THE "EXODUS" AND ITS EFFECTS.
The stream of Irish emigrants, starting from the one source,
separated now and continued flowing to the four quarters of the
globe, and, at length, its influence was beginning to be felt in
England itself, the last of the lands whither the Irish exiles
could think of turning. The poorest, unable to pay their passage-
money to North America, began to show themselves among the thick
populations of the great manufacturing centres of Great Britain.
More than fifty thousand departed annually to settle in other
climes and plant Catholicity in regions that, from a religious
point of view, were wildernesses.
In 1846 came an awful calamity, to impart to the movement an
impetus of which no one could have dreamed, and which went very
far to realize what M. de Beaumont had a few years before
declared to be an impossibility--the almost sudden
transportation of millions of starving Irish. This was the great
famine, still so fresh in memory, and now appearing to those who
witnessed its effects like that terrible passage of the
destroying angel in the night.
There is no better mode of accounting for this visitation than
that given by T. D. McGee, in his "Irish Settlers in America:"
"The famine (of 1846) is to be thus accounted for: The act of
Union in 1800 deprived Ireland of a native legislature. Her
aristocracy emigrated to London. Her tariff expired in 1826, and,
of course, was not renewed. Her merchants and manufacturers
withdrew their capital from trade and invested it in land. The
land! the land! was the object of universal, unlimitable
competition. In the first twenty years of the century, the
farmers, if rack-rented, had still the war prices. After the
peace, they had the monopoly of the English provision and
produce markets. But in 1846 Sir Robert Peel successfully struck
at the old laws imposing duties on foreign corn, and let in
Baltic wheat and American provisions of every kind, to compete
with and undersell the Irish rack-rented farmers.
"High rents had produced hardness of heart in the 'middleman,'
extravagance in the land-owner, and extreme poverty in the
peasant. The poor-law commission of 1839 reported that two
million three hundred thousand of the agricultural laborers of
Ireland were 'paupers;' that those immediately above the lowest
rank were ' the worst-clad, worst-fed, and worst-lodged '
peasantry in Europe. True indeed! They were lodged in styes,
clothed in rags, and fed on the poorest quality of potato.
"Partial failures of this crop had taken place for a succession
of seasons. So regularly did those failures occur, that William
Cobbett and other skilful agriculturists had foretold their
final destruction years before. Still, the crops of the summer
of 1846 looked fair and sound to the eye. The dark-green, crispy
leaves, and yellow-and-purple blossoms of the potato-fields,
were a cheerful feature in every landscape. By July, however,
the terrible fact became but too certain. From every town-land
within the four seas tidings came to the capital that the
people's food was blasted--utterly, hopelessly blasted.
Incredulity gave way to panic, panic to demands on the Imperial
Government to stop the export of grain, to establish public
granaries, and to give the peasantry such productive employment
as would enable them to purchase food enough to keep soul and
body together. By a report of the ordnance-captain, Larcom, it
appeared there were grain-crops more than sufficient to support
the whole population --a cereal harvest estimated at four
hundred millions of dollars, as prices were. But to all
remonstrances, petitions, and proposals, the imperial economists
had but one answer: 'They could not interfere with the ordinary
currents of trade.' O'Connell's proposal, Lord Georga Bentinck's,
O'Brien's, the proposals of the society called 'The Irish
Council,' all received the same answer. Fortunes were made and
lost in gambling over this sudden trade in human subsistence,
and ships laden to the gunwales sailed out of Irish ports, while
the charities of the world were coming in.
"In August, authentic cases of death by famine, with the verdict,
'starvation,' were reported. The first authentic case thrilled
the country, like an ill wind. From twos and threes they rose to
tens, and, in September, such inquests were held, and the same
sad verdict repeated, twenty times in a day. Then Ireland, the
hospitable among the nations, smitten with famine, deserted by
her imperial masters, lifted up her voice, and uttered that cry
of awful anguish which shook the ends of the earth.
"The Czar, the Sultan, and the Pope, sent their rubles and their
pauls. The Pacha of Egypt, the Shah of Persia, the Emperor of
China, the Rajahs of India, conspired to do for Ireland what her
so-styled rulers refused to do--to keep her young and old people
living in the land. America did more in this work of mercy than
all the rest of the world."
The sudden effect of this fearful trial was to increase the
total emigration from the British Isles from ninety-three
thousand in 1845 to one hundred and thirty thousand in 1846; to
three hundred thousand in 1849; to nearly four hundred thousand
in 1852. In ten years from 1846, two million eight hundred
thousand had fled in horror from the country once so dear to
them. From May, 1847, to the close of 1866, the number of
passengers discharged at New York alone amounted to three
million six hundred and fifty-nine thousand!
Those immense fleets of transports, which M. de Beaumont thought
necessary, but not to be found, were found. On such a sudden
emergency, every kind of tub afloat was thought suitable for the
purpose; and, all being sailing-vessels, the voyage was
proportionately long, the provision made for such numbers
insufficient, and the emigrants, already weakened by privations,
were fit subjects for the plague which, under the form of ship-
fever, rapidly spread among those receptacles of human misery,
so that, when the great caravan arrived in the St. Lawrence,
whither that first year all seemed to tend, the following was
the picture presented:
"On the 8th of May, 1847, the Urania, from Cork, with several
hundred immigrants on board, a large proportion of them sick and
dying of the ship-fever, was put into quarantine at Grosse Isle,
thirty miles below Quebec. This was the first of the plague-
smitten ships of Ireland which that year sailed up the St.
Lawrence. But, before the first week of June, as many as eighty-
four ships, of various tonnage, were driven in by an easterly
wind; and of that enormous number of vessels there was not one
free from the taint of malignant typhus, the offspring of famine
and of the foul ship-hold."
The effects of that awful misfortune may be found vividly
described in Mr. Maguire's book, from which the above extract is
taken, on the long line of march of that desolate army of
immigrants, leaving its thousands of victims at Grosse Isle,
near Quebec, at Pointe St. Charles, a suburb of Montreal, in
Kingston, in Toronto, Upper Canada, and, finally, at Partridge
Island, cpposite St. John's, New Brunswick.
