The Catholic pages of American history : a lecture


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A LECTURE
BY

HON. J. L. MACDONALD.

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I hope ever to see America the foremost nation in examples of
justice and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens will not
forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their
resolution, and the establishment of their government; or the import-
ant assistance they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic
faith is professed.”

—

Gbn. Washington, replying to the congratulatory
address of the Catholics of the United States.

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The Catholic Truth Society
OF AMERICA.

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ST. PAUL. MINNESOTA.

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THE CATHOLIC PAGES OF AMERICAN
HISTORY.

A LECTURE BY HON. J. L. MACDONALD.

Delivered in Cretin Hall, St. Paul, Minn., February 18, 1891, under the
auspices of the Catholic Truth Society.

/ . .

Ladies and Gentlemen:

There is ho country on the face of the earth whose
citizens, as a body, are so free from religious prejudice
and sectarian bias, as the United States. Our people,
with but few exceptions—as becomes the citizens of a
great republic—have learned to respect each others
opinions; and, recognizing the fact that man is account-
able to God alone for his religious belief, they have
agreed to disagree, where they differ, and to insist
that no one shall be disturbed in the enjoyment of the
inestimable right of freedom of conscience.
The friends and admirers of human freedom, in

other lands, regard the United States—and rightly,
so—as a grand temple of liberty, in which they all
would fain reside. It so appears to them, because
here, more than under any other government upon the
globe, our people enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness,” and because here the oppressed of all
nations have found a refuge from tyranny, oppression
and wrong.
The arch which would represent the entrance to this

temple of liberty is our constitution, and its keystone
is that provision which secures to all living under its
protecting aegis, religious as well as civil freedom;
the right to worship God according to the dictates ol
their own consciences. In the language of the author



2

of the declaration of independence, this constitution
“has banished from our land that religious intolerance
under which mankind so long bled and suffered!”

But there are exceptions to every rule, and this
rule is not without them. Now and then there arises
a bigoted Cassandra who attempts to disturb the spirit
of harmony and good will that exists among our citi-
zens, by frantic appeals to religious prejudice, and by
doleful forebodings of dangers which have been fore-
told for almost a century, but have not yet materialized.
In the recent past, this portion of our country had an
exhibition of these “alarming” prognostications, and

* the periodical and oft-refuted effort was made to*%rray
the Catholic Church as the enemy of republican in-
stitutions. But the attack met the fate of its predeces-
sors, and is now scarcely remembered. The Catholic
Truth Society has, however, concluded that it is due
to the members of the Catholic Church, and the Ameri-
can people, that the truth of our histpry, as to the

Catholic portion thereof, be made more generally
known. They have concluded that the most crushing
rebuke that can be administered to these maligners
of the Catholic Church and its members, is to place
before our citizens the Catholic pages of American
history, and I have been requested to perform that
duty.

I would have much preferred that the task had been
assigned to other and abler hands; but, believing it to
be the duty of us all to aid and assist this Society in
its laudable efforts when we can do so, I have con-
cluded to comply with that request, to the best of my

It will be hardly necessary for me to remark that a
lecture on this subject can be .but little more than a
brief statement of historical facts.

It is not my intention to claim or seek to establish,
in the mind of my fellow Catholics, that the? great body
of which we are members, is entitled to the credit of
possessing a historical record superior to that of any of

our non-Catholic brethren. I do not intend to even

institute a comparison. I shall simply state facts and



3

let them speak for themselves. If any one expects to
hear me this evening indulge in the denunciation of
those who differ with us in matters of religion, he will
be disappointed. Any institution that cannot maintain
itself except by assailing those who differ with it, does
not deserve to live.

The Catholic Church has not been compelled to rely
on the denunciation of others for existence; and the
assaults of her enemies, for ages past, have failed to
make an impression upon her. Upon this point the
distinguished Protestant writer, Lord Macaulay, in
1840, said:

The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of
human civilization. No other institution is left standing which
carries the mind back to the time when the smoke of sacrifice rose
from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in
the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of
yesterday when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs.
That line we trace back in an unbroken series from the Pope who
crowned Napoleon, in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who
crowned Pepin, in the eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin
the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in -the twilight of fable.
The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic
of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy

;
and the

republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy
remains not in decay, not a mere antique; but full of life and
youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth, to the
farthest ends of the world, missionaries as zealous as those who
landed in Kent with Augustine, and is still confronting hostile
kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Atilla. The
number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her
acquisitions in the new world have more than compensated her
for what she has lost in the old. Her spiritual ascendency extends
over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri
and Cape Horn—countries which, a century hence, may not im-
probably contain a population as large as that which now
inhabits Europe. The members of her community are certainly
no fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and it will be difficult
to show that all the other Christian sects united amount to a
hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which in-
dicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She
saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the
ecclesiastical establishments, that now exist in the world, and we
feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them
all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot
on Britain—before the Prank had passed the Rhine—when Grecian
eloquence still flourished at Antioch—when idols were still wor-
shipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in un-
diminished vigor, when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in
the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of
London bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s.



4

The history of the fifty eventful years that have trans-
pired since Lord Macaulay wrote those lines, have cer-
tainly furnished evidence of the wisdom and foresight
he exhibited, in his prophetic statements.
My purpose accordingly to-night is simply to show,

by a candid and truthful reference to American history,
that the Catholic portion thereof is a record of many of
the most important events contained therein, and re-
flects fully as much credit upon Catholics as is reflect-
ed by any other portion upon any other denomination.
In fact so interwoven in the history of this country, are
the deeds of distinguished and devoted Catholics, that
were we to prune it of the record of those deeds, its
brightest pages would be obliterated, and many of its
noblest and proudest recitals of self-sacrificing heroism
and patriotic virtue would be lost.

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

I would ask you to go back with me, in imagination,
to the fifteenth century, and into the city of Genoa.
We enter a certain house, and looking into a room
therein, we discover a man whose dress and bronzed
and weather-beaten countenance indicate

' him to be a
sea-faring man. He is kneeling—perchance before a
crucifix—around him are lying maps, charts and nauti-
cal instruments peculiar to his occupation. In that
attitude he is appealing to his Creator to smile upon his
efforts, and grant him success in carrying out an under-
taking, the magnitude of which, when first suggested,
startled some, and created ridicule in others, as an in-
sane idea—the discovery of a Western Hemisphere, or
as some called it, a “ new world.”

That man is Christopher Columbus, the discoverer
of America, whose character and subsequent career fully
justify me in introducing him as I have done. Calm,
persevering and patient, under the most trying difficul-
ties

;
dignified in his deportment, at all times master of

himself, he commanded the respect and elicted the
esteem of all with whom he came in contact.
The difficulties which he met and overcome, in car-

rying out his undertaking, and in accomplishing an



object so grand in conception and stupendous in result,

shows him to have been well qualified, by nature and
education, for an enterprise so arduous. He first applies
to the government of his native town, Genoa—anxious
that it should share and participate in the honor that
might arise from so grand an enterprise—but, to his
great mortification, they treated his theory as a visionary

scheme. He next applies for aid to King John II, of
Portugal, and is again refused. He then sends his
brother Bartholomew to England, to solicit the patronage
of Henry VII, but Bartholomew having been captured
by pirates, failed to reach England for several years.

Disappointed in his applications to other courts—but
not disheartened—Columbus in 1486 applied to that of
Spain. Here he was fortunate in having a powerful
friend and mediator in Father Juan Perez, guardian of
the monastery of La Rabida, the queen’s confessor, and
an ecclesiastic of great influence and ability. Through
the representations and mediation of this distinguished
divine, a favorable hearing was granted to the propo-
sitions of Columbus. Still circumstances conspired
against him, even here, in the accomplishment of his
object. Spain had just emerged from a long war with
the Moors, who had been expelled from Grenada, and
the state of her finances was so low as to render it im-
possible for him to receive assistance from the public
treasury, and Ferdinand was compelled to acknowledge
his inability to assist him in his enterprise.

But through the influence of Father Perez, who spoke
to the queen of the glory which would result from the
achievement and success of the enterprise, and which
would forever attach to her reign

;
and of the extension

of the Catholic religion over the countries to be discov-
ered, this noble queen—appropriately styled “ Isabella
the Catholic ”—pledged her crown jewels, and thereby
raised the means necessary to complete the preparations
for the voyage.

