THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Mr. William A. Foote THE UNITY OF ITALY THE AMERICAN CELEBRATION OF THE UNITY OF ITALY, AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC, NEW YORK, JAN. 12, 1871, ' WITH THE ADDRESSES, LETTERS, AND COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. Salve magna parens MAQSA VIRUM ! Vlrg. Oeorg, II. NEW YOKE : G. P. PUTNAM A- SONS, ASSOCIATION BUILDING. 1871. U5Z CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY 3 i CALL OF THE MEETING 5 COMMENTS OF THE PRESS OX THE CALL 7 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING 1 ' LETTERS: — Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Vice-Pres. U. S 18 Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State 19 Hon. C. Delano, Secretary of the Interior 20 Hon. Ciiakles Sumner, U. S. Senate 20 Hon. W. A. Buckingham. " 21 Hon. Henry Wilson, " 21 Hon. Lyman Trumbull, " 22 Hon. J. M. Howard, " 22 Hon. H. W. Corbett, " 23 Hon. Geo. F. Edmonds " 23 Hon. O. P. Morton, " 24 Hon. H. B. Antik >.\y. " 25 Hon. J. A. Garfield, House of Representatives 25 Hon. W. SrnoMi. U. S. Supreme Court 26 Hon. S. F. Mn.i i.k. " 26 Hon. J. D. Cox, late Secretary of the Interior 27 Hon. O. 0. Howard. Freedmen's Bureau 27 Hon. E. R. Hoar, late Attorney-General U. S 28 Hon. J. W. Geary, Governor of Pennsylvania 29 Hon. II. P. Baldwin, Governor of Michigan 29 Hon. Ciias. FRANCIS Ad\ms. late Minister to England 30 Rt. Rev. Bishop McIlvaim;, <>f Ohio :!<» lit. Rev. bishop COXB, Western New York 81 Rt. Rev. Bishop Hu.vi im. TOW, Central NewYork 31 ii CONTENTS. LETTEES :— PAGE lit. Rev. Bishop Willi wis, of Connecticut 32 i;t. Rev. Bishop Stkv ENS, of Pennsylvania 32 Prof. s. F. B. Mouse 33 Wm. Lloyd Garrison 34 Hon. GrERRITT SMITH 36 Prest. AlKEN, Union College 36 Prest. Jackson, Trinity College 37 Prest. Harris, Bowdoin College ...- 37 Chancellor CROSBY, University of New York 37 Prest, BROWN, Hamilton College 39 Prest, Mc( !( »SH, College of New Jersey 40 Prest. CASW ELL, Brown University 40 Prest. Smith, Dartmouth College 41 Prest. White, Cornell University 41 Prest. Campbell, Rutgers College 42 Prest. CooDWiN, University of Pennsylvania 43 Hon. W. BROSS, Illinois 48 Rev. Morgan Dix, D.D. , New York 49 Rev. H. C. Potter, D.D., " 50 Rev. S. H. Tyng, D.D., " ' 51 Rev. E. A. Washburn, D.D., " 52 Rev. J. Cotton Smith, D.D., " 52 Rev. W. F. Morgan, D.D. 53 Rev. Dr. Sunderland, Washington 54 Prof. Schapf, Union Theol. Seminary 56 Prof. H. B. Smith, " 56 Rev. Dr. Prime, New York 57 Rev. Dr. Bacon, New Haven 57 Rev. Dr. Kirk, Boston. . . 58 Rev. Dr. BUSHNELL, Hartford 59 Rev. Dr. McLEOD, New York 60 Rev. Dr. Ganse, " 60 Prest. Hopkins, Williams College 62 Prest. Park, Andover Theol. Seminary 63 Rev. Dr. Anderson, New York 64 Rev. Dr. Everts, Chicago 65 Rev. Thos. Farreli., New York 65 Prof. J. D. Dana, Yale College 68 John G. WniTTiER, Mass 70 i "\T! \ rs. in LETTERS ._ PACK EL W. Emerson, Boston 70 Oliver Wendell HOLMES, Boston 71 John Neal, Boston 71 J. G. Holland, Mass 72 & H. Boker, iMiila 73 Geo. s. Hillard, Boston !■'• Hon. W. B. Kinnky. New Jersey 7"> VY. I). Eowell (late Consul at Venice) 76 Geo. H Calvert, Rhode Island 76 Prof. Francis Lieber, LL.D Eenry ('. Carey, 1'hila 7!) Hon. J. W. Beekmax. late Senator 7!t Henry James 80 Prof. G. P. FlSHER, Yale College si Prof . R. D. Hitchcock, Union Theol. Seminary 82 Prof. Hedge, Earvard Oniversity 84 Geo. W.m. Curtis 86 1 1 \ yard Taylor B7 Rev. Dr. Dewey, Massachusetts 88 H. T. Ti i ki km an 88 Ch \- Astob Bristed 89 CHAa L. Brace 90 Rev. C. T. Brooks 90 Justin .m< Carthy. . . 92 Rev. Dr. Fubness, Phila 92 Rev. Dr. Oa d, New Fork. 98 Rev. Dr. Bartol, Boston :i;i Etev. J. F. Clarke, " kid Etev. O. B. Frothingham, New York 101 Rev. W. EL Axger, Boston 104 EL- v. K. I!. II u.i,. " |n; Prof. C. S.Henry, LL.D., Conn. 105 Prof. Benj. \ M \ki in. \.-w fork.... 105 Prof. Tayler Lewis, LL.D., Union College.. His Richard H Dana, Jr., Boston .... 1 in ENTRODUCTORY ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN A. DES 11; OLUTIONS mi IV CONTENTS. ADDRESSES :— PAGE Rev. Jos. P. Thompson, D.D. , LL.D 121 Address to the Government and People of Italy 133 I' \kke Godwin, Esq 134 Rev. H. W. Beecher 140 Judge James Emott 148 Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D 156 Hon. Horace Greeley >. 164 Rev. William Adams. D.D., LL.D 167 William Cullen Bryant 172 Telegram to the Italian Government 175 COMMENTS OF THE PRESS ON THE MEETING 176 APPENDIX : Telegram from the Italian Government 193 Letter of the Italian Consul 193 Letter of the Italian Minister 194 Reply of Gen. Dix, President of the Meeting 195 Address from Massachusetts 196 Hvmn bv Juldv Ward Howe 197 THE UNITY OF ITALY. The meeting lately held in this city to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity was so significant in its expression, and the sympathy it evoked so deep and uni- versal, that it has seemed proper to preserve the record of it in a permanent form. It has so long been the habit of the peoj^le of the United States to sympathize with other nations struggling for their emancipation from unjust and tyrannical rule, and to recognize their success in the effort by congratulations and rejoicing, that it Mas but natural for us to treat the recent unifi- cation of Italy with lively expressions of our approval and delight. In consequence, however, of the absorbing interest attached to the events of the Franco-Germanic war, these expressions were not so prompt or universal as they otherwise would have been; and it was <>nl\ when the partisans of the ecclesiastical government at Rome, overthrown by the Italian nation, began to send abroad their own peculiar opinions and protests as pep- resentative of American sentiment, that it was fchoughl needful t<> counteract the impressions likely t<> be pro- duced fcherebj l.\ a more genuine and spontaneous utter- ance of the Eeelings of the American people The meeting, therefore, called (<> assemble at the Aca- UNITY OF ITALY, demy of Music on the 12th of January last, was de- signed to be, in no sense of the word, a sectarian or a religious meeting, but a political one, whose sole object should be to proclaim to the world the uniform and distinctive sentiment of this nation, as to the great and fundamental principles of civil government. That was the reason it commended itself so warmly to the regards of all classes of our citizens, and brought out, in letters and editorial articles, such a general and hearty response to its appeals. That was the reason also that the meet- ing itself was the greatest and most enthusiastic that lias been held in this city, since the early days of our war. The immense enclosure of the Academy building could have been three times filled by the crowd gathered around it to participate in the proceedings, while the audience which was permitted to join in them, composed of the most eminent and respectable part of our popula- tion, evinced a degree of earnestness and vivacity that has never been surpassed on any similar occasion. Of the Resolutions and the Speeches which characterized the celebration, the Committee say nothing, because they are herein reported at length ; but they cannot refrain from returning their thanks in this public man- ner to the President of the meeting and to the speakers for their judicious and eloquent discourses, and to the press of the city for the ready and kindly assistance which it lent to their efforts. Theodore Roosevelt, W. T. Blodgett, W. E. Dodge, Jr., V. Botta, Howard Potter, New York, February, 1871. Committee of Arrangements. UNITY OF ITALY. The following Call appeared in the papers of New York on the 6th of January, L871. THE CALL. We, the undersigned, propose to express to United Italy the sympathy and congratulations of the American people upon the emancipation of Rome, and its occupation as the future capital of the nation ; and to celebrate this event at the Academy of Music on Thursday evening, Jan. 12. The union of Kome to Italy fulfils the aspirations of the Italian people for nationality, gives to the Romans a constitutional government of their own (•hoi,-,., consecrates the right of National Independence, and closo the long period of foreign intervention of which Etaly has for centuries been the victim. Consolidating the nation on a firm basis, it gives full scope to the energies of the people in education, politics, industry, commerce, literature, and the arts. and tends to the realization of Cavour's idea, "A free Church in a free State." thus assimilating Italian institutions more oearly to our own. and opening a new era of civil and religious liberty in Europe. • I AMES Bkowx. W. II. A.8PINWALL. •lolIN A. DlX. W. c. Bryant. W. E. Dodge. M \ksiiall (). Roberts. Jonathan Sturges. Morris K. Jesup. Hem: 1 ! < ;. Stebbins. • i v.ckson s. schultz. A. A. Low. Samuel F. B. Mob Willard Parker. Cyrus YV. Field. Wm. Remsen. Norm w White. < rEo. Talbot < >lyphant. '■'■ OB WD B. ( ' ANSON. Si DNE-J E. MOR8E. W. B. »),.,,, s. < 11 \i:i.i:s Tb \' V. Charles Butler. Charles K. Whitehead. Geo. W. Lane. I "i:\Tii: A. I I \\\ kins. Grosa enob P. Lowrey. Thou \s 11. Faile. l'l:\N. IS LlEUER. William < >rton. W. H. Webb. Charles P. Kirkland. John P. ( Irosby. George I'.. Smith. Hiram Barney. ( h rdon Bi CK. Henri ( '. Potter. I [enry W. Bellows. < rEo. Willi \m < '1 rtis. S. B. < 'lllTTIMM N. John < '. 1 1 lmilton. It. II. Hi TTON. I [obace Greeley. UNITY OF ITALY. E. S. Janes. Thomas Denny. .Josiaii Lane. Wm. Alexander Smith. A. R. Wetmore. John Torrey. Courtlandt Palmer. Fred. J. de Peyster. Geo. T. Strong. Robert J. Livingston. A. Van Rensselaer. Wm. A. Booth. William Adams. Ethan Allen. Geo. S. Coe. Henry Clews. John Sedgwick. Alfred Post. Thomas D. Anderson. Gustave Schwab. Nathan Bishop. h. t. tuckerman. R. Warren Weston. Levi P. Morton. John E. Williams. Marshall S. Bidwell. Otis D. Swan. F. W. Rhinelander. Jonathan Thorne. W. Dennistoun. Allan McLane. W. H. Foster. Winthrop S. Gilman. And many J. M. Halsted. Henry Chauncey. R. Ogden Doremus. C. E. Detmold. Lloyd Aspinwall. J. C. Havemeyer. Francis D. Moulton. Sinclair Tousey. Parker Handy. Samuel C. Reed. Geo. P. Putnam. O. E. Wood. ' L. H. Waters. W. R. Vermilye. ' F.' S. Winston. Wm. A. Hammond. R. H. McCurdy. Zophar Mills. Theodore W. Dwight. Fabbri & Chauncey. Brown Brothers & Co. Fred. Schuchardt & Sons. E. D. Morgan & Co. A. A. Low & Brothers. Phelps, Dodge & Co. Wetmore, Cryder & Co. Arnold, Sturges & Co. Dabney, Morgan & Co. Cary & Co. Oelrichs & Co. David Dows & Co. Jesse Hoyt & Co. Grinnell, Minturn & Co. OTHERS. COMMENTS OF THE PKESS. The Call was received with general favor, and elicited many able articles from the Press, from which the foil. .win- selections are made : — [The New York Times.] CANNOT W E HELP ITU.Y ? An impression lias already got abroad through Europe, owing to the meetings held in our large cities opposing the deposition of the Pope as temporal ruler, that American sympathy is generally with the Pope, rather than with Italy, on the question of his temporal government. Already a distinguished English Catholic has quoted this country as opposed to the efforts of the King of Italy to possess Rome and unify his country. Now nothing could be further from the truth. There has been, indeed, ..wing to preoccupation with home affairs, and other causes by uo means creditable to ^ur public men, an unaccoxintable silence in our community over this grand evenl of the century— the ilari/.ati.-n of the Pope's .1. .mains, and the anion and liberty of Italy. I'.ut any one who is at all familiar with the tone of our intelli- gent classes, Deed not be informed that there is here an unbounded mpathy with the young Kingdom of Italy in its efforts i" break the of priestcraft, and to make the Peninsula one under a consti- tutional < rovernment. Even liberal Catholics are in barmonj with the aims of the Italian Government, and believe thai the spiritual influence of the Pope will ,„,i be diminished by the loss of Lis temporal power. The Protestam masses are united on this question. Thej have long looked on the Pope's temporal government as an anachronism and a disgrace to a free Italy. Our travellers have reported the unlimited ignorance and degradati listing under that administration, and A-inerican Rym patbiea have revolted at the oppressive an. I worldly ml.' of a soli astical leader. Our people have followed everj step of the progress of the Kin.'.l of Sardinia with intense interesl and approval. In the war with A.u fcria, public opinion here was universally on the Bide oi [taly, and the acquisition of the Northern Province - was rejoiced over I,,., ou I. out lib ral Europe. G uubai di's victorious 8 UNITY OF ITALY. campaign againsl Naples, and the Italian conquest of Southern Italy, awakened in America genuine enthusiasm. The check to Italian pro- gress administered by Napoleon in shutting out Italy from Rome, and the annexation of Nice and Savoy, were thought to be fatal blun- ders, and In have soiled the only pure glory of the Empire. since then eaeli successive liberal step of the Government of VICTOR EMMANUEL lias been followed by the xtniversal sympathy of our masses : the secularization of the religious bodies, the spread of popular educa- tion, the development of parliamentary government, and the liberal- izing of the Monarchy. The impatience of the Italian people under the French occupation of Rome, and their unquenchable desire to possess a united country under a free government, were felt and re- sponded to from every portion of our native-born population. Ca- VOUr's great motto, " A free Church in a free State," was our own. And when, at length, the capitulation of Sedan forced Rome from the foreigner, and through the gap of the "Villa Bonaparte" Italian Annies marched to the Vatican, a universal thrill of sympathy and approval passed through our people. That the old priestly Monarchy, dating almost from Charlemagne, which had sown its harvest of wrongs and oppressions for centuries, which had once founded its throne over all earthly monarchies, and under religious names had scattered curses among mankind, whose fall had been the object of prayer and the supposed subject of prophecy, should at length, after a thousand years and more of misrule, be overthrown by its own subjects, and be succeeded by a kingdom in harmony with the ideas of the age, was something that no liberal American could hear of without the deepest feeling of approval. That there has been silence here, where there ought to have been a most open and eloquent recognition of these grand events, is, we are confident, the result of accident rather than design. There are surely public men among us who are not merely politicians, and are not, therefore, afraid to express their sympathy with the greatest event in the liberal progress of Europe during this century. There must be orators and statesmen in this country who can spare a word of honest sympathy for a liberal European Government, struggling with priest- craft, and striving against fearful obstacles for a free Church in a united and free State. Is it not possible in this great city to obtain an expression of public opinion which shall relieve this country from misapprehensions in the mind of Europe, and contribute to the moral strength of the government of Italy in its struggle for the right ? ITALIAN UNITY. The announcement of the meeting tomorrow night, to express to « OMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 9 United [talythe sympathy and congratulations of the ALmerican peo- ple, has awakened an interest that will not soon evaporate. In the absence of concerted action, the genera] aspect was one of cold indif- ference. Dr. Manning's declaration, thai the public opinion of the United States is on the side of the Pope and against the people and Kingof [taly, seemed for the moment to be justified bj the demon- strations of the Roman Catholics in our large cities, and by the ab- sence of any strong voice on the other side. The [Jltramontanists of Europe will discover that their reliance upon tins country was prema- ture. The bishops And priests have managed matters rather effectively, sofar. The opinion of G America will now be heard,— and it will not be in support of the Papal pretensions. New York moves fust. Bui the hall to he set in motion to-morrow will not cease rollina until it has traversed the continent. How deeply the appeal stirs the Protestant feeling and the genuine republican convictions of this country, the responses of men of tie- highest character sufficiently show. A week ago, every public man seemed dumb in the presence of the Roman Catholic power. Now they com-, one after another, with expressions of hearty sympathy and congratulation. The influential names attache,! to the call for the meeting proved that, however much trading politicians may pander to ''"' l; an Catholic vote, the intelligence and honest public spirit of the city cherish respect and admiration tor the long-sustained contest which has freed Rome from foreign intervention, given to the States of the Church a constitutional governmenl in the place of an effete an. I odious despotism, and fulfilled the Italia,, aspiration for unity. Vice- ''' H l ""' «'"" \\ was the firs! of -a,,- public men to come forward with words of cordial approval. To-day we prim letters of similar im- port from Senators Tbumbi ll, I:, ckingb \m. and Howard, from Secre tar> Delano and ex-Secretary Cox. Tic- meeting will furnish further testimony of the same sort. The f,ct will be made apparent, that all our public mm, are ,,,,( cowards or demagogues. Where the American 1 P le stand, no man who knows them could for a moment doubt. " The opening of [talj to liberal ideas," writes Senator Trumbull "and the unlocking of Rome itself to the advancing civilization and intelligence of the nineteenth century, are great events in the world's history. ' Tics are events whicb no lover of freedom in any countrj can contemplate unmoved. Every stage of the struggle of which these are the consummation, has been watched with intense interest. Tin gradual development of a grand idea, and its peaceful assertion in a sha P e wl| i.-h establishes right aid liberty, and makes Rome the capital "' •' '""" tructed nation, are mailer, whicb no people pretending to he free .-an view with indifference. If the purpo e of the movi ment bere 10 UNITY OF ITALY. were to enlist American opinion in support of revolutionary schemes or efforts, — if it were identified with any species of political propagan- dising or with any chimerical doctrine of nationalities, — there might be some reason for doubting its propriety. But the object is simply to recognize the right of the Italian people to reunite under a constitu- tional government responsible to themselves. It is intended, not to invoke interference in Italian affairs, but to rejoice with Italy in its emancipation from a rule which has been upheld by foreign bayonets, and which made all authority subordinate to priestly power. Can any cause be imagined which more directly commends itself to the judg- ment, the principles, or the traditions of the American Republic ? THE MEANING OP THE ITALIAN MEETING. It is important that it should be understood by our readers that the great meeting to be held this evening for the expression of sympathy with Italian Unity and the independence of Rome, is not in any way or shape a religious meeting. There is no thought of kindling here the Haines of religious hatred and jealousy between the Protestants and ( latholics. One of the principal promoters of the movement is an Italian Catholic Liberal. The Catholic Government of Victor Emmanuel needs and desires the support of such a popular expression. The whole Catholic population of Italy, outside of the Pope and the Jesuits, and their immediate followers, are in hearty sympathy with it. The noblest minds in the history of the Roman Church have been in favor of Italian Unity, and opposed to the temporal power of the Pope. It is reserved for the priestly party in this country — for the ignorant Irish Catholics and their leaders and tools, and for a newspaper which is their habitual mouthpiece — to defend a power which the liberal Catholics of Europe have long considered a relic of the Middle Ages. The meeting to-night will take no account of Romanist or Protestant dogmas. It is simply and purely an expression of sympathy with a great step in human progress — the unity of a noble people, long divided and oppressed, and the freedom of a venerable historic capital from the ignorant and oppressive rule of priests. The Pope's spiritual "independ- ence " is not assailed. He may be the " bishop of souls " as long and as widely as he is able. He may profess infallibility or any other dogma, and teach it. With this, as a people, we have nothing to do. But when, under the cowardly influence of politicians, we as Americans cease to feel and express our feelings with every nation that throws off oppression, and joins the grand march of free peoples, advancing toward complete liberty of Church and State, we shall be unworthy our name and our history. The meetings on the other side have declared loudly for priestcraft and spiritual tyranny. Their words have been tele- COMMENTS OF TOE PRESS. H graphed over Europe, and have encouraged all friends of Jesuitry and despotism. Shall the friends of libeiiy in America be silent ? The American principle has always been that a people has the right to choose its own form of government, and that Church and State should be separated. The people of Rome and of ltah have decided by immense majorities for Victob Emmani el's government, and the temporaldepositimof the Pope. This popular decision will be confirmed this evening by one of the largesi and most intelligent assemblies that ever met inNev, York, It is true that, outside the political and moral meaning of this mooting, there is a deep moral interest of the Protest- ams.as a body, in this revolution. And we do not see why they should he ashamed to own it. Whatever frees human thought, whatever weakens priestly rule, whatever removes the ignorance and oppression of past ages, is to Protestants a gain, because it opens the mind of man '" nu,il ! : ""1 aU that they ask in Europe or the United States is a free field for thought and argument. Beyond that they can leave the result to time and truth. [The New York Tribune.] The occupation of Rome, as the capital, once more, of United Italy, is an event of such commanding interest in the world's historythat the proposition to commemorate it l.v a memorial celebration at the Aca- demy of Music will attract general approval and sympathy. The names signed to the call are representatives of what is host and most influen- tial in all classes of our New Fork society: and the speakers secured ;i "' prominent and able. We bespeak for the meeting the attention of all our citizens. No nobler stride toward Liberal institutions has been made in Europe for many a day than the marvellous realization of Cavour's dream, which our eyes have been permitted to sec. Lei us give it cordial recognition and welcome. The celebration to-night, in the Academy of Music, of a free and United Italy, by her sons residenl among us and her manj admirers, is an e\.nt with which every American can sympathize i etingwhich every friend of national progress maj feel proud to attend. The land '•t song and of art, of history and r ance, the old time centre of civilj zation and religion, and to-day free and one, presents a spectacle which may wdi kindle the warmest eloquence and the brightest hopes. < >n our second page will he found letters from various statesmen and other prominent citizens, which indicate the high estimate of the ne« em opening before [talj entertained by Hie wisest and best of our people. , ' 1 "' meeting i certain to be imposing and enthu ia tic, and we are glad '" notice that Ladie . too, are invited and expected to be present. 12 UNITY OF ITALY. [Tho Evening Post.] EMANCIPATED ROME. Rome has suddenly become the capital of a free people ; the seat of a government which, under a royal name, forms the symbol to twenty- five millions of people, the descendants of the men who formed and maintained the most famous and lasting republic the old world ever saw, of all their future of union and liberty. The local tyranny which has so long been practised in Rome has recently allied itself with bolder pretensions than ever before, makiug it conspicuous in its decay. In the midst of these events, its political adherents in the United States, a small minority of the people, have been active in sending greetings and expressions of sympathy to the falling papacy ; and all their words are instantly echoed throughout Italy and Europe as if they were the voice of the American republic, expressing the convictions of a people all whose prosperity and glory rest upon self-government and freedom of conscience. It is time these false reports were ended. A number of citizens of New York have determined to hold a meet- ing at the Academy of Music in this city, to express the actual senti- ments of the people of the United States towards the people of United Italy upon the occupation of Rome as their capital, and upon the restoration to that city of a government of their own choice. There is nothing in the movement of a religious or theological character. The American people do not question the right of the Roman priesthood to teach even the papal supremacy itself. But the corrupting union of < Jhurch and State, the arming of ecclesiastical dogma with civil author- ity, the perversion of the Christian priesthood to be an instrument of princely ambition, these are as repugnant to republican principles as the establishment of national unity and independence in Italy, and the restoi-ation of free institutions to Rome are welcome to every enlight- ened friend of liberty and progress. There will be addresses by eminent speakers, and such an expression of sympathy and congratulation towards the enfranchised and united people of Italy as will, it is hoped, convince them and all others that America understands and loves the good work, which the principles of freedom ate carrying on in the old world as well as here. THE UNITY OF ITALY. The citizens of New York will have an opportunity on Thursday evening to express their satisfaction in the restoration of national unity to the whole Italian people, under a free government. This event, although it is the most important and beneficent result of the war between Germany and France, has not yet ivceived from the peO- COMMENTS OF THE PR] 3S. 13 pie of the United States the attention it deserves. The absorbing in- terest excited by wars and rumors of wars abroad, and by politics and trade at home, has given them little time to reflecl on the great change, 30 quietly wrought, by which the city that was the first capital of the civilized world has been delivered from misgovernmeni and oppression, and for the firsl time to many ages there is again a free Roman people and an Italian nation. n,u the enemies of popular government and of free thought have presumed too far upon our silence ; and have denied that the Ameri- can people take any satisfaction to the emancipation of Rome, or to the creation of a liberal commonwealth to Italy. It is time to contra- dict them, with a voire that will be heard across the sea. The meeting on Thursday evening will, doubtless, bring together so large and so enthusiastic a body of intelligent and thoughtful men, that itsgreetings will be accepted at once as the expression of public opinion to the United Suites. \ oi;i:i:i i\,; to UNITED ITALY. The interest of the public in the great meeting of the Americans who rejoice to the union of [taly, to be held at the Academy of Music this evening, grows rapidly. The projectors of the meeting, it is re- ported, entered upon their work with some apprehensions which qualified their enthusiasm: there being reason to fear lest they Would meet with opposition, both from designing men. who might hope to gain political favor by misrepresenting them, and from timid men. who might be afraid of making political enemies by expressing their real senti ment s. But all sueh fears seem to have vanished before the almost universal conviction of the people, that the great advance just made bj Italy in the way of union and liberty is a substantia] ami splendid triumph of American principles in the old woild. From the press in general and among the people the announcement of the meeting has already called , '" 1 ' 11 ' such a generous and unanimous recognition of whal italj I; accomplished, and such an expression of sympathy will) her continued struggles for growth and progress, as fn Ms justify and reward the effort. It i, now beyond question thai the meeting will be a great cess; and that it will be justly regarded, both bere and to Europe, as th ■ true expression of public opinion in the I fhited States. The \alue ,,f sm I, gatherings as thi does not lie exclusively nor always chief!) in their avowed purpose, or even in their obvious re -"''-• '' would be a me able reproach to the United Stat< if the 11 event of the la t year, the • tabli hment of one tree and coustitu tional government throughout the historical Peninsula of [taly, were 14 UNITY OF ITALY. allowed to pass without proof to the world that its importance and grandeur are appreciated by the American people. But our people are themselves free, and it is not in the diplomatic papers of their government nor in the official declarations of their public men that their principles and conscience are best and most fully expressed. It is in the will of the people themselves, coming together of their own accord, and freely giving a form to their convictions, which reflects all their zeal and enthusiasm. Nothing that our government could do or say would be as welcome to the people of Italy as the news that the mind and heart of our greatest city have laid aside all the business of the hour, and joined in greeting them with a God-speed in their new and noble career, and that their words are echoed throughout the land ; nor could anything else contribute more surely to the conscious independence, integrity, and power of public opinion among our- selves. Such a greeting, we are sure, will go forth to Italy from this coun- try tomorrow; and all citizens, who wish to take part in one of the most generous and truly American acts of the times we live in, will wish to be present at the meeting this evening. [The Evening Mail.] AMERICAN SYMPATHY WITH ITALY. We publish elsewhere the notice of a public meeting that is to be held at the Academy of Music next Thursday evening, by the friends of Italian imity and liberty. Although not much has been said about this demonstration by the press, it has really been the subject of more earnest thought and discussion by prominent citizens than any other like affair that has been projected for many years. The object sought by the getters-up of this demonstration has been to assure Italians, and the peoples and governments of Europe generally, i hat I he American people rejoice in the complete acquisition of Italy by a government which represents and is the choice of the whole of Italy. It has been believed that the people of this country will hold out an encouraging hand to the Italians in the reducing into practice of our theory of the sovereignty of the people, as against any princely prero- gatives whatsoever, whether these are exercised by ecclesiastical or tem- poral potentates. As we understand the motives of the gentlemen who have been pre- paring this demonstration, they want to make it one of an entirely political character. They say that millions of good Roman Catholics in Italv and elsewhere rejoice that the Pope has no longer to be troubled by the inconsistent duties of a petty temporal Prince, and that his i OMMES r8 OF THE l'KM SS. 1 •"' dignity and importance as a spiritual potentate will be vastly enhanced by his liberation from annoying, belittling and degrading cares; thai the scandal to liberty and to religion of a power in Italy which needs the support of foreign bayonets will be abated : that as a purely spiritual Prince, the Pop.' will find himself released from obligations to Kings and Emperors, and at liberty to oppose their encroachments on the powers and prerogatives of the Church. This, we believe, is about the aspect of the Italian question which is to be presented next Thursday evening 1>\ sum,' of ourpublic nun. whose names are known and honored on both sides of the Atlantic. They do not wish to present any other issue than the simple one of "Italy for the Italians." Although strong Protestants, they do not mean by their appeals on this occasion to enkindle a single feeling of animosity to- ward the Roman Catholics or toward their faith. They merely want to express their satisfaction and joy that American principles are making such marked progress on the soil of Europe. We regret to see that in all parts of the country Roman < 'atholics are making this question of the government of Italy a religions question. They mistake the temper and the instincts of Americans if they think that this unwise procedure will strengthen them in this country. They show a strange unconsciousness of the superior majesty and power of purely spiritual influences, and of the history of their own Church in this country, where its growth and influence have been achieved with- out the slightest aid of the temporal power. And if the Pope is the inheritor of the powers given to Peter, does he need the power and prestige of a petty principality to enable him to maintain his position. as head of the Church which worships Peter's Master— who "knew not where to lay his head ? " Tlcse views, and others of equally important character, will be pre- sented next Thursday evening by our great poet and statesman without other. Mr. Bryant; by the divine, whose heart always overflows with sympathy for every triumph of popular rights, Mr. Beecher ; ly Mr. Parke Godwin, who probably understands the history and bearings of the great question to be discussed more thoroughly than an^ other of the speakers announced ; by Mr. Greeley, whose life long record of liber a liiy toward Roman Catholics enables him to dismiss the apprehensions that have prevented ^nany of our most eminent public servants from • pi' >sing their real sympathies with the Italians; li\ men of broad views and unsectarian liberality, like General Dix, Dr. Bellows, Judge Emol t . and others of oat tonal fame. A < H0B1 9 OP SI \ir\rm W mi t PALY. The demonstration, which will to-night be made at the A-cademj of 16 UNITY OF ITALY. Music, of American sympathy with the accomplishment of Italian Unity, will be of the most impressive character. The meeting will not be a chance assemblage drawn together by the liberal use of attractive "post- ers," but will consist of the representatives of the most thoughtful, re- flective, and truly American classes of the city. The movement which will be consummated to-night has from the start been in the hands of men of this character, whose names are known all over the country and honored wherever they are known. The reluctance of some timid politicians to publicly favor this move- ment will not materially impair its significance. Intelligent observers of the expressions of American sentiment, botli here and abroad, will understand this reluctance and take it into account in estimating how far the meeting to-night really represents the best thought and the most earnest conviction of the most influential classes of Americans. They will see that while a few politicians have dodged the public issue, some of our ablest statesmen, philosophers, poets, and literary men have met it frankly and manfully. Such a chorus of sympathy with free and united Italy will make it- self heard across the Atlantic, and will assure the friends of free insti- tutions everywhere that Americans do not love liberty selfishly, but rejoice in her triumph everywhere. The voices that will be heard to- night will be still more emphatic and eloquent, and will speak the sen- timent of those Americans, in all sections, who are truest to the prin- ciples on which our noblest development and prosperity have been secured. [Commercial Advertiser. ] THE ITALIAN MEETING. The meeting to-night in recognition of Italian Unity will give expres- sion to a generous American feeling. It should not be in any sense a religious meeting. It recognizes a great political fact in harmony with the American idea. The Italians have voted to have Victor Emmanuel for King, and the vote of the ( 'ity of Rome was almost a unit in favor of this new relation. To be sure, there goes with this the deposition of the Pope from temporal power, but his spiritual and ecclesiastical relations are unchanged. They are, indeed, re-enforced, for his authority is now based simply on its moral power. The useless symbol of temporal sway, for these many years a mere bauble, is now replaced by the reli- gious and spiritual influence, the exertion of which has been for many centuries the surest and truest test of the real authorit} 7 of the Papacv. Italy pledges security to the Pope and absolute independence in all his ecclesiastical functions. That Italy now is free and united is a source of gratification to Americans, and they may appropriately express their sympathies and feelings in regard to a movement so important. PKOCEEDESTGS OE THE MEETING The celebration opened with a choice selection of music from Italian composers, performed by Grafulla's band, after whirl, the meeting was called t -,!,.,• by Bon. James W. Beekman, who nominated Major-General John A. Dix, late Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France, as presiding officer. The nomination was enthusiastically received, and General Dix,on taking the .-hair. pro< eeded to deliver the introductory address. D. I>. Lord, Esq., Secretary of the meeting, then presented the names of the following Vice-Presidents, which were unanimously accepted: II'in. K. I ». Morgan. Hon. James W. Beekman. Hon. William E. Dodge. Hon. W. B. Ogden. Hon. Hi ham Barney. Hon. Horace < Greeley. James Brown. W. II. Aspinwall. M lrshall < ). Roberts. Henry < ;. Stebbins. A. A. Low. Robert Lenox Kennedy. Peteb ' Iooper. Thos. II mi. Faile. s. I;. ( Shittenden. < ii lrles Butler. Samuel F. B. Morse, LL.D. Fran< i- Lieber, LL.D. R. w. Weston. < '■> ims W. Field. W. II. Webb. • I A< K80H S. SCHULTZ. I rEO. W. Lane. Otis D. Swan. W. R. Vermilyjs. < rEORGE T. STRONG. Fred. ( ;. De Peyster. Morris K. Jesi p. < II LRLES P. KlRKLAND. Willard Parker, M.D. Willi \M ( >RTON. Fred. .1. Foster. Theo. W. Rij by. Li: Gb \ni. I'.. ( '\nn<,n. W'm. Remsen. • Ion viii \n ST1 KG] 3. A lex. \' \n Rensselaer. ( ii lrles N. Talbot. Gl 31 \\ S< ii\\ \i;. A. R. We i mor] . Robert J, Li\ [ngston. W. A. Booth. C. V. S. Roosevelt. I>. Willis •) lmes. Cortlandi Palmer. W U3HINGT0N M. VeRMILI i . F. W. Rhinelander. L. P. Morton. Henri Clews. \NI> others. The Secretary then read some of the following letters answer to invitations to attend the meeting: — IVCHl III LETTERS. FROM HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Washington, Jan. 6, 1871. My Dear Sir : It would afford roe great pleasure to accept the invi- tation of your Committee to attend the meeting next week, to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity, if it were within my power. But public duties, devolved upon me by the people, and which have a prior claim on my time, forbid my leaving the Capital, while Congress is in session, except in the rarest possible cases. While I recognize to the fullest extent the considerations of propriety which restrain American citizens, and especially those in official life, from active interference with the affairs of other lands, by illegal propagandism, improper inter- vention, &c, there is nothing in either propriety or usage which pre- vents the open expression of our joy when foreign countries take a step forward, to assimilate their institutions, in a greater or lesser degree, with those of which we are so justly proud, and which, with God's pro- vidence blessing them, have achieved for us, as a nation, our wonderful historical progress and development. I can, therefore, heartily respond to those emphatic words of Victor Emmanuel to the Italian Parliament : " Italy is free and one. It now depends on us only to render her great and happy." We, who live here under the protection of a Constitution which unites so many millions of people into one Nation, which forbids the establishment of any State religion, and which guarantees the free exer- cise of all religious thought, can realize the full import of those short but weighty words of the Italian King — free and one. And he says truly, that it depends on her people only, thus united and free, to ren- der their nation great and happy. I would rejoice even more if Italy had reached the summit of true popular sovereignty which our Repub- lic has attained, for I am one of those who believe that republics, with wise men at their heads, are possible on all continents and in all paral- lels of latitude. She has, however, chosen her own form of government, and we cannot challenge her decision. But I may add that nothing is clearer than if she desires to be great and happy, she must establish and maintain, as the very corner-stoue LET IIK-. l!l of United Italy, civil and religious liberty. The equality of all under the law, by protecting in Courts and Parliament the civil rights of the 1 rest as energetically ami faithfully as those of the richesl ami most powerful; ami as the fitting adjund of this great idea "t' f this new life of civil ami religious liberty will flow peace and happiness, progress ami prosperity, with material and national development ami advancement, as surely as healthful streams flowfrom fountains of purity. Respectfully yours, SCHUYLEB Col. FAX. Theodore Roosevelt, Esq., Chairman Committee, etc. FROM HON. HAMILTON PISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE V. S. Washington, .Ian. In, 187 I. Mv Dear Sir: It will not be in my power to attend the meeting to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity, on the li'th inst. Ii may lie questioned how far the restraints of the official position of one broughl into relations with foreign Powers may allow him to take pari in the proceedings of a meeting, whose objects loot \<< the internal rela- tions of a government with which the United States are on the mosl friendly terms. Hut nothing is more natural than that the people <>f the United . who have so recently passed the ordeal ofa distressing civil war in the defence and maintenance of their national unity, should sympathize with Italy on tie- completion of that unitj which has so long been the aspiration of her statesmen and patriots, ami there can he no reason to restrain the expression of joy, whicb every American feels in the advance mad'- in other lands toward the incorporation with their Institutions of the principles, which we deem t<> underlie the welfare and the happiness of the great masses which constitute the eral nations of the world, and we need no< hesitate in giving explos- ion to the gratification which we cannol fail to experience in the adop tion, w h srever ii m ly be adopted, of liberal constitutional government, iring bo the citizen th9 civil and religious libertj which we believe lo he the natural riirht of man. With greal respect, \^uv obedienl servant, I I Will ins Fl8H. ■> 2i;i>artment of the Interior, ) Washington, D. C, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1871. j Dear Sir: Four favor of December 24 is received. The Secretary directs me to say in reply, that official duties will prevent his being present at the Academy of Music, on the 12th of January. He exceedingly regrets that he cannot accept your kind invitation. 1 1 is a theme upon which he would he pleased to speak, and one of peculiar interest at the present time. Be pleased to accept his thanks for your kindness, and his best wishes for the success of the meeting. Yours truly, J. L. Delano, Chief Clerk. FROM HON. CHARLES SUMNER, CHAIRMAN OF THE TJ. S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGNRELATIONS. Senate Chamber, Jan. 10, 1871. Dear Sir : Though not in person at your great meeting to commem- orate what you happily call the completion of Italian Unity, I shall be there in heart and soul. A lover of Italy, and anxious for her independence as a nation, I have for years longed to see this day. Italy without Rome was like the body without its head. Rome is the national head of Italy, and is now at last joined with the body to which it belongs, never again to be separated. How many hearts have throbbed with alternate despair and hope, watching the too tardy fulfilment of the patriot aspiration for that United Italy which shall possess once more the Capitoline Hill and the ancient Forum, the Colosseum and its immense memories of gran- deur, together with the later dome of Michelangelo, in itself the emblem of all-embracing unity. This was the aspiration of Cavour. I remember the great man well, at the very beginning of the war for independence, in a small apartment, which was bed-i'oom * and office, while he conversed on the future of Italy, and with tranquil voice declared that all must be free to the Adriatic, and that Rome must be the national Capital. I need not say that I listened with delight and sympathy. He died before all was free to the Adriatic, and while Rome was still ruled by the Fapal Autocrat. At last his desires are accomplished. The liberation of Venice was naturally followed by the liberation of Rome, and both, when free, helped complete the national unity. Xo longer merely a "geographical expression," according to the insulting phrase of the First Napoleon, Italy is now a nation, whose great capstone is Rome. LETT] RS. 21 |! "- N " 1 " 1 ^etriumph of the Nation, I see in this evenl two other things of surpassing value in the history of Liberty. First, the union oi Church and State isoverthrown in its greatest example. The Pope remains pastor of a might; flock, but withoul temporal power Here isaprecedent which, beginning at Rome, musl be followed everywhere until Church and State are ,„> longer conjoined, and all areat liberty to worship God according to conscience, withoul compulsion from man - Che other consequence is hardlj less important. The Pope was an absolute sovereign for life. |„ the overthrow of his temporal power, absolutism receives a blow, and the people every> re obtain new assurance for the future. Here is occasion for joy and hope. There is no Italian, who may no! uow repeal the words of AJfieri without dooming himself to exile : — Loco, ove 8d un contro tutti basta, I "atria non m' .'■. benche natio terreno. The poet, who loved liberty so well, was righl when be refused to recognize as his country that place "where one al sufficed against all. But tins was the condition of Rome under the Papal power Therefore, uot only in sympathy with Italy, but in devotion to Hu- man Rights, do I rejoice in this day. Full of good wishes for Ctaly, happy in whal she has already accom- plished, and hopeful forthe future, I remain, dear Sir, very faithfully yours, < 'ilAlil.Ks Si MNER. PR OM EON. U. \. BUCKINGHAM, r. s. SENATOR. x >hwi< ii. Conn., M [ ay , Jan. 2, 1871 Dead Sir: 5Tour esteemed favor is al hand, [f ] vras able to do ■ |,,s '"" '" the subject, which will be considered al the meeting of the 12th of January, to which you so cordially unite with others in invit- , "- ""• : "" 1 if other duties did uol prevent, I would gladly be present ,; '" M ' cannoi , '' ,, ■ "'" above reasons, I beg to assure you thai I cor- ,u '' u > Jympathize with the I. all,,,,, who have long been struggling for ,r ""' 1 " 1 "- : "" 1 ; "" confident thai the recenl revolution has brought thai P^futoa purer atmosphere and on ma higher plan,, both of civil and religious liberty. Trulj yours, W. A. Hi . KINGH \\\. I ROM EON. EENRI WILSON, U. s. SENATOR Washington, Tuesday, -la,,. 10 187] '" u:Sll:: Public duties will uol permil me to be preseul and , Hcipatewith the citizens of N. u Yovh in celebrating « the c pletion 22 UNITY OF ITALY. of Italian Unity," and in expressing " to United Italy the sympathy and congratulations of the American people on the emancipation of Borne and its occupation as the future capital of the nation, in accord- ance with the free vote of the Roman citizens." Though I cannot be with you, I join heart and soul in the expression of the congratulations of the commercial Capital of the Republic for what has been achieved by " the free vote of the Roman citizens," and in the expression of the hope that "civil and religious liberty" will be established and guarded by the people of United Italy. Surely Ameri- can citizens, who are imbued with the vital spirit of their own insti- tutions, will gladly join in sending such congratulations and hopes to Italian people. Yours truly, Henry "Wilson. FBOM HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL, U. S. SENATOR. Washington, Monday, Jan. 2, 1871. My Dear Sir : Your very kind note, with the invitation to partici- pate in the meeting to be held in the Academy of Music, January 12, to express to United Italy the sympathy of the American people on the emancipation of Rome, and the establishment of civil and religious liberty throughout the Peninsula, was duly received. My feelings are in entire accord with the object of the meeting, and but for the pressure of important duties here, I should be most happy to attend and take part in it. The opening of Italy to liberal ideas, and the unlocking of Rome itself to the advancing civilization and intelligence of the nineteenth century, are great events in the world's history. If with civil and religious freedom guaranteed to all, the mysteries and doctrines of Rome can stand the test of free thought and free discussion, let them prevail and become universal ; if not, let them give way to a purer faith, and a higher and better civilization. May the time speedily come when not only in Rome, but at Jeru- salem also, all men shall be as secure in their civil rights, and as free to worship, as they now are in independent America. Yours very truly, Lyman Trumbull. FROM HON. J. M. HOWARD, U. S. SENATOR. Detroit, Mich., Saturday, Dec. 31, 1870. Dear Sir : I have received with pleasure the invitation to be pres- ent at the celebration of the completion of " Italian Unity," at the Academy of Music, on the 12th prox. LET1 ERS. 23 Although unable bo be present, my sympathies will be with you. The National Unity of [taly— the Independence of Italy- the Nation of [taly ! Wliv. these words, meaningless for a thousand years, have, in these latter days, acquired a significance, a power which stirs the scholar's hearl and makes the soul of every Lover of liberty leap for joy. May the Italian people remember through what ages of night, and sorrow, and despotism they and their ancestors have passed in order to reach this consummation ! and may they have the moral courage, the steady courage, the manly courage to maintain liberty and good ffovernmenl in that classic land to which civilized man has ever looked, as the cradle of modern science and ait ! Truly yours, J- M. Howard. FROM HON. H. W. CORBETT, U. S. SENATOR. Washington, Jan. 2, 1871. Dear Sir: In response to your invitation to be presenl at the Academy of Music on the 12th inst.,tojoin with you in expressions of sympathy and congratulations that Rome is once more united under the Italian I Government, and is to be the future < iapital of the nation, I have toexpress my regret thai public dutiesal our Capital will prevent. The objects of the meeting have my most hearty approval. My sincere desire is, that Rome may long enjoy the civil and religious liberty which this unity gives her. CTnder these may she again rise to her for- mer ancienl pre-eminence and power! Very respectfully, II. \V. < mi; I.I IT. FROM HON. GEO. F. EDMONDS, U. S. SENATOR. W V.SHINGTON, Jan. 2, 187 I. Dear Siu : I have received the invitation of, a large number of the mosl worthy citizens of Nev. fork to attend and participate in a me< t- Lng to be held on the 12th inst., for the purpose of expressing the sym- pathy, &c, of the A.merican people with recenl events in [taly, and "the consequenl establishmenl of civil and religious liberty throughoul the Peninsula." I am truly sons that it will nol be practicable for me toattend. Certainly, few events in recenl history have given greater promise of large results in the benign progress of true liberty, than those you are to celebrate ; and I trusl thai there is to be eaction following this long advance, as is \<-, \ often the case « ith Bundrj greal movements. Bui whatever may be instore lor thai interesting people i h the near future, much is surely gained thai cannol !»■ lost. 24 UNITY OF ITALY. ' ' I doubt not through the ages One increasing purpose runs ; And the thoughts of men are widened With the process of the suns." At last, after many trials, the fair " Land to memory and to freedom dear," will, I hope, again be a Republic, and a Roman Senate, wiser and purer than its elder type, again hold the seat of Justice and of Law among the seven hills. Thus hoping, I join in your felicitations upon what has already been achieved, and am, very truly, your obedient servant, Geo. F. Edmonds. FROM HON. 0. P. MORTON, U. S. SENATOR. United States Senate Chamber, ) Washington, January 11, 1871. j" Gentlemen : Your invitation to be present at the meeting to be held at the Academy of Music in the city of New York on Thursday evening, January 12th, 1871, to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity in accordance with the free vote of the Roman citizens, and the consequent establishment of civil and religious liberty throughout the Peninsula, is before me. My official engagements will prevent me from being present at the meeting, but I desire to express my earnest sympathy with the purpose for which it is to be held. To refuse to recognize the light of the people of Rome to choose their own form of government would be to deny the principle, which constitutes the foundation of our own. We hold that governments should exist by the consent of the governed — that all men are created equal, and cannot of right be made the involuntary subjects of any prince, potentate, or master; and we deny the Divine Right of kings, or of any human being, by whatever name or title, to rule over the people of any State. We believe in the separation of Church and State — the right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own con- science — and that the promotion of Christianity will be best secured by the observance of these principles. The evidence seems conclusive that the great mass of the people of Rome have for years desired to change their form of government, and to unite themselves with the kingdom of Italy, of which they are, geographically, and by blood, language, and interest, a natural part. To deny their right to this union would be a threat against the life of our own free institutions. We do not say this in a spirit of hostility, but in vindication of the LETTERS. 