he world our
obligations, rules, and principles, it is still objected that ours is a
secret Order, liable to be used for bad purposes; that we travel about
with dark lanterns; that our proceedings are not restrained by the
wholesome check of public opinion!

Now, this, the great objection to our Order, comes from men who belong
to Lodges of Free Masons and Odd Fellows, and who have taken all the
_binding_ oaths attached to the different _degrees_ of these respective
Orders! The same objection is urged against the American party, by men
who belong to the Order of Sons of Temperance, who have deemed a _rigid
secret organization_ necessary to combat successfully a _domestic_ evil!
It is urged in bitterness against the Order, by demagogues and
partisans, who have acted for years with the _secret political
conclaves_ of their respective parties, who have held their meetings
with _closed doors_--kept their _places_ of meeting a profound
secret--and when they have adjourned, they have enjoined _secrecy_ upon
all present! Last, but not least, this _secret feature_ is urged against
the American organization by the vile apologists for the Catholic
Church, and its corrupt Priesthood and membership, in this country.
These demagogues know that the Roman Catholic Church is a _secret
society_, directed by a talented, designing, and villainous
HIERARCHY--absolutely controlled by an _anti_-Republican Priesthood, to
a degree which has never been exercised by any political party in the
known world! The _Confessional_ is a secret tribunal, before which every
member of that Church is required to make known, not only _immoral_
actions, but every thought and purpose of the heart, and upon pain of
incurring the anathema of the Church, which is equivalent to a sentence
of eternal damnation! The corrupt order of JESUITS, the infamous society
of SAN FEDESTI, and the infinitely infernal society of IRISH RIBBON
MEN--these are all oath-bound societies of the Catholic Church,
connected directly with the horrid operations of the "_Holy
Inquisition_."

Now, I put the question to any man of reason and common sense, if Roman
Catholics and their _patriotic Democratic_ admirers and advocates, in
this country, are not the last men on earth who should object to the
_secret_ doings of the order of Know Nothings, even if their secrecy
were kept up? Every Roman Catholic in the known world is under the
absolute control of a secret society, by considerations no