Newspaper Page Text
4
WILLIAM RANKIN, Publisher.
180 Bay Street.
SAVANNAH, SATURDAY, OOT’B 23,1875.
AVGNTN FOR THK SOUTHERN CROHN.
Rr. C. C. Pbendkboabt, Augusta, G.
W. Mahoky, Atlanta, Ga.
B. Fitzgerald, Macon, Ga.
E. O’Connell, Macon, Ga,
R. R. Dorb, Rome, Ga.
Ja.b A. Benson, Washington, Ga.
R. O'Neill, Dalton, Ga.
J. Stod Bykrh, Gainesville, Ga.
P. Grogan, Americus, Ga.
Thomas Deionan, Columbus, Ga.
C. B. Munday, Milledgeville, Ga.
M. 0. Sullivan, Albany, Ga.
Michael O'Brien, Hawkinsville, Ga.
Edward Cboake, Hheron, Ga.
Mr. Sullivan, P. M., Sandersville, Ga.
F. McCarthy, Brunswick, Ga.
P. Tbesnon, Athens, Ga,
Dr. L. B. Pacetti, St. Augustine, Fla.
Geo. Magee, Jacksonville, Fla,
P. Kelly, Fernandina, Fla.
Jno. 0. Masters, Lake City, Fla.
R. R. Reid, Palatka, Florida.
Paul Weedman, Toccoi, Fla.
Rev. Mark 8. Gross, Wilmington, N. C.
W. 0. McDonough, Haslam’s Station, A. & G. R. R.
L, W. Dunn, Millett's Station, Port Royal R. R.
Any of our subscribers, in the city or
country, failing to get their papers, will
please report the same to this office.
The Southern Cross can be procured
every week from the following news deal
ers at ten cents per copy: Doyle & Bro.,
E. M. Connor, Win. Estill, Jr., and Frank
Molina.
Advertisements for the Southern Cross
should be handed in by eleven o’clock
Thursday morning.
•UR TRAVELING AW KMT AMU (IHIIIHN
PONDENT.
Mr. George W. Norman is now in
Columbia, S. C. We commend him to
the kindness of our friends in Carolina.
TUB CALENDAR.
Sunday, October 24.—Twenty-third after Pentecost.
Monday, October 25.—St. Chrysauthus and Dario, Mm.
Tuesday, October 26.—St. Evaristus.
Wednesday, October 27.—Virgil of SS. Simon and Jude,
Apostles.
Thursday, October 28. SS. Simon and Jude, Apoftlea.
Friday, October 26.—0f the same, sinfl,
Saturday, October 30.—Virgil of all Saints.
THE EIiETTIOM IN OHIO.
“*"Wt'the last election inUhio, the people
of that State have spoken in a manner
which cannot be mistali en. Gov. Allen,
and with him the whole Democratic
ticket, have been defeated by large
majorities. During the whole campaign
in that State, the Democrats reckoned
to carry the State victoriously, at least to
reseat Gov. Allen in the gubernatorial
chair and to increase the number of
their partisans in the House of Assembly.