25 right of self-government, which we believe to be the gift of God to • ■\ ery nation. I am, Very respectfully yours, (>. P. Morton. FROM HON. II B. ANTHONY. U. s. SKNAToK. United States Senate Chamber, ) \\ \-iiim. roN, January 1 1. L871. \ Sir: I have your note inviting me to attend the meeting t<> 1).' held in New York, to give expression to the sympathy of the American people for Free and United Italy. I regret thai mypublic engagements do not permit me t<> participate in an occasion of so much interest to every American citizen, -toevery friend (»f freedom and civilization. Faithfully yours, H. I). An i'hony. Housk or Kkpresentatives, Washington, D. ('.. Jan. 1<> FROM HOX. J. A. GARFIELD, M. C. :\ i \ti\ i:s. ; ►, L871. f Deab Sir: I have delayed answering your letter until now, in the hope that I might be able to accept your invitation to address the meeting at the Academy of Music, on the evening of January 12. I greatly regret that 1 find it impossible to leave here at that time. The object of the meeting, as expressed in your circular, meets my hearty approval. Among the remarkable events of L870, none is more important in its relation to the progress of liberal ideas than the completion of Italian Unity. The decade just closed has witnessed the rapid advance among nearly all nation-, of two great ideas: National Uniti and the Right of Suffrage. The peopleofthe United States, believing in these ideas, cannot fail to sympathize with any nation where thej bave made progress. When I was in Florence, in the stirring days of September, 1867, a prominent [talian citizen, speaking of the political prospects of his eon n try, pointed with pride to the last paragraph of Sisn di's" History of Liberty in Italy," where that great historian, writing in 1832, Bays: "Italj i crushed ; but her hearl still heats with the love of liberty, of virtue, and glory. She is chai I and covered with blood; but she still understands her strength and her future destinj : she is insulted by those to whom she opened the career of all progress; but Bhe feels thai Bhe is destined to take the lead again, and Ei 26 UNITY OF ITALY. rest until the nation, which in the dark ages lighted the torch of civilization with that of liberty, shall herself be able to enjoy the light which she created." " This," said the Italian, " was prophecy in 1832, but in ISC, 7 we are witnessing its fulfilment." Italy can now rejoice, that popular suffrage has restored her ancient capital and completed her National Unity. 'I'll is event has also illustrated another important lesson, which Americans learned long ago, that no political organization is wise enough or mire enough to control and direct the sacred interests of religion, and that no ecclesiastical organization of the nineteenth cen- tury can wisely manage the political interests of a great nation. The revival of Italian commerce goes hand in hand with the political restoration of Rome to the nation. The completion of that great enterprise which permits the locomotive, without obstruction, to lead commerce under the Alps, and which unites < ialais with Brindisi, makes it possible for some new poet to celebrate a Brundusian journey, as much grander than that which Horace im- mortalized, as the civilization of the day surpasses that of Imperial Rome. Very respectfully yours, J. A. Garfield. FROM HON. W. STRONG, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE SUPREME COURT, U. S. Philadelphia, Dec. 23, 1870. My Dear Sir : Yours of the 20th inst. was handed to me yesterday, as I was about leaving Washington to spend the holidays at home. I should be gratified if I could attend the proposed meeting in New York, but it will be epiite impossible. Our Court is in such a condi- tion at Washington, that my brethren will not consent to my absence in January, even a single day, and I do not think it would be right for me to be absent. I sympathize fully in the avowed objects of your meeting, rejoice in a completed Italian Unity, and in the consequent extension of civil and religious liberty; and it is with regret that I find myself compelled to remain away from what ought to be a great gathering. With much regard, I am very truly yours, W. Strong. FROM HON. SAM. F. MILLER, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE SUPREME COURT, U. S. Washington, Jan. 2, 1871. < rENTLEMEN : I am in receipt of your favor of the 28th ult., inviting me to be present at a meeting to express the sympathy and congratula- LEVI EE8. - « (dons of the American people with the [talians on the consummation of their National Unity by the emancipation of Rome. Of all the modern changes in European Governments, I have regarded the steady progress of Italy, in establishing her unity and her independ- ce as a nation, with mosi hope and favor, because I believe thai the promise of stability and progress in free government and self-govern- ment is there the most encouraging. That the incorporation of the Roma i States with the remainder Df Etaly was essential to this I can- not doubt It', therefore, I could take part in any public demonstra- tion it would give me pleasure above all others to participate in tins. But the inexorable duty, imposed by a docket of nearly five hundred cases awaiting decision by the Supreme Courl of the United States, forbids that pleasure. 1 am, gentlemen, very sincerely your fellow-sympathizer, Sam. V. Miller. FROM HON. J. D. COX. I. ATI. SE< RETARY OF THE INTERIOR. ClN( inn VI I. -'an. i. 1871. My Dear Sib: Your kind note of the 28th is received, and adds to my regret that my duties here will prevent my being in New York, at the meeting in celebration of Italian Unity. I have felt so sincere and earnest a pleasure in witnessing each step taken toward making that great people the unit it ought to be, that it would have been a ,nal pleasure to me to 1»' present at the meeting on tli-' 12th. Verj t inly \ Miu 8, .1 . I >. < c\. I ■|;i,.\] HON. 0. 0. HOWARD, BRIGADIER-GENERAL \M' I . S COMBOS 3I0NEE OF THE BUREA1 OF FREEDMEN. Washington, l>. C, Dec. 28, 1870. Ms Dear Sib: Sour flattering invitation t'» me to be present for the purpose of joining in celebrating " the completion of Italian Unity, and to express to United [taly the sympathy and congratulations of the American people on the emancipation "t' Rome, its occupation the future capital of the nation, in accordance with the free vote of tin- Roman citizens, and the consequent establishment of civil and religious liberty throughout the Peninsula," I have just received. No :,t in this wonderful age, except our own recognition of manhood in emancipation and enfranchisement, tri \ f the world, meets my sympathies, and shall al- ways receive mj heartiest co-operation. Very respectfully and truly yours, Jno. W. < Leaby. FROM HON". II. I'. BALDWIN, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN EXE< i i i\ B i Lansing, January ;. L871. \ Deab Sib: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an invi- tation from the Committee of Arrangements to attend a meeting to be held in the City of New York, on Thursday evening, January L2th, to celebrate tin- completion of Ltalian Unity, &c. The Legislature being now- in session, ami m\ whole tim icupied with official duties, I shall uot be able to join you on that occasion. I have ever warmly sympathized with the people <<\' [taly in their persistent strugglei to i cure the independence and unity of their country, aud the establishment of civil and religious Liberty ; and I believe it. eminently proper for the American people to express their satisfaction, and to extend to United [talj their cordial Bympathj and oongratu iation . "on the emancipation of Rome, and Lts occupation as the 30 I'MTY OF ITALY. future Capital of the nation, in accordance with the free vote of Ro- man citizens." With thanks for your kind invitation, I am, Very respectfully, your obedient servant, H. P. Baldwin. FROM HON. CHARLES F. ADAMS, LATE ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO GREAT BRITAIN. Boston, Monday, Dec. 26, 1870. Gentlemen : I should be very happy to accept your nattering invitation to be present and to take an active part in the meeting you propose to hold on the 12th of next month, were it that I could do so with convenience to my engagements here. Disclaiming all pretension to be a leader of public opinion in this country, I cannot but express the hope that the struggle now going on in Italy may terminate favorably to the political unity of Italy, and at the same time leave to the head of the Roman Church the same amount of spiritual ' authority to which any Christian organization is entitled, which seeks to advance the religious welfare of mankind. I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, Charles Francis Adams. FROM RT. REV. CHARLES P. McILVAINE, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., BISHOP OF OHIO. Cincinnati, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 1871. Dear Sir : I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your invitation to the meeting to be held in New York on the 12th, for the manifestation of American sympathy with our Italian brethren in their late national events. The distance and the winter must prevent my attendance. You will not doubt that I feel the warmest interest in the object, and would gladly iinite with my fellow-citizens in its public expression. The union of all parts of that classic land in one self- governing nation ; the occupation of Rome as the capital city ; its deliverance from that odious bondage, civil and ecclesiastical, under which it has so long been oppressed ; the influence of these and con- temporaneous events in securing to a great people the blessings of civil and religious liberty, to be accompanied, I believe, by a system of gene- ral education ; these are steps in the good Providence of God which make us Americans rejoice, and on the attainment of which I desire to join my voice with that of the expected meeting in congratulating United Italy. Yours very truly, Chas. P. McIlvaine. i. i:i i! bs. ::i FROM WW BEV. A. CLBVELAKD COXB, D.D., BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW V(»i;k. Bi ffalo, Tuesday, I >oc. -7. 1870. Sir: A more important effort than thai you are now making to L r i\.' expressi m to American sentimenl on the subject of Italian CTnitj and fre sdom, has not, for a long time, demanded the attention of our peo- ple. Thai American sentimenl and sympathy musl ever be with any I pie claiming the righi to choose their own i*ulers and t" resisl the imposition of a detested sovereign by foreign bayonets, nobody can pre- tend to doubt. Yet, at this moment, an organized attempl to produce the very opposite impression in Europe, is zealously promoted in all our chief cities, with a view bo intimidate Italian patriots and to encourage those who would revive the despotic system of 1815, and give it a new lease of its miserable existence. It is must timely, therefore, and all-importanl t a national charac- ter, that an overwhelming expression of public opinion should be elicited in behalf of the noble spirit of Italian liberty and unit v. AY it li- mit touching upon the religious aspects <»t" the question, vital and inte- ting as they are, it is a legitimate use of American freedom thus to cheer the efforts of others to secure fur themselves that freedom in mat- - of conscience, as well as in matters of social life, which Americans yard as sacred beyond all other Lights of, man. Thai the unhappy iple of the Roman States should be any longer deprived of such rights, and be delivered over, bound hand and foot, to the mosl remorseless despotism thai bas disfigured Europe in this century, is something which no true American can contemplate with indifference. 1 trust, therefore, thai your contemplated meeting will only begin a movement in behalf of Italy, which will secure from all parts of the Republic a glorious expression of sympathy and encouragement. Your.-, t I'uly, A. < 'u:\ i:i nn Cox E. I BOM i:T HI. v. r. It. U i \ II \<. i . ,\. D.D., BISHOP OF CENTRAL \i.\\ FORK. S\ i; \. i 3E 3 January . 1871. Deab Sin : Your roui ii >\ in inviting me to attend the public i ting in N<-\\ York in behalf of Italian Unity, and to take pari in its pro- ceedings, is hereby respectfully and gratefully acknowledged. It iscer- tainly natural for the citizens of a Republic to offer their sympathy to a nation advancing towards political independence, ami towards a recognition of the greal doctrine that, while civil government is divinely ordained, the proper organ of it administration i • m titutional, ex- pressing ill'' mind ami will of an intelligent people. It i- ermalh nal 32 UNITY OF ITALY. ural that Christians should rejoice in the interests of religion itself, when the secular power takes away from the Bishop of Rome what the secular power gave him, and what he ought never to have accepted, — a temporal sovereignty, with all its terrible temptations to abuse and corruption. The change is probably attended with some evils ; but it is crood nevertheless, — good for Rome, for Italy, for Europe, for man- kind and for the open vindication of a righteous Providence in history. Thai it lias come about at last with so little violence, is more than the world had a right to expect. Very sincerely yours, F. D. Huntington. FROM RT. REV. J. WILLIAMS, D.D., BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT. Middletown, Conn., Jan. 10, 1871. My Dear Sir: The state of my health, which keeps me a prisoner at home, forbids me from entertaining any hope of being present at the proposed meeting in New York, " to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity." With the objects and purposes of that meeting I feel, and am happy to express, an entire and cordial sympathy. In whatever aspect they are regarded, it seems to me that late events in Italy are, or should be, sources of great thankfulness to God's over- ruling Providence, and of sincere congratulation to those more immedi- ately affected by them. Nor can one fail to find, I think, in the singu- lar moderation and carefulness which have been exhibited under circum- stances that might well have excused far different modes of action, a hopeful augury for the future of United Italy. Surely no one who believes that civil and religious liberty are bless- ings which the great Father intended mankind to enjoy, can withhold his word of congratulation, however humble they may be, from such a message as it is proposed to send from the United States to Italy. I have the honor to be very sincerely yours, J. Williams. FROM RT. REV. WM, BACON STEVENS, D.D., LL.D., BISHOP OF PENNSYLVANIA. Philadelphia, January 23, 1871. Dear Sir : My whole heart rejoices at the Unification of Italy, with its Capital at Rome. Not only because it restores Rome to its great historic position, and gives to Italy its historic head; but chiefly, be- cause it vindicates and establishes the great doctrine of free thought in politics, and free conscience in religion, and the breaking up of an ecclesiastical temporal power which, for a thousand years, has been hos- tile to both. I remain very truly yours, Wm. Bacon Stevens. l.l l I EES. FRcM PROFESSOR SAMUEL P. B. MORSE, LL.D. N i w Fork, January 1 I. L871. Dear Sir: Iji compliance with your request, I send you a copj of a few remarks prepared for the meeting on the L2th instant, summoned to celebrate the union ,,t' Rome with Italy. Having for at least fortj years past fell a deep and peculiar interesl in the political regeneration of Italy, i cannot refrainfrom a few words on the subjecl of the proposed meeting. What lias occasioned this call of citizens, holding ever} shade of political opinion on the local interests of the country, summoned for the expression of a common sympathy? Is the call unprovoked ? Has it been incite,! from the other side of the water? And what is its object? Is n to meet to do violence to the purely religious consci- entious conviction of a particular denomination of Christians in our midst ? In other words, are we aboul to protest againsl the legitimate doings of any ecclesiastical body in the exercise of their appropriate functions? Surely not; we arraign no man's religious convictions. What then has provoked this call ? It is a matter of notoriety tint a very general concerted movemenl has recently Keen made through- oul the land by the ecclesiastical directors of the Roman Catholic de- nomination of Christians in the United States, for the purpose of representing (may I not say rather misrepresenting) to the world the sympathies of the American people with the late civil changes in Italy. When the question before them is whether freedom or despotism shall triumph, il needs no labored proof in support of the affirmation that Americans instinctively sympathize with freedom. What then is the case here ? It is \r\y simple. The Roman people, in common with other portions of Italy, have for ages been under the civil rule of a sovereign whose throne is in Home. In his capacity as civil ruler, like all other sovereigns, he is amenable to the fortunes and hazards of change. It is no aovelty thai dynasties and individual have for various reasons given place toothers. The causi and modes of change have been various; sometimes brought aboul peaceably, sometimes by revolutions more or less violent. There is noth- ing in tie- case of the late civil ruler of Rome, thai calls for special apathy in hi- favor fr Americans ; for whatever differences there niaj be between parties in relation to certain governmental mea ures, there is no controversj on the cardinal principle of their common ao\ ernment, thai it is the right of the people to alter and modify, or abolish, their form of government. All are in accord on this point. p s it, then, in harmony with the univer al sentiment of the A rican people, for a particular class or denomination of Chri tep i f theii legitimate and appropriate phere to take to task a foreign nation and 34 UNITY OF ITALY. a foreign sovereign, for exercising that natural right so strongly set in the very foundation of our governmental system ? Is it not preposterous to suppose, that the vast majority of the American people have all at once abandoned the fundamental prin- ciples of their own cherished government, and that they can have any sympathy with those who denounce a people and their chosen sovereign, for acting in conformity with the principles of free government ? The voice of these ecclesiastics, who have assumed to speak for the American people, is not the voice of America. If this question were submitted to the test of a plebiscitum, can any one doubt that the result would be as overwhelmingly in favor of the Italian acts, as that of the result of the plebiscitum in Rome V I beg, therefore, to offer for the consideration of the meeting, if not too late to be acted upon, the following Preamble and Resolutions : — Whereas, the people of the United States, in laying the foundations of their government, embodied in their earliest declaration of political principles the great principle, that it is the right of the " people to alter or abolish a government which they believe to be destructive of their rights, and to institute a new government, laying the foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness ; " and Whereas, the perpetual separation of Church and State is fundamen- tal in the Constitution of the United States ; and Whereas, in perfect conformity with these fundamental American principles, the Italian people, by an immense majority of their suffrages, have deliberately altered and abolished ,a secular government in their territory, which they believe to be destructive of their rights, and have instituted a new government, laying the foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them has seemed most likely to effect their safety and happiness ; and that they have also de- termined to have a " Free Church in a Free State ; " therefore, Resolved, That, as American citizens, we should be recreant to the principles of our own government, if we did not cordially applaud the action of the Italian people in their laudable efforts to attain their long desired National Unity, founded on principles which our experience as a nation, for nearly a century, has demonstrated to be sound and emi- nently conducive to the prosperity and happiness of a people. I am, dear sir, your friend, and the friend of Italian Unity, S. F. B. Morse. FEOM WILLLAjVI LLOYD GARRISON, ESQ. Boston, Jan. 10, 1871. Dear Sir : Regretting that I cannot give my personal attendance, and be one of the speakers at the meeting which is to be held at the LETT] RS. Academy of Music O] Thursday evening next, to celebrate the comple- tion of Italian Unity and the emancipation of Rome, I can only send you, and all who shall come together, I trusl an overwhelming audi- ence, — my hearty approval of the objed of the gathering, and in\ warm mgratulationa on the long stride, which the people of ItaK have taken towards the assertion of \ thai power, in the State ; ,nd the Church, through all the ramifications of ciety, and in the mental, moral, and physical condition of the accu ruulated millions subject toils swaj through long-suffering centuries, has heel, vasj a,,, | immeasurable the overshadowing curse of Christen dom. It is for heaven and earth to rejoice over its downfall. Now, where all has been darkness, lei there !„■ light; where conscience ha been perverted or paralyzed bj the sorcerj of papal domination, let it '" quickened and have unlimited scope; where reason liae been de throned, let it be inaugurated witl >re than kinglj bonoi ; I lei thepeopleof Italy resolve never more to wear the fetten of civil or religiou bondage. Wherever am mortal assumes to be the God-or - ss. 36 UNITY OF ITALY. i la hied ruler of the world, it is time for the world to rise in rebellion, .Mid proclaim the assumption a lie. May the future of Italy be as prosperous and resplendent as its past has been degraded and miser- able ! Yours, not only for Italian Unity, but for the Unity of all peoples in one sublime brotherhood of liberty, equality, fraternity. Wm. Lloyd Garrison. FROM HON. GERRIT SMITH. Peterboro, N. Y.j Jan. 1, 1871. My Dear Sir: Because of old age and impaired health, I cannot accept the imitation to attend the meeting of 12th inst. My heart, nevertheless, will be in that meeting. United Italy ! — long divided, but at last united ! — we welcome you into the family of nations ! You can now protect the equal rights of all the religions within your borders. The Catholic should not ask for more ; and the Protestant should not take up with less. Very respectfully your friend, Gerrit Smith. FROM PRESIDENT CHARLES A. AIKEN, UNION COLLEGE. Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 12, 1871. My Dear Sir : Your Committee of Arrangements for the meeting to be held this evening in the Academy of Music, have extended to me the courtesy of an invitation to participate both by my presence, and 1 1 y a written expression of my sympathy with its obj ect. I greatly regret that I cannot be with you. While I cannot imagine that it is of any practical importance whether I write or am silent, 1 would not even seem to be out of sympathy with your grand purpose, or indifferent to the great political and religious movement that calls forth your demonstration. It is not a dreamy sentimentalism that in its languid way rejoices, and should rejoice to-day over the Unity of Italy. Philanthropy rejoices; our sense of justice and love of liberty rejoice ; piety rejoices. They rejoice with anxieties and tremblings ; but the very expression of their joy will at least tend to remove the causes of their solicitude. Great problems have only entered upon their solution, but a happy issue is the more confidently to be anticipated if a clear, ringing salutation ami ( rod-speed may go across the Atlantic to cheer and strengthen those, on whom that great issue providentially depends. We would be kinder to the ecclesiastics of Italy than they wot or will. And our consciences and hearts are clear and satisfied in pressing this kindness upon them. LETTERS, I am sure that your meeting cannot be a failure. And it" this ex- pression of sympathy is of anj account with reference to your perma- nent record of proceedings, be assured that my whole heart is in it. Very respectfully yours, Charles A. Aim n FROM A. JACKSON, D.D., PRESIDENT OF TRINITY COLLEGE II UlTFORD, 1 ><•'•. 23, 1870. Dear Sir : I regret that it will not be in my power to be present to participate in the expression of sympathy for United Italy, which will be given with a hearty good-will at the meeting called for L2th of Janu- ary next. It is very important that such a meeting should be held, and that such expression of the real sentiments of the American people should be given and published ah mail . For certain showy demonstrations of sympathy with the Pope, gotten up for the most part by citizens of for- eign birth, have greatly misled the press and the people of Europe. But the fact should be known, that the American people do nol wish to see the patriarch of the Etonian Church re-established in the possession of temporal power. The vast majority of the people of the I Inited Slates bold just the opposite view to that of those, who have been lately agitating this question. They feel that the welfare of the Italian pi pie and the interests of a Christian civilization imperatively demand a United Italy, with Rome as the centre of the nation's life, and the civil government. Very respectfully yours, A . .1 \' KS< 'V FROM SAMUEL EARRIS, D.D., PRESIDENT OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE Brunswice, M mm:. Jan. 7. L871. Dear Sib : I have received the invitation of your ' !ommittee to attend the meeting next Thursday to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity. I regr< i that mj engagements make it impossible for me to be present. Permit me to say that I approve of the object of the meeting, and re- joice in the establishment ofa Constitutional Government in Italy, the progri of r< ligiouE liberty there, and the occupation of Home as the future capital of t he na1 ion. Wit li much respect, sincei'ely yours, Samuel Harkis. FROM HOWARD CROSBY, D.D., CHANCELLOB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE « i i 5 OF NEW 5TORK. \ i u "* ore, Jan. 5, I s 7 I . Dear Sir: I hope to be present at the meeting on Thursday evening, railed to expre to United [talj the sympathy of the American peoplo. 38 UNITY OF ITALY. The Roman question is not a religious but a political one. It is not strange that good men, who consider the Pope the head of their church, should feel grieved at his loss of any honors, dignities, or emoluments. I respect their religious feelings, and if this were a religious question I would avoid trespassing on the sacredness of their sentiments. But if a religion, or its upholders, make the political government of a nation a pari of the religious creed, the question becomes a political one, and re- ligious views in this particular are no more sacred. I have a right to my personal religious belief and worship, and to communion with those of like faith, so long as I do not injure the rights of others ; but if I, in the name of my religion, insist on enslaving some of my weaker fellow- men, the public has a right to step in and interfere with my religion very decidedly. The Roman question has just these elements. In the name of religion, a large and intelligent population have been held in political servitude. A so-called paternal government has exercised a tyranny perfectly Oriental in its character. An inquisitorial system of espionage has net- worked the community. In the city of Rome no Protestant could hold divine worship, except in the house of a foreign ambassador. All this has been done, while the people groaned against it, by the aid of foreign bayonets loaned by another tyrant. This is no religious question at all. It is purely a political question, and America knows hew to solve it. She points to 1776 as her example, and lifts her voice and cries, " In the name of God and righteousness, let the ty- rants be cast down and the people be free ! " Against this fundamental principle of political liberty, it is vain to urge arguments of antiquity and prescription. Time cannot make the false true. Pepin and Charlemagne, and ten centuries, cannot destroy a principle. Whether Pope paid Emperor, or Emperor paid Pope, makes not a shadow of difference, any more than the comparative rights of two brigands over a bag of gold modify the question of their rascali- ty. The bag of gold belongs to neither. The people of Central Italy, including Rome, have a right to their own choice of government, and they have chosen that of United Italy. Any holding down of a people to a government they hate is tyranny, and a people have a right to overturn it, peaceably, if they can, and forcibly, if they must. The right is not magnified, but only the importance of exercising it, when to this tyranny is added cruelty, barbarism, or injustice in the admin- istration. To keep quiet under such a government is to become part- ner of its crimes. Revolution is a Christian duty to our fellow-meu. The Roman government was not only sustained by a foreign army, insulting the people by its presence, but was financially supplied from foreign countries. People in America and Asia, who knew nothing of the needs of Roman local politics, contributed their gold and silver, not LETTERS. to help the head of their church as such (tiiaL would have heeu per- fectly legitimate), but to enable a monarch to lord it over a people against their will. I do Dot care whether such a government be Catholic, Protestant, .1 »ish, Mohammedan, or Pagan. In any case it should be destroyed, fori sake and humanity's. The religion has nothing to do with it. It is the abominable tyranny which musl be abated as a nuisance. America's view of the matter is verj clear, [taly's occupation of Rome is no conquest, nor is it an invasion of religious rights. It is a nation or people taking its own, and an abolition of false political claims that were made and strengthened in the usurped name of religion. Weare nol to allow our fellow-citizens to deceive themselves or us by mixing the political and religious questions together, and thus to pub- lish as America's verdict,wha1 would disgrace her own birth-principles. Yours very respectfully, Howard < Irosby. FROM S. G. BROWN, D.D.. PRESIDENT OF HAMILTON COLLEGE. Clinton, < >neida Co., N. 5T., Jan. 11, 1871. Dear Sir: I am especially sorry that engagements which cannot be avoided or postponed, will prevenl me from attending your meeting to- morrow. The friends of Italy have long desired to see the whole of thai beautiful land united under one liberal and efficient government, which would give free play to the genius of the gifted Italian race. How long have they waited with mingled hope and fear! How long have they looked to see the land of such noble memories, the land of Dante and Galileo, of Michael Angelo and Tasso, stand untrammelled ;m d ered in strength and hope ! And nov, thai this end has been ac- complished, and Italy is one from the Alps to the Gulf of Taranto, it Burely is fitting thai we should send to her a word of sympathy and encouragement. Her future is al leasl in her own hands. No foreign troops rep her energies; no foreign policy shapes her course. She will, more than ever, feel her responsibility, and, lei us hope, assume thai place of in telligence and poweramong the nations of Europe and the world, which the traditions of her former greatness and the character of her people {airly warranl us in expecl ing. I am, dear sir, ver^ respectfully, your obedienl servant, s. ( :. Brown. 40 UNITY OF ITALY. FROM JAMES McCOSH, D.D., PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY. Princeton, N. J., Jan. 11, 1871. Dear Sir: I cannot tell you how much I regret that, owing to en- gagements connected with the opening of the Winter Term of our Col- lege, I cannot attend your meeting to-morrow evening. I am glad there is a meeting called to give expression to public sentiment. The great hindrance to the advancement of Italy being now removed, I anticipate for that country a brighter future than she has had in the best ages of the past. Yours truly, James McCosh. FROM PROF. ALEXIS CASWELL, D.D., PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNI- VERSITY. Providence, R. I., Jan 9, 1871. Dear Sir: Your circular of the 21st of December was duly re- ceived. I very much regret that it will not be in my power to attend the meeting of the 12th, convened to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity. ( 'lassie Italy is the land to which every scholar turns with the warm- est interest. The Roman Forum kindles the imagination of every one who beholds it, and vividly recalls the memory of the old Roman gran- deur. That grandeur now lives only in history and crumbling monu- ments. But Italy remains. Her Dante and Galileo make her immor- tal. The days of her thraldom, we trust, are passing away. The long- continued stagnation of her national life is drawing to a close. With a representative government and uniform laws, administered in the interest of the people, with free schools, and a free church, and an open Bible — the sure precursors of intelligence, and virtue, and indus- try — Italy must become a great nation. And these, we hope, she will now have. Rome as the capital of United Italy, with the heritage of civil and religious liberty permeating and invigorating the national life, may yet more than rival her ancient splendor. Well may the American people proffer to the nation their sympathy and their con- gratulations. The interest of the traveller in Italy has hitherto centred chiefly in antiquities and art, in the Capitol and the Vatican, and St. Peter's. It will now be directed, perhaps in a paramount degree, to the progress of education, of morality, of religion, and the industrial arts, among the masses of a great people. Every lover of freedom and the happi- ness of his race must rejoice in the prospect. I am yours very truly, Alexis Caswell. Ill I I RS. | 1 FROM ASA D. smith. D.D., I.I. D.. PRESIDENT OF DARTMOl III COLLEGE II \N"\ i B 3 N. II., Jan. In. 187 I. I' \i: Sir: 1 received in due time ihe cote of your Committee inviting me to attend tin- proposed meeting " to celebrate the comple- tion of Italian unity, and t.» express to United Italy tin- sympathy and congratulations of the A.merican people." Circumstances have so de- layed my reply, thai I have barely time to say how greatlj I rejoice that such a meeting i- to be held, and how much I regrel thai mj official engagements will nut allow me to be present. Jt ishigh time for Buch a movement, h would be sad. indeed, if the i pie of Italy should hear from our shores only such voices, as have been strangeh lifted up in certain recenl gatherings. We should be singularly un- grateful for thai civil and religious freedom which we have enjoyed as a nation, for nearly a century, it' we failed to sympathize \\ ith whatever peoples of the old World are wisely and earnestly seeking to secure tor themselves the same greal blessing. Nay, we should be false to the principles that underlie all our political institutions. And there are many reasons connected with the greal past of [tabj with its relations t.. art. to literature, to jurisprudence, to religion, to civilization in the broadesl sena — why we should be especially interested in it. presenl condition and prospect 3. I will add. that were I a Roman Catholic, desirous of the ereatesl spiritual advancemenl of the church of my faith. — intenl upon effacing from it- restments every lingering Btain, and making it to the utmosl a blessing to the world, nothing would be more grateful to me, I can not help thinking, than the entire separation of < ihurch and State. No music from tin- Eternal < 'ity would !»• sweeter to tne than to hear from the lip- of the Holy Father, in the verj sense in which our Lord mi. i ed it, "My kingdom ia not of this <>;„■/,/;' I shall be disappointed if there are not good Catholics ai your meeting who will he at heart, if !.'•! openly, in full accord with ilii- sentiment. Fours very truly. \. x | >. Smith. FROM WhKl.U I. WHITE l.i. h . PRESIDENT OF I ORNELL I M \ ERSITY. I i n v \. N. 5f., January 7. 187 I. Sib: Ii is with no .-mall pleasure thai I receive your invitation to the meeting, which is to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity. Hardlj anj evenl in this wonderful centurj has - louraged all believers in human pro-,, . as the building up l>\ hrewd statesman ship and brave generalship of the [talian nation; and no event has more strongly thrilled the hearl of thoughtful lovers of liberty through 42 UNITY OF ITALY. out the world, than the occupation of the grand old historical capital — the necessary centre of the new power. To celebrate such a consummation especially befits our people. Fresh from our own great struggle for the preservation of national unity, our hearts beat with theirs who now see the heroic suffeiings and labors of their ancestors, during so many centuries, rewarded at last by !he achievement of the same blessing. The lesson of the Italian nation has, indeed, been long and hard in the learning. The futility of trust in Ca?sarism had to be learned from the treaties of Campo Formio and Villa-Franca, and the battle of Men- tana ; the necessity of long and patient thought had to be learned from the life-work of such as Sismondi and Botta and Alfieri ; the value of practical statesmanship had to be learned from the laboring and wait- ing of such as Cavour; the worth of patriotic fervor had to be learned by the martyrdom of a long line of the noblest sons, whose devotion has ever blessed any country. Much, too, we may hope, has been unlearned. Gone for ever, it is to be hoped, are the sacrifice of civil to political liberty ; the use of unconstitutional means to accomplish apparently patriotic ends ; the yielding to policy bom of impatience or anger ; the sacrifice of national interests to local prejudices; and it must be, that both these great series of lessons shall result in implanting ideas of constitutional liberty and unity in the Italian heart for ever. The event you celebrate is the culmination of a grand old history ; but may it not be the beginning of a grander new history ? Increased liberty and a just national pride shall quicken life in new broods of Italian statesmen, philosophers, poets, and historians. Far richer even than her old heritage of municipal liberties, shall be her new dower of civil, political, and religious freedom. I remain, sir, very respectfully and truly yours, Andrew D. White. FROM WM. H. CAMPBELL, D.D., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF RUTGERS COLLEGE. New Brunswick, N. J., January G, 1871. Sir : I thank you' for the invitation to be present at the meeting of January 12 th, and accept it with pleasure; for of all the events of an eventful year, the completion of Italian Unity and the occupation of Rome as the capital of a free people is the greatest. Good men every- where are rejoicing at it, and with them I rejoice — 1. Because Italy is relieved from the curse of ecclesiastical des- potism. 1.) ill KS. 4:3 2. Because the Church of Rome is freed from the practical blasphemy of charging Christ with falseh 1 and folly in saying " M] Iringdomis not of this world." Very respectfully yours, \Y\1. II. l'\M!'l:l 1 .1 . FROM DANIEL R GOODWIN, D.D., LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. OF PENNS1 1.VAN1A. Philadelphia, January 3, l v < •• Dear Sir: Your invitation has been received to he present at the meeting, which will assemble in New Xork, on Thursdaj evening the 12th inst., to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity,and to expr< ,,, CTnited Italy the sympathy and congratulations of Onited Anieriea. m it me to express my hearty gratification thai such a demonstration of the American people is to be made, and my extreme regret thai it will not be in my power personally to participate in the proceedings of the occasion. To the friends of truth, freedom, and progress, to the lovers of God and man. such an occasion has not been given for many centuries. All that is best among us. all that is best within as, rises up to congratu- late redeemed and united [taly, disenthralled and re-instated Rome ; the scholar, the patriot,and the philanthropist ; the Christian and the man: the spirit of the age, the Bpirit of human progress, the genius of civilization, and the glowing heart of our holy religion— all embrace one another in mutual felicitations, all bless God with swelling bosoms and with one accord, for Italian Onity and Roman freedom [taly, Rome, how these names, bo long associated almost exclusively with the grand memories of the distant past, no* bring together what grandest in those ancient memories, and what is most gloriousin the hopes of the opening and expanding future! It is a joy, not at the ,„,.,,. creation or birth of that which is fraught with a magnificent pro- mise, but at the resurrection of long-cherished and long-buried ho] hopesaround which the affections of Christian civilization have been clinging and clustering with the growth of centuries. , the whole track of the Darl \ ipanned at once. No* a new day dawns after the Long night. No* with more than poetic enthusiasm we si n^r : — ■■ Magnus ab into loruno oa oil ni ordo." With this opening year, the "magni menses" of the old bard ol Mantua reallj begin for Italy ; and the fervid, patriotic dream of his ._,,,„, Florentine disciple has at length its fulfilment for the " Italia 44 UNITY OF ITALY. bella— e morta " which he loved so well. That Italy of whom the great Chibeline poet exclaimed : — " Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostello, Nave senza nocchiero in gran tempesta, Non donna di provincie, ma bordello." Now has her pilot at the helm, now sits a queen of provinces, a chaste mistress of her own united family. That Eome, wlio was heard com- plaining as a widow — ' ' Che piagne Vedova," — now receives and crowns her fully chosen king — the king of liberated and united Italy. Against the political action which has transferred Rome from the civil government of the Pope and his cardinals to that of a constitu- tional King, and makes it the capital of Italy, great efforts have been made in various countries and quarters, particularly in England and Ireland, and here in the United States, to manufacture and forestall public opinion, and by the frequent repetition of strong and violent assertions, to ci'eate the impression that, somehow or other, some mon- strous encroachment, some sacrilegious wrong has been perpetrated. Even men among us, who profess to be the sworn and ardent friends of free institutions, inveigh against the validity of the popular vote by which the Romans almost unanimously expressed their preference for the Italian over the Papal government ; urging the pretended and utterly unfounded objection, that the vote was not free, but was given under intimidation and military surveillance. But let such men fairly and honestly say whether they are ready to acknowledge such a decision in this case to have been sufficient and valid, provided it had been the expression of the real and unconstrained will of the Roman people. If, in the face of American freedom and of American history, they say No, then what becomes of their professed attachment to the principles of civil liberty and their presumed recognition of the right — the inhe- rent popular right of self-government? If they say Yps, then let them observe that all their other objections — and they commonly indulge in many others — are an inconsistency and an impertinence ; for they all confessedly vanish away when this disappears ; and let them, with us, be thankful that time will soon demonstrate what is the real wish of the Roman people. An attempt has been made to make capital against the Italian govern- ment among Americans, by drawing an analogy between the Papal States in their relation to the " Catholic world " and the District of Co- lumbia in its relation to the United States — which last, it must be con- 1.1 I II BS. 1"> .is in some respects an anomaly in our republican institutions. But this analogy is no more than specious, and scarcely that. The " Catholic world," as such, has not, like the United States, any rivil organization, any constitution of central government, anj Bover- gn bead, — it is not a body politic. The Pope, who, with bis cardinals, has governed Rome, lias not been the supreme sovereign and independent ruler in the pope-king. Such a people has a right, above and beyond the interference and dictation of any other people — of the "Catholic world," or of any other world — peaceably to determine for itself its own form of government : it' such a right exists anywhere at all. Not so with the l>i-trict of Columbia. id and was never recognized as a separate independi country; was never anything more than a municipality, legally trans- ferred from the government of :1 State to that of tin- United States, a municipality of about halt' tl xtent, and scarcely a fifth part of the population of the Citj of Philadelphia. Still, if even the District of Columbia were, for sufficient reasons, to declare it- independence, and to establish it by force of arms, it would bave a perfect right to deter mine tor itself it> own political connections and form of government. Till then it- territory, a- t<. the right of eminent domain, i> vested in tit.- government of th'' United States, and its people arc under the ipreine legislation of that government as to their political affairs. But the Christian world, or the " Catholic world," however Btrong in the Slate and affairs of Etome, neither has nor has ever had an d political ownership id' Etome, or an\ right of dominion or dictation over its government or its 1 pic. No former dyn i- >i. , or kings whether Constantino, Charlemagne, or any other — had a right ' • 'ii | of the people of Etome in perpetuity : no wi no treatii . no protocols, no prescription could thu di | f th< ax. Their right of elf-governmenl remains indefeasible; and whenever IG UNITY OF ITALY. tliey see fit to exercise it, they do no man wrong, they encroach upon no man's rights. Besides, while the transfer to the United States government of the District of Columbia was an undoubted authentic act, it is not to be forgotten — as it cannot be denied — that the " dona- tion of Constantine," and the " decretals," on which the political claims of the Roman Pontiffs ultimately rest, are known to be baseless and shameless forgeries. But, without relying at all on this damaging and damning fact, the simple truth is, there is no constitutional political relation whatever between the so-called '"' Catholic world " as a body and the Roman States, and therefore their relation, whatever it be, in idea or in fact, stands in no analogy at all to that of the District of Columbia to the United States. The foul and venomous language, the vituperative epithets, and the vindictive curses which the Pope sees fit to hurl against those whom he charges with a sacrilegious spoliation of the most divine and sacred rights — so far as they refer to his being stripped of his long-detested and detestable power as a temporal sovereign — simply recoil on his own head ; whether they mean or accomplish anything else or not, they, at least and in any case, betray in him who vents them an imperious and a rancorous temper, which ill becomes the man who claims to be the infallible head of Christendom and the vicar of that loving and lowly One, who declared that he came not to destroy men's lives but to save them ; who charged his disciples to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and who prayed for his murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." " His Holiness " may yet learn the truth of the old Saxon proverb, " Curses, like chickens, will come home to roost." If stripping the Roman Pontiff of his dominion over Rome is a foul deed of wrong and political brigandage, so was stripping the Sultan of Turkey of his dominion over Greece. This is a purely political question, for it regards simply political relations toid political rights ; and there is no element of wrong in divesting the Pope-king of the civil govern- ment of Rome which there would not be in divesting the Grand Seijr- nior of the government of Constantinople and the Eastern Empire, or Queen Victoria of the government of Ireland, which they and their pre- decessors have severally held for so many centuries. All the rights of property which have vested in the Pope as a citi- zen or a bishop, and not as a civil sovereign and king, all personal and private rights in general, and all proper ecclesiastical rights, whether of i he Pope, of his cardinals, or of any other, will undoubtedly be dis- tinguished by the people of Rome and the Italian government from po- litical rights and rights of civil sovereignty ; and as such they will be sacredly respected. But it is earnestly to be hoped that no superstitious LF/1 in:-. -±< fears of papal curses and interdicts, and no petty present interests no motives, whether of the prestige, or of the pride, or of the pecuniary ad- vantage of retaining the ecclesiastical head of the "Catholic world" within the bounds of Italy, and in his ancienl seal on one of the hills of the Eternal City— will lead, in treatingwith the Pope, to unwise and inconsistent concessions for the moment : which will surely be the source of perennial vexation and dispute hereafter. Now is the precious oppor- tunity for placing the whole relation of the Pope to the civil govern- ment at one- on it- proper and permanent basis. To recognize in him a quasi political sovereignty, a right of communicating with the Italian government bv his ambassadors— whether called nuncios or legates — ambassadors, too, taking precedence of those of any other sovereign; to guarante i his personal inviolability, and to give him exclusive juris- diction within limits however narrow; in short, to acknowledge in him anything more than a subject of the civil government side by side with other citizens — is to commit a gross inconsistency at the start, and to takes course which musl afterwards necessitates long repentance ora painful reform. In his spiritual authority, in theexeicise of his purelj istical functions in any church or churches that see tit to ac- knowledge them, the Pope should be perfectlj independent of the civil power, and should not be interfered with in the slightest degree ;— un- less, in their pretended exercise,he purposely places himself in seditious antagonism to the civil government in which case he should be ame- nable, like all other citizens, to impartial laws. It is questionable, whether he would be allowed to live in any other < Ihristian or < latholic country than hah on any better terms than these. At all events, it is tain that, in this free countrj of ours, he could have no greater ex emption, no higher sovereignty, no other personal inviolability. Ami if, in any < Ibristian country where the Pope should reside, whether in [tah or elsewhere, Buch legal treatment of him would be inconsistent with the principles of fundamental right or of the Christian religion, then is the verj theory of our free and equal institutions, with the en- tire separation of < hurch and Btate which obtains ai ig us, inconsis tent with the fundamental principles of right and of the < Ihristian religion. \\ I right in America cannot be wrong in Ltaly. ind what is Wrong in Italy cannot be ii'_dit in America. Meanti we are read) to profess and proclaim in the lace ol the World, and tO maintain " au'ainsl all comer.," not onh that It LB contra iv to the firsl principles of our American freedom, but that it is reall) contrarj to the first principles of the Christian religion itself, that tem- poral dominion should inhere in the spiritual office, ae such, ol anj Ohri nan minister, whether he be the bo called Prince of thi Ipo or the mei B hop 01 Presbyter, whether he be the ell tyled Vicai 48 UNITY OF ITALY. of Christ or the lowliest Deacon. Whoever may be its officers, or what- ever they may presume to call themselves, Christ's Kingdom is not of this world. That the temporal power over precisely the Roman States, or over any other State or States, is necessarily or essentially inherent in the Papal jurisdiction over the Church, has either been infallibly declared an article of the Catholic faith, or it has not. In the latter case it may be rejected by good Catholics just as safely and as loyally as it can be affirmed. In the former case, we have the comfort of knowing that this mysterious and slippery dogma of infallibility is likely now to be prac- tically tested by time and facts. Let Italy and the Roman people — and the Roman Church, too, if there be such a thing — only be left by tin- rest of Europe to settle their own affairs for themselves, and it requires no gift of infallibility to predict the result. As the sentiment of Dante in condemnation of the union of the temporal with the spiritual power at Rome has been fully justified by the facts of history, so will his prophecy of her liberation from the adulterous union be fulfilled : — ' ' Di oggiuiai che la chiesa di Roma, ' ' Per conf ondere in se duo reggimenti, " Cade 11 el fango e se brutta e la soma.'' " Ma Vaticano'e l'altre parti elette ' ' Di Roma, che son state cimitero ' ' Alia milizia che Pietro seguette, " Tosto libere fien dall' adultero." Daniel R. Goodwin. FROM HON. WM. BROSS, LATE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. Chicago, Jan. 9, 1871. Dear Sir : I regret exceedingly that I cannot be present with you on Thursday evening, January 12th, " to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity," and with you personally " to express to United Italy, the sympathy and congratulations " which it seems to me every lover of freedom, wherever his home may be, must feel at the emancipation of Rome from ecclesiastical tyranny. Her people have voted to change their rulers, and he knows little of their present condition and past history who does not hope for the most beneficent results, both to them and to their children. Their right to do this cannot be ques- tioned by men who love liberty, and equally clear is their right to make another change when duty shall require them to do it. Hence, not only Americans, but mankind, should rejoice that Italy, for the first time in centuries, is United and Free. Let them give thanks de- 1.1 ill RS. t9 voutly ti> the Ruler of the Universe for the hope, thai she will remain thus united and free n 'i:i:\ BR. Surely the world lias had enough of ecclesiastical despotism. Thai the Church and the State should be entirely distincl and separate organ- izations is attested by more than a thousand years ft' wars, the mosl desolating and cruel that history lias recorded. Italy has therefore deter- mined to lei every man worship according to the dictates of his own conscience, and thai the Stat.- shall proteci and defend him in the free pcise of thai right. Eere the duty of Italy and of all govern- ments begins and ends, and surely American freemen should congratu- late Italy thai this fundamental principle of our modern civilization is now recognized from the Alps to the Gulf of Taranto. With the blessings of civil and religious liberty secured to all her people, we be- lieve thai the melancholy monuments of Roman genius and Roman power in the past will soon become instinci with the life and the en- ergy ofour modern Christian civilization. If the ancient mistress of the world cannot revel in her former greatness, lei us hope she may soon become one of the brightesi stars in the galaxy of < Ihristian States. V.w thai " Freedom to worship God" is accorded to all men in the " Eternal City," lei Americans give all the countenance and suppori they can properrj command to make thai righi perpetual. The history, the language, the literature, the arts, and the laws of Home, in the days of her glory, have for ages been the common property of the civilized world. .Ma\ the righi to visii and to studj her classic monuments, bo worship within her walls, and, it' nee. I be, to have their final resting-place within her bosom, be for ever seemed to men of everj faith, and from every clime. I close with the ardent prayer, thai in all thai can elevate and bless mankind, [taly, in the not distant future, maj far excel the glory thai has come down to us from the ages of her highest culture and her greatest power. With besi wishes that your meeting ma} proves brillianl sue. I am. v ery t rulj , 3 our obedieni sen ant, W'm. Brobs. I ftOM 1:1. \. M< >j:« -a n DIX, DM . RECTOB OF 'I L'lMTV (in Et< II \i u Fork, Jan. 2, 1871. .M '■ Deab Sih: I have the honor to acknowledge your note, in which you ask permission to add mv name in those alread) Bigned to tli" call for a public meeting to celebrate the achievement of the I nit_\ of [taly. You \sere not mi taki 11 iii uppo Lng thai mj ympa thii with the [talian nation at this critical epoch : and n gives me great plea ure to ( iplj with your requt t, uoi on!