A Case of Abduction by H. Mattison

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 14, 1868

A Case of Abduction.

By H. Mattison

I HAVE been surprised that the case of abduction recently brought before the courts of New York, has awakened so little interest on the part of the Protestant pastors and churches. Even the religious press seems either to have overlooked it, or to have regarded it as a matter of but little consequence. Some, even, who were furnished with an early and authentic account of the whole procedure, have not so much as alluded to the matter in any form!

All this is, to me, unaccountable. If a member of one of our churches can be kidnapped by Roman Catholics, and locked up for months, and when her whereabouts is ascertained, and an effort is made to release her, no word of sympathy is uttered, or notice taken of it by the Protestant press, where are we to look for sympathy or aid?

But my object in this communication is not so much to complain of the indifference of others as to furnish to the readers of The Methodist a synopsis of the principal facts in the case.

About the middle of January last, a young girl living in a Methodist family in Newark, N. J., went to the Franklin-street M. E. church, Rev. James Rogers, pastor, and was awakened and happily converted to Christ. Her own story is that, being burdened with a sense of guilt as an awakened sinner, and while at the altar praying to the Virgin Mary without finding relief, something seemed to whisper to her, “Why not pray to Jesus Christ? Mary is away up in Heaven, and, maybe, she does not hear you. And if she does, maybe she cannot relieve you. Jesus is everywhere—why not pray to him?” And she did pray to him, and thus obtained a sweet relief from her burden, and a precious assurance that he had heard her prayer, and forgiven all her sins. She then went to the South Market-street church, which was nearer to where she lived, told her experience, and united with the church on probation.

She was then in her fifteenth year, a bright and active girl, and of more than ordinary personal attractions. Her mother died some years since, and neither her father nor step-mother can read or write. But, at the time of her conversion, poor Mary Ann, a young woman, raised in this country, and, with nothing to indicate her Irish descent, was trying to learn to read in the family where she was serving.

Soon after her conversion, “Father Doane,” a young Catholic priest, tried to get her away from the place where she was serving, on a writ of habeas corpus, but his Catholic judge being out of town, he failed to obtain it.

It is in evidence that she is a modest, industrious, and excellent girl, who has earned her own support since she was nine years of age; that she was living with Mrs. Fitzgerald (mother of Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald, of the Newark Conference,) at the time of her abduction; that she was decoyed away by representations—first, that a cousin was dead, who is still living, and then that a child, which she dearly loved, was very sick. Thus induced to go to the house where it was, she was met by Father Doane, who, finding her unwilling to renounce her Protestant faith and experience, advised her father to keep her secure till they could send her to a nunnery in New York. Doane himself was compelled to testify that he so advised, and, in an article which he published, and was reluctantly compelled to father under oath, he declares that all this was done on account of her religious belief. She was accordingly locked up in a house in Newark, and kept in close confinement till she could be taken to a nunnery.

To get her from Newark to the nunnery, they persuaded her to “go and see the place,” under the solemn promise that if she did not wish to enter the “institution” after she had seen it, she might come home with them. But once there, they turned the key upon her, and she has seen the verdure of the opening spring only through the iron gratings of this New York bastile for the last three months.

Having thus suddenly disappeared from Mr. Fitzgerald’s, where she was earning eight dollars per month, and was highly esteemed, and her trunk and clothing being left there, it was reported first that she was in Jersey City, and then that she was in Brooklyn. At another time her step-mother told Mr. Fitzgerald that she was at home. But all this time she was confined in the “House of the Good Shepherd” (?) with abandoned Catholic women, washing and ironing, and living upon mush and molasses, as she testified before the judge.

Learning something of these facts, the Preacher’s Meeting of Newark appointed a committee to sue out a writ, and bring her before a judge in New York, where the nunnery is located. This was done by her pastor, Rev. J. S. Gilbert, and the “Lady Superior” was required to produce Mary Ann before his honor, Judge Ingraham, of the Supreme Court, to show why she should be thus imprisoned against her will.

