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4 ' B* T H y *' { REV. A._J. RYAN, Editor- AUGUSTA, GA., MAY 2, 1868. ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENTS, Pt. P. G.—Religious inquirer—will be in Savannah next weak, at Bishop Yerot’s, and will be pleased to give all informa tion. Major I. P. Girardey has a raffle-list sent here from Charleston, which, for the benefit of the Sisters of Mercy in that ruined city, be desires to fill with the names of the generous and charitable of Augusta. Three beautiful portraits of Bishops England, Reynolds, and Lynch, are to be raffled, at $1.50 a chance, lie hopes that the citizens of Angola will be as generous as they always are, and by taking chances, assist the poor orphans of Charleston. THANKS. We cannot longer refrain from tender ing sincerest thanks to the many friends who are voluntarily working for the success of the “ Banner of the South.” Every dav brings us lists of subscribers from all portions of the country, and every mail brings us letters of approval. Our subscription list already astonishes us, and stimulates us to greater efforts to make our journal an honor to our religion and our country. We also thank the Southern Press for their flattering notices With such encouragements the “Banner of tup: South.” is destined to be success ful far beyond our most sanguine expec tations. Without fear or falter shall we continue to speak ever and forever in de fence of our grand “ Lost Cause.” No power on earth shall hush our lips from saying what our heart wants to say ; and our noble people will approve and ap plaud us. OUR MEMORIAL DAY. We are exceedingly sorry that the 26th of April had the misfortune to be, this year, on Sunday. We trust that it may never fall on Sunday again; for, if it does, we cannot give so holy a day to those who holily fell in a holy cause. Sunday is too good for them—a common week-day is good enough. True, those poor buried soldiers never questioned the propriety of battling for us—aye, and dying for us—on Sunday; but many persons, more righteous than they, would not dare to strew a few flowers on their graves on the holy Sab bath. Many of them shed blood for us on Sundays, and their simple theology was to do their duty on any day; nor did we think then that they profaned the Sabbath when they kept it amid the shock of battle; but note some are grow ing wiser and better, and do regard it as an unpardonable crime to bring a few flowers to deck their graves on the Sab bath. In most other places throughout the South, the people did not think that they ought to take from the Dead their own day—the 26th of April; and in many places (remembering, perhaps, that our ' Saviour, duriug bis life, had a few discussions in regard to the Sabbath with the Pharisees, and that in each case, He took the lenient side and they the rigid view,) our people were so wicked as to imagine that it was especially appropriate to decorate the graves of our Dead on Sunday; but here, in Augusta, some im agined it very impious to pay to the Dead the pious duty of decorating their resting places on the Day of Rest; and so, though those de: <1 soldiers devoted many a Sun day to us, in the march and in the battle, we could not devote to their memory the few hours of last Sunday evening. Love of country, and of those who died for it, said: “ Give them their own day —they deserve it; no day can be so holy that a few hours of it cannot be kept in their remembrance.” A Theology nar rower than Christ’s, said : “No; we ob ject; true, it might be light for them to die for us on Sunday, hut it is wrong for us to visit their graves on that day.” And shallow Theology gained a point over deep love of country —and we gave to our Dead last Monday evening. We are sure that the majority of our people would have preferred Sunday; and we are equally certain that, had it been left to the choice of the ladies alone, the larger number of them would have had the celebration on the 26th. We hope, however, that the 26th of April may never again come on a Sunday. POOR POLAND! At last the Russian has done his work. With the sweep of a pen and the signa ture of a tyrant, Poland is blotted out from among the nations. There is wail ing in grand, old YTarsaw —and the hearts of the conquered are bowed in the dust; there is revelry in St. Petersburg, and the oppressors say : “we have buried the proud, defiant nation—let us guard her tomb that she may never rise again.” And. in Europe not a voice has been lifted to plead for her pity and to protest, save the voice of Pius the 9th. He, who alone sent words of sympathy to the chief of the conquered South, again alone enters protest against the oppression of the Russian. Long may he live, the friend of the oppressed, with heart so fear less to denounce