LECTURE BY THE Right Rev. R. G-ilmonr, DD., Bishop of Cleveland. “The Debt America * * Owes to Catholics. DELIVERED AT CASE HALL, CLEVELAND, ON SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 1880. DeacfeSiffed LECTURE. By BISHOP GILMOUR, of Cleveland, Ohio. Ladies and Gentlemen: History has been defined “a conspiracy against truth.” Without going this far I would, however, be quite willing to assert that partisan history is far from being reliable. PARTISAN HISTORY. You enter a courtroom, listen to the evidence, and the argument of the lawyers for the prosecution ; everything is so clear and plausible that you conclude there is no escape for the prisoner at the bar. So, if you read but partisan history, in which only such facts as tell for the party inter- ested are narrated, and listen to the specious and plausible reasonings of the partisan historian, you will readily con- clude the opposite party is far from being a saint. In the beginning of the Reformation, partisan feeling ran very high. The Reformers felt they must justify themselves for their rebellion against the Church, and their aggressive pol- icy against Catholics, as also for their spoliations and rob- beries, so they began a most violent attack against Catholics and Catholic doctrines and practices. Things innocent in themselves were colored and distorted so that they could be no longer recognized; Catholics were accused of teaching and doing what they abhorred; doctrines were maliciously falsified; designs attributed that were never thought of; airy phantoms created and horrid monsters pictured to the heated imagination to justify the excesses of the Reformers, until Catholics wTere a good deal like the fabled Rip Van Winkle that wakened up to find that he did not know him- self. This process of writing history has been most faith- fully pursued by the followers of the Reformation, until it is now difficult to get the truth on anything connected with Catholics ; this more especially in the English speaking world, owing to the fact that Catholicity almost entirely dis- 4 appeared in England and Scotland, the only countries where English prevailed. America followed the lead of England, as being her child, and we have had in degree like results here. COLONIAL HISTORY. In our early Colonial history the Catholics wTere few and far between ; most of ,vthem refugees from barbarous perse- cution in England or Ireland; without power, or numbers, or wealth ; their enemies arrogant, selfish, intensely Prot- estant ; with all the bitter rancor of the English Protestant guiding them in their actions toward the few Catholics that were scattered throughout the colonies. Much of American history has been written in the light of the above prejudices, and has been colored and distorted according to the partisan feelings of the historian, and the cry has been taken up by partisan politicians or prejudiced writers, newspapers, and lecturers, until a large portion of our fellow-citizens believe Catholics should be well content if they are tolerated at all ; or at least they should be entirely content with what is given them, or with any bone that is thrown to them. The dying out of the fierce partisanship of the past, the more liberal views of the day, the growing numbers of Catholics, their intelligence and wealth, the growing sense of justice among Protestants, and the consequent calmer tone of history, is doing much to do away with former prejudices and bring about a better feeling all around. My object is not, there- fore, to excite prejudices or disturb the harmony growing up amongst us, but simply to show that Catholics are not in these United States by tolerance, but that they have rights —small or great, as the case may be—but rights dis'.inct and clear, that no one can take from them, no matter what pre- judice may attempt or partisan history say ; rights in both the physical and moral world ; and rights that will last as long as America lasts, or our laws or form of government lasts. DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA. By a certain class it is claimed this country belongs to the saints, and the saints are the Puritans and their successors. Whatever claim the Puritans may have had to be called saints, it is quite certain that many of their descendants have most successfully lost it, as our Credit Mobilier, whis- key rings, Freedman’s Bureaus, and a host of other most unsaintly doings clearly prove. But is it true this country belongs to the Puritans, or to the Protestants not Puritans? or is it true Catholics have done little or nothing for the 5 country, past or present? or is it true Catholics are not the equals of their fellow-citizens, either for what thev have done or are doing? Let us look for a moment into the past and see what even the most partisan history cannot and will not deny. Catholics discovered America ; they explored it ; they have done a very large share in the opening up and development of its wealth. No one will deny that Columbus discovered America, nor will any one acquainted with the history of the country deny either of the other propositions. Start from the mouth of the St. Lawrence river; go up the lakes to the far West; cross over to the Mississippi, then down to the Gulf of Mexico, and you have the limits of the early Jesuit explorations, every foot of which is sign-posted with the name of a saint. Cross again from Quebec to New York, and from Quebec up Lake Erie to Toledo, then up the Maumee and St. Joe* down through Indiana and^ Illinois to the Mississippi, and you have two other lines of exploration, marked by the talismanie names of saints, showing that the explorers were Catholics.