ly to operate in destroying the freedom of the press-in fact to establish ecclesiastical domination throughout the land.

Mr. Powel remarked that he should notice the defects of the bill, when it came under a second reading.

Speech of Mr. Burden, in the Senate of Pennsylvania, m the bill to incorporate the Trustees of the American Sunday School Union.

Mr. Burden said that he was opposed to the bill, becanse it would creale a monopoly in trade. There was one class of citizens that had been too much neglected by legislatures, he alluded to the working class, the bone, the sinew, aye the marrow of the community, the foundation of wealth and prosperity-a class pre-eminent in the annals of freedom in all ages. He said, that though there was no law on the statute book against this class, yet the courts had the power, by the common law, (a creature generated in the morasses in the days of barbarism,) to imprison working men for associating to regulate their wages. He said that he would watch over the interests of these men. From this class he sprung, and he was not prepared to pass a law which would injure them. True, a few book. sellers, wealthy booksellers, had recommended the incorporation, but where are the printers and the book binders? Why have they not put their names to the petition? Book sellers might not for many years feel the injury, but the printers of small capital would find it difficult to compete with an institution of immense capital derived from gratuitous subscription, and having the power, as it professes the design of driving out of circulation all school books by the cheapness of its own publications. The enterprize of individuals would be paralyzed, and the market would be in the hands of the Union.

But where

To be sure the book trade only will or can be affected. are you to stop? What right have you to single it out? He cared not whether the wedge were gold or iron, he never would give his sanction to its embrace. What do they want with an act of incorporation? Cannot schools be taught without charters?

What necessity exists for granting a charter to the Union? In three years it has issued from its press upwards of three millions of publications. It has prospered beyond the prophecies of men and the warmest anticipations of its promoters. Its managers tell you in their report, that if it continues to increase as it has done during the last year, it will overspread the land. Why, then, after a system of individual liability which has been attended with such prosperous results, why enable it to acquire a credit without a responsibility, that it may become a monopoly?

Much has been said about the sectarianism incident to this institution. For his part, he would not lift his finger towards heaven, to change the religious belief of any man in Christendom: to make a Baptist, an Episcopalian, or any thing else. He thought the multiplicity of sects advantageous to the country:-It tended to preserve our civil and religious liberties, and each sect watched the other, and thus conduced to morality. The gentleman from the city (Mr. Duncan) had been much frightened by the scarecrow, as he termed it, (i. e., a printed letter of quotations from the Sunday School reports, and Dr. Ely's sermon.) He thought the gentleman should have been thankful for it to them who sent it here, for it had afforded him a text for his speech.

Let us look, for a few moments, at what the report says. In the body of the report of 1825, and attached to the catalogue are the following: "While the committee feel the immense responsibility which they assume, in becoming dictators to the conscience of thousands of immortal beings on the great and all important subject of the welfare of their souls; while

they dread the consequences of uttering forgeries, or giving their sanction, to misrepresentations of the glorious truths of the gospel, they are not backward to become the responsible arbiters in these high points, rather than tamely issue sentiments which, in their consciences, they believe to be false, or inconsistent with the purity of divine truth, however recommended by the means of the illustrious saints, or the sanction of the most evangelical and benevolent societies." Pretty high grounds! great assumption, no doubt! But the city gentleman explains all away. "They were unguarded expressions," he is pleased to assure us. They were either unguarded, or they were designed. He may take one view or the other, for they are at his service. If the first be the case, are we to trust men to keep our consciences, who write so unguardedly? And if the second, I think it is high time to relieve the committee of such high responsibility. I(said Mr. B.) have heard much of the infallibility of the pope, (he meant no disrespect to him, nor to any other dignitary of the church,) but it was a new thing for men to bow to the decrees of a tribunal made up of beings acknowledged to be as fallible as themselves..

The committee of publication from which emanated these expressions, is made up-of whom? Not the reverend clergy, whose education and calling, one would suppose, qualified them to judge of matters of faith: not of these, but of five laymen in the city of Philadelphia. What a court of conscience! Are these laymen more pious than the clergy? Are they more conversant with what constitutes the purity of divine truth? Are they more free from sectarianism? Do they tell us why are they preferred?

Mr. Burden continued. He had no doubt but the gentlemen were highly respectable and good members of society. But he did not consider on that account they were competent judges, and should have the immense power placed in their hands to alter any school book to suit their tenets, and to drive out of circulation all books which did not come up to their mark. Let us dissect this a little closer. This committee consists of five, a quorum of which, three, is to pass on all publications whatever, which issue from their press. To guard against sectarianism, three dif ferent sects must be represented in this committee.. He would ask, was this a sufficient guard? Are there not persons of different denominations whose creeds are virtually the same? He could make out a committee of Calvinists or of Arminians, and not infringe on the letter of the con stitution, and he had read sufficient law reports to know the glorious uncertainties of judicial decisions.

