The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-10-18

6uccesSiul contemporaries. Dut, llkc d. Idui,
we have fought good fight, and we shall
never relinquish it. The clergy might have
helped us more than they have done; but we
regret to say that some Of our most vicious
subjects have been found in that profession.
Let the Rev. Mr.. Smyth reform them and we
will do our best to render the rest Of the world
respectable, moral, pious and happy.
The Pope's Panacea for the south-The Poll
ticians Set Aside.
We publish to-day two letters Of con-
siderable interest," not only to the Catholic
portion of our community but to the coun-
try at large, inasmuch as they embrace
the solution Of problem, which is just now
one OF great social and political embarrass-
ment to US. They contain the recommends
tons or instructions of the Holy Synod at
Rome to the prelates and other ecclesias-
teal dignitaries now assembled in plenary
council in Baltimore. In the views pre-
sented in. these documents we recognize
the vigilant watchfulness and attention to
its own interests that have always char
acterized the government Of the Catholic
Church. Never in its history, perhaps, has
there been presented palmer evidence of Its
ambitious aspirations and wide grasp Of means
than is therein contained. At period when
its very existence as temporal power is at
stake, when from day to day the Holy Father
does not know but that he may be an outcast
and . wanderer, we cannot but admire the
clearness Of perception and sagacity which can
detect in flaw in our political condition a
field of wide spiritual usefulness in the future,
and a means Of extending over countless mil
lions the dominion of the Church Of which he is
the head.
Without dwelling on that portion of the
instructions which has relation to the internal
organization of the Church In this country, and
which is in itself highly suggestive, we shall
come at once to the paragraph which has more
particularly attracted our attention. 1t is that
which relates to the education and spiritual
care of the emanoipated slaves in the South.
In the bitter and apparently irreconciIable
differences which prevail as to the means Of
ameliorating the condition, social, political
and religious, of that unfortunate race, the
hopes held out by the recommendations Of the
Holy Synod are the only ones that seem to
cast CLEAN of sunshine on their wretched
future. In trying to elevate them without a
with the white man. their radical friends doom
them to humiliation. 1t is equally certain that
II they are left as they are, without any hold
upon their former masters and without educa-
ton, training or habits Of practical industry,
they must die out from sheer restitution. In
default Of such plan, then, as the joint
efforts Of the two parties might have
furnished, it is to the influence of
religion alone that we must look for
the Improvement of their condition. There
is no sect or denomination, with the exception
of the Catholic Church, which has the energy,
the perseverance, and we may add the faith, to
engage in such work. Undaunted by obsta-
Giles, insensible to personal privations and suf-
fering and animated mainly by one object,
the propagation of their faith, its ministers
win soon obtain such sway over the blacks that
it will be easy to bring them into habits Of
obedience and order and make them as docile
and profitable as servants as they have ever
SSSA no SA"vOSs ~ uuAC tuCy Huy Ctcu NC
educated up to the point of an intelligent use of
the franchise. How much better it would be
to arrive at these results by the quiet and be-
nign influences Of religion than by forcing
them, to incur the risk of rendering the con-
dition of the objects Of our sympathy worse
than it has ever previously been.
We know that these views will be unpala-
table to some. They hold the very name Of
Rome in such detestation that they will throw
up their hands in horror at their mere sugges-
ton. We cannot help that What we fore
shadow win assuredly come to pass unless
they abandon their fanatical notions and join
the friends of the South in some practical plan
for the amelioration Of the social and religious
condition of its black population. 1t is among
the oppressed and neglected that the Catholic
Church usually finds its most fruitful fields of
propagandism. If, therefore, the New England
fanatics and nigger-worshippe do not wish
to find their proteges brought body and soul
under the influence Of "the scarlet LADY," they
will abandon their impracticable theories and
secure them such advantages as are consistent
with common sense and their mental and physi-
cal stains