Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 EEY. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUSTA, GA., OCTOBER 3,1868. RELIGION. Judged by the number of Church steeples visible in every city, town, and village, all over the country, we must be a religious People ; judged by the mul tiplicity and wondrous diversity of the denominations which divide with one another the religious power in this coun try, wo ought to be a very religious People; judged by the inevitable tracts and innumerable Bibles which meet one’s eyes everywhere, we are, certainly; a most religious People. But, are we ? Judged by our preten sions to Piety, we must be a pious People; judged by our grand theories, and won derful projects for the Christianization of every one who is not as good as our selves, wc ought to be a very pious People; judged by the immense numbers and various kinds of Associations for the amelioration of the morals of all who fall below our high standard, we are, certainly, a most pious People ? But, honestly, are we? Judged by our universal Church-going, on Sundays —-.or, on Sabbaths, as some, with scrupu lous Scripturalness, would say—we must be a devout People ; judged by our inor dinate cravings and wonderful relish for tine Sermons, we ought to be a very devout People; judged by the glowing eulogiums pronounced, indiscriminately, over the coffins of every one who has the distinguished privilege of dying in this country, we, certainly, are the most devout People “the world ever saw.” In truth, are we ? Judged by the number of our Ministers, with their splendid salaries, and the variety of their teachings, suiting every taste, we must be a good People ; judged by the extra ordinary interest manifested, in so many ways, fijr the conversion of Pagans and Heathens, wc ought to boa very good People; judged by the many Missiona ries, of all sexes, engaged, and well paid, in the work, and, by the ship-loads of Bibles, sent out, with a wonderful charity that does not take into consideration the fact that those to whonf they are sent can not read; then, wc arc, certainly, the best of all Peoples. But, in reality, are we ? Judged by what wc say, by what we profess, by what we write ; judged by our theories, and ideas of high morality, of all Christian People, wc must be the most Christian ; and, of all Lands, pure, unadulterated Christianity finds its Para dise in our own. Is it fact, or is it false hood ? Is it a reality, or, in Heaven’s name, is it all sham ? What, and how great, is the Power of Religion among our People ? Has it exalted, and is it ele vating them ? Is Religion gaining or losing ground? Arc our lofty profes sions real, or, are they but a modern form of old Phariseeism ? And these are thoughts that need to be pondered; questions that ought to be answered. If our Religion be not real, then it is no Religion at all ; and, without Religion, real, positive, powerful, above them, and, independent of them, no People can live, no Society can last. If the relations of men with God, through Reli gion, are disturbed or destroyed, the rela tions of men towards men in the political order, through Government, must suffer. Religion for the individual, for the Nation, for the People, for the World, is necessary. It is the law, universal, with out an exception, and he who breaks the law, must bear the penalty, Religion is necessary to the purity of the People; the purity of the People is essential to the stability of Government; so that the surest way to destroy a Government, is to weaken the Religion of its People. That Nation which escbew T s Religion, must necessarily lead an agitated life, and die a violent death; for Religion is the very basis of order and of law. If the laws of Religion be universally violated, be very sure that civil and political law will not be long obeyed. Are we, then, a Religious People ? Is Religion among us a supreme thing ? No; and wc are sorry, indeed, to know it, yet not afraid to say it. The war was a test; and it proved that there was very little Religion in thp Country. That little, since the war, has grown less. Did not Northern Religion invoke the hatred of men, and the vengeance of God, against us? Were not the Pulpits desecrated by appeals to the passions of men ; and did not Religion exert her powers for war, and not for peace ? Did not the war plainly prove that the boasted purity of Religion, in this Country, was only a boast, and nothing more ? Tested by war, the Religion of our People proved a failure. And, now, if you wish to judge fairly of the strength or weakness of Religion among the People, consider their lives. A People’s life is the criterion of a Peo ple’s Religion. But more, anon. “SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.” Someone, signing himself “Inquirer,” is publishing, in the above named journal, a series of articles against the Roman Catholic Church. Our Church and our Country wo feel bound and proud to de fend, in all times, at all risks, and against every attack and assailant. Not, indeed, that we can defend either better than