^ A Brebeuf, a Lallemant, a Mar- quette, a Joliet, a La Salle, etc., in the West; a Jogues and Dablon in the East tell their own tale, and tell in words that none can dispute or deny the daring courage of Catho- lics who fearlessly struck into the forest, the first explorers of the country, each to tell his tale of the size and wealth and wonderful extent of lake and land, forest and prairie, that read like fairy tales, bringing thousands to our shores to dig, and delve, and help develop the wealth of the land. California,New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Mich- igan are all part of this line of argument, and all going to show that nearly the whole of the country now known as the United States was explored by Catholics, and all this at a time when Protestants had not passed beyond the sea- board ; proving this simple fact that the continent of Amer- ica was not explored by Protestants, but it was explored by Catholics. DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICA. After the exploration came the more systematic opening up of the country; in the West and South by the French and Spaniards ; in the East by the Protestants and Cath- olics. For long there was no effort made to connect the East with the West, but when the time did come it was Irish Catholics who almost exclusively cut the roads through the forests, dug our canals, and built our railroads. You may say they were paid for it. Yes, that is true, they were paid for it in a way ; but I tell you all the gold of California could not produce one pound of muscle, and without muscle you could neither have built roads nor dug canals ; and if ; 6 Ireland had not given her strong arms and her brave hearts to dig and build—amid fever and death—the public works of America could not have been built nor the West reached. Without emigration, Ohio or Indiana would to-day most likely have been the limit of our western development. I recollect well when we acquired California, and the gold fever rose, that it took a six months’ voyage from New York to San Francisco ; and I recollect the saying that every rail in the Panama Railroad had cost the life of an Irishman. Like most people who have grown strong, we are apt to for- get when we were weak. Credit to whom credit is due, if the sky fall. Let bigots and the narrow-minded forget the debt due the Catholic emigrant, but thank God the great charity of the country, in this day of Ireland’s dire distress, is noble evidence that the American people, as a people, have not forgotten the deeds of the Irish Catholic, whether in war or in peace. EMIGRATION. For long years past the Irish and Germans have formed the great bulk of our emigration. A large proportion of the Germans are Catholic—a most valuable and industrious addition to our population. We are also getting now largely from Poland and Bohemia, a contingent largely Catholic. In fact, our emigration is so largely Catholic that our Know- nothing friends are constantly on the warpath, devising means to control or check it; but every emigrant is a pro- ducing factor, and every sod he turns, or child he begets, is a direct addition to the wealth of the country ; and only the most narrow-minded man would attempt to check it. Take an example. The foreign population of Cleveland, and their immediate descendants, form all of three-fifths of the entire population. Pray what would Cleveland be if three-fifths of its population would move out West—as Horace Greeley used to recommend? I suspect corner lots could be got quite cheap. Now we all know the great bulk of our emigrants have been Catholics. I admit we have lost heavily in the defection of the children, but that does not diminish the value of the Catholic parent, both for his own sake, or for the addition to the population which he has given to the country. Most careful statistics show that to-day there are all of 14,000,000 of Irish and their descend- ants in these United States; not to-day all Catholics, it is true, yet they were once nearly all Catholics. The country is not the less indebted to them for this addition to its pop- ulation, though the Church has so largely lost in the defec- tion of their children. It may be an awkward thing for a nice, prim, genteel young gentleman, in tracing up his 7 family lineage, to find that his grandfather or grandmother was Irish or German, but the haying of sons and daughters was a habit these Irish and German grandfathers had, and it must just be put up with. It is certain a country without a population will not rank high, whilst a country with a large, industrious population must not only grow in wealth, but rise in power. Every man and woman that adds an honest child to the population of a country is a benefactor to the human race. I believe it is generally admitted that Catholics do their full share in this line, so much so that some of our rampant 0. A. U.’s are predicting the time when the Catholics will be in the majority ; and when this time does come they are predicting all manner of dire and dreadful evils ; our liberties will be destroyed ; Protestants will be murdered ; and the country will be given up to the Pope. To these timid old women and maudlin firebrands, I say, peace ! peace I Catholics love their country as much as others, and will give—as they have already given—their lives and their treasure for the defense of the country, as freely as others ; and as for the Pope—venerable old man — he will always have so much to do to attend to his duties as Bishop of Rome, that I really believe, even with the offer of a diocese in America he would not come here. When he was at the zenith of his power he annexed no