triumphant wrong— and with heart so free of tenderness to pity and to bless the down-trodden of this world! No nation of Europe was generous enough to unsheath Hie sword in Poland’s cause,; no nation mourns above her tomb. She goes down to her grave abandoned by the world, unwept, unmourned; and though she points to the wounds she has worn so long, and tells the nations, “ these wounds I received when I stood before the Crescent of the Turk and saved the Cross in many a bloody battle ; still, Europe looks coldly on and has not even a tear to shed upon her bier. Grand, indeed, were the first days of her history —but sad and gloomy are the last. She has struggled long and hard for life. Time and again has she striven to break her fetters. They would not cowardly yield—that race of proud men and noble women. Forgotten in their misfortune by the nations ; despised and calumniated by the courtezans of success ; resolved not to forget—not to despair —never to surrender—incomparable types of suffer ing and sacrifice—invincible martyrs and confessors not only of faith, but of right* of country, and of liberty, they have done all—braved all—braved all—endured all —and, if die they must, as a people, they have in death the proud consciousness that Poland’s name is clear of stain ! Has the Government of the United States lost all recollection of Kosciusko and Pu laski ? If not, why is there no voice raised in Poland’s behalf ? Admiral Farragut, the representative of the navy of the “best Government the world ever saw,” went to St. Petersburg and was feted in the palace of the Czar, American Democracy kissed the hand of Russian despotism. Admiral Farragut did not go to poor Poland even to see her in her death-agony. Side by side waved the flags of the Uuited States and Russia. It was fitting. They both represent the same iniquity. But the white flag of Poland, like our own, was furled. Poor Poland ! the Russian guards thy grave, and thinks thee dead ; but right is right—and God is just—and tyrants some times sleep at the tombs of conquered nations, and suddenly the dead awaken and arise to life and vengeance. RETRIBUTION. Is it disloyal to believe in Retribution ? Is it treasonable to profess that belief? Is it contrary to Military Orders to lift up the heads bowed down by defeat and to look our victors in the face, and to tell them to their teeth * “ The rights we lost shall reign when the steel of your muskets is rusted ?” Is it criminal to insinuate ©1 SIS S©lfMo ■ that present defeats may become future triumphs, and that the shouts of the vic tors of to-day may become the wails of the vanquished in some near or far off to morrow ? Is it very wrong to ask old History to come up and to thunder in the ears of the “ powers that be”: “Take care —I know it —I have met it in the Past —I h ive seen its terrible, pitiless arm lifted a thousand times over against op pression ; I have seen it tearing the crown from the brow of enthroned Wrong; I have heard its wild chant of revenge at the grave of Tyranny ; I have watched it —watched it while it waited for weary centuries to strike the blow that hurled proud victors down to dnst; I have marked it haunting ruins which the spoiler had made ; I have seen it hovering nigh graves where holy dust was laid, and counting every tear upon them shed ; I have marked how, with a terrible pa tience, it would follow an oppressor for a thousand years, then smite him to death —wrap him in the red winding shroud of vengeance, dig his grave, write his epitaph, and pass sternly on ; I know its face and footstep; I keep the record of its wrath—men call it Retribution /” When we speak of Retribution, those who fear it because they have reason to fear it, may try to silence us, but old History will not hush. Pity it is that History cannot take the oath of loyalty ! Pity it is that military orders cannot be issued against the use of the thousands of testimonies which the hand of History casts in the very face of those who rob nations of their rights ! Yes, thou! oh, History! art our witness—we accept thy tostimony, for it is true —and this is thy testimony 1 ; the voice of victorious ini quity never yet through all the centuries sounded the merciless “ Vce Victis ” that was not followed, sooner or later, by auother voice that chanted the retributive “ Sic Semper Tyrannis /” WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE NEGRO • If through his ignorance and credulity he become the servile dupe of the fanatics of the North or the base place-seekers of the South, he is ruined and lost. If he is taught that it is his religious duty, as well as his political interest, to hate the Southern people, he is ruined and lost. If his ferocious instincts, which are strong, and which lie very near the sur face of an apparently gentle