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% Journal griiotci) to lljc Interests of tbe Catljoltc Cljurd) in tlje Confeierate states.
44 M1 TT Id GIAD TIT M TUIT M I N VAGI NA M E T I>E U S PACTS KR 1 T TIdCU M. ’ ’
VOL. I.
<the pacificator:
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE
INTERESTS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN THK
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.
And containing, in addition to Catholic
intelligence front all parts of the world,
Tiilcv, Poetry, (Jenoral News, and Miscel
laneous Articles.
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An Address to the People of tie
United States in Behalf of Peace.
BY A CATHOLIC DIVINE.
Fdlow Christians and Friends :
I take up my argument with you
where i left it at my last communica
tion. 1 proved to you that the war, on
-your side, was unjust, upon all the
principles of sound theology and juris
prudence. This is, indeed, the chief
consideration in reference te war. But,
were the war as just and equitable as
it is unjust and iniquitous, we have
another important view to take in this
matter, in connection with the second
purt of my theme: An decentf Is it
becoming ? Is the war in accordance
with propriety and decency, even if it
were not reprobated by justice ? __
«*ency and propriety are "‘essentially
distinct from justice. Thus, in the
well-known parable of our Lord, the
man who had been forgiven the enor
mous sum of ten -thousand talents had
certainly a strict right of justice to the
few pence that his lellow-servant owed
him ; but decency and propriety re
quired hint not to urge his claim of a
ievr pence, when he had been forgiven
*o great a sum. Thus, also, the adul
terers whs brought the guilty woman
to our Lord, felt that decency and pro
priety did not allow them to cast the
first stone at her, and they wentaway. #
I will begin with the name you give
to the Southern people, who defend
their rights by force of arms. Yo.u
call them Rebes s. Is it not. in yon,
an open breach of all decency and
propriety to call them so ? How un
fortunate is the selection of the name
on your part! You have made it your
business, from the beginning of you*
existence as a nation, to encourage, to
promote, to exsite, and when this was
out of your power, at least to praise,
admire, and almost deify ail rebels,
true rebels, in all countries. That
name of rebel was sweet music in the
ears of all the people, save a small
portion of sober, judicious persons;
and now, forgetting all your former
principles and theories, you brand with
this name of rebels the Southern peo
ple, as if guilty of a most heinous
crime, How-comes this sudden change
:>f ideas and convictions ? A wonder
ful emuxrsirm indeed has been operated
in you; yesterday, rebellion was a
noble deed, the test of patriotism, was
an exalted virtue, was everything that
is beautiful; and, to-day, it is a crime,
a meanness, an infamy, to be put down
by lire and sword. Remember the
evations you gave to LaFayette some
forty years ago. lie was a "rebel, an
arch-rebel, having pulled down, or
rather aided in pulling down, a govern
ment, net of 80, but of niGre than 800
rears standing; and so deeply rooted
was rebellion in his heart, that, in
3830, he was also most efficient in a
rebellion that broke the Government
es .Charles X, of France, a government
formed and sanctioned bv the solemn
approbation of all Europe. You have
not forgotten the wave of approbation
of that rebellion of 1830, which rolled
from one end of the country to the
i other. Kossuth was another rebel who
did all he could to make bis rebellion
succeed, but in vain. Ido you not
i praise him, exalt him to the skies, and
compensate him by all sorts of civic
demonstrations for his failure? Re-,
member Lopez, too, who lost his life
by the garotte in Cuba, and under
went the fate of a felon by the hands
of the hangman. Had he not obtained
all his men from this country, the
native soil of rebellion, revolution,
freebooting and filibustering ? and was
not all possible encouragement given
to him by the press and the public
opinion in this country, so weakly op
posed by the official acts of authority
that they were scarcely anything above
a nonentity. And about Garibaldi;
he lias offered his services to you ; you
would have willingly accepted them,
if untoward circumstances had not
prevented it. Can there be a rebel in
the more true and literal acceptation
of the word, than a man who invaded,
with an armed force, a peaceable ter
ritory, and overthrew the existing gov
ernment, without the remotest shadow
even of a pretext ? Sti 11, he was eulo
gized and praised as a great man, be
cause he succeeded at least in one re
bellion, having failed in others. How
can, then, the people of the United
States, with any show of decency and
propriety, assail and pursue, with so
much rage and such relentless revenge,
a so-called rebellion which is really no
rebellion at all, and is ouly the legiti
mate exercise of powers not forbidden
’by the Constitution, and admitted as
valid by at least some of the wisest
heads of the country? Why, now, my
friends, hate rebellion so much, when
you halt: been all the time applauding
to the echo at all real rebellions?
