Evangelical Platform, 1848

[HueyLong]

We find our Union increasingly clogged with peoples unfit, people by their very nature contrary to the high ideals of our Nation. Catholics, Mormons, Jews, the poor masses of uneducated immigrants, they all harm the true citizenry of Our Republic with their very existence.

I. The Catholic is, by the very nature of his religion, unable to accept a bond to any but his High Pontiff, unable to accept a bond to Bible or Nation. His weak white-washed mind will always be held in the tyrannical hand of Rome. His political dealings will always be suspect to the interests of the Vatican and the old Catholic powers of Europe. He (the Catholic) will never be able to function as an independent citizen of this Republic while bound to that pre-Christian faith.

II. Likewise, the Mormon, endeared to his Prophet and the heathenous practice of polygamy, is suspect as a citizen of Our Republic. He refuses to accept even the most basic and moral of laws, and by the order of His Prophet, either actively works against American law and order or flees ever westward to escape it. His Prophet will always guide his actions and thought, and after that man's deserved death, old cronies will lead him. The Mormon's very existence defies American norms, American laws and the American ideal of individualism. He cannot exist as a fit and responsible citizen without abandoning his creed and Prophet.

III. The Jews are a people separate from American society. They have marked themselves since the beginning of Christianity by the slaying of Our Lord. They seek from the beginning of their lives to affirm their identity as a Jew and to remain separate from civilized Christian society. Even those who convert reject the Divinity of Jesus Christ, continue to identify themselves as Jews and continue to act as Jews. Jews are historically immoral, poor and ill-fitted to civilization. While many would point to the wealth and affluence of American Jews, they ignore the means that these immoral traders, trained in the ash-heaps of Europe, use to attain their wealth. They ignore further the masses of these Christ-killers that clog our city streets and cheat all honest citizens, politically and economically. The Jew cannot be a responsible citizen of Our Republic until he ceases to be a Jew.

IV. The United States has been inundated with a wave of poor immigrants. These illiterate, often heathenous individuals, with their lack of English or other marketable skills, conditioned by the ash-heap of Europe, have formed into political blocs, twisting American democracy into European patronage. Elections are no longer to be decided by American citizens to resolve political issues and build a greater nation, they are decided by the Irish for coal.

The Evangelical Party hereby resolves that, in order to remove these unfit elements from American society, we must adopt the following: a binding oath of loyalty and responsibility on all public offices, the exclusion of Catholics, Jews and Mormons from public office, a longer naturalization limit on citizenship and voting, and restrictions based on the quality and morals of immigrants.

The Evangelical Party, to oppose the many other ills of modern society, hereby suggest the following reforms, aimed at bringing morals and duty into public life:

I. That Sunday, the Day of Our Lord's Rest and the Holy Sabbath, be declared a day of rest and leisure throughout the states and territories. No Christian shall be compelled to work on the Sabbath.

II. That the sale and transportation of alcohol be prohibited on public grounds and facilities; government works should not help to line the pockets of sin-peddlers.

III. That slaveholding states and individuals be compelled to adopt welfare provisions, regarding the treatment and care of the Christianized Negro. While unfit as an equal to the American, the American Negro has far surpassed the African Savage, and deserves better treatment.

IV. That the Federal Government help to hire chaplains and other clergy to assist the spiritual needs of poorer and more remote areas, especially in the Western territories, as order and law could be aided in this manner.

V. Likewise, that the Federal Government help provide for the Christianization and pacification of the Western Savage through instruction in Christianity.

[Dan1988]

While that's odd, I think you've described the mindset of the OTL Know-Nothings!

In order to diffuse the "slaying of our Lord" comment, some Bible scholar then would have to skim the Bible and say "no, let's not go after the Jews, let's go after the WOP's!" because of the Romans killing Jesus and thus linking the Italians to the Romans.

And regarding the Catholic comment, we already know that in OTL American Catholics already were developing a different mindset than European Catholics. I remember hearing something that whilst European Catholics kowtow to the Pope, American Catholics don't give a damn. Sure there were exceptions like Mother Cabrini or Dorothy Day, but the vast majority aren't like the Europeans. Thus the Evangelical Party, if it existed in OTL, would be viewed now as a bigoted party.

Oh, and most of this would be violating the Establishment Clause.

[Wendell]

Originally Posted by Dan1988

While that's odd, I think you've described the mindset of the OTL Know-Nothings!

In order to diffuse the "slaying of our Lord" comment, some Bible scholar then would have to skim the Bible and say "no, let's not go after the Jews, let's go after the WOP's!" because of the Romans killing Jesus and thus linking the Italians to the Romans.

And regarding the Catholic comment, we already know that in OTL American Catholics already were developing a different mindset than European Catholics. I remember hearing something that whilst European Catholics kowtow to the Pope, American Catholics don't give a damn. Sure there were exceptions like Mother Cabrini or Dorothy Day, but the vast majority aren't like the Europeans. Thus the Evangelical Party, if it existed in OTL, would be viewed now as a bigoted party.

Oh, and most of this would be violating the Establishment Clause.

The Establishment clause has varied in interpretation over the years of its existence.

[HueyLong]

Heh. This was just a brainstorming exercise to mess around with making a political platform. Alt-Awakening results in more nativist sentiment and more of an idea that government should support Christian values.

While American Catholics are not as reliant on the Vatican, the anti-Catholics did not see it that way.

The Establishment Clause has been interpreted to refer only to Christians. Catholics and Mormons are and were not viewed as Christians by many American Protestants.

Hiring ministers clearly does not violate this clause, otherwise the Army would not have chaplains, and the Indian reservations wouldn't have had them either.

The Sunday plank is to gain urban votes, mainly. Workers wanted a day free from work, and the Evangelicals would have offered it to them.

Note also that it does not establish one sect in the state- it simply disallows the Mormons and Catholics and jews, none of whom seem Christian.

[Max Sinister]

Originally Posted by HueyLong

While American Catholics are not as reliant on the Vatican, the anti-Catholics did not see it that way.

Catholics born in the US won't. New immigrants might be a different case.

[HueyLong]

Thy won't what? Be discriminated against? Be seen as puppets of the Vatican? I already said they were not as reliant on the vatican, they almost never were.