Newspaper Page Text
JOHX II. SEALS, - K«li»or and Proprietor.
ATLANTA. GA.. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1875.
The money must accompany all orders for this paper,
and it will be discontinued at the expiration of the time,
unless renewed.
Write your name and post-office plainly.
Club Rates.—Ten copies at $2.50 each, if all are ordered
at the same time.
JJ-Ofllfe of “The Sunny South” In Young
Men’s Library Building, on Broad Street.
Major Phil. Tracy. —The excellent article on
this distinguished Georgian, by Judge Richard
H. Clarke, will be exceedingly interesting to all
Southerners. It presents facts concerning the
death and burial of this once favorite citizen of
Bibb which are not generally known.
Thai Fearful Tornado.—If all or even half
the accounts which have been published of the
recent cyclone which swept through portions of
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Caro
lina be true, it was certainly the most fearful
ever known in this country. It is difficult to
believe many of the statement* we have seen and
heard, but there can be no doubt that the loss of
life and property was very great, particularly in
the counties of Harris, Talbot, Upson, Monroe,
.Jones, Baldwin, Jefferson, Hancock, Glascock,
Warren, McDuffie, Columbus and Richmond in
this State. Many families were utterly ruined.
Georgia Sunday School Convention. — This
body will meet at Union Point on the twenty-
first of May. Miss Blackburn, of Bamesville,
and Miss Barnes, of South Carolina, will read
essays, and Miss M. L. Eve, of Augusta, will
read a poem. Schools of all evangelical denom
inations are expected to be represented. The ,
president of the convention, W. G. Whidbv,
Atlanta for Invalids—Indiana Ladies.—We
have recently seen a practical illustration of the
beneficial effects of this climate upon Northern
invalids. A party of excellent ladies from In-
dianopolis and Zionsville. Indiana, reached here
some time since in an almost exhausted condi
tion from the fearful inroads which disease had
for years been making upon their physical
Esq., is working up a lively interest in the mat- 1 strength. But they soon discovered, to their
ter, and a better place than Union Point could
not have been selected. Those people know
exactly how to entertain a large gathering.
Novels with a Moral. —We saw it stated some
time ago, in an essay by a distinguished writer,
that no novelist or poet was in the true aesthetic
great joy and relief, that they were growing
stronger and rapidly improving daily. At first
they could not ascend a flight of stairs without
great physical exhaustion, but very soon were
able to run up or down with no unpleasant
effects. They gained flesh rapidly, and the
hectic flush soon gave place to the beautiful car-
condition who wrote with any other purpose mine of nature. Indeed, the change in so short
than the creation of beauty. There is undoubt
edly much in what he says: yet were his rule
enforced, it would cut off' some of the best liter-
a while seemed almost miraculous.
Mrs. Clarke, from Zionsville, Indiana, almost
I a confirmed consumptive, and laboring under
tfgj" Published every other Saturday for the present, but
every subscriber will get the full number of copies. Fifty
copies make a volume complete.
and it is a double misfortune that such an oc- ature that has been given to the world during great physical debility on her arrival, found
Hack Numbers—New Stories!
currence should have taken place just now when
the people are so little able to help them. But
we are glad to know’ that some action is being
taken in the matter and some assistance is being
extended to them. Let all do what they can.
SPECIAL NOTICE!
It is utterly impossible for us to supply the
back numbers of this paper. The editions of
some of them have long been exhausted, and
it is out of the question for us to reprint them.
We regret it exceedingly, for the demand seems
to be universal. We had intended, however, to
reprint number one, on account of the persist
ency of the demand, and ordered paper spe
cially for it, but the manufacturer made a mis
take in the size.
In the next issue Mrs. Bryan will publish a
full and
COAIPLE TE S1 NOP SIS
of her great story, “Twice Condemned,” bring
ing up the connection to the last chapter pub
lished, which will be a good substitute for the
back numbers. She and other eminent writers
will soon commence some grand
PS-- XE If s r O It IE S
in the paper, and we beg the people to be in
time to secure the opening chapters. We can
not stereotype our forms, and when the first
edition of any number is exhausted, cannot
supply any more.
Hon. II. H. Hill.—The portrait of this pop
ular Georgian will appear in our next.
A Distinguished Daughter.—The poem on
our fifth page, “Only a Moment,” was written
by the daughter of General and President Sam
Houston, “the father of Texas.”
Church and State.—The interesting commu
nication on this subject was written by a distin
guished officer of the United States government,
now stationed at a foreign court.