After a few witnesses had been examined, Doane’s counsel moved a dismissal of the case, on the ground that she was a minor, and her father had a right to place her where he pleased. The judge told him that it was in evidence that she was a pure-minded young girl of sixteen, and that the “House of the Good Shepherd” was filled with abandoned women, among whom she is obliged to labor and sleep; that no father had a right to place his child amid such corrupting associations; that Mary Ann was taken there and kept there against her will, and unless these facts could be lighted up in some way, she would not be remanded back into such a prison. This served greatly to disconcert Doane and his lawyer.

At the outset of the matter the sole excuse for her abduction and confinement was, that “her faith was being tampered with,” and it was feared that she might fall into evil habits—although she was living at the time with a most exemplary Christian family, and leading a regular and Christian life. But as soon as it was found that she could not be held upon the plea first set up, two men were found (both of whom were obliged to testify that they had each been in jail twice, though one was only eighteen years old), who were ready to swear that Miss Smith was a dissolute person in September previous to her being converted in January. At this time, however, she was a devout Catholic, and neither father nor priest took any notice of her alleged waywardness. But as soon as she professes conversion, and, as they do not deny, is leading a blameless life, save that she is a “heretic,” she is kidnapped and locked up in a convent. And to justify her confinement, and keep her there, priest and father and false witnesses unite to prove her a monster, and consign her reputation to infamy. And as showing the utter falsity of all that has been said of her bad character, and the need of putting her in a nunnery “for reformatory purposes,” her father has told her more than once since the trial began, that if she would “renounce her heresy” he would take her out of confinement. It is for her Protestantism, then, that she is placed behind iron bars, and not because she is, or ever has been, dissolute. Her father told me himself that he never supposed she was a bad girl.

Her great and only crime is that, being of Catholic parentage, she has become a Protestant. For this she has been immured behind grated windows, and with abandoned women for the last three months, till brought before Judge Ingraham, on a writ of habeas corpus, on the fifteenth of last month.

Messrs. Lord and Skidmore have had charge of the case on the part of the plaintiff; and, after having been adjourned from time to time, and shifted from one judge to another, the following decision was rendered by Judge Sutherland on July 10: “This is an embarrassing case, and not free from doubt; but, upon the whole, I think the writ must be dismissed, and the prisoner remanded to custody.”

But the case is to be appealed, and will go before a full bench at Albany. Meanwhile this young Christian, who is as firm as a rock in her purpose never to renounce Christ, is confined in a Roman Catholic bastile, half-starved, and compelled to attend mass, while the reader enjoys his freedom. “Remember those that are in bonds as bound with them.” We have done with slavery and the kidnapping of negroes, and have now to deal with the aggressions of Romanism, and the kidnapping of young Protestant girls for nunneries.

This case ought to arouse every Protestant in the land. The question to be decided is, whether, when-ever a Catholic who is under age becomes a Christian, he may be lawfully placed and kept in close confinement, at the instigation of a Romish priest. In Austria, papal as it has been, and is nominally still, every child of fourteen years of age can choose its own religious faith; but, if the decision of Judge Sutherland is to stand, then religious liberty in this country is confined to adults of eighteen or twenty-one years; and the Roman Catholics can lawfully seize and imprison all minors who depart from the papal faith. Before such a principle should be conceded, or such a precedent established by the Supreme Court, every Protestant pulpit and press in the land should utter its protest; and, if need be, thousands of dollars should be expended in procuring legal counsel to contest the matter to the utmost. It is a case that reaches far beyond Mary Ann Smith, and, if settled in the interest of Romanism, is the virtual establishment of the Inquisition upon American soil. Will Americans submit to have persons, young or old, kidnapped and imprisoned on account of their religion? That is the question now being settled in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.—H. Mattison, in Methodist, Aug. 1, 1868.