The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870, January 30, 1869, Page 4, Image 4

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4 ,41 MM I .18® fiEV. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUSTA, Ga., JANUARY 30, 1869. mgr- ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BUSINESS LETTERS FOR TIIE “BAN NER OF THE SOUTH” SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO THE PUBLISHERS - L. T. BLOME A CO THE CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION. It is no little tribute to the prominent wisdom ol' those distinguished men who framed the Confederate Constitution, that in that instrument alone are to be found stern and effectual remedies for the enor mous villainies that at present crust the best government the world ever saw from its head to its heels. Starting with the principles that the ultimate power of government should be in the hands of virtue and intelligence, and that the ad ministration of government should be at once efficient, permanent, and honest, the framers of the Confederate Constitution, while taking the old Federal Constitu tion as the basis of their handiwork, in serted into that instrument such wise and salutary provisions as offer the only hope, in their adoption, of good government to the North. Yes ! we do not hesitate to say that only by conforming to the main provisions of this “rebel” Constitution as they call it, the Constitution of the Confederate States, can the people of the North assure themselves against bank ruptcy, and not only bankruptcy, but even a worse measure of despotism than they have meted out to us. At this day" one of their greatest curses is the unre strained exercise of that hoggish rapacity in ilieir public men which for so many years was held in check by the stern front presented in Congress by the Southern delegations. Now it ruysriot; theft is the order of the day, and if any thing were needed to show what nests of pilferers their halls of council arc, it would appear in the fact that the fac simile of any loil member’s frank may be obtained for three dollars. With per sonal honesty at this despicable ebb, it is not surprising that the public men of the North are but so many prairie wolves tugging at the carcass of the State, and that if in some way they arc not flogged off of their prey there will soon be no thing left of “ the best Government the world ever saw” but its whitening bones. Some of them sec this and are cast ing about for a remedy, and, so far as there is a remedy for such a state of things, they must And it in the Con federate Constitution, distasteful as that may be. That instrument was made for an honest people and to be admin istered by honest men, and if this trooly loil North wishes to save itself from being robbed by its own chosen repre sentatives, it must bring them up to the honorable mark of the fundamental law of the Southern Confederacy. By that law no money could be cheeked out of the Treasury save on a two-thirds vote of each bouse of Congress, so that when the people's property was taken it was taken by two-thirds of the people them selves as represented in their legislative halls. By the Constitution of the Uni tad States a majority of cither House is a quorum to do business and a majori ty of a quorum can check out every dollar in the Treasury and run in debt for fifty times as much more. As at present constituted, that corrupt body which calls itself the United States Sen ate, consists of 66 members; of these, 34 constitute a quorum’, and of this quorum a bare majority, or 18, can pass any appropriation bill however large, so that the render will sec, the Treasury can at any moment be at the mercy of 18 rogues out of 66. The same dispropor tion exists in the lower House. There are 2*26 members ; a quorum is 114; a majority of a quorum , 58; and 58 out of can pass appropriation bills. Now if the honest rule of the Confederate Con stitution were applied it would take 44 out of 66 in the Senate and 151 out of 226 in the House to draw a dollar, and this must be incorporated in the future government of the North or else it is bankrupt. The pill will be a bitter one for the loil, but swallow it they must. What was wrong in the Confederacy, and being human, it had some wrong about it, has passed away. What was right, and the right far, far out-balanced the wrong, still lives; it is immortal, partaking of the nature of its mother, Truth; and, howl as these Radicals may, will yet compel them to admit its merit and accept its sway. THE SYNOD. Week before last the Right Reverend Bishop of Savannah convened a Synod of all the Priests of Georgia, at his Epis copal residence. They met and deliber ated on the interests and prospects of the Church in this State, after having formally accepted the decrees of the Plenary Couneil of Baltimore. The sessions of our Synods are open only 1 to the Priests who have the right to be present. They meet only for a religious purpose. Everything alien to religion is banished from their deliberations. The Church—and the Church alone—is the subject of all the discussions. In connection with the Synod there was a spiritual retreat given by