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tion. Were these Baptists with whom
Dr Ford, or any of his co-religionists
could commune ? We think not. What
of the Melchites? are they in any better
situation? Will Dr. Ford accept the
(ireek Church as his precursors in re
ligious teaching? We will answer the
question in the language of Dr. Ford
himself. The following will be found
on page 120 of his treatise styled “The
Origin of the Boplists traced hack by
'milestones on the track of time —“where
did they come from ? Not from Popery;
uot from the Grostics, or Oriental sects;
nor from the apostate Greek hierarchy.”
They did not spring therefore from the
Messalians; nor did they come from the
Melchites and the question “Where did
the Baptists come from,” is still un
answered, even in the eighth century.
Cedric.
ENGLISH V!EW*OF A SOUTHERN
STATESMAN.
A. H. Stephen's on State Sovereignty.
[From the Londou Saturday Review.]
Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-
President of the ill fated Southern Con
federacy, is perhaps of all American
public men the best qualified fairly to
represent and discuss the conflicting
theories of State rights and Federal
authority which, after a political struggle
of more than a quarter of a century, were
at last brought to a decisive issue on the
field of battle. It is true that there
must always be a deficiency of practical
interest in the re-opening on paper of a
controversy so decided, for there is a
feeling, in both the reader’s and the
writer’s mind, that it is useless yet egain
to dispute with the pen the verdict once
recorded by the sword. Neverthe
less, in justice to a brave, highminded,
and most unfortunate people, and in
due regard to historical truth and to the
interests of political science, it is even
now worth while to hear what a scholar,
a man of deep political learning, of
profound knowledge of constitutional
history, of moderate opinions and tem
perate spirit, has to say in defence of
principles which, however generally re
pudiated in 18(59, were as generally en
tertained ten years, and which the South
deemed worth upholding with her whole
wealth aud her best blood •
Mr. Stephens, if any one, may be ex
pected to think and speak fairly and im
partially on the subject. He was more
consistent than any Northern opponent
of secession—nearly all of whom had, at
one time or another, declared in favor of
it; lie is less embittered and exasperated
than any Southern secessionist. He
opp ised secession from the first on South
ern grounds; he upheld, on the same
grounds, the right and duty of every
Southern citizeu to abide by the decision
of his State; he was true to his cause to
the last, yet the only part he took in the
war was that of a negotiator and peace
maker; he is neither unpopular with the
North, nor distrusted by his own people.
The opinions and arguments of such a
man are entitled, a priori, to respectful
attention; when they are so just, so clear
so well-reasoned, so amply supported by
authorities of the highest character and
of every class as we find them in the
volume before us, they cannot but assist
us greatly in forming a true judgment
upon the nature and merits of the
controversy.
The plan of Mr. Stephens’ work is
simple and somewhat trite, but conven
ient for his purpose. It is written in the
form of Conversations with Northern
visitors at his Georgia residence; each of
the, three interlocutors representing and
stating, with great distinctness, and we
believe with perfect fairness, the idea
ol one of the principal Northern parties,
and defending them by authority and
reasoning, while the chief part, of
course, is played by Mr. Stephens
himself, as the assertor of tke defeated
doctrine of State sovereignty, to which
subject exclusively the present volume is
devoted. The argument is well arran
ged, with regard both to historical order
and logical sequence, and the proposi
tions which the author undertakes to
maintain are as well and as conclusively
supported as any propositions admitting
ot controversy well can be. Mr. Stephens
ls superioi* to the com moo artifices of
advocacy, or is too confident in his cause
to need them. He never stoops to
weaken or misstate the opposite view; he
takes the strongest points of his antagon
,st ’ s case, as stated by its most eminent
advocates; and meets them with argu
ments and facts about whose relevancy
there can seldom be the shadow of a
doubt. * * *
A sovereign can have no judge; and
the Federal Constitution provided lo
means by which one State could bring
another to justice for wrong-doing or
nonfulfillment of engagements. In like
manner there existed no legal mode by
• v hich the Federal Government could
|3p eice a State which should exercise the
right of sovereignty to redress its
wrongs under the compact by denoun
cing the compact itself. A sovereign
power is the judge of its own rights. Its
subjects must obey it, and defend it,
right or wrong. H follows, therefore,
from the sovereignty of the States that
they were entitled legally to secede if
they chose, and that their citizens were
bound to follow and to fight for the
choice of the State.
