But the moral effect of the establishment of such small centres of

intelligence would be incomparably greater. For the adults, it would

at once be an attraction and a source of occupation, tending

powerfully to withdraw them from those pursuits, not always edifying,

in which unoccupied minds too often indulge, to the detriment of their

health and morals. It would be the means of generating a taste for

mental improvement, and of making them more confident among their

companions, and more proficient and reflective in their various

pursuits; for it is a well-recognized truth, that as a man, be he

artisan, trader, or farmer, acquires those habits of thought which can

only be derived from study, he becomes more skilful and methodical in

his peculiar calling. The youth of both sexes, however, would reap the

greatest advantages. There are hundreds of thousands of children of

Catholic parents among us who can read, and, what is more, _will_ read.

The young American mind, no matter of what parentage, is a hungry and

an investigating mind, and must have some sort of food, do or say what

we will. If it cannot have good literary food, it will have what is

poisonous, and in this lies the secret of the success of the

sensational story papers, and the no less deleterious tales that, in a

few years, have made fortunes for their publishers. It is well known

that one of the former class, published in this city, boasts of a

weekly circulation of three hundred thousand copies, and another of

nearly as great a number. If we go into the large workshops of the

principal cities, or the factories of New England, where so many young

persons are engaged, at the hour allotted for dinner we will see every

second boy and girl devouring with more eagerness than their food the

contents of some flashy journal or specimen of what is generally known

as “yellow-covered literature,” in which vice is hidden under a thin

veil of romance only to make it the more seductive. Now, the way to

check this insidious and widespread evil is not by complaining of or

railing at it, but by placing within easy reach, and in accessible 709

places sound and attractive Catholic works. The impetuous mind of

youth may be compared to a rapid stream, which, dammed up or checked

in its career, is sure sooner or later to overflow its boundaries to

the destruction of its surroundings, but which, if its course is

directed by skilful and experienced hands, not only ceases to be

dangerous, but becomes a source of usefulness and power. To give this

direction to the expanding intellect of the rising generation, and to

turn to good use what might by neglect or repression become an evil

and a curse, is one of the first and plainest duties of parents, for

the proper performance of which they will be held to a strict

accountability. It is not enough for them to see that their offspring

attend church on Sundays and holy-days, that they go to Sunday-school

regularly, and say their prayers night and morning, if they allow them

afterwards to ponder from hour to hour over sickly romances; nor will

it serve to send their children to school to learn to spell and read,

if the knowledge thus gained be turned to the enervation of their

minds and the corruption of their morals. Education is not in itself

an end, it is only the means to an end, and that end is the knowledge

of God’s law, and the best way of conforming one’s conduct to its

requirements so as to secure our eternal salvation. There is no excuse

for a Catholic parent for not putting into the hands of his children

entertaining and moral books, nor is there any palliation for any one

professing our holy faith, and who has arrived at the years of

discretion, for encouraging or reading the thousand-and-one works of

fiction which we see every day exposed on news-stands and in cheap

book-stores, and which are not only immoral in tone and spirit, but in

effect positively anti-Christian. Besides books of a serious and

practical character, we have numerous works of fiction, published in

this country and easily obtained, of the highest order of talent

united to rare dramatic force and interest, which are detrimental

neither to morals nor religion. The writings of Griffin, Banim,

Huntington, Julia Kavanagh, Mrs. Sadlier, Mrs. Anna Dorsey, Lady

Fullerton, Lady Herbert, and many others that we could name, are of

this character, and are worthy to be read by the highest as well as

the lowest in society. Of works treating on history, science in its

various departments, biography, travels, etc., Catholic in tone, and

elaborate or elementary in arrangement, we have a large and varied

supply; and new productions under these heads are constantly

appearing, more fascinating to the cultivated taste than even the

productions of our best novelists. But it has been objected that these

publications are too dear; that poor people cannot afford to spend ten

or fifteen dollars on a few books. Granted; but, if they can have the

use of four or five score for a couple of dollars by subscribing to a

parochial library, is not the objection removed? This is what local

libraries, and they alone, can do.

Now, what would be the effect of this system of libraries on the

general tone of public opinion? Decidedly most salutary. In addition

to driving from circulation many of the demoralizing newspapers,

periodicals, and books which even non-Catholics denounce as immoral,

and for the suppression of some of which the aid of legislative action

has been invoked, it would create and foster a pure literary taste

among no inconsiderable portion of our diverse population, and, apart

from its direct moral effect, would render it more valuable and more 710

reproductive in a material point of view. Many of the most important

political, social, and commercial problems of the day, on the true

solution of which depends the future welfare of our republic, can only

be properly comprehended by reference to the history of the past, and

to the biographies of the great statesmen who succeeded or failed in

founding or destroying nations and empires. And even in the discussion

of minor questions affecting our interests or liberties, some

acquaintance with the antecedents of our country is absolutely

necessary to enable us to form proper opinions of their merits. In

individual cases, one of the compensations for declining years and one

of the highest claims to respect is experience; but to the reader of

history, no matter what his age, the accumulated experience of at

least thirty centuries is accessible, and not only controls his

judgment and enlarges his knowledge, but vastly enhances his social

and political status. But this experience, to be of any value, must be

based on truth and undoubted facts. It must arise from the just

appreciation of unbiassed statements and philosophical deductions,

stripped of all that false assertion and unlimited prejudice which

have characterized so many European and American writers for the last

three centuries. Hence the need of Catholic books and Catholic

readers--for, in this as in commercial matters, the demand regulates

the supply--and the creation of new facilities for the spread of

reliable information.

Take the case of the _History of England_ by Lingard. Before the

appearance of that excellent work, we venture to say that

seven-eighths of the reading population in every part of the world

believed more or less in the falsehoods and forgeries with which the

pages of the English historians of the post-Reformation period were

crowded. Many more such instances of recent successful vindication of

the truth of history might be cited, not the least valuable and

complete being the production of our own countrymen, such as that very

able and learned refutation of D’Aubigné’s _History of the

Reformation_[145] and the _Life of Mary, Queen of Scots_,[146] which

has lately appeared, and in which the slanders and aspersions so

repeatedly heaped on the memory and character of that beautiful but

ill-starred sovereign are condemned, exposed, and, it is to be hoped,

finally disposed of. The first of these works is the most elaborate

and reliable book we have on that important epoch, when every throne

in Europe was shaken to its base, and when men’s passions, let loose

by the preaching of the heresiarchs of England and the Continent,

threatened to destroy every vestige of temporal and spiritual

authority. There is no period in the history of Christendom about

which so many falsehoods and such mendacious calumnies have been

invented and circulated by prejudiced writers; and it was only on the

appearance of the book in question that we have had, at least in

English, any comprehensive and truthful account of the origin and

progress of that rebellion against God’s church and laws. This

country, from its settlement to the present, the origin and growth of

its institutions from their inception in the early part of the

seventeenth century till their fruition in our present constitution,

though full of incident and fraught with lessons of the highest

political wisdom, is yet imperfectly known and but little understood. 711

Is it not, then, worth a little sacrifice on the part of parents to

place before their children, who ere long are to become the rulers of

the state, a correct and impartial account of the birth of religious

liberty on this continent, of the dangers, trials, and struggles our

forefathers endured in order to build up and transmit to posterity the

blessings of a free government? Yet such knowledge can only be

obtained through books, and books, so far as the majority of Catholics

are concerned, are almost unattainable, except through co-operation.

Then, again, we are often taunted by such hackneyed phrases as the

darkness of the middle ages, the ignorance of the monks, the

corruption of the Papacy, the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and

such other fabrications of Protestant authors. Are we to allow our

children to go forth in the midst of a reading and, in a religious

sense at least, a hostile people, unprepared to intelligently refute

such calumnies, and unable to account for the various agencies by

which the Catholic Church at all times sought to eliminate

civilization from barbarism, light from darkness, and Christianity

from paganism at first, and from heresy and infidelity subsequently?

They must have great--too great, perhaps--confidence in the faith of

their children thus to submit them to so severe a test; and yet how

few reliable books dealing with those subjects do we find provided for

young Catholics by those whose duty it is to direct their conduct and

shield them from the temptations and snares of the world! How many

parents, intent on rewarding their children by presents, ever think of

presenting them with good books, which would not only gratify their

tastes and improve their minds, but would be, at least to them, a

perpetual source of consolation?

Far different are the tactics of our opponents, who are never tired of

devising measures to instil into the minds of the youth of their own

faith all the errors of Protestantism under the most attractive guise

possible, and at the same time to weaken the faith and pervert the

judgment of our children. It is perhaps not generally known that every

school district in this state, outside the large cities, is supplied

with a library of select works, under the charge of the school

trustees, and every child in the district is allowed free access to

it, with the privilege of borrowing one volume at a time. These

libraries were originally supplied at the expense of the public, and

are annually increased by new purchases, the funds being derived from

the state library fund. When we state that those libraries were

furnished by a publishing-house in this city the first success of

which in business was due to the production of Maria Monk, the works

of Eugene Sue, and others of a kindred character, and that the

compilers and abridgers, who claim the authorship of them, have been

remarkable for bigotry even in this age of Protestant intolerance, it

is scarcely necessary to point out the danger to our young Catholics

of the free circulation of such books among them. In country places,

the absence of the noise, excitement, and attractions of city life

naturally leads to a desire for reading and a remarkable tendency to

discussion, and it is there that good Catholic books are most

required. Our children must mix with those of the sects, and will be

compelled to listen to a repetition of the fabrications and falsehoods

against their religion which are weekly dealt out in the Protestant

churches, daily commented on in the household, and which fill the

pages of the books of the district libraries and local newspapers.

This is the poison that is carrying off so many of our juvenile 712

co-religionists, more dangerous to their souls than the deadly upas

would be to their bodies, and against which we must provide some

antidote. If one of our boys is confronted with quotations from Hume

or Macaulay, he must be prepared to answer them on the undoubted

authority of Lingard; if he be taunted with the poverty or ignorance

of the Catholics of Ireland, he can show whence came this penury and

destitution by reference to McGee’s, Cusack’s, or any of the numerous

histories of that country; he ought to be prepared to oppose

Archbishop Spalding to D’Aubigné, Meline to Froude, the history of the

Maryland settlers (the founders of religious liberty on this

continent) to the eulogiums on the intolerant Puritans, the “Irish

Settlers” to the Know-Nothing organs--in fact, truth and light

wherever falsehood and darkness are to be found. The truth has nothing

to lose, but everything to gain, by full and free discussion. It is

only error that shrinks from thorough investigation. But we must take

care that our sons and daughters are well supplied with plain and

useful facts regarding their faith and religion before they are

subjected to the ordeal through which all young Catholics must pass

who mingle freely in Protestant society, lest through their ignorance

the cause they espouse should be weakened by their imperfect advocacy.