America was thus destined to witness some of those scenes so
often enacted on the soil of Ireland, to compassionate the
people of the holy isle, to open her friendly bosom for the
reception of the unfortunate beings, who in return gave her all
they possessed--their faith.
But what M. de Beaumont so emphatically insisted upon, although
at first seemingly contradicted by the event, was nevertheless
true. England, the mighty mistress of the seas, did not possess
ships enough for the purpose of transportation; and her entire
navy added to all her merchant-vessels would scarcely have
sufficed. Ships had to be built, steamers chiefly, in order to
effect the transportation speedily, and diminish the dangers of
the passage.
Then Providence worked upon the ingenuity of worldly-wise men,
and set them planning and studying the question in all its
bearings, to devise new schemes of transportation on a scale not
dreamed of hitherto. Watt, the Stephensons, Brunel, A. Maury,
and others, rose up to perfect the various steam-machines
already known and in use; to investigate the currents of the
ocean, the different qualities of its waters, its depth and
soundings, in order to make the paths of the deep easier and
surer to navigators. The ingenuity of ship-builders effected a
revolution in naval architecture, and rendered possible the
construction of vessels of from ten thousand to twenty-five
thousand tons burden. Merchant companies and capitalists arose
to embrace the whole world in their mighty speculations,
studying the capabilities of all countries for trade, the most
desolate as well as the most inviting, the meanest as keenly as
the mightiest, linking the whole world in one vast commercial
circle, that the European race might be borne on to the
mercantile conquest of the universe; and all this came about,
doubtless, to effect its deeper and more permanent moral
conquest by the despised, doom-trodden, starving, dying Irishman,
who laid claim to one arm, one possession only--his faith and
the blessing of the Church.
Was not the Irish exodus intimately connected with all those
events? Was it not one of the mightiest causes of all those
gigantic enterprises?
But where were the funds to be found for such immense
undertakings? The treasury of nations is continually drained of
vast sums at home, and dare not draw away a part of its metallic
basis sufficient for such a purpose. Moreover, it is limited,
and needs the precious metals as a solid foundation whereon to
rest, or the fabric built upon it will be the fabric of a dream,
as was that of Law in France at the beginning of the eighteenth
century. The gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru seem
exhausted; the new ones of the Ural Mountains in Northern Asia,
of the Atlantic coast of North America, were not adequate to
meet the demands of such mighty operations.
Suddenly, in the year 1846, a Swiss captain, transformed into a
California settler, while endeavoring to turn a water-fall in
his new home to some account, discovers gold-dust in the sand.
As if by magic, the coast of California, hitherto neglected,
difficult of access at the time, and consequently ignored by
mankind, notwithstanding its wealth in mineral and vegetable
productions, becomes at once the cynosure of all eyes, the hope
of all hearts, the most renowned of all countries. Thither they
flock in crowds prom all parts of Europe and America, and a
steady flow of seventy million dollars annually is secured as a
basis for the new designs of capitalists and merchants.
Other gold-fields are soon discovered all along the American
coast, on the Pacific, from Lower California to Alaska, inviting
men to go thither and settle, just opposite to the Asiatic
Continent, separated from it only by the broad but easily-
navigated Pacific Ocean.
Soon also, far away south in the antipodes, opposite to another
portion of Asia, rich gold-fields are opened up in the newly-
discovered Continent of Australia, attracting immigration toward
another spot, whence the Asiatic nations may also be reached
with greater facility and dispatch.
Whoever believes that Providence has something to do with the
affairs of men; whoever is wise enough to see that this universe
is not the result of chance, and that its destinies are ruled by
a superior power, must admit that when events as unexpected as
they are unprepared by man come to pass--events which are so
connected together as to reveal the workings of a single mind
and a great object at once, foreshadowed if not positively
foretold, God is the designer, and a stronger hand is at work
than the combined power of men and devils could successfully
oppose. This is a truth which was not unknown to Homer,
centuries ago, when he described Jove holding our globe
suspended in space at the end of a chain, and defying all the
inferior gods to move the world in a direction contrary to that
given by his mighty arm.
The image, striking and poetical as it is, for a Christian is
too material. We speak more correctly when we say that Mind --
the Divine Mind--is the great invincible and invisible Force of
which all material forces are but the created agents, and by
which all inferior minds must stand or fall, conquer or fail. A
man must be blind with that incurable blindness--of will--who
cannot see it acting in and on the universe, and even
controlling the lower designs of puny intellects. The reverent
eye which sees the vastness of the plan, the multitude of its
agents, aiding and seconding it consciously and unconsciously,
recognizes it, and the supreme object of its workings, Love,
infinite Love.
And we distinguish with grateful surprise all those
circumstances visibly appearing in the great fact which has just
been so imperfectly sketched, and which will come home to us
still more forcibly when the workings of its lesser details come
to be examined. Here, for instance, at the moment of writing
these lines (March, 1872) we learn from the morning newspapers
of the recent arrival of the Japanese embassy at San Francisco;
that its members had been dispatched to this country to study
European, or, as we call them, Japhetic institutions, for the
purpose of copying and adapting them to their own wants. The
embassy, detained at Salt Lake City by the snow-blockade on the
Pacific Railroad, refused to go back, temporarily, to California,
and made up their mind to wait in Utah, until it is possible
for them to proceed.
Pacific Railroad, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Japanese
embassy, adoption of European manners by the Mikado and daimios--
who can fail to gather from these words and details the
conception of means to an end, and that end the one we now begin
to study?
The first circumstance coming under our review and indicative of
a loving design on the part of Providence, a circumstance not
marked sufficiently at the time, is the preservation by the
English themselves of the poor remnants of the Irish race, which
the first working of the plan had so frightfully decimated and
left in danger of being utterly wiped out. Had they disappeared,
would Japhetism have become a blessing to the Asiatic nations?
