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4 fg^ip REV. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUSTA, Ga., NOVEMBER 21, 1868 CATHOLICISM AND A REPUBLIC- Under this head, the Eatonton, (Ga.,) Press & Messenger publishes an article, the purport of which is that the Roman Catholic Church is incompatible with Re publicanism. We think that this asser tion—for it is a mere assertion, and a very false one at that—comes with a very bad grace from any American Jour nalist, and particularly from a Southern Journalist. In Protestant America, as some delight to call this country, Repub licanism is the most “disgraceful fizzle” that was ever seen in a National way. It is completely “played out/’ to use a cant expression of this enlightened age ; and the individual who would attempt to contrast its glories with the evils of Royal ty, would only be laughed at by the world for his pains. Don’t do it friends. It is really—we were going to say—too funny to think about; but we check our selves, as it is, certainly, a very serious thing for us of the South, this so-called American Republicanism, at the present time! But Republicanism is a dead failure. It presupposes an amount of human vir tue that does not exist, and without that virtue, it cannnot exist. That is the whole cause of the failure, and not from the presence or absence of any religious clement. Was it Catholicism that made it fail in Rome and Greece ? We rather think not. Was it Catholicism that made it fail in America ? We rather think not. The only two pure and prosperous Republics in the world, at this day, are the little ones <|f San Marino, in Italy, under the very shadow of St. Peter’s, at/Rome, and Andorra, nestling amid the mountains of the Pyrenees, in the proud Empire of Spain. They are Ro man Catjiolic Republics ; and they have stood there, unshaken, for centuries, amid the storms of Revolution and the changes of political power. These are the only two Republics in the world. Where is there a Protestant one ? An swer us that, you slanderers of the Cath olic Church, if you can. Who was it that gave Constitutional Liberty to England ? Were not the Ba rons who asserted that Liberty Catholics ? Was not the Catholic Colony of Lord Bal timore, settled in Maryland, the first to proclaim Religious Liberty in America? while Protestant Rhode Island was banish ing Roger Williams; and Protestant Massa dm,setts was burning witches and persecu ting Protestants and Catholics alike ? Are these the “benumbing effects of Catholi cism V ’ When the South was battling for Constitutional Liberty, was not the Head of the “Popish Church/’ the Pontiff of Rome, the only Sovereign who recognized your Confederacy and tendered the respect ed President of that Confederacy his sym pathy and prayers ? Was it not Catholic Prance who aided the United States to achieve their independence; and Catholic Prance who offered to mediate in the late struggle for Southern Independence? Were these some of the “benumbing ef fects of Catholicism ?” Algiers is cited as a Colonization fail ure, because established by a Nation gov erned by Catholic principles ! What of India? That was established by Protest ant England. What of Liberia ? That was established by Protestant America, They are as great failures to-day as Al giers, or any other Catholic Colony. That the establishment of the “Latin Race’’ with Maximilian as Emperor, in Mexico, was a “disgraceful fizzle,” is not due to the fact that the Emperor Napoleon was a Catholic; but because Protestant Eng land and Protestant America would not give their aid and support to the move ment there. If they had done so, Mexi co would, to-day, be free from the evils of American Republicanism, and rejoicing in the existence of a Govern rnent of Peace and Prosperity. We might, if we had the time and the patience, go on, and pursue this argument farther, illustrating our position that “Catholicism is not only not incompati ble with Republicanism, but is favorable to its existence,” with innumerable proofs from the history of the past; but we for bear. We might “answer a fool accord ing to his folly,” and characterize the assertions of our enemies as they-deserve; but we shall be patient ; and misre presentation and abuse shall be met by facts and arguments. We only ask, would it not be just as easy, in making charges, to state truths as to state error ? and would it not be more hon orable, if you have no truths to base charges upon, to make no charges at all ? These questions we submit to our Eaton ton cotemporary and to the paper from which it took its extract; and, in con clusion, commend to its attention the fol lowing neat and beautiful tribute to the Roman Catholic Church, by the Protest, ant Historian, Macaulay, of England; “There is not, and there never was, on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other in stitution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pan theon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian Amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yes