Thus after six years of patient solicitation, and after
surmounting difficulties, under which any other than
Columbus would have succumbed in despair, the dis-
coverer of this continent was enabled, by the rnunifi-



I

6 •
/

cent aid and liberality of “ Isabella the Catholic”

—

effected through the mediation of a Catholic priest—to
carry out his projected enterprise, and open up to the
“old world” this/vast and glorious land of ours.

A squadron was fitted out, consisting of three vessels
of inconsiderable size, and when ready for sailing,
Columbus—ever mindful of his duty as a Catholic

—

proceeded with his crew in solemn procession to the mon-
astery of La Babida, and there at the hands of their
friend, Father Perez, partook of the sacraments, and
committed themselves to the protection of Heaven.
They then took leave of their friends, whom they left
full of gloomy apprehensions, with respect to their
perilous undertaking.

On the morning of the third of August 1492, Colum-
bus set sail from the harbor of Palos, in the Santa
Maria, the largest vessel of his squadron, followed by
the Pinta and Nina. I will pass over the account
given of his perilous voyage; that long and doubtful
period—his accidents—the discontent and almost
mutiny of his crew, who failed to possess the persever-
ance to continue on across the trackless ocean, but for
the indominitable energy of their commander—until
the morning of the twelfth of October, 1492, when we
find him and his crew first looking upon the island of
San Salvador, the first portion of the American con-
tinent which he had discovered.

Their first act is to offer up thanks to God, and,
under the leadership of the crew of the Pinta, to sing
hymns of praise and thanksgiving, in tears of joy and
congratulation. This office of gratitude to Heaven is
immediately followed by an act of retribution to their
commander, by that portion of the men who, but a few
days before, required all the self-possession and ad-
dress of the admiral to preserve his ascendency and

insure the completion of the voyage; they threw them-
selves at his feet, and, with the humblest acknowledg-

ments of their rashness and disobedience, besought
forgiveness.

The boats were lowered and rowed to shore, and
Columbus* as the representative of Spain, is the first to



7

step upon the long wished for land, followed by those
who accompanied him. They bear aloft the banner of
the cross and, erecting it upon the shore, prostrate
themselves before it and again return thanks to God.
The world is therefore indebted to the Christian zeal

of a Catholic nation, and its noble queen and her
spiritual adviser; but more than all to that great man
and heroic Catholic—Columbus himself—for the ac-
complishment of this great undertaking, and the open-
ing up to commerce, civilization and Christianity, of
the fairest portion of the earth.

The cross, the emblem of man’s salvation, and
symbol of Catholic faith, is planted upon the shores of
the new world. I will now pass to a review of later
events connected with our history.

The next important event in the history of our coun-
try, which I shall take up and consider, is the estab-
lishment of

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

Notwithstanding Columbus discovered the “new
world” for Spain, she secured but a small portion of
the Southern part of what is now known as the United
States. France settled Acadia and Canada, and Eng-
land succeeded in colonizing the greater portion of the
United States, or what is generally known as the orig-
inal colonies.

With the settlers from the “old world” came its pre-
judice and bigotry. The home government insisted
upon maintaining absolute sway and authority over its
subjects, and “civil liberty”—so-called—was refused
the colonies until the seventeenth century. Prior to

that time the colonies were but mere settlements, sub-
ject to the control of such irresponsible rulers or gov-
ernors, as chance, coupled with the caprice of their
sovereign, placed over them.

The first colonial assembly ever convened in America,
assembled at Jamestown, Virginia, on the nineteenth of
June, 1619, and American historians style that day, “the
birthday of civil freedom in our country.” To a certain
extent it is. The charter under which that assembly



convened, secured rights which were sufficient to form
the basis of political liberty

;
but one great element was

wanting to make their liberty complete
;
and that was

religious freedom.
That grand element in our government, which has

made our land the asylum for the oppressed of all
nations, had not yet been incorporated into the laws,
regulations or charters of any of the colonies

;
and it re-

mained for a Catholic to first introduce and establish
perfect civil and religious freedom upon the American
continent.

Sir George Calvert—Lord Baltimore—a Catholic
gentleman, who was distinguished as a statesman in
England, and had held the office of Secretary of State
under James I, sailed to Virginia in 1631, in search of
an asylum for himself and his persecuted brethren

;
but

meeting an unwelcome,reception on account of his re-
ligion, he fixed his attention upon a territory beyond
the Potomac. Finding it unoccupied and well adapted
to his purpose, he immediately returned to England
and secured of Charles I, a grant of the land. In honor
of Henrietta Maria—the consort of Charles—the coun-
try was called Maryland.

Before the patent was completed Sir George died,
and the gr&nt was transferred to his eldest son, Cecilius
Calvert, who inherited the titles of his father and be-
came Lord Baltimore, Preparations were immediately
made for the settlement of a colony. Remaining in
England himself, Cecilius Calvert appointed his brother
Leonard as governor of the intended settlement; on the
twenty-second of November, 1633, emigrants to the
number of about two hundred set sail from the Isle of
Wight, in two small vessels, the “Ark” and the “Dove,”
and after a tedious voyage, arrived, in March of the
following year, on the shores of the Chesapeake.

Following the example of Columbus, they immedi-
ately erected a cross and returned thanks to God, who
had conducted their voyage to so happy an issue, and
then took possession of their colony in the name of
their sovereign. Their next act (one which performed
by Wm. Penn nearly fifty years later has been extolled



9

by historians, and has made his name distinguished),
was to purchase the lands from the natives before build-
ing*

Of the founders of this colony, Kearney, in his “com-
pendium of Ancient and Modern history,” says:

The leading features of the policy adopted by the founders of this
colony, claim our warmest admiration. Their intercourse with
Indian tribes was marked by the strictest equity and humanity;
at the same time the unrestrained exercise of opinion, in matters
of religion, granted to the professors of every creed, reflects the
highest honor upon the memory of Lord Baltimore and his benev-
olent associates. Whilst the Episcopalians of Virginia would
suffer no other form of worship among them,* except that of the
Church of England, and whilst the Puritans of New England
punished with fines, tortures and exile all those who differed from
their creed, the Roman Catholics of Maryland, transcending the
proscriptive principles of the age, extended their arms and invited
among them the victims of intolerance from every clime.

Nor is Mr. Kearney alone in bearing testimony to
this fact. The distinguished historian, Mr. Bancroft,
in the Earlier editions of his history of America, says:

Its history is the history of benevolence, gratitude and tolera-
tion. The Roman Catholics who were oppressed by the laws of
England, were sure to find a peaceful asylum in the quiet harbors
of the Chesapeake, and there, too, Protestants were sheltered
from Protestant intolerance.

“ Calvert,” says Mr. Bancroft, “deserves to be ranked among
the most wise and benevolent law-givers of all ages. He was the
first in the Christian world to seek for religious security and*
peace by the practice of justice, and not by the exercise of power;
to plan the establishment of popular institutions with the enjoy-
ment of liberty of conscience

;
to advance the career of civilization

by recognizing the rightful equality of all Christian sects. The
asylum of papists was the spot where, in a remote corner of the
world, on the banks of a river which as yet had hardly been ex-
plored, the mild forbearance of a proprietary, adopted religious
freedom as the basis of the state.’

’

Frost, in bis history of the United States, says:

Although Sir George Calvert was a Roman Catholic, he allowed
the most perfect religious liberty to the colonists, under his
charter

;
and Maryland was the £rst state in the world in which

perfect religious freedom was enjoyed. All English subjects, with-
out distinction, were allowed equal rights in respect to property,
and religious and civil franchises. A royal exemption from
English taxation was another singular privilege obtained by Lord
Baltimore for the people of his colony. All the extraordinary
features of his charter owe their origin to the political foresight
and sagacity of this remarkable man.

Lord Baltimore was certainly entitled to all the



10

praise bestowed upon him by these and other histor-
ians. No one can fail to recognize the grandeur of his
conduct, in contradistinction to that of the founders of
the other colonies; and especially New England, whose
proscriptive doctrines compel even Baird, with his
strong predelictions in their favor, to say:

It cannot be denied that the fathers of New England were in-
tolerant to those who differed from them in religion; that they
persecuted Quakers and Baptists, and abhorred Roman Catholics.

