and bloody Bonner's field. Ask the plains of Mexico, and the once powerful empire of Peru. But travel not so far. Ask Afric's exiled and oppressed sons, who it was, with crucifix in one hand, the manacle and brand in the other, fired their peaceful villages at midnight: dragged the poor unarmed inmates from liberty and happiness, to slavery and misery. Who tore from the embraces of an affectionate wife, her wretched husband, and left their orphan children to perish amid the smoking ruins of their dwellings. Who, in this land of professed political liberty, still holds them in vile bondage; still hears without emotion, their clanking chains, their heart-piercing shriek, their hollow groan, respond to the fast descending lash of their barbarous oppressors. Who view, with glistening and demoniac eye, the manly tear wrung from the bleeding backs, and still more bleeding hearts of their victims, and they will tell you civilized Christians! Ask the poor receding and degenerated Indians of our territory, and they will tell you, that ere "the Christian's thirst for gold" brought them to these shores, they were temperate, industrious, virtuous and happy. But the Christian's morality has been accompanied with the Christian virtues, drunkenness, indolence, vice and misery. Should we ask where are now the tribes who once inhabited this spot? Where the noble men, who, revelling in liberty, bounded over hill and brake, free as the deer which they pursued? We should be toldTheir warriors are no more. Their valiant bands have been levelled to the earth by Christian steel, while their degenerate sons have bartered for Christian rum, the sepulchres of their fathers, and live unknown and unrespected. But a few past years, their council fires blazed on these shores; but a few short years, their war-whoop rung through an uncultivated forest, now this rich and populous city; but a few year's since, we might have seen within their fragile wigwams, the dusky warriors exchange their wampum and smoke their calumet of peace. These simple scenes have fled, or are but to be seen, like autumn's setting sun, receding fast behind the western cloud which blots it from our sight. A new race is now possessed of the soil, whose European civilization, whose Christian morality, and Christian vices, will ill bear a comparison with Indian sim-. plicity and virtue.

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When we reflect on the vicissitudes of nations and individuals; when we see a noble, yet credulous people, gallantly defending their liberties, and the graves of their fathers from the rapacity of perfidious, base, and horribly superstitious strangers, we let fall a tear o'er suffering humanity, and while we mourn the poor exiles who fled before the more skilful arms of their Christian murderers, we hail with delight the approaching dawn of man's universal freedom.

You have been told, that infidelity to the Christian dogmas is dangerous to the morals of society; that it is calculated to produce anarchy and confusion. But look at Spain, and see if Christianity makes her sons wise and virtuous? Look at Italy, the cradle of science, and once, when infidel Rome existed, the mistress of the world. Where is she now? Whither have her glories filed? All, all, trampled under foot by the minions of superstition, and by the armed ruffians of a holy alliance. Look at Ireland, that poor oppressed country, the convenience of kings and priests abroad, and the football of religious factions at home: look at the want, the wretchedness, and the misery of her sons, while their pampered lords are revelling in luxury upon the fruit of their labour. Look at home and see, if, instead of suppressing vice, it is not the cause of all the vice that exists; and then say, if religious and political liberty can, under any circumstances, be more injurious to society than kingly and priestly despotism.

And here, in this country, fellow citizens, the same object is pursued, but by different means; the same system of passive obedience is preached; the same disposition to obtain and retain power, and ride upon our necks exists. But a different course is pursued. Wanting the power to compel payment of tithes, a system of begging, accompanied with denunciations of the Lord's vengeance, is pursued, which has its influence in filling the Lord's treasury. Instead of bayonets, dungeons, and burnings here, roastings hereafter are denounced; yet the fire-the fire-Hell's eternal fire, answers all the purpose of extorting from the credulous and weak, a tithe, at least, of all they possess: and to such an extent is this system of beggary carried to support theological poor-houses, and itinerant beggars in idleness and mischief, that they even take from the poor widow, who labours hard to feed her orphan children, and clothe their naked bodies, a portion of her earnings, for which they promise her an imaginary eternity of bliss.

This is no fiction. I have seen the orphan's tattered clothes fly shivering in a winter's wind: I have seen his tender limbs without sufficient covering to preserve his young blood from freezing in his veins, gathering chips upon a wharf. I have seen the wretched orphan's tear, and heard the widow's moan; while upon the offering of herself and others, the missionary fattens.

Think, then, fellow citizens, think of the complicated ills that have followed this Christian system, and its vaunted morality, in every country where it has ever obtained a footing. Witness the incessant jarrings and endless discord it has introduced into every family, where it has obtained acceptance observe its increasing influence, see the foul stain (slavery) which it has stamped upon our national escutcheon; and the man who knowing these, will patiently and supinely sit down and witness its further encroachments," should live a bondman and should die a slave."

