CATHOLIC VOTERS

[The series of articles which follows, was occasioned by the effort made by the editor of a leading political journal, to identify Bishop England and the Catholic voters of the United States with one of the political parties of the day, and to charge upon them both the practice of corrupt means for advancing its interests, and also a participation with the European governments in a scheme for the overthrow of the republican institutions of their country. The articles were evidently written by Bishop England, speaking of himself as of another person,-a journalistic license. They appeared in the United States Catholic Miscellany, Vol. XX., for 1840. The two short pieces added, under the same head, are extracted from Nos. 25 and 27 of the same volume.]

SECTION I

Catholic Voters: We have seen the letter of Bishop England, upon which the editor of the Baltimore Pilot and Transcript, Mr. Duff Green, who is a writer favourable to the election of General Harrison to the Presidency, has fastened his commentary. It is more than a month since we read the letter upon a Georgia paper. We found it did not contain anything religious, anything Catholic, anything which called for insertion in our columns, and we did not therefore copy it; indeed we had determined not to give it a place in our paper, which is altogether a Catholic religious publication. It has gone the round of many of the secular journals, and we had let it fall from our memory, until we found that Mr. Green contrived to give it a religious complexion, and to make it the occasion for what we consider a very uncalled for aggression upon the Catholics.

In his paper of the 3d of September, Mr. Green prefaces the introduction of the letter by an article which we shall give, after the letter itself shall be spread before our readers. Its history is brief. Bishop England was on his visitation in the city of Columbus, in Muscogee county, in Georgia, in the month of July. The place was almost driven to frenzy by the devices of electioneering; amongst other topics that caused great excitement, was one which attributed all the miseries of the country, real and imagined, to the present administration; and it was urged that if the opposing candidate was elected, the country would be in a most prosperous condition. People were drawn away to all sorts of political meetings, for and against, to distant places, to the ruin of their morals, and to the injury of their property; and they were as

sured by men of talents and of eloquence, that the support of their particular party was the only way of getting out of their difficulties. The expectation, founded upon this mode of paying debts and of getting rich, became a mania through the country. Several persons called upon the Bishop, as they did upon many others, to learn his and their opinions. He avoided interfering between the opposite candidates, though as a citizen of nearly twenty years standing, and at least sufficiently aged to form an opinion, he had as good a right to take a side as any other citizen has. His own flock, and other persons who differed with him in religion, made the appeals indiscriminately. He was invited to a barbecue, by a committee deputed from a respectable meeting; that committee brought him a written invitation, and he felt that he ought to give a written reply.

He did not feel that it would be proper for him to attend, but he also felt that he owed some courtesy to those who had invited him. He, therefore, took occasion, after explaining the grounds for his declining to meet them, to say that which he still believes to be the fact that the distress of the lands is not the result of having one party in power, and will not be removed by a change of administration. He said, moreover, that some of the most eminent citizens were of a different opinion. Was this making a Catholic party? We know some most respectable Catholics who think as these eminent men do, and who differ with the Bishop, but with whom Bishop England is upon the most intimate footing, not only of friendship, but of religion. Is this a Catholic political party? The Bishop, without reference to party, stated, what he still believes, that much of the distress was caused by avaricious, miscalculating, unprincipled speculation; by vain ostentation, by dissipation, and, he thought, the remedy was to be found in habits of industry, economy, and persevering frugality. For our part, we think it became any man who was asked his opinion to say so much, if such was really his conviction. Does Mr. Green think it unbecoming in a bishop to recommend industry, economy, and frugality?

The Bishop, moreover, earnestly recommended to a community maddened by stump orators, and set by the ears at each other, by declamations which were for the most part froth and falsehood, to lay aside unkind feelings-to allow that mutual freedom of thought and action which is congenial to good republican simplicity; to vote as before God they should deem best for the good of the country, and peaceably to abide the result of the ballot-box. Does Mr. Green consider this unbecoming language for a Catholic bishop? We do not.

The obnoxious letter is thus printed:

66 'COLUMBUS, July 25, 1840.

“To John H. Howard, Esq., Chairman, and the other members of the committee, Democratic citizens, Muscogee county."'