Roger Williams was banished in 1634 from the
colony of Massachusetts, for having promulgated cer-
tain doctrines which were declared to be heretical and
seditious, and, which according to Bancroft, were “that
the civil magistrate should restrain crime but never con-
trol opinion

;
should punish guilt, but never violate the

freedom of conscience.”
It has been claimed by some, who would fain deprive

Catholicity of the honor which attaches to it and its
professors, by the establishment of religious freedom
in Maryland, that it was first established by Roger
Williams in Rhode Island. This however is an error.
As I have already stated, Williams was banished from
Massachusetts in 1634—one year after Maryland was
settled, by those who arrived with Calvert in the “Ark”
and the “Dove.” In 1644 (ten years later than the
Maryland settlement) Williams visited England and
obtained a charter, declaring “that none were to be
molested for ‘any difference of opinion, in matters of

religion ;” yet the very first assembly, convened under
its authority, excluded Catholics from voting at elec-
tions, and from every office in the government.

Maryland was truly the “Beacon Rock” of civil and
religious liberty, and stands forth in bold relief, as
being—in the language of Baird in his “Religions of
America ”

—

‘‘The first government in modern times, in which entire toler-
ation was granted to all denominations of Christians; this too, at
a time when the New England Puritans could hardly bear with
one another, much less with “papists,” when the zealots of Vir-
ginia held both “papists” and “dissenters” in nearly equal ab-
horence; when in fact tolerance was not considered

,
in any part of

the Protestant world due to Roman Catholics.”



1L

Such is the language of a Protestant writer, and
Maryland was worthy of all that has been said of it.
What more precious legacy could be bequeathed to

nations yet unborn, than the following oath of the gov-

ernor of this colony:

—

#

“I will not by myself or another, directly or indirectly, trouble,
molest or discountenance any person professing to believe in Jesus
Christ, for or in respect to religion. I will make no difference of
persons in conferring offices, favors or rewards, for or in respect to
religion, but merely as they should be found faithful and well-de-
serving, and endowed with moral virtues and abilities; my aim
shall be public unity, and if any person or officer shall molest any
person professing to believe in Jesus Christ, on account of his re-
ligion, I will protect the person molested and punish the offender.

How much happier and better governed would be
the world, did all the rulers and governors therein sub-
scribe to such an oath, and were they bound by its
obligations ?

Nor is the action of Lord Baltimore the only case, in
our early history, which shows that the spirit of relig-
ious toleration was characteristic of the Catholics of
that period, and, I had almost said peculiar to them.
After the Island of Manhattan had been by Stuyvesant
—the last governor under the government of Holland

—

surrendered to the King of England, and “ New Am-
sterdam ” had its name changed to that of New York,
it passed under the .control of Colonel Nichols, the first
English governor of New York. After its subsequent
surrender to the representatives of Holland by Manning,
and restoration to the English, by the treaty of West-
minster in 1674, Andros was, by the Duke of York, ap-
pointed governor of all territory from the Connecticut
to the Delaware. Andros is declared by historians to
have been “ the oppressor of New England,” and in his
rule “to have exhibited much of that harshness, severity
and rapacity which afterwards rendered him so odious in
the Eastern Colonies.”

In 1682 Andros was succeeded by Col. Thomas Don-
gan, who had been appointed governor of that colony.
Governor Dongan was a Catholic, and the historian
tells us: “his administration is memorable as the era of
the commencement of representative government in the
colony.” He is represented by Frost in his history as



12
a

“ a man of high integrity, unblemished character, and
great moderation, who, although a Catholic

[/J may be
ranked among the best of our governors.”
The first legislative assembly of New York, was con-

vened by Governor Dongan; and its first act was the
“Charter of Liberty,” passed October 30, 1683, which
declares:

—

“ That no person or persons who profess faith in God, through
Jesus Christ, shall at any time be disquieted or called in question,
but all such may freely have and full}" enjoy his or their judgments
or consciences in matters of religion—they not using this liberty to
the civil injury or outward disturbance of others.”

The administration of Governor Dongan was marked
by his excellent management of the Indian affairs of
his colony. It was he who first perceived and sug-
gested to Lord Effingham, Governor of Virginia, the
necessity of a treaty with the celebrated Five Natipns,
and who did, in conjunction with Lord Effingham,
enterante that treaty, embracing all the English set-
tlements, and all the tribes in alliance with them—

a

treaty which was long and inviolably adhered to.
This state of affairs was continued, by the excellent

conduct and superior administrative ability of Gover-
nor Dongan, until, by the death of Charles II, in 1685,
the Duke of York ascended to the throne of England
as James II. After his accession to the throne, the
new king inaugurated several measures highly injuri-
ous to the interests of the colony, and which cul-
minated, in 1688, in the reappointment of the tyrant
Andros. From this on through a long series of years,
the colony of New York was involved in one continued
succession of foreign wars, hostile invasions and inter-
nal dissensions. Andros departed from the line of
conduct marked out by his distinguished Catholic
predecessor, and such was the result.
The first act of the first legislature convened by

Andros, was to repeal those excellent laws, which I
have referred to, as passed by the first assembly con-
vened by Governor Dongan, and to pass the “Bill of
Bights,” which excluded Catholics from all participa-
tion in its privileges. From this on, through many
years, the spirit of bitterness towards the Catholic



#

IB

Church increased. It was death for a priest to come
voluntarily into the colony, and a penalty of $1,000
was imposed upon the Catholic who harbored a priest.

In 1778 the British, who still held New York, took
a large French ship in the Chesapeake, which was sent
to New York for condemnation. Her chaplain—De la
Motte—desiring to celebrate mass, and having been
informed that a prohibitory law existed, asked permis-
sion to do so; and in his ignorance of the English
language, mistook a refusal for permission, and was
the first priest that publicly celebrated the divine ser-

vice, after the passage of the odious laws under Andros,
at which his own countrymen and those of his faith
attended. For this he was arrested, cast into prison,
and kept closely confined until exchanged.

But the power of Great Britain was crushed, and the
American Congress, rising above the prejudices of the
age, and fully appreciating the value of the services
and aid rendered by Catholics during the revolution-
ary war (and which I will refer to hereafter) incopor-
ated in the laws of the new nation, then springing into
life, the tolerant and liberal principles of Lord Balti-
more and Governor Dongan, and religious freedom
became the grandest feature in the magna charia of
our liberties.

With this reference to the first establishment of
religious freedom on the American continent, I will
now pass to a brief consideration of another branch of
my lecture.

THE EARLY MISSIONARIES AND EXPLORERS.

To attempt any more than a brief reference to a
subject that has filled volumes, from the pens of Ban-
croft, Irving, Parkman, Shea, DeCharlevoix and a host
of other writers, would be the height of folly. In
fact, I hesitate to refer to these heroic men of God,
whose deeds of self-sacrificing devotion, patient suffer-
ing and martyrdom, has called forth the most eloquent
enconiums and eulogies from the distinguished authors
whose names I have just mentioned. But the record of
their labors, suffering and death, forms one of the most



14

important parts of the Catholic history of America,

and without a mention of them it would be but a frag-
ment.

The Fransiscans and Dominicans, and other devoted
servants of Christ, who followed in the footsteps of
the Spanish adventurers, established missions, some of
which still exist. They labored with a zeal unsur-
passed, and a large proportion of them gave up their
lives for their faith

;
“but,” as a late writer remarks,

“ unfortunately the crimes of their countrymen have
been permitted, by the prejudice of modern writers, to
tarnish the renown of these heroic preachers; and the
cruelties of a Cortez are better remembered than the
virtues of the Spanish Dominicans. The Jesuits in
the northern parts of the continent have received more
justice in history. About their characters and achieve-

- ments, there is but one voice.”

The Jesuits have always been the pioneers of civiliz-
ation and Christianity. It was a Jesuit missionary
who first explored nearly every northern state in the
union. When the most intrepid layman or Protestant
shrank from penetrating the unknown wilds of our
continent, the Jesuit missionary, forgetting all but his

holy vows, and quailing before no danger, in his
zealous desire to Christianize the untutored savage,

hesitated not to pass beyond the confines of civilization,
and to explore the wilderness. A part of that advance
guard of civilization and Christianity, which establish-

ed missions in Japan, India, in the isles of Sunda,

Tartary, Siam, Syria, Persia and innumerable other

regions of Asia—missions on the burning sands of
Africa, in Abyssinia, Congo, Mozambique,—missions
in Brazil, Mavagon, New Grenada, Mexico, Guatemalas
,and California, converting millions of the natives or

barbarians—when settlements were made on the borders
of North America, penetrated into the wilderness of

Canada and the West and Northwest; and a half a cen-
tury before Le Sueur had ascended the Mississippi and
explored the St. Peter (now Minnesota) river, they
had established missions among the Hurons, Illinois,



15

Algonquins, Chippewas, Dakotas and other tribes in
Canada and the Northwest.
The Franciscans had been before them in Canada,

but the capture of Quebec by the English almost
wholly obliterated the mission, and but little trace was
left of it

;
and when the colony was restored to the

French, two Jesuit priests—Le Jeune and De Neue

—

arrived there from Havre. They were followed soon
after by four more—Brebeuf, Masse, Daniel and
Davost; and later by Gamier, Chabuel, Chamont and
the illustrious martyr, Isaac Jogues, and others. The
story of the hardships which these Christian heroes
endured, in the inhospitable climate of Canada, in

their efforts to convert the Indian tribes, would be too
lengthy for this lecture.

