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nighty hosts, the fierce conflicts, and
: jje spilling of blood, produce this change;
, r have we other, deeper, and broader
auses which must be fathomed ?
The deep upheaving of society by the
recent conflict, left everything in a state
of disintegration; and fragmentary truths
which were once prized and harmonized
into one pure crystalized diamond, hon
ored and cherished by Southern patriot
ism, now lie scattered and trampled upon,
ijjke the master pieces of ancient art that
tall from the temple of Pagan gods. Bar
barism, whether found in the rich and
intelligent, or in the poor and ignorant,
is still barbarism. And this spirit of
barbarism has invaded every precinct of
society and Government—frivolity is the
order of the day, and nothing is held sa
cred, because nothing is respected.
Society in the South, before the war
and after the war, is as “ Hyperion to a
Satyr." We find men of high standing
and honor denying to-day what they
-wore to die by six years ago. Men
trampling on a banner, and trailing its
sacred folds in filth, who, but recently,
bore its stall far on high, with their crests
illumined, and victory flashing from their
eyes, now proclaiming, by an oath for
office and pelf, that the principles which
that banner represented were a moral
ami political wrong, and that they regret
the part they took in the late war—the
brightest part of their past life. We
do not intend to argue the question,
whether the dominant power has a right to
impose such oaths on the Southern people,
as a condition sine qua non to voting or
holding office. The naked skeleton fact
is this : if the principles the South held
before the war, and during the war, were
right, they are right now, and always
will be right—aye, years after the “ New
Zealand traveler shall sketch his ruins of
St. Paul's,” right is still immutable, “the
eternal years of God are hers.” When
society becomes so corrupt that men take
these oaths for office, and arc not frowned
down by the community in which they live;
and when objection is heard from some
stray son of chivalry, it is rather from dis
appointment at not getting office for him
self, than regret at the abyss of degra
dation to which the successful candidate
i:as fallen to attain the petty lucrative
position; then, indeed, is the country in
vaded by the barbarism of ideas—more
baneful than the horde of barbarians that
came out ot the Hast to desolate Europe,
and put back civilization for generations,
it these men who hold office under recon
structed and iron-clad oaths, were honest
when in the Confederate ranks, they are
perjurers now. If they are honest now,
whilst holding office, they were traitors
while wearing the grey. If it be mere
worship of Mammon, and no kind of
principle involved, still it cannot be justi
fied ou high moral grounds. Society is
rotten.
The Governor of the State of Louisiana,
wiio had to take an iron-clad oath before
being inducted into tlie Gubernatorial
chair, though but a vague sympathizer
uitli those who were baring their breasts
to a conflict against the invader, and
fighting within shot of his plantation, is
now before the Courts on an affidavit, by
a Negro, for perjury. If the Governor
escapes this malicious prosecution, (which
is but a protest of Radicalism against de
cenev,) by showing he did nothing in
thought, word, or deed, for his home and
iho South, can all other office-holders
make out such a clean record of their
anility? But, it is alleged, if we let the
Yankees fill all the offices we never will
atiain our position again. Through the
gnH ■> ot perjury nothing can be attained
which will be really solid, or endure.
Sinking to the abyss of degradation, will
never make one rise to the top of the
mountain, where the air is pure> an( j
God’s light, “ which enlightened/’ first
gilds the summit, and at eve is last in
lingering around it. “ She stoops to
con- I tier,” is good for a drama, but will
never regenerate a people, or emancipate
a nation.
>Ve, men of the South, have much to
unlearn, and much more to learn, before
we will be well prepared to meet, and to
avert, the fate that awaits our country.
If knowledge be power, and ideas con
trol, there was something back of the
mere clash of arms, which was slowly, but
surely, tending to produce this disinte
gration and decay of morals; and seces
sion was but the spasmodic effort of the
strong man in the last gasp of death, to
break the fibres and meshes which Puri
tanism had wound around him, binding
him to “ earth earthy.” If we have hopes
of bringing back Southern society, and
from it the Government of the conscript
I athers, we must not look for the regene
ration of the country from the Govern
ment as it now stands ; for nothing can
be conclusion which was not already in
the premises. If the premises are corrupt,
we can only look for corruption more de
veloped in the conclusion. Man, swept
down the torrent of corruption, can only
expect and receive succor from one firmly
planted on the immovable shore. The
rainbow ot hope, with its tinted beauties,
seen through the mists and spray, brings
consolation to those out of the whirling
eddy, but not to those going down the
mighty abyss. We want, then, a power
(and power unorganized is uo power at
all,) that can and will act on the indi
vidual, on the family, on society, and,
consequently, on the Government. If,
with the light of history before us, we
can find an organized power which has
not beeu swayed by the conflicting inter
ests of Princes, the smiles of the power
ful, or the terrors of despots, that has
invariably, and with unerring truth, ad
hered to the people when deprived of their
rights and trampled upon by tyranny, or
sided with authority when anarch} and
license, exasperated the “ swinish multi
tude,” we have the power we are looking
for. And that power, is Religion; for it
acts on man—acts on his head and on
his heart; it places the throne of God at
equal distance from each and every hu
man being, who can look up and see that
hereafter, at least, there is reward not
only for those who obey, but punishment
for those who disobey the law. Law
alone is not sufficient—we must have Re
ligion to accompany it. Law looks at
the dry, outward act, but can hardly ever
penetrate the inward sanctuary of the
soul, aud there probe the secret motive.