the Right Rev. Bishop. It may be of interest to our readers to know the order of exer cises followed’ The Priests rise at live o’clock, make an hour’s meditation to gether, after which the Synodal prayers are said, psalms are sung, Mass is cele brated, and after Mass a sermon is preached to the Clergy; all of which exercises seldom close until nine o’clock. At nine o’clock, breakfast is taken in silence, after which a portion of the Priest’s daily office is said. At ten o’clock there is a session, lasting until twelve ; when another part of the office is said. Then dinner is taken, during which the lives of the Saints are read. After dinner, until three o'clock, the Priests are allowed to take a quiet re creation. At the close of the recreation, another portion of the office is recited. Then, from four to six o’clock, there is another session; alter which, spiritual reading for half an hour. All then re pair to the Church to assist at Benedic tion, after which supper is taken, and then about half an hour’s recreation. All then go to evening prayers, and in si lence retire to rest. Such are the exer cise of the Synod. Prayers and perfect silence occupy most of the time —and this for four days. In the deliberations perfect harmony reigns. On every ques tion and subject, each Priest has the right to speak, and is respectfully heard. Frequently, in matters of difference of opinion, the votes are taken ; and every thing is done in charity, with kindness, and according to order. During the Synod, we discovered, Irom conversations held with the Pastors of the various congregations, most consoling signs and evidences of the progress of the Church. In North Georgia two Churches are to be built. In Sparta a Church is iu course of erection. Improvements are being made in the Church and Chuich grounds of Washington, A\ ilkes county, thanks to the energy of Father O’Hara. Anew and more commodious Church is needed, and will soon be erected, in Co lumbus. In Atlanta, Father O'Reilly is soon to commence the erection ot a large and grand Church, ihc Missions of Augusta and Macon arc flourishing. Iu many places through the State, lots are gratuitously offered for the erection of Churches ; and everywhere converts aie joining the Church. And wc returned from the Synod encouraged, and with zeal aflame, and resolved, with God’s grace, and under the direction of our Right Reverend Bishop to labor with greater energy than ever to extend the Kingdom of our Holy Church. May O * God bless ourselves and our holy work in this portion of his vineyard ! THE BARTER OF PRINCIPLES. Wc hold that the White Race is supe rior to the Black, as a general principle, and that the Government of the United States and its several subordinate State and Municipal Governments belong to the white people of the land, as a par ticular principle. The first we hold is universal; the second as applicable to our country and our day. This latter is a principle which was always held sacred and maintained with earnestness and vigor, by all parties, until a few years ago, when British gold and North ern Fanaticism gave birth to Abolition ism and all its attendant isms and evils. Then arose a party proclaiming the equality of the Negro with the white man—at first it was as “ a cloud no larger than a man’s handthen it grew to such gigantic proportions that its baleful influence overshadowed the whole land and withered its greatness and its glory as the breath ol the simoon withers and destroys all in its path vay. That party, though in a legal aud un constitutional minority, has acquired a power and an influence in the land, which seems to be almost irresistible; and be fore that power and influence the Consti tution has gone down—Liberty has gone down—and Justice has gone down. But we of the South have something left us yet, saved from the wreck, and ruin, and desolation around us. We have our principles, and in the devotion to and maintenance of these principles, our honor to preserve. Is there a white man in the South, then, whose body and soul are his own, who is to-day willing to barter his principles for a pretended peace or worthless “privileges ?” Is there a white man at the North, who has not sold his honor and himself to party, who is to-day willing to sacrifice his race for party ? Is there, in a word, a white man North or South, East or West, iu whose heart burns one spark of manhood, or lingers still one grain of affection for the Constitution of his fathers, who is willing to admit the Negro to a social and political equality with the white people of the South. If there breathes such a man, we ask him to read the earnest and manly letter of Gov. Wise, which we publish to-day upon the proposition to baiter our principles and purchase a de lusive peace, at the price of universal suffrage. It is worthy of perusal. It is worthy of precept. It is worthy of prac tice. We have sacrificed much. We have conceded much. We have sub mitted to much. Let us preserve our honor and our principles. THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH. As many of our readers are aware this is the title of the paper published in Augusta and so ably aud frankly