As an evidence of their indomitable energy and
perseverance, I would say that as early as in the year
1639, Fathers Jogues and Baymbault passed around
the northern shores of Lake Huron, and preached the
faith among the Chippewas as far inland as Sault Saint
Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior.

After enduring indescribable sufferings and tortures,
Brebeuf, Goupil, Jogues, Lallemant, Gamier and Ohab-
uel suffered martyrdom at the hands of the savages,
for whose souls they had offered up their lives. Bre-
beuf and Lallemant were burned to death, but not until
they had been put to all the torture which the refined
cruelty of the savages could invent.

Father Daniel, another victim to the savage hate of

the Iroquois, with his vestments on, fell pierced with

scores of arrows and a musket ball, at the door of his
chapel. But the associates of these martyrs were not
discouraged; they continued on in their labor of love,
and imitating the example of Him whom they had
vowed to follow, they still labored to convert the savages.
Their establishment at Quebec continued to send its
apostles to the great lakes on the one hand, and through
the forests of Maine to the sea coast on the other.

A beautiful and flourishing mission had been estab-
lished in Maine, by the faintly Father Sebastian Basle.

That indefatigable missionary suffered martyrdom,



16

and the tribes which he had converted were dispersed
and many of them massacred; and, as a result, there,
Bancroft says: “ influences of commerce took the place
of the influence of religion, and English trading houses
supplanted French missions.”

More intimately connected with the history of this,
the Northwest, are the names of Fathers Menard, Hen-
nepin and Marquette.

Father Mqnard was lost in the year 1658, and his
fate is only a matter of conjecture—his cassock and
breviary having been found, years afterwards, among
the Indians, preserved as medicine charms. Hennepin,
a Franciscan perhaps much misrepresented, was the
first to penetrate to the Falls of St. Anthony, which he
did in 1680. Like his co-laborers in the cause of
Christianity, he endured his full share of suffering.
His captivity among the Dakotas, and his success in
securing the compassion and protection of the Nodawas-
sey chief, would form the theme of an interesting
narrative. He it was who first stood by the Falls of St.
Anthony and gave them the name of the Saint they
bear—St. Anthony of Padua.

The saintly Father Marquette, now known in history
as the explorer of the Wisconsin, and the Mississippi

and Illinois rivers, visited the Northwest nearly two

centuries ago. History has at last done him justice,
and not only Catholics but Protestants unite in doing

honor to this great and good missionary, whose name is
to be found among the list of towns that are situated
upon the shores of the lake, beside whose waters he

breathed his last.

I cannot better describe the death of Father Mar-

quette, than by quoting the following lines, from the

pen of an unknown author, which appeared some years

ago in the “ Western Messenger.” They are the just

tribute of, presumably a Protestant, to the great mis-

sionary and explorer:

—



17

His solitary grave was made
Beside thy waters, Michigan !

In thy forest shade the bones were laid
Of a world-wandering man.

Discoverer of a world ! he sleeps,
By all the world unknown

;

No mousoleum marks the spot,
Nor monumental stone.

He died alone ! No pious hand
Smoothed down the pillow for his head

;

No watching followers reared the tent,
Or strewed the green leaves for his bed

;

His followers left the holy man
Beside a rustic altar kneeling

—

The slanting sunbeams setting rays
Through the thick forest branches stealing.

An hour had passed—and they returned,
They found him lying where he knelt,

4 But oh! how changed ! the calm of death
Upon his marble features dwelt.

Even while he prayed, his living soul
Had to its native heavens fled

;

Whilst the last twilights holiest beams
Fell like a glory on his head

!

Thus died a Jesuit! And his death is but one of
many thousands of that band of martyr heroes, whose
deeds shed a halo of glory over Catholic history, and
challenge the world to produce a truthful record of
their equal.

Well may Catholics feel proud of the early mission-
aries, when even the Protestant historian Bancroft is
led to say:—“Thus the religious of the French bear
the cross to the banks of the St. Mary and the confines
of Lake Superior, and look wistfully towards the homes
of the Sioux, in the valley of the Mississippi—five
years before the New England Elliott had addressed
the tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles of
Boston harbor.”

And among the missionaries of later days, no names
are better entitled to a place in Catholic history, as

worthy successors of Jogues, Brebeuf, Menard, Hen-
nepin and Marquette, than those of our late Bishop
Cretin, our revered Archbishop Grace, and Fathers
Gal tier, De Smet and our own Monseigneur Ravoux.

It is customary for the average non-Catholic writer
upon South America, to attribute, without investiga-

i



18

• T*

tion, to the early missionaries who settled there, the
present unsatisfactory condition in which he may hap-
pen to find the native inhabitants of that part of this
continent. As a complete answer to all such effusions,
I will read this extract, from a letter written a few years
ago by M. Sacc, the distinguished Calvinist savant, to
his friend Abbe Migno, on hi 3 return, after a lengthy
sojourn in South America. The letter was published in
Les Mondes and attracted considerable attention at the
time. He said:

During my long peregrinations from one end of America to the
other, the immense services rendered

.
there by the Jesuits were

made in some manner palpably visible to me. To them alone the
civilization ofthat immense continent is due, and what remains of
their works attests both the might of their genius, and the perse-
verance of their efforts to civilize those wonderful countries which
their barbarous Spanish conquerors sought only to profit by. At
present, of all their admirable works, nothing is left but ruins and
fond remembrances which the poor Indians cherish and bless.
They still weep at the thought of their lost “Robes Noires,” whilst
the same remembrances are branded With ostracism bythe present
governments who reject any bridle that may be used to rein in the
course of brutal passions. There we have the true cause of the
social disease which blights the very existence of all the Hispano-
American Republics, and which ceases only for a while, when anew
dictator arises. There also we have the true cause of the prosper-
ity of Canada and Brazil, where a strong executive power sets due
limits to the selfish struggles of unbridled private ambitions.

It is my conviction that nothing short of a recall of the Jesuits
can raise the republics of South America. They are fallen so low
merely because they have become a prey to constant revolutions
brought on by ambitious men who place the government of their
country in jeopardy by the vilest devices. The order of the Jesuits
alone, with its military organization, represents the interests of
all, and can bring back order to those unhappy countries. They
alone can save the Indian tribes, which are threatened with com-
plete extinction, although laborers are the only thing required to
work out the incredible wealth of that soil, which contains all im-
aginable treasures, either at its surface or in its bosom. When the
civilization of those tribes is brought about, colonization will be
easy enough because they know the country thoroughly, without
them it will always be extremely difficult, chiefly on account of the
obstacles they put in the way. Unfortunately it is to be feared
that the recall of that order, so deservedly famous, will meet with
many difficulties, brcause it would stand in the way of all those
personal ambitions to whose shameless and relentless rivalries
those unfortunate states have become a prey.

It will be noticed that he has fallen into the same
error that nearly all non-Catholic writers do, of regard-

ing every Catholic missionary as a Jesuit. But it is



19

not important. For his honesty and candor the child-
ren of St. Dominic and St. Francis will not complain.
Among the Catholic explorers who first followed in

the footsteps of the missionaries was La Salle, who in
the year 1682, descended the Mississippi from Illinois
to the sea. Of him Bancroft says:

—

i

“His sagacious eye discerned the magnificent resources of the
country. As he floated down its flood, [the Mississippi]; as he
framed *a cabin on the first Chickasaw bluff; as he raised the cross
by the Arkansas; as he planted the arms of France near the Gulf of
Mexico;—he anticipated the future affluence of emigrants, and
heard in the distance, the footsteps ofthe advancingmultitude that
were coming to take possession ofthe valley. Meantime he claim-
ed the territory for France, and gave it the name of Louisiana.”

