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2 liable on that account to all the awful consequences of an unjust war. The Northern hordes who invaded tho Roman Empire spared no age, nor sex, committed everything to the flames, and established their abode in the place of those whom they had mur dered and driven away. But they were barbarians, and the most bar baroufe of them—tho Vandals—havo left their name a by-word, the symbol of cruelty and barbarity. War should not be waged in that manner among civilized nations, among Christian communities, much less among people of the same origin, of the same lan guage, and lately in so close fellow ship. War is not an open field for brigands, is not the enthronization of arson, murder and pillage, and one who would not observe certain rules of moderation, even in a just war, would, or at least should, be placed under the ban of nations. Let me ask you, my friends, whether those rules of mod eration which are sanctioned by the laws of nations in civilized warfare have been observed ? What are we to think of the act confiscating the prop erty of the Southern people ? Congress, in the early stage cf its existence (•July G, 1798), abjured this practice which is only worthy of those times when prisoners of war were made slaves. Again, promises made even to an enemy who surrenders must be complied with. I know of places, such as St. Augustine, Florida, that surren dered to the United States under the promise of protection. What was that protection ? Tho people were made to take an oath of allegiance which they detested, and were soon after driven from their homes in the winter, under the plea that they had relatives in the Confederate army. This is, indeed, a gross and unpardonable violation of justice and'good faith. Again, all authors and writers on war state that innocent persons—children, women, old people and non-qombatants—must not be harmed, and are not to be an object of attack. How do you recon cile this with the direct and deliberate shelling-of cities? But what shall I say of the right your Generals claim of sending the people of the cities they capture into exile ? I had the bad for tune of advising some of the people of Atlanta to stay, even if the city should be taken, as even in that case I thought they, would not be molested, and tho inconveniences of wandering through the Confederacy would far exceed those of staying. I judged so from whaft'l had seen in other parts of the country that had fallen into your bands. What a sad disappointment! The people of Atlanta mu*t go into exile, leave their homes and all their •property, and chqose an exile either South or North. This way of acting .assuredly renders the war unjust; and It is of no use to allege necessity, or the interest of the Government, for the Government is for the people, not the •perjple for the Government. Autocrats and de. ipots might bring in such a plea ; a Ilepu blican government cannot,with out a flagrant contradiction of all its principles:. . , But a word oh the, rights of the j ■Church: Assuredly, there is but one j view in reference to this, namely, that j war is not waged against Churches, \ and that the t must berespected in all ; eases, and I add, tho ecclesiastical : functions must be allowed to remain \ undisturbed. What sad opposition toj these principles of justice and reltopGn does not your w»'iy of conductdpfg the war acchibit? W hen, at j of the war, the Bi sbpvpwfrThis diocese j had to cross the l in®s, on his way to Savannah to take charge of the die- ! oese entrusted to hiiti by tho Holy See, j General Scott granted him a pass readily, saying that he did not wage war on the Church. .Soon after, things had changed, and Mix Seward was ap plied to by a diocese of Savannah, and, although the services of that Priest wefre very much needed, although .Mr. Seward wa.s told that a Priest of Savannah had died in Key- West, a victim and martyr of his duty in attending 4he yellow fever patients, who were raostly Federal soldiers, he has refused the pass on most frivolous pretexts. > 1 will only say to him, if these pages can reach him, that the Bishop has not practised retaliation, ■>.nd inrspite of the small number of Priests here, lie has sent two of them to Aiylersonville to assist, confess and xnoiqt the Federal soldiers who were at tl«; point of death. J will also tell hi ml that the labor of this spiritual assKtance, under these circumstances, is possible only to supernatural charity ana zeal. One of the Priests has near ly succumbed to the fatigue; but I re joice that the clergy has been able to return good for evil. But what shall I say of the desecration and burning of Churches ? Tho Catholic Church ot St. Mary’s, Ga., has been sacked and profaned ; the same has been done at THE PACIFICATOR A. CATHOLIC JOURNAL. j St. John’s Bar, at tho mouth of tho 1 St. John’s river. But the worst was ! perpetrated in cold blood at Jackson ville. A fine church, with a neat 1 dwelling for the Priest, was basely j committed to tho flames by a torch in the hands of Federal oilicers. This was done in