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Show 0oti9tr$atioti$ of The same course of reasoning which, as we called attention to, marked the close of the previous conversation, was continued all through last week's conversation, con-versation, and the various parties to the discussion practically agreed to come to the same conclusion, namely, that converts to Catholicity must come from the ranks of Protestantism and Protestantism in its primary significance signifi-cance and not from Protestantism in what it stands for today and to which it is daily drifting, namely, rationalism, rational-ism, transcendentalism and downright infidelity. Father John wound up the conversation by stating, and very truly, that Catholicity will advance and prosper pros-per through conversions from the ranks of enlightened Protestants who are seekers after truth, led on by the example ex-ample of a model Catholic people, tj the gradual diffusion of Catholic doctrine, doc-trine, and by the grace of God silently operating upon their hearts. CONVERSATION IV. "Catholicity," remarked O'Flanagan, "hardly holds its own in this country, notwithstanding its apparent increase. The number of Catholics now in the country is not equal to the number of Catholics who have migrated hither, and their descendants. Our losses are greater than our gains by conversions." "Our losses are great," replied Wins-low, Wins-low, "but that is not what discourages me, for they are due to accidental and temporary causes, every day becoming less operative, as the numbers of the clergy, churches, school houses, hospitals hos-pitals and asylums increase. Neither am I one of those who despair of seein'g the church prevail here; but I cannot persuade myself that any general conversion con-version of the American people will take place till they modrate their Democracy." De-mocracy." "Democracy," interposed De Bonneville, Bonne-ville, "is fatal to genuine loyalty, and a people destitute of loyalty are not easily converted to Catholicity. They have no tendency to it, and necessarily find it repugnant to their habits and dispositions. Our friend at Rome, perhaps, per-haps, is not mistaken in his hopes of the conversion of the country, but he' seems to me mistaken in regarding its Democracy as one of the circumstances favorable to it." "Mr. Calhoun, the great South Carolina Caro-lina statesman, remarked to me one day," answered Father John, "that we made a great mistake in this country when we substituted the word Democracy Democ-racy for the word Republican. Words are things, and from the habit of calling call-ing ourselves Democrats we have come to embrace Democratic notions. The American people in 1776 were Republican, Republi-can, but not" Democratic, and the federal fed-eral constitution was, in 17S7, avowedly formed with a view to checking the tendency to Democracy which had begun be-gun to manifest itself in several of the states. The govemment of the country coun-try was not originally, and is not now, purely Democratic, because under it the people have no right to alter or amend the constitution, whether of state or Union, save by virtue of a constitutional constitu-tional provision, and in the way and manner the - constitution provides. When the constitution is formed, and has gone into operation, the convention conven-tion of the people which formed it is dissolved." "But," asked Diefenbach, "are no the people sovereign, and does not the sovereignty inhere in them and persist in them 1 even ...under constitutional forms?" ! "That," replied Father John, "is the Democratic doctrine, but it is not the American doctrine, or was not when our civil and political institutions were adopted. The sovereignty Inheres in the organism,-and can be exercised only in accordance with its laws. The error of our politicians has been in overlooking this fact and assuming that the sovereignty, after the constitution, persists in the people outside of the organism, and - .that their will expressed ex-pressed any way, through or . not through the organism, is supreme, and is to be regarded as the sovereign will. This doctrine came into vogue under General Jackson's administration, and is the fruitful source of lawlessness and disorder. I do not think this doctrine doc-trine favorable to Catholicity any more than to good government, for it is essentially es-sentially opposed to all law as law, and substitutes for the government of. law, the dominion of arbitrary will. Pure Democracy, like pure monarchy, is the government of mere will, and all governmnt of mere will is a despotism des-potism under a monarchy, and anarchy an-archy under a Democracy. The radical difference between Democracy and Republicanism Re-publicanism is that the latter places sovereignty in the organism, and subjects sub-jects its exercise to law, while the former for-mer places it In th popl outsid of the organism, and leaves its exercise without with-out legal restraint. Democracy is the absolutism of the people; republican-' ism is a government limited and subjected sub-jected to a constitutional organism. Republicanism is freedom; democracy is Incompatible with freedom. It either does not govern at all, or it