} becau ■ I 1 50 UNITY OF ITALY. a dee]) and affectionate interest in the Italian people, but also because I deem it important that the views of Americans should at this time be emphatically expressed. Other voices have been recently heard among us, protesting Avith bitterness and anger against the intelligent and unanimous acts of the Italians; and, lest those voices should be supposed to represent our national sentiments, it seems our duty, by way of offset and corrective, to send a hearty congratulation across the sea. A residence of some two years in Italy has made that lovely and his- toric land very dear to me. What time I passed in Rome was sufficient to enable me to form a deliberate judgment respecting its condition and prospects under the temporal power of the Pope. It is not, therefore, rashly or ignorantly, but with the calmness and sobriety of mature con- viction, that I express my joy at beholding the end of that disastrous and unnatural rule, and the termination of that great abuse and anom- aly, the worldly empire of a Christian Bishop. It is well for our com- mon Christianity that the venerable patriarch of Rome finds himself again, after a thousand years of error, in his true place, as ruler of " a kingdom not of this world." There may he ever remain, protected and honored in his spiritual rights, yet no more than any other citizen be- fore the impartial face of the law. As for the nation, now united and masters of their ancient capital, I trust that the glory of their latter days may be greater than that of any of the former. I was trained in the American principles, that Church and State ought not to be united ; that each should be free in its own sphere ; that every citizen should have liberty to worship our heavenly Father in peace, according to his own conscience ; and that in religious matters all men should claim for themselves, and concede to others, the fullest toleration, so long as no detriment be done to public morals and safety. Every year deepens my faith in these principles as just and true ; and these appear to lie at the basis of the edifice of Italian Unity, and to be expressed in the recent political movements in the peninsula. Therefore I join hands cor- dially with you, and with all who speak words of good cheer to a brave and patient people, and bid them a hearty God-speed, as they en- ter on a higher career and a happier and better estate. I remain, with great respect and regard, very truly yours, MORGAN DlX. FROM REV. HENRY C. POTTER, D.D., RECTOR OF GRACE CHURCH. New York, Jan. 16, 1871. Dear Sir : I beg to acknowledge your kind note, and am very glad of the opportunity which it gives me to offer you my congratulations in MM ER8. .".1 view of the recenl expression, in this city, of American sympathy with dom in Italy. It was a uoble tribute to a glorious achievement, Italy has proved herself worthy of her history* and true to her grandest traditions. Her people have unmistakably declared themselves equally unwilling to deny their nationality, to betray their country, t" repudiate civilization, to reuounce science : and in freeing themselves from the yoke of the Latin Church, have rendered valuable service to the cause of \'\ man who really believes in the value of constitutional liberty, secured to the equal enjoyment of mankind;- in the ini portance of freedom of thought, of utterance, ami of personal action to individual man, .guarded and sustained by just and equal laws;— -in the preciousness oi a religion, and personal right of conscience to the hu- man soul, unfettered by tin 1 oppressions ami arbitrary powers of law in authority over the community :- in the blessedness of a divine revelation to man. the promises and instructions of which an 1 addressed personally to himself, and to be interpreted for bim bj bim elf alone : in the refining and exalting influence over tin persons and social rela- tions of oien, under the protection of a just and equal government, "I' quiet, intelligent, ami peaceful homes : ami in the certainty of the real growth of public and private virtue, in a countn 'dered and irrayed, — may Burelj ay, with great confidence and cheerfulnei , that ■/""' m tie pre '-tit prospect of Italian Unity and Freedom. 1 trusl we ma\ ee all tie- brilliant hope thu springing together 52 UNITY OF ITALY. into birth for that beautiful, but long-oppressed land and people, com- pletely and triumphantly realized under that constitutional monarchy, and established legal government, which appears to have been at last raised up, under the gracious Providence of God, as the prepared hope and blessing for Italy. That a Free Church in a Free State will tend to promote the knowledge of divine truth, and the reverence for divine power, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures of God, among the people enjoying these precious blessings, I cannot doubt. And m} 7 heart's de- sire to the Lord of all is, therefore, for his care and blessing over restored and United Italy. I am, with much regard, yours, . occu- pation as tin- future capital of Italy, are the wort of Catholics. It is not. therefore, a question between Protestantism and i latholicism. Tin' issue presented is between the free and progressive and the ultramon- tane schools within the Church of Rome, li was Dante who said : •• La chiesa «li Roma, Per conf ondere in b£ duo reggimenti, Cade ii* 1 I'.-. brutta e la soma." And during tin- six weary centuries thai passed away from I 'ante to Cavour, the overthrow of the temporal power of the Papacy and the 1 city <>t' Italy have hen the aspiration of poets, historians, artists, and statesmen among the noblest suns of the Roman Church. ideas which have triumphed in this bloodless revolution are pe- culiarly American ideas. Ultramontanisra can never be a permanent power in this country. Nothing could 1»' more short-sighted, therefore, than the policy which Leads to open avowal of, or silent acquiescence in ultramontane principles. The Catholicism which is in sympathy with the Unity of Italy, whatever may be present appearances, i- to !»• tin mi of the t'm ore in America. Trusting that the demonstration proposed may be a truly national one, embracing all the Lovers of freedom, irrespective of religious !»■ I am, very Bincerely \'"i John Cottox Smith. FROM BEV. WILLIAM F. HOBGAN, D.D., BECTOB "I' ST. THOMAS •Hi ROBL Ni:\\ Y"i;u. .1: arj Mill, L871. Gentlemen op the Com.: I I >< lt to assure you of mj hearty sym- pathy with tin- objects of tin' meeting to !»' held at the Academj of Music, on the I2th inst. I cannot say thai mj engagement will allow me to he present, but, whether present or absent, I rejoice unfeignedly the liberation of Rome from Papal and bierarchical rule, ami at tin' toration of ltal\ to a condition of units which, under tin' wi ■ ordi ring of God, hall I"- a, the dawn to the golden daj of advan meut and | ■ i o peri 'real things nia\ lio\\ he spoken of Italy, awe • le i fui iin-, greal i o pirat quickened into lit'.. oid the forth-putting of great influence and power. I I I grant that this may not onlj be the hour of hi r deliverance, but of her \ anj thing I can write now, after the fact is accomplished. With great respect for the proposed meeting audits objects, I am, v ,, m . Hob \'T. Bi shnell. 60 UNITY OF ITALY. FROM REV. JOHN N. McLEOD, D.D. New York, January 6, 1871. My Dear Sir : The meeting to " celebrate the completion of Italian Unity," which it is proposed to hold on 12th of January, 1871,1 regard as of great importance. The event which it is designed to mark and commemorate is among the most interesting of this veiy prolific age, and its influence in promoting the spread of civil liberty and a Chris- tian civilization cannot but be powerful. The endorsement which the world is now giving to our own Republican institutions is most en- couraging to ourselves, and assuredly we should not be backward in bestowing our sympathy and congratulation on the people of Italy, who have effected the emancipation of Rome itself. Free Italy, and free Rome as its capital, must soon become a centre of light and happiness to the surrounding world. I hope to be present at the proposed meet- ing, and share in the enthusiasm which it must certainly produce. Respectfully yours, John N. McLeod. FROM REV. H. D. GANSE. New York, Jan. 10, 1871. My Dear Sir : You ask me an expression of my sympathy with the cause of Italian Unity. Such an expression I am very willing to make; not only or chiefly on account of the interest I feel in the consolidation of a nation so long distracted ; but especially from my regard of the fundamental principle which the method of Italian reconstruction has so clearly recognized : the principle, namely, that the people have a right to choose their government. Not a few of our fellow-citizens, as is well known, refuse to accord any such right to the late subjects of the Pope. Can they have consi- dered the evident reach of the argument by which the right is denied ? That argument is : That the religious interests of the Catholic world demand for its chief Pontiff a territory which he may hold by inde- feasible sovereignty, so that any attempt of the inhabitants of that ter- ritory to alienate it from its religious owner is not mere rebellion against a worldly government, but injury to all the spiritual subjects of a hierarch who governs by direct warrant from God himself. If this position be true, there is demonstrated one case, at least, in which the religious interests of some men are entitled to diminish the political liberty of other men. It will be claimed, indeed, that the political liberty thus coveted is nothing less than license, since it pro- poses to break over the clear requirement of Cod. But to whom is that divine requirement made clear? Not to those who covet the LETTERS. 61 liberty; for they confidently deny thai an\ such requiremenl exists. It is the Catholic world, outside of Italy, that is persuaded of the divine restriction set upon the liberty of Italians, and that proposes to enforce the restriction upon thai reluctant people. It comes to this, then : That the religious opinion of men in one coun- try, or set of countries, is entitled to diminish the political liberty of men in another country. Now, accordingto our American principle of the rights of conscience, religious opinion is of absolute authority within its own domain, which is no more and no less than the bosom of him who holds it. The conscientious convictions of any man may override just as many of his own worldly interests — not of his civil duties — as may seem good to him ; and they cannot be overridden by any convictions or interests of any other man or men. But the moment the religious con- science in one man proposes to limit or control any interest of any other man, it is an intruder, and must be driven back. This principle does not prevent the enactment and execution of laws against crime ; for such laws are demanded by public policy, apart from the religious conscience. Even the laws which guard a weekly rest-day, while they secure to the religious conscience its evident right to worship, exact no sacrifices of liberty but those which all experience, apart from such conscience, has found to be for the good of society and the State. ' If this American definition of the rights of the religious conscience be sound, how shall the conscience of the Roman Catholic ( 'hurch be able, even from distant countries, to fasten on Italians a government of which they an- uvaiy ? And if our American principle must so far give way thai the religious concscience of American Catholics can override the civil rights of Italians, what shall oblige Americans to restrict the exercise of this religious prerogative to Italian soil? It is only on the ground of an exclusive divine guarantee that any religion could enlist its adherents in the extravaganl demand which is now made And an ex- clusive divine guarantee is as good against the civil interests of one man as of another. Accordingly, such appropriation of the wealth of this mixed community is now made to the support of the Roman Catholic religion as would never be tolerated by Catholics themselves, except upon the ground that their religion is the sole true religion, and is entitled to such support. If the Baptist denomination or the I'reshs terian could be brought to accept such subsidies oul of the public treasury, the general indignation and their own shame would oblige them speedily to return them. There is just one sorl of religious conscience among us thai demands this use of the wealth of an American State; and that is the con- Science winch demands the extinction of civil liberty in Italy. It plants itself, in either case, upon a divine prerogative. Such a prero- gative, once admitted, is an unmanageable thing; and ii cannot he kepi to hit it nl G2 UNITY OF ITALY. The effort which is now making to restore the Pope to his temporal throne is the most formal and deliberate avowal, that the religion of Rome subordinates civil rights to its necessities. The friends of United Italy, on the other hand, declare that no true religion limits the civil liberty of any living soul. The ultimate verdict of our countrymen and of mankind on these two avowals will be wise and safe. Even thoughtful Romanists, no less than others, will consent that the spiritual relations of their chief Pon- tiff, which, as matter of conscientious conviction, all good men are obliged to respect and defend, should supersede those temporal relations which can no longer be maintained, except by destroying the founda- tions of just government. Yours, very respectfully, H. D. Ganse. FROM MARK HOPKINS, D.D., PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. Williamstown, Mass., Jan. 21, 1871. Dear Sir : If my sympathy with the cause of Italian Unity can avail anything, I rejoice to express it, for I believe it to be the cause of civil and religious freedom. We do not, in this country, believe in a union of Church and State in any form. We do not believe in a national religion in which, as in England, the Church is subordinated to the State. We do not believe in a religious organization, like that of popery, which claims the right to subordinate States to itself. We do not believe in a double power within a limited region over both the bodies and souls of men, which may enable its possessor, in virtue of his position as a civil ruler, to become a political centre to his adherents in other countries, to collect money from them for political purposes, and, by means of his public representatives and secret agents, to enter into political intrigues in those countries. We do not believe in a power which discourages pop- ular education and the reading of the Bible, and whose sway has al- ways resulted, in proportion to its completeness, in an inability of the mass of the people even to read. We do not believe in a power which asks freedom of speech and of worship for itself and denies them to others. We believe in no power, civil or religious, that requires to be supported by foreign bayonets, and we see a special incongruity in this where such a power claims to be the vicegerent of the God of love and of the Prince of Peace. We cannot believe that those " Keys of the kingdom of Heaven " which our Lord intrusted to Peter were ever in- tended, or can be made, to turn bolts of despair upon prisoners in the LETTERS. ,; "' Inquisition. We believe in no priesthood now on the earth, but only in the one great High Priest above ; butif there be such a priesthood, sureh the experiment of a thousand years, now brought to an end 1>\ Catholics themselves, ought to convince all that those composing it are not tit toconduct the affairs of civil government. That such a priestly, complex, anomalous power, thus tested, should so come to an end, is the great event of the century ; and we rejoice in it. We rejoice also in what we believe is to take the place of this power — a United Italy, a constitutional government, general educa- tion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, free- dom to associate for social and literary ends without supervision or es- pionage — these we trust will take its place. We trust that industry and commerce will revive, that wealth will increase, that brigandage and beggary will be diminished, or cease altogether, and that Italy, so cel- ebrated in the past, shall become the admiration and the resort of other nations, not alone for what she has been, but for what she is. Yours in the cause of Freedom, Mark Hopkins. FROM PRES. EDWARDS A. PARK, D.D., ANDOVER THEO. SEMINARY. Andover, Mass., January, L871. DEAB Sii; : In the early days of Massachusetts there was a kind of union between the Church and the State. The Congregational denomi- nation was called the '-standing order," and had certain privileges which were denied to other denominations. These privileges were gradually reduced, and in 1834 the last vestige of the favoritism was removed. This deprivation of State aid was regarded by the Congre- gationalists themselves as a great advantage to them. < >u the same principle, if the Church of Home will make a light us- of its loss of temporal power, this loss will be the greatest gain it has received for centuries. It will tend to divert the attention of the Church from external splendors to the cultivation of that character, on which the true prosperity of a church essentially depends, Arrhhjshop .Manning, preaching in the City of Home, about a year ago, said thai the Church has suffered much from the opposition of princes, hut still more from their famor. lie might have added, that it has Buffered vet more from tin- tad of itself holding princely authority. As the connection between the Church and the State is Injurious to both parties, it must be pre eminently injurious when the < 'lunch bed IS itself the State power. It I were a Romanist, laboring for the spiritual improvement of the Romish Church, I should rejoice rather than complain, in view of the fact that the Pope has now .-eased to exercise a political jurisdiction; and I 01 UNITY OF ITALY. should rejoice in the unification of Italy as favorable, rather than detri- mental, to the religious welfare not only of Italy, but also of the world. Edwards A. Park. FROM REV. T. D. ANDERSON, D. D. New York, Jan. 20, 1871. Gentlemen of the Committee : Absence from New York alone pre- vented an earlier response to your very kind note. And now I can only snatch a moment from the pressure of duties, accumulated while away, to secure the honor of having my name associated with theirs who send the heartiest congratulations to regenerated Italy : an Italy whose future realization is destined to eclipse the glorious memories of its past as far as the inspiration of the Gospel of Jesus transcends the influence of the teachings of Cicero or Seneca. History has rarely written on her scroll a heading which introduces a chapter of such thrilling events as when she wrote, in eighteen hundred and seventy, Italian Nationality. It was then that the struggles of the bravest and best of the nation, so often resulting in defeat and disappointment, but always directed to one end, were seen not to have been in vain. Then the fair and classic land of Italy, so long trodden under the foot of oppression, so long divided and meted out among its rapacious enemies, so long despoiled of the possession of its own rich and varied products, became again the prop- erty of Italians, to be inhabited by Italians, to be governed by Italians, and to be made glorious by Italians. Then shone forth that patriotism whose brightness no reverses could dim, and whose ardor no sufferings could queue]), which, as soon as the hireling soldiery of a foreign State were recalled, forgot all differences of condition, all diversities of religion, creed, and political opinion, and voted with a unanimity as sublime as it was effective— Italy shall be one, and its capital is Home. Then a Class government, wielding the powers of temporal sove- reignty only to repel progress, to fetter intelligence, to oppress con- science, and trample on the most sacred rights of man, fell by the - expressed determination of its subjects, and lay powerless before the will of the people it had so wantonly affected to despise. Then, in the very Land and City where all that is most revolting in the union of Church and State had its rise, and for so many ages put forth its usurped supremacy, was the unhallowed alliance broken, and Catholic and Protestant alike asserted the liberty of conscience ; while on the very spot where the great Apostle declared it, they echo the cry, " The word of God is not bound." I.ll I BRS. All hail, Italy ! The Republic of America sends you her grei ting she welcomes you among the nations. The sympathies of the free of all lands are with you ; and now, as eighteen centurii a , Christians are praying thai - The ( tod of hope may till you with all joy ami peace." 1 rejoice, gentlemen, that tin- voice of the thousands gathered last week in our city gave uo uncertain sound to our brethren in Italy. I hope in all our cities oppoiiranities for the expression of the same good- will may be given. Very sincerely yours, Tuos. D. Anderson. FROM. REV. W. W. EVERTS. < !hicago, Jan. 1. 1871. Deab Sir: The circular requesting views on the completion of Italian Unity, and the new promise h-r religious liberty now brighten- ing over the home and .stronghold of spiritual despotism, is acknow- ledged. The imposture of Papacy has always seemed to me clearly attested by its usurpation of temporal power. Appeal to defences of worldly kingdoms burlesques its claims to represent a "kingdom not of this world." < >nly the hallucination of partisan bigotry could ever have imagined the modern Pope, with splendors of an earthly court, with magistracy and police, tribunals and prisons, enforcing dogmas by the inquisition and guarding his person and maintaining his authority by the sword, the successor and representative of the Divine Saviour, who took no sword, instituted no court, opened no prison, but, declaring his king- dom was not of this world, ruled only by puiity of example and autho- rity of teaching, promise, and warning. The Loss of temporal power of the Papacy, noi merely in Rome but in other Papal lands, and the consequeni overthrow of the spiritual despotism based upon it, maj well oheer the friends of liberty, pro- . and true religion throughout the world. Sours trul_\ , W. W. Everts. FROM i:i;v. THOMAS FARRELL, ROMAS CATHOLIC PASTOR OP ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, \i:\V STORK St. Joseph's, January I 2, 1871. Gentlemen of the Committee: I regrel thai I cannol be pres- '"< ;,t the meeting in favor of Italian Unity. Etaly divided has long been the prey of the foreigner. \ I would not like to ee foreign sol- 66 UNITY OF ITALY. diers on my own native soil, nor would I consider it an evidence of the contentment and happiness of the people, so I could not wish to see Italy occupied by foreign troops, nor could I consider their presence there as an evidence of the contentment of the people. According to the old theory and practice of European nations, people may be given and taken away without their consent. All that must be changed before the people can be contented. They must own them- selves. Standing armies must be abolished. Navies, also, except a few vessels furnished by each nation for the protection of commerce on the high seas, must be got rid of. It is a monstrous injustice to tax and oppress people beyond endurance to gratify the policy and ambition of kings. How long ignorance will keep people from seeing how easily they might set rid of their grievances, and the cause of them, it is hard to tell ; but I am convinced that it cannot be long. Though it is not for me to predict what the destiny of United Italy will be, still I do not believe that she will stop where she is. They have yet a great deal to learn and practise. The people of the old world don't understand what equality before the law means ; for, if they did, they would soon get rid of aristocracy by inheritance or patent, which, like caste, is the greatest curse of the world. The people, too, of every country and of every creed have so long been persecuted on account of religion, that they do not understand our theory and our practice of civil and religious liberty. When they come to understand and practise it the world over, one of the great causes of human misery and oppression will be removed forever. That all men throughout the world may soon enjoy civil and religious liberty and equality before law, is the sincere wish of yours truly, Thos. Farrell. [ Comments of the Evening Post on the preceding Letter.^ We refer our readers to the letter of Father Farrell, addressed to the committee which made the arrangements for the late great meeting at the Academy of Music in favor of Italian Unity. Father Farrell is an enlightened Catholic, who can see that those who protest against conferring civil and religious liberty on the people of Rome are protest- ing against the free institutions of our own country, and virtually admit- ting that if the power of persecution were in their hands, they also would persecute all who worship in any other manner than that pre- scribed by the Latin Church, or who openly maintain any religious opinions different from those permitted by the Pope. It is too late in the day to maintain this doctrine. A good many LETTEK8. 67 will have signed the protest to oblige the priests, and, if interrogated in private, would not hesitate to express their detestation of the arro- gant assumption implied in it, that the Roman Catholics wherever thej can obtain the power ought to put down heresy by force. It is verj likely, indeed there ean be no doubt, that there are bigots among them, who dream of the time when their denomination will be strong enough O © to do this, but it is the idlest of dreams. The world is not iioing that © © way. The stream of tendencies flows in quite a different direction. Religious persecution is growing more and more out of fashion. The practice of favoring one religious denomination at the expense of the rest is becoming every day more odious. Churches established by law are deprived by law of their immemorial privileges, and left to stand or fall by themselves. In the course of events, every form of religion now » © upheld by the law will tind itself turned out into the world, to struggle " ©O for the mastery — perhaps for existence — with the rival denominations. And there is no doubt that the cause of religion will gain immenseh by this great change. In a well-considered article in the Princeton Hevieio for January, on "The Papal Temporal Power," we find an extract from a discourse of the eminent prelate of the Papal Church, Archbishop Manning in which, alter a good deal of grumbling at the emancipation of Koine as a robbery and a " violation of sovereign rights, the oldest and most sacred in the world," the reverend orator goes on to say: — '•One thing is certain— wc shall have among us fewer bad Catholics, worldly Catholics, lax Catholics, and liberal Catholics. When the world turns upon the church, such men are either reclaimed or fall off. When trial comes, it. dees net pay to be a Catholic; to be firm costs something. Only these who hold faith dearer than life stand the test. We are not afraid of this sifting. Nbmkvd ( latholics are our weakness and vexation, ear scandal and our shame ; sometimes they are our greatest danger." This is well said. If the Church, whose centre is at Rome, is not the better for this purification, it. will be the fault of those who belong to it. We wish, for our part, that the same salutary process could !>e applied in this State, and that the priests who administer t he Roman Catholic schools here could be compelled bo let go their hold on the pub- lic revenues, which a set of unprincipled politicians have put into their hands in the hope of purchasing their influence in the elections. The advantage pointed oul by Archbishop Manning, as resulting from the overthrow of the temporal power of the Pope, ought, in fact, to make his Church ample amends for all the pleasure which the hierarchy lose by being deprived of the exercise of a hateful despotism, wringing heavy taxes from an unwilling people, putting the gag on all discussion, h\ speech or the press, watching against the introduction ofall books which question the dogmas of their ( Ihurch, and making themselves so generally detested, thai the moment the people are asked to say \>\ theii 68 UNITY OF ITALY. votes whether they will bear this sort of rule any longer, they answer u No," with an acclamation which is heard to the ends of the earth. Of Father Farrell, to whose letter we referred in the beginning of this article, we have heard an anecdote creditable to his good sense and his just estimate of the value of religious liberty. When the pro- test against giving a constitutional government to the people of Rome was put into the hands of the Catholic clergy of this city, in order to obtain for it the signatures of their flocks, he declined to read it from his pulpit. Another priest read it, after which Father Farrell said to the congregation : " You have heard the paper read ; such of you as ap- prove it have the opportunity of signing it. I shall not." He could not have done otherwise consistently with the principle laid down in his letter, that all religious denominations ought to stand on a footing of perfect equality before the law. It would have been well if more of his Catholic brethren had followed his example, instead of signing a paper which is virtually a denunciation of our own institutions. FROM JAMES D. DANA, PROF. OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, YALE COLLEGE. New Haven, Conn., Jan. 8, 1871. Dear Sir : I thank you for the invitation to the meeting which is to be held in New York " to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity, 11 and regret that I shall not be able to be present. I hope that it will be a great meeting, one in full harmony with the majestic steps of pro- gress the world is now taking. No other decade in human history, except one, can vie with this in importance. It began with a struggle on the Western Continent, that, in its triumph, gave the death-blow to chattel-slavery throughout the land and for the world. It has ended in a struggle on the Eastern Continent which has restored liberty to Rome, and Rome to Italy, and, more than this, has broken the yoke of papal domination for all time. May the freedom thus initiated have its speedy consummation in free speech, free schools, and a free church for universal Europe ! It is cheering to believe that God's hand is in the movement, and that a higher and holier civilization will be the grand issue. I have special reason to rejoice with and for Italy, as my family name is still to be heard in the valleys of Piedmont. Very respectfully yours, James D. Dana. FROM JOHN G. WHITTIER, THE POET. Amesbury, Mass., 1st Mo. 4th, 1871. Dear Friend : It would give me more than ordinary satisfaction to LETTERS. attend the meeting on the 12th instanl for the celebration of [talian I nity, the emancipation of Rome, and its occupation as the permanenl capita] of the nation. For many years I have watched with deep interest and sympathy the popular movemenl on the Italian peninsula, and especially every effort for the deliverance of Rome from a despotism counting its age l.\ cen- turies. I looked at these straggles of the people with Little reference to their ecclesiastical or sectarian bearings. 11a. I 1 been a Catholic instead of a Protestant, I should have hailed every symptom of Roman deliverance from Papal rule, occupying, as I have, the standpoint of a republican radical, desirous that all men, of all creeds, should enjoy the < nil liberty which I prized so highly for myself. I lost all confidence in the French republicof 1849, when it forfeited its own right to exist by crushing out the newly-formed Roman republic under Mazzini and Garibaldi. From that ho.nr it was doomed, and the expiation of its monstrous crime is still going on. Mj sympathies are with Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta in their efforts to establish and sustain a republic in France, but 1 confess that the investment of Paris by Km- William seems to me the logical sequence of, he bombardment of Rome by Oudinot. And is it not a significant fact that the terrible chassepot, which made its first bloody experiment upon the half-armed Italia,, patriots without the walls of Rome, lias failed in the hands of French republicans against the inferior ueedle-gun of Prussia? It was said of a fierce actor in the old French Revolution that he demoralized tie- guillotine. The massacre at Montana demoralized the chassepot. II is :l quitter of congratulation that the redemption of Rome has " effected so easily and 1,1 llessly. The despotism of a thousand years fell a- a touch in noiseless rottenness. The people of Hum.-. fift 3 to one, cast their ballots of condemnation like so many shovelfuls of 'earth upon it. grave. Outside of Rome there seems to be a ver } general acquiescence in its downfall. X,, Peter the Eermit preaches a Crusade mita behalf. No one of the great Catholic powers of Europe lifts a fin S er for [t - Whatever may be the feelings of Isabella of Spain and the fugitive son of King Bomba, thej are i„ no condition to come to its ''"""''• '' " reserved for A.mericai clesiastics, loud-] thed in l ,rofe8 sions of democracy, to make solemn protest against whal they oall an "outrage," which gives the people of R the right of cho Lng their own government, and denies the divine right of I ings in the person of Pio Nono. The withdrawal of the temporal power oi the Pope will prove a blessing to the Catholic Church, as well as to the world. Mauj of iti ""'-' learned and devout prie I s and laymen have long seen the nei Lt 3 of "• || ■'' change, which takes from it a reproach and Bcandal th 70 UNITY OF ITALY. could no longer be excused or tolerated. A century hence it will have as few apologists as the Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bar- tholomew. In this hour of congiatulation let us not forget those whose suffering and self-sacrifice, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, prepared the way for the triumph which we celebrate. As we call the long illustri- ous roll of Italian patriotism — the young, the brave, and beautiful; the gray-haired, saintly confessors ; the scholars, poets, artists, who, shut out from human sympathy, gave their lives for God and country in the slow, dumb agony of prison martyrdom- — let us hope that they also re- joice with us, and, inaudible to earthly ears, unite in our thanksgiving : " Alleluia ! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! He hath avenged the blood of his servants ! " In the belief that the unity of Italy and the overthrow of Papal rule will strengthen the cause of liberty throughout the civilized world, I am very truly thy friend, John G. Whittier. FROM R. W. EMERSON. Concord, Mass., January 11, 1871. My Dear Sir: I cannot come to New York, but I heartily join you in your joy at the series of events which within a few years have re- deemed the fortunes of Italy. I am perhaps less acquainted than others around you with the details of the history, but one thing is plain, that for a long period the government of Italy has been a jiro- verb for misrule. It was foreign— broken into small principalities, standing only on military possession — and odious to the subjects. It is now one • native, constitutional, and welcome to the people ; and the recent abandonment of Rome by the French troops, and the vote of the Roman people to accept the government of King Victor Emmanuel instead of the anomalous and distasteful temporal power of the Pope, completes the emancipation. In America it is a principle of our gov- ernment to abstain from the interference with European States. That is a political, but no wise social rule. Italy has an exceptional attraction for all nations. A visit to it is a point of education — a necessity of culture. Its history was for a long time the history of the world. It was for ages the centre and source of the highest civilization, and it was the calamity of mankind that the genius of the nation, to which all nations owed theirs, should be oppressed and in part extinguished. I rejoice with you in the new days, with their auspicious omens. There is a new spirit in the world — an aim at better education, better Ill I'KKS. natural and social science, and a pure religion, and we behold with more assurance the regeneration of [taly. With entire good-will and trust, Yours, K. W. Emerson. FROM PROFESSOR O. W. HOLLIES, M.D. Boston, January 11, 1871. Dear Sir : The mptestof the Committer, which you represent, over- conies my reluctance to give an individual expression to the common feeling of interest in and sympathy for Italy, at this eventful period of her history. I need only say that 1 share the love and veneration with which the civilized world regards the source and centre of so much that has ennobled and beautified the life of humanity. That the people of the Italian States may be and remain united in one harmonious whole, and their capital become the seat of an empire wider and more |„. m .{irrut than that of the Caisars, is the hope and prayer of all who reverence the records of past achievement, and believe in the promise of an ever-expanding future. fours very truly, O. W. Holmes. FROM JOHN NEAL, ESQ. Portland, Me., January '.>, 1871. Ci vh.kmen: I am sorry to say thai my engagements are so numerous and pressing that I cannot be with you, at your coming celebration. Bui I can send greetings, and not in my own name only, bul in the name of thousands and tens of thousands, who have been wailing till their heads are white with hope deferred, while their hearts are swel tering with inward fire, only to break forth at the sound of the trum- pel we hear now, as (lie volcanoes of public opinion sometimes do. [taly restored ! Italy free ! What more can the lovers of mankind ask, when, after their resurrection, following the midnight darkness of ages, bhej see a mighty people taking their place among tic sover eigntiea of earth, vindicating the past and reasserting their equality with the mightiest? May tl'-d Almighty Mess that people, and sel them free from Priestcraft, Superstiti and Tyranny ! A.ccep1 ni> heartfell congratulations for yourselves, gentlemen, thai y 0U have dared to .all upon this generation to remember the ohild of Rome, that "com wealth of kings," at such a time. Most respect- fully and heartily, I am, gentlemen, your fellow-worshipper, John Neal. 72 'UNITY OF ITALY. FROM DR. J. G. HOLLAND, THE AUTHOR. Springfield, Mass., Friday, Dec. 30, 1870. Dear Sir : If it prove convenient for me to be in the city on the 12th prox., it will give me great pleasure to attend the meeting which it is proposed to hold at that time for the celebration of the completion of Italian Unity. I heartily rejoice in the consummation of the wishes of the Italian people. I believe they have an inherent right to order their own destiny. I wish that the rule under which the Roman peo- ple have passed were a better one, and that the yoke of Pope and priest could be lifted a little higher from their necks; but they have made a decided step toward freedom, and have distinctly told both Pope and priest that in temporal aftairs the Church is not their master. There seems to be no menace of the unity, so happily achieved, except in the desire of the King and his Government to conciliate the Papal in- terest, and their disposition to tolerate or cherish Papal functions, pow- ers, immunities, and pretensions, that can only bring mischief to their cause. The Italian Government and the Italian people can never be free until the Pope and the priesthood have no moiie power in politics than they have in England and the United States ; until secular edu- cation is under the direction and control of the secular power, and the people and the children of the people can be everywhere educated with- out saying " by your leave " to the crosier and the cloth. I wish the Government and people of Italy could understand how much real sympathy there is for them in the United States, and how free that sympathy is from all wish or purpose to urge upon them the adoption of our own political and religious opinions. We rejoice in their unity first. No matter how much we may dislike the policy of the King and of the Italian Government in according preposterous privileges and dignities to the Pope dethroned, we rejoice that Victor Emmanuel is King of United Italy. We rejoice that Rome is to be the Italian capital. We rejoice in all the hopes now swelling in the bo- soms of a people who have been more oppressed and worse ruled than any other people within the bounds of Christendom. And now, if Italy could only know that her safety depends entirely on the univer- sal education of her people— outside of priestly prescription and au- thority and that, if she gives a share of her power to the Church, in any way, she will give away her birth-right and her nationality ; if she could only know this, as we in America see it and know it, and strike boldly for the good that lies before her, and shake off the spirit- ual despotism, whose natural results are, and always have been, igno- rance, pauperism, and brigandage, we could find no words for our rejoicing, and no limits to the progress we should feel at liberty to prophesy for her.- LI I l EKS. \ great State can only be made by a great people; and no people can be great who are no1 free and intelligent. Whatsoever thai obsta- cle may be whirl, stands between a people and the light, is to be pu1 out of the wa 3 : for it cannot be religion, nor anything which places LtseH then, in the interesl of religion. By acquiring and occupying Rome, Italy has become the enemy of the claims of the Church of Rome to temporal power. Let her carry thai enmity to its Logical results, in assuming the education of ber own people, and throwing off all compli- cations with the Church —making religion as free as education,— and her unitv will be permanent, and her greatness and prosperity will be sur , Yours very truly, J- G. Holland. FROM G. H. BOKER, ESQ. Philadelphia, January 11, L871. De\R Sir: My sympathies are all with the Italian patriots, who ,,, now rejoicing in the elevation of Italy to something like her old Roman grandeur; for who shall measure her future development, or set bounds to the power of a country that, in the hands of the fathers of your race, once held the world in awe? Theabolition of slavery ... America, the unification of Italy and of Germany, are in my eyes the three greatest historical events of the nineteenth century, and the most promising for human progress. I remain, dear sir. yours sincerely, I'iKO. H. BoKEB. FROM EON. GEO. S. HILLARD, U. S. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, BOSTON. Boston, Jan. 18, 1871. DeabSir: From the 27th daj of December until the day before your meeting, my time and thoughts were wholly absorbed by a vrerj important case, and this is the reason why 1 was unable not merely to attend your celebration, bul eve,, to express my sympathy in the cause vdiich no,, met together. Sou d ■ but just.ee when you take ,, for granted that I feel the deepest interest in all that concerns the tor- tune, of Italy. Many years ago it was my fortune to pass s -months ,„ that country,and thej were months fruitful in influences and rich in memorie . I then learned to love that lovely land. The beautiful pic- tures 1 then brought away from it rise up before me as I write, all un touched bj time. T l„. i im i,. of Italy were then hound by the chains of the Btranger. I uever small forget the indignation and disgust I felt al seeing German 74 UNITY OF ITALY. troops in Milan, and Austrian cannon under shadow of the winged lion of St. Mark. With what delight have I watched the course of events which have finally broken these chains, and given to Italy the blessing of political independence, political autonomy, which indeed is not all that a nation needs, but without which everything else is of little value ! I was not there long enough, I did not speak the language well enough, to become much acquainted with the people of Italy ; but what I did see of them interested me much. I was struck with their courteous manners, their graceful speech, their ready sympathies, their quick perception, and, contrary to the general impression, their indus- try, whenever they had a chance to work. There seemed to be nothing wanting but opportunity and a sphere to make the future of Italy equal to its past. To the young men around me there appeared to be no future, and youth without a future is like a day without a morning. And now I have lived to see Italy free and united. She needed both blessings— the blessing of liberty, to give her progression, energy, and vital force ; and the blessing of union, that her powers may not be wasted in conflict, but may work together for a common end. What Italy wants is that which we have secured — unity and diversity. There is (rreat variety in the physical structure of Italy, and there is great va- riety in the character and faculties of its people. The centralization which has been such a curse in France can never exist there. The two creat voices, the voice of the mountains and the voice of the sea forbid. The efforts of the patriot should be turned in the contrary direction, to overcome those centrifugal and divergent forces of nature which have been so constantly and disastrously felt in its history. I rejoice in the recent events which have made Rome the capital of Italy, and I think I should do so none the less were I a Catholic. I think the spiritual influence of the head of the Roman Catholic Church will not be lessened, but will be increased by the loss of temporal power. The present Pontiff is a most amiable and estimable man, and no enemy to progress. How well do I recall his benignant, intellectual counte- nance, and the dignity and grace of his bearing on all public occasions ! But he is but a happy accident, for the teaching and training which fit a man to be the head of the Church do not fit him to be the head of a State. The King of Italy and his advisers have grave tasks and serious du- ties before them. They have, above all, to grapple with the terrible financial question which is everywhere so pressing, that huge mountain of debt which is so full of peril to European civilization. May they be wisely guided ! May they not mistake memory for hope, and aspiration for inspiration, but remember that the foundations alike' of national and I.I I I ERS. persona] greatnessare laid in patience, endurance, self-sacrifice, and self- control! (; - s Killard. FROM HON. WM. B. K1XNKY. LATE CHAHGk D'AFFATEES AT TU1UN. ITALY. EnglEWOOD, N. J., January 9, 1871. Sir: 1 accept with hearty good-will your invitation to the proposed celebration of the completion of Italian Unity ty the voluntary acces- sion of Rome, through the free suffrages of its citizens, and its inaugu- ration as the capital of the nation. N„ event in these eventful times so naturally stirs the hearts of the American people as this establishment of civil and religious liberty in the classic peninsula, so long borne down by the monstrous union of Church and State; always and everywhere a deadly conspiracy againsl the welfare and happiness of man. History teaches nothing more impera- tively, than that wherever these two authorities have been united. society and civilization have been repressed, as under the most odious of despotisms. To dissolve this connection, and liberate both parties from the stifling compact, was the supreme motive of the authors of the Reformation, which has achieved the glorious consummation over which we are called to rejoice. It was my fortune to represenl our country at Turin during the opening scenes, and to have held for many years intimate relations with the chi( factors in the grand drama, and thus have acquired the ability to declare, that war againsl the strictly spiritual prerogatives of the church was never for a moment thought of; as is so persistently charged l'->r sinister purposes. The patriotic men who inspired and led the movement were all members of its communion. It was their para- mount object, in the language of their great leader, to establish the principle of " a tie,- < Ihurch in a free State," for the hem lit of both : a measure simply intended to restrid the Pope to his legitimate functions :I . a supreme spiritual Pastor, restore Rome to the nation, and freedom to the < 'hutch and tic people. The recent friendly official overtures of the King, which have been so Bcornfully rejected, breathe the same spirit of good-will : to say nothing of the questionable proposal in Parliament to guarantee the spiritual freedom of tin- Pope, to secure to his < lardinals the dignitj ol Princes, and to sustain his < 'oiiit at the expense of the Slate : a COncei im possible in an\ country which recognizes no privileged classes, and ex- cludes all taxation for religious purposes. Still, a greal liberation has been accomplished. In the stirring worda of the King 1 peech to the Parliament, " Italj is free and one I " and 76 UNITY OF ITALY. the countrymen of Washington and Lincoln may heartily respond with one accord, in the beautiful language of Dante and Cavour, Viva V Italia! Viva I' Italia! Your obedient servant, Wm. B. Kinney. FROM W. D. HO WELLS, ESQ., FORMERLY IT. S. CONSUL AT VENICE. Cambridge, Mass., January 7, 1871. Dear Sir : I regret that I cannot be present at the meeting to which you invite me, and with the purposes of which I sympathize so thoroughly. The liberation of Italy is a fact that all real Americans will celebrate with you in heart with patriotic fervor, since the citizen of every free country loves Italy next to his own land, and feels her prosperous fortune to be the advantage of civilization. Her unity finally accom- plished through the fall of the temporal power of the Popes, is a spectacle of which we shall more and more discern the grandeur and significance. It is accomplished in the interest of freedom, religion, peace, and all the good arts ; and its benefits will be the common heritage of the race, which in every age has owed so much to Italy. Pray accept my most cordial wishes for the success of the meeting. Very truly yours, W. D. Howells. FROM GEORGE H. CALVERT, ESQ. Newport, R. I., January 3, 1871. Gentlemen : Gladly I accept the invitation with which you have honored me in your circular of December 21st. You have called a meeting to celebrate one of the most momentous and one of the most cheering of historical events. As full of hope as of broad significance is the consummation of Italian Unity through the establishment of Rome as the political capital. Rome, the national centre of United Italy ! This, then, is a fact. Rather than the near truthful report of history, these words sound like the distant music of a dazzling dream. They are a dream — a dream realized ; the dream of all the braver hearts, of all the noble heads of Italy for generations. The daily waking dreams of cordial, powerful men are apt to turn them- selves in the end into realities. Fitting it is that we, who to-day lead the van of all the congregated nations, and have leaped into this lofty seat through the manly vigor derived from freedom— fitting it is, most fitting, that we, from the magnificent metropolis of our country, send a greeting of joy and of LETTERS. triumph to emancipated [taly. From the depths of our hearts, with all the strength of long-cherished convictions, we congratulate [taly that she, the beautiful, the unfortunate, has arisen out of her deepest woes, with her beauty heightened by happiness she who in the multi- tudinous procession, the grand progression of history,has herself twice led the van, has been twice the parental core whence Bowed to all civi- lized humanity currents of creative thought, of inventive power. That primary form of freedom, national independence, theprerequi- sit( foundation to all other freedom, Ttahj . having already achieved that, has dow made another stride forward, and a sure stride on the ascent to spiritual independence; for the planting of herself in the Eternal City will, more than could any other outward cause, tend to the eman- cipation of her men and her women from their long, soul-darkening servitude to a now unspiritualized and a self-worshipping church, a church which fattens on the ignorance of men and starves on their knowledge. By a two-fold subjection, first to foreign mastery through infernal dissensions, and then to household mastery through priestcraft, the moral and intellectual forces of Italy have been for ages paralyzed. Why has so gifted a people been so long debarred from using her gifts? Is it thai a i pie. especially a people so productive, aeeds long rests? Let as believe that, bj decree of providential law, Italy has been rest- ing, and that now. when the foremosl nations are all alert in the chase of knowledge, intent on liberty-bracing plans, aglow with spiritual aspi- ration, she wakes up, a giant refreshed by sleep, to do her share in illu- minating the upward path. Waked up she eertainlj is, ami as she has given, even in her enthralled state, occasional startling signs of dormant power, we feel sure that she will do her share with a new will, and in art literature, science, and polities resume a place akin to that she held four eentnrie> ago. In the rich heart of this renowned people lie eternal germs of human truth and human grandeur, and these will now !„• quickened into growth— into such healthy, prolific growth that Brutus, and Alfieri, and Cicero, and Michael Ajngelo, and haute, and ( JolumbuS, and VicO, and Galileo, and Savonarola (what a compan\ !) ^ill f,.,.| tin Lr mighty souls expand in their blest abodes, and their majestic countenances flash with patriotic ecstasy, as their vigilant spirits shall perceive, in the near future, their peers arise in the flesh to purify, to embolden, to uplift, to enlarge their countrymen. For enduring good, for solid improvement, physical and intellectual, and , peciallj moral, there is in free thought and free speech a potency which is incalculable, incommensurable. The vast arena of freedom [taly has now opened for herself. Hera are henceforth the strenuous Boul-strengthening conflicts; for, a certain plane of free vemenl 78 UNITY OF ITALY. once reached, and the energies of men are redoubled, freedom enjoying the superlative attribute of ever straining upward towards more free- dom. Most respectfully yours, George H. Calvert. FROM FRANCIS LIEBER, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND PUBLIC LAW IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE, N. Y. New York, Jan. 10, 1871. Gentlemen : Indisposition prevents me from accepting your invita- tion, and illness alone could prevent me from joining you at the joyous celebration of the Italian Unity at length completed after many centu- ries of longing and of grief. How many and how bitter are the centuries from Dante to Cavour ! But how few the years from Cavour to Koine's enfranchisement, and the total extinction of Italian petty sovereignty ! In modern public law and for modern public aspirations petty sovereignties have always proved giant miseries. Now Rome belongs to Rome again, and Rome and Italy are for the first time one — free and equal. Whole and stately Italy may enter, not crippled, and without the loss of a limb, into the Sisterhood of Nations, whose sacred aim it is to preserve a dignified nationality, to develop further and further manly self-government and self-restriction, and to promote more and more in- ternational kindliness and the free exchange of thought and product. No one can wish joy to Italy more heartily than a native of that country which at this hour is grandly struggling for its own national life, unity, and safety. No one can congratulate the Italians more pro- foundly than a citizen of this country, and a teacher of its liberty, who knows how much we owe to the national elements in our constitution, and the unitary features of our national executive and legislature. None can wish more heartily joy to the Italians in 1870 than we Americans, who concluded our long and sanguinary contest for unity in 1865. Let us, Americans, whose lands and continent were thrice made known to our Cis-Caucasian race by Italian discovery, bid earnest welcome to this new nation of historic people, to whom we owe the re-beginning of culture, and who at last have invited the Pope to stand aside, that Rome might fulfil her modern destiny and become the na- tional Italian Rome. On the other hand, let the Italians not forget that, indirectly at least, they owe the fulfilment of Italian unity to the hero- ism of the Germans, bravely defeating those who, aiming at the lead- ership, even at the dictatorship of Europe, and wishing for the same in America, love to see their neighbors weak and marred — the Italians no less so than the Germans. Your sincere friend, Francis Lieber. LETTERS. 