r* i i ■ *ja President White Library. Cornell University. A.vwyo '^7/lfoV Date Due »"-• ^$%? ^^-<", ■£- SdUC € Qfir — - g lMi GAT. NO. 23233 Cornell University Library BX4705.H89 H35 Life of the Most Reverend John Hughes, D olin 3 1924 029 428 368 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029428368 a. J&^r y#7* LIFE THE MOST EEVEKEND JOHN HUGHES, D. D., FIEST ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. BT * JOHN E. G. HASSARD. NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 1866. K ■firiT f\Y ~ A- 1^070 Entebed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1665, by D. APPLETON & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. In writing this book, I have tried to use the archbishop's own language, as I have found it in his private letters, whenever it could be made to tell his history or illustrate his character. I believe that a man's correspondence almost always gives a better picture of his mind than the most elaborate biographical analysis ; and that whatever may occasionally be sacrificed of completeness by following the plan which I have chosen, is counterbalanced by the unim- peachable accuracy of the portrait. I have described pretty fully the public controversies and labors of Archbishop Hughes, because his life was es- sentially a public one, and his polemical discussions were, for long periods, almost the whole sum of his daily occupa- tion. Few men ever lived who were so nearly the same in the closet and in the busy world. I have not forgotten, however, that personal traits are what the readers of a biography look for with the greatest interest, and I have told all that I could learn of the archbishop's private habits and peculiarities. My information on these subjects has been derived from his surviving relatives and the friends 4 PREFACE. with whom lie lived on terms of closest intimacy. Most of the other particulars, both of his public and his domestic history, I have gathered from his private papers, to which I have been allowed access through the kindness of the Yery Eev. "William Starrs, vicar-general of the diocese of New York, and the Eev. Francis McNeirny, secretary and chap- lain both to Dr. Hughes and to his successor Dr. McCloskey. Of the privilege thus granted me I have availed myself to the fullest extent, and such value as my book may have is mainly derived from this source. It affords me pleasure to express my deep gratitude to the reverend gentlemen above mentioned for their invaluable assistance. It would be too long a task to make acknowl- edgments in this place to all who have aided me, but I cannot forbear to mention my indebtedness to the Most Eev. Archbishops McCloskey and Purcell ; the Eight Eev. Bishop Bayley (who has laid me under obligations which I can hardly overstate); the Eev. Mr. Preston, chancellor of the diocese of New York ; the Yery Eev. Thomas Heyden, of Bedford, Pennsylvania; the Eev. Dr. McCaffrey, president of Mount St. Mary's College ; the Honorable Joseph E. Chandler, and Mr. M. A. Frenaye, of Philadelphia ; the late Peter A. Hargous, of New York; and especially Mr. Michael Hughes, the archbishop's brother, and his sisters Mrs. William Eodrigue, and Mother Angela, of the Sisters of Charity. Fordham Heights, September 25th, 1865. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. 1797-1816. Ancestry— Parentage — Birth — School days — Lessons in gardening— Early feel- ings about the disabilities of the Irish Catholics — The family resolve to emigrate ........ Page 9 CHAPTER II. 1816-1820. Arrival in America — The family at Chambersburg — John works for a gardener in Baltimore— At Emmitsburg— Received at Mount St. Mary's College . 19 CHAPTER III. Sketch of Mr. Dubois— Foundation of Mount St. Mary's College— Sketch of Mr. Brute ........ 26 CHAPTER IT. 1820-1826. College Life — First published Controversy ; Letter to Mr. Brute — Newspaper Poetry ....... 33 CHAPTER V. 1825-1827. Ordination as Deacon — Letter from Father Hurley — Journey with Bishop Conwell — "The Cuckoo Sermon" — Answer to Nine Objections— Ordained Priest — At St. Augustine's Church— At Bedford — Called to Philadelphia— Troubles of St. Mary's Church ....... 46 CHAPTER VI. 1827-1829. Intimate ielations with Mr. Brute — Reply to Dr. Bedell — Letters to Mr. Heyden— Establishment of a Tract Society — Andrew Dunn — Converts at St. Joseph's — Death of Mr. Lynch— Letter to Thomas Heyden, Sr. ... 72 CHAPTER TIL 1829-1830. St. John's Orphan Asylum — Catholic Emancipation — Controversy with Dr. De- lancey — Mr. Hughes recommended for Bishop — Letters to his sister and Mr Purcell — Rev. F. P. Kenrick appointed Bishop of Philadelphia — Miscel- laneous Correspondence — Letters to The Protestant . . 89 t> CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. 1830-1832. Journey with Bishop Kenrick— More trouble at St. Mary's— Foundation of St. John's church— Death of Mr. Hughes's mother— Letters to Ellen Hughes and Mr. Purcell— Article on the will of Stephen Girard— Dedication of the new church and removal from St. Joseph's— Mr. Hughes at the synod — Fourth of July celebration at St. John's— Letters to Ellen Hughes . Page 110 CHAPTER IX. 1832-1835. First Controversy with Breckinridge — Establishment of The Catholic Heralds Review of Bishop Onderdonk on the Rule of Faith — Father Hughes's position in Philadelphia— Nominated Bishop of Cincinnati — Letters to Sister. Angela, Mr. Brute, and Bishop Purcell — Letters to Rev. Henry M. Mason on Infalli- bility 134 CHAPTER X. 1835. Oral Discussion with Breckinridge — Death of Mr. Mayne — Proposal to publish a Catholic Annual — Affairs of St. John's — Contemplated visit to Mexico. 