Club Rates.—Clubs of four and upwards can
get The Sunny South for one year at $2.50.
Any one sending a club of Jive and upwards at
$2.50, shall receive a copy free for one year.
Mrs. Mary E. Bryan.— We are delighted to
announce that our lady editress has at last
reached her post. She was detained by bad
health and the irregularities of the mails, but is
now here to give her whole time and great tal-
| ents to the paper; and so soon as her health im
proves and her system is relieved of the Red
River malaria which has well nigh broken down
her constitution, we can promise to our readers
a paper superior to any we have as yet published.
She is now digesting and arranging the plots of
some of the most brilliant stories she has ever
written, and her editorial page begins to sparkle
with new life. Her great originality, and the
power, beauty and versatility of her genius,
make her a universal favorite, and she is destined
I to occupy the first place on the list of American
female writers. Read her miscellaneous edito
rials, poems and stories, and see if we over
estimate her.
News at this Office .—We find the following
paragraph in the Key West Dispatch, copied
from the Jacksonville Union:
“We have received several copies of The
Sunny South, and Thursday last had the pleas
ure of meeting in our office the energetic propri-
etors, Messrs. Hancock and Pendleton, who are
dow’n here on a tour of business and pleasure
combined. While here, they w’ill write articles
to their paper descriptive of Florida, and partic
ularly of that section through which our noble
river flow’s,” etc.
We have a gentleman by the name of Hancock
traveling as “ agent” for this paper, and he was
in Jacksonville some time since, but as to his ;
proprietary interest in the publication, we know i
nothing; and so far as we are aware, no one by
the name of Pendleton is connected with it in J
any capacity. It would be a novel case for both
“proprietors” of a concern like this to go off' on
a pleasure excursion at the same time. Our
Florida editors are in error as to the proprietor
ship of the paper.
Tilt* Stone Mountain. —In our next issue
we shall present a fine cut of this wonderful
granite pile in this State, and accompany it w’ith
a beautiful apostrophe by Rev. A. Means, D. D.
LL D.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.—This distin
guished lady sends us three dollars for The
Sunny South, and promises an interesting article
on birds, from the “Land of Flowers.” We shall
be pleased to receive it.
Hon. 0. A. Loclirane’s Speeeli.—The address
of this patriotic son of Ireland, and popular and
distinguished citizen of Georgia, on St. Patrick’s
Day, was in every sense a truly grand success—
beautiful, touching, eloquent, and handsomely
delivered.
Gordon in Frank Leslie’s Newspaper.—The
last number of Frank Leslie's Xewspaper contains
a fine engraving of General Gordon, but it is not
considered, by any who have seen it, so good a
likeness as the one engraved for this paper, and
w’hich appeared in our last issue.
Our Illustrations —$40 Each.—It seems to
be a difficult matter for people to realize the
great amount of labor and expense necessary to
get up illustrations for a paper. The engravings
for our front page cost forty dollars for every
issue. That on the front page of the first num
ber cost us fifty-one dollars. Our portraits cost
from twenty-five to thirty-three dollars. The
first of Mr. Stephens cost this latter sum. Un
der our present arrangement for engravings,
this expense is exceedingly heavy, and hence
our great desire to secure engravers of our own.
While in New York in October last to purchase
material, we foolishly concluded to have our
first number gotten up in a job-printing office
in that city, and it cost ns more than double
the expense of getting it out in our own estab
lishment, and it was not done so well in any
particular.
We hope to have our own engraving depart
ment very soon.
the last half century. During that time there
has been a great effort made to popularize poli
tics, ethics, religion and science, and some works
of fiction of decided merit have been gotten up
with the main design of enunciating or defend
ing some favorite dogma of the author. Even
such great masters of the art of fiction asBulwer
and Dickens have not hesitated to use the novel
as a vehicle for promulgating a creed or con
demning a custom. Indeed, the latter author
did more than the ablest pamphleteers could have
done in behalf of social reforms. The world
owes him a heavy debt of gratitude for his rich
humor and for his soul-stirring pathos. We can
never thank him enough for having created
Pickwick and Micawber, Pecksniff and Dick
Swiveller, Captain Cuttle and Boffin, Mrs. Jel-
laby and Sarah Gamp, and a host of others whose
conception and delineation would seem beyond
the powers of the most fertile genius. But per
haps more than for all these characters, humor
ous and pathetic, does he deserve our gratitude
for having portrayed so powerfully the tyranny .