79 FROM HENRY C. CAREY, THE POLITICAL ECONOMIST. Philadelphia, Jan. K), 1871. Deab Sir: Until now I have hoped to acknowledge in person receipt of your kind invitation to participate in a public expression of sympathy with the Italian people upon their final emancipation from both Austrian and French control, and of congratulation on the ac- complishment of that union so long and anxiously desired by emi- nent Italian men, as the measure to which alone could they look for the establishment of freedom of thought and action for themselves, and of material and political independence for the nation at large. An unexpected demand upon my time will now, however, deprive me of that pleasure, and 1 can in this manner only express my most hearty concurrence in the action that has been so well proposed, remaining, very truly and respectfully, yours, Henry C. Carey. FROM HON. JAMES W. BEEKMAN, LATE SENATOR. New York, Jan., L871. My DEAK Sir: My heart is with' you in your patriotic desire to celebrate the Unity of Italy. The occupation of Rome as the capital of the new Kingdom is just and fit. Ten years ago, I was present with you at a great gathering of New Xorkers, who assembled on the 17th February, I860, to "give timely expression of sympathy from the people of the Unite. 1 States with the people of Italy in their struggles and hopes for freedom." WV resolved, among other things, " that ecclesiastical government in secular affairs is destructive alike of freedom of conscience, inde- pendence of thought, and puiiu of religion, and that the advocacy of such a government, in whatever quarter, should be disavowed by American citizens." Among the speakers were General (then Profes sor) <). M. Mitchell, the astronomer, who has since given his life for bis country. God, said he, never formed Italy lor slaves; he called upon the Italians to strike for freedom, ami prayed God to grant them success. His prayer has been heard, and after ten Long years we see Ltalj \\>->-. Tbe chairman quoted the words of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, Hughes, that "Catholics, as such, have no politics they are \'v>- to Note on all occasions as each man chooses/" Rev. Drs. Bellows and Henrj Ward Beecher spoke for Italy, and Charles Kin-, Presidenl of Columbia College (no* deceased), warmly declared thai -'if Italy were united she would soon he free." I rejoice to have He- privilege of being presenl at the celebration of these triumphs, so long waited for. No man should forget thai the 80 UNITY OF ITALY. Csesarism which has strangled liberty in France, has been imitated at Rome. The recent council was assembled to get rid of Councils in future, and in establishing Infallibility, to consecrate by the sanctions of religion the idea of imperial rule. The empire has fallen in France ; the Syllabus revives it at Rome over the entire Catholic world. I remember attending an educational convention in 1 850, and that the Catholic members complained exceedingly of the injustice they suffered in being suspected of illiberality. The doctrines of the Sylla- bus were then regarded by Catholics in America as detestable, and the addresses now signed in every Catholic Church would have been indig- nantly spurned by the fathers of the very men who now adopt them. The present doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is, that the Roman people have no rights. Against this I hope to join you in pro- testing. Very respectfully yours, James W. Beekman. FROM HENRY JAMES, ESQ. Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 8, 1871. Sir : It will not be in my power personally to attend the proposed meeting in New York, in honor of the completion of Italian Unity ; but it has my heartiest good wishes for its success. I confess, however, that I rejoice in the event you celebrate more for its universal than its particular bearings : or because it so effectually stigmatizes the pretension of any visible body of men to constitute the church of God and authoritatively control the religious thought and life of the world. The Pope was the only formidable ecclesiastic in Europe : the only one by whom the interests of spiritual religion were ever seri- ously compromised. And now, by the unification of Italy, and the re- duction of his temporal sway to a level, essentially, with that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, religion re-enters into the domain of the pri- vate conscience universally, or becomes publicly divorced from sacer- dotalism and identified with men's familiar interests. No doubt some crazy Presbyterian, Episcopal, or Baptist brother may always be found ready to calumniate an opponent in behalf of what he deems " the faith." But the Pope is the only clergyman in Europe who believes so little in the power of " the faith " to command men's spontaneous respect, as to invoke the aid of mercenary bayonets. And now, thanks be to God, no more bayonets offer themselves to his invocation ; the claim of '* Di- vine right " being henceforth as effectually annulled in the ecclesiastic sphere as it has long been in the civic. It is clear that no man has a divine right to anything he does not LETTERS. M possess 01 anything he has ever lost. For, surely, if his right were di\ ine in either case, the divine power would never prove unwillingnor unable both to gratify his cupidity and obviate his disappointment. There is no semblance of divine right, indeed, for any man. or anj body of men, except to be decent— that is, to live cleanly, to love mercy, and walk humbly before God. And nothing, on the w bole, can be so unbecoming to the claimant of a divine right, and so utterly fatal to his respect among sensible men, as idly to shriek over the inei Ltable, or to spend hisdays in feebly blasphe- ming the benignant Providence, by whose irresistible might all proud things an- being so rapidly abased, and all humble things exalted. For now. at last, the voice that never deceives the voi< f the Chief Shepherd himself—is becoming spiritually audible in the universal con- science of men; and the feeble bow-wows under which so many of our drowsiest sheep-dogs have been so long trying to muffle its world-wide scope, and diminish it to a mere ecclesiastical whine, signifying nothing, will have no more power to defeat its majestic reverberation in the heart of the race than the bleat of a sheep or the bray of a donkey has to degrade the harmony of the spheres, ami perplex tin- orderly vicis- situdes of nature. 1 remain, Sir, with much respect, yours, Henry J ami - FROM PROFESSOR GEORGE I'. FISHER Sale College, New Eaven, Jan. LO, 1871. Gentlemen of the Com.: I regret that my engagements arc such as ,,, prevent me from being present at the meeting in New York which has been called to express the sympathy thai is generally felt bv the American people in the occupation of Home as the capital of the united Italian people. 'II,,. force of national feeling long ago threw off thai Control which the Popes had exercised in the political ami secular concerns of the European people,,, and the pretensions on which thai control rested u .. n . long since tacitly abandoned. The unification of [talj is another manifestation of the national patriotic feeling, which is disposed to cou fine ecclesiastical rule within its proper boundaries, and which tonus mi essent Lai feat ure of modern «-i\ Lli/.at ion. It will hardly be claimed that the Pope has a personal proprietorship in the Roman territory. It is difficult to see what righl ol ui\ ,-:,n 1 1 ■ i up in his behalf which can stand againsl the set tied di taction of his subjects with priestlj government, the i ious mi thai belong to it, and the political nece rity that prompts the Italian nation to po itself of its ancient capital. 82 UNITY OF ITALY. The evils of the temporal government in reference to Italy have been set forth by none more forcibly than by Roman Catholics, like M;i- chiavelli; to its evil consequences to the Catholic Church itself, his- tory — in particular the history of the age of the Reformation — impres- sively testifies. I am very truly yours, George P. Fisher. FROM PROF. ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, D.D. Union Theological Seminary, }_ New York, Jan. 5, 1871. J My Dear Sir : I shall have to deny myself the pleasure of address- ing that great mass of people who, I am sure, will crowd the Academy of Music, a week from to-day, to cheer on the good work of Italian unification. But I hope to be there, in fullest sympathy with the object you have in view. The question before us is really a very simple one, to be settled by an appeal to principles with respect to which the American people are well agreed. No matter what may be thought of Pius IX. as a man, as Pope, or as potentate ; and no matter what may be thought of the Church over which he presides, — its rites, its dogmas, or its historic errand. The Italian peninsula is, as Cod made it, a geographical unit. The Italian people, after centuries of dismemberment, are now once more a political unit. And it only remains to bring these two units to- gether. The Italians must have Italy, the whole of it, and especially the heart of it. Italy without Rome would be no better than Greece without Athens, France without Paris, Great Britain without London, the United States without the District of Columbia. A free, strong nation may welcome as many religions and as many churches as may choose to come under its flag; but no nation permits an independent civil authority within the limits of its jurisdiction. As mere spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope might set his chair where he pleases — in Rome, in London, or in Washington. But when he lays claim to temporal sovereignty, in Italy or anywhere else, he proposes an imperium in imperio which no nation on the face of the earth would endure, unless compelled to. As temporal sovereign, the Pope has historically no hold on Italian territory outside of Rome, at least in the neighborhood of Rome, but by right of conquest. It was surely by no vote of Italv that the Ex- archate of Ravenna was given to the Pope. Pepin, a foreigner, had just wrested from the Lombards what he made over in 755 to Stephen III. and the so-called Republic of Rome. If it be claimed that Rome LETTERS. at any rate became Papal territory of its own free choice, then, of course, i: will have to be conceded that the Roman people had a right to transfer their allegiance to Victor Emmanuel. This they have done. But. even had there hem no plebiscite, the annexation of Rome to Italy, if annexation it may be called, is a political necessity which justifies itself. England once had a good foothold in France, hut lost it, of course, just as soon as France got strength enough to take and hold her own. As temporal sovereign, the Pope must Lnctir all tem- poral risks, [f he accepts what force has won for him, lie must be pre- pared to give up what force may rend away. But we are told, that temporal sovereignty is Indispensable to a pro- per discharge of the spiritual functions of the Papacy. What. the. shall he said of those first seven hundred years during which the Bishops of Borne had no temporal sovereignty? And what becomes of the solemn declaration of the divine Founder of our religion, that his "kingdom is not of this world ? " In Rome, under the old Em- pire, eighteen hundred years ago, and for more than two hundred years thereafter, the Christian church asked only to be let al She de- sired no temporal dominion. All she wanted was fullliberty of speech, and full liberty of worship. Such Liberty is not merely possibh in Rome to-day, hut is expressly guaranteed by the Italian Government. Whether as Bishop of Rome, or chief Bishop of all Latin Christendom, Pope Pius IX. has no one to molest or make him afraid. In the exer- cise of his proper spiritual functions, he is subject to ao restraint what- ever « CTuder these altered circumstances there is ao demand, ami therefore no excuse, fur a temporal sovereignty no Longer needed, as '""•'' ■' '"ay have been, in order to the security of spiritual rights, and the discharge of spiritual duties. And if the Roman Catholic Churob wereaswiseas it once was, it would hasten to accommodate itself to the new order of things. The I', pe would put himself promptly at the head of his hundred and ninety-five millions of Catholic Christians, as their spiritual father and champion, and so pour new strength into a church whose career hitherto has been one of the greatest marvels of hi tory. 11,11 whatever the Pope may do or not do, there is hut one path for [tal J '" " ;,lk bn, and hut one word for us. as Americans, to utter in ber hearing. She must crown the edifice of national independence and unity h.N returning to her ancient Capital; she must establish religious Liberty for Catholics and for all men; and we must shout her welcorai to ill' great family of < !hristian States. yours \er\ I, ins, Rosw iii I >. Hitchcock, 6 84 UNITY OF ITALY, FROM FREDERICK H. HEDGE, D.D., PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Cambridge^ Mass., Jan. 5, 1871. Gentlemen of the Com. : It is with deep regret that I find my- self compelled to forego the satisfaction of attending the proposed meeting in New York to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity. My heart will be there with its warmest sympathies. No political event has occurred in our day whose bearing on the future of humanity is likely to prove more momentous than the over- throw of the temporal sovereignty of the Bishop of Rome, an act initi- ated by United Italy reclaiming her ancient capital, and consummated by an overwhelming vote of the Roman people. For more than six centuries — nominally for a much longer period, if we allow the claim of the Carolingian donations — the Pontiff of Rome has been not only the head of the Latin Church, but the secular ruler as well of a large portion of Central Italy. The " Ecclesiastical State," as determined by Innocent in the beginning of the Thirteenth century, extending from sea to sea, and dividing the peninsula, has, until the last year, prevented the consummation of the movement, in- augurated a few years since, of Italian Unity. It has been an undis- solved lump in the flood of a new-born national life. The national life has at length prevailed over ecclesiastical resistance ; the spiritual and the secular are relegated each to their respective spheres, and the Bishop of Rome is no longer king. The nearness in time, the almost immediate succession of this event to the declaration of Papal infallibility, is solemnly significant. On the 13th of July, that audacious dogma which, however it may be qualified and softened to appease the oppugnance and to win the assent of intelligent minds, to the multitude of ignorant Romanists means that the Bishop of Rome is the special confidant of Deity — that, as In- nocent III., at a time when Christendom was just emerging from the shadow of the dark ages, claimed, he is, if less than God, yet more than man; on the 13th of July, I say, that dogma was proclaimed, and on the 15th a Avar began which, by taking from Rome the support of French bayonets, permitted the entrance of Italian patriots, and con- summated the Papal Catastrophe. Within two months of the time of his assuming the prerogative of God, the deluded old man, like another Nebuchadnezzar, was deprived of his throne. When twenty-four years ago, on the death of Gregory XVI., the pres- ent incumbent of the Papal office, then Cardinal Mastai Ferretti, re- ceived the votes of the electoral college, he began his career as a liber- al and reformer. An immense enthusiasm attended the first years of his LETTERS. administration. The repeal of every oppression, the bestowal of wished-for freedom, was expected from his reign. In 1848, when Europe, from North to South, was convulsed with revolution, he seemed for a while to embrace the popular cause. Eissubj. cts were promised a < '.institutional Government. I recall the demonstrations of popular de- votion which I witnessed in Rome hi those days of intense expectation, •• waiting for the manifestation of the son of < lod." I recall the shouts of frantic applause which greeted the Pontiff's appearance in front of the Quirinal. Through twenty thousand voices spoke one mind and heart. That was the culminating point in the popularity of Pius IX. A change soon appeared in the spirit of the man. and a corresponding change in his policy. Toward the close of that year we find him a fugi- tive and an exile, escaping in disguise from his capital and seeking ref- uge in the neighboring kingdom of Naples. Restored to his throne and supported by foreign arms, the next tiling we hear of him is the edict a ffi rming the miraculous conception of the mother of Jesus, an absurdi- ty repudiated centuries ago by the better sense of the Church. And now. to consummate the reactionary course, and to crown the inglorious record of a Christian bishop of the 19th century — now. after nearly 2,000 vears of Christian illumination, the heaven-daring doctrine of I'apal Infallibility ! Surely, the time was ripe for wresting the sceptre of Becular rule from • so incompetent to discern the signs of the time and the needs of mankind. Tie- spiritual subjects of the Pope raise the cry of foreign invasion and complain of spoliation. Hut the people of the Ecclesiastical States are Italians l,\ choice and the heart's allegiance as well as by race. They encountered no foreign foe, hut welcomed their compatriots and brethren in the armies of Italy : and we Americans believe in the right of a people- to choose their own rulers; we believe in the righl ofre> >- lutiou when needed to effectuate thai choice. The people of Rome nave chosen. I can see no peculiar sanctity in the claim of the Pontiff to temporal rule on Italian soil. The temporal power of the Popes, \\ lien traced to its origin, is ton ml to be based in part, like most dynasties, on forcible seizure and partly on fraud. Pretended donations of < ionstan- tine, forged " Isidorian Decretals," grants by Prankish monarch t of what was not their own, the questionable gifts of a Tuscan Countess, an imperial testament claimed to have been found among the baggage of a German soldier, -these constitute no indefeasible right. And tic if I understand it- history, are the '.'rounds on which the I'apal boa eignty rests. Inevitably the future character of tin- pontificate will l»- essentially modified by this event : and any change which that office maj und< i can bardl) fail to he a change lor the better, a change in favor of truth 86 UNITY OF ITALY. and progress. The anti- christian tradition of hierarchical rule will be found to have received a decisive check. Of this deserialization of the papacy Italy reaps the timely fruit. An ancient nation, rich in immortal memories, rich in new-born prom- ises, a nation which once led the van of social and intellectual culture, the nation which gave to this continent its first authentic discoverer, is put in possession of her former domain, and takes the place which belongs to her of right among the nations of the earth. A palingenesia in which the friends of humanity and the lovers of heroic "virtue the world over must rejoice ! We of this hemisphere, which owes to her its historic existence, send greeting and congratulations to the land of Columbus, of Galileo, of Michel Angelo, and Dan.te. We welcome the reappearing star of Italian Unity, which vanished with Theodoric, and now emerges at last from its more than millennial eclipse. May the golden days of that potentate return to the nation which once gave laws to the world ! Frederick H. Hedge. FEOM GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, ESQ. Januarv 3, 1871. My Dear Sir : I am very sorry that unavoidable previous engage- ments out of the city compel me to decline the invitation of the Com- mittee to address the meeting to congratulate Italy Upon the completion of Italian Unity and the emancipation of Rome. M. Guizot well describes the Government of the late Papal States in saying" that it was " more intent on existing than acting, more skilful in eluding the dangers or necessities of the situation than in satisfying them ; " and the judgment of the Romans upon that Government is re- corded in the vote of virtual unanimity for its overthrow. Nor is it easy to see upon what grounds of public welfare or human progress the continuance of a political system was desirable under which one of the loveliest regions in Europe languished in unparalleled ignorance and wretchedness. It was a system which rested upon foreign bayonets and domestic degradation. It was a constant menace to the independence of Italy, and its tranquil removal by the uninfluenced action of the Italians themselves is one of the hajipiest and most significant events of the time. It is a peaceful revolution in the interest of constitutional liberty. Nor will any American seriously assert, what has been vaguely suggested, that any man whatever, because of his ecclesiastical position and relations, has a divine right to the political control of a people against their expressed will. And in this happy hour let us noi forget the brave men who for so long a time and in so many ways have faithfully served the great cause of Italian unity and liberty. Many an honored citizen of our own, like LETTERS. Maroncelli and Foresti, were exiles foi their patriotic devotion. There was Cavour, the greatest of Italian stat.-Mn.Mi, to whom our fellow-citi- zen, Mr. Botta, cherishing the traditions of his nam.', has offered so generous a tribute. There was Massimo d'Azeglio, one of the pm of men. There is Garibaldi, whose lit'.' has been one Long act of roman- tic heroism, the best beloved of Italian soldiers. There is Mazziui, with whose methods Americans have so often differed, but with whose hopes and aims for his country they have so sincerely sj mpathized. To Mazzini. who, sad and old, almost despaired of the future, and to all Italians who have longed for this day, lei us say : " Italians, we are Americans whose ways are not your ways, but we know that only in the tire of a faith like yours do old tyrannies melt, and we pray God to bless all whose hearts did not quail, and whose lives have been honor- ably devoted to the unity and liberty of Italy. ' But the event is more than Italian. The peaceful overthrow of the political Papacy by a Roman Catholic people is the sign of a significant change in the views held by many in that communion of the relation between Church and State. It is the harbinger of that belter day of which Cavour dreamed, when every Church shall be a free Church in a tie.- State by the security of religious freedom to every citizen. Italy, long dear to the scholar, the poet, and the artist, becomes precious to every man "who believes in human progress, as she takes her place in tic- great procession of nations which move, united and victorious, toward more perfecl liberty. Very t ruly yours, ( rEORGE WlLLIAM < !l RTIS. FROM BAYARD TAYLOR, ESQ. K i:\nktt-s. juare, Penn., Saturday, Jan. 7, 1871. _\h Dead Sir: 1 have delayed replying to your note until now, hop- ing that I mighf be able to attend the celebration of the completion of Italian Unity. Since, however, that will not be possible, lei me, at least, express my most hearty and unqualified concurrence iii the occa- sion, and my sympathy with the Italian people in their long- delayed hour of success. It is not alone the gain of Italy which i> commemo- rated, but of the principles of nationality, of popular rights, of human civilization. Three years ago I had frequenl opporl unitii - of observing throughout the Italian Peninsula, ti Venice to Naples, not onlj the strength of the general desire for unity, but also tin' courage, patience, and natural good sense of the people. I thinly believe thai th.y will prove themselves to he worthy of their new .-i\il and religious liberty, 88 UNITY OF ITALY. and that their further development, under these brighter auspices, will not disappoint any friend of Italy. As one whose aspirations have always included a free and Italian Rome, I share in the joy and gratitude of the liberated Romans, of their brethren from the Alps to the farthest cape of Sicily, and their friends throughout the world. Very truly yours, Bayard Taylor. FROM REV. ORVILLE DEWEY, D.D. Sheffield, Mass., January 2, 1871. ( Gentlemen : I thank you for inviting me to be present at the Acade- my of Music on the 12th inst. I cannot come to the meeting; but, at the same time, I cannot fail to expi-ess my hearty interest in its object. It is one of the compensations to humanity for the horrible war now raging in Europe, that it has given unity to Italy, and the possession of her own rightful capital. All our youthful studies, and all our reading in later life, have united to create an almost unequalled interest in that beautiful coun- try. Italy stands alone in our thoughts as the theatre of the grandest history and the most widespread influence upon human fortunes that the world has seen. And of all the cities in the world Rome alone stands, even in her decay, as " the Eternal City," and to no other has such universal pilgrimage been made from every land. Who can refrain from expressing his fervent sympathy with the rising Italian nation ? May the day soon come when a good government, and a people resolute for freedom and progress, shall revive in splendor, if not in breadth, the glories of the ancient time ! I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, yours, Orville Dewey. FROM H. T. TUCKERMAN, ESQ. New York, Thursday, Jan. 5, 1871. Dear Sir : I regret that absence from the city will deprive me of the pleasure of uniting with you in the American celebration of Italian Uni- ty. The annexation of Rome to the kingdom of Italy is but the logical and natural completion of the national independence inaugurated by Ca- vour ; and it has for Americans a special interest as consummating that freedom of Church and State wherein consists the integrity and pros- perity of both. Every thoughtful observer of the progress of humani- ty has long since recognized the truth that Christianity has a vital ele- ment of civilization and a supreme private interest, derives its sanc- tion from spiritual laws, and is limited and debased by civil restraints LETTERS. 59 and conditions. Moreover, ii lias Long been obvious thai thedegrading despotism of the Roman government has been a scandal bo the Church, anJ hence ii is apparenl that ecclesiasticism only hampers and perverts civil authority, while the latter is shorn of dignity and scope by being identified with priestly rule. In the interest, therefore, of religion as well as of political liberty, the severance of the temporal from the spir- itual power of th<- Church is demanded by justice, reason, and faith. That this great event should have been accomplished with so little violence, and that the mediaeval despotism which so incongruously interrupted the unity of Italy should have been so promptly and peace- fully set aside, is a subject of congratulation to all lovers of freedom and all who respect and sympathize with the rights of man and the cause of truth. It is desirable that wo. who have so fully tested the Uessings of toleration, and experienced to so large an extent the privi- leges of a free Church in a free State, should express to our brethren across the sea our earnest gratitude for their emancipation, and our best wishes for their national progress and prosperity, founded on constitu- tional liberty and law. Truly yours, Henry T. Tuckerman. FROM CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED, ESQ. Washington, D. C, Friday, Dee. 30, L870. DearSir: I regret that the state of my health and my engagements here will prevent me from attending your meeting. Without joining unreservedly in the popular cry for nationalities. I hold it a self-evident truth that when the formerly component parts of a great country wish to reunite, they should he allowed to do so with- out foreign interference. This is the present case of Italy, an. I every association and tradition points to Home as the capital of the re. structed nation. Not altogether unacquainted with Italy and the Italians. I have often thought that they were well allegorized in Hawthorne's romance — asuperficial exterior, boj ish, animal and sensuous,a .ureal soul within, requiring, however, a greal shock and crisis to develop it. This crisis Italy has passed through. A.fter ages of suffering, a series of fortunate events has delivered he- first IVo.u the German and then from the French incubus, and uow/iwd da se. I, has been a favorite theory vvith men of Teutonic origin that the Romance races, or Latinized Celts, are incapable of self-gover int. ItaK has now an opportunity of practically refuting iliis tl J. That she maj do so thoroughly is the earnest wish and hope of yours, verj truly. ,, Charles A.stoh Bristed. 90 UNITY OF ITALY. FROM CHARLES L. BRACE, ESQ. New York, Jan. 11, 1871. My Dear Sir : No meeting that could be held on matters relating to European politics should interest Americans so much, as this pro- posed to celebrate Italian Unity and the Independence of Rome. Twenty years ago I travelled in Piedmont, and had the satisfaction to call the attention of our Government and of the public to the re- markable political development showing itself— to many of our people for the first time — in the kingdom of Sardinia. Since then, we have all noted with deep sympathy the steady pro- gress in constitutional government made in that kingdom. We have hailed with joy the providential events which placed first North Italy and then Southern Italy under the guidance of the most liberal and energetic portion of the Peninsula, and finally have made Italy, with the single exception of Rome, a united kingdom under a Parliament and a Constitutional Monarch. We hoped also, with the Italian race, for the clay when the " capital of two civilizations " — the ancient centre and leader of Italy, a city which by its law, its religion, and art has stamped itself more deeply on civilized nations than any other city in the history of the world— might at length be the capital of a united and free Italy. The happy event at length came ; and Victor Emmanuel has the honor to be used by Providence in accomplishing that which neither Constantine, nor Alboin, nor Charlemagne, nor Barbarossa, nor Charles V. was ever able to effect — to unite Italy under one adminis- tration and government — and that a government by law and con- stitution. For the first time in nearly eighteen hundred years, Italy is One ; and for the first time in all its history, it has no slave and no tyrant, whether he be called Tribune, Consul, Dictator, Imperator or King. For such a grand event, Americans have reason to join .with Italians in solemn and grateful celebration. Believe me, with much respect, yours, etc. Charles L. Brace. FROM REV. CHARLES T. BROOKS. Newport, R. I., January 17, 1871. My Dear Friend : The invitation with which your Committee hon- ored me found me just leaving home for a fortnight's absence, and on my return I found that I had laid away the circular so carefully, I could not put my hand upon it so as to get the address, till I thought it too late to answer it ; — which, I see, might make it appear as if I LETTERS. 9] disregarded a reasonable request, and, more than that, were wantine in devotion to that cause of Liberty and of Italy which, as a scholar, a freeman, and once a pilgrim in thai memorable land, 1 have so deeply at lit art. And so I hasten now t.» say. what joy ii w.mM have given me to be at your gathering, which my uo1 being able to do was only my loss, and not yours, or [taly's, or Liberty's; and also to say with what a peculiar thrill of joy I hailed, in common with your exiled country- men, and all true Italian- and true Americans, the news of the wonder- ful Providence by which, so suddenly and quickly, the wind which, alas! blew such ill to another nation— such malignant seeds of death and misery — had blown such a blessing to yours, bearing on its wings the breath of freedom, and opening in the clouds such an unprece- dented gleam of hope. I felt how the electric wire that stretches across that great burial-field of the Campagna must, of its,. if almost, thrill to the heart of the Old City the sympathies of all the free world. T could dream that the dust of the long-mouldered forms of old heroes and saints and sages rose and reshaped itself into a cloud of rejoicing witnesses and. sympathizing spectators and fellow-actors in the drama of the new time. What a sensation it must be to find ourselves in Rorm reading the morning newspaper ! How must the fluttering of those fresh sheets seem like the fanning of the very morning's wings to those who had hitherto lived a seeming or semi-life in a prison hermetically sealed against the influx of the fresh and free air of human thought, inquiry, and intercommunication. I reflect what would be our condition if all at one,- the omnipresence of a free press were mad.' a blank ! I well remember the singular shock I received when, having a few years ago been called on to furnish a toast in Home for the American din- ner on Washington's birthday, and having innocentlj sent in some- thing about " [talj and America," I hail it retur I upon me, with the information that that would never , that the vers namine of Italy in such connection would he unpardonable. It ma\ seem strange — but the thought had not entered my head of the glorious memory of [taly having any dangerous meaning -for ii<» adopt By- ron's words) — '• Standing on Hut Etonian's grave, I could not, deem myself a slave." Sorrow indeed musl mingle with the j 03 of the free men of haU when, as they look upon their brethren in the hamlets and cities of '•''•'nee, fchey have to say, " Wba1 was death to you is life to us." Bui lei us hope thai oul of all that darkness an. I death will come, in tie- Providence of God, the morning lighl of a ness and nobler future 92 UNITY OF ITALY. to the life of the nations that name the name of Christ. In which hope, I remain yours and the Committee's, Charles T. Brooks. FROM JUSTIN M'CARTHY, ESQ. New York, January 7, 1871. Gentlemen of the Committee : 1 much regret that absence from New York will prevent my attending the meeting to celebrate the completion of Italian Unity, for which I have received an invitation through my friend, Professor Botta. I rejoice that the people of New York are about to have an opportunity of testifying their sympathy with the Italian people, and of congratulating civilized Europe on the sud- den and splendid realization of a hope so long deferred. The great Eng- lish orator, Charles James Fox, declared the destruction of the Bastille to be the grandest event by far that had occurred in the history of modern Europe. But surely our time has seen a much grander event in the accomplishment of Italian Unity. For this event has two mean- ings — it means not merely that Italy is free, but that the reign of ec- clesiastical rule in political affairs is at an end. All history teaches that the rule, of Church over State is demoralizing to the Church and disas- trous to the State. No nation ever exemplified this truth so strikingly and sadly as Italy was compelled to do. That the fatal error has at last been set right in that land and by that people so long believed to be doomed without hope to perpetuate it and to surfer by it, seems to be the most encouraging event that has happened in Europe during our time — I might almost say at any time — and one over which all classes and sects of men may equally rejoice. I am, gentlemen, faithfully yours, Justin McCarthy. FROM REV. W. H. FURNESS, D.D. Philadelphia, Jan. 12, 1871. My Dear Sir : While with all the world I recognize Italian Unity now accomplished as by no means the least of the illustrations of this grand historic period, I have no special word to say about it beyond congratulating you and your countrymen, as I do most heartily, upon a consummation so full of promise. The balance of power, destroyed by the fall of France, — will it not be restored in a far nobler than any po- litical sense by the rise of Rome ? Yours truly, W. H. Furness. Ill I I R8. FROM REV. SAMUEL OSGOOD, D.D. \i\\ Fork, Jan. I I. 1871. Gentlemen of the Committee: With great interest in the meeting of the friends of Italian Unity to-morrow, I comply with your request, and write a few thoughts on the relations of Rome and Italy. These names, thai have heretofore seemed the very antipodes of each, and offered only points of contrast in resped to history, institutions, ideas, and destiny, are now coming together in a remarkable way, and the future of tlir city of the Ctesars is apparently very much in tin- hands of the countrymen of Washington. The causes that arc bringing about this resuU are partly general, and growing out of the general relations between Europi and America, and partly peculiar, on account of the presenl attitude of the Roman Catholics, in this country ami in Koine It is as remarkable as it is evident that at this time, when America is at peace with the whole world, and quite committed to her doctrine of non-interference with the affairs of other nations, she is virtually con- sulted on all important questions by every great power in Europe; and public opinion here is actually intervening in all the conflicts of Chris- tendom, and. in fact, having a great deal to do with what is going on over the whole earth. Every intelligent reader knows how anxiouslj England watches the signs of the times here, and that her statesmen and people at large, with all their undoubted pluck, are very earnest to sec the Alabama question settled as quickly as possible, and that a President's message or a leading senator's speech sometimes makes far more excitement there than here. Stovit King William and cool Count Bismarck have confessed, in deeds as well as words, that Amer- ican opinion is a power in the present terrible war, while France has almost implored as to have compassion upon her wretchedness, and give our sympathy and judgment, as well as money ami arms to her defence. Russia has for years claimt d our republic as her neighbor on the northern frontier and ally, while Italy is evidently concerned at the endeavor to enlist American sentiment in behalf of the Pope's tem- poral power, and eager to have some demonstration on the other Bide. Our people are becoming aware of their growing influence abroad, audit is often amusing to hear what grand subjects verj plain people are discussing in railroad cars and wmntry stores, in markets and eat ing-houses, where a listener, without being an eaves-dropper, ma\ know what is -aid around him. At present, perhaps, the Pope is the most prominent subject, ami it is quite amusing to find so manj persons of all conditions suggest pleasantly, yet not wholly jocosely, that His Holiness had better come over here and live among us, where uobodj Wollld disturb him so Ion- ft S he let Other people alone, and where he might weai all his finest jewels and clothes with as much im] ity as 94: UNITY OF ITALY. the Grand Master of the Free-Masons. We are so much accustomed to religious liberty and the separation of Church and State, that we little appreciate the difficulties of the Pope's position, and are tempted to make light of the serious troubles that do undoubtedly surround the old Pontiff, and make his course a very perplexing one to himself and his most sagacious advisers. Yet our people are inclined to be very fair to- wards all nations and all men, and, perhaps, what is most of all needed now in regard to the Roman question is a fair understanding of the facts of the case. A few words with this bearing may not be useless, now that Victor Emmanuel has been to Rome, and been received by acclamation at the famous Quirinal Palace, whose saintly portraits and scenes suggest startling lessons to royal guests. The Roman Church appears to look with eager and almost confiding eye to our American opinion, and to claim our great republic as the champion of her fallen temporal power. This is no new temper on her part, for Rome has been, since the departure of Constantine from Italy for Byzantium, very much a foreign element in Italy, and has looked abroad for defenders. Her priesthood were regarded by him and his successors as safer rulers of the old capital than more military and secular lords ; and when the Eastern Empire was severed from the Western, the Roman clergy set their hopes upon the new Germanic Empire, and Charlemagne took the place of Clovis as de- fender of the faith. The office has been tossed about from hand to hand in our stormy and changing modern times, and Louis Napoleon was the last incumbent. Now the same rough German foot that has kicked away the underpinning of his .imperial platform has upset the Pope's temporal throne ; and the two actors who were trying to revive the parts of Charlemagne and Hildebrand have tumbled from the stage together. The question now is, Who shall help the Pope up and make him one of the kings of this world again ? King William is nominated for the post, and it is said that the Pope will crown him Emperor of Germany if he will treat the Pope after the manner of the Holy Roman Empire of old. But more hope is entertained of the good- will of Amer- ica ; and probably more money, and perhaps men, could be raised among Roman Catholics here for the purpose of reinstating the Pope than in Italy, Spain, Austria, or any of the nations of Europe. Per- haps, if we had a king who wished to make capital out of the zeal of h sect, or if some of our wire-pulling demagogues dared to do what they wish, there might be a proposition to lend the credit and power of the nation to the Papal cause. But there is no probability of any such effort, and the overwhelming majority Of our people, and the whole drift of opinion here, are setting in the other direction. Our America is quietly forming her convictions of the case before hei*, and preparing LETTERS. 95 to say her mighty word on the situation. Our people are passing judgment upon the strange development < >t" tin- ultramontane spirit here in its assault upon our school system, and its attempt to introduce the priestrj power into politics, and to give to an exclusive church and its wily coadjutors the prestige of a foreign court and throne. It is no secret that tins disposition is winning condemnation from not a few nominal supporters, and we have the elements of a significant move- ment among American Catholics in opposition to the ultramontane extravagance and assumption. It is r\ i dmi that the present issue bet ween the King of Italy and the Pope is uot a new onej but merely a part of the old issue of 1861, when so large a portion of the Papal States was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. The Pope lias never, indeed, acquiesced in this annexation, and the R an Catholic Church organs everywhere claim all of the old Papal territory as the patrimony of St. Peter by right of a thousand years' possession. The question between the King and the Pope, therefore, becomes a part of the history of modern tunes, which turns upon the rise of new nationalities upon the domain of the old mediaeval dynasties. In one sense the Italian King has been more Liberal to his new provinces than other monarchs have been, for he lias consulted tin- people themselves as to their desire, ami there seems tu be no doubt that the provinces annexed in L861 followed their own decided choice — a choice that was not offered by Russia, Prussia, France or England, to the territories and people that these powers once absorbed into their rising national life. So [taly is simplj following the spirit of modern history, in gathering her people together under one language, name, country, law, and association. Her nationality si s to be a fad ac- complished, and besides the ancient association, and the honor that lie- longs to the united nation, the new powers of business and finance greatlj strengthen the nationalities. A traveller is struct with the facl of the rise of commercial idea.-, and the prevalent com id ion among an impor- tant class of the common | pie of tin- superioritj of industry to the old rule of beggary, and the remarkable interesl in all books and schools that give instruction in the industrial arts and sciences. No man can go through Europe, with his eyes open, without seeing thai business is becomings great nationalizing power everywhere ; thai it is not merely the German na , bul German business, thai is bringing the old < rermanie empire back t<> life, under leaders w bo are great mer- chants a- well as great statesmen and soldiers; thai the Italian-, ion. are determined to do business together <>n their magnificent domain, and thai commercial powei as well as national pride rolls on to victory upon their wonderful chain of railroads, which, in some respects, are remarkable as am in -Christendom. The con srcial spirit in [talj 96 UNITY OF ITALY. is at strife with the mendicant spirit, and in too many cases mendi- cancy and the church representatives are very nfueh the same thing. Rome itself is a nest of beggars, and the odor that attaches to them is not the odor of sanctity. Now it is clear that the question between the Pope and the King of Italy, is a part of the question of the development of Italian nation- ality and as such it is in a great degree a local matter, with which we, as a nation, have little to do. It belongs to the politics of Italy, for as temporal prince the Pope is like any other prince, and is to look out for his own affairs. Of course we, as Americans, cannot help having an opinion of our own upon the subject, and so far as the Italians are carrying out the natural development of their race and do- main, our sympathies must be with them. We cannot bui, see that Rome, under the Pope as King, is not oidy a kingdom within their national kingdom, but that it is a foreign kingdom, not by any means independent, but wholly dependent upon foreign arms, whether of Austria, or Spain, or France. The United States could not for an in- stant allow such a foreign power to intrench itself within our territory, and if Brigham Young, or any other religionist, good or bad, should bring a squad of foreign troops to his support against our flag, chat moment the whole nation would turn upon him, and tread his power, and perhaps himself, under foot. Of course the American people know very well that the Pope claims his temporal power under spiritual sanction, and professes to rule in the name of God, and as the vicar of Christ. My impression is that our people on the whole have no disposition to interfere with this purely spiritual power; we are willing to leave him to settle that matter with his own followers. The political question is between Ital- ians, and the religious question is between Roman Catholics. As Americans we cannot take the Roman Catholic position — that tempo- ral power belongs essentially to the Pope, as such, or to any other Christian minister ; and our Roman Catholic neighbors must not ex- pect us to take their stand on this subject. They may, indeed, expect all fair-minded Americans to protest against bigotry and oppression of every kind, and to wish to see justice done to all religions and their representatives. We need not spend many words in proving that, as Americans, we have no idea of engaging in any anti-papal war, either of arms or of words, and our American principle is to give full liberty of opinion to all churches and sects. It is evident that of late the Roman Catholic Church has not been winning new favor among us, and visi- ble censure lias fallen upon all Protestant Churchmen who give signs of facing towards Romish ways; yet it is quite as clear that there is no great disposition to assail Roman Catholics, either with clubs or with 1. 1-1 I I RS. curses, and that they are taking their place with the other branches of the Christian Church in America. In whatever sympathy we choose to give to the Italian people in their struggle for unity, and their desire to win to their union the onlj city whose name unites all sections by its history and promise, we ma\ a> well distinctly show that we do not believe in persecuting the Pope and his priesthood for their religious opinions, and perhaps we had better let all hard names alone. The recenl extreme position of the Vatican can be controverted well enough without dooming the whole Romish church to perdition, and the denial of the Christian name to Roman < latholics is precisely the course that their leaders desire, as like- ly most to provoke resentment and to contradict the most obvious les- sons of church history. Archbishop Manning expressed to me his greal satisfaction at the rancor that called his Church Anti-christ, and thought all who were not Roman Catholics were hound to call Home Anti-< Ihrist. A high official of the Jesuits in Rome expressed to me the same opinion, and was unwilling to allow that there could be different branches of the church, more or less pure. We see at once the shrewdness of this \ iew . for if a man calls the Roman Catholic Church Antichrist, he must be much puzzled what to do with the history of Western Christendom for a thousand years, and he finds himself at last playing into the hands of the ultramontane party, by accepting the Roman Church as within Christendom, with risk of accepting its exclusiveness. Our American principles of toleration lead us rather to look upon Rome as the old centre of Latin < hristendom, ami to regard the Pope as head bishop or patriarch of the Latin churches and of all who adopt the Latin rite and rule, and to make us wish to have him to do his lest for the people under his charge. Any other course forces us to choose between the two horns ofabad dilemma, and either to say that the Pope is Christ's only representative 0,1 earth, which we cannot do; or that he is Anti- christ — indeed, the \,-\-y Satan — which we cannot do. Italy especially needs his care, and candid travellers generally \\<\ that the Pope has lost much influence there bj mixing tip so main political feuds with religion. If Pius IX. had begun his career of reform as a liberal Pope, ami left the sceptre of civil affairs to compe- tent civic powers, his earlj career might not have been so sadl) in contrast with his later doings, and the dreams of his vonih illicit have been fulfilled by the labors and fruits of his old age. Bui take him as he i . lie- American people do not wish ill to him or desire to see him trampled upon. Strip him ol the sceptre and crow u, and he is still the pastor of the largest organized bodj of professed Christians on earth; aid our respeel for our fellow-citizens, the millions of Roman < latholi in America, should move us bo desire to have their feelings towards 98 UNITY OF ITALY. their venerable bishop respected in every reasonable way. We desire to have all religious edifices, institutions, and works of art sacredly pro- tected against robbery or perversion, and we shall be glad to see the Pope and his clergy more earnest and effectual in rebuking the vices and sins of the Italian court and people, when more purely spiritual relations are established, and Christian influences take the place of French guns and Papal dungeons. Surely no man who has seen the charities of Europe in hospitals and on the battle-fields, or read the devout literature of Christendom in our day, will deny to the Latin Church its place and work within the kingdom of God and the family of men. It seemed to me very strange, a little over a year ago, that the Italians, especially the intelligent men and a considerable portion of the common people, had so much hostility to the Pope and his priesthood, whilst the Roman Catholic religion in itself had so much respect and affection, so much more regard surely than any other faith and worship. In Florence and Milan caricatures were seen in the stalls and shop- windows such as would not be issued in America against any religious body, and siirely would not be tolerated in New York. A professor of the Propaganda at Rome told me that the lawyers ami physicians of Italy generally were against the Church; a fact strongly in contrast with the state of things in England, where those professions are so gene- rally good friends of the Church. The cause of the opposition is undoubt- edly partly on grounds of free-thought, but more on account of disgust at ( ifl'ensive temporal power. The Pope himself seemed to me to be person- ally very popular in Rome as the pastoral head of his church, and able to exercise greater influence as such than as a temporal king. My impres- sion was that the people of Rome wished him well, and did not desire any revolutionary agitations against him, and probably on that very account more readily acquiesced in the union of Rome with the consti- tutional kingdom of Italy. In this issue the Italians are but carrying out the spirit of their master minds, from Dante, the father of their literature, to Gioberti, their best recent philosopher, and, like Dante, a Catholic devotee. Italy still repeats in her rising monuments and statues to Dante his reproach to the temporal ambition of the Popes : — " Ah, Constantine ! to how much ill gave birth, Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower Which the first wealthy Father gained from thee." It is. perhaps, amusing in so obscure a man to say it, but I will say that I left Rome with a feeling of kindness for the Pope's person and character, whilst it became clearer to me that he had departed from the faith and order of the primitive church, as shown in the catacombs and LETTERS. 