icfl" '& $imm^^ ^ys4'|J!¥if■■■?>'^:■:v:.■■•■■- m I I -o wU..i.Oi 'ebb, Esq., of Louisville, Ky, the St. Louis Guardian says of i jIs distinguished and highly respected gentleman : There are Catholic laymen whose reputation is na- tional, though they have never coveted honors or trod the political field. Prominent among these is Mr. Webb, personally so well known to many of our readers. He wields a strong pen, often and effectually employed in behalf of his Church, and his letters of a Kentucky Catholic will make his name revered long after he himself has mouldered into dust. The purity of his private life, his social qualities of mind, of heart, the illustration of his Catholic education, enhance the Ct^'AS;'''"'"*'^' f''*'"'.*^-'«r''/i»/«f'BH?".a]dAnd bitter ^ ™3rr P-^ ^l^^^oni-l JO semBU eq;\qLoS Sif P ^-^suqo JO pTO poo JO iBinapem ejB SJolf P^^-'^Is uoos ^i ieon^,^ o^ penguoo ^ou AooSnl'- ^^"'"'^ J° "°^ P^utB^s-pooiq 9qi pa« ?„S1; '^^W'^OP ^saqx -sjaqdosonqd papoos aq^ poB ^WAJO sanu^Dop snojdmi aqlui pa;"onpa 'pamao, paurej^ SBM sn papaoaad qoiqM uoi^BjauaS aq t -Suiaq «aoui s;; saAiaoai ^i osjb os 'Suipaoarf auo aq^ uio« -BJauaS /oaAa sb :>Bq; osi^ aAaasqo •e^BisodV aui ut aginosaad s.m qo;qM ;Bq; sb am^s aq; li pjaol a? jj ao!;aod aa^^aaS aq^ ni ^uasaad ^b simaid qo.qM ^"itds a^.\*«f r^ '"^-'I^^ ^'l pai^anSuBui ^^q^ jd^omied fsfSrl' ^^'IJ' •'^l"'^"'^-' m^ noi .-..qVamos i? )S ?snm aAi ^sanba.x ^s^g ano^ q^iAi ifdraoD oj,--ssal ^ Ul Sr!mic!.^"'"'i-'^^ ^"1 "^1^ ''^ ^"0 ^«P<1 'qduinu^ Mr\ — •n'Bf>^^ THE CATHOLIC QUESTION IN POLITICS! i COMPBISINa A SEEIES OF LETTEES ADDSESSED TO GEORGE D. PRENTICE, Esq., (of the loxjisvillb journal.) BY A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. /3. i/W^^ Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1856, By WEBB, GILL & LEVERING. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Kentucky. A. F. COX, Stereotyper and Printer, LOUISVILLE, KY. PREFATORY REMARKS ATDRESSEO TO MY PROTESTANT COUNTRYMEN. In compliance with tlie expressed wishes of many valued j)ersonal friends, I here present to the public, in a connected form, the series of Letters to George D. Prentice, Esq., which originally appeared in the columns of the Louisville Daily Courier. In doing so, it appears but reasonable that I should introduce them with some explanatory observations, indicating the motives which induced their publication, and proposing for the consideration of my Protestant fellow- citizens, some other matters connected with the subjects therein treated, and not fully commented on in the Letters themselves. For the first time, since the formation of our government, a party has appeared in the land, which adopts, openly and deliberately, the policy of proscription on account of religious faith. Proscription, in any sense, has no affinity with repub- licanism. From its very nature, it seeks the advancement of one portion of the people through the degradation of another. But when political proscription is based on the idea that the religious convictions of men are just cause for its exercise against them, those who adopt the principle, are guilty, not only of warring against the very genius of republicanism, but also of usurping the prerogative of the Deity, and 6 PREFATORY REMABK8. claiming the riglit to judge and condemn, in the face of the inspired Word of God, which says ** judge not/' for ** ven- geance is mine.'' From the beginning of the controversy, which necessarily grew out of the recognition of so strange a doctrine in repub- lican party politics by a very considerable minority of the American people, the Catholics have acted entirely on the defensive. They have been attacked, as they conceive, with- out any shadow of cause, and on a point wherein all men are peculiarly sensitive. Further, these assaults frequently came from quarters, whence Catholics had no right to expect any other than fair and generous treatment. This was par- ticularly the case with reference to the Editor of the Louisville Journal. Many of them had been, for years, his warm personal and political friends, and the editor could show no cause for doubting either their honesty or their patriotism. But, even in the hypothesis that he was honest in his conviction of danger to the republic on account of the peculiar religious views of the Roman Catholics, still I hold that the pre- vious good understanding between Mr. Prentice and a large number of those holding the faith deemed by him 80 dangerous, should have induced him to treat them with, at least, some degree of courtesy. But, instead of this, the most rabid sectarian sheet has been mild and gentle, when compared with the Louisville Journal. From the position of an open and consistent friend, he jumps, at a single bound, to the attitude of an avowed and implacable enemy, and out-Heroding Herod, he produces a paper, surpassing, in uncharitable invective and naked abusiveness, the vilest of his thoroughly vile Popery -hating cotemporaries. Formerly, a votary of the gentlest of all the muses, he has tuned his pipes to another lay. *'Arma, virumque cano:'* — war is now his theme ; and the object of his highest ambition is to break a lance with the ** Papal Dragon." I cannot say whether Mr. Prentice's valor was whetted, in view of the issue he contemplated, by reflecting on the motives which influenced the old Catholic St. George to undertake the over- PREFATORY REMAKES. 7 throw of tli8 famous dragon of England, or whether he drew his inspiration from thinking of the mighty deeds of a later anti-Catholic saint of the same country, generally known as saint Lord George G-ordon. I am inclined to think, however, from certain incidents which lately occurred in Louisville, in which Mr, Prentice's friends took some part, and which were somewhat analogous to the doughty doings of Lord George Gordon's forces in London, that the old Catholic St George is not the editor' b patron ssLint, Besides, the ** Papist" St. George killed his monster, and skinned him, too, for aught I know, while the monster combated by saint George Gordon, like that for which Mr. Prentice has been sharpening his spear, turned out, as this one will, a mere fiction of a disor- dered fancy. There was one element in the character of the old Catholic St. George, through which he was enabled to make clean work of the British Dragon ; but this element is wanting in the character of Mr. Prentice : he is no saint George. It were well, indeed, for the editor to study out the real meaning of this beautiful Christian allegory. Let him. first overcome the hydra-headed mcnsters of fanaticism, and hatred, and uncharitableness, which have their habitation in his own heart, and he may then plead some justification for going about, like another Quixote, hunting after monsters much less repulsive and much less dangerous than those which he may see at any time by casting his eyes inward. But is Mr. Prentice so thoroughly fanatical, as to believe even a moiety of the charges he has brought against the Catho- lic Church? For myself, I cannot help thinking, that the monster he is combating is a mere figure of pasteboard and buckram, fashioned by himself, and painted in most diabolical colors, which he sets up for the double purpose of frightening Know-Nothing babydom out of its seven wits, ancj of show- ing these fear-stricken innocents and simpleton?, that they have nothing to apprehend while he is about. Let them but attend to the supplies, and he will carry on the war. For a considerable time, before and after the last August election, it was ph'^inly perceptible, that there existed ii^ th§ 5 PREFATORY REMARKS. minds of a large portion of the citizens of Louisville an intense bitterness of feeling against their Catholic neighbors. This hostility, as I thought then, and do still think, was mainly engendered through the agency of the Louisville Jcmrnal, Mr. Prentice has always exerted an almost unbounded influ- ence in molding public opinion among a large portion of the people of Kentucky, and the recent Know -Nothing vic- tory in this State, is to be attributed, almost w^holly, to the energy displayed by him in the canvass. It may well be conceived, that such a man, turning, or pietending to turn, strongly anti-Catholic, would be able to sway the minds of many, who, if they would but think for themselves, might possibly come to conclusions much nearer the truth, than those worked out for them by the editor of the Journal, Knowing the utter falsity of the charges brought against the Koman Catholics of this country by the leaders of the Know-Nothing party, among whom Mr. Prentice was recognized as the foremost, and . believing that, possibly, some of my Protestant-fellow citizens might be disposed to weigh with fairness such evidences in disproof of the slanders brought against us as were within my reach, I commenced, in August last, the series of Letters herein contained. They have been hurriedly written, in moments snatched from business, and, as I am well aware, will afford to the reader but little beyond a plain statement of facts, and an unvar- nished picture of the new, and as I conceive, dangerous doctrine, which fanaticism is seeking to blend with the po- litical action of our hitherto free and happy people. I contend that the nature of our civil institutions, to insure their permanency, requires the full recognition, by every time American, of entire freedom of conscience ; and that no member of any church, sect, or denomination, sliould be made to feel, unless upon clear and positive testimony of treason to the State on the part of that religious body to which he may be attached, that his faith is a bar to any position, social or political, to which he may aspire. The leaders of the Know-Notbing party, though they have ran- PREFATORY REMARKS. ^ sacked, with untiring energy, every nook and corner of the land, in search of evidence to convict Eoman Catholics of being enemies to republicanism, and therefore dangerous citizens, have failed to show a single instance wherein they have been, in any degree, justly accusable of being less true to the constitution and laws of their country than those who have made all this outcry against them. Foiled in their efforts to prove against the resident Roman Catholics of this country treason, either latent or open, these enemies to the Catholic faith have been obliged, in order to make some show of justification for having introduced into our political party issues so extraordinary an element as that of proscrip- tion because of religious faith, to have recourse to the stale slanders against Catholics, concocted and promulgated, hun- dreds of years ago, by men who were systematically taught to believe that the Pope was the anti-Christ, and that the religion of three-fourths of the Christian world, was nothing better than a system of superstition and tyranny. But the day is past for these things to be believed by men of sense. Roman Catholics are everywhere, and their acts can be mea- sured. They embrace every class of men, from the most learned to the least tutored, and it requires more than the ipse dixit of popery-mad fanatics, and the interested specu- lations of unprincipled office-seekers and no-popery editors, who make merchandize of the prejudices of mankind, to render them suspected and despised. Proof before conviction, is not only a principle of law, but it embodies a sentiment innate to the American character ; and though fanatics may rave of the intolerance and superstition of the Catholic Church, and attempt to throw ridicule on observances, of the nature of which they are profoundly ignorant, they must do something more than rant and declaim, before they can induce the conservative portion of the American people to act upon their wild and unreasonable suggestions. The originators of the Know-Nothing movement were of course compelled to indicate some motives for their action, more or less plausible, in order to induce any considexable 10 PREFATORY REMARKS. numbers of tlie American people to join with tliem. The most important of these motives is the charge brought against Roman Catholics, that they acknowledge a divided allegiance incompatible with their duty as good citizens. This is the same accusation which was alleged against the Catholics of the mother country, during the pendency of the Catholic Relief Bill, more than sixty years ago, and which, after receiving a most minute examination from a committtee of the House of Commons, was pronounced false by the Parliament of Great Britain. It must be remembered, that the writers in the interests of the Know-Nothing organization have not pretended to instance a single example going to show, in the remotest degree, that Catholics have been found wanting in true allegiance to the constitution and laws of their country. Their whole argument is based on the fact, that Roman Catholics, throughout the world, acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. The very term spiritual used by the Church to indicate the character of the Pope's supremacy, should be sufficient to show these men, were they disposed to be at all candid, that his claim of supremacy cannot possibly embrace any allegiance which the State has a right to demand. The constitution expressly disclaims the right to control matters outside of the temporal order. **Con- gress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof/' It appears clearly from this, that the framers of the constitution intended to forbid all legislation which had for its object the restriction of the ricrhts of conscience. What is conscience ? It is that principle implanted in our souls by the Deity, for the purpose of directing our spiritual natures to the accomplishment of His will. Human laws which contravene the law of con- science, cannot bind it ; they have power over the bodies of men, but none over conscience, except in so far as they command things not opposed to the law by which it is governedi This is a principle of general application, which Catholics and Protestants are bound alike to uphold. But these men assume, that because Catholics acknowledge PREFATORY REMARKS. 11 the right of tlie Pope to decide, for them, all questions of conscience, that, therefore, he may at any time decide that the constitution and laws of a State are opposed to the Law of God. Tiiis is sheer nonsense. What is a decision ? It is an award upon a contested point, pronounced by a tribunal recognized as authoritative by the parties at whose instance and for whose benefit it is rendered. A decision in the spi- ritual order, supposes, either the pre-existence of a doubt in the mind of the applicant for its rendition, or else two distinct parties, with contrary opinions, but who yet recognize the authority of a given tribunal to decide on the contested point. Do not the Presbyterians hold that the General Assembly of their sect, has power for them, to decide upon ail mooted questions touching the doctrines and discipline of their church ? And if this is a dangerous doctrine as applied in their own way by Catholics, is it not equally dangerous as applied in theirs by Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and the half hundred different other Christian denominations of the land ? The mere accidental location of the tribunal obviously does not affect the principle itself here unfolded. The Pope's authority being wholly spiritual, cannot possibly come in conffict with the civil affairs of this countiy, unless upon the contingency of the State's wantonly trampling on the rights of conscience. Do the leaders of the Know-Nothings movement seriously contemplate such a contingency ? Do they anticipate the arrival of a day when every city of our land shall have its contiguous Smithfield, where State religion recusants are to be hanged, drawn and quartered ? Their entire action seems to have for its object just such a state of things. What right have these men to suppose that Roman Catho- lics are desirous of changing the nature of our government ? The assumption that they are necessarily, and because of their religion, opposed to republicanism, is totally baseless. The principles upon which our free institutions are formed are precisely those the Catholic Church recognizes, as the very- best for the promotion of the interests of religion. These 12 PREFATORY REMARKS. insure to her *' a fair field and no favor/' and this is all that she asks from any government ; but this even Catholic gov- ernments do not always accord to her. Catholicity is no new system ; the obligations it imposes on conscience are fixed, and it is not at all supposable that the framers of the constitution did not recognize these obligations, and fully weigh the question of their compatibility with our republican institutions. There has been no change in Catholic Church policy since the adoption of the constitution, and Catholics, as Catholics, have never attempted to conti*ol National or State legislation. They have not endeavored to influence Congressional action in accordance with their own peculiar religious views, as did a certain Protestant denomination in reference to the Sunday mails. Their ministers have not thought it incumbent on them to petition Congress against the passage of laws deemed necessary for the interests of our common country, as did the three thousand Protestant preach- ers of New England during the pendency of the Nebraska Kansas Bill. They have not introduced religious questions into the party politics of the day, nor presented to the world the spectacle of a divided Church on geographical limits, as have the principal Protestant societies, because their members could not think alike on the slavery question. It would seem to be a quality of Know-Nothing reasoning, that those only are to be suspected who have given no cause for suspicion. What do the leaders of the new party mean, when they speak of **apure American Christianity?" Do they wish to intimate, that God's Law requires in England, what it forbids in Russia ; or that a sin committed in Italy may become a virtue when enacted in Kentucky ? The Apostles were commanded to teach all nations, and as nationality sup- poses different forms of civil polity, it follows that the doctrines and morality which these Apostles were to teach, must have been of such a character as to render them equally adaptable to all of these distinct forms. True Christianity is not unsuited to any form of government, and if American PREFATORY REMARKS. 