country to his little territorial Church States, not even one of the many republics of Italy, of which he is said to be such an enemy ; but, on the contrary, he used his best influence to maintain their integrity. If he did not try to add to his territory when he had political power, he is not likely to do it now, when he has it not, more especially at such a distance as we are from him. So, onrthis point America is safe. How- ever, I do firmly believe the venerable old man will do his best—and I believe there is not a Bishop or a priest in the country that will not help him—to make us all better men and better women than we are, by striving to make us bet- ter Christians, and, with that object, he will try—and I know we will all help him—to make as many Catholics as we can. Indeed, I will go further, and say there is a de- cided intention on our part to make every man, woman, and child in these United States a Catholic. If we fail it will not be our fault ; but we will do this, not by physical force but by intellectual persuasion. THE PURITAJSS. The strong, stalwart arms of the country are certainly not the descendants of the Puritans. As a race they are dying out, even in their native home—Massachusetts—and are 8 there being replaced by the Irish. Exclude the immigration of the last hundred years ; exclude the negro, the Spaniard, and the French ; exclude the Irish, the German, the Pole, and the Bohemian, and confine the population of the coun- try strictly to the Anglo-Saxon Puritan and his descendants, and you will have a very decided minority. This may be unpleasant to people as self-sufficient as the Puritan and his descendants, yet it is not the less a truth because it is not palatable. The great minds of this country were not, nor are they to-day, the Puritan. The great minds of the Revolution were from Virginia and New York. The Madisons, the Hamiltons, the Jays, the Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Marshalls were not of Puritan stock. Neither im the war of the Revolution, nor in the war of 1812, nor in the Mexican war, nor in the late war, were the great names from New England. New England has given us schoolteachers, doctors, and lawyers without end—and empty pretensions ; but for great names, or great principles, or great ideas, in government or policy, you must look else- where than to the Puritan or his descendants. PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY. But let us take another line of argument, and we will see that, independent of its mere physical development, the country is almost entirely indebted to Catholicity for its great principles of civil and religious liberty. To make this assertion in the face of present public opinion and current history may appear a little paradoxical, yet I make it with a perfect confidence in its truthfulness, and with perfect confidence in its historical accuracy. The principle s of our government are substantially the principles of the English constitution, with the king and nobility eliminated. This lack of a king or nobility is by no means the result of any will or direction of our forefathers here. It was the result of circumstances over which neither colonists, nor, Protestant, nor Catholic had any control. Jt is a result for which we owe no one. It grew out of the colonial condi- tion of the country. Now, what constitutes the basis of our constitution? and what is there in it for which we have cause for such just pride? Our constitution, our rights, our glory are all summed up in two words—civil and religious liberty. You [non-Catholics] will, perhaps, be a little sur- prised when I tell you our civil liberty is of Catholic origin, and we inherited it ready made to our hands ; and, as for our religious liberty, you may, perhaps, be still more sur- prised to hear, not only that Catholics were the first in America to teach it, but that to them is it mainly due that 9 religious liberty became a part of our constitution. Let us examine these propositions a little carefully LIBERTY DEFINED. Civil liberty may be defined, the protection, by just law, of the life and property of the citizen against the. arbitrary actions of king or magistrate. Tyranny is the violation of just law, and the arbitrary oppression of the citizen. You will notice I use the word ‘‘arbitrary,” because circum- stances may arise when the citizen must be oppressed for the common weal ; for example, the draft and taxes of the late war. Here the citizen was oppressed, but not unjustly, nor arbitrarily. Not unjustly, because the safety of the State needed the services of her citizens; not arbitrarily, where it was done by due process of law. CIVIL LIBERTY. . Now, in what does our civil liberty consist? 1st. That our house is our castle ; 2d. That no one can be imprisoned ex- cept by due process of law; 3d. No representation, no taxa- tion; 4th. Trial by jury; 5th. Fixed courts; 6th. Habeas cor- pus. These six propositions contain the sum of all we mean by civil liberty, and they constitute the basis of all our con- stitutions, State or national. If we add a seventh, “ that all men shall be free to worship God according to the dic- tates of their consciences,” we have all that constitutes our civil and religious liberty, and that gives us all the freedom we have. Now, who gave us the above first six proposi- tions? Protestants? No. Puritans? No. Americans? No ; not even one of them. Who, then, gave them? Would you suspect it, far less would you believe it, that every one of these six propositions is a gift, pure and simple, from Catholics? You have all heard of the great Magna Charta of England. Now, the Magna Charta contains substantially the