"Gentlemen:-I have been honoured by your invitation to attend, on Tuesday next, at the feast to be given in honour of certain distinguished citizens of Georgia and Alabama, by the Democratic citizens of Muscogee county.

"Generally speaking, I should feel it would be more prudent for me to unite with my fellow-citizens only at the ballot-box, in using my right as a member of the republic, to approve or to censure the conduct of those to whom we entrust the guardianship of our liberties. On the present occasion, I feel the additional force of a monition given by my brethren at the last council, (a few months since,) upon this very subject, in a pastoral letter. I trust, then, that my respectfully declining your invitation, will not be considered as wanting in courtesy to you. The body to which I belong professes to be one of peace and conciliation; should its members unite actively with political parties mutually opposed, while each declares that it seeks only the prosperity of our republic, their capacity to promote peace and conciliation would be at an end. You will feel that the influence of such a ministry of good-will would, in our present state of excitement, be useful, if not necessary, and I am sure you will approve of the determination by which I am bound. I think, however, I may venture to say that the best remedy for our present unfortunate position is to be found in preferring industry to speculation, labour to cabal, economy to ostentation, patient and persevering frugality to dissipation. I, therefore, consider that man who aids in making our lands productive, to be our most useful citizen; I regard the laborious, well-conducted mechanic, as preferable to the speculator in stocks, or to the usurer. The former creates the wealth of a nation-the latter endeavours to get into its possession, under the pretext of its management; I also believe that our federal government has had as little influence in producing the present distress in our states, as it had in producing that which afflicts Europe; and that it has as little power to alleviate that distress as it has constitutional right to interfere with its causes.

"Some of our most eminent citizens have expressed deliberate opinions widely different from mine. I have given full consideration of their reasoning, but cannot come into their conclusions. In one point, however, I should hope we could all unite. That laying aside unkind feelings, bitterness, strife, and mere partisan attachments, we should endeavour to bring back our habits of good republican simplicity, and zealous for our country's good, endeavour, by the peaceable process of the ballot-box, to place in the administration of our government those citizens whom, in the presence of God, we shall conscientiously regard as the best qualified to promote the general good, by the sacrifice of predilections, by preserving us in peace and safety in our domestic relations, in our sacred homes, and maintaining us in full possession of our rights, having our commerce untrammelled by monopoly, by sectional preferences, or by facilities created by the use of the public purse, and by sustaining us in our strength, by having the bond of our Union most firmly interwoven by our affections, so as to secure to us the respect and confidence of the world abroad. It is the good of our country which requires that we should endeavour to unite all our fellow-citizens for this desirable object. Let us endeavour, by an affectionate interchange of views, to effect it.

'Believe me to be, with sentiments of high esteem, your obliged fellow-citizen, "JOHN, Bishop of Charleston.

We now ask whether this letter, written under such circumstances, be a crime, the perpetration of which should give great pain to Mr. Duff Green? Even Mr. Green himself avows that the Bishop's expressions are "correct of themselves." What, then, caused Mr. Green to "regret the publication of the letter?" "Because the expressions will be connected with the political and party discussions." Now we are authorized to say that, with the publication of the letter, Bishop England has just as little concern as had General Green. The connexion of the expressions with political and party discussion, so far as we have seen, is altogether the work of Mr. Duff Green, and certainly not imputable to the bishop.

"Because the expressions will receive an interpretation conveying unmerited inputations, calculated to blend religious faith with party zeal, and thus embitter a political controversy already too much excited." The interpreter is the person chargeable with this, and that interpreter is Mr. Duff Green, and not the writer of the letter, whose expressions were "correct of themselves."

Mr. Green's commentary is the following:

"BISHOP ENGLAND'S LETTER.

"A friend has called our attention to the letter of Bishop England, published in the Republican, of Monday. We insert it below.

"To those who know us, we need not say that the perusal has given us great pain. We are aware that there is a deep and abiding prejudice against Catholicism, and that many believe there is a well arranged plan on the part of Catholic monarchies in the world, to revolutionize our government, by the introductions of Catholic emigrants.