The Catholic, looking abroad and casting his mind's eye over the
vast European field, to all seeming so rich in every production,
yet in reality so sterile morally, peering with awe and horror
into the Japhetic caldron--for such it is--seething and bubbling
to the brim, full of the most deadly poisons and noxious
substances, ready at any moment to overflow in infected waves
and sweep over the unfortunate countries which look to it so
anxiously for blessings, a torrent of black destruction,
spreading around naught but desolation and barrenness--the
Catholic eye, seeing all this, can find but one answer to our
query. The Asiatic races cannot hope to be benefited by the
introduction of European manners among them, unless the same
great movement carries in its train the holy Catholic Church:
and as that introduction must be brought about by English-
speaking leaders, the only English-speaking Catholics of
numerical significance must be the instruments of the adorable
designs of Providence.
That this assertion may not appear too sweeping, it is only
enough to instance the example of India, which England has held
long enough to convert, at least in part, had she so desired and
been moved by the Spirit of God, yet to-day India stands in a
worse relation toward Protestantism than when Protestantism in
the name of Christianity, but in the person of a British trader,
settled down in its midst. What good has Hindostan derived?
But, at this very moment, the whole Irish race is at the mercy
of the English Government and people. Only let the same kind of
vessels continue to be dispatched filled with Irish emigrants,
and the whole race must disappear within a short period, or
become so reduced in numbers that its operations as a race, on a
large scale, will be unproductive of sufficient results.
And it is well to mark that at the time of this outpouring of
the race, as long before, and almost constantly since, there
were Englishmen rejoicing at the glorious result which death by
plague and famine was about to produce. It were easy to quote
many a barbarous passage from the London Times, expressive of
the most satanic joy, not only at the departure of the Irish
from the "United Kingdom," but at the prospect of their ultimate,
or rather proximate disappearance out of the world altogether.
Yet it was the same English Government and people which, feeling,
let us hope, some compassion at the sight of this new woe of
the "Niobe of nations," determined to try and save her children,
as, if they must cast them out, at least it should he alive and
full of health on a foreign shore.
Laws, therefore, were passed, regulating the quantity and
quality of provisions, particularly of drinkable water, the
number of the crew and working-men, the ventilation of the
vessel, the number of passengers to be received, etc.
Still, these first attempts at humanity seem to have been rather
faint-hearted, as the following passage from Mr. Maguire's
"Irish in America," showing how they were carried out, and how
inadequate was the remedy applied in 1848, will explain:
"The ships, of which such glowing accounts were read on Sunday
by the Irish peasant near the chapel-gate, were but too often
old and unseaworthy, insufficient in accommodation, not having
even an adequate supply of water for a long voyage, and, to
render matters worse, they, as a rule, were shamefully
underhanded. True, the provisions and the crew must have passed
muster in Liverpool; . . . but there were tenders and lighters
to follow the vessel out to sea; and over the sides of that
vessel several of the mustered men would pass, and casks, and
boxes, and sacks would be expeditiously hoisted, to the
amazement of the simple people who looked on at the strange and
unaccountable operation. And, thus, the great ship, with its
living freight, would turn her prow toward the West, depending
on her male passengers, as on so many impressed seamen, to
handle her ropes or to work her pumps in case of accident. What
with bad or scanty provisions, scarcity of water, severe
hardship, and long confinement in a foul den, ship-fever reaped
yet a glorious harvest between-decks, as frequent splashes of
shot-weighted corpses into the deep but too terribly testified.
Whatever the cause, the deaths on board the British ships
enormously exceeded the mortality on the ships of any other
country. According to the records of the Commissioners of
Emigration for the State of New York, the quota of sick per
thousand stood thus in 1848 British vessels, 30; American, 9 3/5;
German, 8 3/5. It was yet no unusual occurrence for the survivor of
a family of ten or twelve to land alone, bewildered and broken-
hearted, on the wharf at New York; the rest, the family, parents,
and children, had been swallowed in the sea, their bodies
marking the course of the ship to the New World."
It would seem, then, that those first English regulations, by
which British ships were to pass muster at Liverpool before
sailing, were not very efficient; the figures of mortality
quoted by Mr. Maguire are too eloquent; and it would be a
pleasure to us to be able to say with certainty that the more
stringent and better executed laws afterward enforced did not
proceed from the Commission of Emigration, which originated in
New York with some generous-hearted Irish-Americans.
Our readers will have noticed that, even in 1848, with all the
apparent desire on the part of England to save the remnants of
the Irish nation, the mortality on board British ships was more
than three times that on board American vessels, and nearly four
times greater than that on board German ships. Why this
difference? And why should it be so enormous?
It is possible that to the Legislature of New York State chiefly,
and soon after to the Congress of the United States at
Washington, which enacted stringent laws for the protection of
immigrants at sea, belong the chief honor of saving hundreds of
thousands of Irish lives, and that England, whether urged by the
effects of good example, or for very shame, soon followed in
their wake.
But, whatever the cause may have been, it is a heart-felt
pleasure to record the fact that from 1849, when an act of
Parliament, entitled the "Passengers Act," imposed on ship-
owners and captains of vessels strict conditions for the welfare
of emigrants, government control on this subject became every
year more immediate and severe.
Not only were the vessels, provisions, water, medicine chests,
etc., more carefully examined, but the passengers themselves
were compelled to undergo a careful inspection as to their
health and wardrobe.
And, a thing which had never been done before, the space
allotted to each emigrant on deck and between-decks was
determined and subjected to serious control, so that no
overcrowding of passengers should take place. The penalties,
also, on delinquents became even severe; heavy fines were
imposed, and in some cases transportation to a penal settlement
was decreed against the more offensive outrages on humanity.
If all abuses failed to be corrected by such laws, it is because
the most stringent enactments can, to a greater or less extent,
always be evaded by those desirous of evading them; but there is
every reason to believe that the legislators were honest in
their intent of remedying the glaring evils which previously
obtained, and, to a great extent, their efforts met with success,
as is evidenced by the fact that the mortality on board of
British vessels has shown yearly a remarkable diminution since
that time. According to the "Twenty-fourth General Report," the
mortality was: In 1854, 0.74 per cent., already a very
remarkable diminution on previous averages; in 1860, it was
reduced to 0.15 per cent. This was the percentage for vessels
going to North America only.