The Democratic organs of that State
sounded the note of victory before
hand, and even the Republican and
Radical press in Ohio saw no chance to
elect their candidates. Hence the sur
prise of both parties at the result of the
elections. There are, however, some
causes at the bottom of the whole, which
it is well worth while to consider, as they
show perfectly well in what direction the
wind blows at present. We hear
indeed, that ballot-box stuffing, illegal
voting, repeating importing of voters
from other States, and what all the
election tricks are, have been resorted
to by the Radical party, and we doubt
not a moment that all this machinery
has been put in motion; the question of
Inflation and Contraction of the currency
is assigned as another reason of the
Democratic defeat. Let those, who are
satisfied with every dodge, console them
selves with reasons as those given; for
us, we avow, they are “too thin,” Ballot
box stuffing, repeating, etc., are tricks so
often used,that they are now nearly used
up; and, besides, Democrats were well
aware that their opponents would
resort to them, and consequently
they could guard against them. It is
ridiculous to represent Democrats as so
wholly innocent and green in the mani
pulation of the political engine, as to be
always caught in such traps whenever
they loose an election. As for Infla
tion and Contraction, there are inflation
ists and contractionists in both parties;
the bankers and money kings in Wall
street, New York, as well as those of the
West, are contractionists, because, it is
to their advantage, that the heaps of
paper-money are brought up to a
par value, whilst, tradesmen and the
laboring class of people, of whom thou
sands are thrown out of employment,
and cannot And the mere necessaries of
life, go in for an increase of currency,
i. e. Inflation. Hence we must look for
deeper causes for the surprising result
of the Ohio election! The Ohio cam
paign was conducted and the Radical
victory won on “Know-Nothing” princi
ples aided by secondary causes. Radi
calism, tottering to its very foundations,
, and having disgusted the great majority
of American voters by its political blun
ders, its oppression and corruption, of
which it is reeking from the Indian
Territory to the Atlantic ocean, and from
the Gulf to the Lakes, had commenced
to be discarded by the people, who be
gan to look up again to the old time
honored principles of Democrocy, as to
their safeguards in their political trou
bles and evils. Radicalism has in the
beginning been fathered by political
parsons and fanatical preachers, hence
it looked to its parentage for an alley in
time of its death-struggle, and it found
him too. In the original “Know-Noth
ing” movement, the rallying cry has
been “America for Americans,” now it is
“America for Protestants.” Therefore
right at the beginning of the Ohio cam
paign a league was formed, whose
members were not simple Protestants,
but outspoken enemies of the Catholic
Church. The leaguers were furnished
with circulars, (we ourselves have seen
such an one, but did not think at the
time worth while to preserve it,consider
ing it simply an ebulition of insane fa
naticism) addressed to Protestants of all
denominations without regard of the
country they came from, offering them
membership of the league, if they only
promised under oath to oppose the
Catholic Church, to exclude Catholics
from positions of public trust and emolu
ment and to uphold the Public School
system as it is.
We need not say here, how utterly op
posed such a league is to the spirit and
principles of true Americanism, how our
forefathers would have spurned such
un-American sentiments. Since when,
thei}_, is America a Protestant country ?
Neither the federal constitution, nor the
constitutions of individual States know
anything of an American Protestant
country, or religion. It is therefore this
new Know-Nothingism under the
zeal fer Rreiastaiirism, frhich,
uniting fanatical Protestants as well as
Infidels, and the cast-out Revolutionists
of Europe, under the one banner of
hatred of the Catholic Church, has de
feated the Democracy of Ohio. But in
order not to deceive our readers we are
reluctantly forced to acknowledge that
the Catholics are partly to blame for
this reverse. There are amongst the
Catholics, unfortunately, too many poli
ticians and office seekers, who have at
tached themselves mostly to the Demo
cratic party. If those men, in seeking
and occupying offices had observed the
rules of Catholic doctrines and morals,
they might have given an healthy tone
and character to the party they belonged
to, and they might have made their
Church and Religion respected by their
fellow-citizens of other persuasions. But,
unfortunately, they set their religious
conscience aside replacing it by that of the
politicians to the disgust of their co-relig
ionists and fellow-citizens.
Another cause we must admit to be
the imprudence of some of our Catholic
journalists, their extravagance and un
charitable and unjust polemics. There
is, for instance, the School question. We
are indeed no friend of the present sys
tem of Public instruction, we admit it
to be faulty in many ways, we deeply
deplore the want of religious training
which it offers to the youth; we maintain
also that Catholics are fairly and justly
entitled to a quota of the school fund, if
the State at all levies, taxes for educa
tional purposes. .But, at the same time,
it is impossible for us to see in our
Public Schools, a curse, nor can we see
that our just rights can be obtained, if
they are maintained by abuse of public
authorities and extravagant claims. The
American mind goes in for fair play and
fair dealing; we have a perfect right to
propose our claims and to maintain our
rights before the forum of an equitable
people, but we can never brow-beat them
to yield by extravagant and bitter words.