Ihis was the view on which Mr.
Stephens acted; and in its support he
quotes the authority of such eminent
lawyers as Tucker and Rawle, and the
conditional admission of Story himself,
lie shows that Massachusetts and the
other New England States had more
than once assorted the right of secession,
and threatened to exercise it; that Mr.
Lincoln himself asserted, in general
terms, the right of any people or portion
of a people, locally distinct, to chose its
own government; and that Horace
Greeley, up to the very last, insisted that
if the South chose, she had a right to go
in peace. He himself disapproved the
policy of secession, but asserted to the
fullest degree the absolute nature of the
right, and the sufficiency of the provoca
tion; and he calls Webster to testify in
very distinct terms, that the systemasic
violation of the Constitution in the case
of fugitive slaves was alone • a sufficient
vindication of the total repudiation, by
the South, of a compact which the North
observed only as far as she pleased.
It is impossible, within our limits, to
give a fair idea even of the outlines of
such an argument; much more to convey
a just impression of the lucidity, power
ot thought, vast and appropriate reading,
and vigorous reasoning by which it is sus
tained. It would be difficult to name a
more perfect masterpiece of constitution
al reasoning and political disquisition;
a work which might with greater advan
tage be placed in the bands of the young
lawyer who/lesired to see how those high
questions which are the common ground
of the lawyer, the historian, and the
statesman, can be treated by one who
combines the qualifications of all three.
The book is perhaps hardly suited to tho
general reader, but it may be confident
ly recommended as indispensable to
every one who wishes really to under
stand either the Federal Constitution or
the Civil War; and it will be ranked
among the most valuable of those
materials which the writers of this age
are accumulating for the future historian
of America.
THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
LECTURE BY THE REY. FATHER O’CONNOR,
8. J , AT THE COLLEGE OF
ST. FRANCIS XAYIER,
NEW YORK.
Last evening a lecture was delivered
in the hail of St. Francis Xavier’s Col
lege by the Rev. Father M. O’Connor,
S. J., the subject being “The Coming
General Council.” There was a large
and appreciative assemblage present, and
throughout a very lengthened and elo
quent discourse the greatest interest
and devout attention appeared to be
manifested. Nearly all the faculty of
the college occupied seats iu front of the
platform. The reverend lecturer com
menced by observing that the call for
the Ecumenical Council, to be assembled
in Rome, and to be presided over by the
highest in chief of the Catholic world
had already been heard throughout the
land. The pastors of the Church were
everywhere preparing to answer the sum
mons. The feelings of the Catholic
people were deeply enlisted in the event,
and although many knew little of the
preoise nature of the meeting they could
not but feel convinced it must have im
portant results. He did not claim to
have any knowledge of the subject be
yond what was within the reach of all,
but, in view of what was passing around,
it was proper to do their part on an oc
casion of such importance. The Ecu
menical Council might be said to be the
highest display of the functions of the
Church on this earth. The powers
which God gave the Church would there
be united and for the noblest purposes,
teaching the truths entrusted to them,
awakening men to a sense of their great
destiny and enacting the laws which the
spirit of God baa pointed out as neces
sary for men’s supernatural welfare. The
body of teachers and pastors organized
by Jesus Christ will be there, and head
ed by the immortal soul which be
breathed into it, and united by the links
with which it would be welded together
to make it the representative of the
world. Such a body was in the highest
and best sense representative. That re
presentation was not derived from dele
gations by the members, but from its
inherited right to teach and direct. Af
ter alluding to the words of St. Paul
upon representation by spiritual teach
ers, he went on to state that the repre
sentation at the coming Couucil was far
MBBlffi All gfflßlß.
