Newspaper Page Text
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REV. A. J. RYAN, Editor
AUGUSTA, Ga., APRIL 10, 18G9.
C3T ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS AND
BUSINESS LETTERS FOR THE “BAN
NER OF THE SOUTH” SHOULD BE
ADDRESSED TO THE PUBLISHERS -
L. T. BLOME & CO.
PRESIDENT GRANT AND HIS ADMIN
ISTRATION
President Giant, as wc anticipated,
bis proven himself a grand failure. Re
gardless of his constitutional obligations,
and the interests of the whole country,
he has delivered himself up, body and
soul, iuto the hands of the most unscrup
ulous and partizan of the Radical pack.
In his Cabinet appointments, he seems to
have been guided entirely by one motive,
and that, the “farming out” of offices to
those who made him the most costly
presents. Intellectually, it is the weak
est Cabinet that has ever been organized,
and we will here assert that it will be the
most worthless aDd expensive to the peo
ple of the United States.
The new President has taken care, not
only to reward those who lavished mo
ney, houses, etc., upon him, but, in the
distribution of the public offices, he has
provided for all his own relations and
family connexions—all which may be,
and doubtless will be profitable to Mr.
Grant and his family, but it is neither
patriotic ou the part of the President,
nor conducive to the welfare of the eoun
fcry.
Wc, of the South, can see but little to
hope for from this 3lilitary President.
Our best help is in a vigorous and per
sistent reconstruction of our material re
sources. Let polities alone. Radical
reconstruction will exhaust itself after
awhile, and then the South will triumph
over her enemies at the South and at the
North. There is a day of retribution
coming ior those who have outraged the
South-land and its people. In the mean
time, let us preserve our honor untarn
ished, and rebuild our broken fortunes.
We shall vet briii£r our enemies down to
the dust.
IMMIGRATION.
Wo have frequently expressed our
selves in favor of offering such induce
ments as would encourage a large immi
gration to the South. We have never
suggested any particular plan or propo
sition, because, so many have been of
fered, that we have found it difficult to
present or endorse any of them. Per
haps it was better to have a General
Convention to discuss this subject, and
agree upon some general plan which
would be practicable and beneficial to
the whole South. In the meantime, we
find in the Marion (Ala) Common
wealth, a very suggestive article on this
important subject, in which it is stated
that Col. Lee Crandall, of New Orleans,
proposes a plan, of which the following
is the substance :
“He proposes the formation of a Joint
Stock Immigration Company in each
Southern State, to be managed and con
trolled by officers selected by the stock
holders, aud comprising a central office
at some central point, with branch of
fices or agencies wherever it may suit
tiie directory of the Company to estab
lish the same. Each stockholder con
tributes so much land to the general
mud, valued according to prevailing
market rates in the section where loca
nd, and voted (in election of Directors,
etc.,) according to its relative value to the
general aggregate. When subscriptions
have been completed, k or whenever the
limits of subscriptions have been reach
ed, the lands subscribed are to -
valued, and so modified as regards prices
as to present inducements to the immi
grant equal if not superior, to those held
out to him in the Western States. The
Company will then advertise these lands,
their location, inducements, etc., through
Northern papers of extensive influence
and circulation, establish immigration
agencies in the chief cities of the North,
and thus turn that tide which lias made
the West an Empire of unrivalled beauty
and strength, into Southern channels, to
pour its fertilizing floods on Southern
fields. By these means, the first white
covered wagon seen on our streets will
not be permitted to choke off all further
immigration by throwing prices up be
yond the reach of light pockets. The
lands subscribed will be held by the Com
pany at the assessed tariff until the
whole or nearly the whole capital stock
of the concern in the lands so assessed
has been exhausted. But the assessed
rates will apply only to alternate sec
tions or sub-divisions, of the land sub
scribed. The remaining portions of the
capitol stock will be held baok until the
alternate sections have all been taken up.
By this time the unsold lands will be
worth four or five times their antecedent
value, and these will then be thrown
upon the market for what they will
bring—if it be two hundred dollars per
acre. But no lands belonging to the
Company, will, in any event, be sold to
other than those who propose to become,
and who will bind themselves to become
actual settlers”
“To illustrate Col. Crandall’s idea, we
will suppose that A. 1L C. and D. desire
to form a corporation ou his plan. A.
subscribes 1,000 a~res of black land,
worth S2O per acre, B. puts in 2,000
acres of post-oak land worth ten dollars
per acre, C. and I). put in 4,000 acres
each of sandy land, worth $5 per acre.
