The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-03-09

may be an opinion falsely attributed
to some great man in whom the Amer
lean people have reason to place all
trust, like the forged Lincoln utterance
about the dark cloud he saw on the
horizon of this country because of the
Jesuits here h1
Consistent with these practices is
IA forged statement only lately coming
to our notice, which is also attributed
to Lincoln. The old Lincoln invention
| is pretty well discredited since the let
ter of Robert Lincoln to Our Sunday
Visitor, written after an examination
of his fathers writings and papers, in
which he repudiates it as simple in
Vention." Even professional bigots no
longer venture to refer to "the dark
| cloud Lincoln saw when appealing to
intelligent audiences, although it's use
has not been entirely discontinued in
the back woods
Now comes this new Lincoln forgery,
which is quoted by an organ no less
distinguished than the New Age Mag
azine, the official publication of 33rd
Degree Scottish Rite Masonry, printed
at Washington, D. c., which credits the
martyred Lincoln with saying:
Il have the proof that Archbishop
Hughes, whom | had sent to Rome
that he might urge the Pope to induce
the Roman Catholics of the North, at
least, to be true to their oaths of al
legiance, and whom l thanked public
ly, when under the impression he had
acted honestly according to the prom
Use he had given me, is the very man
who advised the Pope to recognize the
legitimacy of the Southern Confedera-
cy and put the weight of his tiara in
the balance against us in favor of
our enemies. Such is the perfidy of
Jesuits.
For authority, the New Age cites
"Americanism or Romanism, which,"
book of the Menace type, one of
many of it's kind written for distribu-
tiol in connection with anti Catholic
lectures, and appealing to a class
almost wholly lacking in even elemen-
tary knowledge of history. That New
Age would refer to such book as au-
thority, is certainly to be regretted;
it calls for something more than regret
that it lends it's columns to the dis
semination of such rank and impos-
sible forgery. .... r..
7 1t is matter of common familiarity
to all who know anything at all about
the subjest, first, that Lincoln did not
send Archbishop Hughes to Rome but
to France; second, that his mission
had no reference to the Catholics in
this country, but was to help to pre-
vent France and England from form
ing an alliance to recognize and aid
the South, as was being discussed in
foreign diplomatic circles at that time:
third, that the Pope did not recognize
the Southern Confederacy, but on the
contrary refused to accord it recog-
milton, and on the whole acted toward
our Government in manner probably
more satisfactory than any of the great
European powers; fourth, that Arch
bishop Hughes was not Jesuit, as
none would know better than Lincoln
and Secretary Seward, one of his most
intimate friends.
This latest example of the profess
sional bigot's willingness to resort to
any means to stir up hatred for the
Catholic people, would be ridiculous
were it not that, in spite of it's being SO
obviously spurious, there will be many
who will believe it true. And in these
times for one who loves his country
and sees the sacrifices that Catholics
in common with others are making for
its sake, it must be a discomforting
if not a discrediting belief to hold.