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&EV. A. J. KYAN, Editor-
AUGUSTA, GA., JUNE 27, 1868.
APPROVAL.
We acknowledge, with sincere thanks,
the honor conferred upon us, and the
compliment paid to The Banner of the
South, in the following letter from Bight
Bov. Bishop Verot. It was with his per
mission and blessing we established the
paper, and we feel honored in his selec
tion of it as his official organ. All an
nouncements from the Bishop will appear
in the Editorial page, and we are happy
to state that the Bight Bev. Bishop will,
when his many duties allow him leisure,
favor us with articles upon subjects
which will interest our readers.
We subjoin the better of the Bight
Bev. Bishop :
Macon, Ga., June 19, 1868.
Bev. A. J. Ryan:
Reverend a?id Dear Father :—The
extcnsirc and favorable patronage given
to your paper, through the Diocese, and,
indeed, throughout the whole South, is a
strong inducement for us to use its col
umns as our official organ, for any com
munication we might have to make to the
Clergy or people of the Diocese; and, if
it meets your views, we will henceforth
employ it as such. It is almost unneces
sary to say, that this character which your
paper will have, of being the official or
gan of the Bishop of Savannah, will have
no bearing on, or will include no official
sanction of any political views or recom
mendations. For, although, personally
and individually, we may approve them,
still, as the head of the Diocese, we keep
aloof from all political strife, and address
our flock only on matters which relate to
the one thing necessary.
We take the present opportunity of an
nouncing to the Pastors and the people
of the Diocese, including Florida, that,
according to the decree of the Plenary
Council, held in Baltimore, 1866, a col
lection is to be taken up for our Holy Fa
ther the Pope, on the Sunday within the
Octave of the Feast of St. Peter and St.
Paul, which, this year, will be the first
Sunday in July. In order to present to
the Holy Father, now struggling with
heroism for the liberties of the Catholic
Church, an amount which will be “a bless
ing not a covetousness,’’ 2 cor., ix., 5.,
which we would be ashamed to send, all
Pastors will draw up a list of the mem
bers of their respective congregations
able to contribute, with the amounts an
nexed to their names, which they are
willing to offer to their beloved Father,
i’.ius IX.
Yours, in Christ Jesus,
t AUGUSTIN,
Bish. Sav.
BIGOTRY ANdTnTOLERANCE.
We hear, very frequently, of Catholic
bigotry and intolerance, but we do not
know exactly where, in our Church, to
locate these amiable qualities. There
miqht be some excuse for them in the
Catholic Church, if they did exist in
reality; because, assured, as her members
are, that theirs is the Church of God, the
Church of Christ, the Church of the
Apostles—the one and only living true
Church, with which her Divine Founder
promised to abide till “the consummation
of time”—they must necessarily look
upon all other religious societies and all
other religious doctrines as false in theory
and false in practice. Viewing such
societies and such doctrines in this light,
it would be inconsistent in the Catholic
Church to encourage them in the asscr
tian of their claims to recognition as true
Churches of Christ, or even as authorita
tive branches of the true Church. We say,
therefore, that if the Catholic Church were
intolerant, she would have some reason
*
some foundation for it; but what reason
have our dissenting brethren for being
bigoted or intolerant? None at all.
They have no reason or cause to condemn
or despise a man simply because he is a
Catholic; for they hold to the right of
private judgment, to individual intepreta
tion of the Scriptures, and the general
dogma that “one Church is as good as
another ’’ If, then, these principles lead
people into the Catholic Church, why
should our dissenting brethren complain ?
They have, as we have just said, no right,
nor reason, nor ground, to be bigoted and
intolerant; but, unhappily, they too often
are, and the poor Catholic who follows the
precepts and practices of his holy Faith,
is sneered at, laughed at, and despised.