In this case, the values of their several
subscriptions being equal, the stockhold
ers, A. B. C. and D , will be entitled to
equal votes (say forty votes each, or one
vote for every SSOO worth of land), in
the choice of a President and Board of
Directors. They vote in person, or by
proxy, for officers, who, when elected,
assume at once the entire control and
management of the Company’s lands.
And after having arranged the lands
subscribed, into subdivisions or tracts,
(following the plats and maps of the same
furnished by the owners,) they offer th 6
alternate sections, subdivisions or tracts
subscribed by A. at half their market
value, to-wit: at ten dollars per acre,
pursuing the same plan with those sub
scribed by the other partners—advertis
ing the same through Northern journals
of extensive influence and circulation,
and inviting settlers to come and occupy
them, through the medium of Immigra
tion Agencies established by them in the
Northern and Northeastern States. The
influence of so powerful a corporation as
this, would soon be extensive enough,
and deep enough to lobby through the
State Legislatures bills, offering great
inducements to “actual settlers.” These
added to the superior inducement of
twenty-five cents for cotton, would soon
show themselves amply sufficient for the
attraction hither of such a swarm of ini -
migrants that no amount of subscribed
lands would be sufficient to furnish th cm
homes and employment. The natural
desire to secure cheap lands, under ex
emption from governmental burdens for
a term of years, would have a correspond
ing tendency to make the emigrant come
early. Hence, the rapidity with which
our waste places would be rcpeoplcd,
would soon shoot the reserved subscrip
tions, contiguous as they must, in that
event, be to the theatre of most rapid in
crease, far beyond their present value.
This would result in adding twice or
three times as much solid value to the
reservations as had in the first instance,
been substracted from the alternate sec
tions to make them sell. We should
thus secure a lasting preponderance ot
white blood in our population, besides
the other and pecuniary benefits calcu
lated to result therefrom.”
At least, this is the opinion of the
article referred to, and we do not doubt,
but that his views are correct. At all
events, the plan proposed seems to us
worthy of atrial, and we submit it to
our people for their consideration and
action. It is important that something
should be done in this regard, and the
quicker the better
A TRIBUTeTo IRELAND,
The Baltimore Sun or the Louisville
Courier-Journal, we don’t exactly know
which, pays the following handsome but
deserved tribute to Ireland and Irishmen,
every word of which is true :
“The celebration of St. Patrick’s day
is an occasion of great interest to a
large body of adopted citizens, as well
as to the still larger number of uative
birth united to them by ties of relation
ship. The Irish in America have this
curious and undeniable characteristic,
that they never cease to be Irish, and at
the same time are as good Americans as
the best. They are, indeed, among the
most remarkable of modern people.
Genius, wit and eloquence seem to be
the common heritage, in a greater or less
degree, of the whole Irish race. Among
their most prominent characteristics are
the courage of the men, the purity ot
the women, warm hearts and open hands
of all, strong religious faith, and an im
perishable love of old Ireland.
The magnitude of the Irish element iti
our population may be judged of by the
fact that in the forty-six years, 1815-1860,
the total number of immigrants arriving
from the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland on our shores was
2,750,874. In the same period 1,196,-
521 persons emigrated from the United
Kingdom to the British Colonies in North
America, a large portion of whom are
known to have eventually settled iu the
United States. By the ceusus of 1860,
the population in the United States of
Irish birth was 1,611,304, and that of
German 1,301,136. Since that period
the German clement has increased, re
latively speaking. The greatest number
of Irish reside in the States of New York,
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin,
and Michigan. It is computed that the
four millions of emigrants in the United
States in 1860, together with the num
ber deceased, must have brought into
the country an amount of property not
less than $400,000,000, besides the
much greater capital which the immi
grants iu themselves represent, physi
cally and intellectually. One fact to
which we weuld call special attention
is the large sums of money which have
been sent by settlers in North America
to friends in Great Britain, amounting,
from 1848 to 1860, according to the re
turns of banks and mercantile houses
through which they have been forwarded,
and not including sums remitted through
other agencies, to $56,191,733. Taking
as a standard the increase of population
of Irish nativity from 1850 to 1860,
which was about 751,000, the census of
next year will probably give 2,362,304
persons of Irish nativity in this country,
not couuting the large number of Irish
descent.