greater than could be derived from dele
gations. The Church of God spread it
throughout the world. The denizens of
above look to the Church as the source
whence their ranks were recruited. God
Himself looked to it as the champion of
His glory in the world, and which lived
in the spirit of His Son to carry out the
work for which He came to earth. Hell
looked to it as the greatest adversary by
whom the soul, which it would fain
swallow up, was snatched from it. Some
might be anxious to know the details of
the organization and its mode of pro
ceeding, but it was not regulated bv
minute regulations. There was no
election for president or speaker. The
president and the bead was provided by
Christ. The Church was built upon
Peter, hence all the inquiries about its
relative rights might be said to be in
volved in absurdity. No number of
persons, however respectable for learn
ing or virtue, or position could claim to
represent the Church, unless they be of
the body resting upon Peter the Church
itself having been made by Christ. The
Ecumenical Council was called to exer
cise the functions entrusted to the pastors
and teachers of the Church, who were
the representatives to-day of that body
who stood before Christ as his disciples.
The spirit of God would prevail at that
council. The reverend gentleman then
proceeded at considerable length to
dwell upon the deliberations of the
Fathers and the important results
of their deliberations in dispelling
the heretical views which prevailed
in many portions of the earth. At the
forthcoming couucil the Holy Ghost,
who had been sent to teach the Apostles,*
would be present, prompting and con
trolling the movements, and the decisions
arrived at by the pastors would be also
His, for they would be His instruments.
There was great reason to hope for im
portant results from the eminent charact
er of the great Pontiff who called the
Council together, and who would preside
over its deliberations. It would send
down his name to posterity as one of the
greatest of the many great men that had
adorned his seat. Although greater
members could be pointed out as exist
ing in other days as adorning the Church,
there was not probably a period of the
history of the Church in which she could
boast of a nobler spirit being displayed
by the great body of the Episcopacy at
large than at this time in winch wc live,
and from their presence at the council
there was also reason to hope for import
ant results. They would come from far
off regions, they would come from the
ancient seats of Europe, from the prairies
of the New World, and from the islands
of the South Sea. It would probably
be the largest assemblage of bishops that
ever met in the church. The spirit of
God would speak through them and our
reverence would be turned into awe and
our confidence into faith. Many were
anxious to know what was the object to
be accomplished by this meeting, but as
he had already stated he did not profess
to have any information other than that
which was accessible to every one, but
he thought to look abroad upon the world
and constituting its condition in the spirit
of the Church it was not hard to divine
the main objects that would engage its
attention. Society might be said to be
diseased to its core. In many respects
its condition resembled that of the pagan
world when Christianity was first es
tablished. The law of God had lost in a
great measure its hold on vast numbers,
and especially upon many who control
led the movements of the social body.
God’s institutions were ignored and per
verted. Material views and interests
were the only ones, or at least were
the chief ones that were followed
and obeyed, and wer« promoted with a
zeal and success never reached at any
former period. The reverend gentle
man then animadverted with much force
upon the present condition of society,
which he considered very unsettled. Ho
contended that the history of the Church
was but a record of her struggles to
carry out the great principles for which
she was established. She had bad fierce
battles with those who would fain have
drowned her in the blood of her children.
Her greatest triumph had beea in her ef
forts to resist the tendency to dissolution
arising from the gradual approach of evil
tendency to corrupt her members. He
then alluded to the several heresies
sought to be established, and subsequent
ly adverting to Protestantism observed
that it had in its day afflicted the Church.
The Ecumenical Council would draw a
clear line between what was good in the
efforts of modern society and what was
subversive to the spiritual interests of
mankind, subversive of men’s true wel
fare even in this world. Every act of
final teaching of the Church of God was
a landmark that would remain forever
monuments of truth, and truth was ever
lasting. He drew a distinction between
the different features which liberty pre
sented, and advocated with considerable
power liberty in the fullest sense for the
Church of God in all parts of the world.
After dilating upon the enemies of the
Church and their various efforts and de
vices to counteract its influence, he went
cn to state that though now almosu
stripped, however unjustly, of everything
temporal the Church would be occupiec
with the nourishment of Christian life.
