The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-01-08
CATHOLIC SUNDAY
Prim.


The grave has closed over this man, and
it would be nnmanly now to make war
against him. No motives of party warmth
or political opposition can now influence
the generous and honorable to recall what
ever there may have been of evil in his
character and career. But history cannot
afford to forget. Its temper must be free
from evaporation, but it's lessons must be
vigorously true to fact, without fear or
favor. We may pardon Gen. Prim, froA
the bottom of our hearts, the harm he has
done; we may sincerely hope that genu-
inc repentance has opened to him the gates
of heaven, but we should be guided by a
false charity if we feared to note the moral
exemplified in his life and death.
That moral is simply the one which gives
the guarantee of permanence to society,
and teaches that wickedness is self-destruc-
tive. Gen. Prim was disloyal, treacherous,
selfish and scheming. He violated his oath
of fidelity to his sovereign on the one hand,
and, on the other, condemned the will of
the people. 1t was his own ambitious pro-
jects alone that he consulted. In doing
this he did not hesitate to consort with
despersdoes and cut-throats, he did not re-
ject the agency Of secret societies, he per-
mitted the grossest outrages to religion,
and sanctioned sacrilegious invasion of
ecclesiastical rights. He was wicked him
self, and sought the alliance of other wick
ed spirits to carry through his nefarious
schemes.
AS usual, the combination of evil ele-
ments was too strong for the good. If
justice must always triumph from the very
beginning, it's appeals to the nobler i'm
pulses of man would be unnoticed in the
paramount sense of its expediency. Men
would cease to do evil, not because they
abhorred it, but merely because OF it's utter
usclessness. On the contrary, evil usually
triumphs for awhile, from the fact that it
uses all the weapons which justice can en-
ploy, aud, besides them, others not permits
sible to the good. The children of this
world are wiser in their generation than the
children of light.
But generally truth and justice, in their
innocence and weakness, triumph cventu-
ally through the dissensions of the wicked.
Evil passions cannot long be at peace
among themselves, and their internal war
fare exhausts their strength. Thus, the
fate of Gen. Prim gives an instance in
point. He scrupled not to ally himself
with outlaws and assassins, and he has
fallen a victim to their hatred. The reyo-
lutionists whom he flattered have been dis
gusted by his later treachery to their cause,
and the alliance has changed into feud
which sweeps him into eternity.
The wretched Victor Emmanuel and his
vile brood are destined to furnish another
instance of this same truth, and probably
before very long. 1t has been SO from the
of history. Sometimes the chill
iren of GOD escape from the toils of their
enemies by a palpable miracle, as in the
case of Pharaoh and the Israelites, but
it is by dissension among their
oppressors, and it is strange that, in the
face of all history, and despite it's warning
voice, it must still daily swell it's list of
victims to self destructive principle of
evil with such illustrious names as that of
Gen. Prim.
From Germany, the seat of the expected