"The Protestant community have been warned, as well from the pulpit as from the press, that the money expended in getting up schools, as well as that used in sending pauper, and other Catholic population to this country, is part of a system which, looking to the nature of our institutions, contemplates a great religious as well as civil revolution, by the means of imported Catholic votes. It is also believed, that the publication of Van Buren's letter to the Pope got him Catholic votes at the late election. It was, therefore, with great pleasure that we read the pastoral letter addressed to the Catholics, as a body, admonishing them to moderation in political discussions. It was under the influence of the perusal of that letter that our article, in reference to the act of the lord proprietors establishing religious toleration in Maryland, was penned. That article has brought us more than one letter, calling upon us to open our press, against the Catholic influence, and one imputing our not doing so, to a desire to conciliate Catholic votes. We have forborne to notice these letters, because, until the result of the Illinois elections, and this letter of Bishop England, we had seen nothing in the progress of the canvass, to justify a belief that any attempt to bring the Catholics as a body to vote for Mr. Van Buren, would receive the countenance of the Catholic clergy, or of any distinguished member of that body.

"We regret the publication of this letter, because there are those who will find

in it, considering the relation which Bishop England bears to the Pope and to the Catholics of this country, (it is said, that he has been designated by the Pope, 'as Inquisitor-General of the United States,') a confirmation of their worst fears, and because we greatly regret that one occupying so important a place in the Catholic church, should have used expressions, which, however correct of themselves, will be connected with the political and party discussions, and receive an interpretation, conveying unmerited imputations, calculated to blend religious faith with party zeal, and thus embitter a political controversy, already too much excited.

"While speaking on this subject, we take the occasion to say, that whatever may be the dreams of religious enthusiasts abroad, we have no apprehension that any scheme to establish any sectarian religion in this country, can ever prevail. Where there is so much zeal and system, it would be surprising if the Catholic clergy abroad, did not avail themselves of the wide field presented to them in the fertile regions of the West, to extend what they believe to be the true faith. It is the principle on which other Christian denominations act, and they have as much right as Protestants to erect schools, to send out missionaries, and to digest schemes of proselytism. This is their duty, and so long as the Catholic clergy believe that theirs is the true faith, they will exert themselves to extend that faith. It is only when we find those who exercise a spiritual control, like that of Bishop England, putting aside his priestly robes, and entering the field of politics, as he has done in this instance, that we feel called upon to examine how far that spiritual control is calculated to exercise an undue influence over the minds of men, and to call upon all good Catholics, as well as Protestants, to resist it. We are the advocates of toleration. We are for toleration in politics as well as in religion; but we cannot close our eyes to the fact, that the elections in Illinois have been carried for the administration by the imported Catholic voters. We cannot close our eyes to the fact, that Mr. Van Buren is in a condition to make any sacrifice to secure his re-election, and that his partisans in Illinois, have obtained this foreign Catholic aid, by an appeal to the passions and prejudices of men whose residence in the country had not qualified them to understand our institutions; and they were permitted to vote, before they had become citizens, or relinquished their allegiance to a foreign government.

"We will add a word more. We are sensible that no political press in this city has dared to speak out on this subject, under a belief that the effect would be to prejudice the private interest of the publisher, and to drive the whole Catholic vote over to Mr. Van Buren. We are sure we know that there are timid and time-serving Protestants of our own party, who will be frightened and censure us. We act upon no such principle. In the first place, we believe that there are many Catholics who concur with us in all our regrets at the publication of this letter, who will admit the justice of our remarks, and who will regret it no less on account of its tendency to injure the Catholic cause, than for any bearing it may have on politics. We are not prepared to say how far it may operate on Catholic voters, but we are prepared to do our duty, as the conductor of a free press, regardless of such influence. The candid of his own admirers cannot but see in Bishop England's letter, and the circumstances to which we refer, a justification for all we have said, and more.''

This commentary contains an assault upon Bishop England, for an assumed partisanship against the party of Mr. Green, which the Bishop positively did not commit, unless Mr. Green will assert that this party is deservedly characterized as noted for "speculation," "cabal," "osten