It was Le Sueur, who in 1700 explored the St. Peter
or Minnesota river, to the mouth of the Blue Earth, and
built his fort “La Hullier” at the mouth of the “Mahn-
kahto.” Baron La Houtan who wrote his “narrative
and description of La Longue Reviere” also followed
Le Sueur and La Salle.

It was not until 1776 that others ventured to follow
our brave Catholic missionaries and explorers. Cap-
tain Jonathan Carver visited what is now Minnesota,
and was followed years afterwards by Cass, Schoolcraft,
Nicollet and others.

Passing from a consideration of this portion of my
lecture, I now come to that which is embraced in the
period beginning with the commencement of the

STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,
/ f'

and extending down to the war of the Rebellion.
When the American colonies determined to throw off

the yoke of England, and rid themselves of the oppres-
sions of the mother country, it was deemed necessary
that a declaration, informing the world of the reasons
why they took such a step, should be made, and Thomas
Jefferson was appointed to prepare the same. In con-
formity with his instructions, he presented to Congress
that immortal document for their consideration. The
reader of history need not be reminded of the impor-
tance of the act, which each of the members of this Con-
gress performed, in voting to declare themselves free,



20

and in signing the Declaration of Independence. Not
only did that act involve the colonies in a war, but it—

-

at one stroke—placed them in an attitude of unmistak-
able hostility to England, and put in jeopardy all that
they pledged to each other—their lives and their for-
tunes. They staked everything upon the result of that
act, and, with a heroism unsurpassed, virtually invited
the enmity and vengeance of their King. Every one of
them was necessarily a man of iron nerve, in thus brav-
ing the anger of their sovereign, and entering upon a
war with one of the most powerful kingdoms, so illy
prepared and deficient as the colonies were in every-
thing except undying patriotism and zeal, and uncon-
querable bravery.

And among the list of patriot heroes, whose names
are attached to that “ immortal document,” none was
more distinguished than that celebrated Catholic,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who, in signing the
Declaration of Independence, did not hesitate to stake

upon the issue, more property than all of the* other
signers put together.

The reference to this patriot, and his family, by
Lord Brougham, in his “Historical sketches of states-
men who flourished in the time of George III,” will ex-
plain his history and the reason of the addition of his
place of residence to his name. Lord Brougham says :

—

His family was settled in Maryland ever since the reign ofJames
II, and had during that period been possessed of the same ample
property—the largest in the union. It stood therefore at the
head of the aristocracy of ijhe country

;
was naturally in alliance

with the government
;
coula gain nothing, while it risked every-

thing by a change of dynasty ; and, therefore, according to all the
rules, and the prejudices and the frailties which are commonly
found guiding men in a crisis of affairs, Charles Carroll might
have been expected to take a part against revolt, certainly never
to join in promoting it. Such, however, was not this patriotic
person. He was among the foremost to sign the celebrated dec-
laration of independence. All who did so were believed to have
devoted themselves and their families to the Furies. As he set
his hand to the instrument, the whisper ran round the hall of
Congress, “there goes some millions of property!” And there
being many of the same name, when they heard it, said : “ Nobody
will know what Carroll it is,” as no one wrote more .than his
name, and one at his elbow remarked, addressing him: “You’ll
get clear—there are several of the name—they will not know which
to take.” “Not so!” he replied; and instantly added his resi-
dence, “of Carrollton.”



,21

\

Nor was this all that can be said of this remarkable
man. In 1827 the editor of the then Philadelphia
National Gazette published a biography of Mr. Carroll,

which appeared in the American Quarterly Review \
and in it he stated, that shortly before the revolutionary
British war, Mr. Carroll wrote to a member of the
parliament as follows:

Your thousands of soldiers may come, but they will be masters
of the spot only on which they encamp. They will find naught
but enemies before and around them. If we are beaten on the
plains, we will retreat to the mountains, and defy them.. Our
resources will increase with coat difficulties. Necessity will force
us to exertion

;
until tired of rombating in vain against a spirit

which victory cannot subdue, your enemies will evacuate our soil,
and your country retire, an immense loser from the contest. No,
sir! We have made up our minds to bide the issue of the ap-
proaching struggle

;
and though much blood may be spilled, we

have no doubt of our ultimate success.

He was appointed with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Chase,
Commissioners to Canada, in behalf of the struggling
Colonies.

He lived to be the last surviving signer of the Dec-
laration of Independence. As has been well said of
him:—“Like a peaceful stream his days glided along,
and continued to be lengthened out, till the generation
of illustrious men with whom he acted on that memor-
able Fourth of July, 1776, had all descended to the
tomb.” He died in 1832

—

“ Full of years and honors,
Through the gate of painless slumber he retired.”

In his last days he uttered these remarkable words:
“I have lived to my ninety-sixth year; I have enjoyed
continued health

;
I have been blessed with great wealth,

property, and most of the good things which the world
can bestow—public approbation, applause; but what
I now look back on with the greatest satisfaction to
myself, is that I have practiced the duties of my re-
ligion.”

Nor is Charles Carroll the only one of the name en-
titled to honorable mention, as a distinguished patriot
of the revolution. Rev. John Carroll took as active a
part in behalf of the Colonies, as was consistent with
his position as a clergyman. He was employed by Dr.



/

22

Franklin on a confidental mission to Canada, in refer-
ence to the then lately declared independence of the
Colonies—and afterwards became the first Archbishop
of Baltimore—the first Episcopal See in the country.

In attempting to refer to the long list of Catholic
patriots who distinguished themselves in the Revolu-
tionary war, I am at a loss w7here to begin, as time will
not permit me to make honorable mention of them all.
At the head of the list is the name of that distin-

guished hero—General Lafayette—who, leaving the
comforts of home, of happiness and wealth, crossed the
ocean in a vessel fitted out

w
at his own expense, and,

laying aside his rank, “plunged into the dust and blood
of our inauspicious struggle.” The world affords no
nobler illustration of disinterested heroism, and gal-
lant and generous conduct than that exhibited by La-
fayette, Rochambeau, Fleury, Dupartail, Lowzun, Count
De Gras, Pulaski, De Kalb, Kosiusko and other Catho-
lic lovers of liberty, in their efforts in aid of the estab-

lishment of American independence.
The first American navy must not be forgotten, with

its first and Catholic Commodore, John Barry; appoint-
ed by Washington to form the infant navy of this coun-
try, and who has been appropriately styled “Saucy Jack
Barry, father of the American navy.” Many of his
sailors and mariners, who so gallantly assisted the land
forces, in the contest for freedom, were, like himself,

Irish Catholics.

General Stephen Moylan, first quarter-master of the
revolutionary army, was also a Catholic. Washington,
recognizing his ability, appointed him to that position,
the duties of which, even under all the trying circum-
stances incident to an impoverished country and de-
pleted treasury, he performed to the satisfaction of all.

It is also worthy of note, that a large number of the
men who composed the command of General Anthony
Wayne, and whose fighting qualities gained for their
commander the cognomen of “Mad Anthony Wayne

—

the ever-fighting general,” were Irish and German
Catholics.

In the year 1780, the cause of< American indepen-



dence was menaced by dangers more formidable than
the English forces which opposed them. The conti-
nental currency had depreciated in value, and become
almost worthless, and the commissary of the army
was without the means to supply the trocps with sub-
sistance. Gaunt famine stared Washington’s little
army in the face, and all the evils attendant upon such
a condition of affairs—discontent, desertion and mutiny
—threatened to defeat and destroy the great object and
end sought to be accomplished; and when, in the dark
hours and destitution of Yalley Forge, Washington
united with Congress in an appeal to the colonists for
pecuniary assistance, and when, in the language of
another, “the urgent expostulations of the commander-
in-chief and the strenuous recommendations of Con-
gress, haduitterly failed to arouse the American pub-
lic to a just sense of the crisis,” none responded more
promptly than did the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick

—

an Irish Catholic society—twenty-seven members of
which contributed 103,500 pounds sterling—over half
a million of dollars. This patriotic act of liberality

was fully appreciated by Washington, who wrote the
Society a very complimentary letter, and declared it to
be “distinguished for the firm adherence of its mem-
bers to the glorious cause in which we are embarked.”/
The same compliment could be paid to Thomas Fitzim-
mons, who subscribed a loan of twenty-five thousand
dollars to aid in carrying on the glorious war.

