The San Francisco call., 1895-10-07
The INDIANS OF MEXICO,
Father Ferguson Says They Are
Happy With Catholic
Religion.
Missionaries of Hawaii Criticized
for the Result of Their
LabOrS.

Rev. Father Ferguson, assistant rector OF
st. Patrick's Church, preached a sermon
yesterday morning in which he set forth
his views regarding the relative conditions
of natives of America under different re-
ligious surroundings. He said:
Mexico and the South American republics
are the pet bette noir of the clerical leaders OF
! the A. P. A. They deplore the condition OF
those countries. The people dwelling south OF
| the gulf are represented as in a most uncivi.
| lized state. The Mexican has never viewed
| with favor the evangelical attempts put forth
! to decoy him from Rome. Emerson and the
rest of the philosophers have pointed out that
the best way to be happy is to be content with
little. This doctrine has never found favor
with the eVangelicals.
DisintereSted tourists represent the Mexicans
as the hePpiest and most contented people in
the world. Have they not progressed to a
wonderful extent in comparatively short
space of time? Christianity and civilization
came to them less than 800 years ago. The
races on this side of the gulf have enjoyed its
blessings for over 800 years. Have the races
here, then, reason to boast much OF their su-
periority?
These lecturers are fond of drawing the
deadly parallel. Let us compare the state OF
the South American native with that OF The
native of North America, where Anglo-Saxon
Christianity dominated. Poor Lo is fast disap-
pearing from the face of the earth. In fifty
years there will not be tradition of him left.
Down in the. southern part OF the continent
he is alive and developing rapidly. He was in
a far lower stage of barbarism than the North
American Indian when the Catholic church
came to him. The majority of the Mexican
Cabinet are to-day full-blooded Indians who,
in intelligence and ability will compare favor
ably with the rulers of other countries.
Catholic colonists, indoctrinated with the
teachings OF the church, have uniformly re-
spected the rights of the native. Unbiased
Protestants willingly concede this.
In speeches at the Worlds Fair TO the repre-
sentatives of foreign nations President Palmer
and Senator Sherman freely acknowledged it,
The latter said: "By injustice and cruelty the
chief nations of Europe seized and held all
parts OF America. BUTT is due to the Spanish,
French and Portuguese people to note that
while their conquests OF the native tribes of
America were sometimes marked with cruelty,
yet they preserved and engrafted the body OF
the native population into and among their
conquerors, and have thus formed sixteen in
dependent republics, peopled chiefly by de-
scendants of native American tribes, while the
Anglo-Saxou domination resulted in the re-
morseless determination of the native tribes
wherever our race planted its feet.
We might invite the maligners of every thing
Catholic to turn their gaze toward Hawaii,
and explain to their audiences why the very
name of missionary rouses TO madness the
otherwise mild and inoffensive native of those
islands. There the missionaries were in full
control for nearly ninety years. What have
they done to improve the condition of the
native? They have robbed him of his Govern
ment, lands and possessions, and left him in
far worse condition than when they found him.
He was the happy and contented possessor of
Now his fertile lands have been wrested from
him, and his Christian ins structors declare him
unit for the franchise. Why, in all these
years OF missionary rule, was he not fitted? He
was the ward of the evangelicals Is it just in
guardian to dispossess his ward of what
rightfully belongs to him and then justify his
action by imputing ignorance and inability on
the part of the ward?
President Dole, Minister Thurston, and
nearly all of the Hawaiian Government Off
cials are sons of missionaries.
Isabella of Spain declared that her people
should not remain upon the soil of the New
World except as the servants and not the
rulers OF the natives. The restraining inf1u-
ence OF the Catholic church eventually had its
effect upon the Spanish cavalier. He was
taught to recognize and acknowledge the
common equality OF the native manhood.
Honest old DR.. Johnson, as every one knows
loved Salamanca, because the professors of that
famous university (who were Catholic priests
When asked by the Spanish generals if they
could not with justice coniscate the lands of
the natives, as they were pagans, returned an
emphatic NO; that the natives were fesh-
Toned to the image OF God and had prior
claim to their own soil.
That was the Christianity of the Catho-
lie church, according to Father Ferguson 8
idea. He said that the Indian in conse-
quence rules his own country in the
south, as he is the ma iority. The speaker
added: But what the same writer des-
lgnated as an unnatural state of affairs
exists In Hawaii-the rule of the minority.
The preachers should represent the inius-
tIce of all this to President Dole and in
duce him to abdicate."
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