153 CHAPTER XI. 1835-1838. Project for translating Bishop Kenrick to Pittsburg — Mr. Hughes nominated his successor in Philadelphia — Correspondence with Bishops Kenrick, England, and Purcell — Death of Mr. Hughes's father — Letter on the use of the Bible as a school-book — Mr. Hughes appointed coadjutor to the" Bishop of New York — Letter from Bishop Dubois — Letter to Bishop Purcell — Letter from Bishop England — Consecration ....... lfi.6 CHAPTER XII. 1838-1839. Condition of the diocese — Health of Bishop Dubois — Foundation of a seminary at Lafargeville — Trouble with the trustees of the Cathedral — Their final over- throw — Bishop Hughes appointed administrator — Foundation of St. John's college ......... 206 CHAPTER XIII. 1839-1840. Voyage to Europe — Letter from Rome — Letter to the Leopoldine Society — Inter view with 0' Connell — Letters from Dublin .... CHAPTER XIV. 1840-1842. The School question — Injudicious efforts of the Catholics to obtain a portion of the school fund— The Bishop enters the lists — Petition to the Board of Alder- men — Debate before the Common Council — Memorial to the Legislature — The Secretary of State proposes a plan of school reform — The Bishop supports it — The question postponed— Candidates for the Legislature pledged to op- pose any change — The Bishop advises the Catholics to nominate an indepen- dent ticket — Mr. Maclay's school-bill passed — The Bishop's house attacked by a mob— Establishment of Catholic schools— St. John's College opened, CHAPTER XV. 1841-1844. The Church Debt Association— First diocesan synod— Controversy with David Hale— Difficulty with the trustees of St. Louis' church, Buffalo— Rules for the administration of churches without trustees— Visitation of the diocese— Visit CONTENTS. 7 to Europe for the purpose of raising money— Odd mistake of an English officer — Incident at Liverpool— The Errvprunt CathoUque de Hew Torh— Lec- tures in New York— Bishop McCloskey appointed coadjutor . Page CHAPTER XVI. 1844-1846. The Native American movement— Riots in Philadelphia— Excitement in New- York— The Bishop ready to fight for his churches— Letters to Mayor Harper and Colonel Stone — Third voyage to Europe— Reflections on the state of society abroad— Yisit to his birthplace— Sisters of Mercy and Jesuits brought to New York— The diocese divided— The Bishop refuses a diplomatic mission to Mexico — Intimacy with statesmen .... CHAPTER XVII. 1846. Division of the Sisterhood of Charity— Correspondence with the Very Rev. Mr. Deluol CHAPTER XVIII. 1847-1850. Young Ireland — The Irish insurrection of 1848 — The Bishop's speech at Vauxhall Garden— Letter to Mr. Emmet — Letters against Mr. McGee— The temporal power of the Pope ....'..., CHAPTER XIX. 1847-1848. Sermon before Congress — Letters to Kirwan — Multitude of calls upon the Bishop's time — Letters of religious advice — Government of the clergy — Characteristics of his preaching — Personal appearance — Manners — Pride in his humble origin — His friends — Social qualities — Failing health — Daily occu- pations — Disorderly habits — Fondness for children — Kindness of heart — Generosity — Ignorance of money affairs — Income — Residence . CHAPTER XX. 1850-1852. Dr. Hughes appointed an Archbishop — Visit to Rome — Project for making him a Cardinal — Letter on Toleration — Letter about Kossuth — Lecture on the Catholic Chapter in the History of the United States — Letter from Clement C. Biddle — Catholicism and the American people — The Auxiliary Church Building Association — Settlement of the affairs of St. Peter's church, and end of the trustee system ....... CHAPTER XXI. 1853-1855. Arrival of a Papal Nuncio in the United States — Project of a permanent nuncia- ture at Washington — Voyage to Cuba, — Letter on the Madiai case — Contro- versy with Gen. Cass — Letters of Philo Veritas — First provincial council of New York — Visit to Rome — Definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Con- ception — Controversy with Senator Brooks — Letters to Terence Donnelly and Cassius M. Clay on political alliances ..... CHAPTER XXII. 1855-1858. Visit to Newfoundland — Lectures in Baltimore and Pittsburg— Essay on the Catholic Press — Attack upon the Archbishop in the Times — Report to the Propaganda on his administration of the diocese — Curious scene at the Taber- CONTENTS. nacle— Letter on the death of an old friend— Letter on the consecration of two bishops— Alleged rivalship between the sees of New York and Baltimore —Primacy of honor conferred upon Baltimore at the request of Archbishop Hughes— Letter to Bishop McNally . • • Pa S e CHAPTER XXIII. 1858-1859. The Archbishop talks about resigning— Applies for a coadjutor— Foundation of the American College in Rome— Letter on Ecclesiastical Education— The new St. Patrick's Cathedral begun— The Atlantic Telegraph— Death of Archbishop Walsh — Miscellaneous letters ...... CHAPTER XXIV. 1859-1860. betters on the Roman question— Provincial council — Address to the Pope — Pas- toral letter on the Pope's temporal power— Its reception in Rome — Trip to Florida— Apostasy of Dr. Forbes— Proposed mass meeting to express sympa- thy with the Holy Father— Letter to Bishop Dupanloup— Collection for the Pope— The Archbishop and the City Inspector— Sermon at Chapel Hill Univer- sity, North Carolina— Letters to the Rev. Bernard Smith CHAPTER XXV. 1861. Sentiments on the slavery question — Review of Brownson on Emancipation — Letter to Mr. Seward — Letters to Southern bishops — Advice to the Govern- ment on the conduct of the war — Interview with a Southern lady — Letter from President Lincoln ....... CHAPTER XXVI. 1861-1862. The Archbishop accepts from the Government a special mission to Europe — Let- ters to Cardinal Barnabo — Correspondence with Mr. Seward — Arrival in Paris — Interview with the Emperor and Empress — Embarrassment of the American minister — Goes to Rome — Letters to Mr. Seward — Letters to his sisters — Canonization of the martyrs of Japan — Visit to Ireland— Sermon at the laying of the corner-stone of the Irish University — Speeches in Dublin — Enthusias- tic reception — Address from Irish Nationalists — Letters to the Mayor of Cork, the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishop of Clogher — Return home — Visit to Mr. Seward — Promotion suggested to the Holy See . CHAPTER XXVII. 