broad daylight, at a time when there was no at tack, nor shadow of attack on the Fed eral army. The injustice is so obvious that tho Generals who have since been in command at Jacksonville have been ashamed or it, and promised to repair ! the injustice, but the reparation has ; yet to come. As an additional insult, they have assigned for the Catholic ; worship a sadly dilapidated hut, unfit | for any human being, opened to all j winds—and it is there that the Catho ; lie Bishop has given Confirmation to ! Federal soldiers and operatives, who : have applied to him for his ministry. ; The injustice of tho way of Cifrry j ing on tho war would reach its culmi ! nating point if the*North claimed the right of subjugation and extennina j tion. Still, the tendencies of the strug i glo seem to converge in that direction. | The injustice would be too palpable to j need any demonstration. Subjugation I can have a meaning only in the ways i and measures of a King, of an Auto | crat, of a Czar, or of a Sultan, but i subjugation is a piece of absurdity in ! a Republic; it is a contradiction in terms, a heresy in popular govern- j ment. It is the first axiom of a Re- j ■ public that the people are the real | sovereigns, and this right is deemed j anterior to all constitutions and all | laws; and hence the people in a Repub lic are to bo governed by persons who i receive their appointment and office j from the people themselves. To try | !to infringe this,’is to abjure Republi- ! j can ism ; to abjure the Declaration j jof Independence; abjure the Con-j stitution of the United States, abjure | all sense of propriety and justice, j Even monarchical countries have now I i sanctioned this as a part of the law of nations. Napoleon would not foist j himself upon the French people Vith ! out the consent of the nation. Lately, in the subjugation of Sicily and other ■ parts of Italy (which I deem to have | been a high-handed piece of injustice), ; there was, at least, a seeming election i | made by the people. The same was : observed in Mpxico. What a crying ! injustice and a monstrous iniquity if | the North would conquer and treat the | South as the Czar of Russia treats the | Poles! | I will stop here in reference to the ; justice of the war. I have stated to I you, my friends, what appears to mo ! clear and undeniable ; the right of so | cession without a hostile provocation j from*the North was doubtful, and a | war in that event might have been I just on both sides, at least if acting on ! the defensive. But there having been j provocation and open avowed resistance j to the laws of Congress oy the North, j the right of the South to provide for ! herself was clear, for, as Vattel says : | " Whenever a State has given sigus of j injustice, rapacity, pride, ambition, or ! of an imperious thirst for rule, it be j comes a suspicious neighbour to bo j guarded against, and its designs may jbo prevented by force of arms. Are j we to delay the averting of our ruin j till it becomes inevitable ?” The in i justice on the part of the North was | consummated by refusing all compro b’lfi’fies. all negotiations, all mediation's. | The JSlciftu has acted as if its right j were clear anaHudisputable; whereas, ! it was, at best, oily Jf dubious right j under the most favdtahle circumstan | ces. With that dunions right it has | undertaken and carried on an offensive j war upon a nation that is and ever has | been willing to treat for peace, that j lias clone no wrong to the North, and j is willing to accept the mediation of neutral and disinterestec parties. That aggressive Var has bear carried on with a severity and rigir at variance with the usages of the civilized nations; and the just rights of innocent parties and of Churches have been trampled under foot. I leave it to you, my friends, is such a war just? Can you, without guilt, approve, abet and for ward such warfare ? I place before your eyes the sad con sequences of an unjust war. I speak for those who have a conscience and I believe in the retributive justice of God in the next world. Tho death of every ! man killed in such a war is a murder, a real murder, imputable to the authors | and abettors of it; the destruction of | property by fire, or in any other i way, is a rapine and robbery, and i there is an obligation to repair | these damages and losses as far as !it can be done. “ The authors of an unjust war must,” says Bouvier, j raise houses thrown down, rebuild cities destroyed, reinstate families that I have been plundered, restore theterri | tory acquired, and refund all expenses I incurred by the enemy. They must I therefore use all' possible diligence to lie certain of the justice and necessity 1 of a war before they enter into it.” | Vol. 5, p. 462. The obligation of repairing those damages is of that kind which Divines and Jurists call solidary or in solidum, that is, it affects all concerned in it, so that if one does not or cannot repair the damage, the others are bound to make restitution in his place. A word also to foreigners : wc have found a good number of them in the j stockade