The Impending Conflict Between Romanism and Protestantism in the United States

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one,

By J. J. SMITH,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

JOHN J. REED, Printer, 43 Centre St., New York.

PREFA
REFACE.

THIS Volume is intended to meet a public necessity, and is consequently a book for the times. It deals not with fiction, but with facts. It presents not theories, but inculcates action. Its origin is soon told. The attempt of Papists to expel the Bible from our Public Schools, and their outspoken denunciation of our entire common school system, elicited from me, about a year ago, a series of letters on our danger as a nation, from the aggressive spirit and policy of Romanism as being developed in our midst. These papers were first published in the Methodist Recorder. Several of my friends, whose mature judgments challenge my confidence, having expressed a wish, by letters and otherwise, to have those articles issued in book-form for more general circulation, constitute my apology, if apology be needed, for this publication.

The original letters have been enlarged, and nearly as many more chapters have been added, so as to cover most of the ground embraced in the questions involved. The reader will see in these pages that our controversy is with Popery as a system, which is, from its inherent nature,

necessarily hostile to our free institutions, and not with its individual members, many of whom are justly esteemed for their private virtues and moral worth. As the present work deals with some of the most essential and vital issues of the day, it cannot fail at least to merit the attention of all classes, whatever may be the peculiar type of their religious convictions, or their political preferences.

That a most fearful conflict of antagonistic elements, (as embraced in the two widely diverging systems of Protestantism and Romanism,) is pending, which must inevitably culminate, sooner or later, in a fearful crisis, we believe to be absolutely certain. And since "to be forewarned is to be forearmed," my object in this undertaking is to awaken serious attention to the perils that surround us upon this subject. Our danger is imminent. Something needs to be done to stimulate the public mind and vitalize the moral forces of society to resist, by all lawful measures, the destructive tendencies of this vast foreign wave that is rolling in upon us and threatening to overwhelm us. I therefore earnestly entreat that all lovers of civil liberty, and religious toleration, of every name, will read the following pages, and reflect upon the signs of the times and the duties of the hour. J. J. SMITH.

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