[Click here for our notes and the beginning of this treatise. In-text bold emphases ours, in-text italics and all caps come from the original work.]
No. III.
The extent of the St. Leopold Foundation.--Its agents in this country.--Jesuits.--Their Character.--Their tricks already visible, in the riotous Ultraism of the day.I HAVE shown that a Society, (the "St. Leopold Foundation") is organized in a Foreign Absolute government, having its central direction in the capital of that government at Vienna, under the patronage of the Emperor of Austria, and the other Despotic Rulers,--a Society for the purpose of spreading Popery in this country. Of this fact there is no doubt. This "St. Leopold Foundation" has its ramifications through the whole of the Austrian empire. It is not a small private association, but a great and extensive combination. It embraces in its extent, as shown by their own documents, not merely the wide Austrian Empire, Hungary, and Italy, but it includes Piedmont, Savoy, and Catholic France; it embodies the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of all these countries. And is such an extensive combination in foreign countries for the avowed purpose of operating in this country, (no matter for what purpose,) so trivial an affair, that we may safely dismiss it with a sneer? have these foreign Rulers so much sympathy with our system of government, that we may trust them safely to meddle with it, in any way? Are they so impotent in combination as to excite in us no alarm? May they send money, and agents, and a system of government wholly at variance with our own, and spread it through all our borders with impunity from our search, because it is nick-named Religion? There was a time when American sensibilities were quick on the subject of foreign interference. What has recently deadened them?
Let us examine the operations of this Austrian Society, for it is hard at work all around us; yes, here in this country, from end to the other, at our very doors, in this city. From a machinery of such a character and power, we shall doubtless be able to see already some effect. With its head-quarters at Vienna, under the immediate direction and inspection of Metternich, the well-known great managing general of the diplomacy of Europe, it makes itself already felt through the republic. Its emissaries are here. And who are these emissaries? They are JESUITS. This society of men, after exerting their tyranny for upwards of 200 years, at length became so formidable to the world, threatening the entire subversion of all social order, that even the Pope, whose devoted subjects they are, and must be, by the vow of their society, was compelled to dissolve them. They had not been suppressed, however, for 50 years, before the waning influence of Popery and Despotism required their useful labours, to resist the spreading light of Democratic liberty, and the Pope, (Pius VII,) simultaneously with the formation of the Holy Alliance, revived the order of the Jesuits in all their power. From their vow of "unqualified submission to the Sovereign Pontiff," they have been appropriately called the Pope's body guard. It should be known, that Austrian influence elected the present Pope; his body guard are therefore at the service of Austria, and these are the soldiers that the Leopold Society has sent to this country, and they are agents of this society, to execute its designs, whatever these designs may be. And do Americans need to be told what Jesuits are? If any are ignorant, let them inform themselves of their history without delay; no time is to be lost: their workings are before you in every day's events: they are a secret society, a sort of Masonic order, with superadded features of most revolting odiousness, and a thousand times more dangerous. They are not confined to one class in society; they are not merely priests, or priests of one religious creed, they are merchants, and lawyers, and editors, and men of any profession, and no profession, having no outward badge, (in this country,) by which to be recognised; they are about in all your society. They can assume any character, that of angels of light, or ministers of darkness, to accomplish their one great end, the service upon which they are sent, whatever that service may be. "They are all educated men, prepared, and sworn to start at any moment, in any direction, and for any service, commanded by the general of their order, bound to no family, community, or country, by the ordinary ties which bind men; and sold for life to the cause of the Roman Pontiff."
These are the men at this moment ordered to America. And can they do nothing, Americans, to derange the free workings of your democratic institutions? Can they not, and do they not fan the slightest embers of discontent into a flame, those thousand little differences which must perpetually occur in any society, into riot, and quell its excess among their own people as it suits their policy and the establishment of their own control? Yes, they can be the aggressors, and contrive to be the aggrieved. They can do the mischief, and manage to be publicly lauded for their praiseworthy forbearance and their suffering patience. They can persecute, and turn away the popular indignation, ever roused by the cry of persecution from themselves, and make it fall upon their victim. They can control the press in a thousand secret ways. They can write under the signature of "Whig," to-day, and if it suits their turn, "Tory," to-morrow. They can be Democrat to-day, and Aristocrat to-morrow. They can out-American Americans in admiration of American institutions to-day, and "condemn them as unfit for any people" to-morrow. These are the men that Austria has sent here, that she supplies with money, with whom she keeps up an active correspondence, and whose officers (the Bishops) are passing back and forth between Europe and America, doubtless to impart that information orally which would not be so safe committed to writing.
Is there no danger to the Democracy of the country from such formidable foes arrayed against it? Is Metternich its friend? Is the Pope its friend? Are his official documents, now daily put forth, Democratic in their character?
O there is no danger to the Democracy; for those most devoted to the Pope, the Roman Catholics, especially the Irish Catholics, are all on the side of Democracy. Yes; to be sure they are on the side of Democracy. They are just where I should look for them. Judas Iscariot joined with the true disciples. Jesuits are not fools. They would not startle our slumbering fears, by bolting out their monarchical designs directly in our teeth, and by joining the opposing ranks, except so far as to cover their designs. This is a Democratic country, and the Democratic party is and ever must be the strongest party, unless ruined by traitors and Jesuits in the camp. yes; it is in the ranks of Democracy I should expect to find them and for no good purpose be assured. Every measure of Democratic policy in the least exciting will be pushed to ultraism, so soon as it is introduced for discussion. Let every real Democrat guard against this common Jesuitical artifice of tyrants, an artifice which there is much evidence to believe is practising against them at this moment, an artifice which if not heeded will surely be the ruin of Democracy: it is founded on the well-known principle that "extremes meet." The writer has seen it pass under his own eyes in Europe, in more than one instance. When in despotic governments popular discontent, arising form the intolerable oppressions of the tyrants of the people, has manifested itself by popular outbreakings, to such a degree as to endanger the throne, and the people seemed prepared to shove their masters from their horses, and are likely to mount, and seize the reigns themselves; then, the popular movement, unmanageable any longer by resistance, is pushed to the extreme. The passions of the ignorant and vicious are EXCITED TO OUTRAGE BY PRETENDED FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE. ANARCHY ensues; and THEN the mass of the PEOPLE, who are always lovers of order and quiet, unite at once in SUPPORT of the strong arm of FORCE for protection; AND DESPOTISM, perhaps, in another, but preconcerted shape, RESUMES ITS IRON REIGN. Italy and Germany are furnishing examples every day. If an illustration is wanted on a larger scale, look at France in her late Republican revolution, and in her present relapse into despotism.
He who would prevent you from mounting his horse, has two ways of thwarting your designs. If he finds your efforts to rise too strong for his resistance, he has but to add a little more impulse to them, and he shoves you over on the other side. In either case you are on the ground.
Our Notes and Table of Contents for
"Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States
through Foreign Immigrations, and the Present State of the Naturalization Laws,
by Samuel Finley Breese Morse, 1835
[6-26-12]