Hence, journalists of that kind do more
harm than good to the Catholic oause,
they furnish the weapons to our oppo
nents. These appear to us to be the
causes of the result in Ohio, and we are
very much afraid that this is the begin
ning of serious political and religious
troubles.
THE S()UT BE W CROSS.
FIAT MIX T
In his St. "A’fyustine ac
cuses himself of tfe following:
“When I eamero discover the truth
about the Catholic faith, I mingled joy
and blushes—l was ashamed that I had,
for so many clamoring and
raffing, not at true and saving faith,
but only at the . Actions of my carnal
conceits. For soVash and impious was
I, that, those things which I ought first
to have learned from the Church by in
quiry, I charged upon her by accusation;
readier to accept sad impose falsehood
than to be infornn/l of truth. Thus I
so blindly accused'ljhrist’s Church, now
sufficiently clear td me, that she taught
none of the opinions I so vehemently re
proached her witbA-’
This he did, deliided and urged on by
the Manichees; ancjthis do, in this nine
teenth century, millions of good and sin
cere fellow Christians deceived, and per
chance, urged on also by other enemies
of the Catholic Church, who are as much
interested now, as the Manichees of old,
to have her misrepresented. Of the
thousands of coWerts^'the majority of
whom belong to the highest and most edu
cated elasses cf society,w hom the Catholic
Church had the consolation to receive in
to her bosom, of late years, we dare the
world to name one who will not make
the avowal of St. Augustine; one who
will not confess, with grief in his heart
and blushes on his brow, that he had
been most completely deceived as to the
claims, history, doctrines and practices
of the Catholic Church. Indeed, calum
ny is the chief weapon which the ene
mies of the Cathode Church wield
against her.
So far, we have nqher listened to a ser
mon by a non-Catholic expounder of
the gospel, or read a sectarian newspa
per article on Catholic topics, which did
us justice by expressing our tenets as
they are.
It cannot be our purpose, in the brief:
space we allot to ourselves in these col
umns, to enumerate, one by one, all the
false statements relating to Catholic
questions, which those would-be theolo
gians, lay and clerical, have indulged in,
for the last three hundred years, but our
racers are feJlrilAr With Afrs- following:
“Catholics pay to the Virgin Mary
the worship of 'adoration, which is due
to God alone,” says one. Yet the first
teaching of our Catechism is that “God
alone is to be worshipped with the wor
ship of adoration; —and Mary, and any
other Saint are simply to be venerated
and honored, as creatures venerated and
honored by God himself; —and we dare
non-Catholios to name any practice of
our Church to the contrary.
Another will preach or write this:
Catholics adore bread and wine in the
Saorament.” The truth is, we adore
therein Jesus Christ, the second person
of the Blessed Trinity.
A third learned, from Luther, and re
peats after him: “The Pope grants in
dulgences, that is licenses to commit
sins.” Whereas no indulgence bears
on future sins; it is a mere remis
sion of the temporal penalty due
to sins and is granted to those only who
repent and are determined to sin no
more.
A fourth boldly asserts: “Catho
lics are forbidden by their Church to
read the Bible.”—And the Bible is in
my hands, and in the hands of all good
Catholics! And our Church urges
us often to read it, yet not the spuri
ous version and incorrect translation by
order of royal James of England. The
Catholic Church has caused editions of
the Bible to be published, at the lowest
rates, that the poorest of her children
may not be deprived of the instructions
and consolations which the Holy
Ghost has provided for them, in this
Holy Book.
