The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-29
the honesty, pat riotism and unbendiDg Christian
character Of Colonel Thomas ]. Morgan.

I IIHJUT-VIGTICTHI
lleveo me to be entirely innocent OF any wrong
| intention, and Il any doubt this | refel
| them TO his adjutant-general Major :. d. Moe
| now living at Chattanooga, Tenn, who wa;
personally familiar with all the facts in the
| case. General George III. Thomas, than Wnom
| no nobler, purer soldier served III the army
| assured me during the progress OF the trla
| that he had mistaken confidence IN my lnteg
| rity, and he afterward recommended me, o.
! his own accord, for promotion, and on his
recommendation, chiefly, was made brevet
| brigadier-general "for gallant and meritor1ouS
| services during the war, being one OF the very
| youngest men on whom that honor was con
| ferred. General Cruft, in forwarding a paper
| TO the War Department, August II, 1860
| placed upon it the following Endorsement;
| "He is an intelligent and earnest soldier, 8
| scholar of liberal education and heightened,
| conscientious and brave gentleman
| give here the names of some of the officers
| with whom was associated, who are still llv-
| ing and who can be addressed by anybody who
| wishes to make inquiry regarding any OF the
| facts here stated or regarding my career as an
! army officer: Lleutenant-ColonelJ ]. r. Putnam,
| who was member of the court-martial that
| tried me, Portland block, Chicago, H.: Major
| Henry Romeyn, Fifth United States Infantry,
| Atlanta, Ca; Captain Clarence w. Baker,
Chattanooga. Tenn; Rev. William Elgin, D. D.,
Akron. N y; Captain f. j. Cressey, Los An
geles, Cal; Rev. Elvero Persons, DID, Della
ware, Ohio. So much for that little episode,
| which surely ought to be laid to rest.
Mr.. forke says; Permit me to remark that
soon after these courts-martial Rev. Mr. Nor
gan resigned precipiately from the army
The animus of this statement of course is on
the face of 1t. How false 1t is in fact, and how
utterly ungenerous il is in motive, will be
appreciated by your readers when I call
their attention to the fact that the courts
martial were in March and that 1 re-
signed in August. l had left the senior class
in college in 1861, and served three months
as private soldier, until the expiration
OF my term OF enlistment; after teaching
year re-entered the army first lieuten-
ant, In August. 1862, and served a little more
than three years as lieutenant-major, lieu
tenant-colonel, colonel. br1gadier and divl-
sion commander, until August, 1860,
was no longer any necessity for my remain
Ing in the army l resigned, not pre-
clpltateIy put deliberately, ana WITHIN three
weeks afterward, after hasty call at my
home, was enrolled in the Theological Sem
mary al Rochester, n. y, having for one of
my classmates the former chaplain OF my regi-
ment, and remained there three years, COM
plotting my studies in 1868. then served the
seminary as financial secretary for three years
Passing now from the question of my own
personal record in the army, let me notice one
or two things said by Mr.. Iorke about my con-
duct OF the Indian Office Evidently Mr..
Iorke writes with regard TO matter which he
knows nothing about, or else he deliberately
falsines history. He says: SIT was to carry out
a campaign against the contract school system
that Morgan, by church influence, was pitched
into the Indian Office" | had served in the
army as an officer in a regiment commanded
by Colonel Benjamin Harrison. After he be-
came President in May, 1889, he telegraphed
quested me to take the office OF Commissioners
OF Indian Affairs, saying that no one had sug
geSted my name to him, but that from his
knowledge of me he believed I would be able
10 administer the Office so as 10 satisfy the
Christian and phIlanthropie sentiment OF the
country.
Mr. Yorke says 1.-The advent of Morgan was
marked by Il virulent attack on the Catholic
schools" This statement is absolutely and
unqualifedly false. l made no attack upon
the Catholic schools. I expressed a disap-
al st v11n 1sa
money out of the United States Treasury an
appropriating it TO Indian schools carried on
by any religious bodies for sectarian purposes.
AT that time Methodists, Congregationalist
Presbyterians, Episcopaians, Friends, Luther
ans, MenoniteS, Unitarians and Roman Cath
olics were receiving money from the public
treasury for their Indian schools The Bap-
fists were receiving nothing and declined TO
receive anything on the ground that it was
misuse of public money ana was in violation
of the principle of separation of church and
state, for which the Baptists have always stood.
AS Il result of the discussion growing out of my
action all the religious denominations except
the Menonnites have Withdrawn entirely from
the contract school system; the present ad-
mlnistration has adopted my views and is
carrying out my plan. Congress has ordered
the disseminating of the contract system as
soon as practicable. Within eleven years the
Roman Catholic church has taken out of the
public treasury SO, 430 900 for the prosecution
OF its missions among the Indians. This be-
lleye 10 be great public wrong, un-American
and contrary to the spirit if not the letter of
the constitution. If l had accomplished
nothing else in my administration of the
Indian Office than to expose this great wrong
and set in motion forces which are leading to
It's eradication, should feel that my admins
tration of that great and difficult office had
been eminently successful.
Mr. Yorke says "that neither Republican
politics nor meritorious service in the war,
nor any other consideration ayaiIed to keen a
man in the employ OF the Indian Commission
when General Morgan discovered that he was
a Catholic"
Let me say emphatically that dismissed no
one from the Indian service because he was a
Roman Catholic; that did retain in the SER
vice as teachers and in other positions many
whom knew TO be Roman Catholics; further
than this, appointed to important positions
in the Indian service Roman Catholics and
offered places to others, which were not
accepted. While was in the Indian Office my
private and confidential secretary was Roman
Office were Roman Catholics during my
entire service, and the chief messenger,
my personal attendant, was also a Roman
Catholic. l did dismiss from the Indian
service for cause some Roman Catholics and
very much fear that if Mr.. Yorke had been in
the Indian service when was Commissioner l
should have been most reluctantly obliged to
dismiss him for falsehood, SANDER and cow
ardice if had had before me such evidences
of his character as his present attacks upon me
indicate. I do not believe that any mans
religion or professions of religion should
be allowed to shield him from being
treated as his character and habits
demand. Inc great hue ana cry raised
against me by the Roman Catholics
was due almost wholly to the fact that l in
sisted that persons in the Indian service
should be honest, faithful and capable The
man who has made the most persistent attacks
upon me in the name of Catholicism and who
has written many columns of ISLANDERS and
falSehoods was man whom / thrust out of
Office because he was unworthy to be in it, and
who has sought his revenge by his malignant
persecution of me ever since. He il was who
copied from the War Department the records
of the court-martial which Mr.. Yorke is using
and who has furnished TO the Catholic press
most of the mud which it has used in its as
saults upon me.
In conclusion let me say that 1 regard the
conflict now raging on this continent between
Professionalism and Roman Catholicism, be-
tween the civilization of the nineteenth CEN
fury and the standardization of the sixteenth,
between the liberty of our republican institu-
tons and the despotism of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, between our free public schools,
with all their broadening and uplifting quail
ties, and the narrow, provincial, belittling,
benumbing parochial schools, is conflict in
which every lover of his race, every lover of
republican institutions, every lover OF genuine
Christianity, ought to be found on the side of
the Flag and the Little Red Schoolhouse. This
is the side of patriotism, OF philanthropy, of
progress, of Professionalism. Very respectfully,
7. j. MORGAN.
New York, Jan. %, 1896.
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