The first operation of the missionary people was to plant the
living tree of Catholicism in the United States, and so
powerfully forward its growth, that other spiritual plants of a
noxious kind, and weeds that go by the name of creeds, should
gradually be choked up; finally, let us hope, to disappear.
While speaking on this subject, and laying before the reader the
necessary details, we desire not to be held forgetful of the
efforts made in a like direction by Catholic immigrants of other
nationalities. A word has already been said of the early
influence of the French in the North and of the Spaniards in the
South, in establishing the Church in North America. The German
children of the true Church, though at first not so conspicuous,
have for a long time taken, and are now particularly taking, an
active part in the dissemination of the faith, and there can be
no doubt that, with the daily increase of German immigration,
their large numbers must in course of time make a lasting
impression on the territory where they settle. But the French,
the Spaniards, and the Germans, must forget their language
before they become widely useful in the great work before them;
and thus the Irish form the only English-speaking people on whom
the brunt of the battle must fall. Moreover, we treat only of
the Irish race.
The wonderful history of the spread of Catholicity in North
America by the Irish, in the northern part of the United States
particularly, would call for an array of details which it would
be impossible to furnish here in extenso. An imperfect sketch
must suffice.
First comes the consideration that, when the wave of immigration
touched the continent, it might have been feared that, by its
absorption into a dry and parched soil, the aggregate loss would
have reduced to a mere nothing the ultimate gain. There were no
churches for the new worshippers, no priests to administer to
them the sacraments of Christ, no Catholic school-teachers to
train their children. That is to say, these means of
preservation and of propagation were so few and so far between,
that many of the newly-arrived immigrants were forced to
establish themselves in places where they could find none of
those, to them, priceless advantages.
The spiritual dearth was not indeed so great as that previously
described. The zeal of bishops and priests, and teachers from
regular orders, had been so active in its labors, that, aided by
the liberty which the institutions of the country afforded,
results, astonishing indeed, had already rewarded their efforts.
But, after all, what were these compared with the demands so
suddenly laid upon them by such a rapid increase of numbers? It
might be said with truth of multitudes of immigrants, that the
position in which they then found themselves was very little
different from that of their predecessors at the beginning of
the century.
As late as 1834, Archbishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, wrote:
"There are places in which there are Catholics of twenty years
of age, who have not yet had an opportunity of performing one
single public act of their religion. How many fall sick and die
without the sacraments! How many children are brought up in
ignorance and vice! How many persons marry out of the Church,
and thus weaken the bonds that held them to it!"-- (Annals of
the Propagation of Faith, Vol. viii.)
To the same annals, three years later, Dr. England, of
Charleston, sent the long letter in which he detailed the
innumerable losses sustained by the Church in America in
consequence of the want of spiritual assistance. The letter was,
in fact, a cry of anguish wrung from him by the sight he
witnessed.
Such was the universal feeling among those who could rightly
appreciate the fatal consequences of the rush of Catholics to
the New World without any provision prepared for their reception.
And yet all these laments and apprehensions preceded the vast
inpouring of immigrants subsequent to the year 1846. What must
have been the consequent losses then? Yet, looking now, in 1872,
at the present state of the Church in the Union, who can say
that this inpouring and rush, unprepared as the country was for
its reception, was not one of the greatest means devised by
Providence, not only for establishing the Catholic Church in
this country for all time, but likewise as a preparation for
further developments, not only on this continent, but on the
part of many a nation now sitting in "the shadow of death!"
Deplorable, indeed, were the losses, but permanent and wonderful
the gain.
The first effect of the great calamity which occurred along the
St. Lawrence and its tributaries, in 1847, was to reduce the
immigration to Canada to insignificant numbers, and,
proportionately increase that to the United States in a
quadruple ratio. Massachusetts and Connecticut, in New England,
and the great States of New York and Pennsylvania, were now the
chief places of resort for the new-comers; and from New York,
principally, they began to pour, in a long, steady stream, away
by the Erie Canal, westward to the great lakes.
All along these lines, congregations were, providentially,
already formed; and, in the passage of the stream, they were
immediately, as by magic, increased in some instances, to a
tenfold proportion. The labors of the clergy were
correspondingly multiplied, and efforts were immediately made to
obtain new recruits for its ranks. Then appeared a very strange
fact, which, at the time, was remarked upon by everybody, but
has never been satisfactorily explained. Wherever the number of
worshippers in a church induced the chief pastors to have
another constructed in the neighborhood, upon the completion of
the new edifice, the old one seemed to suffer no diminution in
attendance, and the congregation attending the new one gave no
evidence of having hitherto been uncared for. This very
remarkable fact was of such frequent occurrence that it could
not be a delusion, or an exceptional case having its origin in
some extraordinary cause; it was evidently a providential
dispensation, akin, in a spiritual sense, to the miraculous
multiplication of loaves, twice mentioned in the Gospel.
There have certainly been numerous examples of this, in the city
of New York particularly, for more than twenty years; and
probably the same thing is occurring at the time of the present
writing.
Then, another fact occurred, deplored by many, chiefly by Mr.
Maguire, in the interesting work already quoted from, yet,
evidently of a providential character also, and consequently
eminently fruitful, and, it may be said, adorable in its depth.
The Catholic immigrants, although in their own country
agriculturists for the most part, forgot the tilling of the soil
as soon as they reached their new home, and settled down in
great numbers in all the large cities, on the line they pursued
toward the West. Many special evils resulted from this, detailed
at length by those whose wonder it excited, and who strove, for
excellent motives, to thwart this providential movement. But the
immense good which immediately followed from it, and which,
within a short time, was to be greatly increased, was never
mentioned in reply to the reasons advanced by these well-meaning
complainants. The first result of it was the sudden and
necessary creation of many new episcopal sees in all large
cities, where churches were being rapidly built, or had already
been erected in astonishing numbers.
