The Irish standard., 1894-02-03

Inc Q08Q OF bQ0 OTUoT 8f0 0OOUuA0e.S
Their true character is already revealed
and they will soon sink into the obscur-
ity from which they have emerged.
FALSE STATEMENTS.
We give this week on the first page an
editorial from the New York Independ
emit concerning the charges Illuminated
against the Catholic Church by the
emifsaries of Anglo American fanaticism.
1t is an article worth reading, coming as
it does from one of the leading Protes-
tant papers Of the country. In connec-
ton with it We desire to give our readers
from another Protestant source refuta-
ton of slanderous statements rejecting
on the loyalty of Irish Catholics during
the late civil war. Not long since one
Prot. Kline, an A. p. A. evangelist, lee
tured away down in Chattanooga, Tenn,
and repeated the stereotyped lie that
zone hundred and forty thousand Irish
men enlisted in the Union army, and
100000 of them desel ted, not from lack
of bravery, but by the mandate of the
Pope, who declared in favor Of the South
ern Confederacy."
The editor of the Chattanooga Times,
who is not an Irishman, but a German
American namedAdolph S. Oche, took up
Kline's false statement and said: "Ihere
was never fouler SANDER of the Irish
people, nor a more inexcusable lot OF
falsehood told by any anti Catholic fam
attic, than are crowded into these few
lines. If Mr.. Kline made these state
ments he is either very ignorant of the
facts, or he is very reckless person,
whose allegations concerning the Church
that appears to be his pet hatred should
be taken by those who love truth and
Justice with liberal allowance.
Fortunately we are not left in the dark
concerning the number Of assertions
from the Union armies, 1861-65. The
total, reported by Provost Marshal Cen
eral Frye, in 1865, as deserted, was l99,-
1O5. In this matter General Frye care
fully notes that assertions by the same
soldier two or three or moro times are
set down as individual acts. This greatly
swelled the number OF assertions re-
ported, particularly during the last half
of 1863 and the whole of 1854. General
Frye estimated that the individual deser-
tions did net number above 100000. 1t
he is right (and no man alive or dead
ever knew about the matter as we'll as he)
then, according to Kline, assuming he
said what we quote from the report of
his lecture, the entire DESERVING business,
including the bounty jumpers, is charge
able to Irish Catholics, who were
prompted by the Pope to desert.
1t is not true, but distinctly false, that
Pope Plus TX. took sides with the South
ern Confederacy. It is true that be
fully approved OF the niesion of Arch
bishop Hughes [who by the way was an
Irishman born and mostly educated in
his native country when he visited
Europe as special ambassador OF Presi-
dent Lincoln to prevent the recognition
of the South by Lonis Napoleon aid
other Catholic sovereigns. -.
But we need not 60 to any source but
that OF authentic history to prove that
the Catholic soldiers of the Union armies,
and especially the Irish Catholic soldiers,
were noted for their integrity, loyalty
and courage in the cause of the govern
ment. Generals Sheridan, Halpine,
Meagher, Mulligan, the hero of Licking
ton, Mo-, and hundreds of other Irish
Catholics, who held high command in the
Federal forces and never swerved in their
devotion-the records # these sufficiently
answer the abomlnable SANDER Of their
race and religion, attributed to Professor
Kline.
At the breaking out of the civil war
Archbishop Hughes, before hostilities
had really begun in Virginia, though in
very feeble health, lourneyed to WASH
ington to offer in person to the President
the services of his priests, Sisters of
Charity and Mercy to the Federal cause.
His adopted country never had q firmer,
and few more useful, never more de.
voted and single-minded friend, than was
this great Irish American.
The writer of this served in regiment
that bore on it's original rolls more than
one hundred Irish and German Catho-
lies, and not man of that faith deserted,
though the command was constantly at
the front and reduced to mere skeleton
by deaths in battle, from wounds and
from disease contracted in arduous serv-