YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
WILLIAM C. EGLESTON FUND

LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS

CARDINAL GIBBONS AT THE AGE OF 83 YEARS

LIFE OF
CARDINAL GIBBONS
ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE

,BY
ALLEN SINCLAIR WILL
M.A., LITT.D., LL.D.

Render therefore to Caesar the things
that are Caesar's and to God the things
that are God's. Matthew xxii, si.

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE

Copyright, 1922,
BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

All Rights Reserved

Vv 6

Frtnted In the ITnlted States of America

TO
THE INSPIRER OF MY LABORS
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

PREFACE
Cardinal Gibbons, in an address at the elevation of
Archbishop Farley to the Cardinalate, said: "It is not
the Cardinal that ennobles the man; it is the man that
ennobles the Cardinal." This was a true reflection of
-the spirit in which he exhibited his own life to others.
It is thus, then, that I must attempt to depict his life in
order to be faithful to the task. A personality such as
his was bound to take a range as wide as humanity itself.
This was the spirit of Cardinal Gibbons when he
authorized me to write his biography in 1909. He was
then seventy-five years old. In the conversation on that
occasion, he related the story of the artist who was com
missioned to paint a portrait of Cromwell and who dis
played the finished picture without the warts which dis
figured the countenance of the Lord Protector. The
Cardinal repeated to me the admonition of Cromwell
to the artist: "Paint me as I am, warts and all"; and
added with emphasis: "That is what I wish you to do
for me."
He never altered that injunction. I was amazed at
times, in the course of my long association with him,
that he did not do so, but I must record his attitude as
it was. At the interview with him just cited, he consented to
devote a part of each day when necessary, except Satur
days and Sundays (subsequently, Saturdays were also
included), to telling me his own story of his life from

viii PREFACE
his earliest recollections onward. During the next five
years I was very actively engaged in obtaining material
by means of these never-to-be-forgotten conversations,
and in supplementing it by the collection of other perti
nent data from every source that I could reach. The
Cardinal gave me the private journal which he had kept
since 1868, the existence of which, he told me, was then
unknown to anyone else; and I had full access to the
archives of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, containing the
official records of his administration, and many of his
letters. After five years I had completed the work of assem
bling the greatest mass of the material which had accu
mulated up to that time. He survived six years longer,
and I continued my work to the end.
In 1911, at the time of his golden jubilee as priest
and his silver jubilee as Cardinal, he gave me permission
to publish a volume of four hundred pages containing
such biographical material as it was proper to present
then. This was the only biography of him which ap
peared in his lifetime. From the beginning I had col
lected the material with the plan of telling the story
fully when it was complete, and I have now done so, the
earlier work being discarded except for a comparatively
few passages, and a new, greatly enlarged, and final one,
written. Conscious of my own limitations in many respects, I
have recognized no limitation in my effort to represent
the Cardinal and his career faithfully and fully.
Allen Sinclair Will

CONTENTS VOLUME I
CHAPTER PAGE
I Earliest Years  1-21
Cardinal Gibbons born in 1834 within the parish of the
Baltimore Cathedral. — Life of his parents in Ireland, their
first home, and in Baltimore. — The city of his birth as it was
in 1834. — His recollections of a visit of Andrew Jackson to
Baltimore. — The family returns to Ireland on account of his
father's ill health. — Early schooling of the future Cardinal at
Ballinrobe. — His talents attract marked attention. — Develop
ment of his remarkable memory. — Death of his father. — His
mother returns with her children to America, settling in New
Orleans. — James becomes a grocer's clerk there. — Stricken
with yellow fever, and recovers after a long illness. — Attend
ance at a Redemptorist mission causes him to decide to enter
the priesthood.
II Student Days in Maryland  22-42
Difficulties of Gibbons' journey from New Orleans to St.
Charles College, Maryland, to receive classical training for
the priesthood. — The rule of silence at St. Charles. — His high
rank in classes. — Experiences with the professor of Latin. —
Fondness for pedestrianism and athletic sports. — Estimates
of Gibbons by Ridgely Dorsey and other fellow students. —
A vacation letter to Dorsey from New Orleans. — Graduation
with honor at St. Charles and entrance into St. Mary's Semi
nary, Baltimore, for theological studies. — A severe illness
causes his preceptors to doubt that he can continue at the
Seminary. — Appointed master of philosophical discussions in
class. — Father Dissez's reminiscences of him as a student. —
Ordained to the priesthood in the Baltimore Cathedral as the
Civil War was beginning.
Ill An Adventurous Pastorate  43-62
Experiences of Gibbons during six weeks as assistant pastor
of St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore. — Pastor of St. Bridget's,
in what was then a suburb, during the war. — Volunteer chap
lain at Forts McHenry and Marshall. — His reminiscences of
war divisions in Maryland. — He adheres to the Union cause
but takes no part in the controversy. — Takes charge of St.
Lawrence's Church also. — Hardships and labors gravely
undermine his health. — Interest in saving Embert, a Con
federate prisoner, from hanging. — Exhibitions of personal
courage during his pastorate. — Prophetic sermon in St.

x CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Joseph's Church on the night of Lincoln's assassination. —
Takes part in a procession escorting Lincoln's body.
IV The Path of Promotion  63-81
Appointed secretary to Archbishop Spalding. — His doubts on
accepting and his decision to obey the call of duty. — Close
personal ties with the Archbishop. — Anecdotes of their asso
ciation. — Assistant Chancellor of the Second Plenary Council
of Baltimore. — His rapid development while dealing with the
large affairs of the Council. — His personality at that period. —
Appointed Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina at the age of 32
years. — Oppressed by a sense of the responsibility and hesi
tates before accepting. — Organizes first Sunday school at the
Baltimore Cathedral. — Shares actively in parish work.
V North Carolina Mission Labors  82-115
Gibbons elevated as Bishop of the titular See of Adramyttum.
— Youngest bishop in the world. — Difficulties of his task in
North Carolina, where there were then only 800 Catholics. —
Christian Reid's impressions of him at that time. — Installed
at Wilmington. — Contact with the "carpet bag" regime. —
Arduous missionary journeys throughout the State. — Preaches
in Protestant churches and in Court Houses where Catholic
churches are lacking. — His appeals bear fruit in many con
versions. — Extracts from his journal on his experiences in
North Carolina. — Efforts to overcome hostility to the Catho
lic Church broaden and develop him. — Highly esteemed by
Protestants.
VI Youngest in the Vatican Council  1 16-139
Summoned from North Carolina to sit in the Vatican Council,
of which he was the youngest member. — His first view of
Rome. — Stimulating experiences of a General Council of the
Church. — The question of the infallible teaching office of the
Roman Pontiffs. — American acceptance of the doctrine but
opposition to its formal definition as inopportune. — Extract
from Gibbons' diary of the Vatican Council. — He votes for
the definition when the question is finally presented. — His
impressions of the chief personalities in the Council. — Inspira
tion in Rome for his future work.
VII Bishop of Richmond  140-164
Appointed to the See of Richmond in 1872. — Ripening talents
discerned by his superiors. — Traits of leadership as shown at
that period in his life. — Post-bellum poverty in Virginia. —
Episcopal journeys and rapid growth of the Church in the
diocese.— Repulse of a night foray by a robber. — Preaches at
the consecration of the Baltimore Cathedral. — Comment on
the appointment of Archbishop McCloskey as the first
American Cardinal, — Attack on President Grant's plan for

CONTENTS

XI

CHAPTER pAGB
federal supervision of education. — Frequent calls to assist
Archbishop Bayley in Baltimore.
VIII Archbishop of Baltimore  165-187
Friendship between Archbishop Bayley and Bishop Gibbons.—
Letters exchanged by them. — Bayley invites Gibbons to accept
nomination as coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore with the
right of succession. — Gibbons shows reluctance, on the ground
that he lacks general capacity and physical strength. — Pre
vailed upon to accept. — Appointed titular Archbishop of
Janopolis.— Succeeds to the See of Baltimore at the death of
Bayley in October, 1877. — Begins administration of the diocese
with vigor. — Interest in wayward boys. — His sermons at the
Cathedral attract many non-Catholics. — Invested with the last
pallium bestowed by Pius IX.
IX Prelate of the People  188-199
Gibbons becomes a conspicuous figure in the general activities
of Baltimore. — His cooperation with non-Catholics in civic
and benevolent work. — Large acquaintance in his native city
and remarkable memory for names and faces. — His aim to
dispel prejudice against Catholics. — Judgment of men in
filling ecclesiastical posts. — Influence on training a native
American priesthood. — Episcopal journeys in Southern Mary
land, where the Catholic faith was first planted in English
speaking America.
X Broadening Public Life  200-219
Gibbons' diocesan visits to Washington and his natural incli
nations lead him into the current of national affairs. — Visit
to President Hayes in behalf of the Catholic Indians. —
Accepts invitations to dinner at which he meets leaders in
Washington life. — Entries in his journal show his widening
scope in these directions. — Issues a letter to the clergy
expressing horror at the attack on President Garfield and
directing prayers for the President's recovery. — Helps in
establishing the national observance of Thanksgiving Day. —
His first visit to Leo XIII. — Their community of ideas.—
Death of Gibbons' mother. — Relations with James G. Blaine. —
Sermon on the anarchist riots in Chicago.
XI The Versatile Reach  220-233
Archbishop Gibbons' public services increase in range. — His
help welcomed by Catholics and non-Catholics alike in many
undertakings. — Daily walks on the streets of Baltimore. —
Reminiscences of students whom he invited to accompany
him on these excursions. — His vote cast in every election. —
Fondness for reading United States history and civics. — In
cessant labors. — Daily life and care of his health. — Reception
of visitors at the archiepiscopal residence without ceremony.

xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XII Third Plenary Council of Baltimore  234-253
Leo XIII consults the American Bishops on the holding of a
Plenary Council.— Gibbons opposes it at first, fearing revival
of intolerant attacks against the Catholic faith.— Western
Bishops favor a council and Leo decides to convoke it,
appointing Gibbons to preside over it as Apostolic Delegate. —
Gibbons spends many months in preparation, aiming to shape
the council's work so that it might be permanent and might
make clear the position of the Catholic Church as a supporter
of American institutions.— Protest against the seizure of the
American College in Rome by the Italian government.— Italy
restores the college.— Gibbons' skill as a presiding officer in
the Council.— Vision shown in its decrees.— Pastoral letter
issued at its close defines the relation of the Church to the
Government of the United States and her unwavering sup
port of the civil institutions of the country.
XIII Birth of the Catholic University  254-267
Influence of Gibbons on the large educational projects of the
Third Plenary Council. — Decision to found the Catholic Uni
versity of America as the pinnacle of the system. — Bishop
Spalding's work for the University. — Gibbons becomes the
first head of its Board of Trustees. — Causes of his interest in
the University and his intense zeal for it during a long period
of years. — Declarations of the Council on the training of
priests and on Christian education. — It exhorts attendance at
parochial schools but refuses to condemn the public schools.
XIV The Question of Secret Societies  268-276
Declarations of the Third Plenary Council on secret societies.
— Opposed as instruments or possible instruments for work
ing against religion and general welfare. — Warning against
sweeping promises of obedience to the decisions of heads of
such societies. — Catholics urged to conform strictly to the
Church's guidance in regard to them. — Other acts of the
Council. — The system of irremovable rectors established in
the United States. — Gibbons' address at the closing session. —
Leo XIII commends the work of the Council, which serves
as a model for similar gatherings convoked subsequently.
XV Elevated to the Cardinalate  277-295
Dawn of a period of unexampled growth for the Catholic
Church in America. — Gibbons the leader in the advance. —
Death of Cardinal McCloskey followed by marked expressions
of a national desire that Gibbons be elevated to the Sacred
College. — Leo XIII decides to appoint him. — Entries in his
journal show the humility with which he received the news of
his appointment. — Baltimore prepares for a fete in honor of
his elevation. — A messenger hurries from Rome bearing the
red biretta in order that Gibbons may be invested with it