99 early monuments of Christian Rome 3 and was bent on confirm i ng the errors and superstitions which the monkish age had introduced into the church, which was Apostolic and Catholic before it was Roman. In return for his blessing, 1 presume to give him that of an humble minister of an American branch of the Church Universal, and to wish him health and peace and the wisdom needed in this emergency. We cannot expect him to anticipate innovation or invite invasion, but can ask him to see when the time has come for him to meet the issue of Providence and the age, and to restore an apostolic patriarch and chinch to the world, which has so long been disgusted with the spectacle of a feeble and in- triguing monarch and an ill-governed and mischievous State. It is well for ns at this time distinctly to declare that Home pre- eminently belongs to Christendom, and that in the changes that are to bs made in her administration all odious restrictions should be removed, all needless offence to religious convictions should be avoided, and the treasures of art and monuments of religion, which all ( Jhristian nations have in some measure, contributed to the eternal city, should be held generously for the instruction of all travellers, for the edification of the whole Church, and the good of mankind. Italy and America have stood in history together for nearly four cen- turies, since one Italian opened this continent to Europe and another Italian gave it a name. America is likely to return the service, and give to Italy liberty of conscience, and free Rome from the bandage of ages. fours respectfully. Samuel Osgood. FROM REV. C. A. BARTOL, D.D. Boston, dan. 20, L871. Dear Sir: The meeting in New York came, before your letter, to stir ni" with its report as nothing beside has lately done. It shall have at least the echo of my thanks. The old idea of a nation was. that it rises, flourishes, ripens, and de- cays, like a summer growth in the field. But a nation is claiming now to be something immortal on earth, [t asserts the privilege, so long thought peculiar to the private soul, of a new birth. How many an swers to the question, — Of whal is this the age? Is it not the age mid day of regenerated nations? Witness America, Germany, and now [taly, even whose ancient glory shall be outshone and shaded \>\ lier coming renown ! Russia shall be added, if she follows her own lead o| emancipation to the end. Of Spain and France civil and religious free dom is yet in travail ; yel the suffering mus< issue in a nobler humanity brought forth. Met ntime, all-hail from the Western R 'public to the Italian pe tple, 7 100 UNITY OF ITALY. putting itself in the van of Europe again with its rekindled torch ! Do not Italians all over the globe, in a fresh spirit, with uplifted eye, share their country's resurrection-joy ? The United States were recreant not to respond. We love not our neighbor till we love his liberty like our own ; and unless we love it in him, we do not love it at all. Let us labor for it always and everywhere, — prays your 0. A. Baktol. FKOM. REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. Boston, Jan. 17, 1871. Dear Sir : I congratulate you on the magnificent expression of opinion in behalf of the Unity of Italy, at your meeting at the Acade- my of Music, Jan. 12th. Sitting where I could see the whole audi- ence, I felt the thrill of its enthusiasm. There was a grand fulness of conviction and feeling which bore us all up ; and if, instead of your excellent speakers, there had been poor ones, or none at all, still the meeting would have been an interesting and exciting one. And, good as the speakers were, one may still use the language of the old proverb and say, " The ears of the people were better than the lips of the preachers." This meeting (which I trust will be followed by many others) shows that the heart of America beats right on the great question of Italian Unity. In Italy, in Germany, throughout Europe, union and liberty must go together. Small and disunited States are the natural prey of tyrants and dynastic usurpers. As long as the Roman States cut Italy in two, so long an impediment was in the way of the progress of her people. With Unity and Independence will come more of freedom, education, and progress. Let us hope that the hand of the foreigner has been finally and forever taken from her throat, and that henceforth she can freely breathe her own divine air, and expand into her own beautiful life. Many of the Roman Catholic partisan writers object to this great consummation, and in the supposed interest of their church woidd deny to the Roman people the right of deciding for themselves how they should be governed. They lament the fall of the clerical govern- ment in those States, and seem to think that the Pope is badly treated by being deprived of his temporal sovereignty. But their arguments, when they condescend to use any, will not bear examination. No American citizen, receiving the traditions of our own institutions, and believing in the principles of the Declaration of Independence, but must admit that the only right to govern is the consent of the people who are governed. The people of Rome, with astonishing unanimity, and in a perfectly free election, absolutely rejected the Papal and LETTERS. I'M priestly government. It is said that they voted thus from fear of the Italian King. But what is the good of a priestly government and education during a thousand years, if it has not been able to produce better Catholics than this? Is this the result of Catholic teaching, that a whole community arc afraid to be the confessors and martyrs of their faith in the Pope and his sovereignty? If Catholic kings and nations treat their spiritual Head with this brutal injustice, as we are told they do, and if the Catholic faithful have not faith enough even to cast a vote in his favor, we may well say that the religion which has had the monopoly of their instruction for so many centuries has not been very successful. But no; — the Pope lias suffered no injustice. As a temporal monarch he shares tin- fate of all temporal monarchs ; he must submit to the popular judg- ment on his mode of government. He, with all other rulers, must submit to the great rule of modern democracy, which declares that every government derives its right from the consent of the governed. Again, therefore, let me congratulate you that our beautiful Italy is free and one. The home and nurse of such mighty nations, — the seat of such a majestic history,— the heir of such an immortal renown, — possessing the charm of so heavenly a beauty, rich in such a literature and art — she will now also, reunited, join the ranks of an advancing civilization, and contribute again her share toward the development of mankind. All American citizens who have the spirit of America in them, must rejoice over this great event and these noble prospects. Very respectfully yours, James Freeman < !larke. FROM BEV. O. B. FEOTHINGHAM. New York, January .">, 1871. Gentlemen: The announcement that a meeting will be held "to celebrate the completion of [talian Unity, and to express to United Italy the sympathy and congratulations of the American people on the emancipation of Rome, its occupation as the future capital of the nation, in accordance with the free vote of the Roman citizens, and the consequent establishment of civil anil religious liberty throughout the Peninsula," gives the heartiest satisfaction, and I am honored by, the requesl to send a message to it. .May it be large and enthusiastic! M-V '' give voice to the intelligent convictions of thoughtful, earnest Americans who rejoice in the extension of the principles they honor, ami live in t bemseh es ! The European sentiment, lay ami clerical, the monarchical and the papal sentiment, each in sympathy with civil and religious absolutism, 102 UNITY OF ITALY. has expressed itself in words of indignation and condolence to the Roman Pontiff, protesting against the deeds we exult in, and bewailing the events we welcome. Now let the truly American spirit speak its word of cheer to the Italian people. Rome and Italy are inseparably associated in our thoughts. To most of us Rome is Italy, and Italy is Rome. Italians feel that Italy with- out Rome is incomplete. Romans feel that Rome without Italy is sun- dered from the source of her life. All interests render the restoration of Rome to the nation an imperative necessity. Italy and Rome share fortunes, and must live or die together. The unity of Rome and Italy is the first step towards the moral unity of Italy, and will be fol- lowed by others that must lead to the organic unity of the whole people. For centuries Rome has been the symbol of unity ; for centuries she lias endeavored to make herself the centre and seat of it. Pagan Rome was the heart of an Empire that aimed at bringing under one sway the diverse tribes and interests of the earth. Reducing the peoples first under subjection to its military dominion, it did its best to fuse them together by its organizing power and skill. The ruder nations were held by its discipline ; the more refined were educated by its laws. It struggled hard and not unsuccessfully to secure and perpetu- ate uniformity of speech, usage, legislation, privilege. It could collect all the gods beneath one dome, if it could not blend all worshippers in one confession. The great roads that i-adiated from the imperial city riveted to it the countries they traversed, and drew all regards towards the vast centre, which was hardly more the seat of the Empire than it was the Empire itself. History shows nothing so impressive in out- ward majesty, as that simple organization of government. But the unity thus created was purely external. It was military, geographical, administrative, not organic ; and consequently when it fell in pieces it left the people in a heterogeneous condition, without intelligent under- standing of their circumstances or of themselves. The result was dis- cord. Christian Rome, too, represented unity, and tried to effect it. The Church revived the imperial traditions, superadding to them the pow- erful combining element of religion. For centuries Rome has been the symbol of spiritual unity. But this was as artificial as the other. It was the unity of sheep in the fold, of fagots in the bundle. It was the unity of the few in formal bonds ; unity in church life, not unity in h a inn n life; unity in observance, not unity in faith and love ; unity as of a company dwelling under the same roof, not unity as of men and women respecting each other's rights, honoring each other's personality, advocating each other's interests, furthering each other's aims. It was LETTERS. L03 tli.' unity of tradition, nut the unity of man; a unity based on the theory that outside the ecclesiastical limits no unity existed or waspos- sible. Of course, such unity as this had no organic root and no vital force. It maintained itself by foreign powers. The withdrawal of the French troops showed that its enclosing walls had no foundations ; that its enclosing bond was a rope of sand. Now. at last, after immense effort and unspeakable suffering, and partly as the result of a great European convulsion, Italy is at liberty to assert herself. She seizes her opportunity ; she makes endeavor, with something like a good hope, after that truly national unity of which, thus far. she has exhibited the once fair, now ghastly symbol. At length there is prospect that the Italian people may become one, occupying their whole territory, possessing their ancient metropolis, enjoying harmony of law and administration, all the great liberties of conscience, thought, and speech, constitutional rights, social privileges, civil responsibilities, the immunities of citizens, the opportunities of men. The sword of the Emperor is broken. The crosier of the priest- is flung aside. The gates of communication are opened. The chan- nels of sympathy are clear. The King says to the Parliament : " Italy is free and one : it now rests with us to make her great and happy.' If the old regime has not quite exhausted the energy, stupefied the will, deadened the intelligence, discouraged the prodigious genius that so long swayed and glorified the earth ; if faith in ideas be still alive, if a glimmering of hope remains, if any spark of generous ambition still survive the terrible depression of the last generations, if mutual confidence be recoverable after the shock it has sustained from in- trigue and priestcraft, there would seem to be no good reason for doubting that Italy has before her a brilliant career. It is thought by many that the Italians accept happiness on terms too easy ; that they are surrounded by more temptations than they can resist : and may be induced again to lay down the burden of thought, and surrender aspiration at the summons of pleasure. If this be true now, it has not always been true. If it be true now, the reason of it must he sought in the influence, at once crushing and end \ating. of the institutions now passing away. The destruction of these, being effect- ed by exterior circumstances and not by interior revolt, reveals the las- sit im1< - they hav e caused. Tic- more need then that a strong people, who have discovered that in civil and religious liberty is peace and sai'etv , should reach out a hand of recognition and sympathy to their brothers across the sea; should address them in words of cheer, express joy at then opportu- nity, confidence in their ability to improve it, faith in their constancy, and hope of their success. 104 UNITY OF ITALY. Let America, out of her heart, say what she feels ; say it so loudly that Europe shall hear ; say it so emphatically that Italy shall be en- couraged to complete her unity, sure of the moral support of the Great Republic. Faithfully your servant, O. B. Frothingham. FROM REV. WILLIAM R. ALGER. Boston, Mass., January 9th, 1871. Dear Sir : To every American, to every lover of humanity, to every man who desires the prevalence of justice, freedom, truth, and light, the Unification of Italy, as exemplified in the recent occupation of Rome by her King, is an event hardly second in interest to any which has marked the present century. Millions of our countrymen appreciate the debt they owe, in common with the rest of the world, to the illustrious men of genius, and the immense services which have secured to the beautiful but long-oppressed country of Virgil and Cicero, Columbus and' Galileo, so unparalleled a glory. All these must rejoice in the fit ex- pression your meeting will' give of the sympathy, confidence, and en- couragement which, on this welcome occasion, America desires to send across the sea to Italy. No one of them all will rejoice more heartily than I. What a magnificent drama the Unification of Italy has been, moving through scene after scene, to the accompaniment of the thinking of her statesmen, from the happy prologue of Turin to the swelling close of the imperial theme in Rome ! What brilliant hours, what enviable hours have signalized the reign of Victor Emmanuel, in the friendship of ( favour and D'Azeglio, the celebration of the sixth centenary of Dante, the triumphal entry, in succession, of Naples, Florence, Venice, Rome ! May his future course be as judicious and successful as should be the course of one who is blessed with such patriotic counsellors ! And, under his liberal rule, may the Italian people gain all the liberty, enterprise, prosperity, personal worth, and public spirit which the American people gratefully wish for them ! William R. Alger. FROM REV. EDWARD E. HALE. Boston, Jan. 11, 1871. Dear Sir : The dying prayer of Jesus Christ is that all men may be one. His purpose requires a union of the divided States and commu- nities, which clash against each other in savage society. And nothing so distinctly proves the increasing ascendency of the spirit of the Gospel as the steady advance in which, in Europe and America, large nations LKTTER8. 105 have been made by the union of many little tribes. Thus England is made from the heptarchy : France from the broken tribes of Gaul; Spain from those of the Peninsula, and at last, Italy from the broken bits of mosaic which arc but just now fused into one. When one little fragment of Italy asks for the privilege of separating the north of that nation from the south, it asks for the privilege of standing in opposition to this regular advance of the Christian common- wealth. I understand least of all, why members of the Roman Church ask for the separation of Italy, that the temporal authority of the Pope may be maintained. As a student of church history, I remember many saints, who deserve that name, and received it from the Roman Church, who were bishoj:>s of Rome, and thus, in the hierarchy of that church, became fathers of the faithful. But since the bishops of Rome have been per- plexed by the petty administration of local political power, I do not remember any of their number whom the Church of Rome to-day would care to canonize, if their claims were submitted to her decision. This failure of the political Popes to come up to the Church's own standard of purity, illustrates the danger of entangling one of her spiritual ser- vants with the annoying responsibilities of temporal command. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, Edward E. Hale. FROM PROF. C. S. HENRY, D.D., LL.D. Litchfield, Ct., .January 11, 1871. My Dear Sir: Rome, the centre of an Italy One and Free ! — free at once from the absolutism that kept down both political and religious freedom by force of arms, — such, by a remarkable coincidence, is the two-fold significance of the event you celebrate. What a consummation ! What a step onward ! What a future for Italy and for humanity it opens to view, under the guidance of that Providence which is the genius of human history ! Let us have faith and hope. Ever, with hearty sympathy, faithfully yours, ('. s. Eenry. FROM PROF. BENJAMIN N. MARTIN. New York University, January 11, 1871. Dear Sir: It gives me sincere and greal pleasure to express mj cor- dial sympathy with your Committee, in their congratulation of the Italian people upon the liberty of R i, and the unity of ttaly. In vindicating the receni rejection, by the Romans, of the priestly governmenl which has so long crushed them, we advance do new or questionable principles. It has been well said, that ifyondinsed an 106 UNITY OF ITALY. Anglo-Saxon, deep down below all things else, you will find the con- ception of twelve men in a jury-box. It may with equal truth be said that if you dissect an American, you will find in the inmost chamber of his heart the principles of our immortal Declaration of Independence ; that governments exist to secure the God-given liberties of men, and that when a government fails to accomplish this end, it is the right of the people to alter it. That the Papal government has failed to secure the liberty of its late subjects, I think no man will deny. Nay ; not only has it failed to se- cure to them liberty of speech, of political action, and of worship, but its one aim has been to obstruct and to repress such liberty. In this oppressive aim it stands alone. Other governments have repress .eel liberty by a political necessity; this, by spontaneous impulse; others have restricted liberty ; this has totally denied it ; others have aimed to reconcile authority with liberty, and conciliate order with progress ; this holds no terms with liberty, and seeks no harmony with modern civilization. It maintains the most bald and odious form of tyranny — the absolute authority of a single despot over all the rights and all the liberties of the people whom he calls his. Now, whether the principle that affirms the right of altering such a government is true or not, it is certainly the American principle. We have recognized and proclaimed it too long to leave any doubt on that point. Whoever denies it, therefore, is no exponent of American sen- timent, and has no true idea of American freedom. He may be a Franco- American or an Irish- American ; but a true American he can never be. For that, he needs a heart that throbs in sympathy with the funda- mental principle of our freedom ; and if he is destitute of this, we can only say, in reply to whatever clamorous professions of democracy, with the bewilelered patriarch of old, " The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." Not only, however, is this the American principle, but it is the true prin- ciple of the State. In civil society men are equals. The rights of one man are neither more sacred nor less sacred than those of another. The humblest Jew whom Papal tyranny has locked up, night after night, his life long, in the Ghetto of Pome, has a conscience and an intelligence, the rights of which are as sacred as those of the Papal See itself; though this, no one of the thousand prelates recently assembled there was in- spired to see. Surely it is a nobler inspiration which teaches us to dis- cern the hatefulness of bondage, in whatever form, and which impels a wreat and free nation to say to those who have so long lain in chains, like the mighty master of us all — " Pise up and walk." In this sentiment, the American heart sympathizes with whatever people rises to throw off the yoke of an oppressive government, — with LETTERS. I»l7 Poland, with Crete, with Spain, with Cuba. It responds to the cry of " Ireland for the Irish ; " and it cannot understand why those who utter that shout with such apparent enthusiasm, should stand dumb when they hear the answering cry of " Italy for the Italians," or of "Rome for the Romans;" — nay, should begin, as soon as there is a question of Roman liberty, to clamor for a union of all the adherents of the deposed tyrant, to restore by force his odious despotism. Our principle is, moreover, the only just one in civil arrangements. It metes out impartial liberty to all. He who claims more for himself than he is willing to concede to another, is the enemy of all society — hostis humani generis. No man may justly claim authority over his fellow-men in Geneva because he is a Protestant ; nor in Rome, be- cause lie is a Catholic. I only add, that this principle of justice and equality is also the religious principle of society. That is religion which does to others as you would have them do to you ; which holds all rights of others sacred from invasion by our agency; which recognizes the sole dominion of God over the conscience; and which scorns to seek advantages for the truth by oppressing or outraging those who do not believe it. For these reasons I sympathize with those who celebrate the emanci- pation of Rome and the Unity of Italy. I rejoice that this auspicious e] i ange has taken place; and I recognize, with reverence, the hand of God in the stern and solemn providences by which the pursuance of the revolution seems assured. Once before, within our remembrance, did liberty dawn upon Pome; but at the call of the Pope, France invaded Italy and bombarded Rome. Now the deposed Pontill' proclaims him- self a captive in the Vatican; the perfidious Napoleon, who was Ids tool, sits a despised prisoner in Germany; and the Republic, which was so unfaithful to the claims of freedom, finds its own fair soil invaded and its own proud capital cowering under the bombardment of a triumphant foe. By judgments which awe the world, does Heaven secure the immunity of freedom. Alas! that the mills of the gods must grind so small to teach men justice. All-hail then to a reunited Italy! Too long have her sundered limbs lain, like the bones in the prophet's vision, lifeless and dry in the val- ley. At length bone has come to ii - bone, and her fair form stands before us, restored in all its fine proportions, and instinct with a new and vigorous life. May it last a thousand years ! Very cordially yours, BENJ \mi\ N. Maim IN. 108 UNITY OF ITALY. FROM PROF. TAYLER LEWIS, LL.D. Union College, Schenectady, January 17, 1871. My Dear Sir : The state of my health prevented my attendance at the late Celebration of Italian Unity, in New York. I wish to assure you, however, of my hearty sympathy in the great movement, and in the results it has already accomplished. In our own late fearful struggle the chief interest, to my mind, lay in the principle of nation- ality which it so plainly involved. The rebellion, had it been success- ful, would have divided us into a number of petty and ever-dissolving communities, cherishing narrow interests, hostile to each other, and constantly liable to be controlled by foreign influence. It would have reduced us, in fact, to a state of political anarchy far worse than that from which Germany and Italy have lately emerged. It is this prin- ciple of nationality which makes the three movements so much akin, and which will also make them stand out prominently in the history of the present century. It is one in which, as Christians, we may especially sympathize, because, whilst allowing the utmost freedom in the choice and form of government, it is so conservative of all that is highest in humanity. It is in perfect harmony with the spirit of our ancient Scriptures, so deeply underlying all true political philosophy. Cod meant that men should live in nations, each having something predo- minant in language, culture, institutions, and genealogical unity. This spirit of Revelation is as much at war with an ideal cosmopolitanism, on the one hand, as it is with the tendency to arbitrary political divisions or arbitrary political combinations, on the other. Both are alike op- posed to the realization of a true brotherhood in the whole human race ; the one by the destruction of the closer links that bind men together in families and nationalities, the other by the unnatural jealousies and strifes it ever engenders. It is in this light we may regard these three great movements of our times, as having an essential identity, however differing they may be in form. The Italian has a special interest for us in its classical associations, as also in its more direct connection with the cause of true religious liberty. Here, however, permit me to say a word or two, which it is hoped will not be deemed out .of harmony with the intent and spirit of your celebration. Nationality must be grounded on something organically predominant in ethnological relationship (I avoid the word race on account of its gross abuse), in language, in historical growth, and, let me not hesitate to add, in religious thinking and feeling. Our own nationality is gone — its reality is wone though the shadow may still remain — when we come to be re- garded, or to regard ourselves, as a colluvies gentium. We commenced LETTERS. 109 our political being as a true gens, a people of kindred blood direct l\ allied to one of the oldest nations in Europe. ' For the preservation of this, as something predominant, and to be kept predominant, we should earnestly strive, even as we seek to preserve a like national feature for Italy and Germany. At the laying, too, of our national foundations, there were certain civic and religious ideas which entered deeply into the. structure that has been built upon them. They have become in- corporated in the national life, and we cannot cut them out, or cauterize their outward marks, without inflicting a deadly wound. With the utmost charity, then, towards all dissentients, these formative ideas are to be maintained as essential to our political being, or as constituting us a distinct nation upon earth, with a distinctive national character. Especially are they to be maintained as against a system which may be described as one of direct antagonism, and with which aU compromising coalescence must be pronounced utterly hopeless. Toleration there may be, the largest liberty of indulgence, but no true social or national union between such warring elements. I need not say that I refer to the Roman hierarchy and the Roman theology as embracing the lately announced, though long maintained, Papistical idea. Of this it may be said, with the utmost fairness, and without any reference to its absolute truth or falsehood, that it is certainly out of all harmony with the in- stitutions established by our Protestant ancestors, and, to this day, more or less soundly, conserved among us. It may he thought that we live in an age too enlightened to be controlled by any such considera- tions. If so, then we must give up the idea of sovereign nationality; a tiling which Rome certainly will not do. We must abandon the idea of nationality at all, as distinguished from a loose cosmopolitanism, having no bond of historical sympathy, or with nothing to hold it together but i he impulses of masses and individuals. Rome would reduce usto'such a nationality, if we may give it the name, as most favorable to her own schemes; the atheist would favor it as the very expression of his anarchical ideas. We are not yet prepared for this in either aspect, and I. would there- fore venture to express a caution, which some things, in the unguarded feelings of such a meeting as \ oil have called, may make not w holly out of place. An expression in favor of Italian l : nit\ cannot well be given without speaking freely of the present condition of the Pope and the Roman Church. In doing this, however, there is certainly needed greal care, leal we be carried too far in the direction of the opposite, and, in Borne respects, far \\oi>e extreme. The day of Church and Shoe is gone. No true Protestanl Christian won hi wish to call it hack. All admit this, except those who wish to keep up the bugbear feeling against the present status of Rome in the minds of many, probably most Rinnan Catholic Christians, and very earnest and persistent efforts are made to create a reaction against it throughout Christendom. It seems to me wiser as well as more generous to meet this feeling and these arguments, than to ignore them. And while such considerations might be ill suited to an oral address at a meeting of triumphant friends of a cause, it is pos- sible they may be not unacceptable if printed for quiet reading in the book you say yon intend to publish. There is, indeed, a limit to the argument of right drawn solely from political geography and plebiscites; and the argument is feeble in pro- portion to the narrowness of the space to which it is applied. If there should be a dissolution of our own republic, the people of the whole republic wo\ild have something to say about Washington and its public buildings, whatever might be the plebiscite of the city, or even of the State of Maryland, and whatever might be said about natural boundaries and a natural capital. If the inhabitants of the Sixth Ward of Boston should vote themselves an independent republic, with the State House for their capitol, because it is within their limits, it would be treated as an absurdity. If Boston should do the like, it would be propoi-tionally less absurd, but would have little chauce for support or sympathy against the moral claim of Massachusetts to the city and its capitol alike. The twelve tribes of Israel built the temple, placing it at Jerusalem, making Jerusalem the see of their religion, giving to the city dignity, importance, grandeur, and wealth by their institutions, and their annual assemblings at their great feasts of the Passover and Pentecost. The people of Jerusalem and of .ludea, while, on the one hand, they derived honor and consequence and power from this condition of things, on the other, took these privileges with some consequent obligations. They took them in their character as a UREAT NATIONAL TRUST. I apprehend that little respcet would have been paid by the twelve tribes to any action of the people of Jerusa- lem or of dudea, taking the temple and the sacred spots and the priest hood to themselves, or proposing to abolish or banish them, whether they cast their action in the form of force at first, or of vote to he backed by force. Questions that may arise out of states of things at all analogous to these, are rather of moral claims than of what we call law, or even political right. International law, in its strictest sense, whether we call it ./us or Lex, Droit or Loi } Recht or Ge8etz, can fur- nish no absolute rule. Nor does history present a case parallel with that of Pome. Each case of this description is a law for itself, lis solution must depend upon the application of ethical considerations to all its peculiar circumstances. 112 UNITY OF ITALY. The apparent majority of those who hold allegiance to the Roman Church, — I greatly fear it is by no means so with all, — put their cause somewhat upon such considerations as those I have hinted at ; at least it is so with such writers and speakers as seem to have stopped to reason at all. They say that they are citizens of a politeia which ex- tends over the world, and which has had Rome as its capital, its sacred see, from the beginning of Christendom ; and that- Rome has been saved from extinction, and made what it is, — has been glorified and beautified, enriched and honored, by the contributions of Christendom, and given its title of the Eternal City, its St. Peter's and Vatican, its world-re- nowned buildings, its libraries, galleries, museums, schools and chari- ties by Catholic Christendom, not by Rome or Italy. They claim that the course of centuries have given to the cosmopolitan Roman Church a prescription in and to Rome, such as no body or corporation, local or national, civil, religious, or political, ever gained by lapse of time be- fore. They claim that the locality, whatever its limits, whether the walls of Rome or the ever-shifting and uncertain boundaries of a civil State, which is so fox-tunate as to enclose this capital of the ecclesiasti- cal world, is so unfortunate or so blessed, as they may choose to think it, as to hold it in trust. This is not all. They claim, further, that the proper exercise of the functions of the headship of the Church re- quires a temporal sovereignty, with an adequate extent of territory and population, and resources of wealth and strength ; and they say that the same time-honored prescription has given the Church this temporal sovereignty, with its territory and people. They say that this temporal kingdom is not the State of the Pope, but the State of the Catholic Church. I have endeavored to present this argument fairly. I know there is another argument, based on a claim of a kind of divine rigid to entire temporal sovereignty, with territory and population, having its sanction inforo conscientice, the unbelief in which is heresy, and the disallow- ance of which is sacrilege. But this is an argument I do not propose to meet, nor do I feel able to, if even I can understand it. I attempt only to consider the argument which tells on the world, and comes within the scope of mundane affairs. Is there not some mingling of fact with fancy, of history with ima- gination, of pious hope with actual realization, in the statements on which this argument rests ? Take first the most important branch of it, — the temporal sovereign- ty. How long and how continuously has the Pope been a sovereign ? Was not the bishop of Rome for ages a subject of an absolute State ': Was he not a vassal of successive sovereigns, in the feudal sense, for many centuries ? Is not the very idea of an absolute temporal sove- LETTERS. 113 reignty a modern idea, an idea the dale of whose origin we know ? And since the Pope has had a temporal sovereignty over I vine and a considerable territory about Rome, what bad this so vereignty been, in tart? Has it secured him independence in the exercise of his func tions ? Has it not been, for five centuries, a capital question of Euro- pean policy and strife, — which sovereign of Europe, whose battalions, whose bayonets shall hold the coveted prize ? Has it not been a ques- tion to be decided by Henry IV., Guizcard, Rienzi, successive Roman republics, the Constable de Bourbon, the French republic, the Allies, Napoleon L, Mazzini, the Austrians, and Napoleon III. ? How would it be likely to be, now and hereafter, if the Pope were to be reinstated in a temporal sovereignty over Rome and the territory about it '? The physical forces of Europe at the disposal of States and sovereigns are totally, wonderfully changed ! No less have States and sovereignties changed ! There was a time vi leu movements were sio'W . States small, armies small, campaigns protracted, walled towns safe, the cost of war inconsiderable, and the disproportion between States by no means decisive. In those days the Pope, as a temporal sovereign, at the centre of Italy, with two or three millions of people and fifteen thousand square miles of territory, five ships of war and an army of twenty thousand men, with neighbors in Italy not greatly superior to himself in military resources, and some who were inferior, might sometimes be reasonably safe against any one power, what with force and what with diplomacy; I mt not usually so, even then. But all this has gone by. Now, nationalities are vast, armies stupendous, revenues enormous, movements electric, and a small sovereignty, like thai of the Pope, is practically, in the physical and temporal sense, powerless; and it is to the physical and temporal sense that this argument for a temporal sovereignty is addressed. As the head of a physical force, whether <>f men o)- money, drawn from his own territories, taken at the largest, the Pope i> now nothing. As a further consideration, is it true that the Pope has been upheld in his sovereign independence by an equal or impartial contribution of physical power from the States <»f Catholic Christendom? Never. 'I'll,- question lias been between Austrian bayonet.-, and French bayonets. What diaie, under tliis scheme of temporal sovereignty, has been given to, or can be exercised by, the Roman Catholics of the United States, or anj part of the Noii 1 1 American continent, or of Asia, or bj the smaller Roman Catholic States of Europe,as Bavaria, Spain, Portugal,or l>\ Greal Bri- tain, or ( rermany, or Russia, in behalf of their numerous Roman ' latholic populations? And among the few greal Catholic powers themselves, it i;-, impossible thai their jealousies and exigencies Should permit them to maintain fairly balanced contributions of physical force at Rome. 114 UNITY OF ITALY. Experience lias shown this to be impracticable. The very existence of this temporal sovereignty, straining to be a physical power, creates a new cause of jealousy and strife, and leaves it ultimately in the hands of the strongest, to the dissatisfaction and disadvantage of all others. The historv of five centuries entitles us to the belief that the head of the Roman Church will be able to exercise his spiritual functions with more independence, and far more to the satisfaction and peace of the powers of Christendom, if he abandons altogether the attempt to hold in his hands a physical power adequate to protect himself against force. Cer- tainly we know that he can hold no such adequate power. If he cannot govern a cosmopolitan Church unless he has bayonets enough to defend himself against bayonets, he cannot do it at all. Let us now turn to that part of the claim which is drawn from the relations of Roman Catholic Christendom to Rome as its own creation, and properly subject to its pious uses. If the Romans had proposed to put an end to all "this, or to vote these means to themselves as theirs, the question would be a fair one. If Italy proposed to do so, it would present the objections in their fullest force. But it is not so. Rome and Italy acknowledge the trust. It is a case of adjustment of moral claims. Italy admits some claim of the Roman Catholic Israel to its Je- rusalem and temple, its feasts and sacrifices. It proposes to provide for them and to insure them. It is itself a part of this Israel. Italy is the tribe of Judah, whose territory surrounds the temple and the sacred city, and which, for three hundred and fifty years, has given to it all its chief pastors. Although the argument for Italian Unity drawn from geography alone, or from ethnology alone, is imperfect, and against strong moral claims would be of little force, yet a claim based on history, geography, race, con- venience, and sentiment all combined, is of prodigious power. Such is the claim of Italy and the people of Rome, to have a United Italy with Rome for its capital. And here I leave out a strong argument, — that drawn from the alleged incapacity of the ecclesiastical rulers to govern satisfactorily the people of Rome itself, and their unwillingness to allow the Romans freedom and self-government. Let this pass as a disputed point. Let the case be considered as simply a conflict of two great claims, involv- ing the interests and feelings of the greater part of Christendom. On the one hand, the Roman Catholic world in all nationalities claims rights in Rome, in St. Peter's, in their glories, conveniences, and ad- vantages. On the other, Italy, including Rome, claims rights in Rome; as a part of Italy, and as its capital. The first is based on long pre- scription, on foundations and contributions, on the natural right to use its own creature. The other is founded on geography, history, race, lan- guage and convenience. Each appeals deeply and strongly to sentiment, LETTERS. 115 The question is now reduced to this : Shall the latter claim be totally disallowed, or shall the two be adjusted ? If they can be adjusted they should be. The Italians propose an adjustment. This adjustment ne- cessarily puts an end to the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, in any large and practical sense. We endeavored to show that so far as this sovereignty ever had an existence for much practical purpose, its days of usefulness are numbered, whether Rome becomes part of Italy or not. But, in other regards, the Italian plan respects and endeavors to accom- modate these claims. If practicable, it certainly is a glorious consum- mation, most devoutly to be wished. I believe Italy maybe united ; that Rome may be the capital of Italy ; and that the Romans may be part of a great nationality, under a consti- tutional monarchy, or under whatever other form the Italians may cause their sovereignty to take. At the same time, the head of the Church may have a spacious and glorious quarter of Rome, in which is contained that great monument of the zeal and munificence of Christendom, St. Peter's, with the Vatican and the Castle. The exact terms are not set- tled, and may be subjects of alteration and accommodation. It is enough to say that the purpose is that Italy shall guaranty to the Pope the free and independent exercise of his ecclesiastical functions, with the appropriate opportunities and conveniences therefor ; and that those of all nations who claim rights in the Pope, and in the great edifices, and in the exercise of the offices of religion there, and of the functions of ecclesiastical jurisdiction there, shall not be hindered therein. But it is said that there is no certainty attending this guaranty. What degree of certainty does a spiritual body require, which believes itself to have the divine promise, power, and grace? This guaranty has a promise of as much certainty as the Church can expect from human institutions, of more than it has obtained from its own arm of flesh. When the irritations and excitements of this revolution have gone by, the Italians will be proud that with them resides the head of a Church, and that under their protection are left these great jurisdictions and charities and ceremonies, to which so large parts of the world go up, and which will continue to add so much to the splendor and prosperity of their capital. They will know that if they do not execute their trust with fidelity, it may pass from them. The States, not i,{' Europe alone, but of Christendom, will maintain a watch over the con- dud of ltal\. They will have a right to do so. They will be the visitors of this cosmopolitan CHARITY, with greal moral influence, a consta.nl righl to advise and mediate, and, it may he, if they chooso to exert it, a righl of intervention. I cannot but think that there is a kind of glamour over this Bubject 8 110 UNITY OF ITALY. to the r - Iherents of the Eomaii Church. Heated declama- . has I - and exciting appeals made, and anecdotes told of cardinals insulted and htistled in th< - n ■-. itae de- faced, a church el - . charity appropri ud the Holy Father circumscribed in his motions f'-om fear. Has not tL- Pop suffered much more than I - liings under his own temporal sovereignty ': Has he not been a prisoner or an If all this _ true, and none of it evenexaggerat* . " - no more or worse in the interregnum of revolution, it augurs well for Italy when govern- ment shall be confirmed, and custom and habit have settled down npon ieople and ecclesiastics alike. 1 fear I may have tried the patience of any who may have read this so far. It maybe that some thing- I say are not well-tim and much may be needless. But 1 have felt that thes .^derations are -- ntribution it is in my power to bring to the cause E B man freedom and Italian "Unity, a cause 1 - _ hold on my a£ tions, sped eus I hav- had a glimpse of Italy at critical mo- ments - straggle - I t _ honor to be. very respectfully, your obedient servant. Richard H. Dana. Jr. ADDRESSES INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS OF THE HON. JOHN A. DIX, PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING. Ladies and Gentlemen — Two hundred and seventy-five years before the Christian era, the Republic of Rome, after nearly live centuries of conflict, succeeded in extending its dominion over all Italy ; and from that epoch may be dated the beginning of its triumphant march to universal empire. After the lapse of more than two thousand years, modern Italy, the successor of the ancient, is celebrating a similar event— the union of its entire domain under one political government ; and it must be the cordial wish of every one, who is familiar with the ills that classic land has suffered during the last few centuries, that this consoli- dation of its temporal power may be the beginning of a career worthy of the empire which it succeeds— not in conquest, but in literature and art, and liberal institutions. It is but a few years since the territory which now constitutes the kingdom of Italy was shared by a multiplicity of several sov- ereignties. Sardinia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Two Sicihes, the States of the Church, and several other minor divi- sions have disappeared, and all are united under one political head. This reconstruction of the political elements, accomplished almost without bloodshed, has given the new State an honorable rank among the other nations of Europe ; and out of this unity have grown the extirpation of jealousies and rivalry, a respectful consideration abroad, and the strength at home which is the fruit of a common sympathy in interest and feeling. In this consolidation of separate States the people of all have concurred -not with coldness or indifference, but with an enthusiasm nearly universal. They see in the future an exemp- tion from the distractions which have weakened and impover- ished them, and they believe they see also the reproduction of something of the national power and prosperity of the past. It Is only in one quarter in Italy that its unity has encountered opposition and engendered hostile feeling. A small portion ot 118 UNITY OF ITALY. the secular adherents of the Church of Rome regard the separa- tion of the temporal from the ecclesiastical power as a spoliation and a crime. But, fellow-citizens, he who, in the vicissitudes of human government, has the exercise of temporal sovereignty cast upon him, must take it with the responsibilities and hazards in- cident to it — with the danger of having it wrested from him by foreign conquest, or of being divested of it by the uprising of those who are subjected to it, when they feel that their welfare or their freedom will be promoted by the change. It is to this larger popular sovereignty that the temporal power of the Church of Rome has given place. The people of the Papal State have changed their political ruler by an overwhelming majority of votes — I may say, with a unanimity unparalleled in the an- nals of popular suffrage. At Rome, the seat of the temporal power of the Church, in 40,881 votes there were only 46 in the negative, and the same unanimity was shown by the vote of the provinces. In all this the people have but exercised aright, which we and the friends of free government throughout the world hold to be inalienable. It is needless to add, what all know, that there has been no period within the last quarter of a century when the people of Rome would not have asserted thfs right, if they had not been restrained by foreign bayonets. We, whose ancestors were borne down, during their colonial dependence, by the armed hirelings of Great Britain, well know how to appreci- ate the value of such a deliverance. The Parliament of Italy is now busy with the measures of legislation, which have become necessary to fix the demarcations of power under the new political regime. I have seen a synopsis of the law under discussion. It surrounds the Church with all the safeguards essential to its perfect security and independence in the exercise of its ecclesiastical functions; and it provides for the personal comfort of the Pontiff with the tenderness due to a venerable prelate, who, in his private life, has given to the world an example of simplicity and purity worthy of universal applause. It could not well be otherwise, when the late Roman State has fifteen representatives in the Parliament, and when a vast ma- jority of the body are of the Church's own religious creed. One of the most striking illustrations of the beneficent influence of the union of the Italian States is the recognition of the right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own RESOLUTIONS. 119 conscience. In every portion of the new State— in the capital as well as the provinces — Romanism and Protestantism may stand side by side, as here and in nearly every country in Europe, and labor to advance the cause of religion without danger of inter- ference or collision. En a word. United Italy presents to us what we consider ad that is most precious in human government — a free Church in a free State. I have referred thus briefly to the consolidation of the Italian States, that the object of this meeting may be the better under- stood. It is to cheer them on in their new career of civil and re- ligious freedom by an expression of our sympathy, in which I sincerely believe seven-eighths of all the people of the United States will concur; to re-echo the cry, — which resounded through- out the Roman territory when the plebiseitum, was in progress, "Viva Roma, Capitalc d'ltalia ! " to hail United Italy as the era of a larger and more diffusive charity, under the influence of which religious societies may be willing to give up something of their exclusiveness for the sake of coming into closer communion with each other, and which shall make every man who bears the name of Christian feel at home in any temple dedicated to the service of his Maker. And iu conclusion, we are here, fellow-citizens, to express the hope that there may be no cause in the future to wish, with Fili- eaja and Byron, that Italy were "less lovely or more powerful," but that she may, in her new estate, become so prosperous and strong that neither Gaul nor Teuton shall ever dare to tread her sacred soil again, except in friendly companionship. The address of the President was frequently interrupted by enthusi astic applause. The following resolutions, prepared by the Committee, were pie s< inted : * RESOLUTIONS. I. Whereas, The temporal sovereignty of the Popesoverthe Roman people w..s the growth of the same circumstances and conditions, from which other absolute Governments arose during the feudal ages; and Whereas, Tin's Government, having the same origin, must be Bubject 'CoMmttteeoh tiii. Resolutions ind the Address to the Govern- ment and People of [taly:- -Parke Godwin, Esq.; Rev. .). P. Thompson, !>.!>., LL.D. ; V. Uotta, Ph.D. 120 UNITY OF ITALY. to the same conditions to which any other Government is subject, and the same obligations by which any other Government is bound ; and Whereas, With the growth of intelligence and of the spirit of liberty, the Roman people, from age to age, have protested against the govern- ment of the Pope in civil affairs ; now by the voice of heroic leaders, and again by popular revolutions, which have many times driven out the Pope from Rome ; and Whereas, In 1849, when the Pope had abandoned Rome, leaving the- Government without a head, a Constituent Assembly, elected by univer- sal suffrage in the Roman States, declared the secular Government of the Papacy abolished, and " proclaimed that portion of central Italy, which had hitherto been the patrimony of Popes, a free and independent Republic," which was only overthrown, and the subsequent rule of the Pope restored and maintained, by foreign bayonets ; therefore Resolved, That in voting to unite themselves to the Constitutional Government of Italy, the people of Rome have been true to the spirit of their history as manifested against the temporal power of the Popes since the beginning of its encroachment upon popular liberties and rights. 2. Whereas, The temporal Government of the Church of Rome had long made itself insupportable to its subjects by a system of policy which, in 1815 and 1831, called forth remonstrances from the Powers that restored the Pope ; and again, also, repeated and earnest entreaties from the late Government of Prance ; and which has been grievously deplored by eminent and saintly Roman Catholic clergymen — as Lacor- daire, Rosmini, Gioberti, Dollinger, and many others ; therefore Resolved, That we congratulate the Roman people upon their deliver- ance from this oppressive yoke, and that Austria and France having been led by the course of events to abandon intervention as impolitic and wrong, they now find in the Government of Italy a pledge of the enjoyment of political and religious liberty under constitutional forms. 3. Resolved, That we congratulate them also that this great revolu- tion has been accomplished at so little cost of life, and that they have refrained from any acts of violence toward the representatives of the late Government, or the ecclesiastics who were identified with it, and from any disrespect or hindrance whatever to the Pope in his religious character and office. 4. Resolved, That the doctrine of the Declaration of Tndependence, that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are instituted to secure the rights of all to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,''' can admit of no exception in favor of an ecclesiastical Government wielding the civil power. 5. Resolved, That the docti-ine of the Declaration of Independence, ADDRESS OF DR. THOMPSON. 1 2 1 thai " whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to insti- tute a new Government, having its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness," finds in the rejection of the Papal Government by the Roman people, and (heir choice of the free Consti- tutional Government of Italy, an illustration that should receive the warm approval and admiration of the American people. 6. Resolved, That inasmuch as religions liberty is absolutely essen- tial to political liberty, and political liberty to religious liberty, and the separation of Church and State is necessary to the complete indepen- dence and the rightful and effective administration of either, we rejoice that the example of the United States, in abolishing all religious bur- dens and restraints, has been followed in Austria, Italy, and Ireland, and now at last in Rome; that we honor the jealous care with which the Government of Italy has guarded the personal liberties and rights of the Pope, and are assured that by the substitution of freedom for force, and of popular rights for princely prerogatives, both State and Church will minister to the highest well-being of a now emancipated and united nation. 7. Resolved, That the principle of national unity, which the people of the United States have established at the cost of so much treasure and blood,— which has been the aspiration of the mind of Italy, as expressed in her literature, from Dante to Alfieri, Giordani, Leopakdi, and NICCOLINI, and in the policy of her greatest statesmen, from her earliest patriots to Cavour, — a principle necessary to the development of the re- sources and culture of a nation in the higher civilization, — gives to the Italian nation, of which the people of Rome are properly an integral part, the righf to possess Rome as their Capital, with an undivided sovereign- ty — a measure acquiesced in by all the powers of Europe ; and that the presence in that Capital of an essentially hostile Power, claiming inde- pendent sovereignty, would be incompatible with the independence of tli" nation, and its position among the tier peoples of the world. ADDRESS OF REV. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON. D.D., LL.D. I rise, Mr. President, on behalf of the Committee charged with the preparation of Resolutions!' for this meeting, to submil the result of their labor-, accompanied with a few words of explanation. The Committee have given to the Resolutions much patienl though! ; having in view three objects: first, a succincl recital of the facte of the case, as a basis for the address to the government and people of Italy, which yon will presently be 122 UNITY OF ITALY. • called upon to adopt ; next, the declaration of those distinctive American principles which the action of the people of Home has once more made conspicuous before the civilized world ; and thirdly, the expression of onr congratulations to the people of Italy, and especially the people of Rome, in terms that befit the people of the United States as the foremost representatives of civil and religious liberty. For the first point, the foots embodied or assumed in the Reso- lutions, inasmuch as authorities cannot here be cited in detail, I will only say that for every statement which they have made the Committee hold themselves responsible to the judgment of candid and enlightened students of history in this country and abroad. As to the second point, the Committee feel confident that they have set forth the true principles of the American people, in op- position to the attempt to manufacture an American sentiment in favor of a political despotism wielded in the name of the Church. And, as a sequel to this, our congratulations to the people of Rome, especially, should take also the form of gratitude for the service they have rendered to the cause of religious liberty throughout the world. [Applause.] The Resolutions will be found to be constructed upon a philo- sophical order of thought. The first of the series, with its pre- ambles, brings the temporal government of the Pope within the category of all earthly human governments, as bound by the same conditions, and subject to the same fortunes. The claim that Rome is a fief of the Church, and as such must be held for the whole Catholic world, without respect to the wishes or the welfare of the Roman people, has no foundation in historical fact or in political philosophy. The donation of Pepin in the eighth century, of which so much is made as the foundation of the Temporal Power, was not a grant to the Pope of allodial sove- reignty over Rome and its population, but a gift " to the Pope and the Roman Republic' 1 — that is, to the Pope, the Senate, and the people of Rome — of a territory which a military conqueror had wrested from their hostile neighbors on the north; and long after this donation the Pope, like a feudal prince, was obliged to make his allegiance to the Emperor, and to receive from him the sanction of his own election. Besides, in no event, as Lacordaire has so well said, could the people be the subject of donation. The donation of Pepin was ADDRESS OF DK. THOMPSON. L23 the gift to Rome of the exarchate of Ravenna ; not a gift of Rome to the Pope. The Roman people were not handed over bodily to the Pope, to be his vassals ; and it was only by a long series of encroachments, taking advantage of political factions, the feuds of the nobility, and the fortunes of war. that the Popes suc- ceeded at last in establishing their political absolutism. Their Temporal Power was an outgrowth of the abnormal and chaotic condition of society in feudal times; and no man who values the principle of nationality, the rights of a people to indepen- dent self-government, or the progress of modern society, would dream of imposing upon a people forever a government hostile to their wishes, by the plea that such a government was set over their ancestors bv the fortunes of war a thousand years ago. The plea refutes itself by its absurdity ; and the Papal govern- ment cannot claim to be distinct from other governments born amid the conflicts and reprisals of feudal times, in respect either to the validity of its title or the inviolability of its power. It must take its chances with other antiquated forms of absolutism at the bar of public opinion, and in face of popular revolution and the rising sentiment of nationality. Many sincere Roman Catholics, who attach a sanctity to the person and office of the Pope as Head of the Church, can perceive in this secular power which grew up about him in a dark and disorganized state of society, nothing too sacred to be touched, or too venerable to be overturned, in the name of popular liberty and national unity. We are not assembled, however, to try the government of the Pope. That has been tried and condemned again and again by the people of Koine ; and at last their well-nigh unanimous judgment, against it has been executed in a wav that is Likely to stand. A.S far back as the twelfth century, the eloquent monk, Arnold of Brescia, went through the State- of the Church insisting that the ecclesiastics should surrender to the people all secular property and power ; for a time the people of Rome set up a government of their own ; but Pope Adrian I V.. having got hold of the monk, quickly silenced his voice by causing him to he burnt at the stake. Other cities of the Papal kingdom by degrees regained Bome measure of local freedom; and almost v\^\-\ succeed ing century has been marked by popular tumults and up- risings in the States of the Church against the temporal rule of the Pope. 124 UNITY OF ITALY. Archbishop Manning computes five-and- forty Popes that before now " have either never set foot in Rome or have been driven out of it," and he admits that" nine times they have been driven out by Roman factions." The popular uprisings have been far more numerous, but the, admission of the Archbishop of West- minster shows how restive the people of Rome have been under the temporal power of the Pope. Coming down to our own century, we all know with what joy the Roman people hailed the removal of the Pope from Rome by the first Napoleon, and with what aversion they regarded his return when he was reinstated by the allied powers; we all know that since 1815 the Pope has been kept in his seat of power only by foreign bayonets ; that the repeated attempts of the people to dislodge him have been foiled by foreign intervention; that in 1819, the people having insisted that the reforms which Pius IX. had promised should be carried out in good faith, he abandoned his post, and the representatives of the people, while they guar- anteed the safety of the person of the Pope and the sanctity of his spiritual office, vacated his secular authority, and in lieu of it established a Constitutional Republic ; we all remember how that Republic was put down by the treachery and violence of Louis Napoleon, and the Pope brought back and forced upon the people by a French army ; and we know that there has been no time in the last twenty years when the Pope could have remained in Rome as King by the suffrages of the people, or would have had any semblance of civil power but for the bayonets of France. Popular liberty, held down at Rome by foreign military force for more than fifty years, the moment that force was withdrawn, sprang up to assert itself by an overwhelming vote against the last debris of the institutions of the Middle Ages. It is upon such pregnant facts as these— facts that show how long-con- tinued and irreconcilable has been the antagonism between the Roman people and the Temporal Power — that we base the first resolution of this series. The next point that these resolutions make is, that the tempo- ral government of the Popes has failed to answer the end of civil government, — the well-being of its subjects, — and therefore its subjects were justified in embracing the first opportunity to exchange it for a better. The historical record of this govern- ment gives abundant reason to the friends of freedom and hu- ADDKE6S OF DR. THOMPSON. L25 inanity to rejoice in it? termination. I would not condemn it because of the scandals that in former ages have attached to the lives of individual occupants of the Holy See. That there have been bad men among the Popes everybody knows, as well as that the private' life of the present Pope is without a stain. But the simony and nepotism that so degraded the Papacy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries grew out of the temptations of the Tem- poral Power. As no Pope could found a dynasty for heirs of his own body, the temptation was strong to human ambition to pro- vide for one's kindred with the spoils of office; and for the sake of enriching brothel's, nephews, or illegitimate sons. Popes divi- ded up the patrimony of the Church, or made war upon feeble provinces, and wrested these to bestow them upon favorites. Thus Sixtus IV. gave to his nephew Riario the principalities of Imola and of Forli ; Alexander VI., to his son Caesar Borgia the Duchv of Eomao-ua: Julius II., to his brother the Dnchv of Ur- bino ; Paul III., Parma and Plaisance .to his son Farnese : and Julius III., the Duchy of Camerino to his brother. Later Popes created titles of nobility for their relatives, and endowed these from the civil list, and so luxury and corruption entered the Court of Pome through the fascinations of the Temporal Power. Meanwhile the people were treated like dumb, driven cattle. 80 many and grievous were their oppressions, that the venerable Cardinal Sacchetti remonstrated by letter to Pope Alexander VII. (15th June, L664), against the " taxes, extortions, rigor-, penalties, vexations and cruelties" to which the unhappy peopleof Pome were subjected, as "afflictions which exceeded those of the people of God in Egypt," which would be; "an astonishinenl and scandal to foreign nations," and which made "a yoke so insup- portable," that under it '-the people were more inhumanly treat- ed than the slaves of Africa and Syria." And it was clearly the opinion of Sacchetti that the administration of Temporal Power took away from the dignity and authority of the Holy See itself. But such remonstrances wen; of little avail; and so grievouslj was Rome misgoverned, that even when the freedom of cities and republics in Italy had surrendered to the petty despotisms thai parcelled out \\n- noble territory, the Papal patrimony was noto riously worse governed than the rest, and Rome itself worsl <>i ;i ll : There the government condemned and prohibited liberty of the press, liberty of religion, liberty of conscience, libertj of \»> 126 UNITY OF ITALY. litical action, liberty of speech, and, so far as possible, liberty of thought itself; it denied to the people not only the right of po- litical representation, but even the privilege of political remon- strance; it deprived them of all those guarantees of civil rights which are recognized throughout the civilized world ; it inflicted pains and penalties, even unto death, without public accusation, trial, or defence ; in one word, this government has kept up, in the nineteenth century, the methods and practices of the middle ao-es. So insupportable had it become that, for half a century, its subjects have been in a chronic state of revolt, kept down only by foreign bayonets. In 1831 several provinces revolted from Gregory XVI., but they were subjugated by Austrian arms. In their manifesto they indicted the Papal government for oppres- sive laws for sanguinary punishments, for domiciliary visits, and the employment of spies and of secret tribunals; for tortures, cruelties, proscription, and a general reign of terrorism. The archives of the Austrian Government found at Milan and Venice contained reports of the maladministration of the Pon- tifical Government, which, coming from Roman Catholics, and the agents of the power that mainly upheld the Pope in his seat, are entitled to the highest confidence. These reports were made public by Mr. Eugene Rendu, a Roman Catholic authority ; they state that justice was openly sold ; that contracts made by the o-overnment were annulled by a Pontifical decree without respect to the rio-hts of the contractors; that gendarmes had absolute power to arrest any one on bare suspicion ; that the secret tribu- nals were active, and the freedom of private life was harassed by most oppressive regulations; that the government was " a Turkish theocracy ! " The government of Pius IX., after his return from Gaeta, was marked by the same odious and oppressive policy. Thousands of the best citizens of Rome were driven into exile ; many others languished in prison, or suffered severe penalties for the offence of sympathizing with the Republic ; and even the French com- mandant was obliged to remonstrate against measures of pro- scription, for which he was not willing to be responsible to the public sentiment of Europe. The wrongs and outrages here- tofore perpetrated under the Papal Government were such, that the European powers which had reinstated it in 1815, felt bound to unite in a solemn remonstrance against its despicable ADDRESS OF DR. THOMPSON. 127 tyranny. This act is known in the history of diplomacy under tlie name of the memorandum of 1831. These remonstrances were repeated over and over by France since the re-estab- lishment of the Papal power in 1849. Witness the famous letter written in that year by Louis Napoleon, when he demanded from the Pope the secularization of the government, the promulgation of the code of Napoleon, and the establishment of liberal insti- tutions in the Roman States ; and from 1849 to 1870 it may be said that no other subject has occupied so long the earnest attention of French diplomats as the wretched condition of the Papal Gov- ernment. See the great number of diplomatic circulars written on this subject by such statesmen as M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Lava- lette, Thouvenel, and others, who cannot certainly be accused of an excess of liberality. But all remonstrances were in vain, not so much because of the ill-will of Pius IX., or the obstinacy of his counsellors, asof the virus of tyranny which is essentially inherent in the Temporal Power of a sacerdotal caste. Count Rossi, the great economist, and ambassador of France to Rome, as early as'the beginning of the reign of Pius IX., writing to his government, had truly said: "The Temporal Government of the Papal States cannot become a modern government, that is, a government of publicity and discussion."- -{Official despatch, Feb- ruary 17, 1818.) And sixteen years before, writing to M. Guizot, he had said : "Revolution, in the sense of a profound incompati- bility between the Roman Government and the people, has pene- trated into the entrails of the country ; any contrary opinion is but an illusion."— (See Guizot' $ Memoirs, v. II.) Indeed, it may be said with truth, that the men most eminent for learnino; and piety in the Roman Church for the last twenty years, have openly denounced the Temporal Power ot the 1 opes as utterly irreconcilable with the great principles of modern civilization, as well as with the true interests of the Church itself. Among these was Lacordaire, the eloquent and saintly Domini- can, who characterized the Papal Government as belonging to " the ancient regime'' a creature of the feudal ages, irreconci- lable with the popular rights which lie at the foundation of modern society ; and he says that "since 1S15, the Papacy has alienated the hearts of all around it. and has found its safety only in compulsion by foreign force. Whether I regard Italy as a nationality evidently oppressed, or from the point of the Church, 128 UNITY OF ITALY. the actual state of things is intolerable, and one must wish an end of it."— ^Letter of Pere Lacordaire to Mons. VAbbe Per- reyre, June, 1S59.) Of the same opinion was Abbe Rosmini, a great philosopher and theologian, a devout priest, the founder of a religious Order, the friend of Gregory XVI., and of Pius IX., by whom he was cordially received as an ambassador from the Government of Turin, and afterwards intrusted with a seat in the Cabinet at the Vati- can. That learned theologian was most explicit in deploring the baneful effects of feudal institutions and feudal power introduced into the Church. (See Le Cinque Pioghe delta Santa Chiesadi Antonio Bosmini.) And in his profound work, La Filosofia del Diritto, while he is very minute in describing all the rights which in his theory belong to the Church, and which, in our opinion, he immensely exaggerates, he makes no claim for the Church to any right which would involve the exercise of tempo- ral power. Indeed he formally excludes it by insisting over and over that the Church, being a voluntary association, founded on the free-will and consent of the faithful, has no power to enforce its creed or decrees by an external sanction, which belongs only to secular governments. In 1849, being charged by the present Pope to prepare a draft of a Federal Constitution, which at that time he thought might be applied to the Italian States, Rosmini drew up that instrument in such a way that, while it would have given to the Pope the honorary presidency of the proposed con- federation, it would have taken from him all responsibilities of civil government, which experience had shown irreconcilable with the rights of the nation. In support of our resolutions we have named Gioberti ; he also a priest intensely devoted to the interests of the Church, a patriot, a philosopher, and a theologian. It was he who gave the first impulse to that movement of civil reforms which Pius IX. encouraged in the beginning of his reign. In view of the influence that the Head of the Church might exercise on the other Italian princes, he had urged the Pope to put himself at the head of that movement; Pius IX. seemed to yield at first; but Gioberti soon found that his scheme was impracticable, and in the work, II Binnovamento dPtalia, which he published in 1851, he manfully apologized for his temporary abandonment of the true national doctrine, which had been held from Dante to ADDRESS OF DR. THOMPSON. 129 Leopardi, of the essential incompatibility of the Papal power with the rights of the nation. lie calls the Government of Rome "a misgovern men t, a see-saw between tyranny and license, a despotism of many chiefs, a turbid and confused oligarchy of inept and corrupt priests." '' Under pompous names and titles there is in that government a languor of decrepit age, a lethargy of death, a decay of corruption. " " If governments are made for the people, and not the people for governments, how can we call a power legitimate and Christian, which thus crushes its own people? " " The influence of the Papal Government on its subjects is baneful; the greatest part of them live a life of intrigue, of imposture, of deception, as is always the case with a population of slave-." " The Papal Government is not only the open enemy of Italy, as it is obliged to depend on foreign troops, but it is not less obnoxious to the interests of Christianity, which be- comes responsible for the outrages committed by a government, the head of which claims to be the Yicar of God ; a government in which the customs are more corrupt, the laws more absurd, the administration more iniquitous, the rulers more inept than in any country, Christian or pagan ! "' " Many of those who rule in the name of the Pope, willingly would sell not only the city of Rome, as in the time of Jugurtha, but indeed the very temple of God, if only they could find a buyer. Cardinal Antonelli, who for the last two years has mismanaged everything sacred and profane, is not so blind as not to see the damage his policy inflicts on religion ; but what does this matter to him as long as he can enjoy his income and benefits?" Gioberti goes on to show that the temporal power of the Pope, far from being an in- strument of spiritual independence, is the chain which ties him to the throne of the princes who support him. " To be a mas- ter he must be a slave." " Princes do not come to kiss his toes. but he must kiss theirs in order to keep up his temporal establish- ment." And here he cites the example of Gregory XVI., who. for fear of the Czar of Russia, was obliged to abandon the Catho- lics in Poland, and to enjoin them to submit to order.- which were against their religious liberties. The authority of ot her eminent men in the Church we could adduce in condemnation of the Temporal Power; such as Dr. Dollinger, and father Passaglia, who was not long since re garded in the Vatican as the greatest living theologian of the age. 130 UNITY OF ITALY. and whose writings greatly contributed to the establishment of that new dogma, so dear to the heart of Pius IX., the Immacu- late Conception of the Mother of Jesus. And yet this devout priest,, this great Doctor of Catholic Theology, as soon as the Ro- man question arose, boldly came out as a champion of Italy, declaring and proving in many admirable writings that the Papal government was a scandal of civilization as well as of Christianity, and that its overthrow would be a blessing not only to Italy but to Europe and to the whole Church. Can it be that there are Americans so debased as to be ready to uphold in a foreign country a system of government condemned by the best author- ities of the Church, as well as by all who may claim to repre- sent the mind of the age? [Applause.] The grievances of the Roman people demanded redress. They would have justified a popular revolution at any moment when there was a prospect of its succeeding. Happily for the people, happily for humanity, happily for the Church, happily for the Pope himself, the opportunity came to the Romans to secure political freedom and civil rights without a bloody revolution ; and they have shown themselves worthy of freedom by refraining from deeds of violence against their late oppressors. Every American must rejoice that they are free; every Christian will rejoice, in the name of religious liberty, that in assuming their own liberty they have protected ecclesiastical persons and pro- perty, and have guaranteed the liberty and safety of Pontiff, Cardinals, and Priests. The Resolutions point out the American principles which this great revolution illustrates : for the issue raised by those who are clamoring for the restoration of the Temporal Power, the issue which this assembly is called to meet to-night, is through- out an American issue. Let no man blink the real question. The Pope — who has been so deservedly praised for his private v i r t U es — is entitled to praise also for the manly utterance of his political doctrines. He is not afraid of political consequences to himself from his opinions ! He says what he believes, and is not intimidated by unpopularity. He believes that the civil govern- ment ought to enforce the decrees of the Church, and he says so ; he believes that only the Church should legalize marriage, and he says so ; he believes that the Church should have exclusive control of the education of the young, and he says so ; he believes ADDRESS OF DR. THOMPSON. 131 that public schools under the direction of the State are mis- chievous, and he sajs so ; lie believes that the doctrine that lib erty of conscience and of worship is the right of every man is a damnable heresy, and he says so ; all this, and much more of the same sort, he has said in his Encyclical Letter and Syllabus of December 8th, 1864. Every one of these things which he condemns is an American doctrine. Now let us be true to our doctrines, as the Pope is to his. He condemns and anathema- tizes all who hold doctrines which are the distinctive creed of the American people. Let us assert our doctrines in face of his. and fa- his anathemas <>-ive him our prayers that he may come to our way of thinking. [Applause.] Does any man intend to hold back from the American doctrine upon such points as these? Let us put it to the advocates of the Temporal Power. Do you believe that the -people should have a voice in the government — should be free to choose their rulers? Or ought the Eoman people to be kept under by force? Do you believe that every man should be left free, without interference from the State, to choose his religion? Or must people in Pome have their religion forced upon them, and their religious acts watched by the police? Do you believe that the State, in the interest of social order and political intelligence, ought to provide for the education of all the children within its limits? Or should the people of Koine be doomed to keep their children in ignorance, be denied schools, books, newspapers, except as these are under the direction and control of ecclesiastics? Upon these great fundamental questions of American society the Pope has declared himself emphatically against American principles ; and now the people of Pome have with equal empha sis declared themselves for our American principles; and the only ipiestion for us is, whether we mean to stand by our own principles. We have a right to demand of the advocates of the Temporal Power a categorical answer to this question : Are yon in favor of the free ballot, a free press, free schools, five industry, i'vm; locomotion, free speech, free worship, five homes for the people of Rome — or would yon put them back under a Power that has denied all these things to them, and which they have now repudiated by their unanimous voter That, is a question 132 UNITY OF ITALY. that concerns us as Americans ; and no man, prelate or politi- cian, should be suffered to blink it. [Applause.] It is pretended, to be sure, that the Roman people were not free in their choice of the government of Italy; — that "they were forced by the bayonet to accept one ruler for another." Were they forced by the bayonet in 1849 to vote that the Temporal Power of the Pope was abolished, and to proclaim a Republic? Were they not forced by French bayonets to receive back the government of the Pope, and has not that government been forced upon them by foreign bayonets ever since? lias the Pope ever called for a Plebiscite upon his government and its acts? [Applause.] We are told that "the Plebiscite was a farce and a sham, enacted under the influence of new masters at the head of victo- rious battalions." But the people of Rome voted by their guilds, and the polls were kept by the firemen of the city, Roman civil- ians, and there was no military interference with the election. It is claimed that Rome should be a territory apart, in order that all Roman Catholics can have unrestricted access to the Head of their Church. But the gentlemen who make this claim will find that they never before were so free in Rome as they can be to-day. They can go and come as they please ; they can go and pay their homage to the Pope, as the Head of their Church, without abandoning or suppressing one iota of their principles as Americans ; they can even tell him, if they see fit, how much better is freedom than force for the Church itself. And they need now have no fear of being banished Rome for saying that. The Pope, with an ample revenue, a personal guard, an indepen- dent palace, with the telegraph and post-office at his command, is as free as he himself shall choose to be. Yet we hear the cry of spoliation. Spoliation ! No ; Recov- ery, Restitution, Redemption, is the word. The whole peninsu- la was filled with sons of Rome, in exile from their mother, and these formed the battalion that marched to her deliverance, car- rying freedom to their own households. No sooner had the city capitulated than a mother, who had trained her son to liberty, knowing that he would be in the army of deliverance, hastened out to meet him. Alas, he was the first who fell before the walls, and she found only his lifeless body. But the incident was typical ; and hereafter not even the mother of the Gracchi shall ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF ITALY. 133 be more honored in Roman history than she. Some future painter, transferring to canvas this great event of the century, the Union of Rome to Italy, shall seize upon this scene of the Roman son giving life to his mother by his own. as interpreting the true meaning of the event itself— Redemption by sacrifice unto a new and higher life. That life is to come through a Uni- ted Italy ; and we may join to-night in the prophetic hope of the government of Italy, that " In the day when the Pope, yielding to the impulses of his heart, shall remember that the flag which now floats over Rome is the same that he blessed in the first days of his Pontifieate, amid the enthusiastic acclamations of Europe, — the day when the reconciliation of the Church an d th State shall be proclaimed at the Vatican, — the Catholic world will acknowledge that, in going to Rome, Italy performed no barren work of demolition, but that the principle of authority shall be re-established in the eternal city upon the broad and solid base of civil and religions liberty. 1 ' [Great applause.] At the conclusion of Dr. Thompson's address, the Resolutions were put to vote and unanimously adopted with great applause. The Secretary then read the following ADDEKSS TO THE GOVEKNMENT AND PEOPLE OF ITALY. We, citizens of the United States, who have long stood as the van- guard of civil and religious freedom, and whose own unity has been wit Inn a few years so gloriously consummated, hail with a peculiar pleasure the advent of Italy to Freedom and Unity. Having watched \\ itli the keen- est sympathy and hope the patient struggle of the Italian people for their emancipation, having shared the admiration of the civilized world for the vigor, devotion, and spirit of self-sacrifice by which that snug- gle has been animated, we now rejoice with them in the final fulfilment of their noble and patriotic desires. Italy is at last free ! Italy is at last one ! Her Nationality is . led.-, red ; her Governmenl consolidated; and her ancient Capital, so long with- held from her grasp, is once more restored to her possession. The < 'it\ of Rome, so dear to the Italian heart, aolonger a rival sovereignty, maintained alone by foreign arms, now stands the representative of the whole Italian people, up held and supported by the tree choice ol the Nation ! In this greai achievement we discern not only a solace for the sorrows Of the past, and the fruition of mans noble hope., I. ut the pledge of the grandesl developments in the future. With (he rights and the liberties 134 UNITY OF ITALY. of all men amply secured by the guarantees of a Constitutional Govern- ment ; with the State forever separated from the Church, as the essen- tial guard of all political and religious progress ; with the Sovereign Power to control its own destinies, resting within its own borders, and among its own free and equal citizens, we ai-e assured that the people of the Peninsula will receive a new and beneficent impulse in all the elements of national prosperity. We know, from our own experience, how her national resources will be developed, how her industrial ener- gies will be stimulated, how her system of popular education will be enlarged and perfected ; how, the need of revolutionary ferments being removed, order and peace will be everywhere established ; and how a fresh life of knowledge, of liberty and of faith infused into her mem- bers will work out a glorious redemption. In this belief, we again congratulate the Government and the people of Italy on the peaceful triumph of the national cause, and bid them a God-speed in the career they have so worthily begun. ADDRESS OF PARKE GODWIN, ESQ. Mr. Parke Godwin, in moving the adoption of the address, said : — As it is the habit of royal and princely families to celebrate a son's coming of age with festivities and rejoicings, so it is the practice and the glory of our country to welcome the advent of any people to an independent existence. We by our position, as the first of the Free Nations, stand as the godfathers and sponsors of all who win their way into the great heritage of freedom. We are prompted by our feelings to sympathize in their desire to attain a self-conscious manhood ; we are pledged by our prin- ciples to encourage their efforts, and to be exceedingly glad when they have succeeded. [Applause.] It is thus that we have successively stretched forth our hands to the tottering South American republics, when they broke the leading-strings of European dominion ; thus we sent words of cheer to the Greeks in their struggles against Turkey ; to Hun- gary in her fruitless efforts ; to France in her revolutions, and to Ireland in her hopes ; and now we meet to utter our cordial greet- ings to Italy, on the accomplishment of her long wished-for and long-delayed, but inevitable national consolidation. [Applause.] Italy ! Italy ! how the word stirs up the deepest emotions of our souls ! Italy, the land of beauty, whither the lovers of the ADDRESS OF PARKE GODWIN. 135 picturesque and graceful turn instinctively to realize their dream of an earlier paradise; Italy, whose every rood of soil is consecrated by the immortal memories of some grand step in human civilization; Italy, the home of the arts, which capture and enthral the imagination of mankind, as the highest and happiest embodiments of onr ideals; but alas! Italy, which, amid all her splendors and glories, rises ever before us wan, broken, dishevelled, her homes a waste, her literature a plaintive cry of distress and despair, because always denied the most essential and precious of all rights, her right to be ! One thing in European history must have impressed every reader of it as most strange and remarkable. It is this: That everywhere, after the downfall of the Roman Empire, there emerged from the anarchy and chaos of the barbaric irruptions, the great modern nationalities — everywhere but on the peninsula. The old Gaul, trampled apparently into dust by Ripuarian and Italian Franks, revived almost unchanged as restless and brilliant France ; the heavy heel of the Yandal, and more lately of the Saracen in Iberia, only renders more piercing the cry of nascent Spain; the ancient Britons, subdued but not annihilated by their Anglo-Saxon and Norman conquerors, emerge and live as the stalwart England ; but on the peninsula, better adapted by local position and circumstances than any other part of the continent for the formation of a distinct, compact, and powerful nationality, no Italy comes forth. The various hordes of Ilcrules. Goths, Lombards, Franks pass over the stage, but Italy stands silent in the side-scenes. Her name remains (for that was imperishable from old renown), but her substantive unity, her integral con- sciousness, in short her individual life, no longer appears. We search her annals for a thousand years, and find many startling things, but not herself; we meet with splendid cities, with robust communes, with magnificent principalities, but no- where with a nation. The forms of heroic men incessantly rise Arnolds, Savonarolas, Dantes, Rienzis— with 1km- name on their lips, but it is soon stifled in the damp of dungeons or in the faintness of exile. We encounter glorious efforts of patriotic emancipation, but they are always abort ive efforts, whelmed a u .1 \ as soon as they are born in tempests of revolution, or crushed t<> death by the mailed hand of the invader. Never, in spite of the admirable fitness of her geographic features, surrounded b\ seas 136 UNITY OF ITALY. and guarded by Alps ; never, in spite of the essential identity of her native races ; never, though one language was spoken from Turin to Naples, could Italy, as a whole, as a nation, as a sub- stantive beino', as an independent existence, come to the birth. Always baffled, always frustrated, " victor or vanquished," as Filicaja says, " She was still a slave.' 1 [Applause.] Now what has been the cause of this anomaly ? Why, in the face of so many yearnings, of so many struggles, of so much toil and bloodshed and sorrow, has Italy remained the seat of inces- sant convulsions, — like her own Vesuvius, belching forth for- ever, or with few intervals, flame and red-hot lava, and shaking forever with the shocks of earthquake? The answer is plain. Italy, from the outset of her modern career, from the early years of the middle ages, has had fixed at her very heart an aneurism, which has dilated and festered there till her whole circulation became corrupted and paralyzed. In the very middle of the peninsula, and until ten years ago, stretching across from sea to sea and dividing it into two separate parts, spread a broad belt of land which was the seat of an exclusive, an independent, and a foreign government. Yes, let me repeat, within the sovereignty of Italy, within her own borders, at the very centre of her do- minion, was another sovereignty, not only not responsible to her, but alien in its origin ; not only foreign in its origin, but abso- lute and autocratic in its pretensions ; not only absolute in its pretensions as a proprietor and a ruler, but divine and theocratic in character, and asserting a superiority not over Italy only, but over the world ! [Applause.] Now let me ask any statesman or lawyer, or even any cursory reader of affairs, whether it is possible for a sovereign State to exist in the bosom of another sovereign State ? Do they not ex- clude each other by the very definition of sovereignty? Does not the very supposition imply conflict and disorder? Must not the one sooner or later swallow up and destroy the other? Even if they were consentaneous in their instincts and objects ; even if their feelings, their principles, their institutions harmonized to the full, the relation would still be abnormal, jarring, perilous, and liable at any moment to a destructive rupture. What has been lately our own experience on that head, — where, with a kindred people, with the same language, laws, trades, political systems and destinies, the bare assertion of two incompatible sovereign- ADDRESS OF 1'AUKK GODWIN. 137 ties led to an awful and bloody war? How would it be, then — how must it be — when these sovereignties are not harmonious either in structure or design, where the governments which ex- ercise their powers are without sympathy of feeling or purpose, and are borne onward by totally opposite impulses and inspira- tions? How inevitable, in such a case, is discord, hatred, and internecine and unending war! Now that is the case of Italy. It has happened in the course of events, that this principality of Rome, — originally a dependent duchy of the Roman empire ; then, by a revolutionary movement of the people in the eighth century, when they broke away from the empire, the " Republic of Rome," whose government was conferred by the same people upon the Bishop of Rome ; and finally, by the conquests of Pepin and of Charlemagne, made the " Church and the Republic of Rome,"' — this principality, I say, by these events acquired a double character. It became a Church as well as a State ; it was an Italian principality, but also a universal kingdom; a temporal power as well as a spiritual power, and by this double capacity necessarily inimical to the aspirations, the tendencies, the feel ings, and the interests of Italy as a nation. Italy as a nation has experienced the same influences precisely which the other nations of Europe experienced, and which, from age to age, have lifted them out of mediaeval conditions into those of our modern civilization. Italy, like the other nations, has felt that warm and powerful breath of freedom which has loosed industry and trade from their icy fetter- ; which has secu- larized politics, taking them out of the domain of bigotry and persecution; which has emancipated thought and conscience; and which is leading us all on to that glorious consummation, when the equal and sacred manhood >>i' every child of the Uni- versal Father shall he the one pervading, inspiring, organizing truth of political and social life — the frontal truth of all your State,-: the redeeming truth of all your churches. [Greal ap- plause.] Rome, on the other hand, from the necessities of her position as a double government, has been hostile to all these hoj.es of larger liberty, to all these tendencies to mere liberal forms. Tin' political theory which, as a theocracy, she is compelled to adopt, i.- not the theory of modern thought, hut i- entirely inconsistent 138 UNITY OF ITALY. with the exercise of temporal power, according to any of the principles adopted by modern science, and recognized in the practice of all the enlightened modern nations. That theory is, that God himself has commissioned two powers to govern the world — the spiritual power and the temporal power : the former exercised by the Pope, and the latter by the King. That the spiritual power is the sun, while the temporal power is the earth ; that the one is the soul, the other the body ; consequently that the one is as superior to the other as the sun is to the earth, or the soul to the body ; and that the temporal is responsible to the spiritual, while the spiritual is responsible only to God. Heaven preserve us, as Paul Louis Courier used to say, from malignity and metaphors ! How, under such a theory, can a government be anything but absolute, anything but irresponsible, anything but '"immutable," as it is called — that is, incapable of error, and therefore incapable of amelioration. Deriving its authority and its powers not from its people, nor any class of its people, nor yet from the larger constituency of Christendom, but from a special and direct gift of the Almighty, its agents are of course responsible only to Him from whom they hold their trust. No human law may call them to account ; no human tribunal subject their acts to its scrutiny or its punish- ment ; and no human opinion, indeed, venture to criticise or condemn. Again, under such a theory and constitution of gov- ernment, the spiritual ends must take precedence of the mere temporal ends ; rights must be subordinated to duties even the most formal ; and the chief business of administration become, not the defence of person and property, but the definition of dog- ma and the promotion of an external worship. Accordingly the government of Koine, of all the governments in the civilized world, is the most absolute and at the same time the most absurd. It is a government of priests, in which laymen have no voice and no uses. Not an iota of freedom exists there by right, only by their concession. Not a solitary public press which is not controlled by their agents ; not a public meeting can be held without their sanction, and not a book can be circulated, even the Bible, nor the common Father of All worshipped, but by their consent. What is worse is, that offences against this authority constitute a sacrilege; mere sins and personal vices become heinous crimes, and are more often punished than crimes ; and ADDRESS OF PARKE GODWIN. 139 the temeritv which ventures to call in question the acts of the hierophant, who is also the judge and the executioner, is liable to the dungeon and the axe, as well as to hell-lire. [Applause.] Need we wonder, then, that the Roman people, placed under such a power, should become restive and irritable ? AVhen the thorn is in your flesh will you not pluck it out ? When the nia- remma is enclosing your fields, and spreading its vapors to your very door, will you not drain off its stagnant pools and open it > pestilent bogs to the air and sunlight of heaven ? Well, then, can you be surprised that the Roman people have more than a score of times driven out their prince, who was only restored in most cases by the points of foreign bayonets turned against the breasts of his faithful subjects? That, however, is not all. This Roman principality is not only an anachronism, a petty local tyranny translated out of the ninth into the nineteenth centurv, and as such a scourge to its im- mediate subjects. It is besides a theocratic monarchy, and as such an obstacle and a clog to the progressive development of the whole of Italy. Representing a vast outside constituenc}\ it has aims, feelings, policy, and principles that are wholly foreign to Italy. All its external relations are managed with reference to its own advancement, and not in reference to the advancement of that people within whose borders it subsists. Whether coalescing or warring with the Greek Emperors; whether coalescing or warring with the Lombard kings, whether coalescing or warring with the Frank Mayors of the Palace, whether coalescing or warring with the aristocratic republic-, with the German Kaisers, or the English, the French, the Span ish ministries, it- conducl has invariably been determined by its own interests of religion or ambition, and not by the interests of its Italian connection. Italy has often been a pawn in its game ; it has been the shut tlecock of its blows, it has been the field of its battle-; but her defence, her development, her progress, her concentration and strength were never the end. On the contrary, it was always an end to defeat every movement for her consolidation and strength. Fra Paolo Sarpi, who in the lii-.-t years of the seven teenth century took the part of the Venetian republic againsl the Papacy, returningto his cell one nighl was Binitten down by the hand of an assassin — smitten but not killed. Drawing the 140 UNITY OF ITALY. weapon from the wound, lie hung it upon the wall, inscribing beneath it, " The dagger of'Korae." So upon every baffled and unsuccessful effort of the Italian people to accomplish their national enfranchisement, we may also inscribe "the dagger of Rome." [Applause.] She has resisted and stifled every at- tempt in that direction, from the time of the Lombards to the time of Carl Albert or Victor Emmanuel. Her dark emis- saries, like the weird sisters of " Macbeth," " without age and without sex," have ever circled about the destiny of Italy with the foreboding and mystic cry of " Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, Fire bum and caldron bubble," and by their incantations made " Fair of foul and foul of fair." Rome, I say, has resisted every forward and upward movement; she has smitten it when she could openly ; she has stabbed it when she could not smite ; but, thank God, she has not killed it ; for now after centuries of trial, and despite her machinations and intrigues, comes the completed triumph. In the language of your address, we may exclaim aloud, " Italy is free ! Italy is one! and Rome, the ancient mistress of the world, is her capital once more, not by the support of foreign garrisons, but the free choice of the Italian people." [Great applause.] At the conclusion of Mr. Godwin's speech, the Address was unani- mously and enthusiastically approved. On the announcement by the President that several thousands, un- able to gain entrance, were gathered without and asked for speakers, Hon. Horace Greeley, Chancellor Crosby, Daniel D. Lord, Esq., Cyrus W. Field, Esq., and others volunteered and addressed the people outside the Academy. Here the band performed the March " Viva Italia." ADDRESS OF REV. H. W. BEECHER. We are not assembled this evening, fellow-citizens, for any po- lemical purpose. It is not to consider the theology of Rome, nor to discuss her ecclesiastical politics. We have no war to make ao-ainst the Pope. The old questions, that have been debated through hundreds of years, may sleep to-night for all of us. We are disposed rather, in so far as it can be done in consistency with AJDDEESS OF H. W. BE.ECHEE. 1-tl our known Protestant feelings, to express such sympathy for the Pope as his excellent private character, joined to his misfortunes, would naturally beget. [Applause.] We are here to-night, in part, because we have been summoned by the clamor, the en- thusiasm of the multitudes of meetings called in this country to represent American feeling, and to send it abroad to all the Courts of Europe, and especially to Italy, as a testimony from this con- tinent. I hold in my hand a paragraph from one of the ablest religious Catholic papers in this city, in which it is said : — ' ' The Catholic papers everywhere are full of reports of immense meetings and earnest protests in behalf of the Holy Father. [Laughter.] The whole Catholic world is stirred to its very depths by the flagitious outrage offered to the Head of the Church, and through him to all his spiritual children." Still further on it says : — "Some may sneer at this world -wide manifestation of sympathy with the Pope, and still more at the demand of Catholics that his temporal power be re- stored ; let them sneer who may ; they will find that the united action of the Catholic people forming a part, and in many instances a considerable part of the population even of so-called Protestant countries, must and shall have its effect. Xone know this better than Yictok Emmanuel and his ministers, and they shall probably know it better still before many months go by." [Laughter.] Xow. fellow-citizens, I do not wonder that the hierarchy of Rome scattered throughout the world — men eminent for learning, for purity of life, and for sincere devotion to the cause which they ad- vocate — I do not wonder that they are kindled with enthusiasm, and that they send hack protestations over the sea, for they that love and honor power love the source of power. I might borrow from the Italian itself the homely proverb, " The goblet loves the spigot that 1ills it.' 1 [Applause.] Nor do 1 altogether marvel that the mercurial temperament of many of the laity, who arc better in- formed on some other subjects than they are on civil polity, follow their leaders and acclaim with a large < legree of enthusiasm ; Inn 1 do say that those who haw a right to speak, whose voices we are willing to hear, considering that thej are expressing but their own opinion — I do say that theirs will not be the only voice sen! across the water. [Cheers.] Let their words go from this free country freely. Let it he understood in Europe that then- is not a city in America in which the adherents of the papacy — and that in its worst aspect, in its civil relations— that then; is no hamlet, town, or city in which they can- not assemble and express their opinions without molestation 142 UNITY OF ITALY. or without ill-feeling. Let them send their voices over the sea, and tell Italy and tell the Papal Government what sort of liberty is bred in America. [Applause.] Bat then, when they shall have had free course to run and be heard [laugh- ter] ; when the cable shall have done its messages, there shall come another sort of sound afterward, rolling from the prairies and the mountains, and from the towns and cities and over the sea, to say to every potentate in Europe, and to say to Italy, now standing erect in her new-born liberty, " This is the voice of America — Hail Italian Unity, and God bless it ! " [Great cheering.] I do not forget that within the bosom of the Holy Church itself there are those who are fully in sympathy with us, that there are many Roman Catholics that are not Papists. There are many and many good and Christian men, not second in learn- ing to any, who believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only Apostolic Church, and the only church in which salvation is sure [laughter], registered, and pre-paid [renewed laughter] There are prelates who believe, as we believe, that the Pope is not the infallible and authoritative interpreter of God on earth. Though they hold to the Church, they don't hold to that dogma; though they believe even in the spiritual headship of the Bishop of Rome, they do not believe it is best for him and the Church to add civil government to his clerical and spiritual functions. And we shall say to that large body of laymen, and not a small body of clergymen, of the Church of Rome, in America silent, but in Europe vocal, that we do not believe it to be an evil that Rome has lost her territory, that she might gain a better empire spiritu- ally throughout the world [applause]. But I would not have it understood that we have come together" here to-night on the wild impulse of liberty, and are bearing witness to our sympathy for Italy on no just and solid grounds of experience and of reason. For I think that the American people base their sympathy with this successful movement of Italy upon fundamental grounds that will bear stating, bear reading, and bear reasoning. And, h'rst, it is the opinion of the American people, with a very small minority to the contrary, that the government of a commu- nity b} r a class in that community, without the consent of the great majority of the governed, is one of the worst organizations that can enthral a nation [applause]. It is the opinion of this American ADDRESS OF H. W. BEECHER. 