edited by “Father Ryan.” It is a large and handsome sheet aud its literature, select ed and original, pure in sentiment and unexceptable in taste. We happen never to have shared “Father Ryan’s” admiration of the “lost cause.” We had his sympathy for the Gray Jackets—but not for the cause for which most of our braves were made to suffer. As we viewed it, that cause was, Southern Independence—disunion and endless warfare —all the evils which sub jugation brought without the blessing of peace or the hope of recuperation. Still the Banner is devoted to this cause and still believes iu its ultimate triumph. We believe in the potency of sectional feel ing—in the irrepressible instincts of the Southern mind—in the inspiring natural resources of the South and that lie eventualities of political life will in some way again make these dominant and “that the South will be led to victory” but not perhaps in the manner of the late disastrous failure ; certainly not for objects so crude and ill-considered. Wc share with the Banner its repug nance to the “Common School System ’ in, that it is Sectarin. We think that children should be trained up “in the way they should go,” but we object to their being cast in the moulds ol Bud dhism, Mahomatanism, Protestanism or Catholicism. Educate, religiously, but independently of all sectarian formulas or inclination and leave them to make their own choice, would bo most liberal if not most politic. However, if the Banner cannot go so far it is no worse than the rest. We have no complaint to make against its frank and many advo cacy of the Catholic Religion. The annals of the Church of Rome, with all its evils are not without grandeur or worth and no one should object to a fair bearing of its claims. Taken altogether the Banner is a good paper and we are pleased to learn that it is advancing in popular favor. We thank our cotemporary for its kindly notice of the Banner, and trust that we shall always merit its good opinion. Though differing from our cotemporary in regard to Religion and the cause of Southern Independence, we have still one common platform to stand upon—the honor, prosperity and glory ot the South ; and upon that platform we shall be proud to have so liberal just aud generous a Journal battling with us. ILL-TLMED BIGOTRY IN SOUTHERN STATES. The Rev. A. J. Ryan, editor of the Banner of the South, at Augusta, Ga., is doing noble service in the cause of truth. He is in a position to say things that it would, perhaps, be cruel in us to say. In the last number of his paper he lias comments on an article lrom the “ Presbyterian of Fayetteville, North Carolina, In addition to what his paper contains, which we will publish next week, we wish the Banner of the South would ask the good people of North Carolina, who support the Fay etteville “ Presbyterian ,” whether the}’ wish us, here in the North, to help them to keep Catholics away from North Car olina ? We can can do it if the senti ment of the Fayetteville “ Presbyterian" can be shown to be the sentiment of the people of North Carolina. It is, very largely, Catholic immigration that has enriched and developed the Northern States. They are now very numerous here and can protect themselves. Were any of these, or of the like, to go to North Carolina, they would need to se cure their happiness, a generous non-in terference with their religion. If the sentiment of the people of North Caro lina supports such a paper as the Fay etteville “ Presbyterian with its perse cuting disposition, it will become the duty of all in positions such as we occupy", to advise Catholic emigrants to seek re gions where they will be more welcome. We will be glad to hear from gentlemen in North Carolina on this subject. Father Ryan, iu his Banner oe the Sovth, has ventilated another very un fortunate piece of bigotry’, at Savannah, Ga. The city authorities, there, impreg nated with the direst form of New Eng land Puritanism, are running the Yankee Machine known as Public Schools—that is, State Schools, Godless, or as bad, and supported by" a tax on all the people. The City School authorities of Savannah have refused any attention to a respectful appeal of the Catholics for relief. If this be the spirit of the people of South, era Georgia, wc feel it as incumbent on us to advise Catholics proposing to emi grate, to seek homes in the West, South west, and Northwest—where the old sodden spirit of bigotry has not such firm roots as in some of the older Atlantic States of the South. Some two or three yerrs ago, we no ticed a proposition, at Meridian, Miss., to build a church for Catholic Worship, as an inducement for Catholic emigrants to go thither. It would be an inducement— less the church than the kind spirit of the people. We can assure all interested that, in response to important inquiries made of us, by" proposed Catholic emi grants, with money at command, we have felt constrained to suggest the difficulty, in the older Atlantic States of the South of their intense anti-Catholic bigotry’. We are of the opinion that a little “ventila tion” of this subject will do good. [Freeman’s Journal. Wc regret to say that there is too much of that