ht quiet to the room and caused those who
were fumbling with the papers to let them fall motionless in their laps.
But what a knave! Here he was deliberately playing upon the sympathies
of his audience in the role of a Catholic.

"We have signified our intention of taking this momentous step, because
we are of the undivided opinion that our rights have been attained. We
have accomplished our purpose and we have now no cause for martial
strife. No longer do grounds of contention between us and the mother
country exist. Our bill of rights has been read abroad and honored, and
overtures of conciliation have already been made. The object for which
we linked our forces with the rebel standard, the happiness, the supreme
happiness of our country, has been gained. We no longer desire open
warfare.

"The idea of an American Parliament, with its members of American birth,
is a welcome one. It is a fitting, a worthy ambition. We are confident
that we are capable, at this juncture, of enacting our own laws and of
giving them the proper sanction. We are capable of raising our own
taxes. We are worthy of conducting our own commerce in every part of the
civilized globe as free citizens of the British Empire. And we are
convinced that we should enjoy for this purpose the blessings of good
government, not necessarily self-government, and that we should be
sustained by all the power requisite to uphold it, as befits free and
independent children bonded together in a concert of purpose.

"This we desire. But we seek also that freedom in matters of religious
worship without which no nation can attain to any degree of greatness.
Under a government conducted solely and independently by the colonists
we know that such a consummation would be impossible. I need not remind
you of the deplorable state of affairs which obtained previous to the
opening of hostilities. I need not recall to your minds the
anti-Catholic declarations of the Continental Congresses. I need not
recall to you the machinations of John Jay, or the manifest antipathy of
the Adamses, or the Hamiltons, or the Paines. I need not recall to you
how the vaunted defenders of American liberties and freedom expressed
their supreme detestation of Catholics and all things Catholic, and how
they were determined that the nightmare of Popery would never hold sway
over these free and independent colonies as it does even now in Canada.
I need not recall how the colonies, with the sole ex