p. 79 | Sound Sentiments by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 1888

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 3, No. 10.

Sound Sentiments.

By Editor

THE following preamble and resolutions were sent to us by the organizations named. They have our hearty endorsement:—

WHEREAS, The Board of Education of the city of Boston has recently discarded a text-book from use in the public schools of the city, through the influence of a Roman Catholic priest, because the said text-book contains a historical statement with reference to the abuses of the Papal church at the time of the rise of Protestantism in Europe.

(The book is Swinton's “Outlines of the World's History,” a standard text-book, and the objectionable language used by the author is as follows:—

“There was complaint of many practical abuses of the church, and of the claims of the Popes to interfere in the affairs of nations; and there was also a growing feeling among many, that not a few of the doctrines which were believed, and of the ceremonies which were practiced, in church were contrary to Scripture.

“It was in this state of affairs that there arose a dispute, trivial, indeed, in its nature, but which kindled a flame that quickly spread over most of Western Europe. When Leo X. came to the Papal chair, he found the treasury of the church exhausted by the ambitious projects of his predecessors. He therefore had recourse to every means which ingenuity could devise for recruiting his exhausted finances, and among these he adopted an extensive sale of indulgences, which in former ages had been a source of large profits to the church. The Dominican friars, having obtained the monopoly of the sale in Germany, employed as their agent Tetzel, one of their own order, who carried on the traffic in a manner that was very offensive, and especially so to the Augustinian friars.”

And for this historical fact, stated in the mildest language possible, this text-book is excluded from the free schools of Boston, the honorable Board of Education bowing in meek submission to the arbitrary mandate of this hierarchy; therefore,

Resolved, By Camp 22 of the Patriotic Order Sons of America, of Leadville, Colorado, that we do most earnestly protest against this arbitrary ecclesiastical interference with the literature of the free schools of our land.

At this rate it is but reasonable to expect the next scene in the drama will be the expulsion of “Froude's History of England” as a text-book in our common schools, because the author states the truth respecting the bloody persecution of the Roman Catholics by the Church of England at the time of the execution of Mary Stuart by the rapacious Protestant, Queen Elizabeth.

Or, through the influence of some religious fanatic, some standard History of the United States will be discarded from use in our public schools, because the author records the abuses and prejudices of the early Puritans in their bitter persecutions of other denominations in New England; and in condemning to death poor old innocent women supposed to be possessed of witchcraft.

In passing this resolution of censure it is with no malice to the Catholic Church; but we would raise our voice equally strong against the interference of any Protestant Church in the dictation of the literature of the free schools of our common country.

Had this ecclesiastical edict have been prescribed for any parochial school, it would have been none of our business. But that such an outrage should have been perpetrated upon the public schools of the very city where the first battles were fought to free the American Colonies from British tyranny, beneath the shadow of Bunker Hill and old Faneuil Hall, the “cradle of American liberty,” the city where once lived the Adamses, Franklin, Parker, and Wendell Phillips, it is enough to make these illustrious patriots return from the tomb and with sepulchral voices rebuke the pusillanimous cowards who compose the Board of Education in the so-called “Athens of America.”

Resolved, That a copy of these expressions of our sentiments be forwarded to the Board of Education of Boston, and for publication in the Boston Herald and the AMERICAN SENTINEL.

Respectfully submitted, T. H. BAKER, W. H. VAN-BUREN, A. C. WILSON, } Com.

These resolutions were unanimously adopted by Camp 22, at their session July 16, 1888.

W. W. COBLE, Pres.

W. M. VAN BUREN, Rec. Sec.

And I certify that these resolutions were unanimously indorsed by Camps 5 and 13, at their session July 18 and 21, respectively.

WILLIAM P. HAYHURST, District Pres.