the withdrawal of every patrlotio vote
from the party so committing Itself.
Should all parties offend in this regard
anew party should and must be the
Inevitable result, lest we commit the
fatal error of countenancing a repeti
tion ot conditions and results as disas
trous to national prosperity as those
which have obtained for tbe past four
years.
The confidence of the American peo
ple In the old parties has born so con
stantly shaken, so continually betrayed,
that an independent party, exclusively
patrlotio, and providing a platform
which, while embracing the boat of
the principles of the old parties and
rejecting those which have outgrown
themselves or become an avenue for
class legislation, monopolistic privi
leges, or clerical and foreign encroach
ment upon national institutions, would
be welcomed by all whose love of coun
try rises paramount above their party
prejudices.
I regard an independent movement,
however, merely in the light of a last
resort, but It is a last resort for which
we should be prepared in time. Should
either one of the old parties experience,
a change of heart, and the patriotic
members thereof secure, maintain and
apply the balance of power In the
proper direction, an Independent party
would be not only un advisable but su
perfluous. Yet, while I recognize the impor
tance of the papal question In this
country, I do not feel myself confined
to discussion within its limits, for there
are evils that betet the nation as grave
as papallsm, and roads that lead just
as surely to monarchy, despotism and
mental and physical bondage and ser
vitude, as the road to Rome. I refer
to the rapidly increasing power of plu
tocracy and the constant encroachment
upon the territory laid down by the
Constitution as belonging to the people
by the trusts and corporations. I am
not disposed to join in a war of exter
mination against one evil in order that
an evil fully as great may fatten on the
carrion.
One of tbe weaknesses of our great
order in many localities is tbe belief
that our battle is peculiarly and en
tirely with tbe papacy, whereas, in
my opinion, our position should be that
of defenders of the Constitution in its
letter and spirit, irrespective of the
quality, condition, nationality, or
creed of those who seek to destroy or
tamper with it. I believe that the
constitution and ritual of our order are ,
so broad snd far-reaching in their in
tents and purposes that we cannot stand
idly by or carry on an eternal war with
one foe alone while another Is knock
ing at our doors more especially when
tbe fact, is taken into consideration
thatpapalism and despotism, hierarchy
and monarchy, plutocracy and priest
craft, corporate greed and priestly ra
pacity are allies In the battle agalnbt
freedom and enlightenment. Monop
oly would have the mass poor that
plutocracy may be rich; priestcraft
would have the mlods of its votaries '
barren of intelligence that the priestly
influence may reign supreme. Plutus
and the priest conquer as companions
in arms and feed as twin vultures upon
the carcass. Wherever Croesus reigns
priestcraft sits beside him, the first to
cry: "Yield your money or your laoor
to the king!" the second to pour unc
tion upon the outrage and give the
robbery the odor of priestly sanctity
and godly approval.
Hence it is that I have heretofore
Included the great and crying evil of
monopoly in my denunciations of the
papacy, and still consider it my duty to
do so.
Although It Is inconsistent with the
principles of our beloved order to inter
fere with the religious belief of any
person or to seek to restrict him in its
exercise even less to make it an ob
ject of ridicule to others, as many lec
turers are ill-advisedly doing there Is
a limit to the rights of the religious,
venturing beyond which they lay them
selves open not only to attack by all
Constitution-loving citizens but by the
law Itself. It has been asserted that
Continued on page 4.
1