Shall we then longer submit to this yoke of superstition? Shall we longer bow and cringe before this idol, revealed religion? Shall we continue the sycophantic slaves, the vile panderers, the avowed supporters of a visionary and deceptive religion, whose whole history is but a catalogue of wars, murders, and oppressions? No, my friends; we will rouse from our lethargy, and shake off all imaginary causes of terror. Our cause is the sacred cause of liberty, justice, and truth; our numbers are respectable, and rapidly increasing; and we have only by our union, to hold what we have obtained, to bear down all opposition: for knowledge will dispel the clouds of ignorance, as a north wind the mists of morning, and we shall yet accomplish, and yet celebrate a more glorious independence than that which we celebrate this day: the triumph of knowledge over ignorance, of light over darkness, of truth over error, of honesty over fraud; and the increased advancement of science, will cast into eternal oblivion, the superstitions of Mahomet, of Christ, and of every other revealed religion.

At three o'clock, P. M. the members of the Association, and a number of other gentlemen, from different parts of the Union, sat down to an excellent dinner, provided by Mr. Crellin of the Bank Lodge; Mr. Offen in the chair. During the evening the following toasts were given from the chair:

1. The People-the source of all political power.

2. The Tree of Liberty, in the centre of the world—with the dew of heaven on its leaves, and the whole earth under its shade.

3. The Code of Nature-may it become universal law.

4. The Sun of Reason-may it rapidly illume the habitable globe.

5. Truth-the only centre of union and happiness.

6. Science-the partisan of no country-the beneficent patron of all. 7. An unshackled Press-the terror of despots, the bulwark of freemen, the hope of slaves.

8. May the edifices of Superstition be speedily converted into temples of Reason and Philosophy.

9. The Union-consecrated by the blood of our fathers, and endeared to us by innumerable blessings.

10. John Quincy Adams-President of the United States.

11. De Witt Clinton, Governor of the State of New York-the patron of the arts science, and literature.

12. Andrew Jackson, the hero and patriot.

13. Simon Bolivar, the Renovator of South America.

14. Thomas Cochrane-may he prove the real saviour of Greece.

15. Richard Carlile, and Robert Taylor, the intrepid champions of liberal principles in Great Britain.

16. The memory of Thomas Jefferson.

17. The memory of Thomas Paine.

18. The memory of Elihu Palmer, Benjamin Franklin, and Joel Barlow. 19. The memory of Voltaire, Hume, Volney, Gibbon, and of all those eminent philosophers who have contributed by their writings to promote mental freedom.

20. The memory of Talma, who in the last act of the tragedy of life, proved himself worthy of immortality.

21. Our cause the cause of mental and physical liberty. We proffer the hand of fellowship to all our brethren throughout the universe.

PROGRESS OF LIBERAL OPINIONS.

From the New York Correspondent.

CONTINUING to receive the most flattering accounts from all parts of the Union of the advancement of liberal opinions, we give the following extracts for the information of those who, with us, feel interested in the triumph of truth over bigotry and fanaticism.

Extract of a letter, dated Cincinnati, February 24, 1828.

"No work ever published holds more preeminent claims upon public patronage than the Correspondent. None was ever calculated in an equal degree to serve the cause of human light and liberty. Its success is hailed as consecrating a new age to the empire of mind; as laying the only true foundation for all that is good and excellent in human institutions. Building upon a rotten foundation is entirely vain: the rubbish must be cast down, before a permanent and durable structure can be raised.

"Our numbers in your state—the rate of their increase, and prospects, are subjects of earnest enquiry, and would afford pleasure and benefit if known here. The society in this city consists of about forty zealous members. We have many warm wishers in the neighbourhood of adjoining towns and counties. Our organization and means of communication and cooperation are too new and limited, to speak with confidence of immediate results. The snowball at first increases with comparative slowness. It is the same with all human associations. I disregard entirely the heresy, that the timid and cautious inculcate, viz.; "let the human mind alone, it will emancipate itself." If Mahomed conquered by the sword, John Calvin, and other disciples of Christ, by fables and denunciations, surely we, who work with the

golden shafts of the mind, and under the triumphant powers of the press, cannot hesitate in the course recommended by experience, or be doubtful of the issue of that course."

Extract of a Letter, dated Kendall, Stark County, Ohio, Feb. 20, 1828. "Your's of February 4th, I design to read at Canton court-house, where I have been delivering lectures semimonthly, and shall deliver one on Saturday evening next. My audiences at Canton and Kendal are large, and there has been a great" revival" at Canton; and violent opposition has only fixed the minds of the wavering. In the small village of Canton, there are forty of the true church. Of four churches, ours is the largest. We use great plainness of speech in our lectures. I have been publicly opposed by a catholic priest. Another has sent a challenge to debate the principles which I advocate in my lectures. I have accepted it on condition that he prove himself respectable, as I am personally unacquainted with him. The Ohio Repository is to be the organ through which the public will be informed of the discussion. The progress of the principles has been very firm since our arrival. We have lectures every Sunday, and the Odes of the "Free Press Association" are sung in the meeting. Your's,

SAML. UNDERHILL.