terday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back, in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the Nineteenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the Eight; and far be yond the time of Pepin, the august dy nasty extends, till it is lost in the twi light of fable. (?) The Republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the Repub of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy; and the Republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antiquity; but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth, to the farthest ends of the world, Missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent, with Augustin; and still confronting hostile Kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more thau compensated her for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendan cy extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn—countries which, a century hence, may not, improbably, contain a population as large as that which now in habits Europe. The members of her community are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and it will be difficult to show that all the other Christian sects, united, amount to a hun dred and twenty millions. Nor do w ? c see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the Governments, and of the ecclesiastical establishments, that now exist in the world; and we feci no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain—when Grecian eloquence still nourished at An tioch—when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveller from New Zealaud shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s.” FOUL PLAY. There is foul play on the part of Gov ernments and Peoples, as well as on the part of individuals. The foul play of the latter is reprehensible as far as it goes; but its effects are limited. The foul play of the former is more deadly, because its effects are more extended. There may be “honor amoDg thieves,” and sometimes, even, “when rogues fall out, honest men come by their dues;” but, un der the foul play of Government, there is neither the honor of thieves, nor the chances of remuneration for its victims. The Government which boasts itself •Mfflllffi ©S MI ®©IIS„ “the best the world ever saw,” is a Gov ernment of foul play. Charles Read and Dion Bourcicault gave the world the Drama of “Foul Play /’ but the Gov ernment of the United States has made it a deep, a thrilling, and a bloody trag edy. Its foul play has sunk our country in ruin and despair; it lias filled our land with widows and orphans; it has given us thousands of crippled and poor to support. And yet it is “the best Government the world ever saw !” We must admire it. We must adore it. We must proclaim our love for it; and, in accents of sorrow and humility, thank it for its gracious forbearance in not swinging every Southern Rebel to “a sour apple tree.” Out upon such whin ing hypocrisy ! It is not the part of a brave people. It is not the part of men who have struggled through four bloody years for Southern independence, to now “crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning.” Oh! but it is Policy. Out upon Policy, when Principle is involved. Was it Policy to go into a fierce war to establish a great Prin ciple ? Was it for Policy that the South struggled so long and so nobly against such fearful odds ? Or was it for that grand immutable Principle of Constitu tional Liberty—that Principle which was born away down in the dim ages of the Past, revived at Runnymede, aud pre served in the Declaration of American Independence ?. If it was for Policy we struggled, then for Policy we should bow the head and bend the knee at every stroke of the Tyrant’s rod. If it was for Principle that we struggled, then for Principle we should still struggle. If it was worth so much sacrifice, it is worth still more. War could not destroy it. Tyranny could not destroy it. Suffering cannot destroy it; and, by the help of God, Policy shall not destroy it. The Men of the South may falter be fore the breath of Power; stout hearts may quail before the beck of the Tyaant; and brave souls may shrink back, appall ed, before Ruin and Desolation; but, thank God! the Women of the South are still as true as steel to the Lost Cause, true to Principle, true to Right, and though in the surging tide of Policy, brave re solutions , proud thoughts, and firm pur poses, may go down forever ; still the Memories of the Past, clustering and twining around the grand Principle of Constitutional Liberty, will be enshrined in these Women’s hearts, as long as Time shall last. The foul play of the Govern ment may conquer the craven hearts of men ; but it has no terrors for the puri ty, the truth, and the patriotic courage of Southern Women. When the South set up her claims for independence, it was proclaimed, North and South, that a People oppressed by their Government had a right to throw off the yoke of bondage, and establish their freedom. This was the boast of Northern Politicians and the