1$ Christianity would not be true Christianity in any other land, then it is not the Christianity of the gospel. And so, I argue, of any form of Christianity of any land; if trans- planting changes its nature, you may very safely conclude, that it is not a Divine, but a human institution. Those that have read both sides of the controversy between the editor of the Louisville Journal and myself, cannot have failed to notice, that though Mr. Prentice has brought charges against the Catholics of this country, and particularly against the Bishops, of holding opinions and obligations at variance with the fealty due by Ihem to the constitution and laws, he has failed to sustain these charges by any proof whatever. Hence, in order to divert the public mind from the real issue, he has not hesitated to introduce into the dis- cussion unnecessary and uncalled for strictures upon the religion of the Roman Catholics. Professing to desire for them entire freedom of worship, he, singularly enough, finds no other way to induce people to suspect their loyalty to the government, than by caricaturing their faith. If Catholics were really unfavorable to our institutions, can any man believe, that during the eighty years wdiich have elapsed since the formation of the government, no single act of a Roman Catholic could be pointed to tending to the establishment of such a charge ? The conduct of our enemies, in attacking our religion, when they should, to be consistent, attack our anti-republican acts, is a sure indication that they can get hold of no such acts to form the basis of an attack. But they are again inconsistent, for while they profess to desire perfect freedom of worship to Catholics, they make this very worship their only motive for depriving them of their civil privileges. They tell you, we only seek to deprive Roman Catholics of the right to hold office. But will their action, if they really intend to stop here, have the effect they desire ? Catholics are not all fools ; and if they find themselves living in communities, where they are looked upon by the mass of their fellow-citizens as either open or covert enemies, they will be compelled, for the sake of peace, to form communities 14 PREFATORY REMARKS. of their own people, in different parts of the country, where, having popular majorities, they will be forced into the offices within the gift of such communities. Thus will be brought about the very state .of things which the members of the new organization affect so much to deprecate. But, as I have elsewhere indicated, the outcry raised by these men against the Roman Catholics of the United States, is nothing but a sham, gotten up for the promotion of the political aspirations of a few unscrupulous demagogues and party hacks, the sum total of whose interests in the institution of Christianity itself, may be measured by the phrase, *'* the loaves and fishes." Know-No thingisnl seeks to keep the Catholics out of office. Are Roman Catholics greedy of holding official positions ? You, my Protestant fellow -citizens, know that such is not the case. But suppose they had their fair share of the public places, instead of holding, as they do, scarcely one office in a hundred, what evils to the country could these Catholic office-holders possibly bring about ? I can imagine none, unless they became peculators on the public purse, a charge, which, so far as I am advised, has never been brought against them. I am wholly unable to see, that the Catholic county-clerk, the Catholic magistrate, or the Catholic member of the legislature, would possess any better means of fomenting treason, than the Catholic lawyer, or merchant, or physician. But these gentlemen, who claim for themselves all the patriot- ism of the land, begin by asserting that a Catholic shall not be elevated to any office of honor or profit within their gift ; and their next step will naturally be, that none of the faithful shall be allowed to employ a Catholic lawyer or physician, or purchase of a Catholic tradesman. If I am unfit, because of my faith, to record a deed as county-clerk, I am equally unfit, because of this same faith, to file a bill, as a lawyer, or bandage a broken limb, as a surgeon. The mind naturally reasons, that if a man ought to be proscribed as to one of his privileges, he is unworthy to exercise any privilege at all. The Know-Nothing party, if successful, cannot stop with depriving Catholics of the privilege to hold office. The ball PREFATORY REMARKS. 15 which its advocates seek to set in motion, is at the top of an inclined plain, and the slightest impetus will send it crashing and thundering on its destructive course, till every civil pri- vilege and every religious right of the Roman Catholic will be obliterated. Nor can the evil influence of such mad -brained folly end with the prostration of the Roman Catholics. Bigotiy is insatiable, and its appetites will not be satisfied till other vic- tims are immolated on its altar. And here, our once free and happy people are to witness a war of sects. Is it the Methodist, or the Unitarian, or the Episcopalian, who is next to feel the stripes of this rod of proscription ? Protestants of America 1 follow to its legitimate results the idea I have indicated for your consideration, and decide for yourselves if it be wise or Christian to seek the abridgment of the rights of conscience. Consider the evils which a vv^ar of creeds must necessarily bring upon the v/hole community. These evils, in the moral order alone, should cause all well-disposed men to pause and reflect. Among them, not the least will be the indoctrination of a large portion of our population, and particularly the young, with an insane hatred for men, fashioned as themselves, and for whose salvation, no less than for that of others, the Redeemer came into the world, and suffered and was nailed to the cross. This passion, you must acknowledge, is repugnant to the Christian character ; but it is one, you must also acknowledge, inseparable from a war of races or creeds. The most casual observer need but look around him, in order to convince himself, that already this dangerous indoctrination is going on at a fearful rate. You must recollect, that very many of those w^ho have been influ- enced to side against the recognition of the civil rights of Roman Catholics, are not professors of religion ; that fewer still have a correct understanding of that eternal law of love, which forms the basis of true Christianity, and that most of these are practically unable to discern the distinction between a certain faith and the worshipers attached to it. Hence have taken place the numerous outbreaks already recorded 16 PREFATORY REMARKS. against the Know-Nothing paiiy, and which have involved the lives and property of Roman Catholics. That there are many attached to the new parly who are capable of seeing and rightly appreciating the distinction to which I refer, I have no doubt ; still, these do not indicate the rale, but only the exception. Fanaticism is the blindest of all passions, and those who are under its dominion have no power to weigh the consequences of their actions. Influenced by its baneful spirit, the most revolting crimes present to the eyes of the fanatic the appearance of angelic virtues. Many Protestants assume that Roman Catholics are fanatical; but this is only an assumption, and, as I contend, a false one. Still, even were it true, is not fanaticism a sin ? — and are not those who are seeking to implant it in the minds of the Protestants of this country guilty of the same crime they deprecate in the Roman Catholic ? How can they justify in themselves what they condemn in others ? The Know-Nothing editors are much in the habit of charg- ing upon the foreign portion of the population that they are frequently a cost to our corporations, and they attempt to prove this charge by exhibiting the quarterly reports of the poor-house and hospital wardens. This is clearly an unfair mode of reckoning. Our own citizens seldom engage in those avocations, wherein their health or lives are exposed to more than ordinary danger. The exposed situations of labor are always filled by foreigners, and principally by the much- abused Irish. Who are they that build our railroads and wharves, and drain our marsh lands ? Who are they that pave our streets, dig our wells and cisterns, and do all the rough labor upon our public and private buildings ? All, or nearly all, are Irish. It is but natural, then, that those so much exposed, and unavoidably so, should be subject not only to accidents to life and limb, but that they shouLl also contract diseases inseparable from constant exposure in our climate. Such being the case, it is not at all wonderful that in the midst of such a population, there should be frequent instances of broken down constitutions and helpless families. PREFATORY REMARKS. 17 The question naturally presents itself — are the works, upon which our foreign horn population find employment, neces- sary works ? We are hound to conclude that the American people deem them necessary, as they are undertaken ^t their own instance, and for their own henefit ; and if this he so, where is the justice in charging upon some of these people that they are a tax on our corporations, in the face of the fact, that they have lost in the service of these very corporations the ability to provide for themselves ? I have myself been often taunted by Protestants, some of whom, at least, to my personal knowledge, were indebted to the labor of foreigners for their present affluence, with the fact that a large propor- tion of the public and private charities of our own city are contributed for the benefit of Irish Catholics ; and one of these gentlemen, who bears the character of a Christian phi- lanthropist, very pointedly intimated that ** Catholics ought to support their own poor.'* If Eoman Catholics were in the habit of shirking the duty of charity, there might possibly he some show of reason for these taunts ; but this is not the case. The Church teaches the exercise of charity as a matter of posi- tive obligation, nor do I believe that Catholics, according to their ability, are justly chargeable with omitting this duty. The Catholic poor in our cities, doubtless, are in greater relative proportion than the Protestant poor, but, at the same time, the Protestant rich are in greater relative proportion than the Catholic rich. If a single rich Roman Catholic, in an otherwise exclusively Protestant community, would be justly exempt from the obligation of charity, then, it is pos- sible, the reasoning which would teach that each denomina- tion shall support its own poor, is good reasoning. The merest tyro in Christian ethics, however, could never be influenced by such reasoning. He sees a parallel to it in the Book of Genesis, where it is recorded of Cain, the first mur- derer, that being questioned by the Almighty in reference to his brother Abel, he answered, with studied hypocrisy : ''I know not ; am I my brother's keeper ? " Here is the question plainly stated : Our citizens are 2 18 PREFATORY REMARKS. interested in the prosecution of certain public and private works, and finding none among themselves willing or able to undergo the hard labor and dangers to health and life, incidental to their accomplishment, are compelled to draw their operatives from the ranks of our adopted citizens. Some of these have died at their posts, and left helpless widows and orphan children without resources in a strange land ; and others have contracted diseases, and must either be cared for by public or private charity, or be left to die in utter destitution. Shall those who engaged these poor persons in the dangerous avocations wherein life or health was lost, plead exemption from the obligation of charity towards the widows, and or- phans, and invalids, become such in their own service ? Is it honest, or fair, that Roman Catholics shall be taunted with furnishing so many objects of public and private charity, in the face of the notorious fact, that the blood, and tears, and destitution, and death, met with among the poor Irish of our cities, is but the natural result, in our climate, of the labor and exposure incidental to those avocations in which they have been employed by Americans and Protestants ? While upon this subject, let me remark, that American Catholics are as much opposed to the reception into this country of European paupers as any other religious body in the land. The system pursued by some of the European governments to impose upon us the worthless portion of their populations, including criminals and paupers, is one which every Catholic will denounce as highly reprehensible, and which justly calls for such legislative action as will effect its abatement. But the honest and hardy laborer, who seeks within our wide domain a home for life, even though unpos- sessed, upon his arrival, of means to insure a week's support, is no pauper. Take him as a mere man-machine, and his bones, and muscles, and sinews, are so much capital, and these, invested in the Bank of Labor, will return a dividend to the aggregate prosperity of the country, more permanently useful, than would the importation, in his stead, of a thousand dollars in gold. Look not, then, my Protestant fellow-conn- k PREFATORY REMARKS. 19 trymen, on the poor Irish or German laborer as one out of place in our free land. It is here, precisely, that he is wanted. He may have faults ; but he has also virtues. Contempt for his poverty, and too rigorous exactions on account of his faults, can never have any good effect to relieve the one or correct the other. Kindness and consideration may raise him in the scale of humanity ; ill-treatment and distrust will not fail to lower, in that scale, both him and yourselves. It is observable, that those editors who are now advocating the interests of the Know-Nothing organization, but a few years ago, were engaged in singing paeans over Louis Kos- suth, the ex-governor of Hungary who was at that very time endeavoring to involve our government in difficulties with foreign powers. The ''foreign influence'' spoken of by several of the fathers of the republic, and against which they cautioned the American people, was here before the eyes of these veiy patriotic editors, but until Henry Clay, whose memory I delight to honor, indicated to his revolutionary Excellency that he was going beyond the spirit of our insti- tutions, not one word of rebuke did these self-constituted guardians of republicanism utter against the artful and med- dling Hungarian. But now, they boldly proclaim, that the caution against ** foreign influence" by Washington and Jefferson, had reference to our foreign-bom citizens — to those who have cast their lot for life amongst us, and who have necessarily the same interest in the prosperity and happiness of the country as the native-born population. Again, these same editors, during the recent visit to this country of Archbishop Bedini, the Papal Nuncio, joined with the infidel German radicals of Cincinnati, and elsewhere, in villifying the Archbishop for his supposed action against what they termed Italian liberty. In vain did American Catholics protest against the exhibition of a wild and reck- less fanaticism towards one charged with a peaceful mission to our government ; in vain did the Nuncio deny the slanders propagated against him; in vain did high-minded and candid Protestants endeavor to set the matter in its true 20 PREFATORY REMARKS. light. The editors were dumb ; and if there ever did appear in any of the newspapers conducted by these now exceedingly Christian gentlemen, a single paragraph of reprehension of the conduct of a band of avowed infidels, who openly sought the life of the Nuncio, I have no recollection of having seen it. But a change has come over these editors. The German infidel and the Irish Catholic, though antagonistic as watei and oil, are now put in the same scale. If the foreign infidel fulminates against the head of the government his manifesto for having acknowledged that thanks were due to Almighty God for presei'ving us in peace and filling the land with blessings, the foreign-born Eoman Catholic, though recog- nizing in all its force the idea indicated by the language of the President, is at once, because of his foreign birth, classed with the radical and atheist, and made to bear an opprobrium which only attaches to the latter. If the dispute lies between the Freimanner and the Catholics, the sympathies of these eminently Protestant editors is all on the side of the infidel ; but when foreign radicals are guilty of attempts to revolutionizo American institutions, the foreign-born Eoman Catholic, who never had a sympathy with their agrarian notions, is set down as their aid or and abettor.* It has been so often stated by the enemies of the Catholic Church, that she is the foe to all progress, that the idea seems to have become a fixture, as it were, in the Protestant mind. There is an obvious reason for this prejudice. Most of our literature is derived from anti-Catholic sources. In England, until within a comparatively short time. Catholics were by law forbidden to engage in those pursuits which lead to emi- nence. They were not allowed to print or publish, and *Since writing the above, I have seen it stated, that in the recent elec- tions in Kew York and some others of the eastern cities, the foreign radical element of the population voted with the Know-Nothings. This is as it should be. These men have at last found their true position. When the editor of the Louisville Journal recently attempted to classify these men ^th the Roman Catholics, as being antagonistic to the Know-Nothing crganization, he was not, most likely, aware of the fusion that was being coniummated between his party and German radicalism. PREFATORY REMARKS. 21 consequently, the aspersions upon Catholic faith and practice, thus of necessity left uncontradicted, came, in the course of time, to be viewed as ** confirmation strong as proofs from Holy Writ," against the Church. This being the case for over two centuries, can it be wondered at, that the minds of men should be filled with almost irradicable prejudices in reference to a system of religion everywhere spoken against, and whose upholders were afraid, on account of the laws in force for its suppression, to whisper even a mild defense ? The common people, always greedy of that kind of reading which gave excitement to their passions, were plied with horrible tales of monkish superstition and fanaticism, written by men who knew that they were not only catering to a morbid feeling of hatred of Catholicity general among the masses, but that they were, also, in almost every page of their writings, circulating glaring and palpable falsehoods. The' prejudices thus engendered and kept alive have come down to us, from father to son, and from generation to gene- ration, so that, even in our day, there are many, who, though they have never read a Catholic book, or heard a Catholic sermon, or entered a Catholic church, or even had a Catholic neighbor, have no other idea of Catholicity than that it is a system of crude fanaticism, if not of open rebellion against God. Occasionally, here and there, a strong intellect might be found, much to the surprise of the Protestant community, to give up his prejudices, and attach himself to the old Church. The excuses given for these instances of what evangelicals called perversion, were always of such a character, that those outside the Church were still satisfied that Protestantism itself was not to be held accountable for them. They were crazy, or had been operated on by improper motives ; and, even to this day, when no other conceivable motive for conversion to Catholicity, except that of a desire to uphold the truth, can be indicated, the converts are held by many to be deranged in their intellects. Of late years, however, there has been going on, in the very heart of Protestantism itself, 22 PREFATORY REMARKS. a yearning for sometliing unattainable within the limits of its jarring domain. Men have begun to feel the necessity of unity, and to aspire after peace. Wearied with its flight over a sea of doubt and distrust, the dove seeks again to rest its drooping wings in the ark of the Church of God. Those who speak so flippantly, and write so fluently against the Catholic Church, either do not know themselves, or do not wish others to know how many benefits this much abused Church and its members have conferred on society. The old adage says, '* ignorance is bliss,*' and if this be so, then the state of extreme felicity enjoyed by these carping gen- tlemen and their confiding dupes cannot be othei-wise than wonderful. Never was there a more striking exemjplification of the confidence inspired by ignorance, or by that ** little learning which is a dangerous thing,*' than that lately pre- sented by the tribe of politicians suddenly turned theologians, and by that other kindred tribe of preachers suddenly turned politicians. The former class have, however, made the most marvelous progress. Ignorant men, reared in the bush, and small-fry village politicians, at the cry of the Pope ! the Pope ! have suddenly started forth, armed cap a pie with historical and theological weapons, and with every hair in their empty heads erect with inspiration ! Some of these men, unused to so great a pressure on their very limited modicum of brains, are already mad, and an indefinite number of them are but a few degrees removed from the same sad state. Truly, we have fallen on an enlightened age, in which insanity has been installed into the position of teacher and guide. Have these men, or those who take their statements on trust, ever read history ? Have they ever traced on the his- toric page the gradual progress of modern civilization ? Have they learned by what successive steps, and by whose agency, Christianity was spread over the world ? Have they inquired, to whom we are indebted for much of the advance- ment of literature, and for most of the great discoveries and inventions in science and in the arts, the comforts of which we are now reaping in bo great abundance ? If they have PREFATORY REMARKS. 