governs arbitrarily. The worst tyranny France ever suffered was under the Jacobins, those pure democrats of the last century. cen-tury. The American institutions are not democratic, though the American people are becoming . democrats and giving their institutions a democratic interpretation or altering them in a democratic sence. Hence our grave political danger." "This danger," added Winslow, "our. friend at Rome does not seem to be aware of, and hence he gives a wrong impression of the country." "Perhaps," replied Father John, "he did not think it necessary to dwell on it; perhaps, also, he does not regard it as so threatening as it really is; perhaps he is more democratic in his own personal conviclons or tendencies than we, who are some what his seniors se-niors and are no longer subject to the illusion of mere names; but, undoubtedly, un-doubtedly, the point he wished to impress im-press upon the minds of his readers is that in this country there is as yet much real freedom, and full legal freedom free-dom for the Church, which i, undoubtedly, un-doubtedly, not only a fact, but a fact favorable to the growth and expansion expan-sion of Catholocity amongst us. He did well to dwell on this fact. The Catholic can well accept and defend as favorable even to his Church our institutions, according to their original intent. What he has to guard against is presenting them as-favorable to the Church in the sense it has now become be-come the fashion to interpret them a fashion which makes them just what the dominant sentiment of the country coun-try for the time chooses. The danger the Catholics run here is the taking of that sentiment, as the constitution and following it out in our political action instead of resisting it and doing do-ing all in our power to bring the prac-tica prac-tica Interpretation of our institutions back to their original republican meaning. mean-ing. Restore in practive the republican, theory of our institutions (I have no reference to the Republican party, so- i called,) and then the Catholic can heartily accept them, and praise and defend them with all the patriotism and loyalty congenial to his heart." i'Till then," replied Winslow, "I do not see how Catholocity is to make much progress among the Aemiracn people,, and till it has made great progress and gained a controlling influence in-fluence I see not how we are to return re-turn practically to our republican theory." "I see," rejoined Father John, "and admit the difficulty. I do not believe it an easy matter to convert a democratic demo-cratic people, and if their conversion depended on human efforts alone I should despair of it. Pure democracy is, as-M. de Bonneville holds, fatal to genuine, loyalty. -Loyalty can- exist. only under a government of law, embodied em-bodied either in a constitutional organism organ-ism or in the legitimate prince. Loyalty Loy-alty has been much weakened, and well nigh destroyed, in Great Britain since the expulsion of the Stuarts and the accession of the Hanoverians. It is nearly dormant with us and threatens threat-ens ere long to sleep the sleep of death. Democracy cherishes a proud, conceited con-ceited individualism, and at the same time a mean and cringing servility to popular opinion. Under a democracy, as our own experience proves, the individual forms an exaggerated estimate esti-mate of himself, is in relation to other individuals self-sufficient, conceited, saying virtually to each one of them: I am as good as you, and a great deal better, too,' whle he is deplorably deficient de-ficient in true independence of 'thought and action in face of the public, j The thoroughpaced democrat, haughty and overbearing to his equal, is a timid slave before public opinion. He puts the people in the place of God. and takes whatever is popular to ! be lawful and right. He asks, Is It popular, .will the people: which means I his party support it? If so, all right, go ahead! To stand well with the public, pub-lic, with one's party, or one's set, is thrf j highest aim. As the questions are to be I decided by votes, and votes are count- ed, not weighed, the appeal must be I made to the many. Hence democracy j has a natural tendency to reduce all virtue and all intelligence to a dead level. The mass of the people in our country are perhaps more intelligent, at least in political matters, than the lower classes in most European countries; coun-tries; our educated and cultivated classes are far below the corresponding correspond-ing classes in any European state. Indeed, In-deed, our educated classes do not compare com-pare favorably with the educated classes of Mexico, and some of the South American states. There is little in our community to stimulate exertions exer-tions for the higher degrees of excellence. excel-lence. To rise too high is to rise out of reach and out of sight of the multitude; multi-tude; only inferior men, common-place men, can hope to secure the popular favor. No man of first-rate attainments attain-ments or first order of abilities can hope to be elected president of the Union. Your Harrisons, Polks, Taylors, Pierces, Buchanans, carry it over your Clays, Calhouns and Websters. The candidate is