CONTENTS xiii

June 30, 1886, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination
to the priesthood. — Large gathering of the hierarchy at the
ceremony. — Public parades and reception of delegations. —
Non-Catholics throughout the country hail the appointment.
XVI Setting the Larger Task  296-305
Gibbons' views of the opportunities^ of the Cardinalate for
general service. — He takes counsel with leaders in the Church
and in civil life and formulates a program of definite aims. —
Reliance upon the support of Leo XIII. — Desire that the
Church should adapt herself to the fullest extent to the
American democracy. — Stifling of intolerance necessary to the
large development of the Church in the United States which
he planned. — Fostering of popular education as a means of
guiding the development of democracy. — Interests of labor
to be defended in order that economic conditions might enable
men to prepare for the duties of citizenship. — Resistance to
radicalism. — Gibbons determines to embark upon all of his
large tasks at once.
XVII Speech in Rome on Church and State  306-319
Journey to Rome to receive the red hat. — Cardinal Gibbons
installed in his titular church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. —
He marks that occasion by delivering an address on the rela
tions of Church and State in the United States. — Declares
that the great growth of the Church in the American republic
has been due, under God and the fostering vigilance of the
Holy See, to civil liberty; that the government protects the
Church in America without interfering with her, and that
"our country has liberty without license and authority with
out despotism." — Bases his remarks upon Leo XIII's encyc
lical on the constitution of Christian states. — His declaration
startles many Europeans, Protestants as well as Catholics,
because it combats the view that separation means antagonism
by the State to the Church.
XVIII Defense of Organized Labor  320-334
Sudden rise of the Knights of Labor in America.— Condemned
by the hierarchy of Canada as a secret society working-^-
against religion. — Gibbons summons Powderly, the head of
the order, to Baltimore, and confers with him on the methods
of the organization. — Convokes the Archbishops, whom he
convinces that the secrecy e£~th£_ order is not complete and
that it does not prevent the manifestation of everything con
cerning the Knights to ecclesiastical authority; that to con
demn it in the United States would be a blow to the strug
gling poor. — They recommend to Rome that the order be not
forbidden. — Gibbons confers with President Cleveland on the
question and finds Cardinal Manning in sympathy with him. —
Wages a personal campaign in Rome in behalf of the Knights
when he goes there to receive the red hat.

xlv CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGB
XIX Memorable Letter to Rome  335-352
Cardinal Gibbons addresses to Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of
the Propaganda, for presentation to the Congregation of the
Holy Office, a powerful plea against condemnation of the
Knights of Labor in the United States. — Declares that an
attempt to crush them by an ecclesiastical edict would be rash
and would endanger the position of the Church; sets forth
,._ the wrongs which gave rise to the movement of labor to
*~s, organize for its own protection and urges that the Church
avoid any act that . would •§e?m to obstruct a settlement by
natural evolution ; predicts the gradual decline of the Knights
without condemnation.
XX Victory for the Knights of Labor  353-360
Gibbons' letter turns the tide of opinion at Rome. — A copy of
/it is surreptitiously obtained by a newspaper and published,
with the result that Gibbons receives many commendations
from the United States. — The Congregation of the Holy
Office decides not to forbid the organization of the Knights in
America and lifts the ban that had been imposed in Canada. —
Manning congratulates Gibbons on the victory. — Leo XIII
confirms the stand of the American Cardinal in his encyclical
on "The Condition of Labor." — Gibbons' personal sympathy
with labor. — Archbishop Ireland hails him as a prophet.
XXI Henry George and Dr. McGlynn  361-378
Condemnation of Henry George's book, "Progress and
Poverty," proposed at Rome. — Gibbons combats the proposal
as threatening to stifle the free discussion of economic evils. —
"Differences from Archbishop Corrigan, advocate of condem
nation. — Gibbons addresses an appeal against condemnation
to Rome. — He enlists the active help of other members of the
American Hierarchy, who also write to Rome opposing con
demnation. — Corrigan's effort to have the book condemned
fails.— Drs. McGlynn and Burtsell, New York priests, become
conspicuous public supporters of George. — Corrigan deposes
them from their pastorates when they fail to heed his admo
nitions. — Gibbons regrets their resistance to the Archbishop.
— They afterward submit to discipline and their functions
are restored.
XXII A Triumphal Return Home  379-395
Gibbons' health impaired by his arduous work in Rome in
the Spring of 1887. — In a leisurely trip homeward he visits
Manning in London. — Their community of views on many
questions and differences in their personalities. — Gibbons
visits Mill Hill College and obtains the services of mission
aries for work among negroes in America. — Acclaimed as a
popular hero on his return to Baltimore after struggles and
victories. — Sermon on his experiences and observations

