The Alexandria Herald

The Catholic Question in Pennsylvania!

Few of our readers, we suspect, ever dreamed that a political Catholic question would arise in this country. But such is the fact, and the Philadelphia papers inform us that it occasions no little sensation in that commonwealth. In regard to this subject, the grand jury of Philadelphia have made the following presentment. "They present as an extraordinary act of arrogance, impropriety and presumption, a recent attempt of Pope Pius VII, so called, to interfere in the religious rights and temporal concerns of our country. Considering that the constitution having guaranteed to every man the invaluable and rational right of conscience, every congregation possesses an inherent power to choose its own clergy, and to make to them such compensation as may be expedient and agreed upon between them ; any attempt to bias or control that right is, therefore, highly censurable, more especially in any foreign power, prince, or state. To this inquest, this proceeding appears more particularly to require reprehension, as a first attempt at encroachment on our rights, should always be promptly repelled. And in as much as this act cannot reasonably be imputed to ignorance of our free and liberal institutions, well known to be guarded by the sovereignty of constitutions and laws, framed and enacted by the representatives of a free and independent people, disclaiming all foreign interference and jurisdiction."