Why now pursue, with such implac
able rage, acts incomparably and un
questionably more innocent than those
of LaFayette, Lopez, Kossuth and Gar
ibaldi, which have obtained your un
bounded applause, received your
warmest congratulations, and enlisted
your most sincere sympathies? All!
tied punishes you with the very tiling
that has been tin object of your re
"peated sins. God wishes to show to
the world the emptiness, the hypocrisy,
the treachery of the support you have
always given to real and unwarrant
able rebellions. Here, then, we find
in your way of acting, the verification
of what the Prophet says: “Iniquity
lias lied to itself.” God chastises you
with the rod which you loved so much,
which you praised so highly, which
you extolled as the nec plus ultra of
houor and glory, and you repine, you
murmur, you fall into paroxysms of
rage, you shod torrents of blood. O.
the folly! O, the inconsistency of man !
So much for the name of rebel. It
is very unbecoming in you to give mch
an appellation to Southern soldiers;
but let us pass from the name to the
rSality. They are rebels, you say,
and against whom ? The name of
rebel is a patent absurdity in a Republic;
{he people are sovereign. Can a man
lea rebel against himself? the peo
| pie rebelling against themselves ? This
is a contradiction in terms. But you
mean rebellion against the Union.
But they, themselves, formed the
Union, and they cannot have rebelled
against the Union without having re
belled against themselves. The word
rebel has, therefore, no meaning, unless
you say that the South has rebelled
against the North. But here again the
folly and absurdity of the expression
shows itself in all its strength; the South
owed no allegiance to the North.
Georgia owes nothing to Massachu
setts; Virginia owes nothing to New
York. A claim of Massachusetts and
New York over Georgia and Virginia
is something which has not even been
thought of, and is too futile to need a
serious confutation. But, admitting
they arc rebels, is it not against all
decency and propriety, in you, to at
tack and fight them with such viru
lence—you who are also rebels, but far
worse rebels than they are ? What
are the United States, but a successful
rebellion against Great Britain? The
bonds that united the colonies to Great
Britain were incomparably stronger,
and of longer date, and of more re
spectable standing than those which
united Georgia and Virginia to Massa
chusetts and New York. The colonies
owed allegiance to the Crown ; there
could not he a shadow of doubt about
it; they had received from the Crown
the very charter that made them col
onies : their officers held their power
from the Crown; and that state of
things had lasted for Massachusetts
AUGUSTA, GA., OCTOBER 15, 1861
and Virginia, and many other colonies,
more than a hundred years. Compare
these bonds with those that united the
States together. Virginia had re
ceived nothing from Massachusetts.
Georgia owes no allegiance to New
York ; they had formed a voluntary
Union ip which all the parties had
equal rights, and no one party could
claim superiority or dominion over the
other. The Union lasted, as an experi
ment, for a little more than eighty
years
I ask you, then, with what decency
can you maintain that you were right
in rebelling against Great Britain and
severing your union with her, and that
the South was wrong iu abjuring a
short-lived Union, made of compara
tively very loose and very brittle bands?
I now, likewise, make a comparison
between the wrongs complained of in
both cases. The colonies complained
that they were taxed without their
■consent. This was the original griev
ance. But it is a mere peccadilo, when
placed before what the South com
plained of: The Fugitive Slave Law,
torn up by you, in the face of the
Union; their servants, possessed by
lawful titles, taken away from them ;
and the beginning of an armed coali
tion to free all slaves, and put arms
into their hands in order to kill their
masters. As to the wrongs of which
the Declaration of Independence makes
a long recital, and which were the
consequence of the first wrong al
ready mentioned, they do not weigh a
feather in the scale, compared with the
wrongs to which the Southern people
have been subjected from the begin
ning of this unnatural struggle ; their
territory invaded; their servants en
ticed and seized forcibly; their ports
closed; murder, arson, pillage, and
devastation, in every fiendish and
hellish shape, inaugurated every
where; and streams of human blood
reddening the soil of every State that
claimed its inalienable rights. Hence,
it is a perfect enigma for the people of
Europe that the United States, born
of rebellion scarcely excusable, should
now devote all their power, energy and
strength, in blood and money, to stifle
a so-called rebellion, incomparably
more excusable in itself, and pro
voked by incomparably greater in
juries.