Neither ought we to hesitate in learning lessons from our adversaries

when it is possible to do so. If the children of darkness are wiser

than the children of light in their generation, it is no reason why we

should be guilty of folly. Apart from the falsity of their teachings,

we have often had occasion to admire the systematic perseverance with

which the Protestant sects have endeavored to disseminate their peculiar

views throught the medium of cheap and attractive publications. All

that art and skill can do has been done to render them pleasing to the

eye and agreeable to the mind. The highest literary talent is employed

and well rewarded, because the result of their labors is extensively

circulated, and, even when persons are unable or unwilling to

purchase, the purse of the wealthy is always open to enable them to

obtain books free of cost, while our children are too often allowed to

begin life but half-instructed, and to continue in it illiterate and

untaught. Were our schools as efficient and as numerous as we wish and

as we hope one day to see them, we might assure ourselves that all

this might be taught in them; but they are not, nor can they be for

some years, and we cannot ignore the fact or wait for the slow

operation of time to perfect and extend their influence. We must

endeavor by some means or other to supply the deficiency, so far, at

least, as this generation is concerned. Besides, there will always be

a large number of children of the working-classes who cannot remain

long at any school, but must go into the world to earn their bread.

With these the most critical period of their lives is from the time

they pass from the control of the teacher till they reach manhood or

womanhood, for then their characters for good or evil are formed. For

this class of toilers, good books are not only a recreation and a

solace, but an absolute necessity; but, being limited in means, we

hold that it is only through the means of local libraries that they

can gratify their wishes and find opportunities for mental

improvement.

Literature itself would also gain much by the establishment of these

libraries. How often has it been remarked that, out of the large number 713

of Catholic young men of brains and education which our colleges and

academies turn out annually, there are so few writers. The explanation

is that for them authorship is neither a remunerative nor an

appreciated employment. The professions of law and medicine and the

attractions of commerce and trade are constantly drawing into their

vortices the best energies and talent of our young graduates, many of

whom with proper encouragement and patronage might, as authors, render

incalculable service to the cause of truth and morality. What is

required to utilize this large amount of natural gifts and acquired

knowledge is simply the more extensive circulation of works already

published; the increase in the number of new books on subjects of

general interest, in style and treatment more in accordance with

modern forms than those published years ago; but, above all, the

cultivation of a correct standard of literary excellence among the

people, and the creation of a widespread class of readers and

thinkers.

The objection to the dearness of Catholic publications would also be

removed by this means. It is well known to those conversant with the

publishing business that, in proportion to the increase of the

circulation of a given book, the expense of its production per copy is

diminished in an inverse ratio. A book of which three thousand copies

are sold at two dollars each would be more remunerative to both

publisher and author at even one dollar if twenty thousand copies were

disposed of. The publisher, also, in his contract with the author and

in view of the uncertainty of his sales, naturally adds to the cost of

production and to his fair percentage of profit a certain amount for

probable losses by having a portion of his edition left on his shelves

unsold. The establishment of local libraries would obviate the

necessity of this additional cost. With, say, twenty-five hundred of

these institutions, each ready and willing to subscribe for one or

more copies of any really meritorious book that might appear, its

success would be assured beyond doubt, the outlay of the publisher

would be nearly reimbursed, and his risk, for which all book-buyers

have now to pay, would be sensibly and materially diminished if not

altogether done away with. Thus even individual purchasers as well as

subscribers to libraries would be benefited in the reduction of price;

and, while the bookseller would not suffer in the profits of his

sales, the general public as well as the author would be sensibly the

gainers.

As to what ought to constitute the necleus of a small library, some

difficulty may be experienced in diverse tastes and opinions. In view

of the multiplicity of good books constantly being imported or

published in this country, it is nearly impossible to make a list of

such as would be most desirable and useful without leaving out others

perhaps as equally deserving of attention. Of works of fiction we have

enough and more than enough in the productions of the authors above

named and others of a less pretentious order, but, as this sort of

reading is simply a matter of choice, each one must judge for himself

in the selection.

Devotional and controversial works are numerous, and a few at least,

such as the writings of St. Liguori, Father Faber, Dr. Manning, and

Cardinal Wiseman, the _Guide for Catholic Young Women_, _Following of

Christ_, _Catholic Christian Instructed_, _Lenten Monitor_, as well as

several others, should be always found in Catholic libraries. In

history, as far as the English language is concerned, we are not so 714

rich. We have, it is true, four or five histories of Ireland,

possessing peculiar merits, and exhibiting more or less defects, but

all full of useful information. Lingard’s _England_, entire or abridged,

is decidedly the best of that country. Shea’s _History of the Catholic

Missions in the United States_, McSherry’s _Maryland_, Bishop Bayley’s

_Church in New York_, McGee’s _Irish Letters_ and _Catholic History_,

De Courcey’s and Shea’s _Catholic Church in America_, go far to supply

the defect, at least in part. Then there are the _Works of Archbishop

Hughes_, one of the great prelates of the church in America, and the

writings of Dr. O. A. Brownson, particularly his _Essays_ and _American

Republic_, than whom no man of our day, it is safe to say, writes with

more vigor or with a clearer understanding of his subject. The works

of Bishop England are, we regret to say, too little known, and, being

for some time out of print, are now almost unattainable. Darras’s

_Church History_, the only complete history of the church yet published

in our language, should, if possible, be read by every Catholic, and

find a conspicuous place in all our libraries. _The Lives of Deceased

Prelates of the United States_, by Clarke, which has just been

published, is a very valuable book, containing a great deal of remote

and contemporary history; and if Mr. Shea could be induced by proper

encouragement to further develop the subjects he has selected for his

books, as we feel certain of his ability to do so, a great deal of

additional matter connected with the struggles and sufferings of the

early pioneers of religion, now almost forgotten or unknown, would be

placed before the public. In biography, which maybe called history in

detail, our resources are abundant. We have, besides numerous lives of

Christ, a complete _Lives of the Popes_, Butler’s _Lives of the Saints_,

several of St. Patrick, _St. Vincent de Paul, Curé of Ars_, and some

two hundred separate lives of the holy men and women who in every age

of the church were conspicuous for their sanctity, wisdom, and

devotion to the faith, a list of which may be chosen from the

catalogue of any of our principal publishers; and last, though not

least, is Montalembert’s great work, _The Monks of the West_, an

American edition of which is just published.

So far as materials are concerned, we have a plenitude of them of

every variety and in all departments of literature, and we have

endeavored to show that very little money is required to purchase

them. What is wanted is organization and action. For these we must

depend to a great extent on the local pastors, and on the half a dozen

leading laymen who are most generally to be found in every

congregation. There is a homely proverb, but nevertheless true, that

“what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” Let one or two

influential men in each parish think seriously over the matter, call

their associates together, and explain to them the advantages to be

derived by themselves and their children from cheap and good reading,

collect the subscriptions, put themselves in communication with any of

our Catholic booksellers, and the work is done. The first and most

important step thus taken, the future welfare of the library is

assured. It is unnecessary to say that such a movement ought to and

would receive the warmest encouragement from their spiritual

superiors. Apart from the benefits arising from the reading of moral

books to the cause of religion, the spirit of mutual intercourse,

interchange of thought, and friendly co-operation engendered by reading 715

the same book, and meeting at stated times for a common object, would

lead insensibly to the formation of a compact and efficient

organization, exceedingly useful when the interests of charity,

education, or the church are to be subserved. Not only this, but,

knowing how overtaxed are the attention and time of so many of our

missionary priests in providing the means of building churches and

schools, as well as attending to the spiritual wants of their

scattered flocks, we consider that an intelligent body of young

people, such as we would naturally expect to see connected with a

library society, would form a valuable lay staff of workers whose

pleasure it would be to aid their pastor in all his material

transactions. The more intelligent Catholics become, the less trouble,

in two ways, they entail on their spiritual guide. They become aware

easily of his wants, or rather the wants of the church of which he is

to them the representative, and need little inducement to contribute

their means freely for the benefit of charity or religion, while, at

the same time, they make the most efficient agents in influencing the

actions of others with whom they are daily brought in contact.

Firmly believing that the spread of these societies throughout this

country would have a most marked and beneficent effect, morally and

mentally, on our rapidly growing Catholic population, we submit these

remarks to the serious consideration of the reverend clergy, and of

those laymen who have been favored with more wealth and a better

education than the majority of their fellow-Catholics. We must not

forget that we live in an age of great mental activity and progress,

so-called. Let us keep pace with our neighbors in everything that

leads to the acquisition of true knowledge, but let our progress be in

the right direction, and worthy of the name we bear, and of the

religion we profess.

[145] _History of the Protestant Reformation._ By the Most

Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D. Baltimore.

[146] _Mary, Queen of Scots._ By James F. Meline. New York.

1871.

----------

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE LIFE OF PHILIP THOMAS HOWARD, O.P., CARDINAL OF NORFOLK, ETC. By

Father C. F. Raymond Palmer, O.P. London: Thomas Richardson & Son.

New York: The Catholic Publication Society.

It affords us sincere pleasure to be able to speak of this book in

terms of unqualified praise, without in the least being subjected to

the charge of flattery. The subject chosen by Father Palmer is the

career of an ecclesiastic who not only filled a prominent part in the

history of his times in his native country, England, but of the church

throughout Europe; and whose private virtues were even more edifying

than his mental capacity was remarkable. The scion of one of the

noblest houses in Great Britain, and living at a time when every lure

was held out to genius and rank to join the so-called Reformers, he

not only remained true to the Catholic traditions of his family, but,

forsaking the world altogether, he became, in spite of all opposition,

an humble friar and a follower of the illustrious St. Dominic. His

labors for the good of his order on the Continent as well as in

England were incessant, and so successful that in a few years he was 716

raised to the dignity of a prince of the church. Several times he was

entrusted with important diplomatic missions by his sovereign, Charles

II., and for many years occupied the position of grand almoner to

Catharine of Braganza, the queen-consort. In addition to the biography

of Cardinal Howard, we have a very full and interesting sketch of the

history of the Dominican order, that glorious corporation of

friar-preachers, whose labors extended to every part of the known

world, and whose blood may be said to have been shed in the cause of

Christ wherever the foot of man has trod. Father Palmer’s treatment of

the subject is in every way worthy of so great a theme. He does not,

as too many biographers are apt to do, fall in love with his hero, and

lose himself in senseless rhapsody and panegyric, but lets deeds and

their results speak for themselves. Neither does he assume for the

order, of which he himself is a worthy member, too much credit for its

long-continued and extensive propagandism of the faith; but, keeping

his praise within just bounds, makes the amplest acknowledgment to

other missionaries when an opportunity offers. The author’s style,

also, is admirable. It is plain, bold, and exceedingly clear, and

reminds us a good deal of the old days of classic English, which, we

are sometimes tempted to fear, have departed for ever.

SERMONS BY THE FATHERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE.

New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1872. 12mo, pp. 331.

This, the sixth volume of sermons, twenty-two in number, delivered by

the Paulist Fathers of this city, has just been published, and in

point of variety, ability, and adaptability to the everyday wants of

Catholic congregations, may fairly be said to be equal, at least, to

any of the preceding volumes from the same source. On first reading

this valuable collection of sermons, the impression most likely to be

produced on a layman is surprise at the remarkable simplicity of

style, earnestness of argument, and, above all, the practical

application to the present condition of society, of the inspired texts

upon which the sermons are based. Men of the most ordinary

comprehension can understand them, and we can imagine few minds so

contracted or hearts so callous as to be proof against their unadorned

logic and impressive appeals. It has sometimes been our good fortune

to have heard, as we have often read, exhortations of more brilliancy,

pathos, and even intellectual power, but we are not aware that,

compressed within the limits of an ordinary-sized book, there is to be

found in the English language a greater amount of wholesome truths,

well and clearly stated, or better calculated to go directly to the

heart and conscience of the reader. Of this character pre-eminently

are the sermons on “How to Pass a Good Lent,” “Humility in Prayer,”

and “The Sins and Miseries of the Dram-Seller.” In some respects the

latter differs from all others in the collection--in its forcibleness

of rhetoric, and vividness, almost painful, of description. Reading it

in the silence of our library, we almost shudder at the, alas! too

truthful picture drawn therein of the drunkard’s fate in this world,

and the not less certain retribution which awaits his mercenary

tempter, here or hereafter. It is one of the most powerful arguments

against the use and sale of intoxicating liquors we have read since

the days of Father Mathew, and ought to be in the hands of every

advocate of temperance, clerical and lay, in the land. The three

sermons treating of the temporal and spiritual authority of the

Sovereign Pontiff are clear, distinct, and well-timed, and, besides

being historically accurate, are replete with logical deductions, one

following and hinging on the other so harmoniously that conviction, 717

even to a biassed mind, seems to follow as a matter of course.

But on a second and more critical perusal of this book, we are certain

to discover new and equally commendable features. We feel as if we

were in the presence of Catholic priests speaking to their spiritual

children. There is an absence of all harshness or terrorism, and of

that bitterness which too often accompanies the discussion of

controversial subjects. While our errors are reproved and our sins

denounced, hope and mercy are not denied us; the path of duty is

plainly pointed out, but we are encouraged to tread its thorny ways,

and we rise from the study of the _Sermons_ conscious of our faults

and weaknesses, without despairing, and with a renewed purpose of

amendment. No one can read attentively the first and last of this

series, on “Remembrance of Mercies” and “Fraternal Charity,” without

feeling softened and chastened in spirit. It is not, however, the mere

contents of the sermons that we most admire. It is their

suggestiveness. To a reflective mind there is matter enough in them to

form the groundwork of a hundred discourses, and still the subjects

would not be exhausted. This feature alone will extend their good

influence far beyond the limits of one book or one pulpit. As we have

come to a grand truth boldly stated, or a deduction logically and

lucidly drawn, we have frequently found ourselves closing the book,

and, following the drift of the reverend preacher’s argument,

preaching sermons to ourselves. If such be its effects on ordinary

minds, how much more valuable will be the uses of this book to the

younger members of the priesthood in the performance of the duties of

their holy calling? And it is for them especially, we presume, it is

intended.

Besides, as we are all aware, there are many persons with the best

dispositions who, from family or other reasons, are frequently unable

to hear a sermon on every Sunday and holyday of obligation, not only

in country parishes, but even in our crowded cities. To this class the

present volume ought to be of great value, affording them, as it does,

an opportunity of reading in the seclusion of their homes, what they

are debarred from hearing delivered orally. It is one of the rules of

the faithful to consecrate a portion of each Sunday to hearing

sermons, but, when this cannot be done, the reading of pious books is

substituted, and we know of none recently published better calculated

to edify and instruct a devout Catholic, or one so practical in its

application to the wants and necessities of the present generation, as

this collection of sermons; and it is for this reason that we heartily

commend it to the laity of the United States.

MACARONIC POETRY. Collected, with an Introduction, by James Appleton

Morgan, A.M. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1872.

Of the many excellent specimens of the typography of the Riverside

Press, the above-named work is one of the handsomest; and this merit

is enhanced by the fact that the great variety of languages and

characters, ancient and modern, used in its pages called for the best

efforts of typographical skill and resources.

The title of the work gives but a modest idea of the wealth and

diversity of its contents, which are creditable to the taste and

industry of the author. We find in it not only all the most celebrated

macaronic masterpieces, from the “Pugna Porcorum,” of about three

hundred lines, every word of which begins with the letter P, thus:

“Plaudite, Porcelli, Porcorum pigra propago

Progreditur, plures Porci pinguedine pleni.

Pugnantes pergunt, pecudum pars prodigiosa,” etc., etc.,

down to Dr. Maginn’s “Second Ode to Horace,” commencing,

“Blest man, who far from busy hum, 718

Ut prisca gens mortalium.”

Then there are the literary trifles of the dipogrammatists and the

pangrammatists, and curiosities in acrostics, telestics, anagrams,

palindromes, sidonians, rhymed bagatelles, cento verses, chain verses,

alliterative verses, and epitaphs. There are also some specimens of

queer prescriptions, the whole family of which are but imitations of

the celebrated recipe pasted on the door of the pharmacy in the

Convent of the Capuchin Friars at Messina:

“Pro presenti corporis et æterna animæ salute.

RECIPE.

“Radicum fidei

Florum spei

Rosarum charitatis

Liliorum puritatis

Absynthé contritionis

Violarum humilitatis

Agarici satisfactionis

Ano quantum potes:

Misceatur omnia cum syrupe confessionis;

Terentur in mortario conscientiæ;

Solvantur in aqua lacrymarum;

Coquantur in igne tribulationis, et fiat potus.

Recipe de hoc mane et sera.”

Any one may find much literary amusement in the volume, and to the

Latin scholar in particular it affords material for many an hour of

pleasant relaxation.

THE TAKING OF ROME BY THE ITALIAN ARMY, considered in its Causes and

Effects. By C. M. Curci, S.J. Translated from the Italian by the

Duke Della Torre. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1871.

It is a matter of congratulation that we have among us at least one

Italian gentleman of high rank, character, and education, who is a

thoroughly loyal and devoted adherent of the Holy See. We are greatly

indebted to the Duke Della Torre for translating F. Curci’s

_brochure_, prefixing to it a most sensible and excellent preface,

and getting it published by our most eminent New York firm. The

pamphlet itself is an able production of an able and celebrated

writer. The only great fault in it is the discouraging tone it takes

regarding the prospects of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope in the

future--a point which has been strongly animadverted upon already in

Europe. In so far as past facts are concerned, it is a thorough and

unanswerable exposure of the fraud, violence, and perfidy of the

Sub-Alpine government, and of the treachery and timidity of the policy

of other European cabinets in their relations with the Pontifical

States.

FLORENCE O’NEIL; or, The Siege of Limerick. By Agnes M. Stewart.

Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co.

The eventful life and troublous times of James II. of England must

always be a period of history mournfully interesting to every Catholic

heart--those days of persecution, when throughout England a price was

set upon the head of any priest who dared labor for the salvation of

souls, all the penal laws against Catholics (some of them but lately

repealed) being in full force.

The touching story of Florence O’Neil, who is represented as living in

very constant intimacy with the royal exiles, carries us through those

dark days, and gives us pictures of the court of the reprobate,

hard-hearted daughter of James, where Florence was kept an unwilling

captive for many months. Her journal during that time is written with

charming simplicity, and the whole story has sufficient mingling of

truth with the narrative to fill us with pity even for those crowned

heads who lived harassed with anxious fears lest the sceptre so

hastily and unjustly assumed should be as hastily snatched from their

grasp; trusting nobody, never at rest from plottings and replottings

even in their own household. In contrast with this, we have the

devoted domestic life at the Château St. Germaine, sketched with a

delicate and refined touch, giving us a lovely picture of wedded bliss

in the union of James with his beautiful and tenderly attached

wife--more perfect than usually falls to the lot of common mortals, 719

not to speak of royalty. It is cheering to know that these good

hearts, to whom life brought so much disappointment and trouble, found

rest and peace and hope in the bosom of the church, which offers to

her faithful children the kingdom of heaven and an imperishable crown.

_Florence O’Neil_ appears in a beautiful dress, and is well worthy of

careful perusal.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE IRISH FRANCISCAN MONASTERIES, AND MEMOIRS

OF THE IRISH HIERARCHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By the Rev. C.

P. Meehan, M.R.I.A.

A MEMOIR OF IRELAND, NATIVE AND SAXON. By Daniel O’Connell, M.P.

Dublin: James Duffy. New York: The Catholic Publication Society.

The second edition of these two small works, which have attained a

well-deserved popularity in Ireland and England, will doubtless be

equally appreciated in this country, particularly by our adopted

citizens, who, claiming the former nation as their birthplace, love to

look back on her past glories and her continuous struggles for civil

and religious freedom. Father Meehan’s book, though ostensibly

confined to the history of the Franciscan establishments and the Irish

hierarchy, contains also a brief but lucid and well-arranged account

of the principal events of the seventeenth century in Ireland,

embracing the wars of the Parliamentarians and Cromwell against the

Nationalists, and the inception of the contest between the partisans

of William and James. On such subjects Mr. Meehan is a reliable and

judicious authority, for he has made them the study of a life-time. We

remember him fully a quarter of a century ago, when curate of SS.

Michael and John’s Church, Dublin, and when every moment that he could

spare legitimately from the duties of his calling was devoted to his

loved studies--the history and archæology of his native land; and we

are happy to find that time has neither quenched the fire of his

patriotism nor weakened that mental activity which characterized his

earlier works.

O’Connell’s memoir, like everything that fell from the pen or lips of

that great agitator, is full of vigor and sound logic. A portion of

the book is devoted to a general summary of the wrongs and struggles

of the Irish race from the invasion in 1172 down to our day, but the

greater part is occupied by historical quotations and running

commentaries, illustrating that long, dreary period of war,

desolation, and persecution. Though in fact contained in a

comparatively small compass, it is a masterly indictment against

England, prepared with all the system and acumen of an able jurist,

and is invaluable as a historical document from the number of

references it contains. It was only issued towards the close of the

great author’s career, and may be supposed to be an epitome of his

varied readings and long personal experience.

THE PEARL OF ANTIOCH: A Picture of the East at the End of the Fourth

Century. By the Abbé Bayle. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. 1871.

In the preface to this interesting story of the early times, we have a

bright and truthful comment on the different claims of works of

fiction that have been written to make religion attractive: giving to

Cardinal Wiseman (what rightfully belongs to him) the glory of having

been the author of the truly Christian romance in the fascinating

narrative of _Fabiola_. The writer of _The Pearl of Antioch_ professes

to follow at a modest distance that illustrious dignitary of the

church. He gives us in the story of Pelagia a graphic description of

life in Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople at the close of the

fourth century, when the church, resting from the fierce persecutions

that had marked her earlier years, was surrounded with master-minds

who committed themselves to no religion, condemning none formally, 720

endeavoring to possess at the same time the esteem of both Christians

and pagans. The delineation of the vacillating spirit of many of the

finest intellects among the Greeks, their proud, patronizing ways

towards God’s church, cannot but remind the careful reader of the

position of many of the so-called _intellectual giants_ of to-day.

The multiplicity of characters introduced, and the demand for

mythological research which is necessary to make the story clear in

all its parts, are rather detrimental to the unity of the tale;

nevertheless, the story of Pelagia herself, and Nicephorus her lover,

with their remarkable conversion and subsequent abandonment of the

world, is very touching, and wrought out with simplicity and

earnestness--the wonderful faith of Pelagia contrasting with the

criticisms and doubts, and the ingenious hypotheses of Hypatia, whose

strange life and fearful death have been the comment of historian and

novelist.

The book contains many pages full of interest concerning Simon

Stylites and the wonders of his life, besides several chapters devoted

to charming descriptions of the monks who flocked in those times to

monasteries in the deserts of Nitria and Tabenna, along the borders of

the Nile, and even to Mount Sinai. One of the most attractive features

of the volume will be found in the delightful conversations of these

monks, enlivened with legends of those olden times, and pervaded

throughout with a lovely, Christ-like spirit, which makes their

religion an object of admiration even to the wise pagans around them.

JAPAN IN OUR DAY. Compiled and arranged by Bayard Taylor. New York:

Charles Scribner & Co. 1872. 1 vol. 12mo.

This is the first volume of the _Illustrated Library of Travel,

Exploration, and Adventure_, now in course of publication by Messrs.

Scribner, & Co. and edited by Bayard Taylor. To those who take an

interest in Japanese affairs the volume will prove interesting, as

containing the latest information with regard to that country so long

almost unknown.

SADLIERS’ CATHOLIC DIRECTORY, ALMANAC, AND ORDO FOR THE YEAR OF OUR

LORD 1872. With full Report of the various Dioceses in the United

States and British North America, and a List of the Archbishops,

Bishops, and Priests in Ireland. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co.,

31 Barclay Street.

The _Almanac_ for this year has appeared. The sewing, type, and paper

are much better than in former years. There are not so many mistakes

in this as we noticed in the previous volume. We are aware there are

many difficulties connected with the publication of a statistical work

which nothing but the utmost patience and perseverance will overcome,

and are therefore pleased to notice even slight improvements.

THE AMERICAN HOME BOOK OF IN-DOOR GAMES, AMUSEMENTS, AND OCCUPATIONS.

By Mrs. Caroline L. Smith (Aunt Carrie). Illustrated. Boston: Lee &

Shepard. New York: Lee, Shepard & Dillingham. 1872.

This book is one of the best of its kind. The selection of games,

amusements, etc., is very good, and the directions given in regard to

them are short, simple, and clear. It cannot fail to add to the

happiness of any home it may enter.

THE WONDERS OF WATER. From the French of Gaston Tissandier. Edited,

with numerous Additions, by Schele De Vere, D.D., LL.D. New York:

Charles Scribner & Co. 1872. 1 vol. 12mo.

A most interesting and useful little volume, containing valuable

information in regard to the uses of water, the history of artesian

wells, ancient and modern water-works, etc., etc. The book is

elegantly got up and well illustrated.

----------

THE 721

CATHOLIC WORLD.

VOL. XIV., No. 84.--MARCH, 1872.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by

REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at

Washington, D. C.

AN UNCIVIL JOURNAL.

The activity and universality of the American press are proverbial.

Leaving out of sight the innumerable political organs which dabble in

everything, there is not a department of human knowledge, not a

recognized theological creed, not a leading foreign nationality, not a

prominent _ism_ of the day, that has not its daily or weekly to

represent it. And they all speak and investigate with unlimited

freedom. The race of Robert Burns’s “chiel” who was “takin’ notes” has

been multiplied until they here outnumber the sands on the sea-shore.

Nothing escapes them. All shortcomings of whatever origin are certain

of detection by some of them, and they are not restrained by any false

modesty from instant proclamation thereof. Everybody is held

accountable to everybody else. Republicans and Democrats keep up

permanent mutual inquisition, Protection and Free-trade spy out each

other’s defects, and rival sects seem firmly to believe in the

chastening influence of announcement of their neighbors’ faults.

More than any of these, more than all put together, is Catholicity in

the United States subjected to the most ceaseless and penetrating

surveillance. The curiosity prompting this surveillance is sometimes

friendly, but generally the reverse. English literature, essentially

anti-Catholic and bigoted, has made its mark upon American education,

and with many people the intolerant falsehood of much English history

still passes for truth. So-called religious (Protestant) papers are

never at a loss for a leader topic--“Abuse the Catholics.” Protestant

ministers find heads of discourse always ready in anti-Popery

admonitions. We personally know many excellent men among them who

conscientiously strive to do their duty as they understand it, and are

above such wrong; but there are large numbers of Poundtexts and

Brandlighters, obscure in position, of uncertain education and

wretchedly paid, who make of “Popery” a stalking-horse, and seek to

fill their empty pews and depleted pockets with the fruits of

anti-Popery excitement. Added to such editors and such preachers as we

describe, there is a small army of literary and theological stragglers, 722

bummers, and disgraced deserters hovering on the rear of these regular

forces, always in the field with lectures, pamphlets, keys to Popery,

horrible disclosures, and all the pestilent riff-raff of anti-Catholic

literature. One would think the Protestant army of observation on such

a footing sufficiently well-organized, active, and effective to guard

the walls of the American Zion and sound a timely alarm.

But the publishing firm of Messrs. Harper & Brothers is not of that

opinion, and they appear to have discovered that it is their duty

to take under their special protection and keeping the public

schools, the Bible, the Protestant religion, and the liberties of

America;--thus demonstrating the wretched incapacity and utter failure

of our civil authorities, our religious press, and the Protestant

ministry to do their plainest duty. The gentlemen in question publish,

here in New York, _Harper’s Monthly Magazine_, and a hebdomadal called

_Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization_. These periodicals

contain a variety of light literature, papers on current topics,

poetry, anecdotes, and highly-flavored anti-Popery articles. Besides

these last, the _Weekly_ generally has one or more caricatures

calculated to disseminate the worst falsehoods, and to excite hatred

towards Catholics and contempt for their religion.

For years past, a constantly recurring subject of its most offensive

form of caricature has been the person of the venerable Pontiff Pius

IX. It is difficult to conceive how any man of even ordinary instincts

of propriety--we care not what his religious prejudices might

be--could have for this revered personage any feeling but one of

profound respect. An aged bishop, fourscore years of age, whose

purity of character is without speck or stain, whose long life has

been one of labor and usefulness, piety and virtue, beginning his

sacerdotal career as a missionary in a foreign land, then serving

faithfully as the director of charitable institutions and hospitals,

whose first acts of power were those of benevolence and universal

amnesty, toward whom, on the part of the tens of thousands of

Protestants who have seen and spoken with him, no sentiments but those

of profound admiration and veneration are ever expressed--such a

character as this is selected by the _Journal of Civilization_ as the

favorite butt of its indecent ribaldry.

We here leave entirely out of sight all consideration of the question

of outrage upon the religious sensibilities of millions of Catholics

in the United States, and place the judgment of the offence upon the

broad ground of civilized propriety. The men who perpetrate this

outrage seek to justify themselves on the plea that it is as king or

temporal sovereign of Rome they caricature him. Their offence is

aggravated by so flimsy and paltry a pretext. The merits of the

disputes among the monarchs of Europe do not concern us here in

America to that extent, and if they did, as a question of monarchical

right and precedence of seniority, the kings and emperors of Europe

are all new-comers and upstarts by the side of the Roman Pontiff.

While these caricatures are essentially addressed to a sentiment of

religious bigotry, their authors seek, by the false association of

some political idea, not only to excuse them on that ground, but to

reinforce that bigotry with all the strength of political hatred.

Take, for instance, the filthy crocodile picture. There is an appeal

whose falsity is only exceeded by its beastliness. Then the “Roman 723

Catholic mission from England to the heathens of America” (_Weekly_,

Dec. 30, 1871), in which the pure Christian, the devoted

philanthropist, the perfect gentleman--Most Rev. Archbishop

Manning--is portrayed with iron shackles in his hand, which he holds

concealed behind him, striving to entice the negroes to come to him;

to whom a negro replies (so naturally!): “No, thank you. We have just

been emancipated, and, if England is responsible for slavery in the

United States, I don’t care to jump from the English frying-pan into

the English fire.”

The favorite device of the _Weekly_ gentlemen is to represent the

perpetrators of offences against law and order, and the participators

in municipal robbery and corruption, as Catholics, and, in their

persons, to hold the Catholic Church responsible for such offences. It

is not necessary to dwell on the absurdity of such a charge, nor on

the hardship and injustice of such a responsibility.

There are thousands of men in this city, supposed to be Catholics--nay,

who, if asked the question, will say that they are--who have not been

inside of a Catholic Church nor spoken to a priest for long years, men

whose lives are scandalous in their irregularities and crimes. Such as

these bring disgrace upon the church whose precepts they trample under

foot. If arrested for violation of the laws of the land, we sincerely

trust they may have legally meted out to them the fullest measure of

punishment. The properly constituted authorities will have our thanks

for so doing. The _Weekly_ writers are ignorant of much that touches

Catholic faith and practice, but they are not ignorant of the fact

that the custom among Protestant churches of considering as members

those only who make avowed profession, and live up to the requirements

of strict church membership, does not prevail in the Catholic Church.

The difference with us is between _practical_ Catholics and those who,

neglecting their religious duties, live in sin; and we state with

profound regret that the number of this latter class is very much

larger than any one who loves his church cares to see.

But it is all the same thing to the Harper scribes, and the

indifferent Catholic, the bad Catholic, the Catholic who is a scandal

to his church, is a “good enough Morgan” for our _Weekly_, which

constantly represents him as an active and devout member of the

church, in direct communication with the Holy See. How if a similar

rule were to be applied generally, and we should in every case of

moral dereliction seek out the sect with which the sinner has some

real or supposed affiliation, and charge the crime upon the religious

teachings of that sect?

Is the Presbyterian Church to be made responsible for New York

municipal defalcations because connection with them is charged on the

Presbyterian, Mayor Hall? Is the Methodist Church answerable for

Tammany frauds because Tweed is a Methodist? Let us suppose for a

moment a man so devoid of all sense and decency as to compile a

narrative of crimes and outrages perpetrated by people known to be

Methodists, beginning years back with the well-known (Avery-Cornell)

seduction and murder case in which a Methodist minister was the

criminal, and coming down past the scandalous publication by Methodist

printers of the infamous book of Maria Monk, to the late horrible

story, in a Western city, of torture through long years of an

unoffending child by its unnatural Methodist parents, to the shameful 724

malversations of a religious Book Concern, to the gigantic thefts in

our city administration, to the Drew complication of the Erie

abomination, which shines by its absence in all the late _Harper_

chronicles; and, having completed his catalogue, to present and

denounce these crimes as the legitimate result of the teachings of the

Methodist Church. It would be waste of words to point out the false

reasoning, the injustice, the malice of such a performance. For,

however Christian sects may differ on doctrinal points, and whatever

may be alleged as to the extent of their theological errors, none of

them deliberately teach immorality, and all inculcate the precepts of

the decalogue.

What, then, shall be thought of a journal which, week after week,

loudly and persistently, not only accuses the Catholic Church in the

persons of her ministers of teaching the most flagrant immorality, but

seeks--coupling with this grave charge the imputation of striving to

create civil discord--by every artifice of rhetoric, by every device

of exaggeration, by every appeal of gross caricature, to arouse the

wildest passions and the fiercest bigotry? The journal in question

labors to stir up, and it does stir up, bad blood and hot strife among

hitherto peaceful neighbors.

The charge is a serious one, and we make it knowingly. Instances and

illustrations in its support may be found in nearly all the numbers of

the _Weekly_ for years past.

For its anti-Catholic operations, the _Journal_ is used as a sort of

tender to the heavy transport, the _Monthly_, which frequently gives

its readers long, elaborate, and malicious articles, made up mainly of

exploded calumnies, threadbare anti-Popery rhetoric of the school of

Brownlee and the early Know-Nothings, and the extraordinary

lucubrations of a contributor whom we can only describe as Harper’s

comic historian. This singular writer undertakes to demonstrate, for

instance, that the Apostle of Ireland was not a Catholic missionary at

all, but in religious faith a sort of Old-School Presbyterian, who

went about distributing Bibles among the “savage Irish,” making strong

“anti-Popery” speeches, and delivering lectures on popular education

to the serfs of his day!

Absurd as these articles are from a literary point of view, they are

yet full of inflammable material, and play as recklessly with fire as

the more brutal incentives of the _Weekly_. For it must be borne in

mind that most of these direct appeals to religious bigotry are

intended not so much for home consumption as for their effect upon the

general rural mind, and that their evident purpose is to arouse

another Know-Nothing revival throughout the country.

There are, unfortunately, too many people thoughtless enough, or,

perhaps, wicked enough, to respond to these incentives--people so far

forgetting themselves as to imagine that their own religion, or

something which they imagine stands for it, must be the state church

in America, and that it is free to them to persecute and outlaw the

professors of a faith which, in their ignorance, they despise and

hate.

But we are satisfied that, on the other hand, there is too much

intelligence, moderation, forbearance, and patriotism among American

citizens to permit the success of schemes aimed at once against

liberty of conscience, the peace of society, and the true freedom of

our institutions.

And among these citizens we rank--by no means the last--the

CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED STATES. 725

We can only qualify as impertinent the coolness with which these

scribes of the Messrs. Harper talk about “receiving” Catholics

“hospitably into this free Protestant land.” When and how were these

gentlemen constituted the dispensers of the hospitalities of this free

country? When and how did this country become a “Protestant land”? At

what period of the history of America were Catholics strangers here?

Under somewhat similar provocation, the great Montalembert, from the

tribune in the Chamber of Peers, told certain Frenchmen: “We are the

sons of the Crusaders, and we fear not the progeny of Voltaire.” And

we, Catholics of the United States, say to these gentlemen who seek to

inaugurate another Know-Nothing campaign, that here in America we are

neither strangers nor new-comers of yesterday.

We came in the caravels of Columbus, we came with the Cartiers and the

La Salles, the Brébœufs and the Jogues, the Joliets and the

Marquettes, with the men whose blood of martyrdom moistened the soil

of New York, with the men whose bones had mingled with the savannas of

the South and the prairies of the West long before Plymouth Rock was

heard of. We came--not with the Hessians of George--but with the army

of Rochambeau and the fleet of De Grasse, with the arms of Catholic

France and the gold of Catholic Spain, to aid our American struggle

for liberty. The largest fortune risked in signing our Declaration of

Independence was a Catholic fortune. As Catholics, we have proved our

devotion to our country in three wars. The ranks of our army and the

ships of our navy are full of our people, and if, at this moment, you

undertake to blot the names of Catholic officers from naval and army

registers, you will be compelled to deface entire pages. We are of all

the walks of life, from the humblest to the highest, pursuing our

legitimate business, and fulfilling our duties as citizens, fathers,

husbands, sons, and brothers. We have schools, seminaries, and

colleges successfully active, increasing in number and usefulness, and

only not entirely filled with Catholic pupils because of the great

number of youths sent to them by non-Catholic parents. We are

merchants, bankers, editors, clerks, mechanics, artists, farmers,

lawyers, physicians, legislators, and laborers. We fill professors’

chairs and seats on the judicial bench. We have among us thousands of

cultivated men and refined and elegant women, the peers of any in the

land. We are, as a body, good and law-abiding citizens. We respect

ourselves. We mean to be respected. And we protest against the bigoted

and senseless denunciation and caricature of our faith in the

pretended exposure of fictitious plots against the institutions and

liberties of our country.

There exists evidently, among the Know-Nothing writers referred to,

some faint appreciation of these facts, and, with labored display of

politeness, they seek to turn the difficulty by reference to

“respectable citizens,” appeals to “intelligent Romanists” (thus

designating us, in their clumsy courtesy, by a nickname), and such

declarations as “we do not in any just sense accuse all adherents of

that church of hostility to our institutions” (“_our_ institutions!”)

We distinctly decline to accept any such qualification or apology. So

far as our religion is concerned, we are all, lettered and unlettered,

rich and poor, on a footing of perfect equality. The lady in the 726

parlor and the servant in her kitchen abide by the same religious

observances, the rich banker and his poorest clerk hold precisely the

same faith, and the wealthy merchant and his drayman out there in the

street, kneel at the same altar. We are aware that all this is

“horridly ungenteel,” but it is an old habit of our people. Eighteen

hundred years ago and more, we were assured that the poor we have

always. And we have them. They never leave us, and are not likely to.

Poor-houses came in with the Reformation, and then poverty first

became disgraceful. For poverty, and, yet more, for the shame of

poverty, the needy and wretched cannot enter elegant Protestant

conventicles.

And now that we have seen the nature and complexion of the attempted

revival of Know-Nothing violence, it may be asked, Who are the men who

promote it, creating prejudice, fostering bigotry, inflaming religious

rancor, arraying neighbor against neighbor, and endangering the peace

of the community? Have they a special mission from on high? Are their

scribes inspired writers? Or, perchance, are the antecedents of those

publishers and proprietors such as to have established a character for

pure patriotism and disinterested virtue so pre-eminently superior as

to authorize them to set themselves up the self-constituted guardians

of American liberty and evangelical Christianity?

We propose to examine these questions in the light of the printed

record of the responsible proprietors of the _Journal of Civilization_.

To that printed record we shall strictly confine ourselves. And in

taking the first step toward the fulfilment of our duty, we regret

that circumstances will compel the revelation of some

AWFUL DISCLOSURES.

The excitement and violent denunciation of Catholicity produced many

years ago by the publication of an infamous book said to have been

written by one Maria Monk are still remembered among us, as well as

the thorough exposure of its utter falsehood, made by Colonel Stone of

New York, and other Protestant gentlemen.

The book was entitled _The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk_, and from

its title-page purported to be published by _Howe and Bates_. Howe and

Bates! Who were Howe and Bates? There was none to make reply. For

neither to the book trade nor in the flesh were “Howe and Bates” ever

known of mortal man.

As to the character of the book in question, we are further enlightened

by the author of a work entitled “_Protestant Jesuitism_, by a

Protestant,” published by the Harpers in 1838. At page 34 of the book,

Maria Monk’s work is described as “one of the most arrant fictions

that was ever palmed upon the community,” and the author adds: “The

people of this land--and it is the common attribute of human

nature--love excitement, and unfortunately there are those who know

how to produce it, and profit by it.” Unfortunate, indeed, it is that

there are those who stand ready to profit by foul slander and

malignant falsehood concerning their neighbor. Unfortunate, indeed,

that men can be found who, for the sake of a few dollars, could

consent to spread, broadcast upon the world, printed vilification and

outrage of noble, pure-minded women, who, solely for the love of God

and out of their own abundant charity, devote their lives to

alleviating the sufferings of the needy, the afflicted, and the sick.

Who are they who profited by it? If we can obtain a satisfactory 727

answer to that question, we may probably be far on the way toward

solving the mystery which hovers over the existence of “Howe and

Bates.”

Maria Monk’s disclosures were not all made in the book published by

that somewhat nebulous firm. The most “awful” of all her “awful

disclosures” were made in the dignified form of a bill in equity which

she filed against her publishers, who, by their own admissions and

declarations, turn out to be not “Howe and Bates,” who from this

moment for ever disappear from view, but Messrs. James, John, Joseph

W., and Fletcher Harper.

The bill filed for discovery and account against the defendants as

booksellers and publishers by Maria Monk, a minor, through her next

friend, shows that complainant was authoress of a work which she had

copyrighted and stereotyped, and that said stereotype plates were paid

for by her with money belonging to her, and that she was liable for

any balance unpaid; that after the copyright had been so taken out,

the said plates got into the possession of the defendants, and that

they had published the work under the title of “_Awful Disclosures of

Maria Monk_, as exhibited in a narrative of her sufferings during a

residence of five years as a novice, and two years as a black nun, in

the Hôtel Dieu at Montreal.” Further, that she was a minor, was

entirely unacquainted with the modes of doing business, that she

believed that persons professing to be her friends had made some

bargains for her in relation to said work, that this was known to the

defendants, and yet they pretended to take out another copyright of

the same work in the District of Massachusetts, and published a large

number of impressions from the plates, and issued the book; and that

they had large profits in their hands which belonged to the

complainant.

Prayer that the said James, John, Joseph W., and Fletcher Harper make

full statement, etc., and deliver over all sums of money and property,

with account of sales and amount received for same.

We have had occasion to see that the proprietors of the _Journal of

Civilization_ are fiercely patriotic. And they were so, long before

that civilizing journal was founded. Their first impulse on receiving

a copy of this latest “awful disclosure” by Maria Monk was an impulse

of patriotism, of indignation that a foreigner should presume to

expect copyright protection in the United States. Thrice is he armed

who has statutory law, patriotism, and an act of Congress upon which

to fall back, and the defendants, in such panoply as that, straightway

filed a demurrer.[147] Maria Monk’s copyright was first issued and had

precedence of seniority, but respondents demurred, first and

principally, on the ground that “the complainant did not show herself

to be a citizen entitled to take out a copyright.” The demurrer also

set up other matters in avoidance.

In deciding the case, the Vice-Chancellor closed the delivery of his

opinion by saying: “It [the bill] does not show any privity of

contract or dealing between the parties; no agreement expressed or

implied by which the defendants can be held to account to the

complainant for the profits of the work. It rather shows that, by fraud 728

or wrong, the defendants obtained possession of the stereotype plates,

and, altering the title of the book to that of _Awful Disclosures_,

etc., published it in defiance of her rights. If she has sustained

loss by such conduct of the defendants, she must persuade a jury to

give her compensation in a verdict of damages against them, when,

perhaps, the merits of her _Awful Disclosures_ and _Nunnery Unveiled,

and the motives of those who have promoted and prompted the_

publication, will duly be considered.”

Demurrer sustained, and bill dismissed at costs of complainant.

All of which, and more, may be found in _Edwards’s Chancery Reports_,

vol. iii., p. 109.

PAST AND PRESENT.

Within the past twelve years, a new generation of readers has grown up

in the United States--a generation far outnumbering its predecessor,

and the circulation of the journal published by the Harper Brothers

has increased immensely. The great body of its readers of to-day are

profoundly impressed with a sense of its unvarying and undying

patriotism, and it probably never occurs to the soldier who, when a

mere boy, shouldered his musket in defence of the Union, that his now

furiously patriotic _Harper’s Weekly_ was originally, and as long as

it was found to pay, the advocate of secession and the apologist of

slavery. How sadly true this is, we propose to show by presenting the

results of our examination into

THE JOURNAL IN THE HOUR OF TRIAL.

On opening the volume of the _Weekly_ for the year 1861, we felt quite

confident of finding an admirably executed full-length picture of the

then President-elect of the United States, and confess to some

disappointment when, instead thereof, occupying the entire first page,

we discover portraits of “The Georgia Delegation in Congress,”

followed by sketches highly laudatory of the seven gentlemen composing

the delegation. The same number makes calm and commentless record of

“The South Carolina Proclamation of Independence,” and the spread of

secession through the South.

_January 12, 1861._--Under the heading “The Great Southern Movement,”

the publishers “beg to draw attention to the following list of

illustrations of the _Pending Revolution_,” such unseemly words as

rebellion and treachery being left to the unprincipled Abolition

papers of that day. In the same number we have “The Revolution at

Charleston” in cuts of “Anderson at Sumter” and “The Charleston

Militia taking Fort Pickens”--thus making a nice balance. Doubtless

the Lincoln portrait will come in our next number.

Why, what are these? Portraits and laudatory notices of Governor

Pickens, Honorable Judge McGrath, and “Rev. Dr. Bachman, who asked a

blessing on the Secession Ordinance,” the signing of which, according

to the fervid account cited from a Charleston paper, was a scene

“profoundly grand and impressive”; there were “patriarchs in age--the

dignitaries of the land--the high-priests of the church of

Christ--reverend statesmen--and wise judges of the law”--in the midst

of whom “the President advanced with the consecrated parchment”--which

holy document was the ordinance of secession. We continue turning leaf

after leaf with but slight edification--Skating Park--Old

Fashions--Humors of the Day--Rarey the Horse Tamer--Love Story--etc. 729

Pleasant reading for people sitting over a volcano.

_January 26_ gives us “The Prayer at Sumter,” a drop of mournful

comfort. Then an editorial, “WANTED, A CAPITAL.” It opens

impressively: “_Some practical people, viewing the dissolution of the

Union as a fixed fact_,[148] and assuming that all or nearly all the

Border States will go with their Southern slave sisters, are already

casting about in search of a new capital.” The vigorous patriotism of

this idea is strengthened by a sweet allegory, in a column of small

type, entitled “John Ardens and James Placens.” You see the delicate

joke in the mild Latin? Ardens is a fiery fellow, who absurdly insists

on having what he is entitled to. Placens is a gentleman, a practical

philosopher, who very sensibly submits to any imposition on pocket or

principle for the sake of peace. The placid moral is, “In things

indifferent yield rather than quarrel.” Logically enough, two pages

further on we have “The Firing on the Star of the West,” as a mere

passing incident of the day. Meantime Fort Sumter does heavy duty on

the illustrated pages, and is served up without intermission, from

sea, from land, by day, by night, _en barbette_, _en côtelette_, and

in every other conceivable way.

_February 2, 1861._--Another grand page of portraits--not of Lincoln

and Seward, but of “The Seceding Mississippi Delegation in Congress,”

followed by a page in small type of fulsome praise of the seven

members--Jefferson Davis, Brown, Barksdale, Lamar, R. Davis,

Singleton, and McRae. With the praise we also have copious and labored

arguments for slavery and secession, thus: “Personally, Senator Davis

is the Bayard of Congress, _sans peur et sans reproche_; a finished

scholar; a high-minded gentleman; a devoted father; a true friend. He

is emphatically one of those ‘born to command,’ and is doubtless

_destined to occupy a high position either in the Southern Confederacy

or in the United States_.” On which we would merely remark that as to

the non-fulfilment of this prophecy there has been some disappointment

in the first-named country, and great dissatisfaction in the second.

This Mississippi article closes with the assurance from one of the

seven that slavery is not only national, but “a universal institution

of God and man, nature and Christianity, earth and heaven--having its

origin in the law of God, sustained by the Bible, sustained by

Christianity,” etc., etc.

We continue turning the leaves. And now that we have had quite enough

of “the Seceding Delegations,” we naturally hope that room may be

found for a portrait of the President-elect. At page 76 we come to

“Portrait of the South Carolina Minister of War,” which is not the

object of our search.

_February 9._--What, again? “THE SECEDING ALABAMA DELEGATION IN

CONGRESS.” A full-page of portraits of nine gentlemen who do not look

at all amiable. Following this comes the regulation two and a half

columns of praise in small type, interspersed with extracts from their

speeches. Of one of these delegates--a party by the name of Curry--we

are assured that

“Nature has endowed him with a mind so active that he can

apparently discover, by a glance so rapid as to seem intuition,

those truths which common capacities struggle hard to comprehend,

while his genius enables him to enforce by argument, and his

accomplishments to illustrate, those topics upon which he 730

addresses the House.”

Naturally enough follows, on page 88, a View of the City of Montgomery,

showing the state-house where “THE CONGRESS OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY

MEETS.”

_February 16, 1861._--Concerning so-called stay-laws passed in the

South, which were at the time generally understood to mean practical

repudiation of mercantile debts due to the North, hark how sweetly

sings the Northern secession siren with elaborate Harp accompaniment:

“We trust that our Southern friends will believe that we have no

partisan purpose in view if we direct their attention to the fatal

consequences of the stay-laws, etc., etc. For many years our Southern

States have enjoyed first-rate credit, both at the North and abroad.

Southern obligations have always been preferred in New York to

obligations from the East or West.... Southern men have been

considered here as good under all circumstances. Their honor has been

relied on to any extent. _Houses which would not trust Western or

Eastern dealers a hundred dollars have been delighted to give credits

of thousands to Southerners._ The simple reason was that people have

had an undying faith in the honor of the Southern people--a firm

conviction that under no circumstances would they seek to evade

payment of their debts.” And here the siren’s song is broken by a gush

of tears--“Is this faith, is this conviction to be demolished now by

the passage of stay-laws?” Then follow the perennial “View of Sumter,”

double-page Paris fashions, etc., until we reach (p. 109) Views of the

“Mint and the New Custom House,” New Orleans, “of which the United

States have had only a brief occupancy”--“both of which have been

seized by the state authorities.” There is no comment on this

“seizure” by the state authorities, but more than three months

afterward we shall find “civilization” waking up in wrath and

fulminating thus: “All that the rebels of New Orleans wanted when they

stole the mint was to be let alone.” In this same number (p. 112) we

have the sneering caricature of the calamity of the country which at

the time afforded the enemies of the American Union exquisite delight

and “prolonged shouts of laughter.” It is entitled “_The Crippled

American Eagle, the Cock, and the Lion_.” To the eagle, dilapidated,

lame, and on crutches: “LION.--Why, Brother Jonathan, you don’t

look so fierce as you used. How about the Monroe Doctrine now?

COCK.--Yes, my good Jonathan, what you tink of PRIVATEERING under de

present circumstance?”

At last, in the number of February 23, we reach portraits of

“President and Vice-President”--what? surely we must be mistaken!

No--the print is very clear in its large capitals--“Of the Southern

Confederacy.” And very good portraits they are, too, but not of the

President and Vice-President we were expecting to see. The number of

March 2 gives us a full-page woodcut of “The President-elect

Addressing the People.” The “people” are represented by twenty-six

hats and the scanty outlines of eleven men, but in compensation we

have a thrilling view of two gigantic lamp-posts, and, in exaggerated

disproportion, the pillars of the balcony over the centre of whose

summit appears the upper half of a small, lean figure supposed to be

that of A. Lincoln. This is somewhat disappointing, but, by way of

consolation, the next page enlightens us on the subject of patriotism:

“This subject of patriotism is in a fair way of being more thoroughly 731

ventilated than it ever was before. Everybody appears to admit that

patriotism is a virtue, and that a man should love his country. But

the question arises at every corner, What is our country?” The topic

is illustrated by watery hypotheses from Smith, Jones, and Thomson,

and the editor adds some strong milk to the water with--“Can he claim

the title of patriot if he loves his state only, and confesses no

obligation to the rest of the confederacy?”

For men who have progressed far enough in constitutional law and

patriotism to call the Union a confederacy we have strong hopes.

Further on, under heading, “The Southern Confederacy,” we are advised

that “the President has nominated”--so and so--“to his cabinet.” Then

follows “President Davis’s Inaugural”--not the President we are

looking for. Then come “Snake Stories,” “Aunt Maria,” “The Mazed

Fiddler,” “Romance by Lever”--pleasant reading for perilous

times--until, at last, our search is ended, our patience rewarded, and

at page 144, in the number of March 2, 1861, we have a full-length

portrait of Abraham Lincoln, President-elect of the United States. It

is

A REMARKABLE PICTURE.

It is indeed a picture so remarkable that we would advise every

American who voted for Mr. Lincoln, every American who, whether he

voted for or against him, yet credited him with the reputation of

being at least a decent person, and every man, of whatever

nationality, who considered him not positively a degraded loafer--we

would advise all such, if they can find a copy of _Harper’s Weekly:

A Journal of Civilization_, of March 2, 1861, to contemplate and

study that picture, and then form their opinion of the Christianity

and the patriotism of the men who, at that crisis of the country’s

fate, and in that dangerous hour of feverish excitement and political

passion, could, in cold blood, spread such a firebrand sketch

broadcast through the land. We further commend this counsel more

especially to those present readers and approvers of the _Journal of

Civilization_ who cherish the memory of a murdered President whom they

remember as at least blameless in life, pure in character, kind of

heart, charitable in impulse, and noble in patriotism.

We will endeavor to describe the drawing. Mr. Lincoln is represented,

in a room at the Astor House, standing, or rather staggering, under

the influence of liquor, with a just emptied glass in his hand. He is

surrounded by four boon companions, two of them with drunken leer and

Bardolphian noses; a third in the background looks vacantly on with

expression of maudlin stupidity; while the fourth, like the rest,

glass in hand, stands at the open window, and--partially sobered by

the shock--gazes at a passing funeral procession. On the moving

hearse, accompanied by mourners and decked with solemn black plumes,

are inscribed the words:

UNION,

CONSTITUTION.

Under this work of art--a wretched, scratchy woodcut--we read:

OUR PRESIDENTIAL MERRYMAN.

“The Presidential party was engaged in a lively exchange of wit

and humor. The President-elect was the merriest among the merry

and kept those around him in a continual roar.”--_Daily

Paper._

Now, let it be borne in mind that this very suggestive piece of malice 732

was published just on the eve of Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration at

Washington, whose atmosphere was black with lowering clouds of

rebellion, where threats were rife that he would never take his seat

in the Presidential chair, and where men’s minds were already warped

and inflamed by misrepresentations and falsehoods concerning him, the

belief in which by a large portion of the community would seriously

blunt any sharp opprobrium of murder, and soften down assassination to

the meritorious taking off of an unworthy drunken demagogue. If the

conductors of this organ of “civilization” are capable of giving the

greatest publicity to a horrible caricature on such a subject, and at

a moment fraught with such dreadful contingencies, need there be any

room for surprise that they do not stickle at far worse when the

subjects of their defamation are “only Catholics”?

ANOTHER PICTURE.

But we have not yet done with this number of March 2. It was the

strongest bid of the journal for Southern favor and patronage. On the

same page with the cut we have described is another, a more elaborate,

more artistic, and better executed picture. Scene: Interior of a

church--pews full of worshippers--minister officiating--administration

of the sacrament. At the chancel railing kneels George Washington.

With one hand, the clergyman standing in the sanctuary holds away the

cup from the would-be communicant, and with the other contemptuously

waves him off. The Father of his Country makes a gesture of indignant

remonstrance, while the minister’s assistant with a long stick points

to a tablet in the wall, on which are engraved the words:

THE HIGHER LAW.

NO COMMUNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.

Is the reader edified? There is more to come. The officiating minister

is Henry Ward Beecher--an unmistakable portrait. His assistant is John

Brown--an excellent likeness--and the pointer he uses is one of the

well-known “Harper’s Ferry Pikes.” Under the engraving we read:

NO COMMUNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.

“Stand aside, you Old Sinner! We are holier than thou.”

Will the members of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, who now see the

efforts of the journal to misrepresent Catholics in doctrine and in

morals, please read these efforts by the light of this George

Washington picture?

We also commend careful examination, of this picture to the friends

and admirers of Mr. Beecher. Let them ask themselves this question:

Would the men who, for the sake of a little larger circulation, do not

hesitate to caricature their own Protestant co-religionists--would

these men, we say, be reasonably expected to be very scrupulous in the

vilification of those whose Catholic faith they detest?

And for similar reasons, we commend consideration of both these

pictures to all readers of a _Journal of Civilization_ which, week

after week, by innuendo, assertion, falsehood, and caricature, strives

to awaken the lowest prejudices of religious intolerance, the vilest 733

passions of religious bigotry, and the sweeping persecution of

American citizens who choose to worship God according to the dictates

of their conscience.

We see that, in 1861, the proprietors of the _Journal of Civilization_

held sentiments looked upon in this latitude as rebel and pro-slavery.

We freely admit that they had a perfect right so to do, accepting, of

course, the legal and social consequences flowing from such holding.

Open to them to assume the social and moral superiority of Southern

gentlemen over Northern traders. Free to them to vaunt Southern honor

at the expense of Northern honesty. But surely they might advocate, as

they did, with all the eloquence of their editorials and all the

influence of their wide circulation, the dissolution of the Union and

the strong reprobation of anti-slavery sentiment, without insinuating

that Eastern and Western merchants are swindlers, without calumniating

Mr. Lincoln, and without vilifying Mr. Beecher?

The journal’s proprietors were perfectly well aware how grossly Mr.

Lincoln was misrepresented, and how utterly he was misunderstood in

the South. To what extent sectional bitterness was intensified against

him was shown by the free application of the epithet “gorilla.” Under

these circumstances, was it--we will not say considerate--but was it

honest, was it fair, to picture him as a drunken clown to men who did

not know him, and were all too ready to believe it? Was it respectful,

was it decent, to caricature the President-elect to those who did know

him, as celebrating in drunken orgies the death of the Constitution

and the funeral of the Union?

Henry Ward Beecher was looked upon in the South as the ardent apostle

of an Abolition evangel which taught servile insurrection and midnight

murder--not an enviable reputation surely. But was it fair, was it

honest, to give shape, body, and unnatural proportions to this belief

by picturing him as insulting the Father of his Country, aided by John

Brown as his henchman, armed with a Harper’s Ferry spear?

And so we reach the journal’s issue of March 9, 1861, but have thus

far found no portrait of President either elect or _de facto_, except

as a drunken clown (Mr. Merryman). We learn, however, by way of

explanation, that he is a sectional President! A long editorial of

this number is headed RECONSTRUCTION, and contains such vigorous Union

sentiment as this:

“Granted--if you will, for the sake of argument--that the

Southern rebellion against the election of a sectional President

is treason, and liable to punishment--is it wise, is it prudent,

is it possible to punish it?”

Again:

“It would undoubtedly be a very mischievous undertaking to keep

half a dozen states in the Union against the deliberate wishes of

their people. Whatever popular feeling--roused to frenzy by the

seizure of forts, arsenals, revenue cutters, and mints--might

prompt on the spur of the moment, _there can be no question but

the enterprise of holding the Union together by force would

ultimately prove futile_. IT WOULD BE IN VIOLATION OF THE

PRINCIPLE OF OUR INSTITUTIONS!”

An interesting number, this of March 9, with a fine portrait of

“General David E. Twiggs, late of the United States Army,” a

whole-page view of “Inauguration of President Jefferson Davis of the

Southern Confederacy,” and an article explanatory of the same.

No “sectional President here,” and the inauguration is described as 734

“solemn and impressive.”

At page 160 (March 9) we have a cartoon of four vulgar caricatures,

entitled collectively “The Flight of Abraham” (as reported by a Modern

Daily Paper), and separately: (1.) THE ALARM.--A gaunt figure sits

upright in bed with nightcap on. A lantern is held in at the open

door, from which come the words: “Run, Abe, for your life, the Blood

Tubs are after you!!!” (2.) THE COUNCIL.--General Sumner, with a pair

of large cavalry boots in one hand, and in the other a handkerchief

which he holds to his eyes, weeping vociferously--boo-o-o, stands near

“Abe”; on the other side is Mrs. Lincoln in dowdy dishabille, crying

bitterly, “Do go!” (3.) THE SPECIAL TRAIN.--” He wore a Scotch plaid

cap and a very long military cloak, so that he was entirely

unrecognizable”--an ignoble picture. (4.) THE OLD COMPLAINT.--Lincoln

presents himself to the astonished Buchanan dissolved with fright,

while Seward whispers to Buchanan, “Only a little attack of ager, your

excellency.”

Editorial correspondence at page 162 gives us the valuable information

that “Senator Wigfall is a finished orator--probably the most charming

in the senate,” and that he is “the exact opposite of Chandler and

Wilkinson”--“very unpleasant speakers to listen to.” Senator Mason, we

are told, “with all his faults is perhaps the nearest approach in the

present senate to the beau ideal of a senator.” At page 168 (March 16)

we have a large cut representing “The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln

_as_ President of the United States,” and we cannot help contrasting

the phraseology of this announcement with a previous one:

“Inauguration of President Jefferson Davis of the Southern

Confederacy.”

And so we progress to April 27, 1861, page 258, where we find

President Lincoln’s Proclamation of April 15 thus announced: “War is

declared. President Lincoln’s proclamation, which we publish above, is

an absolute proclamation of war against the Gulf States.” Better late

than never, we at last, after long, weary waiting, find in this

number, page 268, the long-looked-for “Portrait of the President,”

accompanied by a biographical sketch of Mr. Lincoln. It was really

high time that the readers of the _Civilization_ should be told

something of their President nearly two months after he had assumed

the reins of government. To make everything pleasant and impartial,

however, the opposite page gives us the copy of a full-length

photograph of General Beauregard. Having paid your money, choice is

optional.