The penalty attrehed to the violation of
Law, can be sometimes avoided ; the crimi
nal often goes unwhipped of justice. In
Religion, his punishment is sure and in
evitable. Law terrifies and punishes ;
Religion consoles and rewards. Law is
sometimes unjust; Religion is never
unjust.
The Church teaches that man always
lived in society, and never lived out of it,
nor could he ; that man lias certain inhe
rent natural rights, anterior, or back of
society, which he never gives up, and
cannot give up, without sin; that, in
coming into Government, these rights
are guaranteed and protected, but are not
created by Government. This is em
phatically so of the American Govern
ment. The inalienable rights of the
people, and the limitations on authority,
were part of our English inheritance,
which were, for once and ever, placed
beyond dispute by the Catholic Cardinal
Langton, and bis confederate Barons, on
the plains of Runnyinede. Stationary
Courts, Habeas Corpus , trial by a jury of
peers, were dogmas sanctioned by time,
and were hoary with age when our first
Revolution broke out, for they had been
the common law of England since the
Stuarts. Our statesmen of ’76 merely
put on paper what had been floating about
in the world of ideas for over a century,
and gave to the “airy nothing” of taxa
tion without representation, Govern
ments derive their right from the consent
of the governed, and other cognate doc
trines, a “ local habitation and a name.”
The Constitution of the United States,
by some called infidel, because God is
not named, or only incidentally recog
nized by the oath or affirmation required
to hold office, is, nevertheless, profoundly
Christian, It recognizes man as a free
agent, coming into Government with cer
tain rights which the Government recog
mzes, secures, and guarantees. Amon"
c D
- —————* ——
the rights which the Constitution guaran
tees to all, stands first, the free exercise of
religion. It protects each man in the ex
cise of his religion, though, legally, it
protects no religion. And the Govern
ment framed by this Constitution, having
in it really so many good, broad, Catholic
principles, went down in the late war.
Why ? No written Constitution ever
lasted one hundred years! History can
be searched in vain. No instrument o*
writing, or piece of parchment, ever
kept a people together, unless the laws
were the expression of the wants of
the people—the slow growth of time, and
grew with the growth of the nation.
Must we despair ? For with such a liberty
expressing Constitution, recognizing God
incidentally, if not directly, the Govern
ment went down, society became corrupt,
polities a barter, and hydra-headed Radi
calism mounted the throne of despotism,
and tyranizes over more than three
fourths of the people. Why is all this ?
For two reasons :
Ist. Because we have given up God,
and God implies an authoritative teaching
Church, with proper credentials to com
missioned teachers to teach truth, and
that truth the same under all forms of
Government, during all revolutions,
amidst storms and calms of factions; show'
ing itself human and divine—Divine by
being always above and superior to all
the caprices of men during civil commo
tions, “the wreck of matter and crush of
worlds,’ ’ and human by siding with au
thority when license and anarchy are rife
—or, by interposing the broad shield
of justice and humanity, when authority,
drunk with power and blood, oppresses
God s likeness—man. Hence, however
good our laws, still we are ever on the
brink of the destructive precipice, un
less we respect and obey the Law, and
feel its binding obligation. To violate Law
is sin ; and without lleligion, and God’s
Religion, man never yet obeyed Law, or
felt its high ethical and moral efficacy, un
less he had religion to make him respect
the rights of others. And this is one
reason which ruined the Government.
2d. Law, in the natural order, to be
obeyed, must be just, and grow from the
natural wants of man, and be the expres
sion of the true and the good. Not to
go back to the question of the origin of
Government, or who has the right to
make laws, we stand on the almost self
evident postulate, that Every organized
society has a right to 'pass its own laics ,
aud we find this doctrine in all the old
theologians of the middle ages, sanction
ed by the Church, if she ever expressed a
political opinion, and maintained by all
the international law writers, from the
profound Grotius and Fuffendort, to the
brilliant \ attel. This acknowledgment
from all the great writers on the laws of
nations, is an acknowledgment of the Con
federate doctrine of State Rights. Rather
than be ashamed, we should glory in this
now despised and dishonored doctrine.