He was not prepared to give any men the authority to dictate to conscience. The great author of conscience, had established it the strongest tie between man and his Maker; he had never interfered with it, and he knew of no human tribunal qualified or entitled to do it, much less that a committee of five men, in the city of Philadelphia, should have the great responsibility over the rising generation of the United States.

He said he agreed with the gentleman who advocated the bill, that it was the duty of the legislature to promote education. He was disposed to go all reasonable lengths-he looked on the youth as the property of the nation-he was willing to vote for general education at the public expense, not for colleges which are for the rich, but for common schools, where aristocratic dirtinctions would be broken down; but he was not in favor of throwing the children, on whom the future prospects of the country would depend, and to whom the charter of our liberties would be committed, as pensioners on the bounty of any men; he was not disposed to commit their consciences to the keeping of any committee, who might,

by "unguarded expressions," obtain an undue authority over their minds. The Union has told you, that in ten, or at farthest twenty years, all the political power of the country will be in the hands of those who have been educated in the principles of Sunday Schools, that from them must be taken our future legislatures, &c. &c. Will our youth be taught this? It is thought that a union of church and state can never be effected in this country; that the idea of such a thing is visionary; perhaps it is, but still there can be no harm in guarding against it. The evils of ecclesiastical power originated from small beginnings. When the ceremony of marriage became a sacred ordinance of the church, who anticipated any danger? and yet, look at the consequences which followed, from the subtlety of the clergy. They became the tribunals in cases of divorce, legitimacy, wills, and testaments; they gradually interwove their influence in all the relations of life; their power was felt from the fireside to the throne; princes were deposed and crowned at their pleasure; and clerical oppression gave rise to the most tremendous revolutions that have ever marked the annals of the world. Man is the same being every where, and is not at this period sufficiently enlightened to be incapable of committing the same errors as his ancestors did. To guard against ecclesiastical power in this country, we should watch our religious and civil freedom with a jealous eye. We know, that at one period of our history, within the memory of man, that in some of our states a scheme was formed to give certain privileges to the clergy; it only failed from a peculiar combination of political circumstances. The fire is covered, but it is still burning-publications are spreading every where in favor of a religious party. Beecher's work, which was put in my hands a few days ago, lauds the British people, because public opinion is controlled by the bayonet; and it ascribes all the immorality and irreligion of the United States, to the fact, that men who have no right in the soil, and who have no capital at stake, enjoy the right of suffrage; and that public men fear to be a terror to evil doers, lest the universal suffrage of the people should hurl them from their seats.

The gentleman from this city, (Mr. Powel,) has read to you, and commented on the sermon of Dr. Ely. That discourse deserves some consideration, as the reverend gentleman is known as an active promoter and reporter of the Union; and his sentiments taken in connexion with the expressions found in the Sunday School Magazine, are sufficient to put us on our guard.

Had our fathers acted on such principles as are inculcated in these publications, the usefulness of such men as Franklin and Jefferson would have been lost, for they were not communicants, nor what is called professing Christians.

Exclude from every political station the men who are not professors, and you lose many who would be a glory and an honor to your country. He said, he had no objection to pious men, but he disliked that system which would class as irreligious and wicked, all who do not pray in the market places, to be seen of men. Who, when fire assails your dwellings, rush to save your property or lives? Who, when the pestilence stalks through your cities, risk their lives for the comfort of the wretched? Who, when your country is invaded, hasten to the battle field, in defence of your liberties, or cover themselves with glory on the ocean? The men stigmatized by certain writers as the irreligious and wicked because they practice much and profess little.

But we are called upon to aid religion. It wants no aid. When the supreme Creator was pleased, in the chain of beings, to call into existence such a link as man, he gave him a portion of light suitable to his capacity;

it differed in degree, but was the same light; and you might as well attempt to make men with their natural eyes, see the same objects, at the same distances, and with similar appearances, as endeavor to enforce the same belief. Religion wants not the aid of law. The great founder of Christianity asked not the support of government, for his kingdom was not of this world." He asked not for titles nor powers, for the essence of his doctrine was humility-he required but a reasonable service, and he addressed the understanding. So long as his followers followed in his steps, religion was spotless as the snow, and the messenger of peace and happiness to the human race. With no assistance but its truth, the angel of this religion winged its way, amid the blaze of worldly science, with an eye that never winked, and a wing that never tired; and dispelling the terrors of the human mind, its first message was fear not, for I bring you glad tidings. But when it became connected with government, an adul tery was committed, the offspring of which destroys religion and freedom. After this we see the Catholic imbuing his hands in the blood of the Protestant, and when the latter had power, the atmosphere blazed with fires, and the stakes were crowded with victims. Even in this country, when the Protestants could find no Catholics to exterminate, the meek and unoffending Quaker was brought to the gallows.