Inn’t this true ? We don’t say that all of
them are thus bigoted and intolerant,
but too many of them are so. They
take it for granted, that all the misrepre
sentations of Catholic principles and
practices are true, and so they learn to
look upon us as a set of ignorant, super
stitious idol worshippers, bigoted, intoler
ant persecutors. And yet nothing is
farther from the truth. We are neither
bigoted nor intolerant. Candid and im
partial History will sustain us in this as
sertion—the facts of the present time will
sustain us in it. Catholic Princes and
rulers may have been cruel and re
lentless tyrants, just as Protestant Princes
and rulers have been cruel and relent
less t} T rants. But, for Heaven’s sake,
don’t hold our Beligion responsible for
the conduct of such tyrants, any more
than you arc willing to admit that your
religion was the cause of the other
tyranny. Do us, at least, the Christian
justice of examining our Faith, our prin
ciples, and our practices, candidly and
impartially, before you condemn us; do
this, and we are satisfied that your con
demnation will not fall upon us.
We are led to these remarks by the
following incident which occurred lately
in the Papal City :
On the 10th of May, while the Pope
was walking alone through the galleries
of the Vatican, he suddenly came on a
young man, who was deeply absorbed in
the study of one of Rafaelle’s paintings.
He approached him, and said:
“You are an Artist ?’’
“Yes, Holy Father,” replied the young
man.
“You are come to Borne to study ?’’
“Yes, Holy Father.”
“Then you belong to the Academia ?”
“No, I am too poor ; study by myself,
and endeavor to imitate Bafaelle.”
“Well, my young friend, go to the
Academia; I shall think about the ex
pense.”
“But, Holy Father,’’said the young
man, “you are not aware that—that—”
“That, what ?” replied the Pope.
“That I am a j Protestant.”
“Oh,” said the Pope, smiling, “that
makes no difference in the Academia.”
From that day forward, the young man,
George Johnson, probably an English
man, entered the Academia, to pursue his
studies, at the Rope's expense.
There certainly was no bigotry or in
tolerance there. We have seen, too,
where the Holy Father gave a handsome
token of his gratitude to the Jewish
Physicians in Borne for their devotion to
their sick co-religionists during the preva
lence of the cholera in the Eternal City.
There was certainly no bigotry or intoler
ance in that. And we know, too, that
Protestant chapels and Protestant wor
ship exists in Borne, under the very
shadow of the Vatican, where the Pope,
if lie were bigoted and intolerant, would
assuredly have the the power to exercise
his bigotry and intolerance, and .suppress
such chapels and such worship.
And, finally, wc read, the other day,
where a Priest of the Catholic Church,
in an oration to a very large concourse ol
people, denounced religious and political
proscription, and most eloquently defend
ed the liberty of the Press !
Yes, good reader of the Banner of
the South, believe us, when we tell you
that the Boman Catholic Church is not
bigoted and intolerant. She is, perhaps,
intolerant of other’s claims to be the true
Church of God ; she is uncompromising
in her Faith, unyielding in her doctrines,
and sure of her position as the True
Church. Yet, she aboundeth in charity,
in love for all mankind, in forgiveness of
her enemies; and so, while she condemns
opposing doctrines as false and wrong,
she sanctions no persecutions for opinion’s
sake ; and her true followers, in acts of
friendship, in works of charity, in social
relations, will not ask you what your
Faith is, or of what Church you are a
devout follower, but in the true Christian
spirit, look upon each of you only in the
light of a Christian neighbor. Believe us,
too, when we told you in our salutatory,
and repeat the heartfelt words now, that—
“ Though we are thorough Catholics,
bigotry is not a part of our religion—
prejudice is no element of our faith. We
love the truth deeply and dearly which
we have learned from the Church, and
on which rest all our hopes for eternity,
but we hate no man who differs from us.
We do not believe in bitter words—they
always bear bitter fruit. Honest convic
tions, wherever and in whomsoever
found, we feel bound to respect.
political
The Banner of the South, as we have
heretofore said, is not partizan, except so
far as the honor and interests of the
Catholic Church, and the honor and inter
ests of the South, are concerned. In re
gard to these, we are, if you please, par
tizan, but, we trust, not offensively so.
For the honor, and the good, and the
glory of the South, we shall never cease
to contend. The principles upon which
she went into the struggle of ’6l, are as
living to-day as they were when the first
gun was fired upon Sumter, on the ever
memorable 12th of April, 1861 ; and
though they may be suppressed now by
the force of arms, and by lawless tyranny,
yet the day will come when the Ameri
can people must either resurrect them,
and apply them to the whole country, or
be oppressed and ruined, as the people
of the South are now oppressed and
ruined.