States Rights is a platform narrow enough
lor every fastidious person, and broad
enough for the whole country to stand
upon. Give us, then, for the peace of the
South, and through the South, for the
salvation of the country, and the main
tenance of the Constitution inviolate
more of God in law, and in polities more
States Rights, and soon the South, by
means of her society, at once Catholic
and States Rights, will, like ancient
Greece, after her conquest by Rome, re
conquer the conqueror, by leaving the
impress of her laws, her refinement, and
her polish on her Northern barbarians.
The following letter was written by a
dear friend of ours—a most accomplished
\ irginia lady, lately received into our
Holy Church—to a friend of hers, who
had asked her the reasons of her change
of creed. A Presbyterian friend, and
several ’others, having read it, requested
its publication in the Banner of the
South. With some difficulty, we prevailed
on the writer, whose sensitive nature
shrinks from anything like publicity, to
allow us to publish the letter. It is the
argument of a woman’s pure heart, in
favor of the old Church, and we hope it
may profit our readers :
My Dear Friend : (
You ask me to give you the reasons
which induced me to renounce Protestant
ism, and become a member of the Roman
Catholic Church.
I believe your questions are suggested
by the blessed spirit of our Lord, and,
theiefore, I willingly accede to your re
quest. To show you the more clearly the
way in which I have been so mysteriously
led into the true fold of Christ, l, of ne
cessity, refer to my past life. You well
know that past, with its singular trials
and crushing sorrows, which so shadowed
my youth, that, like a pal 1, it seemed to
fall before my future, shutting out all that
was glad and beautiful on earth; my eyes
were so veiled by tears, that I could not
see the bright sunshine which in the far
off, dim future, was even then shining for
me. As I revert to my early life, it seems
as if I had ever been a child of sorrow.
In the flush, and glow, and joyousness, of
youth, I was called upon to pass through
a severe ordeal of trial and suffering.
Surrounded as I was by wealth, elegance,
and luxury, I was made to feel their
utter vanity and insufficiency for happi
ness. Strange and sad experience for a
girl of scarce sixteen summers, and yet it
was mine.
How often did I realize that the plea
sures, enjoyments, aud allurements of
the gay world were vain and unsatisfac
tory. The fruit which was so beautiful
to my young, happy eyes, turned to ashes
on my lips. Even then my soul was
longing for those celestial harmonies,
those sublimities of holy faith, which c»n
only be experienced in the Holy Catholic
Church ; and which, through much suf
fering, I was at last to realize. You,
doubtless, remember when I was in P
I became a member of the Episcopal
Church, in which I had been born and
educated. I fled to it as a refuge from
the storms of life, which had wrecked my
earthly happiness. I sought in it a
peace, which I felt the world could never
give me, and for a long while I believed
I possessed that peace. For many years
I labored under this delusion, but, alas ! a
terrible sorrow fell upon me, and then the
dream, the delusion, was over. I woke,
to find myself sinking, well nigh over
whelmed by tiie waves of affliction, and
the faith which should have been my
anchor in this tempest of my heart’s
grief, where was it ?—all, cold, dead
nothing I could take hold of, nothing to
sustain my fainting spirit.
But I will not anticipate, asl am going
to tell you how I found the true faith,
which, to-day, I realize is all-sufficient for
life's sorrows and trials.
■ Shortly after I became a member of
the Episcopal Church, our dear Lord, in
His mercy, brought me a great happiness,
and I became a happy wife. Years passed
on ; years of such sweet content, that, as
I pause to linger o’er their memory, I
can but exclaim, was ever woman so
blessed !—the happy wife ! —the happy
mother! These are the years in which
my Protestant faith satisfied me. I see
now Protestant faith may save us while
life is blight, and unshadowed by Death;
yet when sorrow and death comes (and
come they will to all), then it is all unsat
isfying; it cannot console the bereaved,
the breaking heart. There is nothing
real, nothing tangible—a want of consola
tion in it, which is felt, but impossible to
describe. Shall 1 tell you how I experi
enced this ? Ah ! it was the saddest, the
bitterest of human experiences. I spoke
to you of happy years. What made them
happy ? I will tell you. I lived in the
brightest and most beautiful of earth’s
homes, for it was a home of domestic
love. Four little children gladdened it
with their presence, brightened it with
their love—and, in my blindness, I be
lieved no shadow could ever fall on its
brightness. My Heavenly Father saw I
was making idols of earth, and they were
to be torn from me, even though my
heart was to be rent in twain. I was to
be taught a lesson, which we learn always
in sorrow, suffering, and tears.
