A general system of education, such as affords all alike an opportunity to cultivate and expand the intellect, the poor as well as the rich, is, beyond all question, one of the greatest blessings that any nation can enjoy. Such a system had its birth in America while it was yet comparatively free from the blighting influence of a religio-political corporation whose whole history is one uninterrupted and relentless war upon every system of education which broadens the intellect and causes people to think. In America was born the public free school system, and from the date of its birth, in 1695, to the present, it has been the means of giving to this nation its most renowned statesmen, jurists, patriots, agriculturists, teachers and divines. It is one of the principal agents by which the United States of America has been enabled to advance to the first rank in all things that make a nation great. But against this most sacred product of American liberty Rome lifts her unholy hands. Against our schools she hurls her worst anathemas. But it is our purpose in this chapter to let the Roman Catholic Church speak for itself. Its language is plain and needs no interpretation. Listen to Rome's damnable utterances: "These public schools are devouring fires and pits of destruction. They ought to go back to the devil, from whence they came."--_The Freeman's Journal._ "If your son or daughter is attending a state school you may be sure that you are violating your duty as Catholic parents and conducting to the everlasting anguish and despair of your child. Take it away. Let it rather never know how to write its name than to become the bound and chained slave of satan."--_The Shepherd of the Valley._ "The common schools of this country are sinks of moral pollution and nurseries of hell."--_Chicago Tablet._ "The public or common school system is a swindle on the people, an outrage on justice, a foul disgrace in matters of morals, and should be abolished forthwith."--_New York Tablet._ "The hideous fetish, called the public school, is only an ugly idol after all."--_Colorado Catholic._ "It will be a glorious day for Roman Catholics in this country when, under the laws of justice and morality, our school system shall be shivered to pieces."--_Catholic Telegraph._ "We hold education to be a function of the church and not of the state, and in our case we do not and will not accept the state as an educator."--_New York Tablet._ They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Listen to the snarls of Rome's "dupes:" "Unless you suppress the public school system as at present conducted, it will prove the damnation of this country."--_Father Walker._ "I frankly confess that the Catholics stand before the country as the enemies of the public schools."--_Father Phelan._