14:3 people that of all classes of governments there is no other so bad as the government of an ecclesiastical class [applause]. It might be presumed beforehand that a body of men carefully educated to moral ideas, that they might be moral teachers, would make the best citizens not only, but the best rulers. Yet I must say experience has not borne out the theory [laughter]. It has not. Is it because clergymen are so spiritual that they cannot gel their feet to the ground on which they are living '. [Laughter.] Is it because they are so given to divine studies that they have; forgotten human \ I think not. I think clergymen should make just as good citizens as anybody else ; I think they ought to take part in citizenship just like anybody else. They ought to read ; they ought to debate with proper modesty [laughter] ; they ought to vote; they ought to be taxed, and without grumbling to pay their taxes [laughter]; they ought not to be discriminated from other citizens in any single respect. They are no better in the eve of the law, and they are no worse in the eye of the law. They are simply common people before the law and before the Government, and as such they average very well with their fel- low-citizen-. [Applause.] There have been those that at- tempted to say to the clergy : Your business is such that you should not be found in these lower walks of life ; you should not dabble with politics, hut give yourselves up to holy contempla- tion, and bring a delightful calm into the house of God, where men, forgetting the duties, the troubles, and the burdens of daily life, shall have visions of immortality and bliss. And after a time these good and holy men are with velvet praise made to think that perhaps they are better than they thought they were. [Laughter.] And when they are told to put their dainty teet upon the privileged shelf; to lounge as if they were made of different flesh and blood ; when they find themselves incensed and praised in sweet suggestions of compliment, being called •'divine men," and when they begin to feel the attitude of gods in them, it is not surprising in my mind that they like it. | Ap- plause.] Now a man thai is neither a citizen nor traitor, neither man nor woman, neither angel nor minister, but a certain para sitic something, I have no opinion for. When they are made ami rounded out like dough, properly pricked and stamped with 3omebody's name, they arc vreryuicemen and warranted to keep. [Laughter.] That is the way the democrats make hierarehB, 144 UNITY OF ITALY. [Cheers.] Bnt ministerial democrats like myself say to these people, "Out with you — a man is a man, and he is only a man." I stand on the apostolic declaration : " Men and brethren, we are men of like passions with you. We get mad just as you do, jeal- ous just as you do, and sometimes feel like lighting as you do. We are citizens, having our cares, our temptations, our part of public thought, and public business, and public duty; bound to it not because we are ministers, but men, and because we are citizens." I say ministers are just as good citizens as need be, if you let them be common democratic citizens ; but the moment you make a class of them you spoil them. The moment you say to them : Here are the people, there are the men of God, — that very moment you have made a hierarchy and a class. And then, if they feel the impulse of that class, if they adhere to all the class instincts among themselves, with class ambitions and feelings, they become — not because they are ministers, but because they are handed together — they become the worst possible managers of all public or political affairs. That which is dune by complai- sance and flatteries in a democratic community is done on pur- pose abroad ; and the hierarchy of Rome is an educated body of men cut off in various ways, and in the purpose of their lives, from social relations to the community — made to be utterly sep- arate. And experience has shown when j t ou put them at the helm and give them the control of public affairs there is no gov- ernment more oppressive, more abominable and intolerable than that which comes from priestly government. [Applause.] Italy has groaned, being burdened through centuries with this government. As part by part it has been rescued, we have been all glad ; and now that at length the Pontifical States themselves have had the opportunity to express their feelings in regard to their masters, and have blown them up, we are glad of that too : not because they are Roman Catholics, and not because the} 7 are priests, but because they are a class government, and one of the most odious of all class governments. America, then, sends back to-night sympathy to Italy, because Italy has got rid of the despotism of the priestly class government. [Cheers.] This nation, secondly, sends sympathy to Italy because she is treading in those very footsteps which have brought us to where we stand : though our steps, like hers, were in blood — we to the horse's bridle, she scarcely above her shoe latchet — yet she is walk- ADDRESS OF H. W. BEECHEK. [45 ing to power, by the same path through which we have consoli- dated popular power in this country. There are two elements which evidently must exist in every great government in our day. J ower must be radicated at the bottom of society and in the municipal governments. County governments and State govern- ments must be federated, holding in their hands real powers; hut all the local governments must be so spread abroad, inde- pendently, that they shall he the roots of power among the peo- ple ; so that when they are affiliated and brought together into the common trunk of the general government, that combination will represent in its forms the absolute power of all these units at the bottom. Now we have an ample example of this abroad. So long as it was possible to maintain a nation with depart- mental independence in France, so long France was powerful externally and weak internally. France, like a hollow globe, is strong against pressure, but when the globe's surface is crushed it has no supports within and nothing that can bear her up. When we were at war here in America, the more we were defeated and driven back the more we were driven toward hope. The North in the great conflict was never so strong as in the last years of the struggle, for it cultivated local strength. The South cultivated communal strength, and was strongest first. We had cultivated not much communal strength, but great local • independence, and at the first we were crushed, but we after- ward crushed them. [Applause.] Germany has cultivated local strength without affiliation, and what is the result? It has been in the hands of a tyranny tor generations, simply because there was no national unity there. Like so many tmground kernels of wheat, they could not make a loaf. There was power in these little petty kingdoms, but they could not be held together. It was not until,' God willing and Bismarck in power, the late events took place, thai Germany began to understand that real national power required two elements, namely, local strength and national cohesion. We have proved it. The central nations of Europe are making the experiment. We "say to Italy. We hail your experi incut and your success. The various departments of [tab now are united together under one King. It Is a federated republican monarchy. It is a constitutional monarchy, hut made up of sev era! independent State- of the peninsula; and now thai thi States have come in under the sa segis, we rejoice at it. for we 146 UNITY OF ITALY. say this is the way to strength — local independence and national unity. [Applause.] We are glad that Italy has taken these steps, following the example of America. She takes with her our full sympathy, and we send to Italy the voice of this meeting and say, We rejoice in the prosperous and successful issue of your endeavors to unite every part of the peninsula in one solid government. [Applause.] We also sympathize with them on the simple ground that the Pontifical States have tired of their old ruler, and want to try another. [Cheers and laughter.] When we are tired of our magistrates we know what to do with them. We send white thunder after them every election day. Ballots kill, or would do so outside of JS T ew York. [Laughter.] The expression of the will of the people ought to govern in any community. They ought to have the power of determining their laws and their magistrates ; and when the Pontifical States are called to vote, and they have voted almost to a man that they did not want their Holy Father [laughter], it is time they should be set free [cheers]. And when they turn to the King of Italy, where is the American that will withhold his sympathy from these States that desire to be governed by Victor Emmanuel, and not by Pius IX., or say these people shall not have liberty of choosing their own Governor? The voice of this meeting and of America declares that every people have a right to determine their own laws and their own Governor. [Cheers.] I say to the Italians to-night, that we are in sympathy with the movement, because the Italian Government, as now constituted, carries with it education, intel- ligence among the common people, liberty of conscience and of the Press, and of religion and progress. Now I should like to see a thousand American men who say they do not believe in a free Press, and a free conscience, and general intelligence, and progress, unrestricted except by the bounds of morality. Put this question to Americans, Do you desire to see Italy as free as America in all the great elements of humanity % and would there be enough speaking to be heard even in an undertone at that thunder of acclamation that would go across the sea? I hope the time will come when I shall sing the Old Hun- dred in the Coliseum. I do not know that I shall ever preach in the Vatican or in St. Peters. [Laughter.] I think, on the whole, I shall not. [Laughter.] I do not despair of the day, when there ADDRESS OF H. W. BEECHER. 147 shall be heard in every part of Rome the voice of Protestant Christian people, gathered in their several chapels and places of worship, interrupting no other, but exercising their own liberty, and praising God as their fathers praised him. [Cheers.] That change has come which has broken the priestly yoke ; the burden is gone, and the shackle has gone, and I say, God be thanked for it! [Tremendous applause.] All Europe and the civilized world are interested in bringing Italy back again into the family of nations. There is a noble stock there. The fine Italian genius is not lost out of the world yet ; there is yet to be a historv of that -people not unworthy of the illustrious past. We hail' the dawn of this new era, and rejoice at this approximate consumma- tion of it, because the world needs Italy just where she is, and there should be a regenerated Italy. We are to have a Germany united more than ever before ; we are to have before long a re- generated and, I believe, a constitutional A ustria. [Applause.J I do not despair of Spain ; and I believe when France is ground still further,— God grant it may be till every vestige of cen- tralization is ground out of her, — when she believes in the liberty of every part of France, and of every Frenchman, we shall see a resurrected France arising from the fields of blood new and strong in freedom. [Applause.] We want to see old Italy, the mother of so many laws,— whose religion has blessed the world and cursed it, whose laws captured and released so many men, whose arms have dominated, but whose ideas still more ; -we want to see the day of Italy when she shall arise, and gen- eration after generation of her people shall be educated, and' her voice again be heard in Europe in science, in art, in religion, in jurisprudence and in politics. We stand not as if there had been wrong done to the Pope. These people do nol want him. That is quite proper. His people do not like his Government and would try another. But we look at it in a larger light. W o see the dawn of a noble manhood in the young nation, and we an- glad, for we have no jealousy or fears. Other nations may be afraid in Europe to see a great potentate rise bv their side -not we. We are not afraid even of Mexico or Canada [gr.-;,t laughter], and certainly not of this fresh nation over the - ,;i - VI e rejoice in the rise of that new, young, and vigorous nation, mid we say to Italy, You are needed; the world wants you; andsince it has pleased God t<> bring vqu into life, we wish 10 14S UNITY OF ITALY. to see von with strength to take cure of yourself. [Cheers.] I also accord, and none the less from any pleasantries that might have been uttered, to every class of our citizens the right to ex- press themselves just as explicitly as we have done, and to send their messages across the sea. I recur to the topic on which we besran, namely — the voice of these men clustered here and there in our great cities must not be mistaken anywhere for the voice of the American people. This meeting will send out sparks that will kindle meetings in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. Town after town will follow up this meeting. TTe want Europe to under- stand that when we are called upon to speak, Americans are on the side, and always so, of liberty in religion and politics. I hail the auspicious day, now near approaching, when the Italian Government shall move its bureaus and its Chief Magistrate to the venerable old city of Borne. May the sun shine bright when Victor Emmanuel enters her gates amid the peals of cannon and the joyous acclamations of the people on that joyful day. "Without any violent stretch of imagination, we might fancy we heard whispered from above on that glad occasion : " Arise, shine: for thv light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." [Applause.] May God enable us to add : ki Violence shall no more be heard in thy laud, wasting or destruction within thy borders. Thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise." [Thunders of applause.] ADDRESS OF JUDGE JAMES EMOTT. Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens ; If any man will care- fully look back upon the record of the last ten years of the world's history, he will find such results as perhaps no ten years ever saw before. Here at home we have wiped out hnman slavery in blood and tears, and we have consolidated America into a nation so firmly that no theories hereafter can call rebellion by any other name. We justly boast of such sacrifices and such results. But the movements in the older nations of the world are in their char- acter and their consequences certainly no less wonderful than the sacrifices and achievements of our own people. There is not a (ireat Power in Europe which has not felt the advance of civiliza- ti< >n. Bu->ia lias freed her millions of serfs. Austria, so long wed- ded to civil and ecclesiastical despotism, is becoming a constitu- ADDRESS OF JUDGE EMOTT. 1-ii* tional monarchy. Spain lias opened a door to free thought and speech which can hardly 1 >e closed again. England lias kept steadily moving toward the enlightenment and the enfranchise- ment of her masses. Germany has become a nation, to stand in the world's conflicts the representative of free thought and ad- vanced civilization. France is in throes which may usher in the birth of a better government than military despotism, or a repub- lic of fanaticism or force. To each of these nations in turn our rulers and our people have ottered recognition and sympathy. But now at length Italy, too, has achieved freedom and unity. Yet to the people of Italy not a word has been sent back from the people of this land, the land to which the struggling look for sympathy, and to which the oppressed flee for refuge, excepl echoes of the curses fulminated by the Pope of Rome. Surely it is time that the people of the United States should speak to the people of Italy, as well as the subjects of the Roman Church in America to its rulers at Rome. If it be true that we have poli- ticians and public men who cannot see how the principles of free government are involved in the Italian question, or if there are such men who dare not speak their convictions for fear of the political power wielded by an organized religious body here in the United States of America, it is time that the Amer- ican people knew it. Such a state of things may concern us more than the impotent anathemas of the Pope do the Italians. [Applause.] Let us be careful to remember and to make everybody understand that this is no religious question. Against the doctrines or the ritual of the Church of Rome, as long as they are only the doctrines and observances of a church, en- forced by religious considerations upon the consciences of its adherents, no American citizen should ever do-ire to invoke the laws of his country, or to excite the political animosities of his fellow-citizens. Whatever the Bishop of Rome and hi.- Ministers might have done to us while they ruled that city, had we de sired to profess our faith, or perform our worship there, God for- bid that we should attempt any intolerance where we are the rulers. Nor do 1 propose to discuss any etl'oi't of the Roman Bishop to impose upon the conscience of those who believe him infallible, dogmas which seem to as in conflict with human prog re—, nay, I might -;iy hostile to the authority if not the existence 150 UNITY OF ITALY. of any human governments not subordinate to his own power. We acknowledge the right of every man to his opinions and to their open advocacy. If every American citizen, native or naturalized, believes that the principles of the Papal court and the Papal government are the true principles of human life and human government, no true friend of liberty and civilization should desire that such opinions should not be frankly avowed and freely discussed. But no such question as this has brought us here to-night. The issue raised by the Pope of Rome and the supporters of his tem- poral government is between the Roman Church and the Italian people. It is a question between the head of that Church as a temporal ruler, and a million of people to whose country he has no title but one acquired by his predecessors by force or fraud, and whom he has misgoverned beyond endurance. That people, relieved from foreign force, have thrown off the yoke of his gov- ernment, and their brethren of the Italian race, receiving them back as part of the united whole to which Italy is at last restored, have marched their army to put down the mercenary bands by whom the Pope has been maintaining his power. This, we are told, is not only rebellion but robbery, and not only robbery but sacrilege. Now let us see what is the title of the Pope of Rome to what were called his States. Go back to its origin, and you will find it springing out of rebellion ; trace its history, and you will see that, like all other governments which have come down from the past, it has- grown and been built up by fraud and by force. Down to the eighth century the Pope of Rome was a spiritual ruler, and the civil ruler of Italy was the Emperor, with Exarchs and Prefects under him. In that century came to the throne Leo, the Isaurian, — a rude soldier; probably an honest man. He imbibed a resolute hatred of the already prevalent adoration of images. He interdicted and proscribed them. Everywhere the people, led by the clergy, renounced their allegiance to the Emperor rather than abandon their custom of honoring their images. That was a rebellion against a weak and decaying govern- ment, it is true, and upon a religious issue, but still a revolt. Out of this revolt, and the confusion into which Italy fell between its rebellious people, with their religious fanaticism, and their dis- ADDRESS OF JUDGE EMOTT. lol taut and feeble rulers, came the acquisition of civil power by the ecclesiastical head of the Roman Church. He had been a bishop of a diocese, an archbishop of a province; be was recognized as a patriarch of a portion of the western Church. Now he became a leader of rebellious subjects of the Roman Emperor, and so a civil ruler. But this is not the whole history of the beginning of the tem- poral power of the Pope. The Lombards were in Italy, a warlike. barbarous race. Already established by conquest of portions of Italy from the enfeebled Empire, they saw their opportunity in this religious revolt. They appeared in arms, announced themselves protectors of the holy images, and overran the terri- tories then remaining under Imperial obedience. From these lawless conquerors the Bishop of Rome first obtained a formal gift of the territory over which he had exercised ecclesiastical power. This was the first donation, the oldest source of title to the temporal power of the Roman See. But this was a precarious title, and the consent of these barba- rians was an uncertain dependance. Zaehary, then Pope, turned elsewhere for protection against his benefactors. The Franks were growing to be the most powerful nation of Europe. Nomi- nally governed by the Kings of the Merovingian race, they were really ruled by Charles Martel, and then by Pepin, of whom came Charlemagne. And between the ambitious soldier and the equally ambitious priest a bargain was struck. The Pope sanc- tioned the rebellion of Pepin and the deposition of Childeric. Pepin in return swept down on the Lombards, conquered them by force, and gave the Pope the Roman States by solemn instru- ment. That was the second donation, the next step in the chain of title, and such was the price paid by the donee. It was a gift by a usurping soldier, a rebellious subject, to the Bishop of Rome, and it> consideration was the solemn and professedly religious sanction by the Church of rebellion and usurpation. A few years passed and other actors appeared to repeat the transactions. Pepin died, and Charles and Carloman succeeded. Carloman died leaving children, and as titles go by dwi?u right, of which the Romish clergy are fond of talking to-day, those children were entitled to their father's share in the empire, lint again there was a rebellion and a usurpation. < lharles seized the 152 UNITY OF ITALY. whole kingdom, to the exclusion and wrong of his' brother's children. Again the Bishop of Rome listened to the voice of power — and not the voice of justice — and was rewarded by- Charles for sanctioning his wrong by a fresh grant of territorial power. This was the third donation. Now I shall not follow the lono- historv of ambition and contention between the Popes and the Emperors through the Dark Ages. Nor will I stop to tell the history of the overthrow of the Papal Government in the wars of the French Revolution, and its restoration by the allied sovereigns. Twice at least in modern times has the Pope been replaced on his throne and kept there by foreign soldiers against the will of his subjects. I have sketched the historical origin of the Papal government, and I have alluded to its history, not because American citizens can or ought to see any elements in such a history by which the right of the question between the people of Italy on the one hand, and the Pope as a ruler of a part of them on the other, is to be tried. We believe, if we are not ready to defile our fathers' graves, and to deny the fundamental principles on which our govern- ment stands, that all governments depend for their right to exercise their powers upon the consent of the governed. [Applause.] We believe that when a government becomes destructive of the ends for which only it has a right to exist, the protection of its citizens in their lives, their liberties, and their lawful pursuits, the people have a right to change it, peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must. Now, sir, I have seen it alleged in some recent mani- festoes of the Roman clergy and their adherents, that Rome is the capital of Christendom, and does not belong to Italy, and that two hundred millions of Christians have given the Roman States to the Pope. When, I beg to ask, or how, was such a gift bestowed ? More than that, what right have two hundred millions of foreigners to give away the country of the Italian people, and the right to govern them ? [Applause.] No, this is a question for the Italian people, the temporal subjects of the Pope, and not for the millions of his spiritual adherents who never saw Italy. Sir, it is not to be denied that the people of the Papal States have rebelled against the Pope; that they have turned from him to the sovereign and the government of their choice, to restore the unity of Italy, so long interrupted by usurpations and tyranny, built upon their weakness, and sustained by foreign power. It is ADDRESS OF JUDGE EMOTT. 153 not to be denied that all the rest of Italy welcomes their return, and heartily co-operates in assisting them to rebel against, to escape from, the power and the government which would have prevented it. I am not afraid to justify the overthrow of the Pope's govern- ment by the Roman people, with the aid of the Italian army, as a rebellion. I do not see how anv American, no matter what his religious opinions, can hesitate upon such a question. It is only necessary lor us at least to see two facts — first, that the Papal government was oppressive; and second, that its subjects desired to be free from its oppression. I assert, and for my argument I assume these propositions, and then I say this movement, which I am willing to call a rebellion, was a righteous act. I sav I am willing to call it a rebellion, but I may rather say it is a resump- tion by a people of power obtained and continued by force, and abused to oppression. The government of the Pope has been called a paternal government. His subjects say that it was a government of absolute tyranny. What else could it be \ Take the propositions of the Syllabus, " that the best condition of society is that in which it is the duty of the government to keep in check, by punishments, the enemies of the Catholic Church." Again, -that it is the duty of the Church to keep in check, by temporal punishments, the transgressors of its laws." Keduce these propositions to practice under a despotic Govern- ment, controlled exclusively by ecclesiastics, and do you think any one could live under it but a slave ? Then; was no safe! v of persons and no rights of property under the Papal government. Men and women were watched, accused, arrested, tried, and con- demned by secret tribunals, or imprisoned without trial. There were no just trials, no public examinations, no law but the abso- lute will of secret and arbitrary bodies of ecclesiastics, who would punish heresy when they would overlook crime. The Pope might annul any contract, as he could make or unmake anv law. The civil power was simply the instrument of the ecclesiastical au- thority, and the whole was a tyranny of the worsl description, because it was wielded by ecclesiastics. Now. was it robbery for all Italy united to rescue their Romau brethren from such a yoke as this, and to offer them a share in the government of a \h'e and united kingdom { This i> no ambi- tious occupation of a feeble State by an adjacent Power. It is 154 UNITY OF ITALY. no question like that of Denmark or Luxembourg, where only political and selfish motives control, and the people who are con- cerned are not even asked their wishes. I might put the inter- vention of Victor Emmanuel upon the right of every nation to help another people struggling to be free. But the right stands on better grounds than that. Italy has a right to Rome, because all Italy is, by nature, by lineage, by language, one people, and Rome is its capital. ISTo fragment of that people and of that country, organized into a petty State, without the consent of the whole, can deprive the people of the land of their great imperial city. Still less can any potentate, spiritual or temporal, withhold from the Italian nation, when it recovered its unity, the xerx heart of its territory, because lie or his predecessors had seized that fr igment when the land was broken in pieces, and they had been strong enough or cunning enough to hold it ever since. This is not a question of mere race. Italy is more than a race ; it is a nation. There is an Italian people, and it is not only un- just, it is impossible that they should not have Rome. Certainly it has long, if not always, been only a question of time, and all reflecting men, not ecclesiastics, have seen that it was so. It has been said that the Papal States in Italy are like the District of Columbia here. There is not the slightest analogy in the two cases. The District of Columbia is reserved by our whole nation for the seat of its supreme national authority, because none of the States should be sovereign in the place where the sovereignty of the whole body is to reside and act. But is the Pope the head of the Italian nation \ Have that people ever assigned him Rome as the seat of the sovereign power of their whole country ( I can, indeed, imagine an analogous case to the situation of those once Papal States. If this continent had been discovered two hundred years before it was, or if this part of it had been peo- pled and governed by a Catholic Power; if such a Power, by right of discovery and occupation, had granted to the Pope Vir- ginia, with those old boundaries which stretched from the At- lantic to the Mississippi, perhaps to the Pacific, and then he had reigned by such a title over unwilling subjects with such a gov- ernment as he has maintained at Rome, would our fathers, at the formation of this government, have listened to his demands, and left his territory a barrier and a dark land of separation between two portions of liberated America? [Applause.] The question ADDBESS OF JUDGE EMOTT. l'.f) answers itself, and the answer tells what the descendants of our fathers ought to say to reunited Italy. A\ ill any free people listen to a claim by a prince, spiritual or temporal, by Divine right or forcible establishment, to com- pletely separate their country by interposing a district, sacred from their interference, and beyond the will or power of its own immediate inhabitants, to be governed or misgoverned at the will of an arbitrary ruler '. Yet that the Pope demands of Italy. The territory which lie claims stretches from sea to sea. It di- vides Italy, longing for freedom and for unity, by a barrier which he declares impassable. The progress of Italy towards liberty and the blessings of an advancing civilization under a constitutional government as one people, were stayed by this Christian ruler, who denied his people any rights but such as he chose to permit them to exercise, under a government administered chiefly ac- cording to his views of their spiritual interests. Claiming to be the direct substitute on earth of that Divine Lord who said, " My kingdom is not of this world," he asserts his right to a kingdom of this world only different from its other kingdoms because, no matter what may be its shortcoming- or sins, no man may lay hands upon it. It is simply a political structure, a temporal power, and yet it is to be sacred from all resistance by its sub- jects, when resistance to any other power might be justified, and from all interference in their behalf by kindred or neighboring States, no matter what the occasion. Nay, we are distinctly told that the Pope cannot be the citi- zen or the subject of any human government. Why not, if ho i> only a minister of Christ 2 What is there in that office, no mat- ter how wide its spiritual sway, which forbids its holder to sub mit to the civil authority, and to obey the law.- and rules of his country ? By what other right does the Bishop of Koine hold temporal power than does any other ruler \ It is no pail of his ecclesiasti- cal office, and no more given by divine grace than the power of any king or magistrate. The Italian peopleare of his own Church, and they n-\ erence his office and submit to his spiritual -way. Bul they have the right to submil liis acts as a civil ruler to the same test as those of any other monarch, and to tn the rightfulness of hi- governraenl as thai of all governments may be tried. 156 UNITY OF ITALY. There is a doctrine sometimes hinted at by the controversialists of the Papal school, that human governments, unless dominated by religion and ecclesiastics, are the enemy of God, whom the Church represents. If that be true, then indeed the Head of the Church cannot obey any man. But if that be true, then every State, every human government must be either the subject or the enemy of the Vicar of Christ. That is a suggestion fraught with tremendous consequences. "What faith, what allegiance will a church, acting on such a doctrine, allow to a government not its followers, and therefore wholly evil? And what are to be the consequences to a church if it presents not to Italy only, but to all the world, the alternative of subjection or hostility ? These are questions which I have not the strength nor can you spare the time to discuss. I leave them with you as not the least impor- tant outgrowths of this Italian question. Fellow-citizens, the questions of passive obedience to arbitrary power, and of the right relations between the Church and the State, are not open questions for Americans. They have been" settled by our history and, our experience; they are fixed in our convictions. We have only to consider the Italian question in the light of our own past and present, to know what answer America owes to Italy. Surely, from the republican freemen of these United States, but one voice can go back to the King and the people who are at last entering their own imperial city. May God protect Italy, its liberty, its union, and its capital, and may they never be lost or divided. [Great applause.] ADDRESS OF THE REV. H. W. BELLOWS, D.D., PRESIDENT OF THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION. Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : It is of the utmost importance that the ulterior object of this great public meeting should be sharply and unmistakably defined, and placed beyond the power of misrepresentation or misunderstanding. It involves questions of delicacy, and touches differences of feeling connected with the profoundest and most inflammable of all sub- jects. It is creditable to humanity that a solemn instinct arouses the deepest and most jealous sensibilities when the sacred theme of religion is brought into the arena of politics. It becomes, then, all who take that responsibility to consider well what they say and do. ADDRESS OF DK. BELLOW-. 157 Our country, America, took the grave responsibility, in laying the foundations of our Government, to separate Church and State, the political and the religious affairs of the people. It was not from any want of interest in religion, as the nurse of morals and the security of good government, that this divorce was accom- plished, but from a conviction that a connection between Church and State necessarily ended in sustaining some one brand) of the Church at the expense of, and to the discredit of, other brandies; and thus of violating the equal rights of citizens in the administration and protection of the Government, and alienating their loyalty. Moreover, the painful experiences of other countries, the civil wars, exasperated by religious hatreds, engendered by the union of the State with now the Catholic and now the Protestant branch of the Church, had convinced our founders that the dangers of leaving religious institutions CD O CD to the voluntary support of communities, or, at worst, to their local laws, were greatly less than the perils attending the civil recognition of any national or established religion. Experi- ence has proved that religion thrives best, at least in our soil, when the State leaves it to that unhampered conscience and free sense of its inherent worth and importance, felt by the people acting in their private capacity. No country in the world, in the annual pecuniary contributions rendered by the free-will and the unforced liberality of the people toward the support of religious institutions, lias ever given such evidence of the value it sets upon public worship and moral and spiritual instruction as America. However we may deplore the too limited influence of religion in our live- and hearts and in our land, we have oot, as Americans, the least doubt that under anv compulsory or established system of religion the interests of faith and piety would be vastly less efficiently supported. With a population composed of the children of the oldest and the newesl faiths. — Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, He- terodox, Christian and Pagan,— -it is of course to the last degree important that our political institutions should appeal to some thing in which we all agree, or at least to nothing in which we conscientiously disagree. We can'nol touch the question of reli- gious dogma or church polity, in our political capacity, without necessarily and properly stirring up a hornet's not of Stinging partialities and antipathies, which must light upon the body 158 UNITY OF ITALY. politic to prick and poison it to death. The only safety for our political union and the civil liberty we enjoy is, not to embroil our politics with ecclesiastical and dogmatic faith and polity. As Americans, we forego in oar political relations all the advan- tages which might, in the judgment of some, accrue to our several religious organizations from Government recognition and support. The Government, we insist, shall neither know Catho- lic nor Protestant, believer nor disbeliever, Jew nor Christian. It has no ecclesiastical nor theological preferences, and no favors to bestow on any church. We are willing;, nav, we are com- pelled, to take the risk, if any there be, of this entire disconnec- tion between the Church and the State. It is the American policy, and the fundamental law of the Union. So well satisfied with it has experience taught us as a people to be, that we look with the profoundest sympathy and interest upon every attempt prudentl} 7 made in other countries to discon- nect the Church and the State. We have become convinced that their close connection is thoroughly unfavorable to political equal- ity, popular rights, and civil freedom, not to speak of religious liberty. And it is alike our duty and our privilege to give our moral encouragement to all peoples making any advances in the direction of a permanent divorce between Church and State. When the English Ministry lately disestablished the Church of England in Ireland, favorable as it was to the Roman Catho- lics of that country, did we withhold, from any want of sym- pathy with that Church, our congratulations? Should we next year fail to express our profound satisfaction if the Protestant Church of England were disestablished in Great Britain, or the Kirk in Scotland ? We have no business to meddle with their affairs ; but it is our duty and privilege to congratulate them when they move in a direction which not only accords -with our con- victions of political justice and progress, but strengthens our position -at home. In like manner, when united Italy takes repossession of its territorial and ancestral capital, and says that ecclesiastical and religious obstacles shall not block the way, or defeat the aim at civil- and political self-government and national unity, we send Italy our heartfelt and profound congratulations. We do not stop to inquire what ecclesiastical organization or religious creed is disfavored or disestablished by this step. It might be Protes- ADDKESS OF DR. BELLOWS. 150 tant, it may be Catholic : it might be Heterodox, it may be Orthodox. It is the same to us. What we simply recognize Is this: Apolitical church, do matter which, has for generations made it impossible for the Italian people to occupy the capital, which is the natural and traditional centre and symbol of its na- tion ality — the heart of its unity,and its true political head. An ecclesiastic has reigned there as a politician ! Religion has set itself up over politics, and become itself the politics of a govern- ment within a government. This, as Americans, we say, is fatal to the civil and religious freedom of Italy ; and be ir Pope, Pa- triarch, Protestant Archbishop, Grand Llama, or High Priest, we are equally and utterly opposed to it in opinion, although without any right to interfere with it otherwise than by sym- pathy toward the Italian people, self-moved and self-sustained in their aspirations to freedom. This* is the whole question for us, so far as we can act or propose to act upon public sentiment, at home or abroad. We do not propose to deny that there are for the world at large, and specially for the Christian world, two sides to the question. But to American citizens there is but one side. [Applause.] We have no right, as American citizens, to consider the ques- tion as Roman Catholics or as Protestants. Roman Catholicism has the same rights in America as Protestantism, as Judaism no less and no more. The Roman Catholic Church has a right to use her utmost endeavors as an independent and voluntary organization, by the pulpit and the press, to build itself up in this country. She may claim the full protection of our laws, so far as they are extended to all other churches. If she can persuade I he people to adopt her creed and policy, she has a perfect right to do it. She has a right freely to express lier opinion of Protestant- ism, and to exhibit its weakness and peril and sinfulness, to call it unchristian and immoral if she will, and to prove her word-, if she can. Protestantism may do the same by her. if she think- it wise, and if her convictions incline ami compel her to this course. Either may properly Use whatever moral power it possesses to diminish the importance and influence of the oilier. But when either Protestants or Catholics attempt toenlist the Govern- ment or to subsidize National or State funds in favdr oi their sectarian and theological or ecclesiastical support, they are vio luting the spirit and the letter of our National and our State 160 UNITY OF ITALY. Constitutions. When a devout and excellent class of Protestant citizens lately proposed to have the dogma of Christ's Deity, so widely credited and revered by American Christians, made apart of the Constitution of the United States, it was a dangerous and an anti-national attempt on the rights of conscience of the Jew and of some Protestant Christian sects, and it deserved the cen- sure and opposition of the American people, without regard to the truth or importance of the dogma itself. When the Catho- lics use their political power in this State as the make-weight of parties, to secure large appropriations from the State Govern- ment for the support of Roman Catholic schools and charities, they violate the same principle, and lay the seeds of future strifes perilous to our political institutions. When Protestants insist that the Bible shall be read in the public schools, they blindly encourage the Catholics to* demand a ruinous secession from our system of common schools, supported at the public expense. They force religion into our politics ; they attempt a union between Church and State ; they unwittingly justify Catholics in demand- ing their share in the public moneys devoted to education. As Protestants, as Catholics, we have no share in those public moneys. It is only as American citizens that we can claim or properly receive them. It is not to be assumed that American Catholics have not a right to believe in the union of Church and State — but as Ameri- can citizens they have no right to demand any national or politi- cal attention to their belief. Their bishops and archbishops may teach this union from their ecclesiastical chairs. American citi- zens generally cannot but hold the opinion as one perilous and to be met with earnest argument, even while it confines itself to sermons and services, to persuasion and logic ; but when it em- bodies itself in political acts and legislation, it is unconstitutional and treasonable, and to be met with forcible resistance. ■ Acted out, it is a death-blow struck at our civil and religious liberties. It is important to make all candid and fair allowances for the feelings, and what sometimes seem the designs of Roman Catho- lics in regard to the institutions and religious liberties of this country. They represent a system which, in the Old World, has never conceded the possible separation of Church and State ; a sj T stem which teaches the rightful supremacy of the Church over the State ; a system which for centuries has prevailed in ADDRESS OF DR. BELLOWS. 16] vast kingdoms, and over hundreds of millions of people, — not without tin 1 concurrence of great and noble men, emperors, sages, statesmen and political philosophers. Nay, it is not to be assumed that in all stages of civilization, and everywhere, this union has been a calamity and a mistake. The Church has sometimes been more intelligent, free, and democratic than the State. Pontiffs and bishops have been wiser and hotter than emperors and kings. The priesthood has been more friendly to truth and liberty than the people. It cannot be asserted that Church and State are, under all circumstances, incapable of mar- riage, and that the banns are forbidden by nature and humanity. It may be right and politic in other nations to maintain the union for a while, and unwise in us to discountenance it there. Some of the best and wisest men in England maintain the ex- pediency of the English Establishment on political as well as religious grounds. All we need say is that in America we have got beyond it, have abolished it, have forbidden it; are satisfied with the safety and blessedness of the policy of the .National Constitution, and are hound and are determined to maintain it. Nothing else suits or can co-exist with our democratic institu- tions. We favor it by sympathy when it arises in other conn- tries, just as we favor Republicanism in South America, in France, in Spain, everywhere ; not by urging it, or interfering to support it, but by eagerly encouraging the movements in those and in all countries that spontaneously set up the banner which honors and copies our own Stars and Stripes. But we must not forget that two fundamentally different poli- cies divide the world in respect of government. The policy of self-government, which is new. rare, and American, and the policy of a government of birth, title, merit, power- by hypo- thesis representing the best, the aristoi, who, in the shape of king and cabinet, nobles and princes, rule the | pie not in accordance with their views and wishes, or by their consent, but by the strong hand of the sword, bet us not he so ill-taughl in history as not to know that this latter policy has been in earlier time- a wholesome though painful necessity, ami perhapa con tin ues to be so still in some countries. Now where this policy obtains, and can justify itself by necessity, it is perfectly intel- ligible thai tin- State Bhould desire the countenance and aupporl of the Church, and exchange advantages with it; and thai the 162 UNITY OF ITALY. Church should claim, and flourish in claiming and enjoying, alli- ance with the State. The union is not unnatural or impolitic under aristocratic, imperial, or monarchical governments, and it is no discredit to those who believe in them, to declare that the throne and the altar must sink together, must co-exist in close alliance, or die in separation. If the Church be Chang and the State Eng, it is no wonder that both dread the knife that offers to separate them — for the blessed liberty it would promise to either might be purchased with the death of both. When para- lysis attacks Chang, it becomes a different question for Eng. It is probable that even monarchical constitutions, liberal as they sometimes are, must perish when Church and State are wholly divorced. Eno-land's crown will probably not long; survive that separation. But we were not born to any Siamese bond of Church and Crown. We set up a free State, and free churches set themselves up in that State. We began in distinct separa- tion. AVe have flourished both as to Church and State in that separation, and we have come to believe that civil liberty is im- possible without religious liberty, or religious liberty without civil liberty. For the sake of freedom in the Church and freedom in the State, we cannot admit a union here which we respect elsewhere under certain conditions foreign to our own, and might even ad- mit to be politic and w r ise. • Where political liberty is not prized nor understood we do not wonder that religious liberty is sur- rendered, or sought at the expense of the consciences of others. Now it is certainly natural that those who believe in a Church that ever craved and possessed in Europe union with the State, should hanker after it here. It is a merely historical fact, and affirmed without disrespect to that Church, that the Catholic Church is based upon theories identical with those which under- lie monarchical political institutions. A hierarchy and a nobility correspond — a Pope and an Emperor; Cardinals and Princes ; Bishops and Lords. Aristocratic institutions in State and Church both proceed on the theory — true enough in the infancy of so- ciety — that the people are incapable of governing themselves. America says to both, It may be so in Europe; it shan't be so here. We are going to try it, anyhow. What was true for thousands of years may be true no longer ! We have a new hem- isphere, and we are going to have a new era ! We believe ADDRESS OF DR. BELLOW.-. 1 •'»■". enough in humanity and its present advance to risk our lives upon the experiment of self-government. We will bravely take all the uncertainties, all the waning doubts from Old World ex perience, upon our own heads. It may be dangerous, it may be impossible; but we don't believe it. and at any rate we are go- ing to try it. And. as ir is illogical and impossible to have a free State without a free Church, we propose to run all the risks for time and eternity connected with the divorce of Church and State. Each tub shall stand on its own bottom — Church and State — and both shall be free. jS t ow, if our respected Roman Catholic citizens believe in only half our theory, we have no power and no right to enforce the other half upon them by any political means. For a free Church means a Church that shall not be forced in any way by the State. But a free State equally means a State that shall not in any way be forced by the Church. The Catholic Church, therefore, may safely teach the capacity of man in America for self-government in politics, and his inca- pacity for self-government in religion. Some Protestants, I dare say, receive the same belated opinion. But so long as the main- tenance of the aristocratic idea in religion does not involve the overthrow of the popular idea in politics, we have not, as American citizens, a word to say against it, But that it is difficult and per- haps impossible to maintain a disconnection between the Church idea of subordination and a plan and purpose of political subor- dination, it is important to keep in view. American citizens do not propose to allow their political institutions to be sacrificed to any romantic confidence in ecclesiastics of either a Protestant or Catholic school. We musl be on the watch ! When, therefore, bishops and archbishops attempt to govern votes and to influence legislation by ecclesiastical considerations, we ought all to take the alarm. When a foreign ruler i- recognized as having any power in our politics, it is time to look sharply into the theories and practices of those who uphold his right, [Applause.] It is from no hostility to any church or any class of religion- ists, from no partiality to any sect or school, but from allegiance to our institutions and to the cause of civil and religion- liberty, that we express our sympathy with Italy's glorious emancipation from hierarchical politics in tier capital, and America'- determi- nation not to Bee Italy's misfortune, by any address of others or negligence of our own, foisted upon this country. 11 164 UNITY OF ITALY. Freedom in the State, freedom in the Church, political liberty, religious liberty, are slowly, surely working toward each other in all countries. Alps of long-established customs and ancient ne- cessities have interposed between them, and lain heavy upon them both. They have been sought independently by different genera- tions, and by different reformers in the same generation. They were sought together and at the same time by our fathers. It is political freedom that Italy is seeking. It was religious freedom that Germany was seeking in the days of Luther. But really, begin at either end, humanity is always working at the same tun- nel, in the same mountain, and at the same level, for Freedom is her own engineer, and her plans have a more than scientific unity. Already the two opposite bands of laborers are, as in the tunnel of Mt. Cenis, approaching each other. Their pickaxes are heard by each other through the rocky veil that separates them. Nay ; their encouraging halloo pierces the granite wall ; the first gleam of their torches thrills each other's hearts as their eyes meet. The Alpine range is abolished, and civil and religious liberty rush into each other's arms. [Applause.] ADDRESS OF HON. HORACE GREELEY. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : Among the most memorable public assemblies with which I ever mingled in this city was that which met in our great Broadway Tabernacle, on the 29th of November,' 1847, to celebrate, with appropriate con- gratulations, the demonstration then just made, by which Pope Pius IX. had identified himself with the great liberal movement then spreading over Italy. There was in the chair the Mayor of the city of New York, whose successor ought to be here to-night. [Great applause.] There were on either side of him the Mayors of Brooklyn and Jersey City as Vice-Presidents, and asso- ciated with them some fifteen or twenty of our most eminent citi- zens of all parties and of all religious denominations. Among those from whom we received letters of sympathy were ex-Presi- dent Van Buren and his son John Van Buren (the President to be), James Buchanan, Thomas II. Benton, Wm. H. Seward, John C. Spencer, Rufus Choate, Edward Everett, and nearly all that was most eminent among the public men, the notable and emi- nent statesmen of the United States. No party lines divided us, but there was one general spirit of congratulation and joy at the ADDRESS OF HORACE GREELEY. L65 movement which had placed as it were the head of the most ven- erable Church in Western Christendom in the front of the greal liberal movement in the whole world. Our speakers on that occasion were James W. Gerard, who, I trust, is here to-niffht [laughter], Jos. S. Bosworth, David Dudley Field, and others of our ablest statesmen. I will not speak of the Address adopted on that occasion, since I reported it; but the resolutions wherein New York poured forth its heart, and, I may say, gave the assent of its understanding also to this great movement, are very brief, and T will ask you to consider those resolutions: — Resolved, That we regard with the highest interest the progress of free institutions in all countries, and especially in one to which we are so much indebted as Italy, whose laws and whose military and civic polity have penetrated the institutions of half the modern world. Resolved, That the past history and the present condition of the Italians have made them the objects of peculiar interest with all Christendom. The renown of Ancient Rome — the glory of the republics of the Middle Ages — the arts of modern Italy — the mournful history of her struggles and her sufferings— have made her fate an object of especial solicitude with all scholars. all lovers of the beautiful, all admirers of heroic deeds, and all re- publicans. Resolved, That no freeman can look coldly on the present struggle of the Italians for national independence and constitu- tional liberty; that our hearts have been with them since the first movement when the cry of freedom was uttered, and will beat for them until all Italy is tree from Calabria to the Alps. Resolved, That we present most hearty and respectful salu- tations to the Sovereign Pontiff; that, knowing the difficulties with which he is surrounded at home, and the attacks with which he is menaced from abroad, we honor him more for the mild firm- ness with which he has overcome the one, and the true spirit with which he has repelled the other. Resolved, Thai the cvy of freedom again in Italy is a sound which will summon the brave and the free of all nations to en- courage with their voices, and to assisl with their strength, if need be. the Italian people in their struggle for liberty and in dependence. Resolvi L Thai k; Peace hath her victories no less renown,, I than War," and thai the noble attitude of Pius IX., throwing the vast influence of the Pontificate into the scale of well .•it- tempered free, loni. standing a- the advocate of peaceful progress, the promoter al once of social amelioration, industrial develop inent, and political reform, unmoved by the parade of hostile 166 UNITY OF ITALY. armies hovering on his borders, hopeful for man, and trusting in God, is the grandest spectacle of our day, full of encouragement and promise to Europe, more grateful to us and more glorious to himself than triumphs on a hundred battle-fields. So resolved unanimously New York, a little more than twenty- three years ago. Many of the men who thus spoke have passed away; some of them are with us. Our Chairman now, who could not then be present, sent us a word of earnest and hopeful congratulation [applause], and regretted that he could not be here. In these twenty-three years, so memorable, so full of grand and living events, there has been, I trust, some progress. Slavery has perished in America [applause], serfdom in Russia [applause], and, with many drawbacks and some discourage- ments, we may say that, on the whole, the movement of the human race has been forward. [Applause.] Fellow-citizens, those resolutions expressed our sentiments then, my sentiments still. I think I may fairly say, not proudly, with the great Apostle : — " I have fought a good fight," but firmly in his good words: — " I have kept the faith." I believe that the majority of us have kept the faith. [Applause.] I believe that those sentiments are the sentiments of New York and our country to-day ; and they who depart from them, they who turn back or who fall back in this great struggle, shall not be able to cover themselves with the mantle of silence. The world shall yet move on, taking them with or leaving them be- hind it. Those truths shall be proclaimed and established as the general sentiment of enlightened, generous, thoughtful men all over the globe, and the world shall yet rejoice in their triumph, and in the assent thereto of potentates and hierarchs, all through Christendom, and wherever civilization exists. In that trust I rejoice in the multitude who have come together to-night to testify to the truth, although some are timid, some fearful that if they appear here, it will be the end of their hopes and their political aspirations. [Laughter.] I know men who ought to have been with us, and who sent private apologies — who believe with us, believe we are all right ; but believe it is not quite time for them to be just right. Fellow-citizens, the people of New York believe these senti- ments without any but. [Applause.] The word shall go forth, shall be heard by kings and prelates, heard also by the trembling, ADDRESS OF DR. ADAMS. 