San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-04-15

IUUOEdb6u III buo N6W loih Jun
August 30th, 1891" The Independ-
emit Immediately wrote to thesecre-
tary of war asking him whether
any such document had been is
sued from the pensions office Gas 1t
purported) and whether tie figures
given could be verified. In answer
there came a letter from the war
department, containing the follow
ing very definite statement:
"No compilation has ever been
made from which any reliable
staten emit can be made relative to
the number of deserters during the
late war. The number Of soldiers
of any given nativity in service
during the war is not known, nor
is it possible to make even an ap-
proximately correct statement Of
the number OF percentage Of
deserters belonging to any particu-
lar nationality"
The Independent wrote also to
the editor of the New York Sun,
asking whether the Sun held itself
responsible for the figures which,
according to that slip, were cor
roborated in its columns. In an
swer came the following: "The
Sun does not and never did. The
figures were printed simply as cor
respondence. We disclaimed their
official character at the time and
many times SINCE"
In regard to the alleged
letter of Plus TX. to Jeffer.
son Davis, the Independent
remarks: 1--WE have to say that
we can find no authority for it. If
Plus TX actually did what the
governments OF the world refused
to do, Jefferson Davis, the presi-
dent of the Confederacy, would
have known of it and spoken Of it
in his "Rise and Fall of the Con-
federate Government" We have
searched this two-volume work
diligently and failed to find any
record OF papal recognition"
Moreover, anyone DESTROYS Of
seeing an authoritative contradic-
ton Of the oft.repeated falsehood
that Pope Plus TX recognized the
Southern Confederacy, will find a
specific refutation Of it by Mr..
John Bigelow, U. S. minister to
France during the civil war, in the
North American Review for Octo-
Der, 1898.
No further comment is necessary
to add weight to this overwhelm-
ing refutation by non-Catholic
authorities of these outrageous
calumnies; and yet, it is on these
and on charges equally baseless,
that the A. P. A. would deprive
Catholics OF their civil and re-
ligious liberty.
Mr.. Smith in the following sem
fences insults the present standing
army Of the United States, rank
and file, officers and men, with an
imputation on their loyalty to the
flag they are sworn to defend; he
shifts danger to the country from
the awful fact that an Irish frater-
nal society is composed Of Irish
men, and that the Knights Of st.
John drill every Thursday night
at Denver; to say nothing Of what
twenty other societies may be
doing. And yet he complains that
1 have ridiculed him.
II Mr.. Smith is really afflicted
with patriotic apprehension on
these subjects, L would refer him
in the first instance to the gallant
non-Catholic officers of the army,
who are supposed to know some
thing Of the spirit which animates
their brother officers and their
men; and in the second instance
to the constitution and laws Of
any or every Catholic society in
the land; they are all open to his
perussl; there is no dark lantern
business there; every one may
know who we are, what we profess,
what we are doing; and If he find
one spark Of disloyalty or treason
among them all, If he find one
thought, one sentiment other than
Of love and allegiance to this glori-
Gus government OF the United
States, l beg him to proclaim it
from the housetops, that we may
discard the traitor
1 appeal to the readers of the
LIGHT to judge whether, in view
Of their nature, l have not been
very patient with the communica-
tions OF Mr.. Smith.
/ have tried hard to restrain
myself from using the severe,
though just language Of honest in
dignation, butt put it to any
reasonable being-when he quotes
man who lived and wrote in
the 18th century, and then asks
me to prove that that man is dead,
does not patience cease to be q