CONTENTS

xv

CHAPTER PAGE
abroad. — Offers prayer at the celebration in Philadelphia of
the centennial of the American Constitution. — Honors paid
to him at the celebration.
XXIII The Vision of the West  396-407
Journey to the Pacific coast to confer the pallium on Arch
bishop Gross at Portland, Oregon. — Impressions of the large
opportunities for religion and material development in the
West, which he had never visited before. — The opportunity
of the Catholic Church to fuse the foreign elements then
beginning to crowd into that part of the country and adapt
them to their new civic life. — Honored at St. Paul, Helena,
Portland, Los Angeles and elsewhere as an .exemplar of
patriotism and public service and as a champion of labor. — "¦
Visits New Orleans on his return and receives tribute at a
citizens' reception in that city. — Assists a movement to attract
immigration to the Southern States. — Impressions of his trip.
XXIV Relations with President Cleveland  408-421
Cardinal Gibbons requested by Mr. Cleveland to convey the
President's felicitations to Leo XIII in honor of the Pope's
golden jubilee as a priest. — Visits the White House and sug
gests that a bound copy of the American Constitution be sent
as a present. — Cleveland accepts the suggestion and transmits
a handsomely bound copy through Gibbons. — Leo's letter of
thanks commending the protection of the Catholic Church
in the American democracy. — Gibbons' correspondence with
Cleveland. — Their personal ties. — Cleveland consults him on
the tariff message to Congress in 1888. — Their conferences on
other public questions. — Gibbons comments in a Thanksgiving
circular on the stability of American political institutions.
XXV A Century of Catholic Advance  422-440
Preparations for the celebration of the centennial of the
American Hierarchy. — Early years of Gibbons' cardinalate
marked by unprecedented growth of the Church. — His tribute
to John Carroll, the first American Archbishop, in a sermon.
— Leo XIII sends Archbishop Satolli as Papal Delegate to the
celebration in Baltimore. — Great gathering of the hierarchy
and priesthood. — Sermons by Archbishops Ryan and Ireland
emphasize the civil liberty in the United States as a founda
tion for the Church's progress in the century past and the
one to come.
XXVI A Call to the Laity — Higher Education .... 441-457
Gibbons' interest in enlisting the active help of the Catholic
laity. — A Congress of Laymen called to mark the Hierarchy's
centennial. — Gibbons addresses the congress. — Resolutions
adopted affirming the adaptability of the Church to American
institutions, condemning socialism and communism and advo-

xvi CONTENTS
CHAPTER . *iffl
eating social reforms.— The Catholic University opened in the
same week with the dedication of the School of Sacred
Sciences in the presence of President Harrison and a dis
tinguished gathering.— Leo XIII sends his blessing/— Ad
dresses of Cardinal Gibbons and others.— Work of Bishop
Keane, the University's first rector, in organizing the institu
tion.— Public reception to prelates, priests and laymen by
Mayor Latrobe of Baltimore.
XXVII The Coming of the Papal Delegate  458-471
Gibbons consulted by Leo XIII on the question of sending a
permanent Apostolic Delegate to the United States. — He
opposes the plan on the ground of his views on the respective
functions of Church and State. — The decision is deferred and
at length the plan is modified, Satolli being sent as permanent
Apostolic Delegate to the Church in America without diplo
matic status. — In the working out of the Delegate's mission,
Gibbons finds that objection is removed. — Satolli's tact and
his sympathy with American institutions.— 'His close ties with
Gibbons.
XXVIII The School Question— Faribault Plan .... 472-496
Discussion of the question of parochial and public schools
becomes acute. — Gibbons' views of a proper public school in
which religion is taught. — Pastoral letter on education. — His
opposition to a project for a union of Church and State
schools in Maryland as untimely. — Archbishop Ireland's ex
periments in the schools at Faribault and Stillwater, Minn.,
cause widespread controversy. — Gibbons defends Ireland. —
He summons the Archbishops to consider the question and
they sustain Ireland. — Leo XIII also sustains him. — Satolli, at
another meeting of the Archbishops, outlines fourteen
propositions for the working out of the educational problem.
— Gibbons' help to schools for Indians.
XXIX Struggle for Americanism  497-516
The Cahensly movement for preserving the nationalities of
foreigners in the Church in America. — Gibbons wages one of
the greatest combats of his life in opposition to it. — Appeal
of the Cahenslyites to the Holy See.— Their campaign in
Rome excites Gibbons' alarm. — Demand for the appointment
of Bishops in America on the basis of nationality.— Gibbons'
fears of the development of permanent foreign influences in
the country which would disturb the unity of the Church and
thwart the national destiny. — Interview with him in the
Frankfurter Zeitung.— Suspicions of foreign political ends to
be served under the guise of solicitude for the spiritual care
of immigrants.