first six propositions. But the Magna Charta was created by Catholics, maintained by Catholics, fought for by Catholics—bishops and people—long before the date of Protestantism. At the time of the Reformation this Magna Charta was the law of England; it is to-day the law of England, and the basis of all law in these United States. There has not been a single element of liberty added to it since the Reformation. On the contrary, this great char- ter of human liberty was absolutely wiped out by Henry VIII., and the slavery of the English nation consummated when Henry VIII. commanded the English parliament, at the peril of their heads, to pass his laws. It is true, the 10 revolution of 1688 restored the liberties of England, but that revolution added nothing to the liberties that had been already created and maintained when England was Catholic. It but restored what Catholics had created; and these United States have inherited from the Catholics of England and in the Magna Charta all that constitutes our civil lib- erty. COMMON LAW. The common law of England is the pure outgrowth of Catholic canon law . The common law of England is sim- ply canon law applied to civil life ; but the common law of England constitutes the basis of our jurisprudence and is the basis of all our laws of equity, and gives us the princi- ples by which all just law must be created and interpreted. Enter any of our courts ; listen to the pleadings in any case where the great principles of law and justice are discussed, and you will invariably find the common law of England referred to. You will hardly be prepared to hear that every great principle there involved has not only been discussed in canon law, but decided by canon law, from which was formed and on which is based the common law of England. Of course, our statute law is our own ; but the great princi- ples of law that guide all our courts is the common law7 of England. Yet the common law7 of England is derived from and founded upon Catholic canon law ; hence the great prin- ciples of our laws have been created by and derived from Catholicity. It may be unpleasant to the pride of some to trace to Catholicity so much we are in the habit of having attributed to Protestantism, but truth is truth, and history is history ; if the props crumble, and the house that has been built thereon falls, that is not my fault—it is the fault of those who built on sand and then trusted that the foun- dation would not give way. Merely because the world dis- likes Catholics that is no reason why Catholicity should be robbed of her works ; and if Catholicity has given America nearly all the great principles she has, that is no reason why we should not have honesty and manliness enough to acknowledge our debt. PURITAN ILL1BERALITY. The crowning boast of our country is its religious freedom. Here, for the first time in the history of the world, a man might worship God as he pleased, with none to question or forbid. Protestants claim this as their creation, and we are never done hearing of the Puritans as being the fathers of our religious freedom. But nothing could he further from 11 the truth. American religious freedom is not only not the creation of Puritans, but is in direct opposition to them, their doctrines, and their practices. Nay, it is in direct op- position to the sentiments of the Protestants in America at the time of our Colonial history. When the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock they brought with them a spirit of intol- erable arrogance, self-sufficiency, narrow-mindedness, and hostility to any form of religious freedom. Their whole Colonial history is one continual narrative of religious per- secution and relentless opposition to all who would not be- lieve as they did. They were cruel and unjust to the Indian, and their policy has descended to us as an unhappy legacy, making our treatment of the Indian a simple disgrace to the country. They hemmed in their Massachusetts colony with a cordon of fire and sword, and no one could enter unless he would accept the Puritan, his religion, and his politics. The history of the Puritan is one continuous narrative of heart- sickening narrow-mindedness, dogmatism, and persecution. Read the relentless doctrines of Cotton Mather, the Blue Laws, the death-dealing laws against Catholics. In this respect the Episcopalians of Virginia were almost as bad as the Protestants of Massachusetts. At the time of the Revo- lution nine out of the thirteen colonies had religious test- oaths, and the other four had laws discriminating against Catholics. Even the gentle Penn had his fling against them. In contradiction to the principles of the Constitution, in which religious freedom was given to all, many of the States did not repeal their laws against Catholics tilt long after the Declaration of Independence. New York retained her anti- Catholic test-oaths down to the year 1806, Connecticut down to 1816, Massachusetts to 1833, North Carolina 1836, New Jersey 1844, New Hampshire to 1877. So that it took seventy years after the Declaration of Independence to get the light of religious freedom incised into the head of the Massachusetts Puritan, and one hundred years with the Centennial year thrown in, to get it into the head of his New Hampshire son. Yetrin the face of these facts, we are told that religious freedom in this country is a boon in which we have no place. KNOW-NOTHINGISM. Notwithstanding the provisions of the constitutions and the softening of religious rancor consequent on our inde- E endence and the advance of religious tolerance, we have ad within the last fifty years three fierce attacks upon Catholics. One when the Puritans, in 1834, burned the Ursuline Convent in Boston; the second when the native 12 Americans, in 1844, burned both churches and convents and murdered Catholics in Philadelphia; the third when, in 1853 and 1854, the Know-nothings attacked the Catholics everywhere and in every place; and, let me add a fourth, in the present attack against us by our friends, the sanc- timonious 0. A. U., with its headquarters in Cleveland, and its rampant organ, the Leader , that with the hypocrisy of its Puritan progenitors, holds out the palladium ot religious freedom in one hand, and with the other daily strives to ex- cite rage and hatred against Catholics. Daily the Leader falsifies the doctrines and actions of Catholics; daily it strives to excite hatred against eight millions of its fellow- citizens—citizens as good as ever it was, or is, or ever will be, and who have done more for the country than the*Leader ever did or ever will do. Take the following as a specimen of how the Leader and its Puritan editor write and falsify history and belie their fellow-citizens. Here is a short extract selected from many, not because it is peculiar, but because it happens to be one of those that came ready to me, published February 25 : “ They (the Catholics) are seeking to destroy the system of common school education which is the strongest bulwark of our free institutions. They demand exemption from taxa- tion for their mill ions upon millions of property, wrung from the toiling masses of their deluded followers, and begged from soft-hearted Protestants ; while they clamor for a share of public moneys raised by taxation to which as a class they do not contribute. At every step, from the Pope down to the last fledgeling priest, they betray the never dying hos- tility of their church to the free institutions of our country, which they mean to bring into subjection to the Vatican, and under the rule of a new Inquisition.’ ’ In this short extract, there are no less than six grave and distinct misrepresentations; 1st., Catholics seek to destroy the public schools; 2d., they demand (unlawful) exemp- tion from taxation; 3d., they clamor for a share of the public moneys, to which they do not contribute; 4th., they betray a never ending hatred to the free institutions of the country; 5th., they mean to bring the country into subjection to the Pope ; and 6th., they mean to bring us under the rule of the Inquisition. Now, I here calmly and understandingly brand these six assertions made by the Leader against eight millions of Catholics now in this country as unqualified misrepresenta- tions, and I pillory their author as a public calumniator of eight millions of his fellow-citizens as loyal and as faithful to the Stars and Stripes as he ever was or ever will be, if he 13 were descended from the Puritans ten times over. And I go further, and I here assert that the Cleveland Leader for the last eight years, to my personal knowledge, has never once published an article on Catholics or Catholic doctrine in which it has not falsified Catholics and their doctrines. Yet the editor sets himself up as a leader of free thought and free government and free institutions. The Leader’s idea of freedom is its right to falsify Catholic doctrines and its Catholic fellow-citizens. COLONIAL MARYLAND. ^ Religious freedom is not due to the Puritans nor their descendants. Nor is the religious freedom found in the Constitution due to the religious liberality of the several states ; although they voted for it, yet, at the same time, they still retained their anti-Catholic laws and test-oaths. The clause in the Constitution ^nd the first amendment guaran- teeing religious freedom were inserted: 1st., as a necessity to recognize the debt due to Catholics for the part they had played in the war of Independence; 2d., as a concession to the French and Spanish Catholics who had so materially aided the country in the Revolution; 3d., as a concession to the rising non-religious element that wTas then in the country, and of which Jefferson was the great leader. Where then, you will ask, did we get our religious freedom? See- ing how the world writes and speaks of Catholics, you will hardly be prepared to believe that religious freedom in these United States had its origin with, and was first proclaimed by Catholics, and that the Catholics of Maryland were not only the first, but the only body of people who, uninfluenced, and of their own free will, ever did proclaim religious free- dom in these United States. As we have seen, our religious freedom, as found in the Constitution, did not spring from Protestantism, nor was it conceded by the Protestants freely, but was forced* into the Constitution by Catholic precedent, and as a concession to Catholic influence and to the part that Catholics had played in the war of Independence. To neutralize the eclat of this fact, efforts have been made, and will no doubt likely con- tinue to be made, either to deny or explain away this claim. But no explanation or denial will ever explain away or alter the fact that the Catholics of Maryland were the first in America to proclaim religious freedom to the world, or that one hundred and fifty years before the Constitution of the United States was framed, religious freedom was the law of Catholic Maryland. 