spirit of bigotry and in tolerance in the South of which our good friend McMaster writes so truly and so forcibly in the foregoing article. We believe, however, that the spirit is disap pearing and that our peop’e are beginning to discover that the Catholics are not the terrible creatures which they are some times innocently supposed to be ; that Catholic Priests do not have horns por truding from their heads; and, in fact that all the ridiculous stories about Priestcraft and image worship, and ig norance, are gross falsehoods unworthy of the belief of so enlightened and so gen erous a people as those of the South. They remember that the Catholic papers of the North were opposed to the war against them; they remember the friend ly sentiments of good Pius IX towards our ill-fated Confederacy; and they grate fully remember the kindly offices of Priests aud Sisters of Charity during the late war; and remembering all these things, they are inquiring into the charges against the Catholic religion, and doino so, the mists of bigotry and intolerance are disappearing, despite the narrow mindedness and abuse of sectarian jour, nals. We hope, therefore, that our Cath olic friends at the North and else where who design immigrating hither will not be deterred from doing so. If North Carolina is as yet more ignorant and in tolerant than she ought to be, give her the go-by and come to South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, and the Southwest they will find numbers of non-Catbolics who will gladly welcome them to these States and aid them in securing comfort able homes here. We believe, however that there are thousands of good and true people in North Carolina who will extend a cordial welcome to tbe Catholic immi grants who come to develop her great re sources and build up her waste places. The narrow-minded sectarianism of the Fayetteville Presbyterian does injustice aud violence to the true people of the old North State. It only reflects the bigotry aud intolerance of a limited few—who have no charity in their souls for those who differ with them. Right Rev. Bishop Verot is in receipt of a letter of thanks from our Holy Father the Pope, for having sent him, in the name of the Catholics of Georgia and Florida, the sum of five thousand francs. A special blessing is sent to all the donors. NEW YORK CoTrESPONDENCE OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH. Banner of the South: Another bubble has burst. The nig ger Republic of Hayti, not beiug able to sustain itself, wants the United States to extend a protectorate over it. For sev enty years these sable statesmen have been cutting one another’s throats and stealing each other’s eye-teeth* and have just waked up to the fact that they are not fit for independence anyway, and want protection from themselves. The move to give it did not succeed in the House and the circumstance seems a lit tle remarkable since one could hardly have thought the loil would lotego so capital a chance to secure so many ad ditional savage suffragans. Beside re jecting Ilayti, there also indications that the rogues at Washington are preparing to deal another blow at their friends by refusing to pay ‘‘Southern loyalists” tor their property taken or destroyed by the Union arms, so that these shrewd patriots who haie discovered, siuce the war, that they always loved the dear, old Union, are not likely to get a taste of the fiesh, pots after all. This is very sad, no doubt but still let us hope that the whole igno ble army of scalawags may be still fur ther snubbed by these wretches to whose feet they have humbled themselves and at whose bidding they have swallowed ou an average four hogsheads of dirt apiece. It is said that cheating never thrives and it may well be added that loil sycophancy is not over profitable. Be tween the man who lias snivelled out that he was sorry for the part he took in the “rebellion,” and he won't never do so no more, and will you please give him a tiny, little slice of the public bread and cheese; between such a man and Jeffer erson Davis, how wide the gulf, how une qual the public estimation, and, if you will come down even to that ground, how great the difference in material results. The loil man, after swallowing up oaths as though they were pie-crust, and Hang ing about official back doors till ho seedy, and swearing himself hoarse in all manner of disgraceful protestations is suddenly slapped in the face and bid, hKC a hound at the kitchen door, begone, while the gallant gentleman who took no oath and ate no dirt and endured m no ble self-restraint every ill that a coward ly malice could inflict, now wains the earth a free man with so unsullied a i cord as extorts even the admiration ami respect of his foes. Once more, in this loil claims bus:non appears the stern fact that nothing. a solutely nothing, is to be exacted fre™ the honor, generosity, good faith or juso<a of that rogue body at Washington. - ter the humiliation to which they u * put many of their suppliants they uug l at least have thrown the poor creatures some half gnawed bone, but no, vim “ even a scruple, they kick them from j f door. The worse deceived men in thl3