CONTENTS xvii

XXX Fall of the Cahensly Cause  517-543
Father Abbelen presents the views of the American Cahensly-
ites in Rome. — His pleas disputed by Ireland and Keane in
sympathy with Gibbons' attitude. — Warning against impeding
the conversion of Protestants. — Gibbons consults Archbishops
Williams, Ryan and Corrigan, who unite in a letter to Rome
replying to Abbelen's contentions. — Denies that German
Catholics are neglected in the United States. — A vigorous
letter to Archbishop Elder. — Leo condemns Cahenslyism. —
President Harrison felicitates Gibbons on the victory. — The
Cardinal delivers a powerful sermon in Milwaukee, a strong
hold of Cahenslyism, declaring that "God and Our Country"
should be the watchword of all in America. — Bishop Keane
displaced as rector of the Catholic University. — Temporary
rise of anti-Catholic organizations.
XXXI Interpretations of Father Hecker  544-559
The question of Americanism in the Church involved in the
discussion caused by the publication of the "Life of Father
Hecker." — Relations of Gibbons and Hecker. — Views of
Hecker on individual action within the limits defined by the
Church are misinterpreted in versions of writings about him
as circulated in Europe. — Archbishop Ireland's commendation
of him. — Foreign assertions that American Catholics accept
unsound doctrines are vigorously denied. — Leo XIII settles
the controversy by his letter on "Americanism" addressed to
Gibbons, reproving some views attributed to Hecker as ex
pressed in foreign interpretations. — Gibbons replies thanking
the Pope for "dispelling the cloud of misunderstanding."
XXXII Columbian Fetes — Parliament of Religions . . 560-584
Gibbons' participation in the celebration of the four hundredth
anniversary of the discovery of America. — Pastoral letter on
Columbus and the gain to the world by the addition of
America to the domain of civilization. — Celebrations in Balti
more. — Gibbons offers prayer at the dedication of the World's
Fair in Chicago. — He favors Catholic participation in the
Parliament of Religions at Chicago. — His address to the
Parliament on the services of the Catholic Church to
humanity. — His views on Christian unity. — Visit to Rome and
conferences with Leo XIII. — His part in causing America to
be understood abroad. — Receives another public welcome on
his return to Baltimore.

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I
Cover Design
Bas-relief portrait of Cardinal Gibbons, from the medal by
J. Maxwell Miller, executed in 191 1.
Frontispiece Cardinal Gibbons at the age of 83 years. facing page
Where Gibbons Served His Only Pastorate  47
St. Bridget's Church, Baltimore, in 1865.
Gibbons as a Priest in 1866  71
Father Gibbons standing; the Very Rev. Henry B. Coskery
seated.
Gibbons as the Youngest Bishop  83
From a photograph taken soon after he became Vicar Apos
tolic of North Carolina.
Gibbons as Bishop of Richmond  140
Old St. Peter's Cathedral and Bishop's Residence, Richmond,
Va., in 1876  162
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Baltimore  184
Interior of Cardinal Gibbons' Titular Church in Rome . . . 307
The Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Cardinal Gibbons at the Peak of His Labors  473
From a photograph taken in 1891, five years after his eleva
tion to the Cardinalate.

LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS

LIFE OF
CARDINAL GIBBONS

CHAPTER I
EARLIEST YEARS
By a rare fortuity, the birthplace of James Gibbons
was within the parish of the Cathedral in which he
towered for more than a third of a century as a great
captain of the Christian faith. His early memories were
linked closely with the tall Ionic columns of that build
ing, set on a bold hill in downtown Baltimore, and with
the singularly sweet tones of its bells, which flooded the
neighborhood daily with the harmony of their summons
to worship. He passed its portals first when he was car
ried there to be baptized.
A scant nine hundred yards of sloping streets sepa
rated the Cathedral from the dwelling on the west side of
Gay Street, a short distance north of Fayette Street,
where he was born July 23, 1834. His parents, Thomas
and Bridget Gibbons, had then lately come from Ireland,
borne on the tide of pre-famine emigration. They were
of small-farmer stock and there is abundant evidence
that they were intelligent, industrious and thrifty.
l

2 LIFE OP CARDINAL GIBBONS
Their family life appears to have been exemplary. They
had remained staunch Catholics in their youth despite
repressive laws against which the voice of Daniel
O'Connell was then ringing in protest.
Thomas Gibbons was born in 1800, and grew up near
Westport, County Mayo, on the western coast of Ire
land, almost under the shadow of Croagh Patrick, the
mystic peak in whose purple solitudes Ireland's patron
saint, according to revered tradition, meditated. There
he married Bridget Walsh, three years younger than
himself, the .daughter of James Walsh, a neighboring
farmer of scholarly tastes. The husband's life was
marked by a protracted struggle against ill-health, and
he died at forty-seven years of age. The wife was
strong, energetic, dauntless of spirit, and survived to the
age of eighty-three. