Is There Not a Cause?

The following excerpt was authored by A.T. Jones and originally published in the American Sentinel on January 2, 1890. The full publication is available for reference here. 

In the Fiftieth Congress, May 21, 1888, [the National Reform Association and similar entities] secured the introduction in the United States Senate of the Blair Sunday-Rest Bill, and worked hard to secure its passage; but that Congress expired, and the bill died without their wish being fulfilled.

In the same Congress, May 25, 1888, there was introduced a "Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States respecting establishments of religion and free public schools," which proposed to enforce by national power the teachings of "the principles of the Christian religion" in all the public schools of the country. This resolution was endorsed by the National Reform Association as embodying the very thing for which that Association had been working for twenty-five years. This also died with the Fiftieth Congress.

Yet all these organizations have continued, by every means which they could employ, to work up public favor for the legislation which they demand. The Fifty-first Congress had been in existence scarcely a week before Senator Blair reintroduced both his Sunday-Rest Bill and the Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and the organizations named are pledged to secure, if possible, the adoption of those measures before the present Congress shall expire. . . . 

From these facts it is seen that there is already formed and in active working order a combination of all the leading religious bodies for the avowed purpose of securing national legislation in the interests of religion, and for the enforcement of religious observances. The United States Senate, sixty years ago this winter, stated an undeniable truth when it said, "Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are always dangerous." Here, then, is a religious combination which is about as extensive as it would be possible to form in the United States. It is to effect a political purpose, for it is solely to control legislation; and what is worse, though inevitable, is that it seeks to control legislation in its own interests. It is therefore dangerous, and as dangerous as it is extensive.

We ask, therefore, whether there is not a cause for the existence of the AMERICAN SENTINEL? And is there not need that something shall be said to call the attention of the people to these things, which are so utterly subversive of American principles, and which involve the most sacred rights of men?