1862-1863. Sermon on the war — Displeasure of the Archbishop's Southern friends — Contro- versy with The Catholic Mirror — Letters to Father Smith — New seminary at Troy — Declining health — Daily life — Meeting for the relief of Ireland — Last sermon — Death of Archbishop Kenrick — Draft riot in New York — The Arch bishop's speech to the mob — Last sickness — Death — Funeral — Conclusion LIFE ARCHBISHOP HUGHES, CHAPTEE I. 1797-1816. Ancestry — Parentage — Birth — School days — Lessons in gardening— Early feel- ings about the disabilities of the Irish Catholics — The family resolve to emigrate. The ancestors of John Hughes, for at least three or four generations back, were small farmers in the province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland. They seem to have held a respectable position in the world, but nothing more. The subject of this book was the first of his family who rose to eminence. It is not easy to determine of what race the Hugheses came. Their name is the Anglicized form both of the Welsh Ap Hugh and of the Milesian O'Haodha, O'hAodha, or O'Haedha (Aodh being the equivalent of Hugh), pro- nounced in Munster O'Hay, in Connaught O'Hee, and in Ulster O'Hugh. The "Welsh Ap Hughs who came into Ire- land about the 17th century very soon changed their name to Hughes ; the Milesian O'Haodhas, in order to avoid the persecution to which the Irish Catholics were subjected by their English conquerors, shortly afterward did the same. Some of the Welsh families, being Protestants, became rich 10 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. and powerful, and still hold an honorable place among the landed gentry of the kingdom. The Milesians were Catho- lics, and consequently never rose above the middle ranks of life. Except in a few special cases, it is impossible to distin- guish the collateral branches of these Welsh families from the descendants of the old Irish septs. The difference of faith is our only guide ; but we could not trust this guide unless we could be sure that no Welsh Hughes had ever be- come a Catholic, and no Irish Hughes ever turned Prot- estant. The Milesian O'Haodhas, or O'Hughs, were very numer- ous in Ulster before their Welsh namesakes began to come into Ireland. The patent-rolls of King James I. contain frequent mention of O'Hughs in that province, who are, described as " yeomen." Inasmuch as the ancestors of John Hughes, so far as they can be traced, were Catholics and natives of Ulster, it is fair to presume that he descended from this genuine Irish stock. In the following letter to the late Dr. John O'Donovan, a learned antiquary of Dublin, he tells what little he knew about his own origin : New Yoke, April 10, 1860. Dear Sib : I received your letter and pamphlet on Irish antiquities some time ago. I was much delighted with both. And now I would beg leave to call your attention to a subject in regard to which I have but faint traditional knowledge. It is in reference to the origin of my family. "What I know, or what I have heard, would amount to this : that my family, on the father's side, derived its origin from the sept of the Hugheses, in the county of Armagh ; on the mother's side it would be from the sept of ^he McKennas in the barony of Trough, in the county Monaghan. The tradition to me has been that my grandfather and one brother of his left county Armagh when young men. The one settled in Trough in the county Monaghan, where he married a McKenna ; and the other settled near Athlone, but of him, or of his descendants, I have not been able to learn any thin;;. My father was born in the 1 townland of Cavan-Moutray, in the LIFE OF AECHBISHOP HUGHES. 11 county Monaghan. He had four sisters and one brother, all of whom were respectably married and had families. My father's only brother took an equal share in a rented farm in the townland of Annaloghan, in the county Tyrone, where I was born. I think it would be difficult, even with all your superior Imowl- edge, to thread out the origin or history of such a family as mine. Still, if such a thing is possible, I know no one in Ireland, or out of it, besides yourself, that can accomplish it. Several years ago I wrote to a relative of mine inquiring in re- gard to this subject. He did not know much more than myself. But there is our family tombstone, under which I remember, when a child, to have witnessed the interment of a sister and brother. In the cemetery where the tombstone stands, a Protestant church is now erected on the site of the former Catholic church, in the parish of Errigal Trough. He sent me a crude sketch of what might be con- strued into a coat of arms of our family, as taken from the tomb- stone. I attached no importance to it at the time ; but as well as I recollect, it represented a three-masted rude vessel without sails, three stars, and a half-moon in the crescent. This combination seemed to me a very unclassical symbol of heraldry ; but this was all that was sent. Unfortunately, even this has been lost or mislaid. Many years ago, in one of those contests which it has been my duty to enter into, I had occasion to refer to my family and birth- place. This was at a time when a quasi-Orange party called Native Americans were springing up iu the country, and when I was held forth by them as the head conspirator against the rights of Prot- estants and the liberties of the United States. On that occasion I had to write much, or at least enough to repel their assaults. It is quite probable that I fell into a great blunder, by intimating the possibility that the sept of the Hugheses had been among the rascals from "Wales who accompanied Strongbow at the first British inva- sion of Ireland.