In her poverty the would have more
liberty and consequently more power anc
freedom. Her deep penetration into
faith and knowledge of the world woult
be brought into the great council by the
four winds of Heaven, and the master
hand that dissipated the storm would re
duce to naught the evils of the present
day. The reuerend gentleman concludec
an eloquent and very theological dis
course amid loud applause.
NEW ORLEANS (LA) CORRESPONDENCE,
OF THE BANNER OF ȣ SOUTH.
Banner of the South :
In your “Lost Cause” column of
April 3d, appeared a letter to Father
Ryan from “Pickett’s Division,” which,
while purpoting to vindicate the charact
er of Gen. Longstrcet, contains most
damaging imputations upon the honor of
his numerous “brother officers” in this
City. Pickett’s Division asserts that
Gen. Longstreet’s famous submission
letter was written at the instigation and
with the approbation of “many other
Confederate Generals” who afterwards
“shrunk from our beloved General,” and
that “not one of them has bad the manli
ness to acknowledge” his share in the
getting up of the letter.
Now, personally, this i& no affair of
mine, beyond the interest I feel in the
good name and fair fame of the Confed
erate Generals here traduced, several of
whom I have the honor of numbering
among my most esteemed friends; and
for their sakes alone, I demand of “Pick
ett’s Division” tho names of Gen. Long
street’s confederates in that letter busi
ness, so that the other officers residing
here may be relieved of the odium that
now attaches to them all. It is bad
enough to have the name of even one
Confederate General tainted in such a
connection—how much worse for a whole
score to be similarly clouded ! I have
the solemn assurance of two of these
gentlemen that they never even heard
of Gen. Longstreet’* unfortunate letter
till it was published, and they believe
furthermore that “Pickett’s Division”
must be laboring under some eggregious
misapprehension. To set the matter
right then, let “Pickett’s Division”
give the names, or correct the mistake.
The poor African “citizen” is being
rapidly wiped out of existence under the
operation of Reconstruction, or Radical
destruction policy. Our last week’s
mortuary list showed 100 deaths, of
which 40 were blacks ! A fearful dis
proportion compared with the relative
numbers of the whit- and black residents.
Thus it is shown that the destitution to
which these once well-cared-for servants
have been reduced by their Yankee
friends, (!) is as fatal to them as were
the hardships and the bullets to which
they were exposed by the same “friends.”
for whom they “fit so nobly.” This
rapid extinction of the negroes among
us, is only another proof of what I have
before asserted, that the puritanic Yan
kee cannot tolerate the existence, in his
presence, of a superior race—hence,
finding the negro so immeasurably his
superior in all the nobler attributes of
humanity (limited intellect excepted),
Mr. Yank is bent cn his annihilation.
The poor Indian, Lo ! has already dis
appeared under the blighting upas breath
of the roundhead, and there seems noth-
ing to save the new-found “man and
brother” from a like fate.
I notice that the Southern Metropolis
of Baltimore, echoes the Banner’s de
mand for a cheaper, “people’s edition,”
of Admiral »Semraes’ most admirable
memoirs; and I beg to add an appendix
to that petition, i. e. that all future edi
tions be more carefully stitched and
bound than were the cloth-bound copies
served to subscribers in this City. The
publishers have evidently had this bind
ing done by contract, and have been
most woefully swindled therein; and I
would advise them, if practicable, for
their own reputation as publishers, to
have the entire subscribers edition called
in and rebound. At present it stands
pre-eminently, the worst bound book in
America. This is the more unfortunate
because in all other respects the work
is so remarkable for its excellencies—as
a young lady of my acquaintance said,
very quaintly, originally and truthfully,
“Semmes’ Service Afloat is the most in*
terestiug book ever published since w the
Arabian Nights !”
Since the close of our great State
Fair we are all “in the blues.’’ As in
the presence of some fatal epidemic, the
ominous crape flaunts on every side, so
after each of these annual fairs, is the
whole City bedecked with blue ribbons.
This ribbon is the decorative accom
paniment of every prize awarded for
excellence, and is consequently made
much of by eanh successful contestant.
