Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-11-11
FIJI IVY AND THE RUIN.
DE. ROgers's Lecture in the Grand ope-
raliOuse Last Night.
His Philosophy about our Installations
Government Jurisprudence, Bys-
tenn Of Marriage, Etc.

D, i nave the honor TO address,
more, an audience for whom / entertain
not feelings Of profound respect, bu
emotions Of gratitude and affection
which l have no language to express
Through long, long years you have born
with my manifold foibies, and thi
reception reminds me Of the mOthe
who clings to her child despite hi
i wayWardness and folly, for every chufel
. in the city offers you this evening a bet
y ter lecture than mine, free as the water
OF the Jordan OF the Mississippi, with
1 out money, without price, and that Vol
should thus receive me proves, at least
that my plain and blunt defense of wha
l believed to be the truth has not offend
J, ed you. You are my witnesses that
never ran on the popular side.
AS AN EPIsCoPALIAN,
l thought that my dearest friends, man,
of whom are now present, though goo(
people, and better than !, after the nat
ural order, were in "schism,n and haC
no church at all, you laughed at my
folly, and pardOned me for what you be
lieved to be Al honest mistake. As 8
+ Ritualistic E~piscopalian, l advocated
what most E~piseopalians rejected, 4. G
= thenecessity of a priesthood and sacrifice
lElEs III OANEA Al0A VIC AAAEll III
the great sacrifice of Calvary. This
thought, and the absolute necessity OF
union, harmony and perfection in that
body Of which Christ is the head, led me
to the door of Catholicity. True, l fal-
tered for a moment here. To give up my
profession 50 late in life-the support Of
a large family-to be separated from 50
many dear friends, and TO go into a
church composed of the poor, whose
very poverty had been brought upon
them by their martyred fathers to de-
fend CathOIcity, and whose priests
could say in thorough justice to me, as
it meet to take the children's bread and
cast it to the dogs?"-all these consid-
eratiOns made me falter. AndifI should
tell you now, what l never alluded to be-
fore in my life, of the sufferings which
my happy familyhave endured, you, too,
would falter.
1t was but fora moment, as faltered at
your side on the plains Of Belmont and
Shiloh. 1t was the weakness of hu-
manity to be conquered, after a mo-
ment, 10y the urgency of a higher princi-
pie. You, then, are my witnesses that |
never withheld my honest convictions.
Your familiar faces are much the
same as in past times. This splen-
did panorama, this grand structure all
unchanged, and yet a strange sadness
comes over me. You are not yet Catho-
lies, and 1 miss from your sides many
who are gone-gOne!
The Ivy, of which l am to speak to-
night, begins to throw its tendrils about
their tombs, and as the departed behold
us, they, too, attest that / never for
emOlument or advancement uttered
from this place, or from any other,
one word Of wiIlful folly or false
hood! Then hear me, good
friends, dear friends, while I prove
that Catholicity originated, and still up
holds all that is good in your govern
ment, in your jurisprudence-even in
your churches, and in all your social in
stitutions. That should this vine be up
rooted throughout the world, in that
moment, they would fall in fearful and
indiscriminate ruin!
OUR COUNTRY.
When l look around in this vast and
beautiful domain, I am carried back
insensibly to those "dark ages,u over
which 50 many tears had been shed.
To ages of superstition and ignorance !
when converts and monasteries pre-
served the treasures Of ancient science
when Roger Bacon at Oxford studied
lectricity, commencing with the elec-
tr0B of the ancient Greeks, and de-
velOped this wonderful agent of
nature for our present practical use;
when steam engines in the mines of
Cornwall and N the Bay of Barcelona
lifted burdens and propelled boats, when
printing, which now moves the world,
invented, and to the discovery and
first settlement Of this great country
all of which was done by Catholics. For
the Reformation wa not yet born, and
the two hundred years Of warfare which
it inaugurated, had not checked the
great work of civilization which Volt.
Halter, Guizot, Hallam, Maitland and
Roscoe (all Protestants) declare the
Church was carrying on.
While Luther was an infant at
Eisliban, in 1892, Columbus was plough
ing the solitary seas, and Catholic
science, Catholic intelligence, above all,
Catholic faith, gave US this beautiful
country.
As 1 came along from Louisville the
other day, l learned in HarpeT's Jour
nat Of Civilization that Catholicity was a
" foreign institution
1--WE have welcomed them" saws he,
'to our shOres.U e = e 1--WE have
treated them generously %. They are
now in league with JEFF Davis and the
kuklux. Let this foreign institution
beware lest it should bring down upon
itself a terrible retribution from the peO-
pie" Foreign institution! Before the
Reformation had checked the progress
of civilization, Morales had landed with
his colony in Florida.
THE FIRST BISHOP on THIS CONTINENT
came in this expedition, with his mis-
sionary priests, built their first altar to
jesus Christ in Il beautiful land of
flowers, converted multitudes Of the
poor pagans, and after years of suffering,
died martyrs to Jesus, and took their
only treasures, the souls they had con-
verted, to mansions of eternal bliss!
This first diocese extended from the Rio
Grande to the Savannah river, and COM
prised Memphis within its borders.
This very Memphis, the Protestant
Bishop Of which viii tell you land that
without laughing) that the Catholics
are in Schis0t here, having Obtruded
themselves into a Protestant country
where the Anglican Church was prevf-
Ously established.
Why, long before Sir Walter Raleigh
smoked tobacco-long befoIe the May
flower brought Puritans to Plymouth
Rock, and Fred Douglass family to Nir-
ginia, and before Henry the Eighth fell
in love with Anne Boline, when on
this bluff the long grass was waving
under primeval f~Orests-Priests discOY-
cred the great river which rolls COM
merce to your doors, and embellishes
your hOmes-Marquett, LaSalle, Joliet,
and other priests, We're seen from this
bluff, in their frail banks, by the naked
Indians, connecting the missions Of
Michigan with the missions to the
NatcheZ Indians, where NatcheZ
row stands, and where the first
Catholic edihce had a huge tree for the
tower, and hung the first church bell
that ever resounded in America.
This chain of Catholic missions built
the first ship that sailed on Lake Erie,
and offered sacrifice amidst the thunders
Of Niagara. Your very cities are named
after the priests; some Of whom 1 have
mentioned. Your ~queen-like cities
Marquett, La Sale, Joliet, to say Moth
Of the more modern Baltimore!
"The meanest nh, the mightiest river
Roll mingiing with their ame forever!'
l confess it sounds a little strange
when a lecturer from New England
tells US, with nasal emphasis: Catho-
is nauthing but a Turin institu-
ton, and hadn't ought to be tolerated
our country
OUR GOVERNMENT.
Notwithstanding the wreck and ruin
surrounds US, there are still great
Of our forefsthers' government
originated in Catholicity, and to
which the Ivy clings in the midst Of
mOurnful desolation. Whence did our /,
fOrefathers derive our system of repre- (
s~entation, with the 4" checks and bal :
ances of powern so often spoken of ? !
Perhaps you will answer from the Par
lament Of Great Britain, over which we :
placed a president instead of a king; {
well. Sir Mr.. Blacksfono saYs- In /.