* This impression had been fixed upon my mind by * " My early ancestors were from Wales, and very possibly shared with Strongbow and his companions in the plunder which rewarded the first success- ful invaders of lovely but unfortunate Ireland. Of course, from the time of their conversion from paganism, they were Catholics. You, sir, who must tie acquainted with the melancholy annals of religious intolerance in Ireland, may remember that, when a traitor to his country, and for what I know to his creed also, McMahon, Prince of Monaghan, wished to make his peace with the Irish 12 LIFE OF AECHBISHOP HUGHES. what, at the time, I supposed to he historical authority. I thought it was stated so in Curry's Review of the Civil Wars of Ireland. I have since looked over that wort, and cannot find any thing to bear me out. I am now inclined to think that the statement, or at least the ground on which my speculation was founded, was in a little work of poetry (or rather in one of its notes) called The Emerald Isle, said to have been written by Counsellor Phillips, in which it was stated that when Queen Elizabeth was extending her sway over the whole island, and when it was necessary for chieftains to make their peace with Her Majesty's government by some overt act of treason to their country, the prince or chieftain of Monaghan, named McMahon, stipulated with the agents of government that in case his own possessions might be spared he would root out the sept of the Hugheses. The fact that under such circumstances the Hugheses deserved to be rooted out, would prove that they loved their country and would not betray it. This is the only thing in their annals of which I could be particularly proud — if it is indeed true. I have not been able to claim that the Hugheses were of Mile- sian origin. I cannot trace their name Hughes in the original lan- guage or early history of the country. McHugh appears to me quite another name — a translation from the original language of the Irish people. Writing to the Bishop of Clogher on the same subject, he says : My ambition would be to have the name traced up to something like a Milesian origin. Dr. O'Donovan lays down a test of distinc- tion between the Irish and the Welsh Hugheses, turning on the fact, as alleged by him, that the Welsh of that name are not Catho- lics, whilst the real, original Hugheses were Catholics and nothing else. This does not appear to me a certain indication ; for it is government of Queen Elizabeth, the .traitor's work which he ventured to accom- plish was ' to root out the whole sept of the Hugheses.' He did not, however succeed in destroying them, although he ' rooted them out ; ' proving, as a moral for future times, that persecution cannot always accomplish what it proposes." Letter to Mayor Harper of New York, 1844. LIFE OF AEOHBISHOP HUGHES. 13 very well known that the Welsh and the English, during centuries before Protestantism of any Mud had been introduced, were in the habit of selling dependents — sometimes their own children — as slaves, into Ireland; and one of your own national councils, just before the advent of Strongbow, passed a decree for their emancipa- tion. This occurred in purely Catholic times. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, Patrick Hughes, the father of the archbishop, removed from Mon- aghan to Tyrone, and with his brother Michael rented a small farm at Annaloghan, one mile from the little market town of Augher on the Blackwater. This spot is near the boundary between Tyrone on the north and Monaghan and Armagh on the south, and only four or five miles from Cavan-Moutray, where Patrick Hughes was born. He mar- ried Margaret McKenna, the daughter of a family which, like his own, was not rich, but generally respected ; * and had by her seven children : first, Michael ; second, Patrick ; third, John ; fourth, Mary ; fifth, Peter ; sixth, Ellen ; and seventh, Margaret. Of these, Mary and Peter died in child- hood, and Patrick in 1855 ; Michael, Ellen, and Margaret are still living. Patrick Hughes was a plain, well-to-do man ; steady, upright, industrious, somewhat better educated than men of his class usually were at that day, fond of reading, fear- ing God, loving his Church, and strict in performing all the obligations of his religion. He held carefully aloof from the lawless factions which distracted Ireland so fearfully during the early part of the present century ; and his reputation as a quiet, peaceable man, who minded his own business, seems on one occasion to have been the means of saving his son John's life. The archbishop relates that when he was about fifteen years of age, he fell into the hands of a band of Orangemen. " Five bayonets," he says, " were pointed at * There seems to have been a strong affinity between the McKennas and the Hugheses. The archbishop's father and grandfather, and one of his first cousins, each married a McKenna. 