These and a few more erroneous state
ments, concerning oar Church, circulate
every day, from one end of the land to
the other. What may be the motives of
their authors or publishers, we have nei
ther the time or wish to asoertam. We
would only warn them, en paasanl, that
among God’s commandments their is
one that reads thus: “Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neigh
bor.” The great mass of the American
people are fair minded, and will not re
sort to such performances. They are
the work of a few' Jmprinciplod politi
cians, and selfish li well as bigoted
preachers who, wheM they attack Roman
Catholicism, persu fee themselves that
they are doing it “pro aris el foeis;”
and that, for such a useful purpose all
means may be used, fair and foul!
Others, and they are not few,
do it out of sheer ignorance.
From personal experience we know
that five, out of six self-made ex
pounders of the Gospel, are ignorant,
even to childishness,of Catholic questions.
Saint Peter has a severe word for such:
“Blasphemers of things which ye know
not.”
The consequence is that, as of old,
truth is bound “captive in injustice;” that
the idolatry, monstrosities, etc., of
Romanism, with which Protestants are
made acquainted in their .Sunday-school
rooms, in their meeting housM or in the
columns of their favorite journal, have
no foundation whatever; the objections
which sincere inquirers after Religious
truth make against the Catholic Church,
are altogether groundless. They prove
indeed much against the kind of Catho
licism taught unto them, but that is a
fictitious one, one that has no existence
except in the brain of the enemies of
true Catholicism. The latter is as far dif
ferent from the imaginary or misrepre
sented one, of which we have spoken,
as white is from black, or day from
night. Let our separated brethren, let
all sincere Christians seek Catholicism
where it is, in Catholic Churches,
and in Catholic publications, and they
will not gainsay us.
Should one wish to know the true
principles of a certain political party, he
would not be satisfied with what the
opposite party will state of them; even
so in religious questions; aye, more
prudence is demanded in these, for they
are to political ones what Heaven is to
Earth. We conclude: the enemies
of the Catholic Church cannot be
relied upon, for an exact exposition of
her doctrines or practices.
Let her be hoard in her own cause.
Let her state what she demands from in
tellects and wills, and then we may de
cide more safely, whether she is entitled
to our belief and submission, or not.
WliafT we ask for her is naught but
light. Fiat lux —light, and light more
abundant, as the Saviour says.
Let all see her as she is in reality.
Says iialnies: * i Wf
“Catholicity displays a bright array of
illustrious men, crowned with the glo
ries they have won amidst the unani
mous plaudits of all civilized nations
That, which is born of light, cannot pro
duce darkness; that, which is the work of
truth itself, need not fly from the sun’s
rays to conceal itself in the bowels of the
earth. The Daughter of Heaven may
walk in the brightness of day; may dare
discussion; may gather around her all
the brightest intellects, well assured that
the more closely and attentively they see
and contemplate her, the more pure, the
more beauteous and enrapturing will she
appear.”
This was the conclusion of St. Augus
tine also, and of many a prodigal son,
who has returned to the one true fold of
the one true shepherd—the Holy Cath
olic and Apostolic Church.
UNITY AND UNION.
There are no two words in our lan
guage more confused in their meaning
popularly, and consequently more inter
changeably misapplied at the present
time, than the two at the head of this ar
ticle. The oneness, the homogeneity of
unity, is constantly confounded with the
mere junction by union. Unity means
the state of being one, having the same
nature, the same constitution or native
state, whether in material substance or
in idea. Union, on the other hand, im
plies simply the joining or holding to
gether two "or more things or ideas,
whether similar or dissimilar, by an ex
traneous or foreign bond. Unity is
identity. Union merely adhesiveness.
An unbroken stick of timber is a unit.
The same stick broken and scarfed to
gether, is no longer a unit, but a union
of broken pieces. Its identity is de
stroyed. The original elements consti
tuting oneness have been ruined, and
the pieces are held to each other only by
the strength of the extraneous bond or
scarf joint. So with an idea. It must
be identically the same, and voluntarily
so, in the minds of all who entertain it
towards the object of the idea, to consti
tute unity of thought, of desire, or of
purpose. Any variation from the one
idea, or compulsion, destroys its iden
tity, and the minds thus varying, may be
held by extraneous pressure,fcjin union,
but no longer in unity. Hence, it is
that in religion, in politics, and in the com
mon affairs of life, unity is a positive,
enduring strength, while union is merely
a concord only for such time as the out
side pressure that produced it shall con
tinue.