burden of Fourth of July orations. Lincoln him self declared it; Greeley, of the Tribune, proclaimed it; and Seward reiterated it. It was a Principle, they said, which our Fathers of the Republic had fought for and established. It was even, (falsely) claimed as an American Principle, And so the South undertook to assert it. But the foul pla} f of Government estopped her. That Government pledged itsedf to her Commissioners that no overt steps would be taken against the South ; and at the very time the promise was being made, armed ships with provisions Fort Sumter were on the broad bosom of the Atlantic. After the war had progressed, that Government left its thousands of soldiers, who, by the fortunes of war, came into the custody of the South as prisoners, to perish by starvation and disease, re fusing the proposals of the Confederate Government for exchange or provision ing them ! Its foul play butchered and destroyed the very men who were help ing it to uphold its power. The war closed, and Johnson and Sherman agreed upon terms of peace. They were litnest and honorable terms to both parties; but the foul play of the Government again stepped in aud revoked these terms ! Lee then surrendered to Grant; our armies were disbanded; and wc had no resource but to submit. That Government offered us other terms— terms of Reconstruction; we accepted them; but its foul play again interfered, and soon Military Despotisms were estab lished in every one of the Southern States. These States were proclaimed out of the Union; their best citizens disfran chised ; and their ignorant Negroes, their late slaves, elevated to perfect equality with the whites. And thus, the foul play of the Government of the United States has gone on day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, dragging our beloved section down from its once high position, to poverty, ruin, and despair; and thus it continues through every phase of its actions to wards the South. Yet, there are people who tell us not only to bear it all pa tiently, but to praise the hand that strikes the blow, and be silent that we may receive nothing worse ! Such craven cowardice, is almost as ad as the Tyranny which we endure. But it is hard that the brave, the good, and the true, should suffer for the shame ful conduct of these traitors and syco phants of place and power. Let us hope, however, that the day is not far distant, when foul play shall cease; when Jus tice will resume her sway in our land ; when Principle will triumph over Policy ; and the men and women of the South, who have stood true to that Principle and to their section, will see their reward hi the peace and prosperity which shall smile over the land, “redeemed, regener ated and disenthralled,” HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF- From Mauaulay’s History of England, Tolume iv, page 2*17. “The Parliament elected in 1651, dur ing that fit of joy and fondness which followed the return of the Royal family, represented not the deliberate sense, but the momentary caprice of the Nation. Many of the members were men who, a few months later, would have no chance of obtaining seats; men of broken for tunes and of dissolute habits; men whose only claim to public confidence was the ferocious hatred they bore to Puritans and rebels. The people, so soon as they had become sober, saw, with dismay, to what an assembly they had, during their intoxication, confided the care of their property, their liberty, and their religion.’’ How well and truly history repeats it self! The human nature of to-day is the same human nature of yesterday, and of centuries ago. It changes only so far as circumstances change- it; and is as de praved and fickle now as it ever was. One of the evidences of this is found in the above extract. It will apply, with but few exceptions, to the present history of American affairs; and some day the people will “become sober,” and they will see, perhaps too late, to whom they have, unhappily, “confided the care of their property, their liberty, and their reli gion.” If not too late, then the men who have now gained place and power by their hatred of Southerners and “Rebels,” will be a by-word and a reproach in the Nation; while “the Rebels” and the prin ciples which they represented will live in hearts of love and admiration. Harmony Presbytery, S. o.,convened at Camden, October 7th, passed, among other items, the following: “ 5. This Presbytery urges the people of its Churches to establish and encourage Schools and Colleges under Presbyterian influence, and earnestly advises them not to send their children to schools where they are likely to be estranged from their own Church. [Southern Presbyterian. What for ? Don’t you believe in the right of private judgment; and don’t you argue that it’s of no consequence what Church a person belongs to, so that person is a believer in Christ; and, so be lieving, what difference does it make if they do get estranged from your Church? Say. A Kentucky girl, who married a fellow of mean reputation, was taken