Western Tiller.-We regret to state, that the intelligent editor of this invaluable paper has been compelled by ill health to suspend his labours for the present. In No. 25, Vol. 2, he announces the fact, and takes his leave of the public in an article of considerable length, containing so able an exposition of the impositions practised by an idle and profligate priesthood to extract money from the pockets of the industrious, that we have concluded on giving it publicity in the Correspondent. After some introductory observations on the nature of tyranny, which he defines" the employment of force or fraud in the exaction of regular tribute, and the maintainance of continued power," he remarks,

"It is not necessary, as most people imagine, that, to constitute a tyranny, that there should be one great monster, holding and exercising, in his own person, certain unlimited powers, wielded for unlimited mischief. Modern tyranny has its system of manners and good breeding; it is undergoing every species of refinement indicated by the progress of the age, as necessary to secure its success: once it was a single, now it is a many-headed monster; once it was bold, rough, and daring, now it is artful, treacherous, plausible, and insinuating. Did society at any former age of the world support a greater number than it now does of the mischievous and idle? Was it ever taxed more heavily than it now is, by vice and pretenders? Was it at any former period more the slave of fraud, luxury, and civil impostors? Who can or dare answer these questions in the affirmative?

"There appears to be a kind of universal consent, by which all that is worthless in person and principle shall live on, and consume, the real substance of the land. The number of priests, or clergy, in the United States, is 17,000, whose average salaries will not differ much from $700; which create a yearly tax of eleven millions. To these must be added, as a portion of their political system-missions, foreign and domestic; Bible, tract, and education societies; donations, exacted by fear or hope; sumptuous temples, churches, and furniture-creating a further tax, equal to, if not beyond, the first sum:

say the total is but $20,000,000, (which will fall below the true estimate,) it is a heavy tax for the ignorant and industrious to pay to idle and dissolute masters. Yet it is paid; and paid, too, by the working class, every dollar of it. It appears at first view as if others paid a share of it: on examination it will be found, that all that class who live by their wit's end, in reality, pay nothing; taxes are the product of earning and industry. If this tax were paid to two or three families who claimed it as a hereditary right, then we should clamour and call it a rank piece of tyranny. Is it different because it is paid to many, and that by virtue of hereditary imposition and fraud? Certainly the cases are precisely the same. If the priests were to tell us that they collect this tax by virtue of an edict or declaration of Moses and Aaron, we would refuse to pay it; yet every dollar of it is so collected, with the addition only of the trifling fraud of representing Deity as speaking by Moses and Aaron: but Jesus Christ is also made use of as a bailiff in collecting this tax, and as a cover for all the frauds and vices with which it is attended.

"To the order and liberty of society it can make no difference, whether an aristocracy be of Moses, Aaron, Christ, or by hereditary right: it is as much a tyranny under the one as the other. The one is as much a state of oppression and fraud as the other; all are nothing more or less than schemes of raising money out of the honest, industrious, and credulous, for the support of impostors. Aaron and Moses succeeded by it; Mahomet succeeded by it: the impostors of every age have done what they are doing in this-they have lived on the people by it. Is any one so mad as to believe that the system of converting, of missions, of establishing sects, of propagating this or that faith, would exist one moment provided their advocates could not make money by them? No! they would stand precisely where another class of the nobility did by the adoption of our constitution, and where all nobility must stand when the people come to their senses-among the rank and file. The whole swarm of pretenders who now set up divine authority for making divisions and mischief among men, and for sweating their pockets. would be turned to some useful employment. The objection urged against them is that they constitute, in every political sense of the word, a tyranny; that is, they live on the people and out of the people, both by force and fraud, and these of the most base and ignoble character. The force they use is that of hell-fire and God's displeasure: the fraud is the same-it is all fraud and falsehood.

"Now if it be a right or a duty to oppose tyranny under any circumstances, it certainly must be right when our tyrants, not content with earthly, usurp also heavenly authority over us; and even with a daring and impious confidence call down divine vengeance to aid them in sweating our pockets. This tyranny is not opposed on account alone of its positive evils, but on that of principle. Being a tyranny, it is unnecessary to inquire whether it be better or worse than some other tyrannies: if it be not as destructive as might be, we owe no thanks to its authors; they are increasing in numbers and rapacity: no friend to human rights and liberties will fail to oppose them. The reasoning will be this: if one class, if one form of tyranny be supportable, tyrants are then naturalized to our soil; any other class and any form of tyrants is equally supportable. We are already corrupted and subdued when the mind consents to their establishment. He who contends that priests have any