at Andersonvillo—lrish, Ger | mans, Canadians, French, Swiss, Bel gians, Poles, Italians and Spaniards, with some Indians* A large bounty of fered a soldier docs not make tho war just, and is not a reason to become, in an unjust war, a soldier. Before engag ing in a war you must be satisfied that it is just, and if you engage in war | without this condition, you imbrue your hands in tho' blood of the innocent, you become a murderer and an assas sin. Now, how can you determine that the war is just on the part of the United States? You see that England and France will remain neutral, and you step forward, enticed by avarice. What dreadful account will you not have to render at the bar of Divine justice! I am now done with tho first part of my thesis: “An liceat ?” Two more parts remain, which will be presented to your consideration, in due time: “An decent? cm expediat?” I hope that no one will take offence at what I have said. I seek only truth and jus tice, and I trust that everybody has the same feeling. The Catholic clergy do not mix in mere political matters ; but justice is a part of religion, and I feel it my duty to try all that is in my power, even if I should be thought obtrusive and presumptuous, to pre vent tho dreadful evils that this un natural war entails upon the country, and which its continuance must only tenfold intensify. <EI)£ Pacificator. 13.I 3 . WALSH, \ T-u T. BLOME,j Eaitors * Office, corner .lEchitoah »V Key unit!* St a. ATJGrtJSTZX, GrA.., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8,1864 (Uo the lufclir. In presenting to the public a news paper to he devoted to the interests of the Roman Catholic Church, it is ne cessary, perhaps, that we should say a few words as to our reasons for inau gurating such an enterprise at this time ; and also as to the policy which wc intend to pursue in the manage ment of the paper. The separation of the Southern States from the Northern portion of the American Union, and their organiza tion into an independent Confederacy, has brought upon us the vengeance of those from whom we separated; and we now find ourselves, not only in volved in a bloody struggle to main tain the right of freemen, which w| exercised, but, also, thrown upon our own resources in everything that con cerns our existence—our spiritual- and moral, as well as our temporal, wel fare. Enterprise has been developed in all sections of the Confederacy, manufactories have been established ; vessels have been purchased and em ployed in evading the blockade ; and even the literary talent of our people has found expression through the pa triotic enterprise and industry of Con federate publishers. In the midst of all this energy and activity on the part of the young nation, we found our Church without a,representative organ, without the means of communication between the Bishops, the Pastors, and the people, while our brethren of sev eral Protestant denominations were giving a generous support to a num ber of journals of their respective persuasions. To supply this want—to give to the Catholic ecclesiastics of the South an organ for the promulgation of their religious documents—to furnish Catho lic readers with a pure Catholic litera ture and intelligence from the Catholic Church in other parts of the world— to remove those unfounded prejudices and unjust assumptions against the Church of Rome, which exist in the minds of so many outside of her juris diction—and, above all, to aid, by every honorable means that lay in our humble power, in restoring to our Con federacy an early, honorable, and last ing peace, are the principal objects we have in view in the establishment of The Pacificator. Efforts in behalf of peace have the approval of the august head of the Church, of its clergy everywhere, and will meet also with the sanction and good wishes of good men of all creeds and climes. We shall labor assiduously in this holy cause, and in all things that tend to promote the interests and glory of the Church, of which this journal is noif a humble but an earnest organ. As to our political views, they are already known to our readers. A con nee tion of years with the press of the South, and particularly with the Daily Constitutionalist, of this city, has given evidence enough that our hearts are with the great struggle in which we are engaged—that, believing in the right of secession, or of revolution, if the term is preferred, wo are conscien tiously bound to give our support to the cause of Southern Independence. In the views, however, to which we intend to give utterance, in these col umns, whether religious or political, we shall studiously endeavor to avoid anything calculated to give offence to those who differ with us. P emanding the right to think and act for ourselves in matters of opinion, we accord the same right to others. Feeling sure that we shall thus meet the approval of a liberal-minded and kind-hearted public, and hoping that we may be successful in the accomplishment of the designs with which w r e have set out, wo commit our enterprise to their generous patronage and