The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-11
The Lnte Catholic Primate.

By the decease of Archbishop Spalding the
Catho lie Church in America loses one of it's
brightest luminaries, as we'll as one of its
greatest men. An American by birth, ripe
scholar and profound theologian, during the
various steps of his advance from the simple
priesthood to his attainment of the highest
dignity of the Roman Church hitherto granted
by the Holy See to its clergy in this country,
he won the esteem of all who had the good
fortune of his personal acquaintance, and the
respect of those to whom he was only known
through his writings and his fame as pillar
of the Church. Of the preates of the Roman
Church whose names have become distinctly
part of the history of the age in which they
lived, the late Archbishop will remain only
second in place beside that of the late Arch
bishop Hughes. Without possessing in so high
degree as the latter the faculty of taking ac-
tive part in the acts and scenes of the drama
of history that sweeps strangely along to the
cadence of years. blending prince and
peasant, prelate and proletarian in its
fantastic groupings, the dead Archbishop of
Baltimore has left steps in the story of his
time which will be marked for many years to
come. If he did not possess the statesmanlike
attributes of action, his disciplined mind had
perceptive grasp which has rarely been ex-
celled in his reading of the signs of the hour.
He was representative of the Oldest class of
English-speaking Catholics on the Continent
the Catholics of Maryland-for, although
born in the State of Kentucky, his parentage
was that of the old Catholic colony. His birth
takes us back to the days of Daniel Boone
and the times of struggle with the Indian
devils on 'the dark and bloody ground"
which we still call Kentucky, like a fore
shadowing of the war which he was to wage
as man on the spirits Of evil that do their
deadly work in the breasts of man. In his
native State many of the best years Of his life
were passed, and through the fitful fever of
w-Nothingism his voice alone was of
few respected and listened to by the leaders
of that unhappy movement. Fearless in his
utterances and cultured in his expressions,
the weight of his profound and ready logic was
felt wherever he entered the arena of discus
sion, of which he was especially fond. When
afterwards seated in the archiepiscopal chair
he was the same suave, dgnified and learned
man that nearly thirty years before had won
the applause Of his fellow churchmen in the
capital of Catholicity. When the Ecumenical
Council was convoked Archbishop Spalding
went to Rome, and though it was understood
at the time that he vigorously opposed the
proclamation of the dogma of Papal infalli-
bity at the outset, on the ground Of its mop
portuneness, he certainly became in the end
one of its most vigorous defenders. A more
local event, and one in which he figured more
conspicuously, was the second Plenary Council
of Baltimore, which assembled in 1866, and
laid down number of rules for the better
government of the American mission, for such
the Catholic Church here is, in spite of its
immense wealth and power. 1t was rumored
some time before the late Metropolitan's
decease that it was the intention of His Holt
ness Plus * to confer on him the dignity of
the cardinalate. If this were 80 it is to be
regretted that he did not survive long enough
to receive so we'll merited an honor. The
funeral will take place tomorrow from the
Cathedral of Baltimore, with all the solemn
pomp and gloomy glory which the Roman
ritual drapes around the burial Of the great
children of its Church, and even outside of the
circle OF his brothers and sisters in religion his
loss will excite live regret that comes from
the heart for those alone whose brave and
blameess lives stamp them among the good
and great Of men.