of the school-room, the heart-breaking delays of f
the law and the miseries of the debtor's prison. In
all these, if the moral impairs the beauty of the j
work from an .esthetic view, we may well afford
to overlook the defect for the sake of the good
accomplished. In this country, novels have
been written in advocacy of all sorts of creeds
and theories—some vile in design and wretched 1
in execution, and some rising to a High degree
of literary excellence. Perhaps first of the latter
class stands Mrs. Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
It will require a hundred years yet to prove
whether or not this lady deserves to be called a
benefactress. As things now appear, she seems
to have done incalculable mischief to a poor,
harmless race. But whether she wrought for
good or evil, her work was well done. Not a
host of pamphleteers, journalists and politicians
combined did so much to prejudice the world’s
mind against slavery as this one work. True, it
contained much that was false, but this was so
ingeniously woven in with what was true that
the effect wik m^re. powerful than a closely logi
cal dissertation in which no flaw could be de
tected.
All the world reads fiction now—many read
nothing else. Through this medium alone can
the great mass of people ever be reached. Even
the vendors of quack nostrums and guano agents
find it necessary to put their advertisements in
the form of little stories. While we do not con
demn this nor deny that a good novel may be
written to inculcate a lesson, still we subscribe
in the main to the doctrine of our author, that
the best novels are those written with no other
purpose than to give a picture of human life and
thereby awaken emotions of the beautiful.
herself able a few days since to walk four miles
with but little fatigue ; and Miss Nettie Baird, a
sweet little girl of Indianapolis, who has been a
sufferer all her life from asthma, says she has not
*• wheezed” a single night since she got into this
atmosphere, and when at home during the win
ter she was scarcely able to live. These are facts
which came under our own observation, and
were altogether as susprising to ns as to the
happy and rejoicing ladies who left us on Tues
day last with rejuvenated strength to present
themselves in newness of life to their anxious
friends at home. We apprehend there will be
great rejoicing when they meet.
PERSONALS.
John Mitchell, the Irish patriot, died in Ire
land on the twentieth of March.
H. S. Glover has been confirmed as postmas
ter at Macon, and Arnold at Albany, Ga.
The great speech of ex-President Andrew John
son is the grand sensation of the day.
We were pleased to meet in our office, recently,
Colonel' Herbert Fielder, of Randolph county,
Georgia.
General A. H. Colquitt delivers the address
before the Atlanta Memorial Association on Me
morial Day.
Ex-Governor Joseph Brooks, of Arkansas, has
been nominated by the President as postmaster
at Little Rock.
His Excellency, Governor Smith, has recov
ered from his recent illness, but his face still
shows the effects of a severe attack.
Hon. John T. Clarke and Col. Arthur Hood
have recently made eloquent and learned speech
es at the Fort Gaines bar, in this State.
Hon. J. H. Guerry, one of the rising young
men of Georgia, presided as Judge during a
part of the recent term at Fort Gaines.
Dr. W. P. Harrison, of this city, will deliver
the address at the commencement exercises of
the Rome Female College, next summer.
Judge Kiddoo has given his decision in the
Strozier-Wright contest over the bench in the
Albany Circuit. He sustains Judge Wright.
The failure of the banking houses of Lamkin
& Pye, of Forsj’th, Georgia, have brought great
trouble and loss to the citizens of that place.
[For The Sunny South.]
BROADWAY.
BY L. E. BLECKLEY.
From early dawn till after dark.
A current flows towards the Park.
And full as fast, the other way,
A counter-current to the Bay:
This mighty stream, from side to side,
Is thus a double living tide.
Ye restless ones, who to and fro.
In such wild hurry come and go,
Who run in haste both up and down
This roaring river of the town.
Say what it is ye all do seek,
Yrom day to day and week to week,—
What treasure of the heart or mind
Ye seek, but never seem to find ?
To judge your purpose by your speed.
It must be something great indeed;
'Tis surely not a rash surmise
That life-eternal is your prize:
No meaner aim, methinks, could you
With ardor such as this pursue.
And yet, alas! if truth were told,
The most of you are after gold!
[Communicated.]
CHURCH AND STATE.
The Gladstone-Manning controversy is deep
ening in interest and widening in numbers and
importance. As far as the providence of God
can be read in the workings of men, it would
seem that the last conflict is approaching, and
that we are near the trial of the great problem,
whether God reigns in the hearts of men, or
their consciences are to be controlled by the as
sumed infallibility of one of their own species.