While, therefore, we are not partizan,
in the common acceptation of that word,
we are for the South, for her interests, for
her honor, for her glory, first, and above
those of every other section of this Union.
With this policy, while we shall not array
ourselves on the side of one party or the
other, we shall give whatever strength
our feeble pen has, and whatever humble
ability we possess, to the advocacy cf
those measures which shall, in our judg
ment, best advance the interests of the
South; and to denounce those which, in
our judgment, will continue her in her
present unhappy condition.
While, therefore, ours is not a political
or a party paper, and while we do not
desire to make it the vehicle of political
discussion, yet we do not feel at liberty
to refuse admission in our columns to
communications which touch alone upon
the political interests of our section.
Hence, we give place, to-day, to a well
written article from a legal gentleman
of Selma, Ala., on the subject of Mr.
Chase’s nomination as President of the
United States, and ask for it an attentive
perusal; also to another, on the political
interests of the South generally, written
by a gentleman of this city.
IMMIGRATION.
What the South greatly needs at the
present time is capital and white labor.
She wants Northern men, and European
men, with capital, to come into her bor
ders and develop the unbounded resources
of her soil and climate; she wants
Northern men and European men, with
their families, to come into her borders,
and make practical applications of the
resources thus developed. She wants
farmers, mechanics, house servants, and
she wants these to be conservative people
—people who will have the interests of
the South at heart, and devote them
selves to her welfare and prosperity;
she wants them to be intelligent people,
who will be able to judge for themselves
in regard to our political affairs, and not
be misled by the wicked and designing
politicians who are seeking their own for
tunes at the expense of Southern honor
and prosperity. In a few |words, she
wants liberal, enterprising, sagacious
capitalists, honest, intelligent, hard-work
ing laborers. To these she has a heart
felt welcome to give, and all the encour
agement that lies within her power. She
does not ask them to believe with her
that the “Lost Cause” was a righteous
and a glorious cause; but she asks them
to be true to her present cause and to her
future cause —true to the principles of
Constitutional Liberty—true to the honor,
the dignity, and prosperity of the South.
Give her these, and she will give you, in
return, a welcome, a home, and a share in
her future prosperity and glory.
GATHER THEIR SACRED BONES.
The living owe it to the Dead of the
Lost Cause to gather their sacred bones
which lie scattered o’er many a battle
plain. Side by side they fought and fell,
and side by side their manes should rest
Gather them in from the chilling blasts of
Winter, and scorching beats ot Summer;
gather them in from inhospitable graves;
gather them in from our mountains and
valleys, our hills and dales ; gather them
in to the States that gave them birth ;
rather them near to the homes of those
c!5
they loved best; gather them in, where
the tears of woman will consecrate
their burial places, and where their
graves will be decked with the sweetest
offerings of Nature. The dead will
rest easier for it, and the living will
be made better for it. True to the in
stincts of their crushed, but grateful,
hearts, the noble women of our land are
seeking to accomplish this holy purpose,
and what the maids and matrons of the
South undertake to accomplish, is certain
to succeed. In this, however, as in all
undertakings, woman needs the encour
agement and aid of man, and the men
of the South owe it to themselves, to their
country, to posterity, and, above all, to
the silent sleepers who went down to
death in defence of a righteous cause, to
work for the same undertaking. Im
poverished and oppressed though we be,
there is yet enough left to secure for our
dead appropriate burial places. This
debt of gratitude must be discharged by
individual contributions. There is no
Government to come to the aid of our
glorious women in this holy work. It
must be done by and through private
associations and individual exertions, and
every true Southerner, whose heart beats
in sympathy with the memories of the
past, cannot be indifferent to an object
which appeals so strongly to his manhood,
and all the finer feelings of humanity
and patriotism. It is, therefore, with
unspeakable pride that we second the
patriotic appeal of the heroic women of
Virginia who are making the most praise
worthy efforts to discharge the sacred
duty of providing suitable burial places
tor our dead in that State. Their exam
ple should he followed by the women of
every State, aud Memorial Associations
should be organized all over the South,
working and co-operating for the accom
plishment of this most sacred object.