support. YVAE. In the midst of a terrible and bloody struggle for territorial dominion and political power on one side, and for political independence and the right of self-government on the other, it is no time, perhaps, to reach tire minds and hearts of men through the me dium of argument and reason. In flamed by passion, excited by feelings of resentment, they are prepared to assprt everything that is for them, but to admit nothing that is against them. It seems to matter little, therefore, so far as the immediate present is con cerned, what may be said or done—it cannot affect the result speedily or at once. A word or two, here and there, however, addressed to the better feel ings of man’s nature, to his reason, or to his sense of justice, must, after a while, perhaps by slow degrees only, reach j&e eyes and ears of those who aro engaged in this fierce contest, and awaken their minds once more from the dark desire of vengeance with which they are shrouded, to brighter and happier thoughts of peace and humanity. Those who are warring against us seem to have forgotten or overlooked some important facts in connection with the present contest. We desire to recall their attention to these facts. The American Govern ment having been founded upon the Republican principle of tho right of self-government, or, in other words, that “ all just government is derived from the consent of the governed,” it follows, as a natural sequence, that the people; or any respectable portion of them, in point of numbers, have the right to renounce a Government which lias ceased to afford them ade quate protection, or which has become burthensome to them ; and to. estab lish for themselves another, more in accordance with their views of right or their public necessities. This doctrine was enunciated by Mr. Lincoln himself some years ago ; and he went even so far as to assert that a people who thus have the power to revolutionize, have, also, the power to compel submission on the part of any refractory persons among them. This right of revolution, for sufficient cause, has always been admitted as sound Republican doctrine; but American Republicanism, in the judgment of a large number, went a step further, | and held that the States which formed the American Union were sovereign, and had delegated only certain rights and powers to the General Govern ment, reserving to themselves other rights. Among these Reserved rights was the right to withdraw from the Union, which was but a copartnership of sovereign States, at any time that they felt aggrieved. The great prin ciples for which the South is strug gling, therefore, are: Ist, The right of Secession ; 2d, Political Indepen dence ; and 3d, The right of Self- Government ; -and against these the North has put forth, and is still put ting forth, all its great energies, its vast resources, and its mighty power. The assertion that the General Gov ernment of the late American Repub lic has a right to coerce a sovereign State, or a free people, into a Union, and under a Government which they loathe and cannot recognize, seems to us such a monstrous heresy in Repub licanism, that we cannot understand how any sane man who professes to be an advocate of Constitutional Liberty and free government, can, for a mo ment, admit or advocate it. It matters not, therefore, whether we admit or deny the right of seces sion, we cannot, as Republicans, deny the right of revolution. Admitting this right, therefore, it is not neces sary to enquire further into the causes ot the present war. It is sufficient to know that it is, on the part of the South, a war for political rights, and, therefore, a just and excusable war. But while the South is thus engaged in a terrible war, she longs for peace, and is ready, at any moment, to confer with the Government of tho United States, with a view to bring about such a happy result. It is in the power of the North to stop the war. Why will she refuse it? Have the wails of the widow and the tears of the orphan no power to move them to pity? Have ruined homesteads, deso lated fields, and the blackened walls of once happy homes, no horrors for them ? Have the thousands, of dead and dying, upon hundreds of battle fields, no efficacy in awakening their sympathies ? Will not these sad pic tures of w'o and desolation strike deep into their hearts, appealing to their boasted Christian enlightenment and sense of humanity, and stay them in their march of death and destruction ? These are questions which the people of the North should ask themselves: and to give us peace and independence should be the quickening impulse, the animating desire, of every one whose pride is his patriotism and his love ot justice. May God, in Ilis infinite mercy, bring about speedily such a glorious and happy result! TO stjbscblbebs. The names of those who fail to for ward their subscription upon receipt of the first number of The Pacificator* will bo erased from our books. B£sr Single copies of the The Paci ficator can be obtained at the office of the paper ; also, at the Music Stores of Blackhab Bro’s and J. 11. Hewitt.