Such acts of disinterested patriotism may not appear
to be so very great, or important, to those who are
purse proud among us

;
but if it was patriotic for our

millionaires- and wealthy fellow-citizens to loan their
money to the government during the late war with the
South, with all the extraordinary inducements offered

—with an opportunity to exchange their gold coin for
double the amount in legal tenders, and bonds of the
government, secured by the faith and credit of the
country, at a time when one of our states contained
nearly as large a population as the colonies contained,

and more available wealth than they could then com-
mand—how much more patriotic was it for those men



24

to come forward and contribute their money in the man-
ner and under the circumstances in which they did!
All honor to the men, who in the darkest hours of our
nation’s historv, by their deeds of valor and patriotic
virtue and liberality, set an example worthy the imi-
tation of their fellow citizens to the end of time

!

No one appreciated the part which Catholics took and
performed, in the struggle for American independence,
more than did the immortal Washington himself. After
the war was over, and he was elected first President of
the new Republic, he received a congratulatory address
from the Catholics of the United States, signed by
Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, on the part of the Catholic
clergy, and by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Daniel
Carroll, Thomas Fitzsimmons and Dominic Lynch, on
the part of the Catholic laity. In that address they
said:

—

“ This prospect of national prosperity is peculiarly pleasing to us
on another account, because, whilst our country preserves her
freedom and independence, we shall have a well founded title to
claim from her justice and equal rights of citizenship, as the price of
our blood spilt under your eyes, and of our common exertions for
her defense, under your auspicious conduct; rights rendered more
dear to us by the remembrance of former hardships.”

To this portion of the address, Washington replying
said:

—

“ As mankind become more liberal, they will be the more apt to
allow, that all those who conduct themselves as worth}' members
of the community, are equally entitled to the protection of civil
government. I hope ever to see America the foremost nation in
examples ofj ustice and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-
citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the ac-
complishment of their revolution, and the establishment of their
government; or the important assistance they received from a
nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed.”

No denomination of Christians exhibited greater zeal,
in the struggle for independence, or more anxiety for
its success, or manifested more joy at its glorious ter-
mination than did the Catholics. And when the war
was over, and a grateful and sorrowing country mourn-
ed his death, and sought by every means to do honor
to him who was “ first in war, first in peace, and %st
in the hearts of his countrymen,” it remained for
Bishop Carroll to deliver in the Cathedral at Baltimore,



25

\

what was conceded to be the most solid, eloquent and
noble oration upon Washington.

After the battle of New Orleans, it was in the Catholic
Cathedral that General Jackson was received in triumph,

and the laurel garland of victory—woven by Catholic
hands—placed upon his brow by a Catholic priest, and
the noble hero could have been seen weeping with joy-
ful emotion, as he listened and responded to the elo-
quent address of the Rev. Mr. Dubourg. In a beauti-
ful address delivered some years ago in Washington,
by Mr. Livingston, the distinguished orator feelingly
alluded to the pavement of that church being worn
smooth, by the holy knees of the Ursuline nuns, pray-
ing fervently that victory might perch on the American
banner, and drawing from the feast of the day—that of
St. Victoria—an omen of success.

It is a fact not generally known that one-half of the
soldiers of the Revolutionary Army of the United States
was of Irish birth. During the seven years of that
war, which secured our independence as a nation, the
forces raised by the United States consisted of 288,000
men, of which 282,000 were Continental soldiers and
56,000 militia. Of this army there were two Irishmen
to every native. At the close of the war, a Mr. Gallo-
way, who had been Speaker of the Pennsylvania As-
sembly, was examined before a committee of the House
of Commons, and asked what the Continental Army
was composed of. Here is his answer:—“The names
and places of their nativity being taken down, I can
answer the question with precision. There are scarcely
one-fourth natives of America; about one-half were
Irish, and the other fourth principally Scotch and Eng-
lish.” Now, it needs no guess to determine what the
religious belief of those Irish revolutionary soldiers

was, and when we take into consideration the large num-
ber of Catholic soldiers, of other nationalities, who came
with and fought under Lafayette, Rochambeau, Pul-
aski, Kosiusko, De Kalb and others already named, we
are fully justified in believing that one-half of the

soldiers in the Revolutionary Army of the United
States were Catholics. I commend this historical fact



26

to the consideration of those who think we are indebted
to native Americans and Protestants, alone, for the
achievement of our national independence.

In all the subsequent wars in which the United
States has been engaged, Catholic valor and patriotism
has maintained a position corresponding with its earlier
history, and contributed its full share to the successes
which have attended them. Side by side with the
names of Charles Carroll, Barry, Lafayette, Moylan,
Fitzsimmons and Archbishop Carroll, will be placed
the names of Sheridan, Bosecrans, Shields, Meagher,
Newton, Mulligan, Ewing, Sands, Ammen; and that
army of distinguished prelates at the head of whom we
place Cardinals McCloskey and Gibbons, Archbishop
Hughes and our own beloved and honored Archbishop
Ireland.

THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

At the head of the list of those Catholic officers who
acquired distinction in the war of the Rebellion, I place
General Sheridan.

I had the honor to be a member of that Congress
which attended in a body, the funeral service of General
Sheridan, at St. Mathew’s Church, in the city of Wash-
ington. That scene will always come vividly before me,
as memory recalls to mind that great soldier and de-
fender of the Union. There the people of our whole
country, in the person of their official representatives,

gathered around his bier, to do honor to the departed
patriot-hero, and to attest a nation’s sorrow and grat-
itude for the great services which he had rendered in
the suppression of the rebellion. In front sat the
President, surrounded by members of his Cabinet, flank-
ed by the officers of the Army and Navy on the one side,
and the judges of the Supreme Court on the other

;
next

came the Senate and House of Representatives, and
members of the Diplomatic corps; then the officers of
the different other departments of the government

;
rep-

resentatives of the press, and other influential persons.
It was a memorable and truly impressive gathering and
scene. The offering up of that solemn requiem high
mass; the truly eloquent and masterly sermon of Car-



27

dinal Gibbons and the appropriately grand music of the

magnificent choir of that church, will be remembered
by all the participants in that solemn ceremony, as long
as life lasts.

As I listened to the beautiful but mournful music of
the choir, I fell into a reverie, and mused upon the life
and career of him whose remains lay before us.—I saw
him a boy at Somerset, Ohio, the son of poor but re-
spectable Catholic parents, having the ambition and
nerve, to write to the member of Congress from that
district to secure his appointment at West Point, to
succeed, and then to graduate with honor, and distin-
guish himself as an Indian fighter. I saw him soon after
the outbreak of our civil war, taking command of the
Second Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, and in less than
two months winning the stars of a brigadier general at
the battle of Boonville

;
then at Perryville at the head

of the Eleventh Division gaining new fame by his re-
sistance of the dare-devil forces of Hardee and Leydell

;

then at Stone River, with Rosecrans, again distinguish-
ing himself; then at Mission Ridge, as at the front of
his men he led them up toward the lofty summit,
through the cross-fire of the Confederates, from the
ramparts above; then at Winchester, where he clinched
with and defeated Early; then at Appomatox, where
his dash put the finishing stroke to the rebellion, then
receiving from General Lee the flag of truce that an-
nounced the close of the war. Then peace was declared,
and I saw him receive, equally with Grant and Sherman,
the thanks and plaudits of his country, and his name re-
ceived with enthusiastic cheers wherever mentioned.
Here my musing brought to mind an incident in his
career which has become as historical as it was dramatic.