“No accession to our population from
abroad has been more valuable than that
of the Irish. They may be *said to have
been the pioneers in the emigration to
this country, and as such their labor was
indispensable in all the industrial enter
prises which have been necessary to the
development of our national wealth. The
public works of the country, the canals,
the railroads, the clearing up of the
Western wilderness, have been accom
plished in great measure through their
bone and muscle. They have formed
the front ranks in the armies of peace as
well as war. Their creative energies
are as great as their destructive, and
when we say that, we need add nothing
further. In ail our battles, whether by
sea or land, their courage has been con
spicuous. In all the wars of England it
is the Irish who lead the advance, and
even in the late expedition to Abyssinia
it was an Irish column which swept
away the barbarians around Theodorus,
at the moment when some of their own
countrymen were lying in jail in England,
or preparing to mount the scaffold, as
the penalty of alleged treason. It is not,
however, by theirphysical stamina alone,
either in peace or war, that the Irish
have been of value to our country. They
have contributed to our moral, intellec
tual, and political forces as largely as any
class of emigrants, aud they and their
descendants are among the leading and
able men in all departments of our pub
lic and private life. Henry Clay once
pointed out a striking resemblance be
tween the Irish and Kentuckians in their
impulsive, hospitable, frank, intrepid
character. In truth, they assimilate
with our people with wonderful facility,
and, may be said to be full fledged
Americans before they step upon our
shores. To those who are accustomed
to speak of the poverty of the Irish peas
antry as proof of a want ot industry and
economy, wc need only to exhibit the
prosperous condition of the same people
here as an evidence that the state of
things in their own island is due to
other causes than the defect of the na
tiotirf character, whilst the vast sums
they have scut to their friends at home
exhibit qualities ot heart which would
do honor to any people. In fact, the
amazing recuperative energies of the
Irish people, which centuries of oppres
sion have not bceu able to overcome,
are proof of a vitality that seems capable
of outliving the tyranny which has
songht in vain to repress it, and ot show
ing that the shamrock, like sonic other
plants, has a power of forcing itself from
the ground upward through the heaviest
superincumbent pressure.”
DO PRIESTS MARRY ?
Wc see a statement going the rouuds
of the secular press to the effect that
the Priests of the Catholic Church are
allowed tohnarry in Italy. Many intel
ligent but credulous people, outside of
the Catholic Church, believe this ridicu
lous statement, and ask how is it ?
There is but one universal law which
rules the Church all over the world.
Her doctrines, her teaching, her practices,
her faith aud discipline are the same in
Europe as in America, the same in Africa
as in Asia and Oceaniea.
The Catholic Priest makes a vow of
celibacy from which no civil tribunal
can ever relieve him. If, therefore, a
Priest should marry, he would not only
cease to be a Priest, but would be de
prived of the Sacraments of the Church.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE
BIBLE-
The following is the teaching of the
Catholic Church in regard to the use of
the Holy Scriptures, misrepresentation to
the contrary notwithstanding:
“On the other hand, we Catholics hold
that the word of God in general, both
written and unwritten, in other words,
the Bible and tradition taken together,
constitute the mle of faith, or method
appointed by Christ for finding out the
true religion; and that, besides the rule
itself, He has provided in His Haig
Church, a living, speaking judge, to
watch over it and explain it in all matters
of controversy. — Rev. Dr. Milner's End
of Controversy, p. 41.
“It does not even appear that Chrtst
gave His Apostles any command to write
the Gospels, though he repeatedly and
emphatically commanded them to preach
it, (Matt. x.)and this to all the Nations
of the earth. (Matt, xxviii.” In this
ministry they all of them spent their
lives, preaching the religion of Christ
in every country from Judea to Spain in
one direction, and to India in another;
everywhere establishing churches, and
commending their doctrine to faithful
men who should be fit to teach others
also.” 2 Tim., ii. 2. In short, it was
not until the end of the fourth century
that the canon of the Holy Scripture was
fixed, and then it was fixed by the
tradition and authority of the Church,
declared in the Third Councilor Carthage
and a decretal of Pope Innocent I.”—
lbid—pp. 42, 54.
“Nothingis further from the doctrine
and practice of the Catholic Church than
to slight the Holy Scriptures. So far
from this, she had religiously preserved
and perpetuated them from age to age
during almost 1,500 years before Pro
testants existed. She has consulted
them, and confirmed her decrees from
them in her several Councils She en
joins her Pastors, whose business it is to
instruct the faithful, to read and study
them without intermission, knowing that
“All Sciipture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness. 2 Tim. iii, lb. '* * *
Hence, the Catholic Church requires her
Pastors who arc to preach and expound
the word of God, to study this second
part of her rule, no loss than the first
part, with unremitting diligence; and
she encourages those of her tlode, who
are properly qualified and disposed, to
read it for (heir edification.” —Ibid pp.