and docile nature, arc aroused by white men who who are not his equals, he is ruined and lost. If his passions are lashed into fury by false teachings of demagogues—and if these passions incite him to outrage and insult, he is ruined and lost. If he is reduced to absolute political slavery by those who desire only to use him as a tool in the making of their own political fortunes—and if, to servo their temporary interests, he is utterly regard less of the real, permanent interests of the country and of the majority of the people among whom his lot is cast, he is ruined aud lost. If he continues to be a willing actor in such scenes as have characterized all the late, infamous elections—and if, re lying on the bayonets, which point hjs way to the polls, and which are used more to insult and over-awe the whites than to protect him, he oversteps that line when patience ends and violence begins—he is ruined and lost. If he becomes and remains the bribed enemy of every Southern household, and provokes the terrible enmity of Southern men, he is ruined and lost. If, not satisfied with the full possession and unrestrained exercise of all the rights which (whether for good or evil, the fu ture only can tell), he has received, ho insanely strives to rob the Southern peo ple of the few rights which their mag nanimous conquerors have not taken away, lie is ruined and lost. For, if he pursues any such course as these, then will and must come a war of races—and if it comes, his race dies If the lines are drawn and remain so —on the one side nearly all the white people of the South, on the other those who have been born colored and those few who, though white, ought to have been born extra-colored ; and if these two political forces stand solid against one another in every contest, it requires no pipphet’s eye to see blood in the future. May a merci ful Providence save us from such horrors! It is too terrible a picture to contemplate. But there is no use in disguising the fact. By keeping consequences before our eyes, we may save ourselves from ever meeting them. If, on the other hand, the negro popula tion will listen to reason, and not to pas sion ; if they will learn to trust us, who are obliged to feel an interest in their welfare, if for no other reason, for this at least, that our welfare is more or less in volved in theirs ; if they will enter into relations of harmony with us and go back to their old love for those who were once their masters and now would be i their friends ; if they would learn to feel that living in the same country their in terests and ours are identical, and being such, should not be divided; if, under standing that we and they must live, here together, they would strive to aid us as we would aid them, and thus bring back something like the old peace and pros perity to the South, then, indeed, would their race reap the real fruits of freedom, and make progress according to their ca pacity. The Southern man, though once their master, is not their enemy. He re members with gratitude that they were to be relied on during our war—that they, as a people, were true and faithful; that though our enemies hoped they might rise in revolt, and spread havoc through the unprotected portions of the South, they deceived such infamous hopes. He remembers bow it was expected by the men of the North that the slave would wage merciless war on the defenceless women and children whom they were left to protect; and how, when they were too faithful to do so, the soldiers of Sherman and Sheridan showed how fitted they were for work which slaves would not do; and remembering all this, the Southern man looks with kindliest feelings on his former slaves ; and when by bad men they are incited to hatred against him he pities them far more than he blames. But not only are political demagogues ruining the negro population—religious fanaticism is rioting in their emotional natures. They, as all other men, need strong religious restraints. They must have clear ideas of duty. Virtue to them must mean not mere feeling, but obliga tion. They must be taught to under stand moral responsibility; and only re ligion can so teach and train them. We intend, with God’s blessing, in a very short time, to do our share towards their proper religious instruction, and though we may not succeed, we shall at least win the merit of making a trial of a work that is sadly needed. * •©• - It seems that some nameless creature, in noticing our journal, wrote thus of our selves : “ To the ‘ Lost Cause’ as true as steel, but alas! a Roman Catholic, and his journal an exponent of that offensive creed.” Really, how he pities us ! how very pathetically he uses that word “a/as/” How sad it must be to his great heart, that we are a Roman Catholic ! How his soul must be filled with anguish at the bare thought—a Roman Catholic • ° _ t llow it must shock his sensitive nature * Really it is too bad! Ju.