It was the night before the battle of Cedar Mills

—

a time when the fate of the Union hung trembling in
the balance. In the war office, at Washington, sat Sec-
retary Stanton in consultation with General Sheridan,
upon some grave subject; for it was long after mid-
night. In the adjoining room sat Gen. Eckert, superin-
tendent of military telegraph lines, 'beside the instru-
ments, watching for messages from the armies at the



28

front. Morning was fast approaching. Presently a click
of the instrument caught Gen. Eckert’s ear. It was a
call from Winchester. To his prompt response came the
message :—“ There is danger here. Hurry Sheridan
to the front” In an instant the message was handed
to the two in consultation in the next room. Gen.
Sheridan came to the instrument and there was a hur-
ried conversation over the wire with his headquarters.
Intercepted dispatches of the enemy showed that Long-
street had arrived in front and learning of Sheridan’s
absence, had ordered Early to attack Sheridan’s army.
The railroad was at once ordered cleared, and an

engine to report in readiness. Sheridan left the war
office and is soon aboard the panting engine, and away
they speed to Harper’s Ferry. Every station on the
railroad reported his progress to Gen. Eckert, and Sec-
retary Stanton, who waited to hear that Sheridan had
reached his destination. Harper’s Ferry at last report-
ed his arrival, and a fresh engine is ready to take him
to Winchester, and then comes the welcome report:

—

“ Sheridan has just reached Winchester.” The run
had been made in the shortest time ever made over the
line, and the anxious watchers in the war office breathed
freer to know that he had reached there without acci-
dent. But he was not yet at his destination. There
he mounted his favorite black charger, that had carried
him safely through many a battle, and away through
the town and up the Shenandoah Yalley he rode, as only
Sheridan could ride, on such an occasion. Then I saw
him meet his retreating and demoralized army and reach
the field and turn defeat into victory, and the battle of
Cedar Creek was won. I saw Gen. Grant then at City
Point, order a salute of one hundred guns fired from
each of the armies in honor of this victory, and Presi-
dent Lincoln promote him to a Major Generalship, in
the regular army and personally notify him of this in
a letter of thanks. I saw him standing side by side
with Grant when Lee surrendered, and crowned with
honors on the disbanding of the armies, and awoke from
my reverie to find the nation mourning his death, as
to-day we mourn the loss of his grand companion' in
arms, General Sherman.



29

As I recall this now, I wonder what the great-hearted
and liberal-minded people of this nation would have said,
if a Burchard, a Burrell or a Burgess had then raised his
voice in opposition to their doing honor to the “ Hero
of Winchester,” because, forsooth, he worshipped God
in a Catholic Church, and educated his children in the
Catholic Academy of the Visitation.

Next on our list is General Bosecrans—the last sur-
vivor of that grand quartet; Grant, Sherman, Sheridan
and Bosecrans. The name of u Old Bosey ” is afeo a
household word with our Union veterans, and is men-
tioned with love and veneration by every soldier of the
Army of the Cumberland.
When the bill placing him on the retired list was

before Congress, many eloquent appeals for its passage
were made, and I wish to quote briefly from remarks of
some of the Union officers who then spoke in its favor.

General B. M. Cutcheon of Michigan, said:
i

. “When the tocsin of war sounded. General Rosecrans did not
hesitate or falter, but he left everything behind him and laid all
that he had upon the altar of his country, and when we needed
victory, when this country in its heart of hearts was aching for
want of victory, General Rosecrans in the very beginning, in West
Virginia, gave us victory. Again in the far Southwest, at luka, he
gave us victory. He was promoted step by step from colonel to
brigadier-general, and from that to major-general, and was placed
at the head ofthe army ofthe Cumberland, and again, in the clos-
ing days of December, 1862, at Stone River he lighted the horizon
of this whole country from edge to edge with the fires of victory.
Then, following that, he gave us one of the most magnificent
specimens of perfect strategy that the entire war afforded, in the
Tullahoma campaign, when, almost without the sacrifice of a life,
he flanked Bragg out of his fortified position at Tullahoma and
carried his army across the mountains into the valley of Chick-
amauga.”

Hon. O. L. Jackson of Pennsylvania, who served four
years in the army of the Tennessee, said:

It was Rosecrans who commanded and directed the brave men
at Stone River on those fearful winter days when again the tide of
battle was turned southward. It was under him Phil Sheridan
first rode at the head of a division, and on this bloody field gave
evidence of the high rank he was afterwards to obtain. It was
Rosecran’s skill and genius that maneuvered the enemy out of
Chattanooga and gave the Army of the Cumberland a position at
Chickamauga that enabled him to hold at bay Bragg’s ar uy, re-
enforced by one of the best corps from the rebel army on the
Potomac.



30
i

Do not forget that it was tinder Rosecrans that Thomas stood,
the Rock of Chickamauga.
Mr. Speaker, there was a day in the nation’s peril when good

Abraham Lincoln thought he ought to send the thanks of the
nation to General Rosecrans and the officers and men of his com-
mand for their great services in the field.

Gen. David B. Henderson, of Iowa, who left a leg on
the battlefield, electrified the House by his appeal in
behalf of his old commander. In the course of his re-
marks he said:

As £ member of the Armyof the Tennessee, I followed both Grant
and Rosecrans. I fought under Rosecrans at Corinth.

I was with him in that battle, and he was the only general that
I ever saw closer to the enemy than we were who fought in the
front, for in that great battle he dashed in front of our lines when
the flower of Price’s armywas pouring death and destruction into
our ranks. The bullets had carried off his hat, his hair was floating
in the wind, and, protected by the God of battle, he passed along
the lines and shouted, “Soldiers, stand by your flag and your
country! “ We obeyed his orders. We crushed Price’s army, and
gave the country the great triumph of the battle of Corinth. Gen-
eral Rosecrans was the central, the leading, and the victorious
spirit. *

Gen. J. B. Weaver of Iowa, also spoke eloquently in
behalf of Rosecrans, under whom he served, and in do-
ing so said:

I, too, had the honor to participate in the battle at Corinth in
1862

,
and I know, and the country knows, that but forthe magnif-

icent strategy of Rosecrans, his soldierly bearing, his wonderful
grasp of and attention to the details of that battle, the Army of
the Southwest would have been overthrown, and the consequences
could not have been foretold. He decoyed the army of Price on to
the spot where he designed to fight the battle, and the result was
that he was victorious and captured parts of sixty-nine different
commands serving under Price and Van Dorn and the other Con-
federate commanders. In that important battle he saved the
Cause of the Union in the Southwest. Rosecrans was a splendid
soldier, a valuable officer, and he is now a most honorable citizen.
Few are more distinguished. He is one of the heroes of this age,
and his name will live forever.

These extracts from four of the fourteen speeches
that were delivered in support of that bill, must suffice
for this occasion. And my friends these speeches were
not delivered at the close of the great conflict, when
the war feeling ran high. They were made in the last
Congress

;
and every one of the speakers from whom I

have quoted, were non-Catholics, and knew General
Rosecrans to be an out-spoken and practical Catholic;



31

p

for it was a common occurrence for him, during the war,
to have the sacrifice of the Mass offered up at his head-
quarters in the field.

I speak from personal knowledge, when I say that
the visitor to the city of Washington, will find no more
regular attendant at the sacrifice of the Mass, in that

decidedly Catholic city, than General Hosecrans—Gal-
lant and grand “Old Rosey,” the hero and idol of the
Army of the Cumberland. He is a regular attendant
at St. Mathew’s Church, and he can be seen in his pew
there, at divine service on every day that a practical
Catholic should, if possible, and on many other days.
Like Sheridan’s, his life in Washington, in its sim-
plicity and modest demeanor, is a model of all that a
worthy citizen of this great republic^of ours should be.
It is difficult for the stranger to believe that the kind

and mild-mannered gentleman, who is now the Register
of the United States Treasury, is none other than “Old
Rosey,” who so often led his men, sword in hand, where
the battle raged hottest and fiercest.

Next to General Rosecrans, we place General Shields;
the hero of two wars, and United States Senator from
three states, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri who car-
ried through life the scars of severe wounds, received
in both the Mexican war and that of the Rebellion.

Next we name General Meagher, the dashing com-
mander of the famous Irish Brigade, and brave General
Mulligan, “the hero of Lexington,” whose dying words
on the field of battle—“Lay me down and save the
flag”—have made him famed in song and story.
Among the distinguished officers of the Union Army

were other Catholics, whose names will be familiar to
many of you, when mentioned. I can only recall and
name these:

—

General Ewing, brother-in-law of General Sherman.

General Newton, Chief of Engineers, and later known
to fame as having planned and executed the world re-
nowned engineering feat, of the destruction of the “Hell
Gate” obstructions, in New York harbor.

General Henry Hunt, Chief of Artillery of the Army



of the Potomac, and late governor of the Soldier’s Home
at Washington.

General Stone of the Army of the Potomac, and after-
wards Chief of Staff and Lieutenant General of the
armies of the Khedive of Egypt.

General McMahon of the Army of the Potomac, and
United States Marshal of the District of New York,
under President Cleveland.

% #

General Pucker, late Quartermaster General of the
Army.

General Vincent, Assistant Adjutant General of the
Army, and since Chief of Staff to General Schofield.