63,81.
“The Catholic Church never did pro
hibit the reading of the Scriptures to
the laity.’— 'lbid, p. 292.
“The Church has received the deposit
of the Holy Scriptures from God, aoil
nothing has she more at heart than to
see her children nourished with the
Divine Word, aud meditating on its ()ra _
cles. Yet., she surrounds this excellent
reading with certain precautions which
her maternal prudence has learned from
faith and experience —Plain Tall »
119.
“The Bible is pre-eminently the Book
of the Priesthood. Besides the Euchar
ist, it is the most precious deposit en
trusted to the hands of the Priests who
have been charged with the salvation of
souls. By its proper use they enrich the
souls of the people as well as their own
souls.— lbid, p. 122.
“As the Father hath sent me, ] also
send you.”— John , xx, 21.
“All power is given tc me in Heaven
and on earth. Going, therefore, teach ve
aU nations* * * teaching them to ob
serve all things whatsoever 1 have com
manded you.”— Matt, xxviii, 18.
“ Obey your prelates, and be subject
to them, for they watch as b urns to
render an account of your souls.”—
xiii., 17.
“The Holy Ghost has placed you
Bishops to rule the Church of God.”
Acts xx., 28.
“In all his (St. Paul’s) Epistles are
certain things hard to be understood
which the unlearned and the unstable
wrest, as they do also the other Scrip
tures to their own destruction .”—2 Peter
ii>., 16.
“ Brethren* •• ’hold the traditions ,
which you have learned, whether by word
or by an Epistle.”— Thess. ii., 14
“ There are also many other things
which Jesus did which if they were writ
ten every one the world itself, I think
would not be able to contain the books
that should be written.— St. John, xxi
25.
“ The things which thou hast heard of
me by many witnesses the same commend
to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach
others also.”—2 Tim. ii., 2.
“ I had many things to write unto thee;
but I could not by ink and pen write to
thee. But I hope speedily to see thee,
and we will speak mouth to mouth."—
St. John i., 16.
The learned Protestant Casaubon con
fessed that, “ the Fathers” of the Church
were all on the Catholic side; the equally
learned Obrectch testifies that in reading
their works, “he was frequently pro
yoked to throw them on the ground, find
ing them so full of Popery.” What do
they say ?
St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, on
his passage to Rome, whither he was
going under sentence to be devoured by
wild beasts, exhorted the Christians who
got access to him, “ to guard themselves
against the rising heresies, and to adhere
with the utmost firmness to the tradition
of the Apostles.” The same sentiment
appears iu his epistles, as also in those of
his fellow-martyr, St. Polyearp.-~2Y(.se6.
Hist. I. iii. c. 30. Revel, ii., 8.
St. Ireneus writes: “Nothing is more
easy for those who seek for the truth
than to mark in every Church the tradi
tion which the Apostles have manifested
to all the world.” * * * “In ex
plaining the Scriptures, Christians are to
attend to the Pastors of the Church s
who, by the ordinance of God, have re
ceived the inheritance of truth with the
succession of their Sees.” — Advert.
Heeres, 1. iii. c. 5; l. iv. c. 43.
“ Since it would be tedious to enumer
ate the succession of all the Churches,
we appeal to the faith and tradition ot
the greatest, most ancient, and best known
Church—that of Koine, founded by the
Apostles SS. Peter and Paul —for with
this Church, all writers agree,
as in her is preserved the traditions
which comes down from the Apostles.
—L. iii. c. 2.
See also Tertullian, St. Clement, -
Cvprian, Origen, etc., all of whom pm "
Apostolic tradition on a level witn
Scripture, and describe the Church _tb
the expounder of them both, as do ao>
St. Basil, St. Epiphanius, St. John
Chrysostom, St. Vincent of Levies, aim
other early writers.
[Note — Chilling worth, a I’rote-tm,.
writer, says: “ The word of God ti p'
not consist in mere letters, whether vw > -
t< u O'" printed, but in the true sense <>*
it; which no one can better interpm
than the irue Church to which [ [y' r
committed this sacred pledge. 1
logomena to Polyejlott , cap . v.
Dr. Balguy, another learned lkm°"
ant writer, says: “Open your id*''
take the first page that occurs in eim
Testament, and tell me, without disgui- •
is there anything in it too hard toi
understanding? If you find all » ’
you clear ami easy, you may t! aim 1
for giving you a privilege which m ;
denied to many thousand sincere
lievers.” — Discourses, p- 111-
“ We are obliged to yield many