Suppose the Catholics had, following the old bent, turned
themselves chiefly to the tillage of the soil, and buried
themselves away in scattered country villages and farms, how
long would the creation of those new sees have been delayed? Who
is ignorant of the effect of a new see on the propagation of
Catholicity? Cities which otherwise would have numbered among
their population only a few hundred Catholics, scarcely
sufficient for the filling of one small edifice, saw at once one-
third, one-half, or even the larger portion of their population
clamoring for a Catholic bishop, and all the institutions a
bishopric brings in its train. It is unnecessary to furnish
examples of this; they are around us.
Yet one difficulty seems to cast some doubt on this view of the
subject, and strengthen the opposition of those who ardently
advocated the country as the true home for Irish Catholics; and,
as the point involves a universal interest, it is better to
discuss it at once in its chief bearings.
At the time when those wonderful events were being enacted, any
one opening a copy of those general State Directories, with
which New England is particularly blessed, wherein not only the
great commercial and industrial enterprises of each State are
enrolled, but also correct lists of the educational
establishments and various churches of all cities, towns, and
villages, are given --a cursory glance, even, would show him the
striking fact that, as far as the great centres of population
were concerned, Catholic churches, educational establishments,
and primary schools were found in respectable numbers; but many
a page had to be turned when the reader came to places of lesser
importance, to rural populations chiefly, before he met with any
indication of the Catholic Church entering yet upon that large
country domain. This experience was encountered by the writer at
the time, and caused him a moment of doubt.
But beyond the reflection that, in matters of this kind (of the
propagation of a doctrine or a creed), the first thing to be
looked to is the centre, and that this, once mastered, will in
course of time draw under its influence the outer circles; that
all things cannot be effected at once, and the best thing to be
done is to begin with the most important; that, moreover, those
statistics are often incorrect with respect to Catholic matters,
whether from malicious design, or inadvertence, or want of
knowledge, on subjects to which the compilers attached very
little importance, so that, if their statements be compared with
Catholic official intelligence with regard to the same places,
it will be found that many towns and villages which, according
to the State Directories would seem to have been altogether
forgotten by the Church, were actually in her possession, at
least by periodical or occasional visits; apart from all these
considerations, there is one more important remark to be made,
which includes in its bearing not only the present point of
consideration, but, it may be said, the whole life of the Church
from the beginning; so that it is really a law of her birth,
existence, and propagation.
To illustrate our meaning, let us see how the Christian religion
first forced its way in heathen lands, throughout the whole
Roman Empire, whether in its Oriental division where Greek was
spoken, or among its Western, Latin-speaking populations.
All the apostles fixed their sees in the largest or most
important cities of the ancient world; St. Peter, under the
special guidance of God, taking possession of the capital and
mistress of the whole. All the bishops ordained by the first
apostles did the same by their direction; and it is needless to
add that the like law has been followed down to our own times
whenever the Church has had to spread herself in a new country.
In accordance with this plan, the cities of the Roman world were
the first to be evangelized, and their populations were
converted with greater or less difficulty, according to the
dispositions of the inhabitants, before almost an effort had
been made for the conversion of the rural populations, except as
they happened to come in the way of the "laborers in the
vineyard." Hence the result, so well known: heathenism remained
rooted in the country for a much longer time than in the cities,
so that the heathen were generally called pagans--pagani--as if
it were enough, when desiring to convey the intimation that a
man was a worshipper of idols, to designate him as a dweller in
the country. 1 (1 Another meaning is given to the word paganus
by some writers; but the old and common interpretation is the
surest, and is confirmed by the best authorities.) And if the
word "pagans" became synonymous with heathens in all European
countries, it is a proof that the fact underlying the name was
universal wherever Christianity spread. It is known, moreover,
that the dissemination of the Gospel in those rural districts
was a work of centuries, and that, for nearly a thousand years
after Christ, pagans were to be found in villages of countries
already Christian.
The fundamental reason which governs and regulates these strange
facts is that already given, namely, that Christianity-- that is,
Catholicity--is a growth, and follows the laws of every thing
that grows. True, its first increase is from without, by the
conversion of infidels or erring men; but even in that first
stage of its existence, its growth is the faster where the
numbers are greater; hence its establishment invariably in large
cities. But when it has passed beyond this first stage, it
increases from within, like all growths, and the work is
accomplished by the increase of families agglomerated in the
same large towns.
How true is it that the Church, once firmly planted in the midst
of one of those agglomerations of men called cities, is sure in
the end to invade the whole as "the yeast that leavens the whole!
"How easy is it to see that in the course of time those cities
of the Union, among which a large proportion of Catholics is
found, will belong almost exclusively to the true Church, if for
no other reason by the births in families, even supposing that
the flow of immigration should finally cease! If any one
entertains some doubt on this point, he has only to consult the
records containing the number of children baptized in her bosom,
and compare it with the corresponding number in families still
outside her.
Hence the really astonishing fact, whose truth is recognized to-
day in all the Northern States along the Atlantic coast, that
suddenly almost in the cities of New England, for instance,
where the number of Catholics was simply insignificant, they
took an apparently unaccountable prominence, and in the course
of a few years, increasing steadily by birth as well as by
immigration, the fact became the most curious though evident of
the times, completely changing the moral and social aspect of
the country, and foretelling still greater changes to come. For,
in the face of this wonderful increase to the ranks of
Catholicity, appears another significant fact, but very
different as to direction and energy-- the gradual disappearance
of names once prominent in those parts, and the daily narrowing
area of Protestantism in the numerous sects of which it is
composed.
At the same time a great danger was averted (or at least
wonderfully lessened and modified), from the whole country, by
the settlement of those immigrants in the large centres of
population. The manufacturing enterprises, which at that time
assumed such vast developments in North America, received among
their workers, men and women, a large proportion of Catholics,
and the fear of future political and social peril to the peace
and security of society at large could never, on this continent,
reach the extreme point witnessed in Europe to-day. The great
danger of the European future nestles principally in those vast
hives of industry with which that continent abounds. Our eyes
have witnessed, our ears have been affrighted at those
stupendous plans and projects in which, not only the great
questions of capital and labor are involved, but the whole
fabric of society is threatened with downfall. Religion,
government, property, the family, the state--all those great
principles and facts on which the security of mankind depends,
enter now into the programme of artisans and laborers enlisted
in gigantic and many-ramified secret societies, while the whole
world trembles at the awful aspect of this unwelcome phantom,
that no government, however powerful, can lay.