We have thus seen with what persistence and industry the _Journal_,

during the long, critical months of the beginning of that eventful

year 1861, was the ardent panegyrist of everything Southern, the stern

rebuker and enemy of anti-slavery, the mocker and caricaturist of

Northern Union sentiment, and the contemptuous sneerer at Abraham

Lincoln. But all this fine talk about principle and lofty assumption

of stern virtue was a mere question of circulation, and the sympathy

of the _Journal_ went with its pecuniary benefit, so far and no

farther.

The immutability of its principles was subject to be disturbed by just

such considerations as those which carried conviction to the

understanding of Hans Breitman, and which he so admirably explained in

his great political speech:

“Dese ish de brinciples I holts,

And dose in vitch I run:

Dey ish fixed firm and immutaple

Ash te course of de ‘ternal sun:

Boot if you ton’t abbrove of dem-- 735

Blease nodice vot I say--

I shall only be too happy

To alder dem right afay.”[149]

From an editorial leader of May 25, we hear that the _Weekly_ is in

receipt of abusive and threatening letters from various persons in the

Southern States, the cause assigned for which rude conduct is “the

statement in _our editorial of March 4_, to the effect that civil war

between the _Free States on one side and the Slave States on the other_

will inevitably, sooner or later, become a war of emancipation,” etc.,

etc. The reader may notice here that the expression, “Free States on

one side and the Slave States on the other,” just as clearly and

forcibly puts forth the doctrine of state sovereignty and the right of

secession, as does the title of Alexander Stephens’s late work, which,

in the smallest of nut-shells, gives the same doctrine in the few

words, _The War between the States_. But what is of as great importance

is that the contingent danger of emancipation was not presented by the

journal at so early a date as _March 4_. There is no such editorial of

March 4, there is no editorial of any kind of March 4, and, moreover,

there was no number of _Harper’s Weekly_ published on that date. The

editorial referred to appeared _May 4_. And here we would frankly say

that we are quite willing to accept this March 4 for May 4 as the

result of mistake, oversight, or careless proof-reading.

With the abusive and threatening letters came advices that “In

Tennessee vigilance committees forbid its (_Harper’s_) being sold.”

“In Louisiana, the governor prohibits its distribution through the

post-office.” And now, the Harpers, like Macbeth, have heard enough,

and, seized with the frenzy of patriotism, thunder after this fashion:

“As for _Harper’s Weekly_, it will continue, _as heretofore_, to

support the government of the United States,[150] the stars and

stripes,[151] and the indivisible union[152] of thirty-four states.

“We know no other course[153] consistent with the duty of citizens,

Christians, and honest men. If any subscriber to this journal expects

us to give our aid or countenance to rebellion[154] against the

government, he will be disappointed. If any man buys this journal

expecting to find us apologize for treason,[155] robbery, rebellion,

piracy, or murder, he will be disappointed. That is not our line of

business. The proprietors of _Harper’s Weekly_ would rather stop this

journal to-morrow than publish a line in it which would hereafter

cause their children to blush for the patriotism or the manhood of

their parents.”

This sharp change of sentiment, this sudden right-about face, may be 736

best illustrated by the notes we have appended and by the utterances

of the _Journal_ before and after certain occurrences.

BEFORE. AFTER.

_Editorial (leader) March _Editorial (leader) May 18,

30, 1861, entitled “The Two 1861._

Constitutions.”_

“Mr. Jefferson Davis,

“The Constitution of the Ex-Senator from Mississippi,

Southern Confederacy has has transmitted to the

been published. It is a copy select council of rebels at

of the original Constitution Montgomery a document which

of the United States, with he calls ‘A Message.’ It is

some variations. The a most ingenious and

principal variations plausible statement of their

are”--nineteen of these are case. Mr. Jefferson Davis is

then described, and the renowned for having made the

article concludes: “We have most specious argument on

thus enumerated the record in justification of

principal alterations in the Mississippi repudiation. He

Constitution effected by the has not forgotten his

Congress at Montgomery. cunning. His ‘Message’ would

_Most of them would receive almost persuade us--if we

the hearty support of the would forget facts and

people of the North. But law--that rebellion is

comment is superfluous._” right, and the maintenance

of government and the

enforcement of law a

barefaced usurpation.”

_Editorial (leader) April _Editorial (leader) June 8,

20, 1861._ 1861._

It begins by stating that “The rebellion in this country

Virginia affirms “the right has not half the excuse that

of a state to secede from the Sepoys had. The Indian

the Union at will,” and that soldiers were at least

Missouri and Kentucky standing upon their own soil

“declare that, in the event and opposing a foreign race

of forcible measures by the which had vanquished them by

general government to resist arms. It was a blind stroke

the dismemberment of the for the independence of their

Union, they will take sides nationality. But the Davis

with the seceded states.” rebellion is the resistance of

a faction of citizens against

“It seems questionable,” the government of all; and the

continues the _Weekly_, liberty for which they claim

“whether the continued that they are fighting means

alliance of these states, on baldly and only the liberty of

these conditions, is an holding other people in

unmixed gain. If this Union slavery.”[156]

of ours is a confederacy of

states which is liable to be

dissolved at the will of any

of the states, and if no

power rests with the general

government to enforce its

laws, it would seem that we

have been laboring under a

delusion these eighty years

in supposing that we were a

nation, and the fact would

appear to be that,” etc.,

etc., etc.

_Editorial “Better than _Editorial May 18, 1861,

Dollars,” April 20, 1861._ headed “In Memoriam.”_

Portrait of the typical “They have led us by the nose,

Northern man in contrast and kicked us, and laughed at

with the typical Southern us, and scorned us in their

man, in which the first is very souls as cravens and

described as mean, tuppeny tinkers. They have

avaricious, and swelled, and swaggered, and

unprincipled. “Cotton Pork sworn, and lorded it in

is a Northern man, mostly Washington and at the North,

from New England, though as if they were peculiarly

often transplanted to New _gentlemen_[157] because they

York, and doing well in our have lived by the labor of

climate. Some varieties of wretched men and women whom

his genius have been tried they did not pay--whom they

at the South, but they don’t sell to pay their debts, and

thrive there. They can’t stand whipped and maimed savagely at 737

so much sun.” their pleasure. They have

snorted superciliously about

“At the South--an odd their rights, while they

region--dollars are well deprived four millions of

thought of, to be sure, but human beings of all rights

still they don’t govern.... It whatsoever, and have sought to

seems ridiculous, but people gain such control of the

talk and think much more about general government that they

honor at the South than about might override altogether the

dollars.” state laws which protect the

equal rights of men. They have

Cotton Pork, we are told, “is aimed to destroy the

_for his country if dollars beneficent, popular system

are on his country’s side, which peacefully and patiently

otherwise he crawls on his and lawfully was working out

belly to lick the feet of the the great problem of

enemy who offers him civilization; and while they

dollars_.” have been digging about the

foundations of the temple to

“Strange how differently they make sure of its downfall,

talk down South! They spend no they have loftily replied to

energy in denouncing civil our inquiries, ‘We only want

war. They do not want to to be let alone.’”

fight. _They seek peace._ But

if it comes, they will make no

wry faces. It will cost them

much, but they utter no such

philanthropic shrieks as

proceed from the mouth of

Cotton Pork. They seem to

think that there are things

worse than fighting in this

world, and better than

dollars. An odd people, surely.”

We trust that the Southern gentleman and Cotton Pork, Esq., “a

Northern man,” are pleased with their respective portraits.

We have long and patiently borne with the insults and aspersions upon

our faith and conduct as Catholics persisted in for years by

_Harper’s Weekly_. Trusting that better counsels would prevail, and

unwilling to add by controversy a single spark to the fire already

kindled, we have deferred from day to day, and from month to month,

saying what we might at any time have said.

Fully aware of the by no means reputable “anti-Popery” antecedents of

its proprietors, of their palpably governing motive, and of the

speculation they saw at the bottom of the movement, we might, so far

as we were personally concerned, have looked upon the malicious

movement as not meriting serious attention.

But we are also aware to how great an extent the prestige of the

wealth and commercial standing of a large publishing-house, the

widespread circulation of their periodicals, and most especially their

noisy and incessant proclamation of a patriotism claimed as at once

unvarying, inflexible, unselfish, and devoted, had misled or blinded

the general public, ignorant of their real precedents, and we have,

therefore, found it our duty to enlighten as well our own readers as

those of the _Weekly_ as to the real state of the case.

In so doing, we wish to call attention to the fact that we have here

confined ourselves to the information furnished by public judicial

decisions, and to their own record as published by themselves.

Finally, we most earnestly, and in the spirit of charity, urge these

gentlemen to devote themselves to their plain, and what they may make

their noble, duty as journalists. Let them be advised for their own

good to cease fanning the flame of a hateful bigotry, and to pursue in

the future such a course as may induce right-minded men to look upon

their title-page illustration as indeed the flambeau of civilization,

and not the torch of the incendiary.

[147] Demurrer is thus defined: “A stop or pause by a party

to an action for the judgment of the court on the question,

whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the

opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the

action, and hence whether the party resting is bound to

answer or proceed further.”

[148] In passages here quoted from _Harper’s Weekly_, the

italics are ours.

[149] We give this passage not only because we think it apt,

but also to vindicate the witty Hans from the inept

aspersions of the _Harper’s_ critic, who deliberately reaches

the solemn opinion that “in Hans Breitman there is nothing

funny but the grotesque dress. Translate his poetry into

English, and it is, with here and there a solitary

exception, the baldest of all commonplaces.”

[150] “Wanted, a Capital.”

[151] “The Crippled American Eagle.”

[152] “There can be no question but the enterprise of

holding the Union together by force would ultimately prove

futile. _It would be in violation of the principle of our

institutions._”--_Harper’s Weekly, editorial leader of

March 9, 1861._

“If the Union is really injurious to them (our Southern

friends), heaven forbid that we should insist on preserving

it.”--_Harper’s Weekly_, 1861, p. 146.

[153] “Most of them” (“alterations in the Constitution

_effected by the Congress at Montgomery_”) “would receive

the hearty support of the people of the North.”--_Harper’s

Weekly, March 30, 1861._

“Some practical people, viewing the dissolution of the Union

as a fixed fact.”--_Weekly, Jan. 26, 1861._

[154] “Is it wise, is it prudent, is it possible to punish

it?”--_Harper’s Weekly_, p. 146, 1861.

[155] “He [Jeff. Davis] is emphatically one of those ‘born

to command,’ and is doubtless destined to occupy a high

position, either in the Southern Confederacy or in the

United States.”--_Weekly, Feb. 2, 1861._

[156] “Stand aside, you Old Sinner! We are holier than

thou!”--OUR COMMENT.

[157] So italicized in the article.

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THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 738