America's Representative to the Papal States
By C. E. Holmes
It is probably not generally known that for over twenty years our government had a legally appointed representative to the Papal States. As stated in Moore's "Digest of International Law," "At one time the United States maintained diplomatic relations with the Papal States, which continued up to the time of the loss of the temporal power of the Papacy [1870]."—Vol. I, pages 130, 131. In his annual message to Congress, December, 1847, President James K. Polk said:— "The Secretary of State has submitted an estimate to defray the expense of opening diplomatic relations with the Papal States."—Congressional Globe, Dec. 7, 1847. Not long after, I find these interesting joint resolutions introduced into Congress by Representative Murphy:— "Resolved (the Senate concurring herein), That Congress regards the enlightened policy of the sovereign pontiff of Rome in extending to his people toleration of political opinion, a liberal press, and constitutional guaranties, and in removing religious disabilities, as demanding its admiration, inasmuch as such measures are founded upon principles cherished by the people of the United States as the true basis of popular liberty, and because they are a voluntary and peaceful tribute to right, unstained by blood, unbought by human suffering, and equally worthy of a high religious functionary, and a wise temporal sovereignty. "Resolved (the Senate concurring herein), That, in view of these interesting events, a country to which the people of the United States are indebted not6only for many of the arts which adorn life, but for many of the political institutions which they enjoy, it is expedient that diplomatic relations be opened by this government with the Papal States, and that Congress concur with the President in his late message in regard thereto. "Resolved (the Senate concurring herewith), That the President be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Pope Pius IX."—Id., Dec. 20, 1847. The reasons for opening diplomatic relations with the Pope of Rome, as set forth in these resolutions, were zealously assailed. I was not able to find where these resolutions were brought up for consideration; but in the Deficiency Appropriation Bill, introduced into the House Jan. 29, 1848, I note, among other items, a proposal to establish a legation in Rome. A lively debate ensued over this question; but the deficiency bill finally passed the House, containing these two provisions:— "For outfits of chargés d'affaires to Naples, the Papal States, and the republics of Bolivia, Guatemala, and Ecuador, $22,500. "For one quarter's salary to each of the chargés d'affaires to Papal States, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Ecuador, $4,500."—Id., March 8, 1848. I give a few extracts from a speech made in the House when this matter was being considered:— "We are told that Pius IX is a reformer. Indeed! In what sense is he a reformer? Has he divested himself of any of his absolute prerogatives? He has cast off his claims to infallibility? Has he cast aside his triple crown? . . . Has he become a republican? Does he acknowledge the inherent equality of mankind? . . . "He has made no fundamental alteration in the papal system. The edifice remains entire; it is supported by the same Gothic columns of medieval ignorance and superstition. . . . "No Pope can be a reformer, in the true sense of that term. He cannot give the people the rights they are entitled to, because from that moment he would cease to be Pope, and the people, ceasing to be slaves, would become sovereign. Pius never can do what would entitle him to American approbation. . . . "This country seems destined to be the grand theater of Roman Catholic power — not American papistry, but the papistry of Rome; of the Old World; of Austria and of the Pope. Shall we grow wise in time, or shall we surrender up our rights without resistance? "I tell you, and I tell the nation (for there is yet time to save it), that the propagandists of Europe are colonizing this country; that the foreign population is being dexterously located, not only with the view to holding the balance of power in certain States, but with reference to the organization of new ones, under the peculiar influence of the Jesuits. "The combination of despotism — the despotism of church and state power — must be counteracted by combinations of freeman, under the sacred guaranty of the Constitution, which makes resistance virtue, and stamps the denunciations of the 'unholy and revolting alliance' with the sublimest attributes of patriotism and benevolence. "Sir, we do protest against this religious link between our free republic and the papal throne,—a throne unlike all others, built upon power, spiritual and temporal, political and religious,—a throne which makes man a slave, and transforms kings into fiends, priests into tormentors, a people into drones, a country into a desert,—a throne which extinguishes the fire on the altar of domestic love, in a form peculiar, fatal, revolting; snatching its votaries away from the homage of nature to the cold convent, the repulsive abbey, the gloomy cell of the anchorite, the horrid dungeon of the Inquisition, and the demoralizing edict of celibacy; stirring up sedition, rebellion, and civil war, as the only means of extending a power which reason revolts from and persuasion fails to diffuse, which mankind has resisted in every age, at the peril and under the penalty of the cannon's mouth, the edge of the sword, the fire of the fagot, the torments of the stake, and the tortures of the rack."—Id., March 2, 1848. These appropriations for the establishment and maintenance of a mission to Rome passed the Senate March 21, 1848. I give below a few paragraphs from the debate in the Senate regarding this question:— "We all know that it is one of the claims put forth by the sovereign pontiff that he was constituted 'prince over all nations and kings,'—'he plucks up, pulls down, destroys, plants, and builds,' at his sovereign leisure,—exercising, in short, all those powers claimed by Pope Pius V, in his famous bull of excommunication. We know that the church, of which the Pope is the head, never changes. "It seems to me that when this matter comes to be carefully considered, it must be regarded as simply a mission from this country to the first bishop of the world; because it is only as an ecclesiastic that the sovereign pontiff exercises temporal authority."