For instance, the Congress convened
in Philadelphia, in July, 1776, was a unit
in resistance to the oppression of the
British Government and in its purpose
to free the respective colonies represent
ed there, from British tyranny. The
same oneness in idea influenced the
Convention of 1787, to frame for the col
onies freed, a “more perfect union.” The
idea entertained by the delegates was
identical. It was voluntarily entertained.
The means for carrying out the idea va
ried with different judgments in conven
tion, and in no manner affected the idea
itself. The same idea, of a “more per
fect union,” influenced the voluntary
adoption by the States, of the Constitu
tion prepared. So far, the idea of the
several States, was a unit, identical, vol
untary. The Constitution became the
oommon property of all the States, as the
representation of the one national senti
ment that produced it. It was, so to
speak figuratively, the one stick of tim
ber in its entirety. But, in the course of
time, unwise and unscrupulous politi
cians bored so manv holes- into it, that its
* *1
integrity became ujitfl rup
ture ensued. The pith of the timber,
the one idea of “a more perfect union,”
was destroyed, and as a consequence,
separation followed. War was instigated
to scarf the pieces together, and suc
ceeded, and now they are jointed
by the extraneous influence of
force. Unity no longer exists, though
union remains.
A scarf joint, however, is not necessa
rily a weak one. With judgment, the
stick may be made very nearly as strong
as before, and the strength of the pres
ent union of the States will depend upon
•the judiciousness and nicety with winch
the joint was made. It can be so closely
drawn that only a powerful microscope
can detect it. Unfortunately, unskilled
and unfaithful workmen have been em
ployed, so far, on the job. Unskilled in '
tIR- science of goverXmenJ, and
ful to the laws of God and to the obliga
tions of honor. The approaching Cen
tennial may, perhaps, bring out better
men and better measures. The South
ern States may be relieved of carpet
baggers in the Federal offices and in the
State governments, and the Southern
people enjoy their own again in the
Union. If not, the scarf joint won’t
hold longer than the extraneous power
lasts.—And here we cannot help asking,
Did any one ever hear of a carpet-bag
ger or a scalawag who was a Catholio ?
THK REPUBLIC IN FRANCE.
The most popular pastime in Europe,
now-a-dayß, seems to be the changing of
Govermental systems. Within the last
twenty years we had any number of
changes. We had new empires made
out of old States—patched together with
so little regard for homogeneity that it is
not a cause for great surprise if the dis
cordant parts of the inharmonious whole
would display, as occasion presents, signs
of the incompatibility of temperament
ruling within. We had also new king
doms and dictatorships, established
either for the gratification of some nomi
nally popular caprice of the moment, or
for the wiser and more commendable
purpose of restoring order, tranquility,
and national prosperity to the several
States in whose interest, real or fancied,
those changes were inaugurated.
France, Catholic France, furnishes the
latest instance of this desire for change.
The memory of the Empire, of the Bona
parte dynasty, and the reminiscence of
the monarchies of the Bourbon Kings,
have separately faffed to cancel the de
sires or to suppress the aspirations
which yearned for the reputed superiori
ty of the Republic.
For France, then, the Republic is the
dream of the immediate future—the
dream of the period elapsing previous to
the time when the returning aspirations
for Imperial or royal rule shall possibly
and probably dissipate all the affection
for the Democratic system now adopted.
But with the various political establish
ments now obtaining in the different
quarters of the civilized world we, as
Catholics, have little to do. The Church
is left alone, if unobstruoted in her of
fice, can flourish under anj and all of
them. To Catholics, as such, it is of lit
tle consequence under what form of gov
ernment they live, so long as the civil
power confines itself to its appropriate
jurisdiction. In the United States,
wherein it was confidently predicted
that the Churoh would wither away and