14 LIFE OF AKCHBISHOP HUGHES. my breast ; but when I told my name, the men let me go, saying, ' All right ; we know his father.' " The wife of Patrick Hughes was devout, patient, and sweet-tempered ; and, by the testimony of all who knew her, displayed, in the humble station of a farmer's wife, a good share of that refinement which is sometimes thought to come only from gentle blood. "When she gave an alms, 6he loved to give it through the hands of her little children. Both parents took the greatest pains to train their young family in piety, the love of truth, and a firm faith in the Catholic Church. They did not allow them to associate much with other children, because the neighbors of their own rank were nearly all Protestants ; and it was partly for this reason that Mr. Hughes, when he began to thrive and to find his little farm too small for his stock, took a lease of another at Der- naved, where there was Catholic society. Dernaved, or the " upper farm," as it was called, was about three miles from Annaloghan, and only a mile and a half from Cavan-Mou- tray. It was a rough place, where there was much hard work to be done, with little hope of quick returns ; but to be among people of his own faith, and to look down, as he could from a part of this farm, upon the spot where he was born, were considerations which, in his mind, outweighed this objection. A part of the family accordingly removed to the upper farm, while a part remained in the homestead at Anna- loghan. The father, we may suppose, went from the one to the other as his presence was called for. Like many other Irish farmers at that day, he gave up a large part of his land to the cultivation of flax, and devoted the winters to the domestic manufacture of linen. A number of women were employed in spinning and weaving, and the children assisted in this as well as the labors of the farm and household. John, the subject of this book, was born at Annaloghan on the feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1797. "When he was confirmed he took the name of Joseph, in addition to that of John, and in after-life he often signed himself John LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. 15 J. Hughes. From his earliest childhood he showed an in- clination toward the Church, which his parents were glad to encourage. As soon as he was old enough, he was sent, with his elder brothers, to a day school at Augher, and was thence in due course of time transferred to a grammar school at Auchnacloy, two or three miles from his home. At this period of his life he is described as a hard student and a favorite with his masters, but for all that a jolly playfellow, and a leader in all boyish sports. Whatever he did, was done in earnest. He acquired a very good rudimentary Eng- lish education, but probably learned nothing of Greek, and very little, if any thing, of Latin. In the mean time things at home had fared ill. Large sums of money were sunk in the upper farm ; there fell a bad year for the linen trade ; perhaps, too, short crops, or some other of the many misfortunes to which farmers are subject, contributed to bring distress into the household. Mr. Hughes became seriously embarrassed, and unable to bear the cost of John's schooling any longer. It was not unusual in Ireland for neighbors to make up a purse for the support of poor candidates for the priesthood; but father and son were both too proud to accept such aid as this, and after an anxious family council John was taken away from school, to bear a part with his father and brothers in the work of the farm. He was not required to give up his whole time to manual labor. Mr. Hughes felt that to bid him wholly put aside his books, after he had made so much progress in them, would be little less than cruel ; and probably he cherished the hope that better times would come, and he might yet live to see his son standing at the altar. So the lad was permitted to study at home as much as he could, and expected to per- form only light duties about the place; to take care of his father's horses, or perhaps to work in the fields for a few hours at a time during the busiest seasons. When he left school, John was nearly eighteen years of age. He did not accept his new life very cheerfully, and the 16 LITE OF AECHBISHOP HUGHES. whole of the first day at home he passed in tears. " Many - a time," said he in later life to one of his friends, " have. I thrown down my rake in the meadow, and kneeling behind a hay-rick, begged of God and the Blessed Virgin to let me become a priest." If not cheerful, he was at least obedient, and probably did as well at the plough as any man can do at a business which he does not love. It was easy to see, however, that he would never make a farmer ; and his father casting about for some other calling to put him to, placed him, without knowing it, once more in the way of becoming a priest. Near Dernaved is Favor Eoyal, the seat of the great county family of the Moutrays. Mr. Moutray's head gar- dener was an acquaintance of the Hugheses, and at the father's request he consented to teach John horticulture, reckoning the young man's labor an equivalent for the trouble of instructing him. John little suspected that his knowledge of this pursuit was to open for him in a distant country the door to that ecclesiastical career upon which he had set his heart. He was living at this time at Dernaved, and besides his daily work at Favor Eoyal he used still to do light tasks about the farm. One would suppose that little time was left him for study, but he stole from the night a few hours for his books, reviewed all that he had learned at school, and taught himself much more. He had little or no love of learning for its own sake. He was a man of action rather than a man of study, and probably under no circumstances would he have become a profound scholar. But a certain amount of scholarship was a necessary qualification for the priest- hood ; and having made up his mind to be a priest in spite of all obstacles, he shrank from no labor which brought him nearer to his object. The pertinacity which distinguished him as a man was already a marked feature in his character. The better times for which Patrick Hughes had looked were slow in coming. He was now passing the middle period LITE OF AECHBISHOP HUGHES. 17 of life, without a prospect of improving his condition, or of giving a proper education to his younger children. He be- gan to turn his thoughts toward the usual resource of his countrymen in such circumstances — emigration to America. Other causes besides poverty impelled him to this step. He was a man of a proud and independent spirit, and he chafed under the restrictions which the laws of England still im- posed upon the members of his faith. He reflected that in the political scale a Catholic farmer ranked below a Prot- estant beggar. The evil, perhaps, was no worse now than it had been for years, but it seemed harder to bear when the weight of poverty was added to it. A circumstance con- nected with the burial of his little daughter Mary must have increased the bitterness of his feelings with respect to the disabilities of Catholics. Fifty years afterward the arch- bishop shed tears when he told how the funeral proces- sion halted at the gate of the graveyard, while the priest, whom the penal laws forbade to enter, blessed a handful of earth, and gave it to a layman to throw upon the coffin after it had been lowered into the grave. "We may well suppose that to none of the family was the idea of emigration more agreeable than to John. Young as he was, he had thought deeply on the wrongs of the Catholics, and like his father he was not one to submit tamely to what he considered an injustice. In an unpublished letter to the editor of the Dublin Freeman's Journal (Dec. 11, 1861) he speaks of his early impressions on this subject as follows : At the aa;e of fifteen or sixteen, kind, but perhaps mistaken friends, made me acquainted with the state of affairs connected, not so much with my nativity, as with my baptism by a Roman Catho- lic priest.* Being of a pensive and reflective character of mind,, the consequences of that baptism became painful. Of course,, neither then nor now could I regret it in view of the civil degrada- * As he elsewhere says : " The rights of my birth had been washed out by the rites of my baptism." 2 18 LIFE OF AKCHBISHOP HUGHES. tion which, by the laws at that period, had been but too cunningly provided for the intruders into this world if they should incur the rite of religion to which I had been subjected. . . . I had been told of the circumstances that would attend my life if I should re- main under the hereditary degradation of my ancestors. I could not, then or now, exchange my religious privileges and hopes as a Catholic for all the power, all the honors, all the glory (as it is some- times called), or all the wealth of the British empire. They told me, when I was a boy, that for five days I was on a social and civil equality with the most favored subjects of the British empire- These five days would be the inverval between my birth and my baptism. The early information of this fact might have been with- held ; but at all events it left a sting in my memory which it has cost me much to remove. So, no doubt to the great joy of at least one member of his family, Patrick Hughes, accompanied by his second son, set sail for America in 1816, on a tour of observation. John, having learned in the course of a year all that Mr. Mou- tray's gardener could teach him, was again at home, and divided with Michael the care of the farms during his father's absence. CHAPTER II. 1816-1820. Arrival in America — The family at Chambersburg — John works for a gardener in Baltimore — At Emmitsburg — Received at Mount St. Mary's College. Patkick Hughes travelled over various parts of the United States, and, like many of his countrymen of that day, directed his attention especially to Pennsylvania. A few months were enough to strengthen his favorable impres- sions of the country. He passed a little while at Bedford, Pennsylvania, and afterward removed to Chambersburg, the capital of Franklin County, in the same State. He had not money enough to buy or stock a farm, but Chambersburg was a thriving place, and he need never want for work. He hired a house, and wrote to his wife and children to settle matters with their landlord and join him as soon as possible. In the mean time Michael and John had not been idle. The crops were in a promising state ; but the landlord refused either to make any allowance for them and the improve- ments on the estate, or to forego the rent for the year that the lease had yet to run ; his rule, he said, was " to get all he could out of a good tenant." Under these circumstances the mother resolved to remain with Michael and the two daugh- ters for another year ; but John was sent out to his father in charge of one of their neighbors, a tradesman named Dixon. This was in lSlY, when he was twenty years old. " I was afloat," he writes, "on the ocean, looking for a home and a 20 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. country in which no stigma of inferiority would be impressed on my brow, simply because I professed one creed or another." He landed about midsummer at Baltimore, where his brother Patrick had obtained work. After a short visit to his father, he returned to that city, and entered the service of a gardener who had a plantation or nursery on the eastern shore of Maryland. It was now the busy season of the year, and the young man, whose first anxiety was to lay up enough money to enable him to continue his studies, resolved to do his best, in the hope of keeping his situation through the winter. " Through the summer and fall," said he many years afterward, " I worked with all my might ; and I think the hardest blow I ever received in my life was being dis- charged by my employer at the approach of winter, with the simple announcement that ' he did not need my services any longer.' " Heavy of heart and empty of pocket, he went back to Chambersburg, and there for a year or more we find him laboring with his father, working in stone quar- ries, mending roads, digging in gardens — turning his hand, in fact, to almost any honest employment of which he was capable. In August, 1818, his mother and the rest of the family arrived from Ireland, and for a while the household was once more united at Chambersburg. Patrick in the course of time obtained a farm at Youngstown, Pennsyl- vania. Old Mr. Hughes never grew rich, though upon the whole he was prosperous. He kept a few horses and carts, occasionally took contracts, bought a few rods of ground in the village, built one or two small houses, and after some years became the owner of a house and plot of land on the outskirts of the town, to which, from its fancied resemblance to his home in Ireland, he gave the name of "the new Trough." In the midst of his prosperity his heart still turned toward his native land, and at one time he seriously contemplated another voyage across the Atlantic. "One thing," he wrote to one of his children, " yet sustains my old heart ; it is the hope of seeing all our dear friends in old LIFE OF AECHBISHOP HUGHES. 