Suppose that on this continent the numerous bands of workingmen,
so actively engaged everywhere in developing the resources of
the country, should aim at extending their solicitude beyond
their immediate and material welfare to the reformation and
reorganization of mankind on a new basis; and suppose that, with
this aim in view, they should combine with those of Europe, and
enter into an unholy compact with them, what hope or refuge
would remain in the whole world for harmony, peace, justice, and
happiness? And when the great upheaval, so generally expected in
Europe, and which sooner or later must take place, shall come to
pass, where could those men fly, who cannot but look upon those
satanic schemes with horror? Where on this earth would be found
a spot consecrated to the acknowledgment of the only social
principles which can secure the real good of mankind, by
rendering safe the stability of society?
It is our firm belief that the vast number of true children of
the Church, occupied honestly and actively in the many factories
of the North, will, when the contest commences, even before it
commences, when the question of connecting the "unions" of this
country in a band of brotherhood with those of Europe shall be
gravely mooted, make their voices loudly and unmistakably heard
on the right side.
Enough has now been said on the locality chosen by preference as
the dwelling- place of the Irish immigrants at the period under
consideration. Let us now see those armies of new-comers at work.
They have been called a missionary people; let us see how they
understand their "mission."
In this new country every thing had to be done for the
establishment of religion, education, help for the poor, the
aged, the infirm, on a lasting and sufficiently broad basis. And,
strange to remark, it was found that the previous persecutions
they had undergone fitted them admirably for their work, not
only by giving them a strong faith, the true foundation of
Christian energy, but in a manner more curious, if not more
effective. It fitted them to give money freely and abundantly,
poor as they were! One may smile incredulously at the conceit;
but it has become a most powerful and incontestable fact.
Suppose the Irish never to have been persecuted in their own
country: suppose that they had found there a benevolent
government to supply them with churches, schools, hospitals--
homes for the poor--every thing that they, as Catholics, could
desire. Suppose them to have been in a similar position with the
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians, of those days, how bitterly
would they have felt the inconvenience of building all these
things up for themselves in their new homes with the labor of
their own hands, by their own individual efforts, unaided by the
government! Their ardor would have been damped, their energy
cramped, their inclination to give would have fallen far below
the necessities of the time: for money was sorely needed--no
niggard offerings, but immense sums.
But happily--happily in the result, not in the fact--not only
had the British Government never done any thing of the kind for
them in their old home; not only, on the contrary, had it been
particularly careful to rob them of all the buildings and
estates left by their ancestors for those great objects; but,
until very recently, the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1829,
it had studiously and most persistently hindered them from
doing voluntarily for themselves what it refused to do for them.
There were numerous penal statutes enacted, in the course of two
centuries, to prevent them from building churches, opening
schools, erecting asylums and hospitals of their own, nay, from
possessing consecrated graveyards for their dead. Thus did
fanatic hatred pursue them even to the grave, and, as far as it
could, beyond the gates of death. Every one had to surrender the
mortal remains of his relatives to the Protestant minister for
burial; as though what the government called its religion would
snatch from them whatever it could lay hands on--the body at
least since the soul had escaped and passed beyond its reach.
But in their new country they found every thing altered. Not
only was prohibition of this kind utterly unknown, but there
existed there the greatest amount of liberty ever enjoyed by man
for acting in concert with a religious, educational, or
charitable object in view. No law devised by the old Greek
republics, by the Roman fisc, by modern European intermeddling
was ever attempted in the country which with justice boasted of
being the "asylum of the oppressed." Thus as the liberty so long
denied to the Irish was at last opened up, as no barrier existed
to cramp and confine the natural generosity of their hearts, no
sooner did they find that they might contribute as they chose to
those great and holy objects, than they rushed at the chances
offered them with what looked like recklessness.
We hope that the reader may understand, from this, our meaning
in saying that persecution had admirably fitted them for the
mighty work that lay before them. It was the first time for
centuries that they were allowed to give for such sacred
purposes.
Another thing which disposed than toward it was, the lingering
fondness for the old customs of clanship, still harbored in
their inmost soul, never entirely dead and ready to revive
whenever an opportunity presented itself. There can be no doubt
of this; the great adjuration of the clansman to his chieftain--
"Spend me, but defend me"--tended wonderfully to consecrate in
their eyes the act of giving and giving constantly, as though
their purse could never be exhausted. The chieftain has been
replaced by the bishop, the priest, the educator; the nobility
has gone, but these have come; and unconsciously perhaps, but
none the less really, does this feeling lie at the bottom of
their hearts, which are ever ready to burst out with the old
expression, though in other form: "Spend me, eat me out, but
help my soul, and save my children."
This feeling has always run in the blood of the race. St. Paul
long ago detected it in the Galatians, a branch of the Celtic
tribes, when he wrote to them: "You received me as an angel of
God, even as Christ Jesus. . . . I bear you witness that, if it
could be done, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and
given them to me."--Epistle to the Galatians, iv. 15.
Few, perhaps, have reflected seriously on the large sums
required for the establishment of the Catholic Church in so vast
a country, with all her adjunct institutions; therefore the
stupendous result has scarcely struck those who have witnessed
and lived in the midst of it. The same is the case, though on a
much smaller scale, with respect to the money sent back to
Ireland by newly-arrived immigrants. People were aware that the
Irish, women as well as men, were in the habit of forwarding
drafts of one, two, or three pounds to their relatives and
friends, but in such small amounts that the whole could not
reach a very high figure. But when it came to be discovered that
many banking associations were drawing large dividends from the
operation, that new banks were continually being opened which
looked to the profit to be derived from such transmission as
their chief means of support, some curious people set to work
collecting information on the subject and instituting inquiries,
when it was found that the aggregate sum amounted to millions,
and would have become a serious item in the specie exports of
the country, if what was transmitted did not in the main come
back with those to whom it had been forwarded.