107 hoping masses all over the world, that the American Republic, by a vast majority of her people, sympathizes with Italy, and re- joices that she is united and free. [Great applause. ] ADDRESS OF REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D., LL.D.* AVhatisthe secret of this extraordinary assemblage, and the interest bordering on enthusiasm with which we celebrate the completion of national unity throughout the peninsula of Italy? Surely not the simple, isolated fact that a country, separated from us by the wide ocean, has adjusted its political organization ac- cording to its own aspirations. Lively as it might he supposed our interest in such an event would he, our sympathy for Italy itself as a nation — Italy, that fair daughter of the sun — that land that the truth may have /'/■" course and be glorified.* This in distinction from its being hound— lettered and impelled by the force and acts of "unreason able and wicked men." What, in the name of God, does truth de maud hut a fair opportunity to utter her voice, and urge her per suasion? Faith is not to he < founded with weak credulity, and so never can be produced l.y compulsion. Our Lord never demanded assenl to his claims withoul evidence; that evidence * 2d ThesH. iii. I. 3. 172 UNITY OF ITALY. he always presented. Faith is not opposed to reason, but is the perfection of reason ; and we who take the Word of God as of supreme authority in the sphere of religion, have our faith in that Word based on rational evidence. If those who prefer the claims of the Papal church, in this or other lands, will substan- tiate those claims at the bar of enlightened reason, by the very means which Christ himself ordained, disavowing every other, — by truth, nothing but truth. — by evidence, by argument, by demonstra- tion, — by truth, free as the air and light of heaven, — truth pro- claimed from the pulpit, a free pulpit in a free church, in free schools, and a free press, — if, relying upon these means only, discard- ing every other, they can acquire ascendency, here and elsewhere, let it be done, and we will all agree to abide the issue. Any form of ecclesiasticism which desires and exercises more of any kind of power than is implied in this absolute freedom of the individual soul before God, is despotism. And when despotism is dethroned, let all the people say Amen. ADDRESS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. We are assembled, my friends, to celebrate a new and signal triumph of liberty and constitutional government; not a victory obtained by one religious denomination over another, but the successful assertion of rights which are the natural inheritance of every man born into the world, — rights of which no man can divest himself, and which no possible form of government should be allowed to deny its subjects. A great nation, the Italian nation, while yet acknowledging allegiance to the Latin Church, has been moved to strike the fetters of civil and religious thraldom from the inhabitants of the most interesting city of the world, in the midst of their exulting acclamations. We are assembled to re- echo those acclamations. [Applause.] The government which has just been overthrown in Rome, denied to those who had the misfortune to be its subjects every one of the liberties which are the pride and glory of our own country — liberty of the press, liberty of speech, liberty of worship, liberty of assembling. It was an iron despotism which, to the scandal of the Christian Church, insisted on persecution as a duty, set the example of persecution to other Catholic countries, and, wherever it could make itself obeyed, maintained the obliga- tion of repressing heresy by the law offeree. ADDRESS OF WILLIAM C. BRYANT. 173 Take a single example of the manner in which the govern- ment \va> administered. An American lady, an acquaintance of mine, a resident in Rome for several years, was snmmoned one morning to appear before the police of that city. She went, ac- companied by the American Consul. "You are charged," said the police magistrate, ,- with having sent inoneyto Florence, to be employed in founding a Protestant orphan asylum. What do you say '." ••I did send money for that purpose," was the lady's answer. " I did not ask for it; it was brought to me by some ladies, who requested me to forward it to Florence, and I did so : and I take the liberty to say that it is no affair of yours." [Great ap- plause. ''Of that yon are not to judge," replied the magistrate. ''See von never repeat the offence." Such was the government which, to the ureal joy of the Roman people, and the satisfaction of the friends of liberty everywhere, has been overthrown. Was it worthy — I put this question to this assembly— was such a government, intermeddling, inquisi- torial, rudely and imperiously thrusting itself between man and his Maker, worthy to subsist even for an hour? [Cries of N"! No ! No !] My friends, the answer you have given to my ques- tion is but the echo of that which arises from the hearts and voices of millions, from a hundred realms of Christendom, from a thousand cities, from innumerable villages and neighborhoods, from every .-pot where there is a heart that beats with reverence for the rights of humanity, with the love of liberty, and with hatred for oppression. And yet there are those who protesl against this change American citizens, and excellenl people among them, who lend their names to a public remonstrance againsl admitting the people of le.me to the liberties which we enjoy. My friends, i- there a single one of these liberties which is nol as dear to you as the light of day and the free air of heaven ? The liberty of public worship, would you -ive it up without a mortal struggle? The liberty of discussing openly, in conversation or 1>\ means of the press, in books or in newspapers, everv question which interests the welfare of ourrace -a liberty of which the | ■ Romans were nol allowed even the shadow ; this and the liberty of assembling as we now assemble in vast throngs, thousands upon thousands, to give an 174 UNITY OF ITALY. expression of public opinion the significance of which cannot be mistaken — are not these as dear to you as the crimson current that warms your hearts, and are they not worthy to be defended at the risk of your lives? How is it, then, that any citizen of our own country in the enjoyment of these blessings, and prizing them as he must, can protest against their being conferred upon the Roman people — a people nobly endowed by nature, and worthy of a better lot than the slavery they have endured for so many generations? What sort of Protestantism is this? Protestantism in its worst form of misapplication. I should as soon think of protest- ing against the glorious light of the sun, of protesting against admitting the sweet air of the outer world into a dungeon full of noisome damps and stifling exhalations. I should as soon think of remonstrating with Providence against the return of spring, with its verdure and flowers and promise of harvests, after a long and dreary winter. [Applause.] Is it possible that those of our countrymen who lend their names to condemn this act of justice to the Roman people, are aware of what they do? My friends, I respect profound religious convictions wherever I meet them. I honor a good life wherever I see it, and I find men of saintly lives in every religious denomination. But when I hear it affirmed that there is a natural alliance between despot- ism and Christianity, that the necessary prop and support of religion is the law of force, and that the Christian church should be so organized that its head shall be an absolute temporal mon- arch surrounded by a population compelled to be his slaves, I must say to those who make this assertion, whatever be their personal worth, that their doctrine dishonors Christianity, that it brings scandal upon religion, and blasphemes the holy and gra- cious memory of the Saviour of the world. [Applause.] It is now nearly two centuries and a half since Roger Wil- liams established in Rhode Island a commonwealth on the basis of strict religious equality. That was a little light shining upon the world from a distance, and slow has been the progress of the nations in taking that commonwealth for an example. Yet, though slow, the progress of religious liberty has been constant; the day of its triumph has arrived; to-night we celebrate its crowning conquest. It was but a little while since that Austria thrust out the priesthood from that partnership in the political DESPATCH TO THE KING OF ITALY. 175 power which it had held for centuries. It is not many years since that at Malaga, in Spain, when a heretic died, his corpse was con- veyed to the sea-beach, amid the hooting of the populace : and that the soil of Spain might not be polluted by his remains, it was buried in the sand at low-watermark, where the waves sometimes uncovered it and swept it out to sea to become the prey of sharks. Now the heretic may erect a temple and worship in any part of Spain. Not long since there was no part of Italy in which any worship save that of the Latin church was permitted. Now. we owe to an eminent Italian state-man the glorious maxim, U A tree ( Jhurch in a tree State,' 1 and we behold the religious conscience set tree from its fetters even in the Eternal City. With the aid of popular education it will remain so forever. [Applause.] When I think of these changes, I am reminded of that grand allegory in one of the Hebrew prophets, in which we read of a stone cut out of the quarry without hands smiting a gigantic image with a head of gold and legs of iron, and breaking it to pieces, which became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, to be carried away by the wind, while the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and idled the whole earth. Thus has the principle of religious liberty, a stone cut out of the quarry without hands, — an inspiration of the Most High, — -smitten the grim tyranny that held the religions conscience in subjection to the law of force and broken it, into fragments, while it is rapidly expanding itself to till the civilized world. Let us hope that the rubbish left by the demolition of this foul idol, made -mall as the chaff of the summer threshing-floors and dispersed by the breath of public opinion, may never be gathered up again and reconsti- tuted, even in the mildest form it ever wore, while the globe on which we tread shall endure. [Greal applause.] At the close of Mr. Bryant's address, the chairman rose and said : Before we separate, I deem it right to state to you thai I have sent the following despatch to the King of Italy at Florence: "More than ten thousand American citizens are celebrating tonight the union of Rome with Italy, and send congratula- tions." The exercises were concluded with great enthusiasm l>\ the perfor mance of the Italian National Hymn. COMMENTS OF THE PRESS ON THE MEETING. On the day following the celebration, the journals of the city were filled with reports and editorials in reference to the occasion, from which we make the following selections : — [The New York Times.] The Academy of Music, which has been dedicated to the muses, and especially honored by Italian harmony, was filled literally to over- flowing last evening, by an audience anxious to express their sympathy with the successful movement for Italian Unity. The immense audito- rium was packed with an assemblage which, for respectability and standing in the community, would compare most favorably with any ever congregated within its walls for any purpose, and the imanimity of feeling was evinced in the spontaneous bursts of applause which greet- ed the sentiments of the speakers. The opening address of Gen. Dix was most enthusiastically cheered, .especially those portions which re- ferred to the success of the union of the Italian States and the object for which the movement was inaugurated. The greeting last evening given by New York to United Italy was eminently worthy of the American people, and of the cause whose triumph the great gathering was intended to celebrate. In no meddle- some spirit, with not a particle of fanaticism or intolerance, the intelli- gence, the enterprise, and the character of our city assembled to share with Italians the exultation they feel in the reunion of their country, and in the emancipation of Rome from the corrupt and despotic rule of ecclesiastics. The movement was not begun without many misgivings. Powerful agencies had been at work to produce an impression that in a contest between Papal absolutism and constitutional liberty, the sym- pathies of this country were on the side of the former. We shall be pardoned for recalling the protest of the Times against this perversion of the national feeling, and the odds which seemed to be against us in the demand for its genuine assertion on the side of free Italy. The re- sult has more than justified our anticipations from an earnest appeal to the public on the right side. The best men in the country have hasten- ed to put on record their sympathy with a struggle involving the essen- tials of civil and religious liberty. Among our citizens apathy gave place to an appreciative interest in the nature and consequences of the COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 177 change which makes Rome the capital of a free nation, and this again was followed by an enthusiasm which lias rarely been surpassed. The Academy of Music, capacious as it is, was unable to receive half the number of those who sought admittance, and an impromptu outside meeting added to the impressiveness of the demonstration. The speak- ers were in full unison with the people, and the resolutions present the points at issue in an aspect which will commend itself to the country. [The Sew York Tribune.] United Italy ! long divided, but at last united ! She never was more worthily remembered than in New York last evening, on the oc- casion of the American celebration of Italian Unity. And it was fitting that the universal voice of American citizens, who arc imbued with the vital spirit of their own institutions, should be raised in commemora- tion of one of the most striking events in this wonderful age — an event than which none is more important in its relation to the progress of liberal ideas — an event which illustrates the lesson long ago learned by Americans, that no political organization is wise enough or pure enough to control the sacred interests of religion, and that no ecclesiastical organization of the nineteenth century can wisely manage the political interests of a great nation. Thoroughly permeated with these sentiments, the best citizens of New York were well prepared to listen to then- utterance, and to manifest their sturdy advocacy of the principles of civil and religious liberty, not only throughout Italy, but throughout the world. As early as seven o'clock the sidewalks of Fourteenth street, brilliant with calcium lights, were filled by a continuous stream of people hurrying to the Academy of Music. The Academy itself was surrounded by an immense throng, which did not reach its maximum until long after eight o'clock. Inside, the scene was one of enthusiasm and rejoicing. Every seat was occupied, the aisles wee packed, and the people jostled and pushed each other in the ante-room, so eager were they to gain admission, which finally had to be denied them. The character of the audience was seled and refined; not a single rowdy was present, and the disaffected one-, if any such there were, reserved the expression of their disapproval until the separation of the meeting. Rarely does it happen that an immense gathering, like thai of last evening, manifests such entire unanimity in its sentiments. Not a sin gle hiss nor expression of avid, and Solomon. So H with the ancient petty divisions of [reland and of Sootland, and bo with the Saxon heptarchy of England, thi inc< anl vmra of which 182 UNITY OF ITALY. among her seven kings are aptly described by John Milton as utterly useless to the historian, being as senseless and unmeaning as the battles of so many kites and crows in the air. The unity of Italy is her resurrection from the dead. Though the idea has been his ruin, it was a happy thought of Louis Napoleon — that Napoleonic idea of " the unity of nationalities." He saw that in assist- ing the great Cavour to carry out this sublime idea in Italy, he would create and secure a powerful ally ; but he failed to see that Bismarck and Germany woiild profit by the example so far as to dethrone him and devastate fair France by fire and sword. He expected to keep Germany divided as she was kept divided by Napoleon the First ; but the idea of " national unity, 1 ' from our example in our late civil war, had outgrown his calculations in Italy and in Germany when he entered upon this conflict with Prussia. With his declaration of the war he found that the South German States were a unit with the Northern Confederation ; and in the withdrawal of his troops from Rome he found that Italy was marching to occupy the city, and that King Victor Emmanuel was utterly powerless to resist or delay the execution of the will of the Italian people. We believe, too, that from this consummation of Italian unity — call it usurpation, spoliation, robbery, or what you will— the most benefi- cent results will follow to Italy, to Rome, and to the Pope and the Church. We believe that the Italian people, after all their oppressions of a thousand years and more, still possess the best attributes of the old Romans, and are capable of making Rome, under their new dispen- sation, greater in all things great than was the Rome of the Caesars, and Italy, in all its reviving beauties, the wonder and admiration of the earth. We expect that the living generation of men will from all lands be witnesses to much of the development of this glorious resur- rection of Italy and Rome. From the dust in which they have been sitting in sackcloth and ashes through all these long centuries of de- basement, they will rise and shine in the glory of their unity and strength. Indeed, the moral and material progress of the Italian people, since the practical beginning of this great work of unity in 18;~>9 (to say nothing of 1848), is exceedingly encouraging as to the future of Italy and Rome under this union of the Italian States and people. Nor are our hopes less sanguine in regard to the resulting benefits to the Pope and the Church from this separation of Church and State. In no land upon the face of the globe is the Catholic Church so prosperous as in these United States', with their free speech, free press, and abso- lute freedom in religion. We expect that under the same beneficent influences- — the liberation of the Pope from the manacles of his tempo- ralities, from the cares of State and the dangers of the sword- — will COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 1 s ^ mark a new epoch in the happiness of his administration of the di\ine offices of St. Peter, and in the prosperity of his Church in Rome, Italy, and all over Europe and all over the world. [Tl -t,] By far the largest gathering of people, and that of most moral weight, ever assembled in the United States, upon any occasion of the kind, was that at the Academy of Music last evening. Although no political question was at stake, and only the enlightened zeal of a free people for the progress of liberal principles, and for the spread throughout tin- world of the blessings which self-government has secured to them, attracted our citizens thither, yet long before the hour fixed for open ing the meeting every seat in the house was full, and every avenue of access to it thronged by multitudes unable to find admission. Several gentlemen from this journal, who were near the doors soon after seven o'clock, found it quite impossible to enter, while some of the speakers only succeeded in doing so after a long struggle, and by the assistance of the police. But there was no disturbance, no want of harmony, no feeling but cordial fellowship and enthusiastic sympathy with the great cause that brought the meeting together. The assembly was, in short, a fair representation of the public opinion of America. THE MEETING LAST EVENING. .Many of our readers will find nothing in current literature more in- teresting to them than the proceedings of the meeting at the A-Cademj of Music last evening, to a full report of which we give much of our space to-day. The record of the enthusiasm with which the people of New York send their congratulations to Italy, united under her consti- tutional government, and to Rome, freed from crushing oppression and from a humiliating isolation, and made again the capital of a great and free nation, is cl ring to all lovers of liberty; and the speeches made at the meeting express with grace ami vigor the besl thoughts of some of our ablest men on a subject which enlists and stimulates all their powers. It will be observed that there was nothing in the official acts of the meeting, or even in the Language of the speakers, though some of this was very plain and strong, which could justly offend the religious feel Logs of any one. The American people are devoted to the firsl princi pies upon which their institutions are founded the principles of civil and religious liberty. They will aol refuse this liberty, in any of its a peel . to any man; hut all men, believers in whatever creeds and 184 UNITY OF ITALY. worshippers by whatever form, may here hold and proclaim their belief and practise their worship, unchecked and undisturbed. But we claim for ourselves and for all men what we would here secure to all ; and when any man, or creed, or church, or government, or nation becomes the enemy of free thought, free speech, or free religion, public opinion in the United States will maintain its principles against them. It was the opposition with which this meeting was threatened, the coldness and disfavor with which the project of it was met by many public men, that, more than anything else, awakened the popular enthusiasm which has made it the most effective expression of public sentiment ever heard upon a kindred subject. This enthusiasm has rarely been equalled, indeed, even on far more .exciting occasions. We know of instances in which gentlemen of character came hundreds of miles solely to attend the meeting, and every city within many hours of New York was largely represented, often by its most influential citi- zens. It was the common remark of observer's, that they had never seen so great a meeting which was made up so largely of men well and widely known for their intellect and their virtues. [The Evening Mail.] A TREMENDOUS DEMONSTRATION. The great meeting which was held last night at the Academy of Music, to give expression to American sympathy with united Italy, is described at length elsewhere. We believe that few of our readers will complain that we have given so much space to the record of a meeting of such importance. It is not once in ten years that so much strong and eloquent talk is heard from one platform in the same evening as was lasb night, eagerly listened to by the most intelligent audience that can be summoned together in this country. We are obliged to confine ourselves to full extracts from these speeches, which deserve to be called great, because they were made by men of great ability, on a theme to which they had given earnest thought, and in behalf of a cause which stirred up the depths of their natures and in- spired them to unwonted fervor. We are proud, as Americans, that such a body of noble utterances in behalf of Italian Unit)' and freedom is to go to the world through the press as an expression of the best, freest, and most enlightened American sentiment. They will arouse, enkindle, and give expression to the earnest sentiment that pervades the better classes of our people everywhere — who will rejoice to see their convictions placed before the world with such force of logic, with such historical arguments and COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 1 85 such noble bursts of genuine eloquence as were heard Las! night, and will be read U tens of millions on both sides of the water. The Atlantic cable will Bash across the ocean the proceedings of this mon- ster meeting, and will give some hint of its importance, of its rep- resentative significance, of the men who took part in it, and of the spirit of their appeals, [ntelligenl foreigners will see at once thai this demonstration was something morethana mere massmeeting. Thej will recognize that it merely gave eloquent voice to the unspoken sentiment of that part of America whirl. Is most truly American, and the friends of free institutions everywhere will take new courage from the strong and fresh in. puis,, thus imparted. No intelligenl European .-an be made to believe thai when such men as Mr. Bryant, General Dix, Mr. Greeley, Mr. Godwin, and Mr. Beech er unite to express American sentiment, they will or can represent anything Less than the convictions and feelings of the better classes of our people everywhere. Thus understood, the voice of this meeting will be heard abroad with an effect which we can little appreciate here. It is this voice for which the Italians have been anxiously waiting, since they consummated their independence and union. It was to break the force of this anticipated expression that various meetings have been held all over the country of an opposite character. The Italians will not be dis appointed in their hope of a strong word of good cheer from this side of The Atlantic. They will see that the foremost of our statesmen, literary mm. public officials, and other representative Americans are heartily on their side. And the governments outside of [talj will see that there rat. be no mistake as to what is the tendency of that American sentiment, whirl, is sure to prevail here whenever il is roused. They will take warning not to interfere with the practical realization of the motto under which Victor Emmanuel has won his present proud position— " Italy for the Italians." Sensible Roman Catholics, especially those who really believe in American institutions, will no, fail to note in (he speeches of lasl evening the fad that all the speakers disclaimed an attitude of hostility to the Roman Catholic Church, as such. They areas much interested as Protestants are in the maintenance of a strict separation between Church and State. Their experience here oughl to teach them the freed .1' their Church IV.,.,, State affairs has been one great cause of its prosperity, and thai the Pope oughl to be congratulated ,,, Q ia enforced liberation from a union of two utterl) incompatible species of pow. 1S6 UNITY OF ITALY. [The Commercial Advertiser.] THE CONGRATULATION TO ITALY. The voice of the American people in congratulation of United Italy rang out clear and strong last night. Rarely has so grand an expres- sion of the popular feeling been uttered as that which characterized the proceedings in the Academy of Music ; for it was the generous outburst of an enthusiastic interest and of a cordial sympathy. The best men and women in the community united in the recognition of an event which, in the words of the " Address to the people of Italy," infuses into the Italian people a fresh life of knowledge, of liberty, and of faith. The nationality of Italy secured, her resources must develop, her indus- tries be stimulated, and her strength as a nation grow. In the course of a searching and eloquent speech, Mr. Parke Godwin drew a clever picture of the causes which have produced Italian discord, likening the experience of Italy to that of the United States. In the latter, the bare assertion of two incompatible sovereignties led to an awful and bloody war ; in the former, the actual existence of a sovereign State in the bosom of another sovereign State was found to be abnormal and mischievous to the last degree, producing endless disorders, and finally succumbing to the inexorable logic of events. This was the keynote of the Italian struggle. Mr. Godwin was followed by Mr. Beecher, Dr. Bel- lows, Judge Emott, Mr. Bryant, and Mr. Greeley, and all the speeches were apt and forcible. [Harper's Weekly.] ITALY AND AMERICA. The great meeting in New York to congratulate Italy upon her union and independence was one of the most imposing and significant meet- ings ever held in this city. It was the first real voice of America upon the subject ; and what it said, and said so well, would undoubtedly be approved by seven-eighths of the people of the United States. Hitherto Italy and Europe have heard from this country only the voice of the members of the .Roman Church, which, as one of its most respectable clergymen in the country says, permits here no difference of opinion upon the subject. But now they hear how Americans of all denomina- tions, who believe in political self-government and religious liberty at home, rejoice when they see another country founding its future and its happiness upon the same immortal principles. Such Americans — and so numerous are they that they may be truly called America — perceive in the events that have recently occurred in Italy a revolution, peacefully accomplished, in the interest of liberty and COMMENTS 01 THE PRESS. 187 intelligent progress. They see a degrading despotism ended, and the sanguinary and horrible convulsions to which such a despotism always leads happily and wisely avoided. They see in the political emancipa- tion of Rome from ecclesiastical control by the unanimous and hearty consent of the Romans themselves, win. are also members of the Roman Church, the dawn of that better day which shall show the world a free, regenerated, and progressive Italy. We trust that the New York meet- ing will be but the first of a series of similar meetings all over the country, that the hearts of the brave Italians who have achieved so spotless and glorious a victory may be cheered and strengthened by the knowledge that the great heart of America beats in sympathy with theirs. The duty of American Roman Catholics would seem to be to show to this country that their Church does not ask nor need to exercise the absolute political control of any body. They should be anxious, if thej would conciliate American sympathy, to show that they gladly acquiesce in the rescue of their Church from the political responsibility of the notorious wretchedness of Central Italy. They should say what Father Hyacinthe recently said in London of the situation in Home. And Father Hyacinthe, when he was in this country, declared, that if to be born a Roman Catholic, to believe the creed, to honor the traditions, and to hope for the triumph of his Church made him a Roman Catholic, there was no better under the sun; so that his words are to be regarded as those of one of the most devoted members of his communion. "The temporal power of the Pope," says the good father, " useful in its own age and for particular stages of European society, has long outlived its time. Thrice have J visited Rome. Thrice have I seen that power close at hand. Thrice have I labored to respeel it. Bui I saw clearly that it rested only on the bayonets of France, and thai when the) were withdrawn it would crumble to pieces. It has crumbled; and I thank God for an event thai will minister to the Unity of [taly, to the regen- eration of the Latin races, and, above all, to the reform of a Church always dear to me — the Catholic ( 'hurch of Rome." [The < Ihrifitian t'ninn.] AMERICAN CITIZENS AND ITALIAN DNITY. 1 1 was quite time thai something should be d • to ascertain for our selves, ami to declare to the world, what is the real sentimenl of the American people on the grand central doctrine of our political creed the right of the governed to choose, alter, or abolish their gover snl and its application to the great Roman Italian movemenl of the presenl 188 UNITY OF ITALY. day. It lias been, for several weeks, the boast of a certain party in the Roman Catholic Church and their political adherents, that the voice of this country is unmistakably in favor of the temporal power of the Pope. Meetings after meetings, ecclesiastical and other, have assembled to pro- test against what has been called the " sacrilegious outrage " perpetrated by the Italians, including the almost unanimous citizens of Rome, in taking possession of the Papal City as the capital of Italy. The pulpits which, a few years ago, fulmined holy abhorrence of the desecrating ele- ment of politics seeking to mingle in the sacred services of the sanctu- ary, — when that politics aimed but to secure our own liberties, — have resounded with impassioned appeals for our interference to suppress the liberties of another people. At one of these meetings it was declared that "the independence of the Sovereign Pontiff, as Head of the Church, is a right dear to American citizens." Another assured the " Holy Father" that "at his call millions of Americans would rush to his standard." It was often assumed that disgust and abhorrence of the Italian policy was well-nigh universal, and that the protestants included even a large portion of the Protestant world. Until finally a Western Catholic journal, deceived by these exuberant manifestations of one side and the conspicuous silence of the other, was emboldened to declare : " If the civilized world is to respect the will of the people, even leaving aside the question of justice, Rome must be given back to the Pope." On such hints as these, that immensely predominant portion of our people who really believe the Declaration of Independence, and propose to abide by it a considerable while longer, decided to speak. The meet- ing gathered last Thursday evening at the Academy of Music, to sympa- thize with the people of Italy and Rome in their efforts toward Italian Unity, was one of those demonstrations which confound cavil and define the impulses of the popular heart beyond question. The truth is, the American people are so averse to religious proscription, and so resolved not to be dragooned by sectaries into a crusade against unpopular creeds, that they are more than willing to accord every freedom to any minority sought to be made odious, and often sit silent by while the oppressed make protest unnecessarily clamorous, and even sometimes join with superfluous gallantry in their defence. The Roman Catholic Church in this country is still enjoying simultaneously the somewhat inconsistent advantages of being, to the lovers of fair play, " the under dog in the fight," and, to observing politicians, a power too formidable to be lightly offended. But every now and then the despotism inherent in that system forgets its characteristic caution, and trenches upon some household principle in which the great American heart beats and has its being — and then, look out for thunder ! • We have no room to descant upon the noble and truly catholic fea COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. '' v '' turesofthis meeting. It was presided over by General Dix, and the speakers were Parke Godwin, Henry Ward Beecher, Judge Emott, Dr. BeUows, and Wm. CuUen Bryant. Outside of the building, too, the overflowing assembly was addressed by Eorace Greeley, Chancellor Crosby, Cyrus W. Field, Daniel D. Lord, and others. And among all these' addresses, so far as we are informed, there was do sentence, oor part of a sentence, which could be distorted into an expression of secta- rian prejudice, or which transcended the acknowledged right of every citizen to utter Ins opinion of civil affairs. The venerable Pontiff received from every side "thai sympathy which hisexcellenl private character, joined to his misfortunes, would natu- rally beget." K\ ery right of Catholics, as citizens, was earnestly affirmed and vindicated, and nothing said, at least on the main question, which any Catholic but an ultramontane advocate of arbitrary power might not have heartily adopted. That many of the liberal Catholics will adopt and rejoice in the language of this meeting we thoroughly believe. All Europe will at least learn from it that the people of this Republic have not as yet forgotten their birthright, nor laid the great Charter of their freedom at the feet of any of the decaj ing despotisms of the Old World. |'l he [ndependent.] , ITALIAN LIBERTY AND UNITY. That the priests and bishops of the Catholic Church in this country —the most of whom are foreign importations should seriouslj attempt to arouse the sympathies of the American people in behalf of the de- throned and fallen Pope, and especially thai thej should emploj such arguments as contradict the very first principles of our political and civil institutions, is a most astounding evidence alike of their assump- tion, bigotry, and s.tupidity. Whatever timid, time-serving, and selfish politicians may think it prudenl to d 'omit, lest perchance thej give umbrage to Catholics, the greal bod 3 of the people look upon the over throw of Pius IX. as the temporal sovereign of the States of the Church, and th< establishment of a constitutional governmenl under an elective parliament, with Victor E lanuel at its head, as among the Lmportanl events thai will make the past year memorable in the annals f tin- world. [talians, especially the former subjects and vassals of His Holiness, though for the mod pari Catholics, and all the liberal Catholics of Europe, have already hailed these events with Bhouta of joy. This efforl to sustain the Pope in his pretended rights an. I claims to 190 UNITY OF ITALY. the temporal power received a deserved rebuke at the great meeting held last week in New York. That meeting represented the public sentiment of America ; and, as we doubt not, it will be succeeded by others in different parts of the land, presenting the same views and ex- pressing the same feelings. Archbishop Spalding, of Baltimore, Dr. Manning, and all the other Ultramontanists of the Papacy, will find themselves much mistaken if they suppose that the public opinion of this country can be either wheedled or frightened from a full and earnest utterance of American sentiments. Their denunciations of Victor Emmanuel as a sacrilegious spoiler, and of the Italians as recreant to the faith of the Mother Church, are alike powerless and contemptible. It is difficult to characterize them as they deserve. They are out of date and out of place. As logic, they are simply impudent when addressed to American ears. There has been no time during the present century in which Italians belonging to the States of the Church would not have summarily dis- pensed with the Pope as a temporal sovereign, but for the influence and intervention of foreign powers. After the downfall of the First Napoleon, the Holy Alliance took charge of the Roman Pontiff, and for a series of years kept him on his throne. In 1830 this task passed specially into the hands of Austria, and there remained till the revolu- tion of 1848 transferred it to France. This revolution resulted in the expulsion and flight of the Pope, and the establishment of the Roman Republic. Louis Napoleon, then President of the French Republic, for purely political reasons, having reference to plans he was then maturing to subvert the liberties of France, sent an army to Rome, crushed the infant republic, restored the Pope, and has maintained his power by French bayonets up to the period of his own prostration by Prussia, in defiance of the wishes and against the earnest protest of the Roman people. These are well-known facts of history. The very first opportunity the Romans have had to throw off this pontifical yoke, assert their own liberties, and unite themselves with the Italian nation, they have embraced with a greediness which, while it shows the oppressions under which they were groaning, ought to fill the world with admiration. Of the 40,881 votes that were cast in the city of Rome on the question of uniting the States of the Church with the Kingdom of Italy, only forty -six were in the negative ; and a like unanimity marked the vote in the several provinces of the Pope's dominions. No more striking expression was ever given to the public will ; and Americans would disgrace their own antecedents, and be un- true to themselves, if they did not send hearty words of cheer to the Roman people, and congratulate united Italy, with her twenty-six mil- lions, that the land of poetry and of song has now passed the long and COMMENTS OF Til I. PRES8. !'.'! dark night of petty and contending sovereignties, and emerged into the broad day of a comprehensive and undivided nationality, with the motto of " A free < Ihurch in a free State " written on its banner. The Lovers of liberty throughout tin- world, and all the friends of true religion, whether Catholic or Protestant, alike rejoice that the politico-spiritual despotism of the Papacy, which lias been the curse of both Church and State, seems to have received its final and finishing blow. While humanity weeps in sadness over the terrible desolations of the great Franco-Prussian war, it accepts this result with sincere gratitude to < rod, and devoutly prays that no schemes of cabinets or kings may ever be permitted to reverse or change it. Such is the strong feeling that prevails generally throughout the nation, and of which the New York meeting is a fitting expression. The principles of free government are just as good for Romans as they are for Americans ; and that man is a traitor to these principles, be be archbishop or layman, who denounces their application to any country on the broad face of the earth. The people have as much right to dis- pense with a pope as with a king, since neither has any just authority except by their consent. The pretence that the two hundred millions of Catholics outside of the former States of the Church have the right to force a pope upon a people against their consent is the argument of a bigot and a tyrant. It will not pass current in these United States, even though it falls from an archbishop's lips. We have no \ Lolence of antipathy to pour out against Catholics; yet we advise them to study the principles of the political system under which they are here living, and to concede to all others what they so richly enjoy for themselves. it will be in them a great mistake to repudiate the most elementary maxims of republican governments <>n account of their attachment to the Roman Pontiff as their spiritual head. A few more such utterances as those of Archbishop Spalding and Dr. Maiming will place Catholi- cism at an enormous discount on this side of the Atlantic, and justlj subject it to the charge of beim; anti-republican to the \er\ core. The position in which the Pope Ls placed under the Italian Govern- ment is not one that interferes with the freest exercise of bis spiritual functions. He is not outlawed in bis pontificate, or banished from Kome : but simply relieved by the voice of the people from the cares ol Mute, thai Mi-. Holiness and bis cardinals maj give their undivided atten tion to the cure of souls. lie can now con line hi him 'If to the legitimate use of spiritual weapons, as Paul did ages ago, leaving those thai OT6 carnal to other hands. Instead of being invested with ci\ il powers, an. I made independent of all human authority, he now becomes, like the Catholic priesthood in the other countries of Europe, simplj a subject of law, while retaining all his relations and rights as the head of 'lie 192 UNITY OF ITALY. Church and the Vicar of Christ, in the direct line of succession from St. Peter, according to the theological programme of Papal doctrinaires and the unreasoning faith of hoodwinked millions. Providence, slow in action but sure in final results, has at length assigned to him the posi- tion which St. Peter never left ; and it had been well for the world if all the popes of history had been content in this respect to imitate the example of their model bishop. He may call as many (Ecumenical Councils as he pleases, and these councils may vote him to be infallible every day in the year; he may issue his bulls, publish his decides, pro- nounce his harmless anathemas, even to the " Excommunicatio Major" and by moral means propagate Catholicism to the ends of the earth ; yet there is one thing which he can no longer do, and which Christ and his apostles never attempted to do — he cannot enact laws and enforce them by the power of the sword. As a temporal sovereign, the Pope is dead ; and the civil despotism of his pontificate has come to an end, — as we trust, never to be renewed. This is the whole matter in the compass of a nutshell. Free, united, consolidated Italy, having one government and but one for all the people, at last delivered from the domination of priestly hierarchy, and exercising the religious and civil rights which belong to a noble people, now salutes mankind with free speech, a free press, a free church, and a free Bible. This salutation is the echo of modern civilization in its onward march to victory throughout the world. Re- publicanism and Christianity in this free America, with no unfriendly feelings to Pius IX. as a man, and no bigoted or persecuting hostility to Catholicism as a faith, but with a generous good-will to all nations, return the salutation by exclaiming : " Italy is free ! Italy is one ! and Rome, the ancient mistress of the world, is her capital once more, not by the support of foreign garrisons, but by the free choice of the Italian people." May the auspices of this happy hour prove to be the faithful prophecy of a lasting and progressive career of national great- ness, in which modern and Christianized Italy shall outshine all the glories of her earlier days ! This is the hope and this the prayer of every friend of religious and civil liberty. A PPEXDI X REPLY OF THE ITALIAN GOVEttXMl N I' The following telegraphic despatch was received in answer to tin telegram of the Presided of the meeting: — To Che v. Ferdinando De Luca, Consul-Genera] of Italy, New York : Bv the Command oi His Majesty Kino; \'i< toe Emmanuel, you are directed to tender to General John A. Dix, president of the meeting for the celebration of Italian Unitv, his sincere thanks for the sentiments and congratulations expressed in his telegram. Visconti V ENOS1 A. Minister of Foreign Affairs. LETTER OF THE ITALLVN CONSUL. Consulate General of Italy in the U. S., New York, Jan. 16th, 1871. To the Hon. John A. Dix, President of the Meeting for the < lelebra- tion of the Unity of Italy. Sir: I have the honor to forward to you the translation of a tele- gram which I have received from my Government. It is with greal gratification that 1 hasten to comply with the order therein transmitted, and beg to assure you and all those who toot pari in the meeting held in New Xork for the celebration of the V \w\\ of Italy, that liis Majesty Victor Emmanuel, my Sovereign, has warmly appreciated the sentiments of your message, and regards it as a friendly expression of sympathy to himself, as well as to his governmenl and people. I cannot but avail myself of tins occasion to say, that the grand and spontaneous demonstration in behalf of Italy, which took place on the L 2th instant, will qoI fail to evoke a profound sentimenl of gratitude and pride ah 1 [talians. No greeting could be re welc >l ly [tahj as this cheering voice of America, whose glorious steps she lias so closely followed in her struggle for unitj and inde] tence. Even in the separation of Church and State, the natural resull of the emancipa tion of Rome, she has no better example than thai of America. Both enjoying the blessing of free institutions, although under difterenl 194 UNITY OF ITALY. forms, may the two nations henceforth march hand in hand in the great pathway of liberty and civilization. With the assurance of my high consideration and regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant, Ferdinando De Luca. LETTER OF THE ITALIAN MINISTER. The following letter of Count Corti, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the King of Italy in Washington, was afterwards received by the President of the meeting : — Legation of H. M. the King of Italy, Washington, February 11, 1871. My Dear Sir : On the occasion of the meeting held in New York on the 12th of January to celebrate the unity of Italy, I felt it incum- bent upon me to inform the Government of H. M. the King of Italy of that splendid manifestation of American sympathy for the Italian cause. I have now the honor of fulfilling its commands, by expressing to you its hearty appreciation of the distinguished part you took as the presid- ing officer of the meeting, and also in begging you to convey its sincere sentiments of gratitude to the other eminent citizens who co-operated with you in that demonstration. The profound emotions with which I read the eloquent words of congratulation pronounced in that imposing and representative assem- bly on an occasion so flattering to my country, only anticipated the joyful acknowledgments of the whole Italian people at this proof of the deep interest felt in them by free and powerful America. If ancient Home implanted the seeds of civilization in the most remote portions of the old world, the United States have certainly fol- lowed her example in regard to the new. In modern times America, like Italy, has had to pass through severe struggles to establish national unity, and history will record these analogies of deeds and aspirations between the two peoples. My country is now going through the glorious work of reconstruct- ing herself on the basis of civil and religious liberty. In introducing there the principles of popular education, of decentralization in admi- nistrative matters, of complete separation between Church and State, she will not fail to avail herself of the splendid examples set forth by the United States. Italy, under the auspices of the magnanimous dynasty who with stout heart and valiant sword has so much contri- buted to the emancipation of the country, has taken her place in the foremost ranks of modern civilization. Though always ready to draw the sword in the defence of her own unity and independence, she will hence- APPENDIX. 1 95 forth constitute one of the principal elements of peace in the concert of nations. America has understood tins, and Italy responds with enthu- siasm to the cordial salute sent to her across the ocean. In presenting the thanks of my government to you, and to the citizens oi New lork who so heartily responded to the call, be assured of the lively satisfaction I take in the performance of so grateful a duty. Accept, my dear sir, the expressions of my most distinguished con- sideration. „ T L. CORTI. Hon. John* A. Dix, New York. REPLY OF GEN. DE TO THE ITALIAN MINISTER. New York, February 15th, 1871. My Dear Sir : I have had the honor to receive your favor of the 11th inst., expressing in behalf of the government of His Majesty the King of Italy, its hearty appreciation of the manifestation of American sympathy for the Italian cause, at the meeting of citizens in this cit- on the 12th of January last. It will be a source of sincere gratification to all who participated in the proceedings of that meeting, to know that their earnest desire to see the kingdom of Italy assume a distinguished rank among the na- tions of the earth has been responded to by its government and people in a manner so cordial, and so complimentary to the people of the United States. We should have been untrue to the principles of our own political system, and it would have been an ungrateful return for al I the treasures we have drawn from the rich mines of Roman and Italian literature and art, if we had been indifferent to the renovation of Italj as a united nation, and to the effort she is making to place herself in the foreground as a champion of civil and religious liberty in the Eastern Hemisphere. I am sure I speak the sentiments of every true-hearted Amnion when I say that our sympathy will accompany her in her nru career, with a fervency which will be increased by every successful step in her progress. I .iin. dear sir, willi distinguished consideration, , * our obedient Bervantj ... ^ • l "" N A |,|x - J lis Kxcelloncy, l>. CoRTI, -Minister of Italy to the United States, Washington, I >. 0. 196 UNITY OF ITALY ADDRESS FROM MASSACHUSETTS. [The New York celebration of the unity of Italy called forth demon- strations of the same character in other parts of the United States; among them the following address from the State of Massachusetts, signed by Governor Claflin, the President of the State Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of State, the Collector, and the Mayor of Boston, most of the leading merchants and members of the clergy, together with many literary men of note : President Elliot of Harvard University, R. W. Emerson, J. G. Whit- tier, Henry W. Longfellow, O. W. Holmes, J. R. Lowell, Edwin P. Whipple, J. T. Fields, J. M. Fiske, F. W. Loring, and many others. The address is engrossed on parchment, and beautifully illuminated.] " To His Majesty Victor' Emmanuel II, King of Italy : " The undersigned, citizens of Massachusetts, desire to con- gratulate you, and, through you, your people, upon the unity of Italy, and the establishment of Rome as its capital. Our own history has taught us the value of union. The independence of our country was achieved by union, and we know that by union alone can it be maintained. We rejoice that the independence of your country is assured by the same grand policy, and that this policy is strengthened by the accpuisition of the Eternal City as the seat of government. This peaceful conquest gratifies the pride of your people and touches the imagination of the world. It has cheered the hearts of all who love liberty to watch the steps by which your kingdom has advanced in power, in honor, and in freedom. We love to feel that the example of the heroes and martyrs in the new world has done something for the good cause in the old world. The triumphs of the past will stimulate you to new achievements. We assure you of our heartfelt sympathy in all your efforts for the good of Italy. We believe that you agree with us, that the truest wisdom of all rulers is found in justice and beneficence to all men ; and that the great- est earthly gift to the people is that universal education which is the strength of our country and must be the hope of yours. We wish for you a long and glorious reign ; for your people, progress and prosperity ; for United Italy, independence, stabili- ty, and honor, while the world stands." APPENDIX. 197 A HYMN FOR THE CELEBRATION OF ITALIAN UNITY. By I ii.ia Ward Howe. [The following Hymn, by Jvi.ia "Ward Howe, was read at the Meeting held in Boston, at the Music Hall. February 23, 1871, for the Celebration of Italian Unity. J Let them sound a victor strophe from the mountains to the sea ! Sweep away the old defences ! let the tide of life run free As the thought of God commissioned, that outleaps captivity. Let Italy be one ! Chorus: Glory, hallelujah ! There's a mother, sad and lonely, who for ages gave no sound. Save in moaning for her children, from her bosom sold and bound : They have gathered now about her; with their beauty she is crowned. And Italy is one ! Not of war this boon was given; not achieved in wrath and blood ; Not the soldier's gauntlet flings it ; nor the battle's fiery flood : In the garden of Christ's passion did it slowly bloom and bud, The love that makes men one Sound the trump of resurrection ! let the noble dead arise ! Let the hour long wept and wished for make God present lo their eyes ! Lei one joy illume the heavens and the earthly paradise. Since Italy is one ! Mother, mourning long thy dear ones, lei the Present's rapturous strain Lift, its prayer for all who suffer, pour its balm <>n every pain ; Till the motherhood immortal hold God's children in its reign, And all mankind are 1 1 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. DEC 6 1JOj - - 4 JAN 24 1973 Form L9-75m-7,'61(CU37s4)444 i«S.«°miT,K„ r . e . GI0NAL LIBRARy ft Ml II I I III ii i ii AA 000 687 224 6 k - m •