selected, not because he i3 fit, but because he is or is presumed to be available, and he is the more available avail-able the less weight he carries. Look at the recent delegations in congress from Massachusetts and New York, or to their representatives in the state legislatures, and say if a high order of intelligence and public and private virtue vir-tue are not a positive disqualification. High scholarship, profound, discriminating, discrim-inating, original thought, are not and cannot be appreciated by the great mass of the people, and our authors to be popular must be superficial, common-place, vapid, bombastic or intense. What rises above the common level rises above the common intelligence. The reduction of all to the level of the mass, the self-sufficiency and the obsequiousness ob-sequiousness to popular opinion, so manifest among us are, no doubt, unfavorable un-favorable to the conversion of our countrymen, because Catholicity requires re-quires true greatness, true independence independ-ence and manliness of character, love for our equals, respect for our superiors, superi-ors, firmness of purpose, and loyalty to truth, to right, to justice. "I see little in the American character charac-ter as it has been developed under our democratic theory to encourage my hopes as a Catholic. The tendency of the American people, with individual exceptions, is not toward the church, but from it. All this I concede, yet I do not despair. First, because I rely on God, and he will not withhold his grace; and, second, because I rely on the gradually increasing weight and influence of the Catholic population in the country, and the new and stronger elements they introduce to neutralize those I have alluded to." "That last consideration is one which I expected Father John to overlook," remarked O'Flanagan, "for I did not suppose those who are making so much ado about converting the country, made any account of the some 2,000,000 or 3,-000,000 3,-000,000 Catholics, of various nationalities, nationali-ties, already settled here." "I have nothing to do with their various vari-ous nationalities," interrupted Father John. "When we are speaking of Catholicity Cath-olicity there is no question of nationalities. nation-alities. The Catholic religion is cath-plic, cath-plic, not national, and overrides, as occasion oc-casion requires, all nationalities. In converting a country Providence adapts means to the end. Excepting, the few ' settlers of Maryland, soon deprived of their Catholic freedom and subjected to Protestant intolerance almost as soon as the colony was organized the ; United States were originally settled by Protestants of the intensest kind, and nowhere was hostility to Catholicity Catholici-ty more bitter or universal than among them. One of the grievances alleged by the colonies against the mother country was the liberty allowed in Canada to the French Catholics, to retain and practice their religion. When we became be-came a nation we recognized the principles prin-ciples of religious liberty indeed, not through the influence of Catholic France, as M. Henri de Courcy contends, con-tends, nor through any good will to Catholicity, nor yet through any love of religious liberty itself on the part of Protestants, but because no Protestant sect was strong enough to make itself a state establishment, and because Catholicity was looked upon at the time as virtually dead, and incapable for the future of making any conquests, or of manifesting any vitality. Moreover, at the time the leading men of the country coun-try had very little belief in any religion, re-ligion, and followed Voltaire and other unbelievers in advocating toleration, believing that by tolerating all religions relig-ions they could make an end of them. They held that no religion can long stand, or exert any influence, unless supported by the state, as a state esf-tablishment. esf-tablishment. Under these circumstances, circum-stances, with an intense hatred of Catholicity, Cath-olicity, fearing or disdaining to investigate investi-gate its claims, caring little for any religion, re-ligion, and about entering upon a course of material prosperity perhaps unparalleled in the world's history, nothing but a miracle of divine grace could have called their attention to the Catholic religion, and gained them to the faith, unless a Catholic population should migrate hither and bring the faith with them. They would nowhere have tolerated or listened to the missionary. mis-sionary. The church among them could not begin with the missionary, and it needed a foreign-born laity, zealous for the faith,-to form the first congregations, and to erect the first churches. Except in a very few localities, locali-ties, the descendants of the original Catholic settlers were too few to sustain sus-tain missionaries-, and conversions numerous enough to do it in any locality local-ity could not be counted on. The foreign-immigration invited here by that very material prosperity which had become be-come the god of the American people, thus became, in the providence of God, the means of giving us a Catholic population, pop-ulation, and the church a firm footing on our soil. (To be continued.) |