Colonel Jerome Bonaparte; and, by no means the
least, the brave General Garishe who, as Chief of Staff
to General Rosecrans, fell at the battle of Stone River.

But, I must stop here, as the list could be extended
almost indefinitely.

It can hardly be necessary to say, in this connection,
that the Catholic Church had its full quota of represen-
tatives among the brave men who composed the rank
and file of the army, and who performed the deeds of
valor which made it possible for their officers to ac-
quire the destinction and fame which is now accorded
to them.

Among the Catholic naval officers who distinguished
themselves and acquired national fame as leaders in the
war of the Rebellion, I can now name Admiral Sands
and Admiral Ammen. There were and are many of
lesser rank in that branch of the service.
And yet there is nothing surprising in all this. It is

BUT A REPETITION OF HISTORY,

and a reflex of the love of liberty exhibited by Catho-
lics in other portions of the world; to prove which, I

have but to quote from that celebrated traveler, and
staunch Protestant, Bayard Taylor, who, in writing upon
this point, during the know-nothing excitement, said:

“ Truth compels us to add, that the oldest republic now existing
is that of San Marino, not only Catholic but wholly surrounded
by the especial dominions of the Popes, who might have crushed
it like an egg-shell at any time, these last thousand years—but
they didn’t. The only republic we ever travelled iti besides our own



33

is Switzerland, half of its Cantons, or states, entirely Catholic, yet
never, that we have heard of, unfaithful to the cause of freedom.
They were nearly all Roman Catholics, from the Southern Cantons
of Switzerland, whom Austria so ruthlessly expelled from Lom-
bardy, after the suppression ofthe last revolt of Milan, accounting
them natural born republicans and revolutionists; and we sup-
pose Austria is not a know-nothing on this point. Wenever heard
ofthe Catholics of Hungary accused of backwardness in the late
glorious struggle of their country for freedom, though its leaders
were Protestants, fighting against a leading Catholic power,
avowedly in favor of religious as well as civil liberty,—and chival-
ric unhappy Poland, almost wholly Catholic, has made as gal-
lant struggles for freedom as any other nation, while of the three
despotisms that crushed her, but one ‘ was Catholic.’ ”

Nor has the Catholic church of America any reason
to be less proud of those of her members, who in the
more peaceful walks of civil life, have acquired dis-
tinction, and reflected credit upon their country. The
list of their names—headed by that of Chief Justice
Taney—embraces among them many of the most dis-
tinguished in the arts, sciences and professions. Of
the present Catholic hierarchy of the United States, it
is not necessary for me to speak. To the Catholic who
is at all familiar with the present condition of the

church, their names are as familiar as household words.
Distinguished for their learning and ability, as for
their piety and zeal, they command the respect and
esteem not only of Catholics, but of all high-minded
non-Catholics—who, I am pleased to say it, constitute a
large portion of our dissenting fellow-citizens. We are
certainly justified in entertaining the conviction that

among the Catholic prelates and clergy of this country,
are to be found some of the most distinguished men of
the present age.

With the termination of the late terrible struggle
which deluged our land with blood, and left its traces,
in the habiliments of mourning which are still to be
seen, as the sad relics of the war, from one end of the
Union to the other, a new era dawned upon Catholicity.
The war has had its influence upon our political and
social system, and also, to a certain extent, upon the

sentiments of the people with reference to religion.

Bringing together, by force of circumstances, all de-
nominations, it brought thousands of Protestants—who



34

knew nothing of the Catholic Church and her religion,
except what they had learned, through sources contam-
inated by prejudice—in intimate contact with Catholics;
and as a natural and logical result, their preconceived

prejudices were removed, and they ceased to regard the

church with that abhorrence, which they had formerly
entertained. And to none are Catholics more indebted
for bringing about this gratifying change than to those

saintly beings,

THE SISTERS OF CHARITY

whose labors in the cause of humanity and Catholicity

(although apparently overlooked by me) have been
proportionately equal to that of the missionaries. I

cannot find language to refer to the acts of these holy

women during the late war, more appropriate than the
following extract from an editorial which appeared in

1868 in one of our state papers, the editor of which was
a non-Catholic and had served in the Union army. He
said:

—

“It has always been a matter of some surprise with us that the
self-sacrificing labors of these angels in disguise have not been
more specially noticed in the newspapers and in thethousand-and-
one books written and published about the war. There is scarcely
a battle field, a hospital or a prison within the whole broad com-
pass of the war-scourged district that was not the scene of scores
of acts of heroism and mercy performed by these women. Not
with the pomp and parade of the Sanitary and Christian Commis-
sions were these acts performed, but hundreds and thousands of
living witnesses can this day testify that when the cruel bullet or
burning fever had stricken them down, somehow a quiet-faced
woman dressed in black, would find her way to their side and with
the cup of cool water, the soothing ointment, or better than all,
the word of encouragement and hope, give them a new lease of life.
No question of creed or religious belief was asked or hinted at

—

their mission was one of gentleness and mercy—to smooth the pil-
low of the dying, and to comfort and sustain the sick and afflicted,
and nobly they performed their work. Yet how seldom do we to-
day meet in public print, any acknowledgment of their works of
charity and love.

It is safe to leave the reward of these women in the hands of
that Saviour they are serving while they imitate His blessed ex-
ample, and we know that human praise is distasteful to them,
while human obloquy and scorn is unnoticed; but we never see the
familiar dress, and quiet, meek features of a Sister of Charity with-
out an inward “God bless you,” and an instinctive desire to lift,
our hat to them as they pass.”



35

Well might the late Henry J. Raymond, in his
paper (the New York Times) in commenting, but a
short time before his death, upon the labors of the
Sisters, and the great want of proper nurses, that exists

in our non-Oatholic hospitals, and the many deaths that
can be attributed to that cause, say:

—

“ Does not all this suggest to our great Protestant Churches, the
necessity of establishing some order of holy women, whose labors
shall be akin to the Sisters of Charity, or rather we should say,
akin to the angels? If we cannot have such an order, we earnest-
ly hope, for the sake of suffering humanity, that the Catholic Church
will devote itself morethan ever, to enlarge the numbers and extend
the beneficent labors of the Sisters.”

This candid admission—from one of the leading
journals of the nation—of the great good which these
self-sacrificing women are doing, for the poor and un-
fortunate, in contradistinction to the spirit which, but

a few years before the war of the Rebellion culminated
in mob violence, and reduced convents to ashes, exhibits
as much as any other evidence can the progress which
the Catholic Church has made, in general public
estimation, in the past quarter of a century. And its
growth in power and greatness has been fully equal to
its growth in popularity. From a few hundred thou-
sand at the close of the Revolutionary war, its member-
ship has increased to about one-fifth of the present
population of the United States; or about twelve mil-
lions—a membership which is more than double that of
any other denomination.

It is not necessary, for the purposes of this lecture,
that I should enter into an enumeration of the Catholic
hierarchy and clergy, or of our churches, or institutions
of learning and charitable institutions. This might
seem like a disposition to boast.

CONCLUSION.

With this imperfect epitome of the “Catholic Pages
of American History,” I must close. It is necessarily
brief and incomplete, because it would be impossible to
do more than I have done within the time that I should
occupy with one lecture.

Imperfect and incomplete as it is, I trust that I have



36

furnished sufficient to satisfy the most prejudiced, that
the children and members of the Catholic Church have
been, at all periods of our country’s history, among its
truest friends, and are entitled to the proud distinction
of being the founders and chief builders of that magni-
ficent temple of liberty which I mentioned in my open-
ing remarks, and which our beloved country so grandly
typifies. - — _
As we reflect upon these pages of our country’s his-

tory, and entertain such a pride in it as would almost
justify us in challenging our other fellow citizens to

point to a superior historical record, w^e should not for-

get that—as the successors of the distinguished Cath-
olics whom I have mentioned—we have a duty to
perform.

That duty is to prove that we are worthy to be the
successors of the illustrious Catholics who have made
this history. We can, by imitating their virtues and
patriotism, show that a true and practical Catholic must
necessarily be a good and worthy citizen of this great
republic.

Living thus, and not forgetting that these pages of
American history are the common property of us all

—

of our citizens of other belief as well—let us content
ourselves with pointing to this record with pride, and
in the spirit of truest brotherly love, invite our non-

Catholic brethren to a friendly rivalry for higher pur-

poses, in what we hope and pray to be the glorious
future of our country to the ^end of time.

j

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