How can you, in decency and pro
priety, ask the Southern people to go
back to the Union with you? If the
reasons that have been the first cause
of the war were as futile as they are
strong, even then you can not now in
sist upon Union any more. There is
now an inseparable stream of blood be
tween the two sections of the country;
you have robbed them, made them
exiles and prisoners, snatched their
servants from them, made a vast num
ber of widows and orphans over the
land, and filled every place with blood.
Are these claims to another Union?
Good sense spurns the very idea of it;
the plainest notions of propriety loudly
declare that such antagonistic elements
cannot be united again. It is supreme
ly shocking and revolting in you to
solicit the hand and alliance of those
whose fathers, brothers, and sons you
have butchered!
Put then an end to a war which is
so absurd, so unbecoming, so unnatural,
and which decency alone requires you
to stop, if justice did not command it
imperiously. Cease to call our people
•Rebels; having made yourselves the
champions aftd advocates of all rebel
lions. llow indecorous is this word in
your mouth ! You. born of rebellion !
Remember the apologue: “ You walk
very crookedly,” said mother Crab to
her young ones. “ Oh! ma! look at
yourself.” Cease to aim at the subju
gation and extermination of your for
mer associates. The present revolution
is the legitimate child of that of 1776.
How revolting, is it not, to see a moth
er seeking to destroy her own offspring?
How insane, is it not, to find fault with
Those who follow your own example,
find walk on the very same road upon
fivhich you stand? If you wish the
South to return to you, begin then to
recant all your false theories of revolu
tion, independence, freedom and radi
calism ; go back to the Union you had
with Great Britain. She will receive
you yet as a prodigal child ; then turn
anew leaf altogether—be now steady
and inflexible in putting down all at
tempts at upsotting the powers that
be; preach obedience, submission, re
spect lor authority; proclaim, every
where, that you arc sorry for your past
errors, so as to repair the scandal you
have given to the world by your alli
ance with Jacobins, Sans-culottes, Car
bonairs, etc., etc.
But I hear you telling me, we are
tin; best Government in the world ; re
hellion against other governments is
good, but against ours is bad. A nice
{distinction. indeed! A curious dis
crimination! Much like the principle
iif swindlers, that it is right for them
to swindle others, but outrageous to be
swindled by any body. But I wish to
examine a little this assertion of yours
which you have repeated to satiety:
We are the best Government in the
world. If boasting, indeed, could give
the qualifications you boast of, it would
be for you a secure possession ; for you
have been boasting about it long
enough and loud enough, perhaps, to
make fools believe it. But remember,
that in boasting you are second to none,
except perhaps to the Chinese, among
whom it would be worse than heresy to
say that China is not the first nation in
the world. There is a class of persons
that have been exceedingly loud and
obstreporous about this supposed ex
cellence of the American Government,
and its fancied pre-eminence over all
other modes of political union. The
outlaws, banditti, sans-culottes, and
Jacobins, of all countries, have been
unanimous in this assertion, and, in
deed, the Government of America is
the one that will decidedly suit best
malefactors of all sorts, for impunity s
cheaper in America than in any part of
the world. Murder, swindling, injus
tice and frauds of all sorts, licentious
ness in all its hideous excesses, can
pretty easily escape detection, glide,
away unnoticed, and, with bails arid
other subterfuges, elude punishment.
The use of revolvers and other such
nice pieces of personal and gentle
manly accoutrement, has become so
common in your streets, that it is
scarcely a matter of curiosity and ex
citement. If it be this that constitutes
the best Government in the world, then
you have it; but I pray you, keep it for
yourselves, and may God preserve your
neighbors' from this, the best of Gov
ernments !
Good sense tells everybody that the
great objects of Government arc to
protect the life, property, honor and
other possessions of citizens from un
just aggression'. The best Government
is that which gives the greatest securi
ty to those possessions ; the worse Go
vernment is that in which a citizen is
not adequately protected, and is at the
mercy of violent and unjust aggres
sors." The best Government is that iu
which public officers discharge their
duty faithfully and conscientiously, so
as "to maintain order every where.
Electioneering is a poor way of secur
ing these competent arul faithful and
conscientious officers. Electioneering
shows very well those who are
anxious for the office, but does not
show those who are qualified for it.
