to say of the state of things in this
nation?

Where is there a party which does not in effect say to every man, "if
you dare to oppose the principles or practices we sustain, you shall be
punished with personal odium?" which does not say to every member of the
party, "uphold your party, right or wrong; oppose all that is adverse to
your party, right or wrong, or else suffer the penalty of having your
motives, character, and conduct, impeached?"

Look first at the political arena. Where is the advocate of any measure
that does not suffer sneers, ridicule, contempt, and all that tends to
depreciate character in public estimation? Where is the partisan that is
not attacked, as either weak in intellect, or dishonest in principle, or
selfish in motives? And where is the man who is linked with any
political party, that dares to stand up fearlessly and defend what is
good in opposers, and reprove what is wrong in his own party?

Look into the religious world. There, even those who take their party
name from their professed liberality, are saying, "whoever shall adopt
principles that exclude us from the Christian church, and our clergy
from the pulpit, shall be held up either as intellectually degraded, or
as narrow-minded and bigoted, or as ambitious, partisan and persecuting
in spirit. No man shall believe a creed that excludes us from the pale
of Christianity, under penalty of all the odium we can inflict."

So in the Catholic controversy. Catholics and their friends practically
declare war against all free discussion on this point. The decree has
gone forth, that "no man shall appear for the purpose of proving that
Catholicism is contrary to Scripture, or immoral and anti-republican in
tendency, under penalty of being denounced as a dupe, or a hypocrite, or
a persecutor, or a narrow-minded and prejudiced bigot."

On the contrary, those who attack what is called liberal Christianity,
or who aim to oppose the progress of Catholicism, how often do they
exhibit a severe and uncharitable spirit towards the individuals whose
opinions they controvert. Instead of loving the men, and rendering to
them all the offices of Christian kindness, and according to them all
due credit for whatever is desirable in character and conduct, how often
do opposers seem to feel, that it will not answer to allow that there is
any thing good, either in the system or in those who have adopted it.
"Every thing about my party is right, and every th