So was it, but in much larger proportions with respect to the
amounts annually spent in the purchase of real estate, the
building of churches, schools, asylums, hospitals, for the
support of clergymen, school-teachers, clerks, officials,
servants, which were called for all at once, over the surface of
an extensive territory, for the service of hundreds of thousands
of Catholics arriving yearly with the intention of settling
permanently in the country. Could the full statistics be
furnished, they would excite the surprise of all; the few
details which we would be enabled to gather from directories,
newspapers, the reports of witnesses, and other sources, could
give but a faint idea of the whole, and are consequently better
omitted.
One single observation will produce a more lasting impression on
the reader's mind than long statistics, and the enumeration of
buildings and other undertakings. It is a fact, without the
least tinge of exaggeration, that in the States of Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and several other Western
States, nearly every clergyman, who had the care of a single
parish before 1840, if alive to-day, could show in his former
district from ten to twenty parishes, each with its own pastor
and church, now flourishing, and attached to each a much larger
number of useful educational and charitable establishments than
he could have boasted of in his original charge. Let one reflect
on this, and then imagine to himself the sums requisite to
purchase such an amount of real estate, for the erection of so
many edifices, and for placing on an efficient footing so many
different establishments.
It is true that, to-day, a number of these institutions are
still in debt; but, if the list of what is actually paid for be
made out, and separated from what still remains indebted, the
result would stand as a most wonderful fact.
The question will naturally present itself, "How was it possible
for newly- arrived immigrants, who often landed without a penny
in their pockets, to become all at once so easy in their
circumstances as to be enabled to contribute, so generously and
enormously, to so gigantic an enterprise?" The details in reply
to this might be given very simply and satisfactorily; but, as
it is a real work of God, who always acts simply and
satisfactorily, though in a manner worthy of the deepest
attention and gratitude, it is proper to examine the question in
all its bearings, and then even those who have seen, and can
account for it very easily, will wonder, admire, and thank, the
infinite Providence of God.
First, it is certain that nowhere else in this world could it
have been accomplished at all; and nowhere else in this world
has any thing like it been accomplished in a like manner. This
may appear strange, but it is so; let us see.
All know how, in infidel countries, every thing necessary for
the material help of Catholic missions must be supplied by the
missionaries themselves; that, in fact, they have not only their
own support to consider, but, often also, the feeding, clothing,
and education of the natives at their own expense. It is thus in
all the barbarous countries of Asia, Africa, and the new
continent and islands in the South Sea. It is thus in the old,
effete, but once civilized countries of Asia, such as Syria,
Hindostan, China, and others. In all those countries, money must
come from without, not only to begin, but to continue, the work
of evangelization, even when it has been going on for centuries.
Details on this subject are unnecessary, the truth of what has
just been said is so well known.
In Christian countries, as in Europe, the various governments
have so far contributed to the aid of the mission of
Christianity, or have been gracious enough to allow such of the
wealthy classes as were willing to take this task off their
shoulders and set it up on their own, the lower classes being
scarcely able to help toward it. What the case will be when the
halcyon days come of the separation of Church and state, and the
latter succeeds in the object at which it seems so earnestly
striving now, of making the people godless like itself, when the
rich will no longer be willing to undertake this work, God only
knows. But in those countries, as is well known, the government,
formerly, and latterly up to quite recent times, or rich
families by large contributions laid down at once, have built
churches, founded universities, colleges, and schools, erected
hospitals and asylums; founded-- such was the expression--all
the religious, charitable, or literary institutions in existence.
The "people" have scarcely effected any thing in this direction,
for the very good reason that they were unable to do so.
In the United States alone, and among Catholics alone, it is
"the people," the poor, who have taken and been able to take
this matter into their own hands.
That they--the Irish particularly--have done this, redounds to
their honor, and it will receive its reward from God; nay, has
already in a great measure received it, by filling the land with
the temples of their faith, with schools where their children
are still taught to believe in God and grow up a moral race, and
with the various Catholic asylums and institutions established
for the glory of religion, or the comfort of those who are
comfortless. That they have been able to do this is owing to the
unique, exceptional, marvellous prosperity of the country which
offered them an asylum. And let us add with reverence that the
country owes this singular prosperity, which has been the source
of so many blessings, to the designs of a loving Providence, who
looks to the welfare of the whole of mankind, and has therefore
endowed this young and gigantic nation with the necessary
qualities of energy, activity, "go-aheaditiveness," as it is
called, added to the fixed principle that every individual
throughout these vast domains shall enjoy liberty, facility of
acquiring a competency, and the right to make what use of it he
pleases, as well as generosity enough to applaud the one who
devotes his surplus earnings to useful public undertakings.
In no other country of the world has this been the case, and in
no other country is it the case at the present moment. And, as
the fact is mighty in its results, unprepared by man, unlooked
for a hundred years ago, requiring for its fulfilment a thousand
agencies far beyond the control of any man or inferior mind,
following the line of reasoning previously indicated, we ascribe,
are constrained to ascribe, it all to the great infinite Mind,
to God himself, and to him alone!
And now we turn to the workings of the Irish, and to a
consideration of a few of the details. The first crying need was
churches and orphan asylums: churches for the all-important
worship of God; orphan asylums to receive the numbers of
children left homeless by the death of immigrants soon after
their arrival, and who were immediately snatched up by the
proselytizing sects.
The style of architecture displayed in those first temples of
the great God was homely indeed and humble. Nevertheless, it
might favorably compare with similar buildings erected by
wealthy Protestant congregations. This fact alone is sufficient
to convict Protestantism of want of faith, namely, that its
adherents have never been struck by the thought that the majesty
of God, if really felt, calls for a profusion of gifts on the
part of those who have superabundant means. Not that man can by
his feeble exertions in that regard give adequate honor to the
divine Omnipotence, but that love and gratitude are naturally
profuse in their demonstrations, and whoever loves ardently is
ever ready to give all he has for the object of his love, even
to the sacrifice of himself. The reflection that God is too
great, and that it is useless, even presumptuous, to offer to
him what must seem so infinitely mean in the light of his
greatness, is but the flimsy pretext of an avaricious soul, and
can be nothing but a lie, even in the eyes of those who utter it.