others; but, because we yield to none in the depth of our love for both. Our life for cither we would gladly give, if life were asked, or needed. The readers of the “Banner of the South” know that, with heart and soul, we arc devoted to the Causes and Interests of our Church and Country, and that, with whatever ability wc have, we have labored to defend them. We have never yet, for once, assumed the offensive; we have never yet, for once, been afraid to stand on the defensive, and meet attack upon the interests of Church or Country. And what has been shall be our course throughout. We wait for attack ; when it comes, we defend. “Inquirer” will certainly allow us this right. lie has drawn his sword against our Religion; we lift the shield to defend it. He, like an honorable antagonist, gives warning that he is about to deal terrible blows against the Infallibility of the Church. We quietly, yet firmly, in terpose to parry the stroke, and avert the blow. It is a duty wc owe to our Church, and we shall right cheerfully perform it. Following him through number after number, we propose to meet the attacks of “Inquirer” in a series of letters addressed to him, which, whether he himself cares to read them, or not, will show to those who may care to peruse them, not so much how we prove the truths of our Church, as how we can defend them against those who, like “Inquirer,” strive to disprove them. The letters wc will begin to publish in our next issue.” —■ NO PUBLIC VIRTUE WITHOUT PRIVATE MORALITY. The History of the South shows her singularly exempt from isms. The waves of Fanaticisms have always broken on the Alleghanies. The men of the South have invariably towered above, kept aloof, and carried their heads far on high, in the pure air that dwells above, whilst the fruitful brood of Political and Religious reptiles, spawned from the hot-bed of Puritanism, lived, breathed, and had their being, in the land of witchcraft, blue laws, and persecution. Public legislation and remedial statutes, in a community where isms are rife, may be enacted, but will be a dead letter; the law that does not echo the voice of Public Conscience, may have harsh penalties attached to its infraction,.but it cannot be enforced, and will not be obeyed. The efficacy of Law ! rests upon the consent of the governed ; the Law should be the voice of the Public Conscience, and that Conscience the Will of God. In this sense only is Vox Populi vox Dei , but frequently, and recently, it has been Vox Diabili. Instruct the individual conscience, and you have the aggregate public virtue. When your moral Legislature pass laws simply for the whole, as a mass, every individual claims himself as the excep tion to the rule, and your grand law passes over each head untouched. Unity precedes multiplicity, as the mother precedes the child ; as the Church precedes the Faithful—God is, before cre ation. The grand old Church of the Mar tyrs, who, like the mariner’s compass, always, for certainty, points the same way, and against whom fault is found, because she does not change—whose foundation laid in the Garden of Eden, and, cemented by the blood of Calvary, works on the masses, through each indi vidual. Public preaching and public pomp, no doubt, have their effect; but private individual instruction, where each one shows his wants, and has the Sacra mental Balm poured over his exposed sores, is far more potent and lasting. Where each one is warned, and is careful, as a habit, to guard against his besetting infirmity, the aggregate of negative virtue is certainly enhanced ; superadded to which the positive virtue of grace follows. This is private moral legislation, with the double inducement of punishment and reward hereafter; the Divine Seal is upon it. Without Religion, then, to in culcate private morality, we may look in vain for public virtue, and, without private morality, the corner-stone of society crumbles away. To follow the whims and caprices of a fickle and sectional public opinion, is often destruction. The disin tegration of society, and the moral dete rioration of the public mind, are truly frightful. And to seek relief in Con gressional legislation, or State interven tion now, were more absurd than to seek the lost Pleiad in that shadowy constella tion of dim stars, yclept Congress. The security of property, and the indis solubility of marriage, are the only sure guarantee for a stable society. Yet con fiscation has been ding-donged into our Rebel cars so much, that, with the high taxes for our protection, property holds but a sorry place in the volume of Political Economy. And, as for the sanctity of the Marriage tic, an able writer, in a late number of a Northern Review, draws such a frightful picture of the number of divorces in New England, that Paternity will soon be a questionable thing there, and the little sprouts of New England will thank the witty Capt. Marryat for his work entitled, “Japhet in Search of a Father.” The South, if not Catholic, has lived and breathed the air of Catholic tradition, and this is the “divinity which doth hedge in a