The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-30

article takes occasion to state here
! that he has always affiliated with the
] Republican party. except on one occa-
sion. which exception was in no way
connected with any religious matter
and that he is the son OF Catholic
father who lost his life in the DEFENSE
/ of the Union. With all the strength
! of his soul he hurls back this charge
/ of disloyalty against his co-religionlsts
/ in the teeth of James M. King and
/ brands him as a, falsifier and traducer
of his countrymen. In view Of this
I definite charge of disloyalty during the
/ Civil war it is proper to make brlet
/ reference to the part which Catholics
actually did take in that struggle.
| The Civil war brought supreme test
of loyalty to every citizen of the nation
Among the first to respond to the ma
tion's call for defenders were Roman
Catholics. From Massachusetts, from
New York, from Pennsylvania, came
regiments composed of Catholics, both
officers and men, accompanied by the
faithful priests of their faith to give
Mother Church's blessing as they went
to battle and to minister her cOnsola-
ton to those left dying on the field.
The record of the famous Irish bril-
gaGe in the Civil war will endure as
long as history is written. At Fred
ericksburg the green flag was carried
with a courage truly, sublime. On the
word of command six times did the bri-
gade hurl itself against the imDreg-
nable position of the enemy. Its ranks
We're moved down like grass before the
reaper. SO frightful was the carnage
that the position stormed was termed
by veterans of bloody war the "slaugh-
ter pen" Humanitarians even CEN
sured the commander who obeyed the
words ordering him to lead his men
to the attack, but neither the officers
nor the men of that brigade ever
flinched in the presence of death, or
feared to face the gaping lannon's
mouth.
Charge for the gunsl" came as the
word of command
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why;
Theirs but to do and die"
Does this sound like the record of
men whose religion could make them
false to their country? Shame, eternal
shame, upon such as James NJ. King,
who would asperse the loyalty of such
men as these.
We may be pardoned for speaking of
these things, but it is well to recall a
fact that too many would fain forget,
and men like James NJ. King would
question. that the Catholic citizens of
this nation went in companies and in
regiments to the defense of the Union
For heroic devotion to the cause and
for promptitude to obey the word Of
command even when it meant, as it
did more than once, Charge, not for
victory, but for sacrifice" the Irish
brigade yield to none that went into
that struggle. Above it f1oated, side by
side, the Irish flag and the Stars and
Stripes.
Dap,ar,bo, +b;- NJ 1y;,rr o,,7 80 NJ, .
cry out that the Catholics devotion to
his Church saps his loyalty to the ma
ton! Remember it, Mr.. King, and ye
who wrap yourselves in the American
flag and Shrek out Treason" if the
Irish Catholic unfurls the banner of
the heart! Remember that that ban
ner waved above the heads of men
who, on every battlefield contested by
the Army of the Potomac, were pour
ing out their life's blood to preserve the
Union. of which they, too, were citi-
zens. 1t was flung to the breeze and
glory on the field of Bull Run; it
waved above the scene of carnage at
Fair Oaks and Fredericksburg, at
Gaines Mill and Savage Station, at
Malvern Hill and Charlottesville; on
the heights of Gettysburg and in the
Wilderness; at Spottsylvania and in
the trenches at Petersburg; and
ragged and torn, discolored but not dis
honored free from every stain of the
enemy'S touch, it was born away from
AppomattoX only when Lee had laid
down his arms and the cause of the
Union was triumphant. The ranks were
shattered and broken: thousands of
those who had marched beneath it's
folds, many who had borne it aloft and
scores of noble souls who had led its
defenders to the lannon's mouth, would
never more answer to the roll-call of
the brigade For them
THE muff1ed drums sad roll was beat
The soldiers last tattoo.
But the history of this brigade is by
no means a complete history of the
Catholic participation in the War
of the Rebellion. Catholics were numer-
Gus in many regiments not exclusively
Catholic or Irish; their record can be
inferred from the history of those reg
iments made UP of men of their race
and their faith, as well as from the
history of regiments composed of men
of all nationalities and various creeds.
1t is a sad reflection that there should
live an American, more than all one
who poses, as a Christian American,
who would question the loyalty of
these valiant men and malign the mem
DRY of such gallant commanders as
Quincy and Mulligan Burns and Smith
Kelly and Lynch, Mulholland and
Meagher, Shields and Sheridan, and
countless others whose names have
been immortalized by their noble deeds.
While on this topic we may be par
doned if we refresh Mr.. Kings MEM
DRY by the rehearsal of the fact which
he has every reason to forget and hide
from the American people Mr.. King !
has done a most unwise thing in invtt- |
ing a scrutiny of the conduct of the
and their founder, John |
Wesley, in SO far as loyalty to our gov
is concerned. He should court !
oblivion on the subject. AS he seems |
to have forgotten the Methodist revo- |
Iutionary record we will recall some |
incidents that should shame him into |
silence. John Wesley declared himself |
an enemy of. civil and religious liberty. |
He was a violent opposer of our faith |
ers in their struggle for independence. |
He was a most bitter maligner and as
oerser and libeller of the character of +
BUR revolutionary heroes and patriots.
He denounced John Hancock as a
smuggler and a felon. He write and
preached in scorn against the princi-
oles of liberty for which Hancock,
and Jefferson commended,
md did all in his power to counterfeit
he American and British mind. He did
Ill in his power to urge on the mother
country to crush the infant colonies,
md destroy the traitors and rebels. He
lid all that he could, by his pen and
nighy influence over American Metho-
lists, to encourage them to aid the
FORBES here, or remain true to Eng
and. eve produce for the benefit of
Mr.. James NJ. King few of John Wes-
ey's political sentiments:
The supposition that the people are
he origin of power is in every way in
lefensible. You (Americans) profess
o be contending for liberty, but it is a
ain, empty profession. No govern
nents under Heaven are so despotic as |