Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1864-12-17

Among the many extraordinary events whlch
have occurred since the commencement Vi .ne
war, none have surpassed in importance tue
proclamation of Governor Bradford, proclaimlng
the adoption of the new Constitution, ana ue-
caring Maryland free State. The first to pro-
claim liberty of conscience, she has now won ad-
ditional honor by excluding from her character
the plague-spot Of slavery. Many persons, doubt
less, will regret this determination of her peo-
pie some will maintain that it is an injustice
and grievance, and will attribute the result to
illegal and tyranncal interference with State
rights. This must be expected. An event SO
important cannot happen without exciting the
passions of many, but the triumphant party can
afford to hear with charity much angry declama-
ton. We rejoice that Maryland, the cradle of
the Catholic Faith in the United States, is now
untarnished with slavery that the q Word made
flesh y is no more dishonored by having His
creatures, in the same fesh sold as chattles in
her markets; and that the Cross, the true sign
of liberty, more so than any banner that ever
waved on earth, will longer be insulted by
looking down on the red flag of the auctioneer,
where men and women are offered for sale to the
highest bidder 1t is a subject for congratulate
ton to every Catholic heart.
This thing of slavery has fastened itself on the
hearts of many people, and hence these remarks
will be dstasteful to such persons, and find am
pie and bitter retort in words and in paragraphs.
But we are willing to let time judge between US.
We have never met with any one who protested
his regret that the Church had emancipated the
enslaved in the early times of her history, and
let generation elapse, and he will be q bold
man who talks of restoring to Maryland this
slavery which she has thrown out of doors. a
generation will be sufficient to work such a
change in the heads and hearts of her people,
and they will refer with pride to the day when
mercy succeeded tyranny in their Commonwealth,
when nobler civilization, because more nearly
allied with the lessons of the church, took the
place of that which was introduced by England
and the slave trade.
All that is now wanting for free Maryland is
the return of peace to make her fields fertile and
her barren plains disappear beneath the hard
hand and sweating brow of the white laborer.
This will be the result of her emancipation. This
will be the triumph of the poor white man who
was heretofore excluded from the soil. Great
farms, which more and more exhausted
from year to year will be sub-divided, and the
hands that own will reap the harvest and think
it no dshonor And with this change in physi-
cal prosperity will be also Il moral change. The
Catholics of Maryland have done much for the
Faith. Her prelates, her priests, her people and
their noble religious and literary institutions,
which have given her honor before all the Catho-
lies in the land will now be placed in posi-
ton to accomplish greater things for God. They
arc too undetermined and generous to regret the
loss of slavery if such results as we anticipate
shall follow the political action of her people
! Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph.