The Irish standard., 1903-02-14
est impression on their untutored

est impression ON their untutored
minds. AS Bancroft says:
1.-The appearance of the priests in
dark robes, their frequent and mystical
signs of reverence, their chastity, their
apparent Indifference to secular af-
fairs, all impressed the natives with
the sublimity and gravity of the
faith.''
n terrible fate awaited the Protes-
tants at the hands of their own con-
verts. They We're massacred. The
measles broke out among their Indians
and great numbers of them persisted.
When taken i'll, medicine was admin
istered and they were told to prepare
for death. The Rev. Mr.. Whitman
vas suspected of having the "evil eye,"
and the idea struck the Indians that
they were being poisoned by the
Protestants for the purpose of robbing
them of their lands. The result was
that they arose in their savage wrath
and slew the inmates of the Protestant
Mission.
Mr.. Whitman was among the vic
Tins, and the life of his companion
Rev. Mr.. Spalding, was saved through
the heroic efforts Of Father Brouillet
Out of gratitude (Y to the priest for
saving his life, Mr.. Spalding forward
ed to the Secretary of the Interior a
report of the massacre, which consti-
tutes the Senate document and said:
"This Brouilet actually proceeded
to baptiZe the blood stained children
of the butchering savages while the
butchery was going on and the unbur-
led dead and gasping bodies lay about
his feet, hogs and dogs running about
with parts in their mouths, the
screams of our young women, writhing
in the hands of unrestrained brutality
his church-music; and who, with his
bishops and associates, handed over
with their own hands our young, help
less girls to be brutalized before their
eyes. And these are the Jesuit mon
sters whose record in Oregon is thus
written with Protestant blood and
blood of American fathers and infants
and mothers. The Brouilet, who could
thus help on the horrid butchery of
Protestants and Americans, not able to
meet the overwhelming testimony
against him, fed 5000 miles to New
York institution, and prepared a paper
composed of forgeries against the best
citizens of Oregon"
That is how Spalding thanked the
Catholic priest who had saved his life
from the fury of his own converts.
The fact is that there were no Jesuits
at all in Oregon at the time, but they
were accused, as a matter of course,
of instigating the massacre of the
Protestant missionaries. Bancroft,
however, eXOnerates the Catholics of
all the false charges and characterize
them as ''abominable and absurd
The Catholics of this country have
been offered gross insult by the &C.
ton of the United States Senate in
ordering a reprint of the lying and
scurrilous report of Spalding 1t was
printed on motion of Senator Mitchell
of Oregon and reported favorably by
Senator Platt of New York, to whom
the resolution was referred. The Cath
Ollie Truth Society and the Catholic
Federation should take immediate
steps to check the propa cation of the
falsehoods in this report and protest
against it's publication by the United
States Government. Why does not
the Protestant Board of Foreign Mis-
SiOnS republiSh it at their own eX-
pense? Why should the government
do it? If such vile production be
issued by order of the United States
Senate, why not Maria Monk" 'Why
Priests Don't Wed" and other choice
anti-Catholic publications? 1t was
surely through the efforts of agents of
the Protestant Board of Foreign Mis-
sions that the document was ordered
printed. 1t is not too late for C;,tho-
lies to protest against it's publication
and emphasize the fact that there is
no union of church and state in this
republic.