From the beginning all truly religious nations have endeavored
to make their external worship correspond with their internal
feeling, and give expression, as far as man can do, to their
idea of the worth and majesty of God; and that thought is a true
measure of a religion; for, when the external is but a cold and
sordid worship, we may be sure that the internal corresponds;
and, when little or nothing is done in that way, it is clear
that the heart feels not, and the mind is empty of true
convictions and of faith.
And what has been the invariable conduct of Protestant nations
in this regard? They became possessed of splendid churches built
by their Catholic ancestors, and, after stripping them of all
their beauty, they retained them as "preaching-halls" or
"meeting- houses." The number of those who remained attached to
a frigid and unattractive service gradually diminished; the
edifices were found to be too large, and in many instances what
had been the sanctuary, where art had exhausted itself in
embellishment, partitioned off from the rest of the church, was
kept for their dwindling congregations, while the vast aisles
and roomy naves went slowly to ruin, or became deserted
solitudes. As for the idea of building new religious edifices,
the old ones were already too numerous for them, or if, as was
not unfrequent, a new sect started into spasmodic life, and its
votaries found it necessary to open a new "place of worship,"
the temple they erected to God generally took the form of a
hired hall. Let the floor be carpeted and the benches covered
with soft, slumber-inviting cushions, the room wear a general
air and aspect of comfort, the "acoustics" duly considered, so
that the voice of the preacher might reach to the door and half-
way to the galleries, and nothing more was required. The man who
asked for something more solemn, and answering better to the
cravings of a religious heart, would be laughed at as a
visionary, if his person did not distil, to the keen-scented
organs of these religious folk, a strong flavor of "popery " and
of "the man of sin."
So that in the United States at the time spoken of, although the
number of churches was extraordinary, because of the number of
sects, they were mere shells of buildings, capable of
accommodating from three to eight hundred people (very few of
the latter capacity); and, although many of the members of the
congregations who built them were rich men, adding to their
wealth daily, one seldom encountered any of the structures, then
common, showing much more than four walls, enclosing four lines
of clumsy pews.
Consequently, the Catholic Church had no reason to blush by
comparison at the poverty of her children; nay, the extreme
simplicity of the edifices raised by them was in keeping with
every thing around, and what they did in the hurry of the moment,
with the scanty means at their disposal, at least might vie
with what wealthy Protestants had done deliberately with all the
leisure and wealth at their command.
Already, even at that epoch, in the centre of Catholicity in
this country, the love of the true worshipper of God began to
display something of that feeling which is naturally alive in
the heart of the sincerely religious man; and the Cathedral of
Baltimore, long since left so far behind by other monuments of
true devotion, created throughout the country a genuine
excitement and admiration, when its doors were first opened for
the worship of God. It was clear, from the universal acclaim of
the people, non-Catholics included, that at least one class of
men in the country had a true idea of what was worthy of God in
his worship, and what was worthy of themselves in their worship
of him.
But, though, with some rare exceptions, the architecture
displayed in those edifices constructed by the children of the
true Church was poor indeed, the number of those which were
commenced and so speedily completed and devoted to their holy
use was so extraordinary, that it is doubtful if the annals of
Catholicity have ever recorded the same thing occurring on the
same scale, in the same extent of country. If the ecclesiastical
history of the United States ever comes to be written, it is to
be hoped that, in the archives of the various episcopal sees,
authentic documents have been preserved, which may furnish
future writers with comprehensive statistics on the subject,
that the posterity of the noble-hearted men and women who
undertook and carried out, with such a wonderful success, so
arduous a task, may be stimulated to religious exertion of the
same kind by the memory of what their forefathers have
accomplished. The reflection already suggested by another idea
may serve here likewise, and be usefully repeated. If, in the
course of twenty-five years, over the surface of at least ten of
the largest Northern States, every clergyman who, at the
beginning of that period, officiated in a very small church, is,
to-day, supposing him living, gladdened by the sight of ten to
twenty collaborators, with a corresponding number of newly-built
churches, it is easy to judge of the vastness of the effort made
by the greatness of the undertaking and the unexampled success
with which God has been pleased to crown it. The other States of
the Union are omitted here, not because the Catholics residing
in them were then idle, but because, their growth being less
remarkable, the external result could not be so striking.
Nevertheless, the actual increase among them would compare
favorably with that of other growing Catholic countries.
Could details, at this present time, only be gathered from all
the States, in the area referred to, the vast diffusion of
Catholicity by the influence of immigration would come home to
us with far greater force, as would the conception of the
corresponding work demanded of the immigrants for the creation
of all the objects of worship, charity, and education. Let the
reader look to what is related in the "Life of Bishop Loras,"
who was at that time charged with the founding of religion in
Iowa and Minnesota. It will at the same time bring under our
notice the march of the Irish toward the West, after having seen
them solidly established in the Atlantic States.
"He was consecrated at Mobile by Bishop Portier, assisted by
Bishop Blanc, of New Orleans, on December 10, 1837. His diocese
was a vast region unknown to him. The unfinished Church of St.
Raphael, at Dubuque, was the only Catholic church in the
Territory, and the Rev. Sam. Mazzuchelli, its pastor, was the
only Catholic priest. The Catholic population of Dubuque was
about three hundred. . . . But there must be, thought the new
bishop, some members of the flock in distant, isolated, and
unfrequented localities, who were in danger of wandering from
the faith; besides, the future waves of population would
certainly set in toward this fine expanse of meadow, prairie,
and forest. . . . With prudent foresight he purchased land . .
. . three acres at Dubuque; later, St. Joseph's Prairie, one mile
square, near the same city. . . . A valuable property was
acquired in Davenport, on the Mississippi, with the view of
applying the revenue from it to the support of the missions.