21 Trough. The new Trough is an enchanting cage to look at, but an old bird cannot be petted." His hope was never realized. He lived long enough to see his son a priest, and died in 1837, at the age of seventy-seven, leaving to his chil- dren a little property in land. His wife died in 1831, aged sixty-four. John, at the age of twenty-one, is described as a sedate, well-dressed, respectable-looking young man, self-possessed, of pleasing conversation and manners, quiet and reserved before strangers, but gay and witty with those that knew him ; although a person who would strike you as one above his station, and destined to make his mark in the world. He could tell a good story, and sing a good song. On Sun- days he used to sing in the village choir. Neither he nor the rest of the family ever looked upon Chambersburg as his home. He was there waiting, so to speak, for God to admit him into the ranks of the ministry. Some thirty miles from Chambersburg, and a little way from the village of Etnmitsburg,* is Mount St. Mary's Catho- lic college and theological seminary. John Hughes heard that poor students were sometimes admitted to this institu- tion without pay, on the condition of making themselves useful in teaching the lower classes and performing such other duties as they may be fit for. He had no friend to intro- duce or recommend him, but we may be certain that he lost no time in asking for admission. His first application was unsuccessful; there was no vacancy. Nevertheless he was not discouraged. Every now and then he would ride over from Chambersburg on horseback, and try again. At last, in the latter part of 1818, or the beginning of the following year, that he might be ready to seize the first opening, and sbp into the college before another should get before him, he set out for Emmitsburg in quest of work near the village. Naturally, the first house that he entered was the tavern. * Emmitsburg i3 situated in Frederick County, Maryland, a mile or two from the Pennsylvania boundary, and about fifty miles from Baltimore. 22 LIFE OE AECHBISHOP HUGHES. A countryman, seeing that he was a stranger, drew him into conversation. It turned out that both came from the same part of Ireland, and any one who knows Irishmen will understand that almost as a matter of course John Hughes, as soon as this appeared, received an offer of his new ac- quaintance's services. Nor was it an empty offer. ^ The man at once obtained employment for John in digging a mill-race, and ever after took great credit to himself for having "got Archbishop Hughes his first job of work in Emmitsburg." The mill-race done, John worked at a stone bridge over a little stream on the road from Emmitsburg to Taneytown, handling the pickaxe and shovel, lifting stone, and waiting on the masons. Humble as these occupations were, there was a certain dignity and refinement in his man- ners which gained for him a social consideration not gen- erally accorded to a day-laborer. He boarded in the family of an Irish schoolmaster named Mullon, and associated chiefly with his host, with respectable Catholic tradesmen and other persons of the middle class, and with the parish priest, Mr. Cooper — the same gentleman to whose liberality Mrs. Seton was so deeply indebted in the foundation of the sisterhood of charity in the United States.* ' Samuel Cooper was a Virginian, and a Protestant by birth. He chose the sea for his profession, visited various parts of the world, and falling sick at Paris turned his attention for the first time to religion. The result of much reading and thought, and consultation with clergymen of his own creed, was his embracing the Catholic faith in Philadelphia in 1807. Being a man of fortune and well known in fashionable circles, his conversion produced no little sensation. The next year he entered St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore with the intention of preparing himself for the priesthood ; and becoming acquainted there with Mrs. Seton, then at the threshold of her great undertaking, he gave her eight thousand dollars, with which she founded the first house of her order at Em- mitsburg. Ordained in the summer of 1818, he was pastor of Emmitsburg for about nine months, and afterward removed to South Carolina. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on his return from which he was employed in different situations in the dioceses of Baltimore and Philadelphia until 1832, when he went to France, and settled permanently at Bordeaux. He was there the instrument of converting many prominent persons, and enjoyed the friend- ship of Cardinal Cheverus, who died in his arms. By his liberality towards re- LIEE OF AECHBISHOP HUGHES. 