To ascertain, then, where is the best
Government, we must ask those who
have lived under different Governments
to inquire where good and honest peo-
ple find a greater security and protec
tion for their life, their property and
other possessions. Those who have
lived in Canada, or England, or France,
will, I believe, tell you that life and
property are far more secure in those
countries than in the United States,
and, if they are sincere and upright,
they will, I think, tell you that the
ingredient which predominates in the
United States is a certain liberty or
freedom of doing wrong, which is no
liberty at all. but licentiousness, and
is totally different from true lib
erty ; as the Scripture says, “ tan
guam liberi non habentes malitise vela
men libertatem,” “as free, and not as
making liberty a cloak for malice.”—
1 Pet.
The goodness of a Government shows
itself by its permanence and stability.
The Government of Englantl has now
lasted for several centuries; if we
reckon from the Norman conquest, it
has lasted !more than eight hundred
years. The Government of France,
before it was destroyed by the dissemi
nation of the principles which formed
the U. S. Government, had lasted much
longer. The Government of other
countries of Europe had lasted, even
in the worse cases, several centuries
The Government of the Turks.althongh
NO. I
! tottering now and upheld by adventi
| tiotts stays, still has lasted more than
j four hundred years, from the time that
Constantinople 101 l into their hands.
T\ hat a strange contrast with the best
Government in the world! That Lest of
Governments could not last one hun
dred years ; it could not last the natu
ral life of many aged persons. Some
have lived to see the birth and burial
of the Union. That Union has coinfe
to an end, not from extrinsic causes of
ruin, but from internal causes of decay;
not from external attacks, but from in
ternal dissensions. It must then have
been*rotten from the beginning: and a
very accelerated decay it must have
been, or the galloping consumption.
The present war lays bare the weak
ness and the inadequacy of the Ameri
can Constitution ; it did not say where
the ultimate sovereign power resided,
anfl therefore it had in its very birth
an efficacious and powerful germ of
dissolution ; what has happened proves
it. The Constitution did not say what
mode of redress the several States had,
in case their interests were slighted or
assailed. It did not say what mode
should bo pursued against contuma
cious States. It has left the decision
of these important points to the coun
sels of party spirit, supported by can
non and bayonets. Such, in general, is
the nature of paper Constitutions made
beforehand in advance of events. From
the time that the old Government of
France was upset, there have been
some dozens of Constitutions, all assert
ed to bo sacred and inviolable, and all
violated and trampled under foot a
short while after their birth.
So much then on the Lest Govern
ment in the world. The present war
goes far to show that it is a far greater
approximation to the truth to say that
it is the worse Government in the world.
The aets of tyranny and barbarity that
have been sanctioned by the public
authority, and the assumption of all
kinds of powers by unscrupulous and
jicrogant officers, place that assertion
In a very clear light. It lias been con
troverted among ancients and moderns
which is the best form of Government,
the Monarchical, the Aristocratic,or the
Democratic. Aristotle has discussed'
that question, and so have subsequent
logicians and moralists. The downfall
of the great Western Republic, to
gether with the horrors that have ac
companied it, will supply the advocates
of monarchical superiority with anew
argument which it will ,be very hard
to confute. In our view, the goodness
of ;i Government does not depend very
materially on its form, whether Monar
chical,or Representative,or Democratic.
It depends chiefly on the morality of
the people ; and, alas 1 that element is
sadly deficient in many places. God
grant that it be not more deficient in
tlie United States than in other parts
of the world ! To return to our origi
nal question—my friends, you of the
North say your Government is the best
in the world. The South tells you to
keep it for yourselves, if you find it so,
But they find it the worsjjj Government
in the world for them, because it al
lowed you to trample with impunity on
the laws of the Union, and to rob the
South of its servants, and to monopolize
the best commercial and pecuniary in
terests of the country, to their great
detriment and annoyance. All these
your Government the
very wnrsp in the world for them.
Charity begins at home. You must al
low your neighbors to practice a prin
ciple which you admit with them.
People wish to be saved from th ■
consequences of their vices, but not
from their vices.
To the child, every bit of wood is a
gilded flower rod, on which fancy can
bud hundred-leaved roses.
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee calls Sheridan’s
I army “ Harper’s Weekly,” because it
| reaches Harper’s Ferry once a week.
J Mrs. Partington wants to know why
Captains don’t have their ships properly
i nailed while in port, instead of waiting
i to tack them up at sea.
; In the gardens of a certain noble
j man’s country house, there happened
! to be fixed up, at different spots, paint
j ed hoards with the request, “Please
; not to pluck the flowers without leave.”
; Some wag got a paint brush, and add
ed an s to the last word.