“Render to Cresar the things that are Ciesar’s
and to God the things that belong to God,” was
the precept of divine wisdom given to prevent
conflict with human governments and the spir
itual kingdom of our Saviour. The history of
nearly nineteen centuries shows that whatever
contests have occurred, have arisen in denying
to “Ciesar the things that are Cmsar’s.” Human
government cannot come in conflict with the
moral law of the Bible, and there is no part of
Christian teaching that can conflict with the
rules of action for man’s government in relation
to the human authority to which he is a subject
or of which he is a citizen.
From the many letters of American Bishops
which have and are appearing, denouncing the
position of Mr. Gladstone; from the late an
nouncement at the capitol of this country, cele
brating the beautiful and sacred rite of marriage,
that God’s blessing was attendant only upon
those marriages that had the sanction of the
Pontiff and his adherents; from signs unmistak
able, and which it is not necessary now to men
tion, the agitation of this question portends a
storm that may shake empires to their founda
tion. Even in our country it is assuming an
importance outside the limit of that Christian
charity which belongs to God. If the boldness
which marks the defenders of th e Apostolic See
on the Continent and in Great Britain should
attach to the friends of “Infallibility” in this
country, it may assert some influence in politi
cal organizations that cannot be foreseen.
But my object in this communication is not
to discuss or elicit controversy, but to ask you to
publish the real issue as it appears in the corres
pondence between the Pope and the Emperor of
Germany in 1873. It is remarkable that while
the Pope announces persecution of the Catho
lics as his reason for soliciting the interposition
of the Emperor, and the Emperor in his dis-
Governob Kellogg has issued a call for an | claimer puts the onus on the Catholic clergy and
To Our Exchanges.
The Can-Can.—We most heartily applaud our
city editors for the bold and outspoken stand
they have taken against this obscene importation
from the vulgarisms of the Parisian Jardin Ma-
bille. It is astonishing that so disgusting an
exhibition should ever have been countenanced
on the American stage. It is shocking even to
the most depraved and abandoned of men, and
we do not believe that a simple announcement
of it alone would draw out a baker’s dozen of
any class of people.
Keep up your fire, brethren, upon this and all
' other innovations of the moral code. It is the
duty of the “fourth realm ” to guard and defend
the bulwarks of public virtue, and there is al-
Seeing, every week, num- wa y S great assurance of the moral purity of a
bers of original articles from this paper floating oa tion so long as the public press is the open
around promiscuously with no credits, we beg
leave to inform our confreres that, since our jour
nal is made up almost exclusively of original
matter, exchanges are worth nothing to us, save
for the notices and credits they may see proper
to give us,
City Carriers and City Post-Office. — This
paper is delivered in all portions of the city by
the regular mail-carriers of the Post-Office De
partment. and a more faithful set of fellows we
never knew. Their energy is unflagging, and
their great desire seems to be to do their work
honestly. And in this connection we are pleased
to bear public testimony to the uniform cour
tesy and efficiency of all the attaches of the office.
They are attentive and obliging to all comers,
regardless of class, style, color or “previous
condition.”
Nall, the cashier and order clerk, seems to have
completely mastered his department, and dis
charges its onerous duties with great fidelity.
Mills is a faithful grinder, and is assisted by a
Stout and clever set of fellows. The distin
guished head. Governor Bard, is the very em
bodiment of cool dignity and unaffected cour
tesy,—ready at all times to grant every facility
consistent with duty, to correct all errors or
transact any business that may come under his
immediate direction.
and avowed enemy of crime and prostitution.
Its influence is almost omnipotent in the educa
tion of public sentiment, and so long as its tone
is high, pure and elevating, the glories of an
exalted civilization will bless the land.
Strange, Passing Strange.— One gentleman
heard a conversation between two other gentle
men in this city, a few days since, in which one
of them informed the other that this paper was
printed in New York, and the third gentleman
came to us to know if it was true. The idea is
simply ridiculous. To sit here in Atlanta and
get up a paper every two weeks in New York,
have it printed and shipped here for distribution,
would be a remarkable feat, to say the least of
it. But we beg leave to say again, for the ben
efit of these parties, and others in like ignorance,
that The Sunny South is not a Northern job, but
a Southern one—an Atlanta specimen; and if
those doubting Thomases who think that noth
ing good or handsome can be gotten up anywhere
but in New York, will call at our office, they
may stand by our printers and see the entire
modus operandi. It is a Georgia job—edited by
Georgians, set up by Georgians; and if there is
a paper of the kind, printed in New York or
elsewhere, that surpasses it or even equals it in
mechanical beauty, we do not know which it is.