14 WHAT AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTY OWES TO CATHOLICITY. We have already seen that Magna Charta was the creation of Catholics, and that the great principles that underlie our Constitution and give us our civil liberty are contained in the Magna Charta. Above we have seen how Catholics gave us the first germ of our religious liberty. However, in say- ing all this I do not wish to say, nor do I wish to be under- stood to say, that our Protestant friends have not done their part. They have co-operated, and they have taken up these great principles that originated with Catholics, and to their glory and to their credit together we have built up a coun- try, large, wide, rich, and influential, and here, where they have had the power, and had the power as a great people, they not only have thus created a country, but have adopted these principles ; and the great mass of the American peo- ple are true and loyal to these principles, and say to the world, “Come here; for you there is a home, where the Stars and Stripes will float over you and protect you in your civil rights. There is here a home where the Stars and Stripes shall float over you and protect your conscientious rights.” All this and more is to be said to their credit ; and when saying this, I not only honor them and love them for hav- ing extended to us here, many of us refugees from the land of oppression, the right hand of welcome, but I want to say while saying this of them, that all has not come from their side of the house: that there is something due to us as well, and, therefore, give us what are our rights and we will give you what are your rights. Recognize that we have given the great principles of civil liberty that underlie our Con- stitution, and are to us our Magna Charta; recognize that we have taught for the first time in the history of the world and in this free country the principles of religious liberty, and recognize that fact generously and let us live in peace. OUR CLAIMS AND OUR RIGHTS. When the Catholic barons of England, headed by Arch- bishop Langton, wrenched from King John the great Magna Charta, they there and then created all there is known by the words “civil liberty ,, ; and when the Catholics of Maryland, in 1649, published their great “ Toleration Act,” they gave us all that we know by the words “ religious lib- erty” ; and when I tell you that Catholics in America are as loyal to the Stars and Stripes as their fellow-citizens, and that they will defend them as boldly and protect them as 15 sacredly as the best, I but tell you what no man can deny— that we love our country ; we love its institutions ; we have come here of our own free will ; we are ready to give our lives and our property for it ; but we wish to stand on an equality with our fellow-citizens. We discovered the coun- try; we explored the country; we in great measure have opened up the country and connected the east and the west; wre gave to it the great Magna Charta that consti- tutes our civil liberty; we have given it its laws, its courts, its trial by jury, its habeas corpus , its maxim, “ No repre- sentation, no taxation,” and lastly, but not least, the prin- ciples of religious liberty, of which we are all so justly proud ; yet we are told by some that we are but aliens here, and that we should be content to take a second place. I ob- ject to this, and, as a Catholic, I claim an equal right to a position in the front ranks with my fellow-citizens, because of what we have done and are doing, and are willing and ready to do. FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. We are accused of being opposed to republican forms of government. Our Protestant neighbors are lauded to the skies as the creators and fosterers of republics. Well, if this be true, we have a strange way of showing our opposi- tion to republics, and our neighbors a most strange way of showing their way of creating republics. Protestants point with triumphant pride to these United States and say, “ Behold our work!” To this I demur. Neither Protes- tants nor Catholics created our republic. Our republic grew out of circumstances over which neither Protestant nor Catholic had any control, nor to which they gave any direction. It was the creature of necessity, and had its ori- gin in the dependence of the separate colonies on the home government and their absolute independence of each other when they separated from England. The independence of the colonies depended upon their unity, and their unity forced a federal form of government in which each state should have a separate and individual independence, and have an equal representation. Hence our form of govern- ment grew from necessity; was not created either by Cath- olic or Protestant. It w’ould have been a republic equally had the people been Mohammedan or pagan. Hence this single boast falls to the ground, and with it the only coun- try in the world where Protestants can pretend to have created a republic or created any form of government — republican, monarchical, or autocratical. It is not that they would not or could not have crested, but because, when Protestantism began the governments of 16 the world were already created, in some places in the form of republics, but in most places in the form of empires and kingdoms. But Protestantism has not created any govern- ment as distinctly the result of Protestant principles, far less a republic. I go further and say that the principles of Protestantism are opposed in themselves to a republican form of government. In this country we have grown up without religion, either as the directive or creative power of our government. Our form of government grew, as we have seen, and as I have stated, independent of any form of religion, and it grew from the circumstances of the country and the fact that the colonists brought here a civilization perfected and formed when they landed upon the coast of these United States. Where Protestantism has been in the ascendant, instead of creating a liberal form of