23 not, then, for their own sakes, if for no other consideration, they should be silent, until they acquire a little information. To reason with the fanatic and the bigot is but a waste of time ; but for the benefit of the conservative and truth-lov- ing portion of my fellow -citizens, — by far the largest portion of the community — I have collected, from different published works, a condensed statement of what we owe to the Catholic Church and to its members, in the several departments of Religion, Civilization, Literatm*e and the Arts, and in Political Institutions. I. Religion. We owe to the Catholic Church the pre- servation of the Bible, through storm and revolution, through barbarian invasions and civil feuds, for fifteen centuries pre- ceding the period of the so called reformation. No one acquainted with history, can deny that the first Protestants received the Sacred Scriptures from the hands of that very Church, which they were pleased nevertheless to denounce as the constant enemy of the Bible 1 And, along with the Bible, Protestants received from the Catholic Church all those great principles, institutions, and traditions of Christi- anity, which they choose to designate as fundamental, and which are admitted by all *' orthodox " Christians. Not only this, but all Protestants of the present day owe it to the Catholic Church, that they are descendants of a Christian instead of a Pagan ancestry ; for all history proclaims the fact, that every nation that was ever converted from Paganism to Christianity was so converted by Catholic missionaries, acting in communion with the Roman See, and generally armed with the broad seal of the Papal commission ! Is it not supremely absurd to hear men rail out so bitterly against a Church to which they owe so much — in fact, everything — which causes them to be Christians at all, and without whose beneficial influence on the minds and hearts of their ancestors, they would probably have been reared heathens instead of Christians ! n. Civilization. Our revilers equally forget what we owe I to the Catholic Church in the department of general civili- f m PREFATORY REMARKS. zation. Without her agency, the world would, in all proba- bility, never have been civilized at all. Alone and single- handed, she for centuries successfully stemmed the rushing tide of barbarism, which threatened society with dissolution. After having converted the Northmen, whose descendants now constitute the bulk of the most civilized nations, she set about the noble work of controlling their passions, directing their morals, humanizing their manners, and developing their naturally vigorous intellectual powers. Her patient labor of love was rewarded with the most abundant fruits. Fierce wolves were gradually changed into lambs of her flock. Tyranny and liceMiousness were curbed, and freedom was enabled to breathe more freely among the down-trodden masses. Serfism, or that degrading species of white slavery which was closely intertwined with the feudal system, was gradually abolished wherever the influence of the Catholic Church could extend, or her voice could be heard ; and mil- lions of poor slaves thus became freemen. In reality, we owe it mainly to her agency that we were born freemen instead of slaves. Yet more. To her is woman principally indebted for the exalted position she now occupies in society. The Church found her, a slave, but raising the degraded daughter of Eve, before doomed to an ignoble vassalage, to the dignity of the daughter of Mary, she placed her as the equal of man, and gave to her that Christian freedom, which is ** the liberty of the glory of the children of God." III. Literature and the Arts. Do our maligners know what the Catholic Church has done for mankind in this department ? If not, let them glance at the following sum- mary of their indebtedness, and blush, for very shame, at their past ignorance or dishonesty. 1. We owe to the Church the preservation of that consider- able portion of ancient classical literature which has descended to us, and which would probably have perished but for the patient and zealous labors of her clergy and monks, who de- voted much of their time to the transcription of manuscripts. 2. We owe to Catholics all our modern languages, which PREFATORY REMARKS. 29 sprung up and were carried to considerable perfection during what are called *' the dark ages/' long before the era of the boasted reformation. 3. Our modem poetry, which has since been greatly per- fected, received its first beginning and its early development during the middle ages, when for the first time, rhythm or rhyme was introduced into poetry. 4. The paper on which we write, the noble art of printing, which has diffused thought over the world, and the postoffice which has so greatly facilitated intercommunication among mankind, are all of Catholic origin. 5. The principal colleges and universities of Europe were founded by Catholics, and it was they, in fact, who first originated the idea of an university, as well as that of literary societies. 6. Catholic missionary zeal, in early ages, led to numerous discoveries in geography, and thereby gave that powerful stimulus to commerce which has since resulted so beneficially to the world. 7. It was a Catholic who discovered the mariner's compass, and, through its agency, rendered widely extended commerce possible. 8. Guided by the unening magnetic needle, the Catholic Columbus discovered the continent which we inhabit, and other Catholic mariners — Vespucci, the Cabots, Cabrals, do the same. We think they are going beyond the bounds of legitimate warfare. Mnny of them seem to sigh, and groan, and gnash their teeth, that, in.^toad of mr^rely assailing our name, and our political influence, and our pecuniary interests, they cannot bring us to tho faggot or the rack. But we an? not in Home, or Spain, or Mexico, and we think wc can safely bid d •^^lance, as we do, to Papal tyranny and persecution." I CLIP the ahove from the leading editorial in the Louisville Journal of Tuesday last, August 14. A more barefaced and * Communicated to the Louisvillo Daily Democrat of Augugt 17. INTIIODUCTORY ARTICLES. 35 flagrant outrage upon tiie feelings of a large denomination of Christians, and one more opposed to the commonest civilities of life, was never penned. From, what quarter does Mr. Prentice draw the information that the Roman Catholics of Kentucky would, under any circumstances, desire to visit him with personal or pecuniary evils ? The new commandment given by our blessed Saviour, wherein we are bidden to love our enemies y and pray for them that calumniate and persecute nSy is of binding force upon the conscience of every true Catholic. We are taught to repay evil with good ; and if Mr. Prentice himself raises a wall of separation betvv^een us, we are assuredly not responsible for the pecuniary evil, if any, thereby accruing to him. He says that it ''was to be ex- pected'' that Catholics should give up his paper. In this he acknowledges, that his course towards that denomination has been of such a character as to force its members, even from the simple motive of self-respect, to the course indicated. His paper has vilified and traduced them, as men and as religion- ists ; it has been filled with slanders of their faith, worded in most insulting language ; it has attributed to them motives of action at war with every feeling of their hearts, and opposed to the whole tenor of their lives ; it has raised up a spirit of distrust, ill-will, and, in some instances, of positive persecu- tion against them, pervading a large portion of the commu- nity, and rendering their social existence one of constant fear and apprehension. All this it has done, and surely there is cause enough for their refusal any longer to receive the paper into their houses. By his own acts the editor has prevented them from giving him their patronage, unless at the expense not only of self-respect, but also of the positive duty which they owe to their families, that such reading shall be kept from them as it is likely to contaminate their faith or morals. But when George D. Prentice charges Roman Catholics with a desire to injure him in person or in pocket, he simply asserts that which is an unmitigated fable ; and the appeal which he makes to his party, based upon the- abominable slander, is of such a character — so extremely little and con- temptible — that it is hard to believe it had its emanation from a sane mind. I had hoped that when the fever and excitement consequent upon a hotly contested election ha'l passed away, the Louis- ville Journars anti-Catholic ebulitions would also cease. I iiad hoped that the awful consequences of the late terrible riots would have taught the editor, that it is a fearful thing 36 INTRODUCTOIIY ARTICLES. to aid in the spread of dissensions based upon differences of religious belief. That sueh has not been the case, I have no other feeling than one of profound sorrow. In the continn- ance of the course which Mr. Prentice seems to have marked out for himself, I can see nothing but evil to the w^hole com- munity — Protestant as well as Catholic — both in its social relations and in its business affairs. The Imman heart, when uninfluenced by passion, is ever longing for peace. Distrust of their Catholic fellow-citizens cannot give happiness to Protestants ; and the fear of the violence of the mob, and the feeling that their patriotism is doubted, and that tlie motives of all their actions are misconstrued and misrepresented, must have the effect to cause Catholics to seek a more safe and quiet home elsewhere. I speak for myself, wdien I say, that no inducements of pecuniary advantage w^ould sway me for one moment in choosing between a residence in the land of my birth, and the consequent evils which attachment to my faith would, under such circumstances, render certain, and complete expatriation. Roman Catholics ask no immunities, other than those which tlie constitution allows to all alike. They claim no exclusive privileges. They ask only that they be let alone, so long as they obey the laws. I have still hopes that the better judgment of Mr. Prentice will cause him to cease a warfare which can bring nothing but disgrace on the American name, and nnheard of evils upon our city. Let him but read again the paragraph at the head of this article. He must see how unworthy it is of his reputation. We naturally look for such sentiments from the mouths of the angel Gabriels of the land ; but God help us when they are filched from their insensate and bigoted origi- nators, to be used by men of sense and judgment. Yours, &c., A Kentucky Catholic. LETTERS TO GEO. D. PRENTICE, ESQ. LETTER FIRST. Sir : — In many of your late editorials you refer, in justi- fication of the course you liavo thought proper to pursue towards Roman Catholics, to what you t.?rru " the political aggressions of the papal hierarchy." May I ask of you the favor to instance some of these aggressions ? I have been a somewhat attentive observer of the actions of the members of this same hierarchy in the United Slates, and I am compelled to acknowledge that I liave failed to recognize the aggressions you speak of. What is their specific character? Being 'political, as you say, they must consist either in overt acts against the constitution and laws, or else treasonable endea- vors on the part of the hierarchy tending to the subversion of the constitution, and to rendering the laws inoperative. Since your residence in Louisviiii?, you have had opportu- nities to make the acquaintance of at least four individuals of the ''papal hierarchy.'' The first of these w^as the late venerable Bishop Flaget, a missionary, when Kentucky w^as almost a wilderness — a man wliose whole life Avas an example of charity and good-will, and who vv^as esteemed and beloved by all who knew him, Protesttints as well as Catholics. Will you, Mr. Prentice, have the kindness to indicate when and where Bishop Flaget was guilty of political aggressions ! And the second, the late Bishop of Charleston, Rt. Rev. I. A. Reynolds. He was a native of Kentucky, and for many years served the Fifth street congregation in this city. The only aggressions to which Dr. Reynolds coald hiive possibly plead guilty — and I knew him most intimately — were those that he made upon the poverty and destitution which he found in the habitations of the poor of his flock. He made w^ar upon these with all the energy of his noble heart. The third and fourth of this feared hierarchy are the present Bishop of Richmond, Ya., Rt. Rev. John M'Gill, and your *' friend" Bishop Spalding, of this city. They are both natives, and both well known here and elsewhere. Again, will 88 LETTERS OF A KEI^TUCKY CATHOLIC. you, Mr. Prentice, instance the political aggressions of these Bishops ? I have every reason to believe that you know them well, and as you have charged the American papal hierarchy with being political aggressors, it is but fair that you should make specifications. If these men are guilty as you charge them, you owe it to your own character to prove them so. If, however, you find that you cannot substantiate your charges against them, as I have perfect confidence you cannot, then, in the name of all that is fair and honest, cease abusing them. I deny — and I challenge the proof to the contrary — that the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States, or the Catholic people over, whom they have been placed, have in any instance given cause for the charge oi political aggression, I deny — and I challenge the proof to the contrary — that Roman Catholics are unfriendly to the government and con- stitution of the United States. I deny — and I challenge the proof to the contrary — that there now exists, or ever did exist, on this continent, a body of men more thoroughly imbued with deep reverence and love for the constitution of the United States than the Roman Catholics now living v/ithin i\\Q limits of these States. I deny — and I challenge the proof to the contraiy — that the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States, and the clergy under theii' jurisdiction, have ever prostituted their pulpits to political pui-poses, or that they have used the influ- ence, incidental to their offices in the Church, for the furtherance of political ends, whether for one party or another. I deny — and I challenge the proof to the contrary — that in those places in this country where Roman Catholics have popular majorities, they have ever endeavored to monopolize the offices, or have shown the slightest disposition to be aggressive. I deny — and I challenge the proof to the contrary — that the Roman Catholics of the United States do now hold one- tenth part of the offices of tiust and profit which their numerical strength fairly entitles them to ; and I affirm, from this fact, that they are at least nine times less aggressive upon the public purse than are theu' Protestant fellow-citizens. As one proof of this, permit me to cite the city of Louisville. We have here a population of say seventy thousand souls ; of these there are certainly not less than fifteen thousand Roman Catholics. I suppose that I will not be far from the mark, in estimating the number of persons in the public pay LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOMC. 39 at one hundred. Among tliem, the only Roman Catholic aggressor upon the city treasury, is one young lady teacher of the public schools, v/lio was accidentally re-elected by the Board of Education — the Know-Nothing majority of that board not having been aware of her ** Catholic proclivities/' Here, then, in our own city, where a fair representation w^ould entitle the Eomiin Catholics to more than one-iiith of the public offices, they are officially represented in a ratio as of one to one hundred. This is no isolated case. Almost an equal disparity of representation will be found from one end of the Union to the other. Ivoman Catholics have never complained of this. As I have before said, there are but few hunters after office among them. How^ then, can you say, as you do in your paper of August 25, that Roman Catholics are interested in an organization having for its object the distribu- tion of the public treasm-e among them — *' peaceably, if possible ; forcibly if necessary ? " And again, you speak of your party's opposition to the '* corrupting influences" of the Catholic Church. This is quite a serious charge. If the Catholic Church teaches cor- rupt practices to its members, or, what will amount to the same, influences them to be corrupt, this corruption must be apparent on the whole body of the Catholic people. You have had abundant opportunities to test the truth of this charge, in reference to those Roman Catholics whom you have personally knowm. Now, Mr. Prentice, tell us frankly the nature of this corruption, and all about it. Is it in the moral order ? If so, give us the instances. Let us know the nature and quality of those crimes which the Roman Catholic Church teaches to its members. What practical Catholic, or regular communicant of that Chm-ch, can you show to be dishonest, untruthfid, uncharitable, aggressive, or who, in a word, spurns the commandments of God, and refuses obedience to the laws of the land ? How much more, as compared with others, have you lost through the dishonesty of your Roman Catho- lic subscribers to the Journal ? Is this corruption in the social order ? If so, it will be easy for you to point it out. Are Roman Catholics socially hard-hearted and aggressive ? Have you ever knov/n one that refused to keep faith with a Protes- tant ? Are they politically corrupt ? When were they so ? Have Roman Catholic judges been corrupt in their decisions ? Have Roman Catholics refused to pay their taxes, or to march in defense of their country when called on ? I had always been under the impiession, that the Roman 40 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. Catliolic Churcli tauglit obedience to the commandments of God ; tliat it inculcated tlie virtues of charity and forgiveness of injuries ; abnegation of self, and love of the neighbor ; purity in thought and action ; justice and obedience to law ; truthfulness, honesty and sobriety. Will you say that these are corrupt teachings ; I cannot think that you are prepared to say so. In conclusion, dear sir, permit me to record the hope which I entertain, that you w^ll cease this most unjust, illiberal and wicked warfare upon the Catholics of this country, because they happen to prefer their own way of worshiping God. Unless you can prove your charges of ** political aggression ^' and '* corrupt practices,'' it is but sheer folly for you to un- dertake to give any other reasons, in justification of your conduct. There are certainly no motives of public policy requiring such a course at your hands. On the contrary, the peace of society, and the very existence of all those social and kindly feelings vfhich go so far to make life a blessing, are placed in jeopardy by these constant efforts to render a well-meaning religious body suspected and hated by their Protestant fellow-citizens. If your object be to enlist the sympathies of the bigoted portion of the community in order to pecuniary profit, by securing their patronage, then do I much fear that there is very little of hope of your ever again becoming the exponent of a conservative, wise, and consistent policy. But if, on the contrary, you have been led into your present position of open and virulent warfare upon your former friends and neighbors of the Catholic Church, by the excitement of a political contest in which the Catholics Avere opposed to you, causing you, in the heat of party strife, to forget the charities of life, and to be blinded to the teachings of the constitution, then I, and many others of your old friends, may confidently hope that with the return of your right reason, will also return the consciousness of the wrongs which you have inflicted on the Catholic body, and a consequent cessation of those unchari- table and unprovoked attacks of which the Louisville Journal has lately become the vehicle. Yours, &c., A Kentucky Catholic. Louisville, August 29, 1855. \ LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 41 From the Louisville Daily Courier of Septemher 2d, 1855. Messrs. Editors : I find tlie following paragraph in tlie Louisville Journal of yesterday : " To all whom it may concern we have to say that we do not feel under the slightest obligation to respond to questions put to us by anonymous writers. Let every man who wishes us to talk to him show his face — if ho has one fit to show." It may possibly be that some one other than your corres- pondent has been propounding questions to Mr. Geo. D. Prentice, and that I may be altogether wrong in supposing, as intended for myself, the above very pleasant and amiable reminder of the editor's non-obligations. I am more inclined to believe this, as it so happens that the editor himself shortly after the