to task for it by her uncle. “ I know, uncle,” she replied, “ that Joe is not good for much; but, he said I dared not have him, and I won’t take a stump from anybody.” NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE OF THE EANXER OF THE SOUTH. Blundering . Bigotry and the Bayonet- Grant to he President, and some observa tions thereon — Xo power to harm the South in the long run —The South united at last—The South not powerless—The Finances the Weak Point of the North — A Broad Hint to the South—The Report of the Secretary of the Treasury; a Startling Exhibit —The Lib rian Presi dent, Roberts, in New York—An inter esting xie&tf a Negro Republic—Gen. Forrest and Gen . Kilpatrick—A feu kind words for the Banner . New York, Nov. 17th, ISOS. Banner of the South: Blundering, bigotry, and the bayonet have done their work. Grant is to be the President, and the “trooly loil” now sur round him, like prairie wolves ranged in a circle round a buffalo bull, each licking his chops in anticipation of a slice. The office-seeking pressure, to be less meta phorical, .is enormous, and the adulation which accompanies it enough to sicken a hyena. To read these Northern papers, and to hear these people talk, one would suppose that the centre of the Universe was in this squat, little, befuddled man, and that all things, in Heaven and Earth, were at his disposal, and to move accord ing to his will. He is to do this, they say, and that ; the South is to cower down before him, and hug its chains; and, so far from being “rebellious” and disloil, any more, is to swear that it rather admires dirt as a steady diet than otherwise; the currency is, at once, to go to par; the bonds are all to be paid in solid gold; and everything is to be serene, and love ly, and “loil,” forevermore. The joke of all this is, that, back of the little squat man, lies the real power iu the land, a bastard Senate and a revolutionary House. The same laws that bind John son in the Presidency will bind Grant; for those laws are made to shackle the Executive office, itself, and not this or that particular incumbent. So long as the new man goes along like a good soul, and approves all that Congress does, it will be all right; he will not feel the Tenure of Office Act—the Act with drawing the Constitutional command of the Army, and all those other Ac s which have hampered Mr. Johnson so heavily. But once let him seek to trammel the will of Congress, and those Acts will be as good for Grant as thry now are for Johnson. So far from repealing* them, the Radical Congress means to keep them in force, and up >n them will come some of the heaviest struggles that have vet been seen in Washington. In sublime forgetfulness, however, of all this, the very air here is blue with proud boasts of what the “ General ” is to do for, it is to be remarked that, where the term President, as applied to Grant, is used once, the military cognomen is used an hundred times. The wires groan "with fulsome dispatches, telling how he walked through the White House grounds, smoking his cigar, how he got off a bril liant witticism, in saving he would take the popular approbation as granted ; and how lie has ordered his Military Secretary to destroy all letters for office, and how that functionary is, every morning, a foot deep in that sort ot correspondence. Here and there, in the midst of these tidings, comes a word from the great man, himself, uttered in the true auto cratic vein, and saying, I will do this, or I will do that, or 1 will do the other thing, whereat all the “loil” cut a caper, and all the “trooly loil” weep for joy. Altogether, the spectacle is piteous, and. on first view, might even seem to justify despair; for, surely, it is a sad thing* to even have it thought that the welfare of so many millions of people as inhabit all this country should be dependent on the whim of a single military man. Happily, however, that welfare is not so depend ent. To use an expressive vulgarism, this man “'hasn’t got the world in a sling.” Circumstances are mightier than the mightie t, and to the immutable laws of Nature, even this great drum-beating, horn-blowing, universal Yankee Nation must succumb In the long run, neither Grant nor the Cougress can especially harm the South. All that has been done, heretofore, is bad, very bad; but, for all that, when you look back on it, has not been without an accompanying compensa tory good. The evils the South endures are temporary evils, and, back of them, lies this great fact, that the existence of these evils has knit her people into one solid unit. The old distinctions of W iiig and Democrat, Union man or Secessionist, have paled before the tremendous touch stone of the ineffable and glorious natural supremacy of the white blood. This is threatened, this has been insulted, and — save a few lumps of carrion here and there—all who share that lineage, are new ot one mind. Union is strength, and, as one result of the base oppression heapeu upon them, the people of the South have now that union. Tne cry of the “loil