government, it has created directly the reverse. I refer to the extreme, exact- ing character of the English government when it was in the hands of Henry the Eighth, and of Queen Elizabeth and others that followed. I refer also to the condition of Scot- land when it was in the hands and under the turbulent rule of the early reformers. I refer to Prussia of to-day, to Sweden and to Denmark, all of which have been, as far as you can say they were created by either one form or other of religion, placed for the last three hundred years in the hands of Protestants, and it is admitted by the world at large that neither of these countries has so far succeeded in liberalizing the sentiments of the age, or that their forms of government tend to republicanism. J Now, compare Catholic countries with the above. The oldest republics in the world are Catholic. For over one thousand years the republics of San Marino in Italy and Andorra in Spain have lived in the heart of Catholicity ; besides these "there ^ere the republics of Genoa, Pisa, Pa- dua, and Milan, Venice and the Swiss republics; all cre- ated before the dawn of Protestantism. Add to these the republics of Mexico, Central and South America, the pres- ent republic of France—this latter considered to be a coun- try at the head of the civilized world. Even the present freedom of England, of which Englishmen are so proud, is the direct result and creation of the Catholic Magna Charta of Catholic times. CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES. Now, in the face of these facts, which no one can deny, nor no quibbling explain away, is it fair to charge that we are opposed to a republican form of government? I ask, 17 are Catholics, in the face of these facts, the enemies of re- publics—Catholics, who have exclusively created and fos- tered all the republics the Christian world has ever had, the United States excepted, and who have given to us in these United States the great principles that underlie our government and make us the free and happy people we are? Take away the principles of the Magna Charta on which our republic is built, and from which it has all the principles that in any manner make us a free people ; take away the religious freedom which Catholic Maryland taught and gave us ; take away our courts and common law which are the creation of Catholic canon law applied to civil life, and you will have very little left and very little to boast of except the carrying out and the putting into practice the principles that Catholics created and handed down to the world as their gift to mankind. It is a great deal to put principles into practice, even if the principles have been given, and for this the world has just cause to look to America with pride, because here we have put those principles into practice. Though created elsewhere and circumscribed to some extent, we have put them into practice with a generous hand and with a large mind. Like the country that stretches from the east to the west, so have been the distribution and the extension, and the putting into practice of the principles that were handed down to us. In the face of these facts, I ask, have Catholics no rights in America? Are we here by tolerance? Have we done nothing to merit a right to live and to act as free Americans, or have we done nothing for the country to merit our share not only in the direction of public affairs but in the distri- bution of public favors? Has the Catholic minority no rights in the face of the Protestant majority? We discovered the country ; we explored the country ; we have done our share in the opening up and the development of the country ; we fought for the country ; we have given our treasure and our blood for the country ; we have given the country the great Magna Charta that makes us a free people ; and the Catho- lic Church stands to-day the only great institution that can ever stem the current of liberalism—not that liberalism in religion th^t is given us by our religious liberty for every man to worship God as he pleases, but that liberalism that is wiping out the great principles of Christianity and reduc- ing itself into indifferentism and infidelity, or into that great broad church of the day thajb is assuming such alarm- ing proportions, and which I fear 'is undermining the great props on which we are building, and will leave us without that strength that is found only in virtue and in religion to 18 direct the helm of state. Religion is fast passing away. Forms and faiths are losing their hold on the hearts of the people. Protestantism is losing its vitality, and is now liv- ing on its past. It has no future, if I may be permitted to use that expression, because a thing that has lost its vitality and its propagandism has no future. It is split and torn into fragments. It no longer controls the masses. The crowds that hasten to listen to a Beecher, preaching a re- ligion without Christ, and an Ingersoll preaching bald and open infidelity, tell, in words that find no contradiction, whither we are going. CATHOLICITY IN POLITICS. On the other hand, Catholicity is a conservative element, that has life and vitality. It has the power to control and to stay the passions of men. It has the great principles of the Christian doctrine. It has an organization that has stood for the last 1,800 years amidst the war of elements and the contending passions of men. It is to-day deprived of any political power it may have heretofore had, and, vested rights preserved, I do not know that that is a very great loss to the Church. Political power was pressed upon the Church. She is accused of grasping for political power. It is a great mistake to