A Costly Monument.— At James’ Bank is a
small glass case in which may be seen, piled up
promiscuously, Confederate treasury notes and
Georgia notes, amounting in the aggregate to
one million and a half dollars. Here are all
denominations, from fifty cents up—some that
have seen service and some as bright and new
as if just issued from the press.
What a monument!—what a reminder! Once
it was the semblance of wealth and power; now
it is waste paper.
Here is a ten-dollar bill that has evidently seen
service—wrinkled, greasy, mutilated ! For this
some poor private endured the biting blast, the
nipping frost, the wearisome march, and the
privation of the camp; aye, lost a leg or an
arm or an eye—mayhap his life. And this ten
dollars was for one month’s service of privation,
hardship and danger. The carmine that illumes
it may well remind us of the blood that was
spilled.
This package of one hundred dollar bills, so
smooth and so elegant, is a memento of the bar
ter of manhood for mammon—of patriotism for
pelf—of Christianity for covetousness. For this
the speculator sacrificed all the finer feelings
of his nature and repressed the higher emo
tions of his soul; for this he ground down the
soldiers' wives and passed by unheeded the wails
of suffering childhood. Little recked he of hu
manity or charity, so he possessed the power of
Midas to turn everything into gold, even the
tears of starving women and the groans of
perishing children. Ah! how many departed
hopes, crushed aspirations, blasted lives, broken
fortunes and scattered households does this
monument represent ? How many priceless
tears, unavailing cries, untold anguish and va
cant chairs does it call mind? How much of
happiness gone forever! of how many aimless
lives, early graves, shattered constitutions and
mutilated limbs, is it the symbol ?
Aye ! It symbolizes the vanity and uncertainty
of wealth. Why toil simply to hoard up that
which is worthless in itself?—that which only
represents good as it is used for good. The love
extra session of the Legislature, to meet at New
Orleans on the fourteenth instant, to carry out
adjustments.
The Hon. Alexander H. Stephens has reached
his home at Cmwfordville, and is in fine health
and spirits. Long life to this great, good and
generous man.
General Marcus J. Wright, a well-known
Confederate officer, has been tendered, it is said,
an important military appointment by the Khe
dive of Egypt.
Hon. John T. Morgan, one of the finest legal
believers of interfering with “political order,”
and violating the laws of his country even to
rebellion, his Holiness drops the controversy
without denial. Justice.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Letter dated August 7, 1873, from the Vatican
of the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX to the German
Emperor, Wilhelm the First:
“All the various measures taken by your Maj
esty’s government of late are more or less in
tended to destroy Catholicism. Much as I have
minds of Alabama, is addressing the people of re fleeted on the possible cause of these severe
that State on the subject of calling a constitu
tional convention.
Major General Sir Garnet J. Wolsi.ey says
that General Lee has had no superior in military
genius since the great Napoleon astonished the
world by his marvelous career of victory.
Mr. George Price, of Danville, Virginia, aged
seventy-eight, led to the hymeneal altar, the
measures, I confess I am unable to discover
what has occasioned them. On the other hand,
I am told that your Majesty, far from approving
the proceedings of your government, is, on the
contrary, dissatisfied with the stringent course
adopted. If it be true that your Majesty really
disapproves the policy pursued, and the letters
yon have formerly addressed to me are calcula
ted to demonstrate that you cannot but be dis-
young and beautiful Miss Florence Faulkner, pleased at what is happening now—if, I say,
your Majesty really disapproves of your govern
ment injuring the religion of Christ by perse
vering in the rigorous measures adopted in this
case, I may well ask whether your Majesty will
not convince yourself that these doings can have
no other resuit but to undermine your Majesty’s
throne. I speak out frankly, because I fight
under the banner of truth; and I address you
on this subject because I am bound to tell the
truth to all, including non-Catholics, and be
cause all those who have been baptized in a
manner which I cannot at present explain, be
long to the Pope.”
aged nineteen. Ridiculous!
Colonel Virgil Powers has been appointed
superintendent of the Macon and Western rail
road. He is one of the best railroad men in the
State, and will manage the road with credit and
ability.
Dr. J. F. Bozeman has been appointed by the
Governor, under resolution of the General As
sembly, to assist Treasurer Jones in righting
and systematizing the books and accounts of his
department.
‘Colonel R. Barnwell Rhett, formerly editor
of the New Orleans Picayune, and at present
residing in Huntsville, Alabama, will soon settle
in Dallas, Texas, with a view of entering the
journalistic field.