23 In November, 1819, he went again to the college, and begged the president, the Kev. Mr. Dubois, to receive him in any capacity in which he could be useful. Mr. Dubois replied that he could not take him ; the college was poor, and every situation in and about it was occupied — " except," he added, " the garden ; we have a vacant place there." "lam not a professed gardener," replied John Hughes ; " but I know something of gardening. I can do all that you require, at least until you find some one better qualified to take the place." The result, to use the archbishop's own words, was " a regular contract between us, in which neither was required to acknowledge any obHgation to the other." John was to superintend the garden, and receive in return his board, lodging, and private instruction, until he should be qualified to take charge of a class and enter the seminary on the reg- ular footing. So, on the 10th of November, he took leave of his friends in the village, and with all his worldly store trudged up the mountain side to that little " nursery of the American Church," upon which his hopes had rested ever since he landed in the United States. In the toilsome path by which he had been led to this spot, how plainly do we not see the hand of God ! Had not pecuniary losses compelled his father to take him away from school, he might have lived and died a parish priest in Ireland. He would have been distinguished, it is true, but distinction supposes opportunity as well as talent, and Ireland afforded no field for the full display of his peculiar powers. And again, had not necessity compelled him, much against his inclination, to dig, water, and weed at Favor Eoyal, though we cannot doubt that he would have found some way of getting into the priesthood — for he generally did whatever he determined to do — he might not have got admission to Mount St. Mary's College; he ligious and charitable enterprises, Mr. Cooper reduced himself almost to a state of indigence. He died in December, 1843. — Life of Mrs. Seton, by Eev. Charles I. While, D.D. 24 LIFE OF AKCHBISHOP HUGHES. might never have known either Mr. Dubois or his associate Father Brute — both of whom exerted a happy influence upon his early career ; and so the whole current of his life might have been changed. Mr. Dubois was proud of his garden, and though it was almost winter when John Hughes first took charge of it, there is no doubt that it gave him enough to do. It was his duty to superintend rather than to work. His force of 1 aborers consisted chiefly of two negroes, Timothy and Peter, well- known characters, who are still remembered by old students of the Mountain. John himself had to handle the spade on occasion ; for Mount St. Mary's was a place where every- body worked at times, from the president down to the little school-boys. The various departments of the farm, grounds, and household were placed under the charge of the profes- sors and elder students, all of whom accustomed themselves to hard labor, partly for health's sake, and partly for econ- omy. John's predecessor in the garden was a French gentle- man of high birth, a refugee from St. Domingo, who taught French in the college. There was nothing in John's position derogatory to the dignity of a candidate for orders, nothing that could lessen the respect with which his pupils would afterward be required to treat him. On a certain occasion, however, his honest labor was made a reproach to him. After he had become a regular student of the college, he one day met a workman employed about the place intoxicated. He rebuked him, when the man straightened himself up, and exclaimed, with a drunken attempt at dignity, " Who are you, I should like to know! You are nobody but John Hughes. Don't I remember when you used to work with your two hands, as I do ? " He spent about nine months employed in the garden, studying hard all the while under a private teacher, and taking his Latin grammar in his hand when he went to direct the labors out of doors. One day Mr. Dubois found him in the garden at dinner-time, poring over his book, instead of LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. 25 taking his meal. Struck by the young man's industry, he put a few questions to him, and was astonished at the rapid progress he had made in his studies. He saw too — for he was an excellent judge of character — that this was no com- monplace person, and he resolved to relieve him of the greater part of his out-of-door duties. Accordingly, about the beginning of the fall term in 1820, we find John Hughes admitted as a regular student of the college. Before we trace his career further, it will be well for us to know some- thing of the remarkable men under whom he was now to prepare himself for the priesthood, and the remarkable place in which he was to pass six quiet and happy years. CHAPTER III. Sketch of Mr. Dubois— Foundation of Mount St. Mary's College — Sketch of Mr. Brute. Jomr Dubois * was born in Paris, August 24, 1764, and educated at the college of Louis le Grand and the Oratorian Seminary of St. Magloire. Among his fellow-students at the former of these schools were Camille Desmoulins and Robes- pierre; at the latter, Cardinal Cheverus and the famous Jesuit preacher MacCarthy. Ordained priest in 1787, he officiated in Paris until the constitutional oaths were ten- dered to the clergy, when he fled from Prance in disguise, and landed at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1791. Letters of com- mendation from Lafayette introduced him to the Lees, the Randolphs, the Beverlys, James Monroe, and Patrick Henry, the last named of whom occasionally gave him lessons in the English language. "While he was qualifying himself to take charge of a congregation, he earned a sup- port by teaching French, in the mean time officiating occa- sionally in various places, and now and then saying mass in the capitol at Richmond. For a long time he was pastor of all western Maryland and Virginia, and indeed the only priest between Baltimore and St. Louis. Elegant and re- fined in his manners, and preserving at all times the digni- * The following sketch is taken chiefly from Dr. McCaffrey's beautiful Dis- course on tlie Ht. Rev. John Dubois, D.D., pronounced in St. llary's Church Emmitsburg, Jan. 2