—Id., March 21, 1848. "Of all the great principles which lie at the foundation of our free institutions, I believe that there is none more conservative and more essential to the security of those institutions than the principles of universal toleration and equality of all the churches, each being left to the voluntary support of its own members. History has taught us that whenever the church becomes connected with the state,—without any imputation on the principles of religion itself,—corruption and abuse of power are the result."—Id., March 20, 1848. About a week after the passage of this bill, President Polk sent his appointment of a representative to the Papal States to the Senate for its approval: "I nominate Joshua L. Martin [afterward corrected to Jacob L. Martin], now secretary of the legation of the United States at Paris, to be chargé d'affaires of the United States to the Papal States."—"Executive Journals," Vol. VII, page 538. In giving Mr. Martin instructions (April 5, 1848) regarding his relations to the Pope, the State Department said:— "There is one consideration which you ought always to keep in view in your intercourse with the papal authorities. Most, if not all, the governments which have diplomatic representatives at Rome are connected with the Pope as the head of the Catholic Church. In this respect the government of the United States occupies an entirely different position. It possesses no power whatever over the question of religion. All denominations of Christians stand on the same footing in this country; and every man enjoys the inestimable rights of worshiping his God according to the dictates of his own conscience. Your efforts therefore will be devoted exclusively to the cultivation of the most friendly civil relations with the papal government, and to the extension of the commerce between the two countries. You will carefully avoid even the appearance of interfering in ecclesiastical questions, whether these relate to the United States or to any other portion of the world. It might be proper, should you deem it advisable, to make these views known, on some suitable occasion, to the papal government, so that there may be no mistake or misunderstanding on this subject."—Moore's "Digest of International Law," pages 130, 131. After his appointment, the chargé d'affaires had considerable difficulty in presenting his papers of credence. The Pope's subjects seemed to have failed to appreciate his reforms (?), and kept the States in such a turmoil that our first representative, and also his successors, had trouble in finding the person who could properly receive his papers. Instructions on this point were also given by the State Department to Mr. Cass, Jr., who, owing to the death of Mr. Martin the next year, was nominated by the President, and confirmed by the Senate after a debate conducted on three different days. "Shortly after these instructions were given, a revolution occurred at Rome, and the government of the Pope was displaced. The government of the United States, however, considering 'the speedy restoration of the Pope highly probable, if not absolutely certain,' instructed its chargé d'affaires, while proceeding immediately to Rome and gathering all the information obtainable, to withhold his letter of credence till he should receive specific directions as to the minister of foreign affairs to whom it should be delivered. [See Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Cass, Feb. 16, 1849. MS. Inst. Papal States, I, 11.] "Subsequently, the situation having7apparently become 'more and more complicated and entangled,' it was left to his discretion, in order to avoid any unnecessary delay, to present his letter of credence to the minister of foreign affairs of the provisional government, or to withhold it some time longer."—Ib. In 1856 the President, Franklin Pierce, sought to raise Mr. Cass to the position of "envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the pontifical states." But a few months after he submitted this nomination to the Senate, he withdrew it. See "Executive Journals," Volume X. A speech made in the House about this time, by Mr. Whitney, contains some strong statements, which are worthy of reproduction. A few extracts are appended:— "The elements of freedom are not in the spirit of Roman Catholicism. One more text from the living witness of our own day. So prolific are the unwritten pages of the present, that it is needless to look back into the centuries of the past. 'Freedom of conscience,' says Pio Nino, 'is an absurd and dangerous maxim,' and 'the liberty of the press is that fatal license of which we cannot entertain too great a horror.' . . . Mr. Brownson, the editor of the Roman Catholic Review, tells us: 'The Pope is the proper authority to decide whether the Constitution of this country is or is not repugnant to the laws of God!' Ergo, the Pope is the proper authority to determine whether his subjects in this country shall obey that Constitution or not. I say that the papal power—I speak of the hierarchy—is hostile in all its elements to what we understand as civil and religious liberty, and, therefore, as a politico-religious element it ought not to be encouraged. . . . "A Romish paper, called the Rambler, tells us that 'Religious liberty in the sense of a liberty possessed by every man to choose his own religion, is one of the most wicked delusions ever foisted upon this age by the father of all deceit. The very name of liberty, except in the sense of a permission to do certain definite acts, ought to be banished from the domain of religion.' "A word now as to the statesmen of America, on the estimation in which their political morality is held by the teachers and oracles of the Romish party in the United States. I read for their edification from the Boston Pilot:— " 'No human fact is more certain than that the politicians will hereafter court the Catholic vote.' "The Freeman's Journal is no less indelicate in its portraiture of their character. That paper says:— " 'Year by year the Irish are becoming more powerful in America. At length the propitious moment will come — some accidental, sudden collision, and a presidential campaign close at hand [italics his]. We will then use the very profligacy of our politicians for our purposes. They will want to buy the Irish vote, and we will tell them for how much they can buy it in a lump from Maine to California.'"—Congressional Globe, July 28, 1856. The warning of Congressman Whitney was none too soon. Without doubt, the political affairs of the present time are influenced by the Church of Rome to a large degree.