Reply of Emperor Wilhelm the First, of Ger
many, dated September 3, 1873:
“If the reports which have reached your Holi
ness on what has recently happened in this
T . i*. j i n * vr country had contained onlv what is true, your
Judge Emmons, of the Federal Court at Mem- Holiness could not have indulged the supposi
tion that my government has adopted a course
disapproved of by me; under the constitution of
phis, declared the Civil Rights bill unconstitu
tional; that offenses created by the bill are such
as come exclusively within the jurisdiction of
the State courts.
The funeral of the venerable Dr. L. F. W.
Andrews took place last Thursday, from the res
idence of Mr. T. J. Lane, Macon, Georgia. He
was buried by Macon Lodge, No. 5, F. A. M. A
goodly number of members turned out.
Dr. De Haas, the American consul at Jerusa
lem, sends the information that for the first time
known to the present inhabitants the cold weather
was so severe as to form ice. The Arabs, having
never seen ice before, were completely puzzled,
and could not understand “why water should
change to glass!”
Mrs. James K. Polk has presented the Ten
nessee Historical Society with a pen made from
an eagle’s quill dropped by an eagle in Virginia
and presented to President Polk in 1845, and
with which he signed his first messrge to Con
gress, the treaty of peace with Mexico, and other
important documents.
We had a delightful call recently from Mrs.
_ Wm. Henry Peck, the wife of the author and a
of it for its own sake indurates the soul; the de- most excellent lady, and were pleased to learn
sire to accumulate it for the purpose of affording
the means of good enlarges the heart ?
“ Wealth in the gross is death, but life diffused,
As poisou heals in just proportions used ;
In heaps like ambergris, a stink it lies.
But well dispensed, is incense to the skies.”
We build ourselves monuments with each
pulse-beat, imperishable, if we live in noble
deeds and virtuous thoughts ; in higher aspira
tions and grander achievements, by taking in
the whole of Humanity instead of Self. Shall
from hei that she fiad secured a residence in
this city, and that they would locate here per
manently in the Spring. She will bring several
charming daughters, some of whom are already
making fine reputations with their pens.
The Fort Gaines editor of the Cuthbert Appeal
speaks thus handsomely of our esteemed friend,
Colonel J. T. Flewellen, Solicitor-General of the
Pataula Circuit of this State: “He is a host in
himself—a man of large brain and expanded
views, and commands alike admiration and re-
Gold, then, the most dazzling evidence of speet, for there is nothing little about the man.”
r\tir 1 i vps Tlin cold oditAt* TinmiDofoc )iim fnr a “rlllpfll
wealth, be the monument of our lives ?
mortal type the immortal ?
‘ Beam-ethereal, suily'd and absorpt.
Though suily’d and* dishonored, still divine.'
Shall The said editor then nominates him for a “ducal
' coronet” when the “ Em pise " comes. His noble
1 companion, we are satisfied, would make a
charming duchess.
my States such a thing is impossible, the laws
and administrative measures adopted in Prussia
requiring my sovereign consent. Deeply do I
grieve that som| of my Catholic subjects have in
the last two years organized a political party
bent upon disturbing, by revolutionary in
trigues, the good relations which have so'hap
pily existed between the various denominations
in Prussia for centuries. I regret that persons
belonging to the higher ranks of the Catholic
clergy have not only approved this movement,
but supported it even to open rebellion against
the existing laws of the country. Your Holiness
will not have failed to perceive that similar in
cidents have recently occurred in the majority
of the European States, as well as in some coun
tries on the other side of the ocean. It is not for
me to investigate the motives which have
prompted priests and believers of a Christian de
nomination to join the enemies of political order;
but it is my duty in the States where govern
ment has been intrusted to me by God Almighty
to watch over the preservation of domestic peace
and to uphold the authority of the law. Con
scious of being answerable to God for the ful
fillment of my royal duties, I shall maintain
order and law in my States against each and
every attack while God grants me the power to
do so. As a Christian monarch, I am compelled,
though with sorrow, to attend to my royal func
tions, even when they should oblige me to pun
ish the servants of a church which, I presume,
agrees with the Evangelical church in recogniz
ing obedience towards secular authority as a
command contained in the divine revelation
vouchsafed to us. Unfortunately, many of the
clergy, under your Holiness’ control, in their
conduct, deny this teaching of the Christian doc
trine, thus obliging my government, supported
by the vast majority of my faithful Catholic and
Evangelical subjects, to compel observance of j
the law by secular force. ”