CAPTURING AMERICAN CITIES.
Letter from a Former Roman Catholic Priest. SIR: When in 1852 it became evident that my plans of forming a colony of French Canadians on the fertile plains of Illinois was to be a success, D’Arcy McGee, then editor of the Freeman’s Journal, the official paper of the Bishop of New York, wrote me to know my views, and he determined immediately to put himself at the head of a similar enterprise in favor of the Irish Roman Catholics. He published long and able articles to show how the Irish people, with few exceptions, were demoralized and kept down in the cities, and how they would soon be raised to the top if they could be induced to exchange city grog-shops and saloons for the rich lands of the West. Through his influence a large assembly, principally composed of Irish priests, to which I was invited, met at Buffalo in the spring of 1853. But what was his disappointment when he saw the greatest part of these priests were sent by the bishops of New York, Albany, Boston, etc., to oppose and defeat his plans! He vainly spoke with the most burning eloquence for the support of his pet scheme. The majority of the priests coldly answered him in the name of their bishops: “We are determined, like you, to take possession of the United States and rule them; but we cannot do that except by acting secretly, and by using the utmost wisdom. If our plans were known, they would certainly be defeated. What does a skillful general do when he wants to conquer a country? Does he scatter his soldiers over the farm lands, and spend their time and energies in plowing the fields and sowing the grain?—No; he keeps them well united around his banners, and marches at their head to the conquest of the strongholds. He subdues the large cities one after the other; he pulls down the high towers and the citadels which he meets on his way. Then the farming countries are conquered and become the price of his victory without moving a finger. So it is with us.” “Silently and patiently we must mass our Irish Catholics in the great cities of the United States. Let us remember that in this country the vote of one of our poorest journeymen, covered with rags, has as much weight in the scale of power as the vote of the millionaire Astor, and that if we have two votes against the millionaire’s one, he becomes as powerless as an oyster. Then let us multiply our voters, let us call on poor but faithful Irish Catholics, and gather them from the far corners of the world into the very hearts of those proud citadels which the Yankees are so proudly building up under the name of New York, Boston, Chicago, Albany, Buffalo, Troy, etc. Under the shadows of those great cities the Americans consider themselves as a giant and an unconquerable race. They look upon the Irish Catholic with the utmost contempt, as only fit to dig their canals, sweep their streets, or humbly cook their meals in their kitchen. Let no one awake these sleeping lions to-day; let us pray God that they may sleep and dream their sweet dreams a few years more. How sad will be their awakening when, with our outnumbering votes, we will turn them out, and forever, from every position of power, honor, and profit! What will these hypocrite sons and daughters of the fanatical Pilgrim Fathers say when not a single judge, not a single school-teacher, not even a single policeman will be elected if he be not a devoted Irish Catholic? What will those so-called giants think and say of their unsurpassed ability, skill, and shrewdness when not a single governor, senator, or member of Congress will be elected if he be not sincerely devoted to our holy father, the pope?” “What a sad figure those Protestant Yankees will cut when we will not only elect the president, but fill and command the armies, man the navy, and have the key of the public treasury in our hands! It will then be the time for our devoted Irish Catholics to give up their grog-shops to become the governors and judges of the land. Then our poor and humble Irish mechanics will come out from the damp ditches and the canals to rule the cities in all their departments, from the stately mansion of mayor to the humble, though not less noble, position of school-teacher. Then, yes, we will rule the United States, and lay them at the feet of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, that he may put an end to their godless system of education, and sweep away those impious laws of liberty of conscience which are an insult to God and man.” Poor D’Arcy McGee was left almost alone when the vote was taken. From that time the Roman Catholic priests, with the most admirable ability, have massed their Irish legions into the great cities of the United States, and the Americans must be very blind indeed if they do not see that the day is very near when the Jesuits will rule their cities, from the magnificent white house of Washington to the humblest civil or military departments of this vast republic. They are already the masters of New York, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Paul, Milwaukee, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and San Francisco, the great, the beautiful Queen of the West, — San Francisco, — is in the hands of the Jesuits. From the very first days of the discovery of the gold mines of California, the Jesuits conceived the hope of becoming the masters of those inexhaustible treasures, and they laid their plans with the most admirable wisdom. They soon saw that the immense majority of the lucky miners of every creed and nation were going back home as soon as they had enough to secure an honorable position to their families. It became at first evident that very few of the multitudes which the thirst of gold had attracted from every corner of the United States and Canada and Europe to California would settle in a country where, from a thousand causes, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a number of years to find room for an honest woman, and raise a Christian family. It is a well-known fact that San Francisco—overcrowded with Americans, French, English, Scotch, Germans, Canadians—had thousands of adventurers and gold-seekers against a dozen men who had any idea of fixing themselves on her soil, and becoming her citizens. The shrewd Jesuits did not take many days to see that if they could persuade the Irish Roman Catholics to choose San Francisco for their homes, they would soon be the masters and the only rulers of that golden city whose future was so bright and so great; and that scheme, worked night and day with the utmost perseverance and ability, has been crowned with perfect success. When, with few exceptions, the lucky Frenchman, who had made himself rich in San Francisco, was going back to his “Belle France,” and the intelligent German, the industrious Scotchman, the shrewd New Yorker, the honest Canadian, had found gold enough to live on comfortably, they gladly bid an eternal farewell to San Francisco, and went back to enjoy their fortune in their own619dear old home. But the Irish Roman Catholics were taught to consider San Francisco as their “promised land,” and the rich inheritance God had in store for them. The consequence is, that when you find only a few American, German, and English millionaires in San Francisco, you count more than fifty Irish Catholic millionaires in that city. The richest bank of San Francisco—the Nevada Bank—is in the hands of the Irish Catholics. All the street railroads of the city belong to the Irish Roman Catholics. The principal offices of the city are filled with the Irish Roman Catholics. Almost all the policemen are Irish Roman Catholics. Almost all the voluntary military associations are composed of Irish Roman Catholics. The compact unity of the Irish Roman Catholics, with the enormous wealth, makes them almost supreme masters of the mines of California and Nevada. When no one knows the absolute and abject submission of the Irish Roman Catholic, rich or poor, to his priests, how the mind, the will, the soul, and the intelligence of the Irish are firmly, irrevocably tied to the feet of the priests, he can see at a glance that the Jesuits of California form one of the richest and most powerful corporations the world has ever seen. It is a public fact that those fifty Irish Catholic millionaires, with their myriads of rich employees, are, through their wives as well as by themselves, constantly at the feet of the Jesuits, who here, more than in any other place, really swim in a golden sea. No man, if he be not a Roman Catholic, or if he be not one of those so-called Protestants who send their daughters to the nuns and their sons to the Jesuits for their education, need hope to have any lucrative or honorable position in San Francisco. Entirely given up to quenching their thirst for gold, the Americans of San Francisco, with very few exceptions, do not give a single moment’s attention to this dark cloud which is rising here at the horizon of their country. Though it is visible to every eye that that cloud is filled with rivers of blood and tears, they let the cloud grow and rise, without even caring how to escape the impending hurricane. It does not take a long residence in San Francisco to see that the Jesuits have chosen that city for their citadel on this continent. Their incalculable treasures give them a power which we may call irresistible in a country and in days where gold is everything to every one. It is to San Francisco that you must come to have an idea of the number of great and powerful organizations with which the Church of Rome is preparing herself for the impending conflict, through which she hopes to destroy the system of education, and every vestige of liberty and human rights in the United States, as she bravely and publicly announced it not long ago in her most popular organs, the Catholic World, of New York, and the Catholic Review:— “The Catholic Church numbers one third the American population, and if its membership shall increase for the next thirty years as it has for the thirty past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and be bound to this country and keep it. There is, ere long, to be a State religion in this country, and that State religion is to be Roman Catholic. The Catholic is to wield his vote for the purpose of securing Roman Catholic ascendancy in this country. All legislation must be governed by the will of God, unerringly indicated by the pope. Education must be controlled by Catholic authorities; and under education the opinions of the individual and the utterances of the press are included. Many opinions are to be furnished by the secular arm, under the authority of the Church, even to war and bloodshed.”—Catholic World, July, 1870. “While a State has rights, she has them only in virtue and by permission of the superior authority, and that authority can only be expressed through the Church. Protestantism of every form has not and never can have any right where Catholicity has triumphed, and therefore we lose the breath we spend in declaiming against bigotry and intolerance and in favor of religious liberty, or the right of any man to be of any religion as best pleases him.”—Catholic Review, July, 1870. In order more easily to drill the Irish Catholics, and prepare them for the impending conflict, the Jesuits have organized them into a great number of secret societies, the principal of which are: (1) Ancient Order of Hibernians; (2) Irish American Society; (3) Knights of St. Patrick; (4) St. Patrick’s Cadets; (5) Apostles of Liberty; (6) Benevolent Sons of the Emerald Isle; (7) Knights of St. Peter; (8) Knights of the Red Branch; (9) Knights of Columbkill. Almost all these secret associations are military ones; they have their headquarters in San Francisco, but their rank and file are scattered all over the United States, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. They number seven hundred thousand soldiers, who, under the name of United States Volunteer Militia, are officered by the most skillful and able generals of the great republic; for it is a fact to which the Americans do not sufficiently pay attention, that the Jesuits have been shrewd enough to have a vast majority of Roman Catholic officers and generals to command the armies and man the navy of the United States. Who will be able to stand against a power which will be supported by seven hundred thousand soldiers well drilled, armed with the best modern arms, officered by the most skillful military men of the United States, and whose treasurers will not only have the key of the treasury of this great country, but will be, in great part, the masters of the untold millions dug out from, or yet concealed in, the inexhaustible gold and silver mines of California and Nevada? And that you may know the Christian feelings of the Jesuit priests of San Francisco, Canada, and the whole world, toward England and her sons and daughters, read the following extract from the address of Father Rooney, last St. Patrick’s Day:— “IRISH CATHOLIC: Trust your priests as you ever have as a nation, and when the propitious moment comes to settle accounts with brutal old England, the murderer of your priests and forefathers, the merciless despoilers of your sanctuaries, the pilferer of your possessions, and the starver of your people, those priests will bless the sword that you may use, that it may cut more keenly; the bullet, that it may perforate more deeply; and your hands, that they may wield the weapon more powerfully; and your nerves, that you may the more steadily avenge your injured mother and your noble ancestors. Never trust an enemy that has deceived us as often as England, and violated every treaty made with us. You need expect nothing from her except through the canon’s roar, the whizzing bullet, and the flashing scimeter! But let us be sure we are well prepared and ready for the fray.”