appearance of the first article in the Courier over the signature of *' A Kentucky Catholic,*' did directly question me as to its authorship, and was as directly answered upon that point. It is possible, however, that Mr. Prentice not only requires a knowledge of the identity of his interrogator for himself, but argues also that it is requisite, in order to remove the non-obligation on his part to answer troublesome questions, that the said interrogator shall show his face to the entire newspaper reading population of Louisville. Now I respectfully submit to the distinguished editor, that there may be other reasons than the one he indicates, why I should prefer, so far as the general public is concerned, to remain incognito. It should be sufficient for the editor that the face of the Courier's correspondent is known to him, and has been at any time for nearly twenty-four years. There will be ample time to call for the verdict of the public, w^hen Mr. Prentice shall have charged that your correspondent's /ace is not ft to be shown. It is a matter of doubt, however, with me, whether an editor is morally justifiable in refusing to answer questions of general interest to the community, when submitted in respectful language, on the plea that they are anonymously propounded. A conscientious editor will always weigh well the circum- stances which may or may not render the solution of the interrogatories interesting to the community, and act accord- ingly. I am, myself, fully convinced that there never was a question demanding the exercise of more serious study and thought on the part of every true lover of his country, than the religious o^e which has unfortunately been foisted into 4 42 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. the political arena by, as I think, the designing demagogues of party. The question should be — are the Roman Catho- lics of this country, including bishops, priests, and laymen, chargeable with the crime of treason ? This charge has been implied in a hundred different ways by the editor of the Louis- ville Journal. If the editor is right, and can prove himself so, he has nothing to fear from public opinion, and will de- serve the lasting gratitude of all true Americans. If he is wrong, he should be thankful for the information that will set him aright, even though it come to him through the medium of an anonymous letter, or be directly referable to the viva voce exposition of his own Irish Roman Catholic kitchen- maid, hov/ever unfit her face may be to appear in the circles of polite society. Yours, &c., A Kentucky Catholic. LETTER SECOND. Sir:— I have read with no little surprise your article of September 5th, the purport of whii'li, you kindly say, was suggested to you by the letter of a *' Kentucky Catholic." I have great objection to using vrhot may be construed into disrespectful language in reference to anything emanating from the editor of the Louisville Journal, but a proper regard for ti-uth will not permit nie to give any other name to the entirety of your three column article than absolute nonsense. It is Sam Slick, I believe, who tells of a certain versatile author, that whenever he wished to write a book, he was in the habit of reading up for his subject, and however ignorant he might be of the particular topic of which he wished to treat, by dint of patching and piecing — stealing a scrap here and a scrap there — he was enabled to concoct a very credi- table production. Now, it appears to me that you, Mr. Prentice, have, for awhile i)ast, been reading up for your subject of Popery, and one of the greatest faults I find with your performance, arises from the fact, that you have been very unfortunate in your selection of authors. '' Dowling on Romanism/' ''Dan.^^er in the Dark,'' and such like books, are scarcely of that kind which a voiitable historian would choose for authorities. I had ceitainly a right to expect, in pr LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 4g^ case you did me the honor to notice my communication at all, something like a candid answer to the queries therein propounded. It seems, however, that though you are pecu- liarly happy in making sweeping allegations, you have not the faculty of individualizing. You had directly charged the papal hierarchy with being ''political aggressors.*' The charge being unlimited, included, per consequence, each and every member of that body, at home and abroad. It had reference as well to your ** friend," Bishop Spalding, as to Archbishop Hughes — to the Kentucky Bishops of Nashville and Richmond, as well as to the French Bishop of Vincennes, and the Irish Archbishop of Cincinnati. The question being as to whether the papal hierarchy is dangerous to our civil well-being as a nation and the perpe- tuity of our form of government, it was but natural to sup- pose that you were prepared to prove the truth of your allegation from the w^ell known acts and acknowledged opinions of at least some one member of the hierarchy whom you had personally known. It will not do for you to say, that you eschew personalities, while you charge a whole community with being influenced by treasonable intentions. But you *' have forborne to say much that might have been said about the individual acts of alien Prelates, resident among us, having a bearing upon the institutions of this country.'' These ''individual acts" are precisely what I wish to get at. I will engage, though a simple layman, to give you absolution for all the additional sin you may incur on account of changing your allegation of political aggression from the whole body of the hierarchy to a few individual Bishops. First, however, permit me to set you right on one point. There are no alien Bishops in the United States. One-third of the American Bishops are native-born, and all of the foreign-bora Bishops have taken the oath of allegiance. They all consequently stand under the constitution, precisely as do George D. Prentice and Caleb W. Logan — free American citizens. This being settled, I ask you to point out the acts of those American Bishops which you speak of as "bearing on the institutions of this country." I have denied that the American Bishops are justly chargeable with being political aggressors, and whenever the contrary allega- tion is made in such a shape as to be tangible, I hold myself ready to disprove it. Inasmuch as your article can, in no sense, be construed into 4A LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. an answer to the queries put to you through the columns of the Courier, it will be scarcely expected of me that I should wade through its interminable depths of twaddle and cant, of bigotry and folly, for the purpose of answering the baseless charges which you bring against the Catholic Church. In- deed, it is hardly the province of a layman to engage in the defense of the dogmas and practices of the Church, while there are so many good and reliable divines, who are both able and willing to give the sincere inquirer every information. Neither do I believe that the columns of a political paper are the most appropriate medium for disquisitions on theological subjects. Hence, in all that I have heretofore said, I have Btrrctly confined myself to the religioso-political question, which not I nor my brethren in the Church are responsible for having brought into the arena of party politics. Upon those men who have mooted this question, now so clearly unwise that it is being dropped as a dead weight upon the party in many of the States w^here it had taken strong foot- hold, will rest the whole ignominy of its conception. The constitution having guaranteed to every man, whether Pres- byterian, or Methodist, or Catholic, certain inalienable and indefeasible rights respecting the free exercise of his religion, those who would wantonly introduce into the political con- tests of the country, test qualifications on account of religious preferences, are, in my opinion, guilty of a crime not far removed from treason. I will, nevertheless, endeavor to point out a few of the absurdities, not to use a stronger term, into which you have fallen. 1st. You say that the Catholic system is peculiarly ** un- congenial to our political latitude.'* So far is ihis from being the case, that it has been conceded by many of our wisest political men — Protestants mind you — that the members of the Roman Catholic Church, ever since the formation of the t^overnment, have not only professed a love for the institutions of the country, but have shown by their acts an earnest desire for their perpetuity. They are exempt from the taint of Abolitionism in the North, and of nullification in the South. 2d. You ignorantly charge the Catholic laity of this country with being priest-ridden. Now I will venture to assert that there is not a single Protestant sect in the whole country, against whom the same charge may not be made, with a much greater regard for truth. 8d. All that you Bay on the subject of Roman Catholic LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 45 Churcli govemment, is applicable to the Protestant Episcopal and Methodist Churches, and in some degree to the Presby- terian and other forms of Protestant Church discipline. 4th. You write as if you thought the Christian religion was so Protean-like in its character as to be made adaptable, hy changes within itself, for every peculiar form of civil gov- ernment. The idea is most absurd. Christ being God, could not have possibly founded an imperfect Church. And the Church, if it be a true one, cannot possibly change its character. Your idea that the Christian Churches of the United States should copy their formula of government from that of the country, argues, to say the least, a direct squinting on your part towards the annexation of Church and State. But I allege that Christianity, as taught by the Catholic Church, both as to its dogmas and its discipline, is not unsuited to any form of civil government, and from the simple reason given by the Saviour for the guidance of the Church, **My kingdom is not of this world." 5th. Your idea that ** all Christian graces flow from the Pope downiward to the people," is of itself so sublimely absurd that it requires no remark from me. 6th. Y"ou say that ''they (the hierarchy) swear to perse- cute and wage w^ar with heretics," (fee. This charge is en- tirely gratuitous, and has not a particle of foundation in fact. You garble and pervert the reading of the old oath at one time taken by the Bishops of the Catholic Church. The promise made by the Bishop at his consecration, that he will ' oppose the spread of error, is made by you to read that he will physically exterminate the promoters of error. No such meaning can be attached to it. The Catholic Bishop promises at his consecration, according to the command of Him who sent his apostles to teach all nations, that, in his teaching, truth shall be his guide, and as a necessary consequence, he is bound to oppose, not by physical force, but by argument and the simple power of truth, that which is false. The position w^hich the Catholic Bishop here holds is plainly incontrovertible, and is in some degree binding on the con- sciences of all Christians, without the formula of an oath. But the extracts which you give, w4th the exception of the one with reference to ''the possessions of the Bishop's table," are not foimd in the oath now taken at the consecration of the Bishops of the United States and several other countries. There have been men before our day who ** sought excuses for malice," by perverting the obvious meaning of words ; 46 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. and in order to remove as far as possible any pretext for sncli perversion, the wording of the oath was changed over sixty years ago. , v i i 7th. You say that 'Hhey (the hierarchy) solemnly swear not to sell, nor give away, nor otherwise alienate, without consent of the Roman Pontiff, the possessions of their table,'' and, strangely enough, you argue from this, that Archbishop Hughes was influenced by this clause in his opposition to the change brought about by the action of the New York L^is- lature, in reference to the tenure of church property. This section of the oath has nothing to do with church property. It was intended, by its insertion into the formula of the oath, to prevent any abuse which might arise on account of the improper alienation of benefices set apart for the personal sup- port of the Bishops, and of which they only had the use during the terms of their administration. What wrong is done to the Catholic people, or to the government of this country, by this clause of the oath ? The President of the United States has the use of the White House during the term of his office, but he certainly would not be allowed to sell or alienate it. 8th. You speak of the hierarchy tyrannizing over the con- sciences of men. What is tyranny ? It is the forcible require- ment of an homage neither required by the laws of God nor man. In speaking of human law, I, of course, mean law founded on justice. No Roman Catholic is thus constrained- When I voluntarily conform to certain practices prescribed by the Church, I do not recognize that she tyrannizes over me- When my judgment has taught me that religious truth is only to be found in the Catholic Church, there is no more servitude in my obeying her recognized laws than there is in the Pro- testant's voluntary homage to the truths of revelation. Man naturally feels himself ennobled while he pays homage to the truth. The Bishops are represented as self-constituted tyrants, and the laity as abject slaves. Now, the plain fact is, that the self-same law of obedience to the discipline of the Church, is as obligatory on Pius IX as it is on the humble Indian Neophite of Kansas. The duty of sacramental confession, for instance, governs the one precisely as it does the other. The duty of teaching the true Catholic doctrines— those which have always been taught and received— is of as binding obli- gation on the consciences of the Prelates of the Church, as is the duty of hearing and being taught these same doctrines on those of the humblest members of the household of faith. LETTERS OF A KE2CTUCKY CATHOLIC. 47 The Eoman Catholic layman reads in the sacred volume, Hear the Churchy and he esteems it a privilege to do so. Hear the Churchy says the inspired Word — and Priest, and Bishop, and Cardinal, and Pope, bow in like humble rever- ence and obedience to the divine command. 9th. I observe, not only in your article of Wednesday, but in many others with which you have lately afflicted the truth no less than the unbigoted portion of the community, a something for which I can find no other name than an intense selfishness of Americanism, most inconsistent with the generally received idea of Chiistian charity. To be an American is a very good thing, and so I esteem it ; but it does not necessarily carry with it a hatred of all that is not American. Christ did not die alone for Americans. He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and he has given us a rule in the case of the '' man who w^ent down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, '' whereby we may distinguish who is our neighbor. Your pharisaical cant, judged by this rule, about the ignominy of Eoman Catholics ** being ruled by a hierarchy of foreign lords," is in exceed- ing bad taste. 10th. *' A Kentucky Catholic*' does *' acknowledge that the constitution of Kentucky utters the truth touching the natural and indefeasahle rights of mankind." But he does not acknowledge that the head of his Church is unceasingly invad- ing these natural and indefeasible rights. Almighty God has given free will to man. He has j)laced fire and water before him, and bade him stretch out his hand and take which he will. But he has also commanded him in the new revelation, under penalty of eternal reprobation, to believe and he baptized. You may as well then say that tlie Bible is unceasingly invad- ing the natural and indefeasible rights which the constitution of Kentucky allows to the infidel and unbeliever. The obedience which the Eoman Catholic pays to the Pope is as much voluntaiy as is the obedience v/hich each and every Protestant pays to the discipline of his church ; nor is it one whit more dangerous to our free institutions. 11th. You speak of Roman Catholics acknowledging the temporal power of the Pope. Now, I defy you, sir, to point out one single Roman Catholic Priest or Bishop in the United States, that acknov/ledges this temporal power in the head of the Church. The late Councils of Bishops in Baltimore and in Cincinnati, publicly repudiated this charge. 12th. You make a comparison between Protestant and 48 LETTERS OF A IvT:KTUCKY CATnOLlC. Catholic countiies veiy iinfavora]»lc to ihe luttcr. In tliis con- nection, however, you strinig'cly cnongli forget to mention that the only two countries of Chiistendom wliicli do, at this day, systematically persecute on account of religious faith, are the Protestant countries of Sw^eden and Prussia. In Italy and Spain there are no Protestants to persecute. In Catholic Belgium, equal in every respect to Protestant Holland, while the Catholics number 4,000,000, there are only 8,000 Pro- testants, and yet these Catholics voluntarily chose a Protestant king, and the government fully recognizes a free press and free worship. The Protestants of Catholic Austria are at this day, more free, in some respects, than are the Roman Catho- lics of the United States. They have their separate free schools voluntarily accorded to them. I would like to follow you in this comparison of Protestant and Catholic countries, and may do so hereafter ; hut this article is now longer than I had intended it should be, and I must bring it to a close. I will say, however, before concluding, that, being of a very hopeful temperament, and knowing that you have capacity to learn, and that by some extraordinary grace you may be brought to repentance, if the time should ever come that you will ask for admission into the Catholic Church, I hereby voluntarily offer you my services as sponsor on that interesting occasion. Yours, very truly, A Kentucky Cathouc. Louisville y September 8, 1855. LETTER THIRD. Sir : — I am forced to enter my protest against your man- ner of conducting this controversy. The side issues which you are constantly bringing up and reiterating with an energy which might, under other circumstances, gain for you the reputation of the Bomhastes of anti-Catholic ciiisade pole- mics, have nothing to do with the matter in question. I asked of you to point out the political aggressions with which you had charged the American Catholic hierarchy; and you answer that "some of them are Jesuits, and all are Jesuitical.'