THE WAR A FAILURE
“The war for the Union and the Con
stitution has proved a failure.’’ This is
a proposition whicli no sane man can
successfully contradict. When the people
of the Northern States responded to the
first call for troops, issued April 14, 1861,
it was set forth in that call that the pri
mary objects were to recapture the forts
and other U. S. property, to suppress in
surrection, and restore the authority of
the Government. The people of the
North, believing in the sincerity of their
Executive, responded to suppress the so
called “insurrection.” The first quota
having been organized arid put in the
field, it was found inadequate to the
Another proclamationiwas issued
setting forth the same objectsjas the first,
and the people again responded. But the
second contingent failed as signally as
the first. Then the authorities of the
United States called for men by the hun
dreds of thousands, and the men and the
money came forward, and the
slaughtered by thousands, aud the money
expended by millions. The onefand the
other continued to be used until the so
called “insurrection” was suppressed, the
public property recovered, and the au
thority of the Government restored from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, Irom Maine
to Texas. In every proclamation of the
Executive, in every measure of the
Legislature, and in every ruling of the
Judicial Departments of the Federal
Government, touching upon the war with
the Confederacy, it was maintained and
insisted upon that the States of the South
were still States in the Inion, and never
could withdraw from the General Gov
ernment. Upon this theory, the war was
wa°*ed to a successlul termination
o
Three years have now elapsed, and during
that time the States of the South have
been kept out of the Inion, and the peo
ple thereof subjected to tyranny and
every species of wrong and injustice
which could be devised by the fiendish
malignity of a party which floated into
power on the blood and treasure expend
ed in maintaining that the Union could
never be dissolved.
Is all this true ? Where is the
Union preserved ? Where do we behold
the supremacy of the Constitution ?
These are the avowed objects for which
the war was carried to a successful close.
Could the true men in the North have
been permitted to divine the present
condition of affairs, the Southern people
would not now be so sorely afflicted as
they are. The war for the restoration of
the Union and the Constitution is a
failure. The one is dissolved, and the
other is violated, by the Congress of the
United States, which has usurped all
power vested in the co-ordinate branches
of the Government, and reserved to the
individual States. This thing of so-called
Beconstruction, now being forced on the
people of the South is a sin and a failure ;
it is a disgrace to the spirit of Bepublican
Government, and an outrage on the
rights of a free people, who are under no
obligations to obey or respect its authority
whenever they have the power to shako
it off, and re-establish that form of gov
ernment guaranteed by the Constitution
to all States in the Union. Until this
object is accomplished, the war for the
Union and the Constitution is a failure.
DEATH OF EX-GOV. JNO.J. M’RAE, OF
MISSISSIPPI.
The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion of the
10th inst., announces the death of Hon.
John J. Mcßae, formerly Governor of
that State, and a member of the Confed
erate Congress from Mississippi. The
Governor was born in Anson county, N.
C., January 15th, 1815, and died at
Balize, British Honduras, May 30th,
1868. He had held the offices of Editor
of the Clarion, Clerk of the State House
of Representatives, Member of the State
Legislature, U. S. Senator, Governor of
Mississippi, and Member of the Confeder
ate Congress. The Clarion closes its notice
of his death with the following appropri
ate and deserved tribute :
When the Government of the Confed
erate States was organized, he was
elected by the constituency who had so
often honored him with their confidence,
to serve them in the Congress of the new
Government. In that position, as he
had done in every other, he adhered with
unyielding firmness to the course which he
believed to be right. And here we may
speak of a trait that always displayed it
self throughout his career. Though he
was as gentle in heart as a child, kind,
confiding, geirial, and generous, yet, in
matters of public duty, he yielded nothing
of principle to policy. No force of pub
lic opinion, no consideration of personal
advancement, no hope of reward, nor fear
of punishment, ever swerved him a hair’s
breath from a sense of the right and the
true.
Not in political life alone did (iov.
Mcßae, display capacity for usefulness.
He was one of the projectors of
the great scheme of the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad. From the Southern to
the Northern terminus of the line, when
the multitude believed it the mere dream
of an enthusiast, he addressed the people
in favor of the project, and finally suc
ceeded in laying the foundations of what,
in after years, has become a great reality.
One of the founders of the scheme of the
University of Mississippi, he ever dis
played an active interest in every measure