Look at those countries where there exists a union of church and state, and compare them with this country. What renders our clergy so highly respectable, so superior to the same class in Europe? Because there

is no government support; because ministers are maintained by the voluntary contributions of their congregations. So long as this system is continued, you may expect to have a pious and useful clergy. Create a law church, and your pulpits will be filled by the vicious, the worthless and hypocritical.

Pause, therefore, before you incorporate this Union. Recollect a corporation lives for ever; and however highly you may esteem the present conductors, you cannot prophecy who may succeed them. Remember it is not adult age which is to be managed by this "powerful engine," but

the infant.

A wise Providence had so constructed our nature, that first impressions remain through life, and leave us only at the threshhold of eternity. The mind is said to be like a sheet of blank paper: it may vary in color and porosity, but still it will receive any impression. The prejudices of infancy lead the poor Hindoo to destroy himself under the wheels of Juggernaut's chariot. They lead the tender mother to cast her loved child from the nourishing bosom to the jaws of the devouring crocodile, to appease the vengeance of an idol god. They lead you to feel the influence of nursery tales long after your reason has convinced you that apparitions do not exist. And if the mind can thus be turned back on the current of nature, will it be difficult, in this country, to teach children that none but ortho dox professors are fit for public stations, as Dr. Ely has said.

True, we have a constitution; but the majority can alter it. And are we not told that a religious party can govern the polls? But, admit the letter of the constitution should remain unchanged, cannot the common law afford sufficient pretexts to worm around it? Read the law reports of this state, and think as you please.

We are told that education and bigotry can never exist in the same soil. What say you of the Jesuits? They promoted learning: it was the lever of their power. They were the teachers of princes and people, and gained such an ascendancy over the mind, by presiding over educa tion, that nothing but a providential interposition prevented them from putting civil and religious freedom into a common grave.

The teachers in Sunday Schools are directed to adopt the same kind of system as the Jesuits used, so far as this, that they are to report the peculiar bias of mind, circumstances, age, disposition, and character of the scholar, to make their impressions in times of prosperity, and in seasons of affliction. The teachers, amounting to upwards of 24,000, in the United States, will have facilities of corresponding, and promptitude of action, equal for any emergency; they will truly be a "disciplined army, where every one knows and has his place."

He begged it to be clearly understood, that he did not mean to impute such designs to the present managers; on the contrary, he believed they were high minded, patriotic, and honorable men; but a corporation exists. for ever, and it was our duty to be watchful. It had been said, that such things would never take place in our time, and he believed it, but if there was to be trouble, let us have it. Our fathers met trials for us, and it is our duty to hand down the charter of our liberties, which they committed to us, without a blot to posterity.

As to the limitation of the act of incorporation to five years, he had no faith in it. Let the Union be incorporated five years, and few will be found daring enough to oppose it; a mammoth monied monopoly is not easily assailed; and he who would open his mouth against one which was clothed with what is called religion, would be held up to society as an infidel. If a public man, his political life would terminate. Already such is the dread of the Union, that the printer of the remonstrances was afraid his name should be exposed, (as Mr. B. was informed by letter, from a respectable citizen.) And incorporate the Union for five years, and it will be re-chartered without difficulty.

He said, that when he first occupied a seat in the House of Representatives, he was in favor of the incorporation, and had intended to advo cate it; but that fortunately one of their reports reached him, and he be came convinced it was his duty to oppose it; he had no doubt, that many who signed the petitions, were under the mistake which he at first labored under; he had seen, with pleasure, many signatures on the remonstrances, which had been placed without proper consideration on the petitions, and some of these were the names of men high in society.

He had ascertained, that the respectable sect, the Methodists, who had been the pioneers of Christianity on our frontiers, and who had been instrumental, in a great degree in moralizing society, were not in favor of the Union; that they disliked national societies for religious purposes; that they had said to the public, "we are not partial to national combinations of an ecclesiastical character; they are to us like the armour of Saul buckled on David; they do not fit us." These people were contented with the prosperity and encouragement which God had given them, and they wished no government aid to religion. Other respectable and numerous sects are of the same opinion, and they are right.

He said, that as the subject had been handled with great ability by the gentleman who preceded him, (Mr. Powel,) and as the time of the committee had been occupied, he would content himself, for the present, with recapitulating his objections in a few words-he would oppose the bill, because he thought it improper to legislate over territory beyond the jurisdiction of the state; because the interest of the working classes, and the community at large, were liable to injury from the creation of monopolizing trading companies; and because there was a possibility that influence would be exercised over the youth, incompatible with the rights which we are placed here to guard."

During the mighty struggle for civil dominion on the con