* I asked you to name a single Roman Catholic Bishop or priest outside of the States of the Church, who will acknow- Wi' LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 49 ledge that he owes civil allegiance to the Pope ; and you answer that '* Pope Gregoiy the VII, (he lived eight hundred years ago,) commanded that all the princes of the earth should kiss his feet/' I should like to see that hull of Pope Gregory. I fear me much you have been imposed upon in this matter. Your quotations from Archbishop Hughes, and from Bishops Flaget and England are vague, evidently garbled, and, taken out of the connection in which they were originally placed, even meaningless. In order to give the readers of the Courier the benefit of your labors, in proof of the charges you had brought against the hierarchy, I append these extracts : Bishop England once wrote to his Irish friends a letter of palpablo hostility to the religious liberty of America. Says he : " The people here claim and endeavor to assume the same po^^er which the clauses and con- ditions would give to the crown amongst you, though not to the samo extent. The consequence is that religion is neglected, degraded, despised, and insulted with impunity." And " My Lord Bishop Flaget," late of Bardstown, Kentucky, in speaking by letter to his foreign patrons of the diSiciU-ies encountered by Catholic missionaries in converting \^n.Q Indians, refers to " their continual traffics among the whites, which (says he) cannot be hindered as long as the rejmb' lican government shall subsist." And the Most Reverend Irish Archbishop Hughes, of New York, says : " That unfortunately the moral attributes of our progressive greatness are in the estimation of the civilized nations of the world sinking from day to day." — Louisville Journal, Sept. 12th, 1865. We have here a truly astounding array of political aggres- sions ! But hov/ am 1 to know if these quotations be cor- rectly rendered ? You give no date for them, nor the titles of the books, or official papers, from which they are taken. You leave out the connection in -which they were written, and thus possibly distort a meaning from the unconnected sentences, not recognized by the authors. However, let us take them up, count by count, and see how far they are irresistible. First, as to Bishop Ejs gland, we all know that he was a man of sense, and incapable of v/riting anything particularly absurd. It is therefore liighly improbable that he should have written so entirely meaningless a paragraph as that which you ascribe to him. Besides, he w^as a pure patriot, and as can be proved from a volume of evidence, strongly attached to our republican institutions. And the saintly Bishop Flaget — the noble old man whose voice even now rings in my ears, and brings tears to my eyes — he, too, according to tlie editor of the Journal, was opposed to our liberties ! It was left for you, sir, to discern that which wa§ kept secret from his spiritual children 50 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. during more than tlie lifetime of a generation, and which, if true, would give the lie to a thousand patriotic sentiments which he has been heard to utter. Have we not here a striking exemplification of old Esop's fable of the dead lion and the living ass ? It seems that Bishop Flaget did, at one time, complain of the American government's permitting the free traffic in spirits with the poor Indians. He found, doubtless, as many another missionary has found, that it was useless to labor for the reclaiming of his red children, so long as this traffic was permitted. It will be remembered that Bishop Flaget was a refugee from the persecutions of the French revolution. About the year 1792, we find him laboring as a missionary ^among the French at Yincennes and the neighboring tribes of Indians. The local and military officials of the United States, about that time and till after the war of 1812, were indebted to Bishop Flaget for invaluable assis- tance, afterwards gratefully acknowledged, in several of the treaties made with the Indians. Doubtless the letter, from which you profess to extract, was written in French, and afterwards translated into English. Under such circum- stances, it is very clearly perceptible that the passage could easily have been, and most likely was, mistranslated and corrupted. Of one thing you may be perfectly assured, there never was a more earnest and sincere advocate of our consti- tutional liberties on tlio soil of the Union than was Bishop Flaget. The extract v/hich you give from Archbishop Hughes has no more force to indicate his opposition to our peculiar institutions, than it has to prove his adherence to the myste- ries of Buddhism. I could point out to you many an old-line Whig who has for years battled at your side for what he and you then conceived to be the true conservative policy, that will agree with the Archbishop in his sentiment of regret that the '* moral attributes of our progressive greatness are, in the estimation of the civilized world, sinking from day to day.'' The sentiment of tlie paragraph which you give from the '*Eambler," in reference to religious liberty, taken in the sense in which the phrase is generally understood, is false ; but if taken in the sense intended by the author, it is incon- testably true, 'i'he editor was evidently not speaking of that religious liberty which consists in one's being free to profess any mode of worship independent of civil restraint. He was speaking of tliat liberty of the individual mind to form a faith for it^olf, or to discard all faith, and which argues LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CAXnOLIC. 51 complete unaccountability to God therefor, because of the liberty of will with which He has invested it. The same may be said with regard to the "■ intolerance of Catholicism." If taken in the sense which you evidently intend that your readers shall draw from it, it is false. Neither does the editor of the ** Rambler/' or any other Eoman Catholic, believe it. But if taken in the sense intended by the author, and which any logical mind will be able to draw from it, it is true. Truth cannot be otherwise than intolerant of that quality which is opposed to it. If, for instance, I should hold, as incontestably true, that the writer of the article in the Journal is a lunatic on the subject of Popery, there would be no room in my mind for the tolerance of an opposite opinion. The Catholic Church is at once tolerant and in- tolerant. She is intolerant — not indeed of the impugners of her truth ; not of their social position and civil well-being ; not of their liberties, civil or religious ; but she is intolerant of those errors which they hold, and which are directly opposed to her ever-abiding truth. She is tolerant because she holds the truth ; and truth is rooted in love. A Catholic cannot possibly entertain hatred against his erring brother. The man must still claim his love, though he may not tole- rate his error. Again, with regard to the bishop's oath, you say, '* It is utterly false that the language, or the sense of the oath, only binds bishops to oppose the spread of error." Now, I again say, that the whole tenor and scope of this part of the oath has for its object this and this only. The sense which you give to the wording of the oath is not the Catholic sense. It is one which you, and other enemies of the church before you, have manufactured to suit your purposes. So learned a theological amateur as you have proved yourself to be, should know that the Catholic Church claims to be ** immutable" only in doctrine, and that a change in the wording of the bishop's oath could be easily accomplished without damage to her immutability. I expressly stated that the old oath contained nothing which could in any way compromise the civil allegiance of the bishops. My defense was of that oath entirely, notwithstanding that the passages, which you object to, have been stricken out of the oath as now taken by the American bishops. You speak of this oath in connection with Archbishop Purcell. Now, I respectfully propose that you publish the Archbishop's defense of the oath in the Journal, and I will willingly take the verdict of your readers 52 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. as to its containing obligations at variance with tlie duty of civil allegiance. Your ideas seem to be extremely vague and uncertain on the point of man's inalienable and indefeasible rights. What is religious liberty, in the sense in which it is implied in the constitution of the United States ? It is the right to believe and worship according to conscience, unrestrained by pains and penalties from the civil government. The constitution entirely ignores the question of the moral right of every one to believe as he pleases. It leaves this where it should be left, between man and his God. Man is accountable to God for his belief and worship, and not to the government. If I hold that the Catholic Church is the organ of God's commu- nication with the world, I hold that which she teaches as the doctrine and command of God, just as the Protestant holds that to be the will of God, which is held and taught by his particular church. There is, however, this difference. While I hold that the medium of my faith is stamped with a divine authority, the Protestant acknowledges that the authority by which he holds any particular form of faith and worship is merely human. It were very easy here to go into the question of private interpretation of the scriptures, and to show that, though both Protestants and Catholics believe the Bible to be the word of God, yet the numberlcvss systems of belief and worship professedly taken from it, on the plea of the right of private judgment, being only the private opinions of the individual readers, can have no claim to be called divine. You inquire how comes it that the greater portion of the Catholic clergy and people of tliis country are foreigners ? This wonderful quandary is of so easy sohition that I am only surprised that any man of sense should have entertained it. With the exception of that of Maryland, all the old colonies of this country w^ere made up of immigrants from Protestant States, who were consequently Protestants, as are their descendants to this day. The Catholic population has been greatly increased of late yeai's by immigration ; in such a ratio, indeed, as to naturally require a proportionate number of foreign clergymen. As this decreases, so will the relative proportion of native and foreign pastois. It is, and always has been, one of the first objects of the hierarchy of the United States to rear up a body of native priests. This is the uni- versal practice of the Church in all countries. In Maryland and Kentucky, the greater number of ordinations have been of natives. Even of the foreign-born BLshops, most of them, LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 53 previous to consecration, liacl been residents of the country £rom twenty to forty years, and there are few that did not receive their clerical training in the United States. You say that, **the hierarchy of the United States have a policy of their own touching the institutions'' of this country. To be sure they have. But this policy is also the policy of every true patriot and lover of his country, Protestant and Catholic. The happy possessor of the virtues of honesty and truthfulness, may and does hold them as his own, but he does not feel himself at all the poorer when he sees the familiar faces of his own virtues held in like durance by his mortal brother. You refer to the encyclical letter of Pope Gregory the XVI, in terms not warranted by the tenor of that much abused document. During the tenn of his Pontificate, France, a portion of Italy, and several of the neighboring states, were flooded with a multiplicity of immoral and infidel books. The Pope was appealed to by the Bishops whose flocks were being contaminated by these trashy and vile publications. The encyclical denounces ** that indifferentisni which is falsely called liberty," and strongly censures **the licentiousness of booksellers (not of the press as you have it,) which induces them to publish all kinds of infidel and immoral books." The Pope illustrates his meaning by saying : " What man of sense will say that we shall allow poisons to be freely used, to be sold, and transported from place to place, to be drunk even, on the ground that there is an antidote capable of sav- ing life if duly taken." I have before stated that in Eome and Italy there are no resident Protectants. The whole population being Catholic, there were no motives of justice to induce Pope Pius IX, after his return from exile, to change the ancient law of the government in the matter of the religion of the State. The Protestant stranger in Rome is entirely unmolested in the exercise of his religion. Both English and American Pro- testants have their separate places of worship, under the protection of the government, and I will venture to say that the Catholic citizens of Rome have never, in a single in- stance, stoned these edifices, or insulted the worshipers. Can you say as much in reference to the resident Catholics and their churches in this free and enlightened country ? You speak of the hierarchy being a ''close corporation," and of their ignoring the *' rights of the laity." Will you be kind enough to tell me in how far the laity of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church are allowed to partake iu its govern- 54 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. mental administration? It seems to be very difficult to make you understand that the laws of the Catholic Church are of no more binding force upon the h\yman than they are on the priest and the Bishop. Tliere are duties, to be sure, peculiarly appertaining to each person, according to his state of life, and every one is responsible to God for the faithful discharge of these duties. The advocate may not, without sin, engage in the prosecution of an unjust suit. The physician may not wantonly endanger life by experi- menting on the constitution of his patient. The editor may not impugn the known truth, or endeavor to foist upon any- party, or body of men, principles which they solemnly repudiate. The priest may not fail to give good example, and to spend his life if necessary for the well-being of those committed to his charge. The Bishop must guard with watchful care the whole flock ; he must *' reprove, admonish, and advise " in season, and so let his light shine, that the people may glorify God for His good gifts. The constitution of the Church was not intended alone for any particular form of civil government, but for all. It was framed so as to suit the exigencies of all times, of all peoples, and of all tongues. That man must be blind indeed who fails to dis- cern the wisdom and beauty inherent in the Church. Without her headship in the Pope, there could be no unity, and your desire for national churches might be gratified — at the ex- pense of Christianity itself. You tell us that Luther gave to the laity their just rights. If you mean by this that Luther emancipated the people from the servitude of tyrants, you have read history to very little purpose. Wherever Lutheranism exists as the dominant religion of any country, there you will find a union of church and state, the press enslaved, and to a considerable extent actual persecution of non-conformists. I refer you to Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden. On the contrary, it is perfectly demonstratable, that in all Catholic countries, where there is any considerable minority of Protestants, there you will find free worship, a free press, and Protestants having access to the highest offices. I refer you for this to France, Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, and Belgium. A word with regard to what you say of the great Pope Gregory VII. Much has been ignorantly written and spoken of this Pope. But Protestant historians liave appreciated the glory of his character. They acknowledge that he was equal to the task which Providence had placed before him ; that he LETTERS Oi' A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 55 ** saved EarojDS froni baibarism/* and what is more beautiful still, that *'he irmstrateJ Christianity by his virtues." The last words on his lips \v:^rd: *' And i, too, have loved justice and hated iniquity, and I die in exile." The German Pro- testant historian, M. Toigt, says of him : '' It is difficult to bestow upon him exagi^^orated eulogy ; for he has laid every- where the foundation of a solid glory. But every one should endeavor to render justice to whom justice is due; let no one cast a stone at one so innocent ; let every one respect and honor a man who has labored for his age, with views so grand and so generous. Let him who is conscious of having calumniated him, re-enter into his own conscience." You speak of *^ Catholic monasteries and other penitentia- ries, in which voluntary convicts are confined and tortured." This whole sentence is replete with contradictions and absurdities. It is a principle of common law, that every man shall be allowed to follow that avocation, or manner of life, which best suits him, care being taken that he shall not therein interfere v/ith the rights and privileges of others. Now I take it, if I choose to enter into a monasteiy, I seek my individual happiness^n doing so ; and no man of mode- rate capacity, hoAvever he may wonder at my mode of seeking happiness, can aver that in following the bent of my inclina- tions I have not acted precisely as he would, were our positions reversed. Voluntary convicts, indeed 1 Let me tell you, sir, that some of the happiest people in the state of Kentucky are occupants of these same p€nite7itlaries, as you sneeringly call them. They earn by the labor of their hands that which they eat and wear, and they have withal something for the poor and the stranger, in addition to prayers from clean hearts. Wherein are you better off? But the monks of La Trappe actually " shave their heads, and bury their dead with their faces downward." This, I suppose, you will call T3Lnk political aggression ! Well, if I must accede something to you, I suppose this item of Trappist treason will suit as well as anything else. You are extremely fond of using such phrases as '' drunk with the blood of the saints," **a despotic altar," '*our lord, the Pope," '* the hierarchy claim to have an exclusive monopoly of grace and trutli," (fee, &c. Nov\^ all this I may very justly call cant. It is not intended for men of judgment, but for ** the groundlings." When I read it, I cannot help imagining that I see before me an ignorant popery -mad buffoon, or a tattered martyrdom -hunting street lecturer. 56 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. Rid yourself, my dear sir, of all such superfluous liaLiliments. Your editorial figure is not overly prepossessing at best. Why add to the blunders incidental to au ill-regulated edu- cation these shapeless rags of bigotry ? In the opening paragraph of your article of Wednesday last, you seem to imply that you have a doubt about my being either a Kentuckian or a layman. Indeed, it has been intimated to me as a somewhat general opinion among those of your no-popery party who have taken tlie ti'ouble to think of the matter at all — it is a lamentable fact tliat few of them are much overgiven to thinking upon any subject — that the correspondent of the Courier is none other than a certain dignitary of the Catholic Church, who is therein seeking to hide his individual fesponsibility under the cover of a very contemptible device. Now I wish it distinctjy understood, that the writer of the articles signed *'A Kentucky Catholic," is both a Kentuckian and a lioman Catholic layman ; and that, having himself written every line and syllable in each and every one of the aforesaid articles, and that too, without the assistance or dictation of any other, clergyman or layman, he has no intention of allowing any Ae to assume his respon- sibilities, or to be held publicly or privately responsible for the statements, language, tone, and temper of said articles. If they contain errors of induction or fact, he alone is respon- sible for them. Should there be any one sufiiciently curious to wish to know the real name of *' A Kentucky Catholic," let him apply to the editors of the Courier y who are hereby authorized to give the desired information. In conclusion, allow me to repeat the questions previously asked, and v/hich, up to this time, you have completely ignored : When were the Eoman Catholic Bishops of the United States, or any one of them, guilty of political aggression ? Can you point out a single Eoman Catholic Bishop or priest in the United States who does acknowledge, or who lias acknov/ledged, that he owes civil allegiance to the Pope? What are the corrupt practices inculcated by the Catholic Church ? Yours, ifec, A Kentucky Catholic. Louis villey Sept. 1PM, 1855. LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 57 LETTER FOURTH. "Words, words, words filled with Sound and fury, signifying nothing/' Sir : I liave never been more impressed with the aptitude of the above trite quotation, than in reading your reply to my hist letter as it appears in your Journal of the 22d inst. I have looked in vain through the closely printed columns for an answer to my inquiries regarding the ** aggressions of the Papal hierarchy" of the United States, the ** coiTU23ting influences of the Catholic church, '^ and the acknowledgment of civil fealty on the part of the American Bishops to the Pope of Ivome. My dissatisfaction as to your manner of conducting what you call the *' Papal controversy," was the natural result of J oxn not sticking to tlie point. A logical reasoner, in laying down a proposition, does not leave it till he has proved both his premises and their consequences. You laid dow^n the proposition that the hierarchy of the United States hold civil allegiance to a foreign potentate. The Bishops themselves solemnly deny it, and you have the efirontery to say, that you, ]jar excellence, know more about what the Bishops believe than they do themselves. I am not at all disposed to follow you in your eifoiis to escape from the main issue. Stick to