Year: 1863




the grounds that Catholics are not aud
cannot be loyal to the Republic, and in
case of war are more likely to side with
its enemies than with his friends Ii il
had been the settled purpose of Catholics
to confirm this charge, they could hardly
have taken different course from the
one they have actually taken since the
breaking out of the present civil war
They have shown that their sympathies
were with slavery, in which the rebellion
originated, and with the rebels them
| selves. Though they constitute, by no
means, the whole of the disloyal- Peace
party, there are comparatively few of
them who are not attached to that party.
When the Archbishop of Nov York at
tackled Us for proposing the emanci pa
ton as war measure, denounced Or
/ ridiculed the Abolitionists, and made the
best possible defense of the slave trade.
he was applauded to the echo; but when,
on his return from Europe, he took de-
cidedly national ground, and defended the
draft, as just, wise, and patriotic meas
ure, he was everywhere murmured
/ against, and even brother Archbishop,
without naming him, read him lectures
through a Catholic journal on his une
piscopal conduct, and cenSured him for
meddling with politics, approving the war
for the national life and integrity, and
endeavoring to make it appear that he
had departed from the line of his duty as
a Catholic Bishop, in supporting the flag
that had protected him at home and
i abroad, and in standing by the Govern
ment to which he had sworn allegiance
! No act Of the venerable Archbishops
life ever cost him so much popularity
with his own people as that one act of
decided loyalty. Ofall the Catholic pub
licsts in the country, the editor of this
! Review has been the only one to applaud
! or even TO approve his truly patriotic and
/ loyal act. That sermon more than atoned
! to us for all that we had personally suf-
/ fered from him, for it was loyal service
to our country Had he been backed up
by the Bishops and clergy of the loyal
States, the Northern people would have
/ been united i'll prosecuting the war, and
the peace party would never have been
/ organized; for the leaders of that exc
cradle party know perfectly we'll that,
though the foreign born population and
their children, the ma ajority Of whom are
Catholics, are not all who are ready to
follow them, yet, that without the assnr-
ance of their adherence, they could hardly
rally a corporars guard. Individual
Catholics have been loyal, but they have
been so in spite of reproach and obloquy
from their Catholic brethren, and the
bitter iuvcCtives of the Catholic organs.
;. What more could the Know Nothings
have asked OF US in their justification


THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRESS DIsLoYAL


To deter Catholics from engaging with
patriotic ardor in the war for the sup
preston of the rebellion, the so-called
Ca tholic press circulated the mischevous
fiction that it was the determination of
the Republicans, when they had crushed
the shareholders, to turn round and put
down the Catholic religion in this ceun-
try, as if there was, or could be, any
natural relation between protesting the
Catholic religion and holding slaves.
But suppose such thought had been
entertained, what was the proper course
for Catholics to take? To unite with the
Shareholders, identify our Church with
Slavery and rebellion, and clearly prove
ourselves disloyal? Unhappily, we Cath
olics seem to imagine that we have pow
er only to obstruct, and that our infiu-
ence will be null unless exerted in some
work of destruction, or to defeat some
national purpose. To express our sym
pathy with the rebellion and make COM
mon cause with it in its efforts to over
throw the Government of the United
Il States and destroy the country, or even
to withhold all active support of the ma
tional cause, would seem to most people
the way TO bring about the very result
aPprehended, and which it is our interest
and duty to guard against The Gov
ernment will succeed the rebellion will
be suppressed, and the Union will be re-
stored without Slavery, and will be firm
er and stronger than ever When that
is done what will be our position, if we
have succeeded in identifying ourselves
with the cause of Slavery and the rebel
lion, and demonstrated to the world that
! American Catholics love not liberty, and
hold that they have the right to resist the
legal government, and the legitimate au-
thority of the nation to which we have
sworn allegiance; In vain should we ap-


cs TOR It Woad BE- osBtE SHOWN HREagRn HREaagR gaRs
the exception, not the rule. In vain we
would cite our Review, for though that
has been uniformly loyal and true to the
Government, the enemies of Catholics
could easily prove that in being so it has
lost the confidence of the Catholic com
munity, and was interdicted by the Bish-
op of Richmond, denounced by the Bish-
op of Wheeling, and officially declared
by the Bishop of Philadelphia and the
Archbishop Of Cincinnati to be no long
er a Catholic Review In vain should we
appeal to the Telegraph and Adrocate,
the New York tablet, and the Pittsburg
Catholic, for these journals have not
been uniformly anti-Slavery or decided
ly loyal, and at best are only exceptions,
; and by no means fair opponents of the
sentiments and opinions of the Catholic
body in the United States. In vain
should we appeal to the large number of
Catholic volunteers in the army, for that
number, large as it has been or even is,
We are told by Archbishop Hughes,is not
relatively so large as is the proportion of
the loyal States; and besides, it may be
said that the mass of them volunteered
not from loyalty, but for the sake of the
high bounties and liberal pay offered,
and in the case of the Irish, for the pur-
pose of acquiring military experience