-t to please the poor creature, and to keep its heart from breaking, we ought not to be a Roman Catholic. And since we are even worse than a mere Catholic—since we are a Priest —we do beg of him to pity us the more—“the more’s the pity”—and as he lias so very much pity to spare, we hope he will give us even more of it, when he knows that we feel very proud of being wliat we are, and that we have the cruelty to wish that he were also, “ a/as /” a Ro man Catholic. “ And our journal is the exponent of that offensive creed,’’ More shocking still! Why did not the pitying creature write again “alas!” Beaure gard was a Catholic, “alas!” The Cath olics of the South were “ true as steel to the Lost Cause” —and are true as steel yet but, “alas!” they belong to that “oifen' sive creed.” General Joseph Johnston’ with his own lips, said to ourselves that his best chaplains were Roman Catholic Priests; but, “alas!” they be long to that “ offensive creed.” Ihe Sis ters of Charity and Mercy moved like angels through hospital, camp, and battle, field, giving tender care to the sick, the wounded, and the dying but, “ alas! they were members of that “ offensive creed.” Jas. R. Randall and Geo. W. Miles, of Maryland, wrote some of the most inspired and inspiring songs of the war—but “alas!” they are of “that offensive creed.” While hundreds of the ministers of various denominations in Missouri took the infamous test oath— not a single Catholic Priest in the State would take it—thereby proving not only their firmness in maintaining a principle of religion, but their devotion to the South—but, “alas!” they belong to “that offensive creed ” The Arch-Bishop of Baltimore collects money and dis tributes it to the sufferers of the South, Irrespective of creed—but, “alas!” he be longs to “ that offensive creed.” The Pope is the only crowned head of Europe who sends words of sympathy to Jefferson Davis—but, “ alas /” he is the very head of “ that offensive creed.” The Catho lics of the North, with but few excep tions, belong to that party from which f.me we can expect redress—but, l( alo.s!" tnev belong to “ that offensive creed.” Alas ! alas ! what a pity it is that such a very sensitive creature should be com pelled to live in this world with such an “ offensive creed!” We do really hope that no one will have the cruelty of bring ing the “Banner of the South” into his presence. It would be too offensive, and might seriously affect his moral health; and he might., in his great kindness, pity us so very —very much—that he would not have the least, little particle of pity to bestow upon himself. Some unknown friend, however, has taken our part—and we do sincerely thank M. A. N. for the following beautiful lines; and we are certain that the poor, dear creature who pitied us, “ alas!” so much, will also pity the poet, who takes our part and sings our praises: “ BANNER OF THE SOUTH.” UY M. A. >’. “To the • Lost Cause’ as true as steel, but, alas ! a Roman Catholic, and bis journal the exponent of that offensive creed.” A common cause demanded sons To battle for the right; How was it then ? We knew no Roman, Jew, or Greek: Were brothers in the fight; All, all were men. A common fate befell our land— Long saddest of our fears— And hope has tied. Around one common mound of earth Mingle our woe-born tears, For all our dead. So as the “ Deeds of heroes gone” Engage thy poet pen— The truly free— Our ‘‘hoj)e3,” our “aims.” alas! our ‘‘wroek.” And “what we might have been,” Or yet “ may be”; We’ll ask not what thy creed may teach What path is thine for future joys, To Better Lands? But did you love that Banner well ? And did you cheer the boys ? Then join we hands. Komt, Ga„ April, ISC3. Another Step Towards Rome. —Since the Irish Church excitement commenced in England, London has been in a perfect fever. Placards were blazed on all the posting-bill boardings about the city, ap pealing to the Protestant feeling of the public. Many of those placards contain ed language of a most inflammatory char acter. One of those most extensively posted read as follows : “Another step towards Rome. The Church in Ireland is assailed, which has been established by law, and secured by a treaty of law. Mr. Gladstone leads the attack. The author of “Church and State,” whom Protestant England once trusted, now leads the attack. Will you allow this ! Will you desert your fellow Protestants in Ireland ? Arouse your selves, Protestants in England! Cal upon your representatives to do the i duty by at once rejecting a proposal wliic will be but the first step towards pulling down your own church, and doing away with the Protestant Constitution of Eng land! The year of Peril, 1868.