your text. Give us the instances of political aggression which you have charged on the Bishops. Designate the kind and quality of those crimes which tlie Catholic Church inculcates on her members. Give us the name of one single individual of the American liier- archy wdio does acknowledge, or who has acknowledged, that he owes civil allegiance to the Pope. To all your charges against the church, '*cut and dried" for the use of the anti- Popei y lecturers, and unsubstantiated! by a particle of evidence, or even of reference, I ansv\'or, nego iotum — I deny the whole. To use your own language, if you** wish to talk to me*' about side issues, having nothing to do with the matters in controvers}', you must " shovr me the face " of your authority. I ask for the page and autho]*, chapter and verse, and until these are given, 1 do not hoh.i that 1 am •' under any obliga- tion" to do more than throw in your teeth that clincher to all argument based on unsubstaniialed assertion — xego totum ! You say that you have not enlarged on the private opinions of men, and yet tho private opinions of men are made the 58 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. "basis of almost cvoiy cliarge you hrhig againsl: the Churcli. If you really wish to understand what is Catholic doctrine, get the Catechism of tlio Council of Trent and read it. What if it be true that in past ages there have been found some Catliolic theologians who did favor a course which would, in our day, be designated a persecuting one. Did not Calvin favor a similar course, and carry it out to the letter, when he had Servetus burnt at tlie stake ? Did not the head of Eng- lish Protestantism, who murdered wives with as little remorse as he would have strangled kittens, akso murder, embowel, and burn Catholics, precisely because tliey were Catholics ? Did not the reformers of Germany not oidy persecute Catho- lics, but pursue a similar course towards their Protestant non- conformist brethren ? Where will you find a better example of persecution for conscience sake than was exhibited in the religious warfare between the Covenanters of Scotland and their Protestant brethren of the English Church ? How was Protestantism itself propagated in England and Germany ? Not certainly by persevering argument and the simple power of truth. Stronger arguments than these were necessary to pervert whole nations from their ancient faith. The **arm of the flesh '' was invoked, and the power of the civil magistracy; and those who refused to tui-n traitors to their God were either slaughtered or transported from the land. Did you ever hap- pen to hear of the dispersion of the Catholic Acadians from their homes in Canada by the Protestant Government of England in the last century ? There are men even now living who were born before this act of wholesale persecution was perpetrated. And if we come to our own country, who have been the persecutors here ? Assuredly not the Eoman Catho- lics. They have not burnt witches, or hung Quakers. They have not enacted ''blue laws" for the punishment of non- conformists. On the contrary, when the unfortunate object of Protestant persecution knocked at their doors, in obedience to the divine command, they took the stranger to their bosoms and administered to his wants. And even now, now in our own day, in the full blaze of the advanced civilization of the nineteenth century, in our own land, too, whose freedom and conse:[iient greatness is attributable alike to the patriotism of OTU' common ancestry, Protestant and Catholic, assisted by the blood and treasuie of a Catholic ally, who is it that is endeavoring to rear the standary Protestants, and even in greater reverence, for they deem them so sacred, as to be very cautious how they wrest them "to their own destruction.'' The Bible is found in almost eveiy Catholic family, and is freely read, though not freely intei'preted. Since the year 1800, four Catholic booksellers in Ireland, have issued nearly 300,000 copies of the Bible. In the United States there have been many editions printed, and copies are of easy access to every one. The laws of the Catholic Church are intended for the guidance of her own children. Those outside of the pale of her authority have nothing to do with them. So long, therefore, as her laws do not interfere w^ith the natural or vested rights of those 'outside, and they never can so interfere with them, I consider it a piece of unprovoked impertinence for you, or any other diss.enter from her authority, to dictate changes in her discipline, and quarrel with her members because they choose to accept her discipline without change. Would you not think it strange of me, a Eonian Catholic, if I were to suggest to the Synod of the Presbyterian Church sundry changes in her ritual, mode of worship, and manner of vesting church property ? You would clearly consider me a madman w^ere I to do so. And yet you, and the thousands like you, who have volunteered to reform the Catholic Church, are doing all this. You virtually say to the Catholic Church, you have no right to prevent your members from reading infidel and immoral books — this is a restriction of their indefeasible rights. "^ * You have no right to have a hierarchy at all ; laymen can govern the church without such a system. * * * Your Bishops have no right to prefix a cross to their signatures ; they should ** afiix their signatures, like the plain people of America.'' Reverse the case, and suppose it is the Methodist or Protestant Episcopal Church which is thus insolently spoken to by Eoman Catholics, and what would be the answer ? My Kentucky education would indicate the proper one at a moment's warning. It would be an indignant injunction for such impertinent meddlers to mind their own business! If such a declaration would be right from a Protestant to a Catholic, would it not be equally correct, under similar circumstances, from a Catholic to a Protestant ? Unquestionably it would. We ask not for your sympathy on account of what yon are pleased to call our enslaved condition. Our chains are self-imposed. Thoy are light, and we bend not under them. They are magnetized. LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 61 as it were, by electric fl^islies from heaven itself, and they give us strength to " walk erect as in the day." We ask not for your advice as to how we shall worship. We have a better rule than you can give us. We ask you not to take charge of our ecclesiastical affairs and our church property. Mind your own business! Tiiis is the axiom of common sense — rough and unpolished, yet pure gold ; American in its aptitude, and true as is the great American heart to its love of liberty. Mind your own business, and let us alone ! We interfere not in the regulation of your systems of church government. We meddle not with your synods, nor your convocations, nor your general assemblies ! Let us alone ! and, at the same time, let alone the federal constitution by which our rights are guaranteed. The contempt which you promise us unless we shall consent to receive your pity, is a very harmless article. We can manage to get along without feeling at all inconvenienced, from it. We only ask you to be careful that the feeling does not breed in you a more aggressive kind of passion, which may impel you to take upon yourselves the prerogative of Almighty God, and punish by physical pains the objects of your contempt. The transition is singularly easy, and since the advent of Know-Nothingism, something more than indi- cations of it have been abundant in the land. You have much greater cause to fear on account of the possibility of such a result, than have the Eoman Catholics ; for though you may burn our churches, mangle and imprison our bodies, and fetter the freedom of our religious worship, yon cannot put chains on the immortal soul. This will still be free, and from the very ashes of our bodies will spring the hosts to take our places. But you, who in the pride of your human wisdom thank God *'that you are not like the rest of men,'* in doing these things, v/ill be able to congratulate yourselves on having given the fatal blow to the freedom of our country, and at the same time to those qualities of ita freedom in which you take most pride, its advancement in wealth and commercial prosperity. Your reference to the act of the Continental Congress of 1774, is a very unfortunate one. This veiy act lost to us Canada, and the assistance of her people in imr struggle for independence. For, when the delegation appointed to confer with the people of Canada in regard to the propriety of join- ing forces with us, and which delegation consisted of Rev. John Carroll, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore, Chase 62 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. and Franklin, did urge this policy upon the Canadians, they justified their refusal by pointing to this very act. Charles Carroll, though the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, represented the only Catholic colony then in the country, and jeopardized thereby more than any ten individuals that did sign that document. If you suppose you have answered my queries, even to the satisfaction of any non-Catholic reasoner of moderate capaci- ties, you vi^ere never more mistaken in your life. First, you reason from premises which are false, and which we do not acknowledge, and therefore your conclusions are likewise false. We hold no civil allegiance to a foreign potentate. Secondly, the Catholic people are before and all around you, and if they are more 'corrupt, than others, it needs no refer- ence from you to Catholic treatises on moral theology, printed in a dead language, and for the guidance of the priesthood, to prove them so. The fact will be self-evident, if your charge is true. That it is basely false, will be the judgment of every right-hearted man that has ever lived in a Catholic community. Thirdly, ''aggressions'' are always tangible. They can be seen and felt; and it will not do for you to reason from your abstract ideas of what you conceive the Church to be, of what ought to be her policy. You had charged the American Bishops witli being political aggressors ; and when asked for the proof, you throw yourself upon your reserved rights, and declare that men who hold to certain principles, which you manufacture out of whole cloth for them, if they are not aggressive, ought to he so. The theological compaitnient of your brain is in a state of wretched confusion. Notwithstanding, you have endeavored to enlighten me, and the rest of mankind, on the subject of man's ** inalienable and indefeasible rights," I cannot possibly get at your meaning, and am strongly impressed with the idea that you yourself do not precisely know what yon believe on the subject. From your last explanation, I am led to the conclusion, that you believe that man has an inde- feasible right to refuse to obey the command of God. Is this so ? There is one fact connected with the Knovv'-Nothing crusade against the Catholic Church, which is certainly worthy of the attention of every lover of justice, it has been over and over again stated, that the lloman Catholics of this country are, and have always been, in reference to the elective franchise, the subservient tools of the priesthood ; that the clergy have LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATnOLIC. 63 only to indicate for whom they shall vote, and all individual preferences are at once lost sight of, in order that the whole Catholic hody may show^ an undivided front in favor of those men and measures previously selected for their suffrages hy the heads of the Church. A more wicked libel than this has never been promulgated on any body of men. There is not even the semblance of truth in it. It is known to you, that my political affinities have ahvays been towards the Whig party, as have also been those of a large majority of the Roman Catholics of Kentucky. The foreign element of the Catholic population — and the same may be said of tliat of every Protestant denomination, the Protestant Epirscopal Church, perhaps, excepted — is as w^ell known to you to be Democratic in its tendencies. If the Catholic clergy have used the supposed influence, appertaining to them as spiritual guides, to induce the Catholic people to vote in any particular way, how do you account for this diversity of political predi- lection between the two classes of native and foreign born Catholics ? But I will still go further, and record it here, as my delib- erate opinion, based upon observation and intimate personal relations with a great many Catholic clergymen, both native and of foreign birth, that a considerable majority even of the latter class, have heretofore favored the principles of the old Whig party. They have not done this, to be sure, by endea- voring to influence their people to vote in accordance with their own private individual sentiments. This was no pait of their duty as ambassadors for Christ. And had they done so, though you and your party might not have then thought proper to bring this charge against them, of undue interfer- ence in matters not directly appertaining to their calling, the opposition party doubtless would have so charged them. Thus, the inference is perfectly plain, that the Catholic priest- hood are to be held accountable for a course of conduct, which, had they truly followed, as has been charged against them, w^ould have saved them from all blame, so far, at least, as you and your party are concerned. The Eoman Catholics, am^ong all the religious bodies of this country, are the least chargeable wath being attracted by the divers isms of the day, whether they be of a religious or a political character. Mormonism, and Millerism, and Four- ierism count no Eoman Catholics in their ranks. The}' are equally free from Abolitionism, Freesoilism, and Fillibuster- ism. Always conservative, they are calm and fair in their 64 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. opposition to what tlicy deem cn-or in politics and religion. Tiiey never sull'er their preferences to lead tUem beyond the pale of social courtesy, or to render them regardless of the duties imposed by heaven-born charity. Intolerant, if you please, of the principle of Protestantism, they recognize the tmiversal law of the Church and its P^'ounder, to know no man's religion when it is a question of the relief of distress, or of the general good. If there be any man so credulous as to believe that the leaders of the Know-Nothing party, in appending to their political creed this element of political proscription on account of religious faith, were actuated by motives of true patriotism, and really feared for the safety of our peculiar institutions, because of principle's supposed to be held by Roman Catho- lics dangerous to the same, he is greatly mistaken. They had no fear of the kind, and you have no such fear. They, unfortunately, found in the minds of great numbers of Pro- testants and nominal Protestants, an intense prejudice against the Catholic Church. This prejudice had been suffered to run riot in places where a Roman Catholic w^as never seen, and was daily added to by the circulation among the illiterate of gross and lying publications, concocted for profit by men who knew no more of Catholic usages than they did of decency, and which presented to the unwary eyes of our youth a tissue of baseless charges against Catholicity, intermixed with beastly and obscene incidents. Knowing the existence of this w^ide- spread spirit of fanaticism, and believing that they could turn it to political advantage, by enlisting against the old Demo- cratic party a greater number of its then adherents than they would lose thereby of Catholic Whig votes, the Know- Nothing leaders tackled to their clumsy craft, launched at midnight on the muddy waters of civil discord and sec- tional strife, this rotten plank of Catholic proscription. The Democrats must be beaten at any cost. What matters it, if it be necessary in order to do so, that the constitution shall be trampled under foot, and the demon of religious bigotry let loose in the land to destroy all the tlowers of social happiness ! The plunder must be obtained, said they, and we will make use of this feeling of hostility to Catholics, in order to humbug the ignoiaut and bigoted of the Democratic party into assisting us in our schemes. The conservative policy of Clay and Webster was lost sight of in the determi- nation to appropriate the offices of government. Many of the preachers were ii)nage, robbery and murder. LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 79 The religious cominnnities were ruthlessly driven from their homes, and their property appropriated by the mob ; the priests were murdered in coid blood while officiating at the altar or when visiting the sick : the public buildings were rifled ; black mail was levied on all who could not or would not join in promoting the horrid atrocities which were publicly perpe- trated and publicly boasted of. This is a true picture of what these men did in the s^icred name of libeity. Look at this other picture of the great and good man for whose blood they thirsted. I quote from a letter dated Rome, August, 1849: "On another occasion the [>.»Uce arretted an iixiividual that was clandes- tinely distributiag copies of a tract eiititicd ' The History of Pius IX, the intrusive Pope, the foe of reiigiun, and the chief of ywuiig Italy.' The Holy Father, hearing of his aiTCjt, had the accused brought before him, asked him a few questions, and then said : * As your faults affect only me, I pardon you/ The man touched with the generosity of the act, threw himself in tears at the foot of the Pontiff, aad offered to namo the writers of the pamphlet. ^Xo, no,' said the Pope, ' lot their fauUs remain buried in silence, and may repentance touch their hciirts.' " Look Upon these two pictures, and tell me, upon which will the eye of the true many be he Catholic or Protestant, Republican or Monarchist, best love to rest? Can you ** sympathize^' with the cut-throat and the robber, and look with abhorrence on the merciful and kind-hearted Pius IX ? I can scarcely think it ; but if it is so, I can no longer won- der t]>at you should, even here, labor to disseminata prejudices likely to breed outbreaks of popular fury, equal in atrocity to those enacted by the revolutionists of E,ome, in 1848. I have thus far confined myself to noticing the principal objections you make to the Catholic Church, namely, the Temporal Power of the Popes ^ the Deposing Power, and Persecution of Heretics. There are minor objections which will receive due attention in my next. To a Catholic, it is not at all wonderful that the enemies of the Church should single out the Papacy as the first object of their attacks. True to the instincts of the great enemy of all truth, whose emissaries, wittingly or unwittingly, they are, they make their fiercest assaults on the citadel of the faith. Blinded by passion, they hope to destroy the Papacy, and thus take from the mighty fabric, whose downfall they contemplate, the keystone by which it is held together. Fu- tile are all their hopes, and imbecile all their efforts ! One mightier than they has laid the strong foundations of that edifice, and reared that glorious arch, against which the 80 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. "gates of hell'* shall rage in vain. The rock of Peter, crowned with the everlasting Church of God, though buffetted for ages by the surges of an ever-restless sea, fanned into fury by the pa^^sions of men, will still remain, and so long as time shall la.st, will serve as a beacon to guide the souls of the redeemed to the haven of never-ending peace. The Church of God throughout the whole world, bound indissolubly to this ''Kodv of Ages,'' ever suifering and ever triumphant, will still continue to present to all generations the beauty and comeliness with which He hath clothed lier, whose eternal beauty she but reiiect.s. Yours, &c., A Ken^tlx^ky Catholic. Louis villey October 18tA, 1855. LETTER SEVENTH. Sir: — I find that you frequently confound the power of excommunication, as sometimes exercised by the Head of the Church, with the temporal power, which you falsely impute to him. Excommunication is merely a severing from the communion of the Church, and is a power claimed and exer- cised by every Protestant denomination. The word anathema, in the form of excommunication of the Catholic Church, is the very word given by St. Paul in this connection. What do you think of the authority ? '2d. The '' Bulla in Coena Domini," which you woefully misrepresent, has not been pronounced, even in Rome, since the days of Clement XIV, nearly one hundred years. By this bull, it is true, all heretics were excommunicated, or cut off from the communion of the Church ; but this is nothing new. It mainly embodies forms of excommunication against robbers, extortioners, pirates, oppressors of the poor, mur- derers, sacrilegious invaders of holy things, and forgers of Papal documents. Look out, Mr. Editor, or you may come in for your share under this last head, lor, if you do not really *' forge Papal documents," you are at least taking on trust those already forged to your hand. Such a forgery is the pretended bull of Innocent 111. Neither that Pope, nor any other that ever lived, has intimated the monstrous propo- sition that ''no faith ought to be kept with heretics." LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATnOLIC. 