King.” Public legislation has never been her panacea for every evil. Sound public opinion, shaped by individual manhood and virtue, is her talisman to work the potent spell, and weave around the family its strong web of probity, and place property on its base of rock. Whenever the temporal imposes its sectarian restrictions on the spiritual man, the first step in despotism is taken. The State has nothing to do in spirituals, though it has great need of the spiritual. The Church teaches morality, the family exacts and compels obedience, and well regulated society frowns down the im moral, and should honor the virtuous. But let the foundation of the right of property be upturned, the sanctity and indissolubility of the Marriage tie, “that which God has bound together,” be snapped and torn assunder, by the judg ment of every petty civil Court, and the wisest enactments of our Legislatures will not rise to the dignity of Pagan decency. Up to now, the South has held her own, and all the isms, from Aboli tionism to Passional Attraction, and Free Loveisin, like the serpent in Ireland, died as soon as transplanted amidst us; but now that the Northern boast is made to Puritanize the South, it behooves us to be on our guard. The biggest “ism” that ever sprang from the land of witches and Quaker-burning, was Know-Nothing ism, and whilst this proscriptive and bigoted ism was in its full flush of success, Henry A. Wise met its surging waves on the ridges of the Alleghanies, as they were rolling South to sweep away every vestige of Religion and Liberty, under the specious cry of a patriotic sentiment, and hurled the vile ism back, broken, to die in the cold embrace of its Northern mother. If the manhood and fearless eloquence of the South are not corrupted by the mingling presence of those against whom we strove so hard, recently, to be separated, the inherent fire of the old blood of chivalry will again show itself, by making the mountains of Virginia a rampart, where the waves of fanatical isms may beat in vain, and the South be scared the introduction of such “notions,” which may wreck our citizenship here, as well as in the “ Civitate Dei.” CORRESPONDENCE. Augusta, Ga., 16th Sept., 1868. lice. John F. Kirby , Augusta, Ga ; Reverend and Dear Father: We, as a token of our warm esteem, also, as an evidence of our appreciation of your long connection with us, in that affectionate relationship that a Priest bears to his flock, desire, with the enclosed tes timonial, to express to you our love for you, and our regrets, that your ill-health should deprive us, even for a short time, of your valuable services. Many of us are mindful of your loving care, and sympathy for us, in the time of trouble and affliction. All of us, when beholding the noble Church edifice, and Convent, which are ornaments to our much loved city, as well as enduring monuments of the “ faith once delivered,” recall your untiring efforts in behalf of our Church enterprises. We sincerely trust that your absence From us will be beneficial to your health, and will result in your being spared to us many years. You will carry away with you our warm est sympathy, and we shall hail your re turn with deep feelings of satisfaction ; and we also hope that your remembrances of your Augusta flock will be pleasant and agreeable to you. Adieu! May our Heavenly Father be gracious unto you. We have the honor, as well .as the pleasure, to sign ourselves, in behalf of the Catholics of Augusta, Your sincere friends, Jas. A. Gray, j J. I). Kavaxagii, j A. G. Hall, j I. P. Girakdey, John Kenney, M. S heron, j E. O'Donnell, | Austin Mollarky, I Committee. 1. Lyons, John Vaughan, Patrick Walsh, Thos. Gannon, Wm, Mui.herix, | Thos. Dwyer, Michael Gallaher, | Jas. McGarrahan, j Augusta, Ga., 17th Sept., 1868. Messrs. Jas. A. Gray, A. G. Hall, J. D. Kavanagh , 1. P.Girardey, and others: Gentlemen : Your kind note, and the accompanying testimonial, I have re ceived ; and I confess that I have not the words to thank you all as I feel, and as you deserve. My illness prevents a long reply. If I have done aught among you for the glory of God and the advance ment of the Church; if I have labored with success in this portion of the vine yard of the Lord, it is more owing to your co-operation than to any merit of mine. Your sentiments towards me are freely reciprocated; for I have learned, through many years of daily association, to love the People of Augusta. You shall be in my memory forever; and not unre membered in my prayers. I thank you alt again; but, what is better than mere thanks, I pray God to shower upon you all Heaven’s choicest benedictions. In our Lord, sincerely yours, John F. Kirby. GEORGIA CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH. Waverly Hall, Columbia Cos., Ga., } Sept. 30, 1868. \ Mr. Editor : You request contribu tors to your paper, and ask your friends to give you the local “ dots” in “politics, crops, quality, and price of land,’’ with the inducements’ to emigration, and such other topics as would naturally interest the general reader.” As lam a subscriber, and