imagine that the Church has sought political power for its own sake, and it is a far greater mis- take to imagine that the popes have ever striven to grasp political power, except so far as to control the passions of mankind and the evil inclinations of governors, or so far as she might be a peacemaker between nations. But that she has sought for political power, for the sake of political power, I refuse to accept. The Church has sought for a certain de- gree of management in the affairs of the world; because religion is a thing that cannot be eliminated from the man- agement and government of the world. She has been ap- pointed to teach the world the great truths of religion, and those things that will stay the passions of men and protect society, and so far she has sought to mingle in the political world. When the Church dawned upon the world, she had to deal with a system in which religion and politics wrere united in the same individual—the emperor of Rome. She had to deal with a form of society that was built upon this condition of things; and when the different countries of Europe were broken up and divided, they inherited the forms of government that had been created under the Roman laws. These laws—the Justinian Code, as they are sometimes called, constituting the great code of the conti- nent of Europe—gave that form of government in which 19 religion became a part, and when the whole world was Catholic, the state co-operated with the head of the Catho- lic Church, so that this has given an apparent reason for the accusation that the Church sought to mix in politics and get a guiding control in politics. But I think I am not Saying anything that wTill not be entirely substantiated by the highest or the lowest in the Church, when I maintain that what the Church asks is simply; freedom in her action ; that she shall be free to teach mankind the great principles of religion ; that she shall be free to direct men how they shall live and how they shall die ; that she shall be free to say to kings as well as to beggars, “ Thus far and no farther when you tread upon the things of God” ; that she shall be free to say to kings as well as to beggars, “ There is a law to which you are amenable, and there is a power above to which you must answer” ; that she shall be free to say to kingsi “ You shall not oppress the weak,” and to the weak, “ You shall give due respect and obedience to lawful authority,” So far the Church has sought to mingle in politics, but no further; and when, in this country, we are charged with seeking for political control, and when it is said the Pope is the dangerous element in this country, and when it is said we owe temporal allegiance to a foreign potentate, we are charged with things that any child in the Catholic Church knows to be incorrect. SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL ALLEGIANCE. We owe spiritual allegiance to the head of the Church as being the representative of God upon earth. We owe spir- itual allegiance to him because he is the mouthpiece of God to the world. We believe that as a part of our doctrine, but we owe no temporal allegiance to any person, no matter in what country we are, nor under what form of govern- ment we are, except to him who is our legitimate ruler in the country in which we live and move, and of which we are a part. In this country we know no temporal ruler, except him who is placed by the free votes and suffrage of a free people to rule and to govern. We know no temporal ruler that can come in and tell us that there is a power to direct in our temporal affairs beyond that which is created by just law and the Constitution of the United States. Whether foreign, whether native, whether we have taken an oath of allegiance, or whether we have grown up and in- herited our citizenship—as citizens of this country, we know no temporal prince nor ruler beyond him who has been elected for the immediate government of the people. Therefore, that fear and that constant charge that we 20 have a divided allegiance is founded upon a mere miscon- ception of our doctrines. We owe spiritual allegiance to the Pope, but we owe temporal allegiance to no man nor country but the country of which we are citizens. I have, therefore, shown to you that we have some rights in these United States, rights which belong to us because we have purchased them by our labors. We have discovered the country. We have explored the country. We have largely helped to develop the country. We are a pro- ductive portion of the population of the country. We are a large part of its population and a developing portion of the wealth of the country ; we have given to the country a great portion of all the great principles that underlie the Constitution of the United States. We have given it the Magna Oharta; we have given it the common law; we have given it the habeas corpus; we have given it the trial by jury; we have given it our courts; we have given it that principle for which we fought in the revolution, and which is, unfortunately, very often denied to people, “that you shall not be taxed unless you are represented,” and we were the first in these United States to proclaim that great prin- ciple that lends so much to the happiness of men—religious freedom. I therefore pray and beg Almighty God that the Stars and Stripes may long float over the country, and that we shall make a part of an harmonious whole, and that divisions and sectionalism and religious contentions between one and another may cease. That we shall only know “our God and our country” as the great watch-words that are to direct and mold us into a people, and give us a grand and glorious future.