81 3d. You say that **in the United States it is the duty of the priests to invoke a curse upon all Protestants ; but they do it privately on the morning of the Thrasday beiore Good Friday/' In this charge there is not one atom of truth. Every priest -prsijH publidi/ for all heretics on Good Friday. 4th. Why do you not give a translation of the form of excommunication found in the ** PontifiL-aie liomanum?'' You will find it quit^ a different affair from the fanciiul pro- duction of the author of **Tristam Shandy/"' 5th. Though anxious to find the passage Avliieh you quote from the ** Roman Catholic Breviary/' I have been unable to set eyes on it. Will you do me the favor to indicate upon what page occurs the sentence, ** Whoever says the Roman Catholic Church is not infallible, let him be accursed." 6th. Where did you come across the ridiculous idea embodied in the following paragraph from your article of the 3d inst : "We did not say, however, that the Bible was totally denied to the peo- ple. The Church does allow the Engli!Lenec for centuries anterior to any form of Protestantism. 8 he has included within her pale the brightest intellects the world e'ver saw, and she has been the nursing mother of saints in every age of her existence. She has been the instrument of the conversion of every hea- then nation that has ever been brouglit into the fold of Christianity. Your o\^tl fathers, but a few centuries ago, were her obedient children, and you yourself, indirectly at least, owe to her all that you have of Christianity. She is no sect, for she exists every wliere, and as she has always existed, unchanging and unchangeable — '* the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.'' You cannot but acknowledge, that there was a time, when no other Christian Church did exist upon earth. You will also acknowledge, that in the Bible, which you hold to be the rule of your faith, there is recorded a distinct promise of the Saviour to be with his ministiy all days. It necessarily follows, that if the Catholic Church is not the Church of Clirist, He, whom Protestants and Catholics alike, acknow- ledge to be the God of truth, absolutely failed to make good his promise during those days when no other Church had existence. And this is the Church which you blasphemously call '' the Son of Perdition " and the •* Mystery of Iniquity.'* Still, I am not surprised that you should so call her. Insult naturally follows injury. You have causelessly, and in the face of the constitution of our country, banded with bigots to deprive your Catholic fellow-citizens of their civil rights, and it is most fitting that you should insult them in that which is to them their one hope for time and eternity. Yours, &c., A Kentucky Catholic. Louisville y December 4tth, 1855. LETTER TENTH. Sir : You commence your response to ** A Kentucky Catholic," of the 15th of November, with a paragraph of glorification over the recent Know-Nothing victories in Cali- fornia and Maiyland. I see it stated that, in California, your party entii'ely abrograted the religious test question ; conse- quently, its success was not insured on principles necessarily 102 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. repugnant to mo as a Catholic. 1 am individnally opposed to the proscription of foreigners, and think that our present laws in reference to immigrants., if rightly administered, are ample for the pi'otection of American interests, so far as onr adopted citizens are capable of compromising them. But as there is no reason why a Catholic should not honestly enter- tain a contrary opinion, I have not considered myself called upon to discuss the subject at all. But, with reference to Maryland, you indicate as one of the principal causes of the success of your party, *Hhat no other State had such an opportunity to witness the atrocities and horrors of Priest- craft and Popery.'' Will you have the goodness, sir, to indicate a few of thgse Popish atrocities which have so much horrified the good Protestant people of Maryland ? First, of honest George Calvert — a Catholic from choice — he, who, at a time when persecution of Catholics was considered a duty incidental to official position, wrote to his Sovereign, on tendering his resignation of the office of Secretary of State, that ** being now a Roman Catholic, he could no longer hold his office, because in doing so he must be wanting to his trust or violate his conscience." Of what atrocities was the old Maryland Proprietary guilty ? He had the hardihood to refuse to hang up the rebellious Protestant non-conformists of Massachussetts, who had fled to him for protection. Here was an instance of unparalleled atrocity ! And Charles Carroll, of Carrolton? He horrified Protestant England by affixing his signature to the Declaration of Independence, and even went to such a length of atrocity as to jeopardize a princely fortune in the cause of American freedom. Was not this an act of unpardonable atrocity ? And Archbishop Carroll? — he was so abominably atrocious as to aspire, and successfully, to the friendship and confidence of such men as Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, and to have acted with the former in a delicate mission on public affairs to a neighboring colony. Could any man ask for better proofs of the '' atrocities and horrors '' of Popery in Maryland ? Shame on you, for having ^vritten so atrocious a calumny! Purer patriots, or belter citizens, no State can boast of, than can Maryland in the descendants of the colo- nists of old St. Mary's. But what were the atrocities exliibited by the Catholics of Maryland, and which caused the triumph of Know-Nothing- ism in that State ? I will tell you. They were the atrocity of being true to their God and true to their country ; the LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 103 atrocity of wishing to live in peace and share in the blessings of freedom won by a common ancestry ; the atrocity of the lamb, as perceived by the eyes of the wolf, which still sees the stream of our national liberty muddled by the Catholic in his efforts to drink of its waters. These are the atroci- ties which engender your spleen, and which you and your followers in Kentucky, and your brethren in Maryland, are endeavoring to abate. You say that it was your ''purpose to dissect and resolve the system of Popery into its original elements," and you go on with a column and a half of what, no doubt, you intend for a dissection and resolution of that system, but which, unfortunately for yourself, proves only how little you really know of the nature of the system you would dissect. Polemic theology, like the gun of the redoubtable McFingal, becomes, in your hands, a power, not for the overthrow of your enemies, but for the discomfiture of yourself. Every argument you use is as applicable against the system of Christianity as it is against that of Catholicity. For instance, you say that ''the Papal organization has managed to prolong to the present day, through tedious centmies, its horrible exist- ence of fraud and rapine, of superstitious darkness and hardened power.'' Now, the Papal system, until three hundred years ago, was the only continuous and sustained system of Chris- tianity, recognized as such by the Christian world, if we except that of the Greek Church, whose sacraments and mode of government are identical with those of the Catholic Church. It follows, therefore, and particularly so, inasmuch as the acts for which you most impugn the Papacy occurred previous to the so-called reformation, that the system of Christianity itself, according to your reasoning, and in spite of the Divine promise, that the Holy Spirit should be with it always, leading it into all truth, was nothing better than " a system of fraud and rapine, of superstitious darkness and hardened power.'' The "Papal system has managed to pro- long its existence." It has done no such thing. Almighty God has *• managed" to perpetuate his own work. Catho- licity, and the Papacy as an integral part of the system, does not depend upon the wisdom of man for its permanency or stability. Were it otherwise than a Divine system, no power of man could have prevented it from being influenced by the all-pervading law of mutation, inseparable from the works of mere human wisdom. In what sense can you call Catholicity a system of " fraud I ][Q4 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. and rapine?*' — ''of power, of finance and superstition?** You seem to infer that her ministers are rapacious of power. Power over whom ? — and how to be exerted ? Certainly not power over the State in its civil affairs. They ask of the State only the liberty of teaching and ministering, that they may, in the first place, gain souls for heaven, and in the second place, be instrumental, by inculcating the morality of the gospel, in forming good citizens for the State. Can you point to me a single Catholic government on the face of the globe, excepting the States of the Church, in which the Catholic hierarchy exeit any more influence over temporal matters than do the Protestant ministers of Great Britain and the United States over the civil affairs of those countries ? As Lacordaire says, ''The Church asks but a free passage through this world.'* ''A system of fraud and rapine ? " Whom does it rob or defraud? Can you or any other man point to a single piece of Church property in the Union, to which the Bishop, or pastor, or trustees cannot show you a clear title, and which has not been honestly obtained ? For what purpose should the ministers of the Church act as robbers ? They have no families to aggrandize by the fruits of their frauds, and their style of living is of the simplest kind. Nonsense ! my dear sir ; you have been reading lying books about Jesuit rapacity until your mind has become diseased. *' A system of finance ? " If you mean by this, that the Bishops and priests of the Church are in the habit of specu- lating in stocks, and lands, and money, even for legitimate objects, you mistake completely in your estimate of their financial propensities. If you mean, however, that their financial acumen is very fj-equently exerted, for the purpose of raising funds for the building of churches, schools, hospi- tals, orphan asylums and the like, you are not far from the mark in saying that they are attached to a *' system of finance." Of one thing you may be perfectly advised, how- ever great sums may happen to pass through the hands of the Catholic clergy, but little sticks to their fingers in its transit. Did you ever acquaint yourself with the routine of life generally exhibited by the missionary priest in the United States ? Let me picture it for you. The missionary priest seldom has a patrimony of his own, and, consequently, he is at once dependent upon his congregation, in nine cases out of ten, a poor one, for his maintenance. After leaving the seminary, he is appointed to the pastorship of the congre- LETTEBS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 105 gations, if a few isolated Catholic families may be called a congregation, covering often, one, two, three, and sometimes a half dozen counties. The duties pertaining to his pastor- ship, in so extended a mission, are always arduous in the extreme ; that of the confessional, which you seem to think one of his most pleasant employments, being the most so. Liable to be called upon at all hours of the day or night, to attend to sick calls, sometimes at the distance of a day's journey on horseback, he is frequently under the necessity of reading his office (a duty never omitted) while in the saddle, or at an hour when the fashionable ministers of Protestantism are resting after the fatigue consequent on the delivery of an evening discourse. On Sundays, after hearing confessions till perhaps near midday, and afterwards saying mass and preaching, he is permitted, for the first time since the previous evening, to take some refreshment. His day's labor is not yet over ; the sick and infirm of the neighborhood are to be visited, the wanderer to be reasoned with and admonished, the children to be baptized, and perhaps the burial service to be read over the remains of one w^ho has gone to rest. The delicate man of the world would consider the life of the missionary priest in the cities little less revolting. Sick calls are more frequent ; the hospitals and poor houses are to be visited, and his door is hourly besieged by the poor and the stranger, vrho look upon the priest as their natural friend and adviser, and perhaps the only one whom God has left them. These must be relieved, and if too poor himself to extend the necessary aid, he is compelled to exert his financial abilities to procure, by rapacious onslaughts upon the pockets of his more fortunate parishioners, that which may be requisite to keep destitution from the garrets and hovels of God's poor. Yes, you are right ; the Catholic system is a ** system of finance," and the treasures accumulated by its operations are laid up '* where mst does not consume nor thieves break in and steal." You may form, from the above, some idea of the missionary life of a Eoman Catholic priest in the United States ; and to enable you to understand that the only motives capable of influencing men to undergo so much labor and privation must be supernatural motives, it is only necessary to add, that the usual income of a Catholic missionary, in this country, does not equal in amount the salary of a sexton in one of your fashionable churches. The excess of his income, too, over and above what is necessary for his simple wants, is almost 106 LETTERS OF A KENTCCKY CATHOLIC; invariably expended in cliarit}' , so tliat at liib death his effects are seldom more than enough to cover the expenses attendant on his funei'al. And these are the men you call rapacious and fraudulent ! They will forgive you, but it should be difficult for you to forgive yourself for having published so iniquitous a slander. The Catholic Church is also ** a trading corporation.*' I recollect to have read in the papers, some years ago, of some missionaries, in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and elsewhere, who had made very pretty business operations in trading with the natives ; but these trading missionaries were not sent out by the Pope, and having families to support, and sons and daughters to educate and set up in life, I cannot find it in my heart to blame them for looking to the main chance. These good missionaries, doubtless, found that furs, and peltry, and barreled fish were to be had, and money to be made out of them. Native labor, too, was cheap, and though possibly they w^ould have preferred to exchange, for both commodities and labor. Bibles and tracts, which cost them nothing, and of which the natives, being unable to read, could make no use, these sons of the wilderness preferred the low wages offered for catching fish and trapping beavers. It was not for men situated as these missionaries were, to weigh too nicely the delicate question of moral ethics, presented for their consideration, and being unable to live by their ministe- rial calling, they added to it that of traders in furs and salmon. They were fishers, but not *' fishers of men.'' I do not mention these circumstances for the purpose of calling in question the good intentions by which the generality of Protestant missionaries are influenced, but merely to indi- cate, that before you charge the Catholic Church with being ** a trading corporation," you should first look at home to see if your own skirts are clear. And Catholicity is also a *' system of darkened super- stition ! " The unbeliever will say the same thing of the system of Christianity. But I deny that you are capable of judging of the Catholic Church in this respect. You look at her through a false medium, which distorts and mystifies your vision, and makes those things appear superstitious, which, when clearly seen and rightly understood, are in reality beautifully harmonious and perfectly consonant with enlightened reason. No Protestant, whose ideas of the teach- ings and practices of tlie Church are gathered from the writings of her enemies, can possibly have a clear perception LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 107 of their real meaning. I hold, therefore, that if you are really sincere in your opinions, as you state them, you are, to all intents and purposes, insane on those subjects connected with the Catholic Church. *' Money is power 1 " In worldly affairs, yes ; in spiritual affairs, no. Have you ever examined the yearly reports of the different Protestant foreign missionary societies, whose enor- mous incomes, if money was really powder in religious affairs, ought to enable them to convert the whole pagan w^orld in a few years ? It were well for you to make this examination, and to compile, for the benefit of your readers, a table, showing the cost, per caput, of each convert to Protestantism. It is a well established fact, that the College De Propaganda Fide, in Eome, the yearly income of which is just ^85,000, annually converts more souls to Christianity than the whole machinery of Protestant missionary effort is able to evan- gelize. Almost every known language is taught in this institution by the first masters of the age, and it sends out yearly its bands of missionaries, like those sent out by our blessed Lord, without scrip or purse, to preach the gospel, in eveiy land where man has a habitation. Money is not power ! But the Word of God, preached by the authorized ministers of Christ, is power — not because of any intrinsic excellence of the teachers themselves, but from the Divine aid given to those sent of God, which enables them to pro- duce fruits, where the efforts of mere human wisdom, sustained by millions of money, can find naught but unfertile fields and barren wastes. ** Knowledge is power ? '* Yes, but the tree of knowledge has two stems, one for good and the other for evil. Know- ledge with religion is powerful for good ; knowledge without religion is as powerful for evil. ** Popery monopolized for ages the learning of the world, and seeks to do so still,'' but ** its hostility to common schools and general intelligence has grown into a proverb." Here is a flat contradiction ; but I suppose you mean to assert, that the Catholic Church reserves for its clergy aU the learning, and is opposed to the spread of intelligence among the people. This is an old slander, the falsity of which you have had abundant oppor- tunities to learn. According to their numbers, the Catholic people of Kentucky expend more money for educational purposes than does any Protestant sect in the State. They own and control a gi'eater number of schools, academies and colleges for the education of the youth of both sexes than 108 LETTEIIS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. any denomination of twice their nmnber. But tlie Catholic Church is opposed to the education of the intellect to the exclusion of the education of the moral faculties. She wishes to have nothing to do with education where these are left to run wildly to ruin. There are many Protestants, of known virtue and intelligence, who fully agree with Catholics upon this point. No Christian, who will reflect on the tendency of this sort of education, as exhibited in the fruits of the German rationalistic school of the present day, can fail to recognize the wisdom of the Catholic Church in preferring that her schools be not only schools of intellectual knowledge, but also of virtue and religion. If you mean by saying ''there is scarcely a principle or tenet of Catholicism that does not bear a direct relation to the enslavement and degradation of mankind,'' that the Catholic Church labors to bring all men under the yoke of the gospel of Christ, you are perfectly correct in your estimate of her purposes. But there is no ** degradation " in'^^is. If you mean that through her principles and tenets she labors to degrade manhood from its true dignity, you entirely mistake the object of her mission. She seeks to raise up, but never to degrade. Your synopsis of the principles and tenets of the Church is, without doubt, the most unique affair of the kind that has ever come under my notice, and your explana- tion of the nature of her sacraments, affects me only with wonder at the insufferable stupidity of that mind, whose ideas are so much opposed to the plainest dictates of common sense. You say, in effect, that the ministry of the Church is the vital force of the Catholic system. Will you be kind enough to tell me what other force, than the teaching of the ministry, is indicated by the writers of the Kew Testament for the spread of the Gospel ! You say that the Saciiiice of the Mass does away with the " great doctrine of justification by faith alone.'