ROME IN THE FIELD

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1868

ROME IN THE FIELD.

The following, under the above head, from the Christian Intelligencer, is well worthy of notice. That Catholicism is to act an important part in the coming crisis has long been a part of our faith and teaching. The facts in this article are faithfully set forth; their tendency must be evident to every careful reader. This is only one of the dangers that threaten us; yet the professed watchmen on the walls of Zion, instead of sounding an alarm as the word of God directs them to, still in drowsy tones talk of “peace and safety,” under the modern terms of “the world’s conversion,” “the return of the Jews,” and a “good time coming.” Surely the spirit of slumber has fallen upon them. “Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” J. H. W.

There are those who believe that Rome has an evil eye on this country, and that our next great battle will be with her hosts, rapidly mustering on these shores. We would not be alarmists, but we would not have our countrymen ignorant of matters which most nearly and vitally concern our country’s welfare. If the policy of Rome is to rule or ruin, let us know it. If it be first ruin, and then to rule, let us know that.

We propose to go no farther back than the beginning of the war, and to let the facts we shall name speak for themselves. If they have no other lesson, they will, at least, show that Rome, during our terrible struggle for national existence, was true to her ancient history and traditions, as the enemy of civil liberty, and the friend of the oppressor the world over.

It will not be forgotten how generally and enthusiastically our adopted citizens, the Irish, enlisted in the army when the call first came for men to put down rebellion. In the early part of the war there were Irish battalions, and regiments, and brigades, but there were few, if any, at its close. The truth is, after the second year of the war, the Irish changed front, and suddenly became sympathizers with treason and rebellion. It was noticed that the girls in the kitchen began to roll their fierce gutturals against Mr. Lincoln, their brothers in the army began to curse the cause for which they fought, desertions were frequent, enlistments stopped, and the attitude of the Irish mind before Mr. Lincoln’s second election, was one of disloyalty and hostility to the government of the United States.

And these facts cannot be changed by the habit which these people have of boasting about fighting our battles, and saving our country. By actual examination of our muster-rolls, the simple truth appears to be that only eight per cent. of our grand army were of foreign birth, the balance—ninety-two per cent.—were native Americans, who returned, at length, worn and battle-scarred, to find their places on the farms, in the factories and elsewhere, filled by Irish, who had sought safety and profit at home, while our boys were courting danger and death in battle.

It may be interesting to know when this change came over the Irish mind. What dampened their ardor, what quenched the glow of their patriotic impulse? The coincidence is so complete, that the cause is doubtless the same.

It will be remembered that Bishop Hughes went abroad during the second year of the war, as was then supposed, by authority of our Government, to interest the Catholic sovereigns of Europe in our favor. Instead of this, however, the archbishop went direct to Rome, and straightway the Pope acknowledged the independence of the Confederate States. His insignificance gave him impunity, and purchased our silence. But the act had its influence. Biddy in the kitchen, Mike in the army, Patrick on the farm, Mac in the factory, fell to cursing Mr. Lincoln as a tyrant and butcher. Enlistments among the Irish stopped from that time, unless it was as bounty-jumpers, and deserters. They banded together to resist the draft, as in New York, where they rioted in blood for three long days, and only yielded to the overwhelming power of United States troops. The spirit that actuated these human fiends came from Rome, and to Rome herself must be awarded the sole honor of welcoming to the family of nations a Confederacy, whose first act was treason, and whose last was assassination. Indeed it was Rome that furnished the assassin and his conspirators against the greatest life of modern times. And that assassin struck, not against the life of a man, but against the life of the Republic; and if guilt lies in the intent, then is Rome guilty of the nation’s life.

With such a record, Rome vainly puts herself among the friends of our free institutions. She misjudged, we think, but she no doubt thought the time had arrived to destroy what had come of Puritanism. And for this she was willing to be the ally of a government whose corner stone was negro slavery. Are we still dreaming that Rome is changed, or that she had surrendered the hope of supplanting Protestant freedom on these shores? Would not every Fenian lodge in the country rally to the help of the South if there was a chance to restore the old negro-hating oligarchy to power?

It can hardly have escaped every observing man that the Irish mind is expectant and exultant in regard to this country. They do not conceal their belief that the Catholic church is to rise to the ascendant here, and that Protestantism is to do it reverence.

But a few weeks since, Father Hecker, one of the lights of the Catholic church in this country, said in a public lecture in New York, that his church numbered eleven millions of our people, or one third of our population; and that if the membership of his church increased for the next thirty years as it had for the thirty years past, in 1900 Rome would have the majority, and would be bound to take the country and rule it in the interest of the church. “And,” continued the reverend father, “I consider it my highest mission to educate our people up to this idea, that America is ours and belongs to the church.”

It is all of a pattern. Rome, during the war, sought to ruin us in order to rule us. She failed in the first, but she is no less tenaciously striving to accomplish the last.—Christian Intelligencer.