a friend to your valuable paper, I propose to give you, at this writing, a few dots. And, first, as to your paper. I said I was a friend to it—and who, “t 0 the manor born,” is not? The Banner of the South comes a welcome messenger to all of us. Asa literary journal, it oc cupies, deservedly, a high and front rank. It is an able and bold defender of the rights of the South, and truckles not to “ power or to place.” With Truth, as its motto, and Justice, as its ground-work, it boldly confronts the living issues of the day; and, while accepting the new order of things, in part, it frankly and justly inculcates a grateful remembrance of the Past, with its histoinc memories and bril liant achievements. We can be good citizens to a “Reconstructed Union,” and, at the same time, hold dear the memory of the late unfortunate Confederacy. That star has fallen, but yet it is brilliant, even in the dust ! A man has the sad misfortune to lose the partner of his bosom—she is dearer *o him than life it self—Time moves apace, and the current of events thicken around him, and that man marries a second wife. She has ta ken the place in his heart once occupied by her that “ sleeps the sleep that knows no waking.” She proves the fond and affectionate wife, and the wise and con- siderate step-mother; and in this Recon structed household all is peace, and love, and contentment. But, while there is love in the husband’s heart for his second wife, is it to be expected that, he is to for get and entirely ignore his first love, and never ever speak of her, who was the mother of his children ? Not at ait! And so with the true Patriot ; he can be a good and law-abiding citizen of the United States, and still cherish a living, loving remembrance for that "Lost Cause ” —-lost in reality, but living in our heart of hearts. I repeat, it is not expected that we shall entirely ignore the Past! Fools and fanatics may r so decree, but wise men —men of heart and of principle—regard not their wishes or their follies. The true men of the North and of the North West rightly understand this sentiment, and would not, if they could, crush out these noble, patriotic impulses. New England Puritanism, steeped in cold sen timentality, is stranger to these heart felt emotions, may and has, by a series of uni wise and bigoted legislations, attempted to force the Southern People to an aban donment of honor and fidelity.. But you might as well attempt to dam up the waters of the great Mississippi with bull rushes, as to attempt to force Radicalism with its long train of evils, upon the true men of the South. A Broivn may fall by the wayside, but none so poor and in famous as to do him reverence ! lie may forget, and get forgiveness, but the parchment which records his pardon has proved his winding-sheet. Anathema Maranatha. , is the sentiment in every true Southern heart for Joseph Esau Brown. Then, I say, the Banner of the South speaks wisely, and speaks well ; speaks advisedly, when it inculcates fidelity to the Memories of the Past. I was a Union man up to 1861, was a member of the Charleston Convention, and one of the ten who remained in the Convention, de manding our right to cast the vote of tho State, against the majority of the delega tion; but, the Hon. Caleb Cushing, a Northern man, President of the Conven tion, decided against us, and we, too, had to leave that body. I fought Secession until the State, in Convention, declared, by a majority vote, that it was the “right and the duty of Georgia to secede,” then I gave up my individual opinion, and went with my State, right or vjron ■. I never did, nor do I now, deny the right of a Free People to change their Govern ment; when it ceases to perform the ob jects of its creation, its continuance is de pendent upon the consent of the governed. Sovereignty is inherent, and belongs to the People of the States as States in their separate and distinct individualities, and not in the General Government, u the “so-called” Governor, Rufus B Bul lock, in his late inaugural address, weuld have us believe. And the United States Government has always acted upon this principle, from the time of the revolt 11 m the mother country to the time wUn Texas asserted her independence. But when the Southern States, for reas ns. good and sufficient, given, ass Tied their right to withdraw from the In n, then and there, for the first time, was this time-honored usage ignored. 1 s;g • lid not deny the right of Georgia to woode, but I did question and oppose the policy under the then existing state of affiurs. But, I will not continue this disc;; -am longer at this time. Tho part of my letter allotted to politics is already t o lung Asa Religious journal, while the Banner of the South is tolerant ot other sects, and pretends not to be t ,L ’ keeper of other men’s consciences, V tr<vl\ and ably sustains its own peculiar toncos, and holds fast to the faith of the Mother Church. Its motto is : To defend—not to attack; but, when attacked, the as sailants find a “foeman worthy of their steel,” in the person and pen of Father Ryan.