* In saying this, are you not treading on the toes of some of your non-evangelical Protestant neighbors ? You say '*the Kentucky Catholic believes that Jesus Christ constituted the Eomish King his special Vicar on earth, and therefore gave his perfectly conclusive testimony and sanction in favor of a royal form of government." The Kentucky Catholic says no such thing. He says that by appointment, as provided for by Jesus Christ in the economy of his Church, the Pope, as Bishop of Rome, possesses and exercises the office of V^icar of Christ upon earth. He cornea by his royal prerogatives as other rulers come by theirs, LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 109 according to tlie genius and constitution of the State over which he is placed. His office of Governor of Rome is not necessarily connected with his office of Vicar of Jesus Christ. The most astonishing portion of your Avhole article, how- ever, is that in which Pius IX is charged with having ordered the execution of Ugo Bassi. This matter has often been put in so clear a light, that there is no excuse for your being igno- rant of the facts connected with it. Mr. Cass, our Charge at Rome, whose letters were published in the American papers two years ago, says that the Austrian Military Governor of Bologna was alone responsible for that act, and that neither Pius IX, nor his Nuncio, Archbishop Bedini, had anything to do with it. Now I ask you, provided Know-Nothingism has not deprived you of all candor, to correct at least this one of your many aspersions of the Pope. You conclude by saying, ** though it is meet that Pius IX should be the head of such a system as Roman Catholicism, it is not meet that there should be such an unnatural person- age as *A Kentucky Catholic' '' You are at perfect liberty to think of me and my opinions as you please, and I shall not quarrel with you for expressing your thoughts. You and I are to be judged by tribunals composed of essentially dif- ferent materials. Some of those for whom you write will very likely think with you that I am an unnatural personage, and you may possibly put your heads together to devise ways and means for exterminating all such. Those for whom I write, and who disclaim to be governed by the spirit of fana- ticism, will be content to allow me and my fellow-religionists to believe as we please and worship as we please. They will look at our acts in order to discern if there be dangerous sen- timents in our hearts. Will your party succeed in ostracising American citizens on account of their faith ? — or will the true American party succeed in upholding the constitution and in rebuking fanaticism ? I will tell you. Besiderium peccaiorum peribit, which, freely translated, means, Americans shall still rule America, Yours, &c., A Kentucky Catholic. Louisville, December 14th, 1855. 110 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. LETTER ELEVENTH. Sir : — It is a remarkable circumstance connected with this controversy, that you almost invariably state my propo- sitions unfairly. For instance : you speak as if I had asserted, that the judgment which Almighty God has given to each one of us, is not to be used in spiritual matters ; whereas, I argued only against the reasonableness of the Protestant principle of private interpretation of the scriptures. You speak of private judgment in the sense that it is a right. Catho- lics have no objection that all men shall hold the right to judge for themselves. But we also claim this same right, even though our judgment should lead us to the relinquish- ment of this '* precious" privilege into the hands of the Church of God, so far as the interpretation of the scriptures is concerned. If I, through my judgment, am convinced, that Jesus Christ instituted a tribunal for the certain inter- pretation of His revelation, I am making a veiy poor use of my judgment in refusing to acknowledge the intei-pretations of such tribunal. In searching for truth, we are bound to use our judgment, aided by the Holy Spirit, invoked in prayer; and the Catholic Church not only does not oppose such use of our reason, but positively enjoins it. If men will but use the reason which GoJ has given them, they must come to the conclusion, that if there be no other tribunal for the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures than that of private judgment, then Christ has left liis work in such a state as to render it practically impossible for them to arrive, with cer- tainty, at *' the knowledge of the truth.'' There is scarcely a dogma held by any one of the Protestant denominations, that is not denied by some one or another of its sister churches. Keason must inevitably lead the logical mind to the appreciation of a principle conservative of truth — which is one ; but the principle, that each individual Bible reader, must pick his faith out of the book, according to his own judgment of the meaning of its passages, is a principle that inevitably lends to diversiiy — whicli is error. If the Apostle Pi}h'v, in riis Epistles, ** addressed himself to private ijitoipreiMtiori/' as you say, why does he caution the people against so inter[)reting the Epistles of St. Paul, his co-laboi-er. He says that many of the writings of St. Paul *'arc hind to bo understood," and that *' the unlearned LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. Ill and the unstable wrest tlieni, as also the other scriptures, to their own destrnction." You say that I acknowledge in one sentence what I contra- dict in another, and you instance tliis by my acknowledging that the Church has no right to force conscience, but that she has the right to command moral obedience. Almighty God has the right to require obedience to His laws, and yet He chooses to leave us free to disobey them. The Church is the organ of Christ, and has the right to command my obedience to her laws ; yet, as there is no merit in worship that is not voluntarily accorded, so the enforcement of the outward manifestation of worship is not only useless, but is also opposed to the manifest will of God, that his creatures shall exercise the attribute of free-will. Your argument is based entirely upon the idea, that there is no such thing as free- will in man. It is unnecessary to say, that Catholics hold to no such doctrine. I shall now^ take up your deductions from what you claim to be the admissions of *' A Kentucky Catholic,'' and append to them, in the order indicated by yourself, such rejoinders as their context may require. 1st. ^' That the Divine law, or the law of conscience, is above all human law, and no legislation is binding which contravenes the Divine law or the law of conscience." This is correctly stated. Do you deny the truth of the proposition ? Would you obey any legal enactment which commanded you to do that which you believed to be opposed to the Law of God ? 2d. " That this Divine law or law of conscience is binding to any ex- tremity — even against personal violence or death itself, and must be enforced — no matter what the consequences." I am really pained to have to charge you, in this, with having given yoiu- readers what appears to me a willful per- version of the obvious meaning of the text. In order to illustrate XAiid proposition, I gave instances, supposed ones, of course, which could not fail to convey to any ordinary mind its exact meaning. It is very difficult for me to believe, that you misapprehended the idea I endeavored to convey, for the words ''and must be enforced," embodied in your deduction, and which cannot be, even by the largest license, deduced from anything I have ever written, give another and an entirely different sense to the proposition. You endeavor to make your readers believe, that I hold, that Catholics, in order to uphold the law of their conscience, are bound to 112 LETTERS OF A KENTJCKY CATHOLIC. make war upon the State, sliould it ever joass a law contrary to tlieir understanding of the Law of Uod; Avhereas, I only said, that if the law of the State commanded Catliolics to do that which they believed to be opposed to the law of God, it would be their duty to refuse obedience to such a law, even though death were tlie penalty of their refusal. Allow me to give you another illustration, in ortler that you may have a clear notion of my meaning. We will suppose that the mobocrats who surrounded the burning buildings of Quinn'a Row, on the night of the 6th of August last, had been em- powered, by previous legislative enactment, to grant an amnesty to such of the beleagured inmates as should consent to trample on the^law of their conscience, and apostatize from their faith ; and further, that according to the same enactment, they w^ere commanded to shoot, hang, and burn, indiscriminately, all who refused the boon of life except at the expense of treason to their God. In such a case, I con- tend, that the law of conscience, which is the individual conception of what the law of God requires, should have induced these persecuted foreigners to accept the penalty attached to their contumacy, and to have thus upheld the ** higher law " of their conscience. 3d. "That the Pope of- Rome is divinely inspired to make known the Divine law, or the law of cou.science, and therefore the law of God can always be infalUhlij knuv»'n.** I said that the Pope, as Vicar of Jesus Christ, has authority to decide for Catholics all questions in the spiritual order, and that should the State enact a law of questionable obli- gation on conscience, his decision would be, for them, defini- tive as to the charactei* of the law. 4th. "That the law of conscience may be interfered with by human legis- lation, and a conflict mxiy at any time occur between spiritual and temporal jurisdiction," This is so palpably true, that I suppose you will not deny it. The civil law, under the Roman Emperors, demanded that Christians should offer sacrifices to the gods of heathenism. Will you say that these Christians were wrong in refusing obedience to the law ? 5th. "That in case of such conflict, the Pope of Rome is the eupremo arbiter of the question, and his decision is final and conclusive. 6th. "That among the ([uestions he has been called on to decide, is the validity of the constitution of the United States." I only gave, for your consideration, a quotation from Dr. Brownson, wherein he states that "the Pope has already LKTT&US OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 113 decided * that the Constitution of the United States requires nothing of the Catholic which is opposed to the law of con- science/ " I do not suppose that Dr. Brownson intended to assert, by this, that the question of the compatibility of the constitution with the Law of God, had actually been brought before the Pope for his decision, but only that, inasmuch as no Catholic has ever refused to obey the requirements of the constitution, the sequence was clear that it does not ask any- thing of him contrary to the Divine Law. 7th. " That no Catholic can plead conscience for violating a law, so it bo ■passed in accordance with the Cbnstitution.''* Laws in reference to temporal matters are of binding force until they are repealed, or pronounced unconstitutional by the proper tribunals. But no law, of any State, whether constitutional or otherwise, which commands either the Catholic or Protestant to do that which is in itself opposed to the Law of God, or the law of his conscience, is of binding force on the mind, and the Christian who should uphold the provisions of such a law, would, by the fact, cease to be a Christian. 8th. "That, though the Sovereign Pontiff has pronounced a decision favorably to the constitution, he may yet have to decide upon the validity of the statutes; and in case he decides that the statutes are unconscientious or unconstitutional, the loyalty of every Catholic is that moment released. 9th. " That the acts of our Congress, or the statutes of the States, are not conclusively settled by the supreme courts of the country, and have no bind- ing effect unless sanctioned by his Holiness — of dernier resort. 10th. " That if the supreme courts of the Federal or State Governments should decide a statute one way, and his Holiness the other way, the latter must prevail, because his Holiness is infallible, and the spiritual order ia superior to the temporal order. nth. " The higher law doctrine is distinctly avowed and explicitly taught in its very worst form. The Foreign Judiciary at Kome is made superior to the Domestic Judiciary of the United States." Sir, you either grievously misapprehend or willfully misstate the whole question. Your premises are false, and your con- clusions are necessarily no conclusions at all. You assume what you should prove. In merely temporal or civil matters, the State is supreme ; and neither the Catholic Church, nor its chief executive, the Pope, has any control whatever over its enactments or statutes, so long as they remain strictly within the civil order. It is only when the State departs from its own appropriate sphere of action, and wantonly tramples on the rights secured to every Christian alike by the Law of God, in the spiritual order, that the Church has an inalienable right to step forth, and vindicate her outraged independence. Her motto, then, becomes that of the persecuted. Apostles, 114 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. who, when arraigned before the Jewish tribunals and com- manded to cease preaching Christ and His doctrines, answered, with a noble courage, ** It is better to obey God than man." Your entire reasoning is based upon that fallacy which logicians designate ignoratio ehenchi — a misconception of the question. If Dr. Brownson means to say, or even to intimate, that the binding force of the constitution depends upon the Papal sanction — which I cannot, as I have already said, believe to have been his meaning — then I differ from him in toto on the whole question. There is no evidence to show that the Pope has taken any action whatever on the subject. The civil authorities are supreme in the temporal order; their enactments are of .binding force as long as they do not encroach on the rights of conscience, or, what is the same thing, trample on the Law of God, with which they have, obviously, no right to interfere. You would do well, sir, before you proceed further in this controversy, in which you have plainly already got far beyond your depth, to take some lessons in the elementary principles of a science commonly called logic. The Pope has nothing to do with civil constitutions, con- gressional acts, legal enactments, or courts of civil judicature, outside of his own dominions, and his decisions on questions of conscience are not given with the purpose of influencing these. They are rendered only in order to indicate to the children of the Church what is demanded of them by the Law of God. All Christianity — Protestant no less than Catholic — teaches that human institutions are fallible. It follows, therefore, that laws for the government of human affairs may be of such a nature as to be opposed to the law of conscience, or to that individual understanding of the Divine Law, according to which every man must regulate his actions. From the very nature of the Being from whom it emanates, the Law of God cannot be otherwise than a perfect law, and every legal enactment opposed to it, or even to the individual perception of the obligations flowing from it, is necessarily unjust and iniquitous, and, as such, positively requires, at the hands of the conscientious man, that, sooner than obey its requirements, he shall consent to suifer whatever penalty it may enjoin for contumacy, even though that penalty be death itself. The Christian, in refusing to obey such a law, does not, as you would seem to indicate when you use the words **and must be enforced,'' attempt to control the action of the State, and endeavor to enforce the law of his LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. 115 conscience against those who may as conscientiously differ from him. He acts solely for himself, considering that he owes obedience first and above all to the laws of his God. If this be the ''higher-law'' doctrine which you speak of, then it is the exact doctrine taught by every Christian deno- mination in the land, and a doctrine which every Christian, who is able to reason logically on the nature of his obligations in the moral order, is bound to uphold. The Northern Abolitionists may be conscientious in holding that slavery is sinful ; but they, not content with using moral means for the eradication of the supposed evil, are endeavor- ing to enforce the law of their conscience over those who as conscientiously believe that the institution is not opposed to the Divine Law. It is not requii-ed by our laws that these men shall be slaveholders, or even that they shall make use of the products of slave labor. In their mode of upholding the law of their conscience, they trespass as well on the con- sciences of others as upon their civil rights. If they believe that the institution of slavery is opposed to the Law of God, I blame them not for refusing to have anything to do with it. But I do blame them for seeking to measure the consciences of their neighbors according to their own standard, and for endeavoring to eradicate slavery by trampling on the rights of the South. The question resolves itself into a nut-shell, and may be thus stated: Will not the Christian be held responsible before God for rendering obedience to an enactment which he conscientiously believes to be opposed to the Divine Law ? If he will not be so held, then, the martyrs of all ages, who have shed their blood rather than compromise the law of con- science, were in fact no martyrs at all, and absolutely, by the very act of refusing to obey laws which they deemed repug- nant to the Law of God, offered an insult to the Deity, who, according to your reasoning, wills that all civil laws, no matter whether in accordance with or opposed to the Divine Law, shall be implicitly obeyed. This discussion, so far as the writer is concerned, closes with this letter. I have endeavored, in the course of it, to point out to you the injustice of the policy pursued by your party towards the Catholic Church and the Catholic people of this country. Though a more able controversialist, doubt- less, might have presented the subjects I have discussed in a clearer light, and with more cogent reasoning ; and though I may have failed to effect any change in your views, I can yet 116 LETTERS OF A KENTUCKY CATHOLIC. entertain the liopo that the letters of *' A Kentuclvy Catholic" have not been altogether unp]-odiictive of good. I trust that they have been instrumental in removing doubts from some minds, and in convincing others, that the Roman Catholics pf the United States have interests identical with their Pro- testant fellow-citizens in the perpetuity of our republican institutions. Hoping the day will soon come when you, sir, will look with regret, if not with repentance, on the part which you liave thought proper to take in disseminating the seeds of a reckless fanaticism broadcast over the land and trusting in Providence to render these seeds unproductive of the bitter fruits inseparable fcom their nature, where they are allowed to take root, I bid you farewell. Yonrs,