In one short week, two precious chil
dren were torn from my clinging arms,
my loving heart, my tender care. They
who had lain in my bosom were taken
from me, and laid in the cold, silent
grave. I can nveer find words to tell you
the anguish, the agony of that moment,
when 1 gazed, for the last time, on all that
was earthly of my heart’s idols. The little
waxen hands folded soft and silently ;
the little curtained eyes, never to smile
on me again ; the little snowy cheeks,
never more to bloom with life’s roses;
the little feet, stayed for ever; never
again should I hear their little patter,
which, to my ears, were like the footfalls
of Angels—all gone! all taken from me—
I was left bereft and inconsolable.
Now, my friend, it was at this time that
I realized the coldness of my Protestant
faith; friends stood around me; spoke ot
hope, of comfort, of resignation ; yet I
was deaf to every voice. In my woe, I
could not be comforted. Still I had every
consolation which Protestantism could
afford. How earnestly I sought it in the
Episcopal Church, is well known to those
who saw my daily life; for three years
entirely secluded from the world, and de
voted to meditation and prayer. Through
pain and sorrow, God willed I should be
brought into the one Holy Catholic
Church. It was a thorny way that led
me to the foot of Calvary, there to be
taught the sublime lessons of Hope and
. Faith. I have spoken of the past, in
order to convince you of this truth —that
the heart must be disciplined by suffering,
before it is prepared to receive the fuli
and holy consolations of the Catholic Re
ligion. Now, I had been well instructed
in the doctrines and faith of the Episcopal
Church ; I had been instructed in it by
her most eminent men. Asa child. T
had been taught in the Church, by one of
her most learned and venerable Bishops,
and, afterwards, when I united myself
with this Church, I received instruction
from one of her distinguished prelates. I
tried to be a staunch Episcopalian, yet I
was never satisfied. There appeared to
me discrepancies and pretentions in the
Church which could not be proved by
Scripture. Her creed was nothing to
me but a vain form of words; there was
no life, no reality in it. I recited a belief
in the ‘'communion of Saints.” What did
I understand by this ? Again, “the for
giveness of sins.” What meaning had
this to an Episcopalian? How different
the meaning to a Catholic ! Doubts upon
other points would often come into my
mind, and unsettle my faith, yet I would
cast them from me, believing them
temptations, which I must struggle against
and subdue. But God was going to
show me the weakness and fallibilty of
this Church, by testing her faith in the
crucible of affliction.
At this time, I knew little of the faith
and doctrines of the Catholic Church.
And now I shall go on to tell you how I
learned this blessed faith, and I will tell
you, too, how 1 came to love the Church
long before I had the happiness of be
coming one of her children.
When I lived in , it was my
privilege to number among my dearest
and most intimate friends, members of
the Catholic Church. Our dear Lord
was even then pleased to send to my
heart some of the gentle influences of
that Holy Spirit, which he promised us
should guide us into the way of truth.
These friends were on terms of closest
intimacy with me, and, therefore, I had
an opportunity of observing their daily
life. I found it pure ar.d blameless,
so full of good works, so abounding in
Christian virtues, that I knew them to
be true children of God. IJad notour
blessed Saviour said : “By their works
ye shall know them V 1 While I lived in
epidemic, and then it was I saw the
Catholic religion in all its brightness and
glory. I saw Catholic ladies, reared in
the very lap of luxury, whose homes had
all the refinements and elegancies which
wealth could bestow ; I saw them leave
those luxurious homes, and go into the
byways and alleys of the city, seeking
the hovels of the poor, the sick, the dying.
I saw them brave storm and rain, and,
even more, brave death, to do their
heavenly mission of Christian charity, in
those wretched abodes of poverty and
want. They relieved the poor, comforted
the sorrowing, and gave hope and conso
lation to the dying. Was not this the
perfection of Christian charity ? x\gain ,
I saw the Catholic was the Church of the
poor, the humble, the lowly. In Protest
ant Churches these stand outside at the
door; but the Catholic brings them within,
places them side by side with the rich,
the great, the noble. In her eyes, there
is no diffiereucc between them, only these
very poor, humble creatures are her most
dearly cherished children.
And, yet, once more, 1 saw that the
Catholic Church was the asylum lor all
earth’s sorrow-stricken children ; there is
no sorrow she cannot heal, offering conso
lation to all.
All these things made a deep impres
sion on my mind. I saw in them the
marks which Christ had said should
characterize His Church on earth. I felt
that the Catholic alone knew how to
hearken to these Divine teachings, which
enlighten the heart, and influence the life.
I saw that their faith sustained them
through all the vicissitudes and trials of
this life, and 1 saw it support them m a
dying hour. Her holy prayers are the
last sound that lingers on the ears of her
dying children, and her children that are
dead are just as dear to her as those that
are living. Father Ryan says, in his own
beautiful words of inspiration :
“The Church, unlike others, does not
leave those who die in it, at the grave ;
hut follows the Christian to the land of
peace, and wafts a prayer which will be a
help and assistance to those who have de
parted.”
Oh! who can tell the unspeakable
riches and inexpressible consolations of
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