The following we clip from the Independent:— “A representative Catholic paper, published in Chicago, makes the following extravagant declaration of the loyalty of Catholics to the flag in case of war with Spain:— ‘If once war were declared between this country and Spain, the sentiment of Catholics, as of those of other creeds, would be accurately summarized in those famous words of Stephen Decatur: “Our country: in her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.”’” “So say not we. We boast not that kind of loyalty. We believe in putting God before country always; religion before patriotism, if the two—which God forbid—should ever clash. John Quincy Adams once rebuked that sentiment of Stephen Decatur’s:—” “And say not thou, ‘My country right or wrong,’
Nor draw thy sword in an unhallowed cause.
But when thy country wanders from the right,
Fold up her banners, and avert thy sight.” Let God be first; let His principles control in everything; let the Gospel of Jesus Christ in; and let the soul see Christ dying for him, and for the world, and his heart will expand so as to embrace all men as brothers, children of a common Father, bought by the Saviour of all.