Tor a good many “days after the fair,”
the newspapers are filled with columns
advertisements all about the Blue
Ribbon; the ribbon winders triumphant
ly announcing the fact, and their unsuc
cessful opponents furnishing volumes of
proof why they should have got the rib
bons, but for a misapprehension on the
part of the awarding committees. All
parties thus claiming the blue ribbon,
forthwith go to work and adorn their
wares and their entire establishments
with the coveted symbol; consequently
the blue ribbon ceases to be of any prac
tical benefit to its legal winners, since
each dealer in dog-collars, hand-organs,
velocipedes, or jews-harps, claims that he
is the “only original Jacobs” in the
trade. But “its an ill wind that blows
good to nobody;” and judging from the
thousands of yards of blue ribbons that
now flutter from plow-handles, hem
stitched boots, candy sticks, ground
bones, soap cakes, steam engines, patch
quilts, big segars, grand pianos, fishing
rods, chignons, cooking stoves, <fcc., &c.,
in all parts of the City, the conclusion is
inevitable that there must be a big stir
in the indigo market. Persevere.
THE IRISH CHURCH.
Cardinal has issued a long
oastoral on, the subject of the Pope’s
difficulties and claims upon the sympathy
of the Catholics. At the close he makes
the following reference to Ireland ;
Most important measures are now
sending before the Legislature. If the
great and wise statesmen now at the
head of affairs carry them successfully
through both Houses of Parliament, we
may hope that anew era of peace and
prosperity will dawn upon Ireland, and
that our past sorrows and afflictions soon
will be forgotten. However, vve should
not put too much trust in human power
or wisdom ; the best considered under
takings of man are frequently defeated,
and in the present case private interests
undoubtedly will be preferred by men of
influence to the public welfare, and those
who have long enjoyed the enormous
wealth of the Establishment and the ad
vantages of ascendency will offer a most
obstinate resistance to the changes now
proposed, though conformable to justice
and calculated to confer great benefits
on the country. Indeed, the votaries of
ascendency are threatening everything
violent if their monopoly be interfered
with, and they are so foolish and fanati
cal as to declare that they, iu their own
defence, will oppose the Imperial Govern
ment or kick the Queen’s crown into the
Boyne. However, we should not be
over-anxious about success, or too much
desirous of temporal happiness and pros
perity in this world. Such things are of
ten times turned to a bad account by
those who enjoy them, while poverty,
privations, and sufferings generally make
men virtuous, and prepare them for
happiness in the regions of eternal bliss.
Ireland suffered a great deal in times
past. Should we repine ? Certainly not.
Though we lost everything temporal, we
retained the true faith, the most precious
of all treasures. That faith, working
through charity, has sent millions of
our persecuted brethren to people the
kingdom of God. Nor have we been
left without earthly rewards ; our coun
try lias acquired a high name among the
nations of the earth, not, indeed, for
power, or wealth, or commerce, but for
the firmness of her faith, and for her
unshaken devotion to the Catholic Church.
One of the most distinguished orators of
this empire (Mr. Bright) in a late speech,
makes some remarks most flattering and
most encouraging to our country. Hav
ing described the failure among us of
the Established Church—the doctrines of
which were forced on us by fire and
sword, by confiscation and penal laws—
he says that “Ireland is more Catholic at
this moment than it has ever been be
fore,” and he adds “that it is more Ro
man than any other Catholic country in
Europe. What is more.” he continues,
“from Ireland has come to England
W'hatever there is of power that belongs
to the Papal system in this country, and
from Ireland has overflowed and settled
on the continent of America a very
great and Catholic interest.” The facts
thus stated constitute the greatest privi
lege of this island of Saints. Let us en
deavor to preserve this glory acquired for
us by our fathers. To do so wc must
have recourse to the protection of Heaven;
for, unless God keeps the house, in vain
do they watch who keep it. Above all,
we must be devotedly attached to the
one true Church, obedient children to the
Apostolic See, and always anxious to
saneitify ourselves by prayer and good
works. The peace of our Lord be with
you. Paul Card. Cullen.
5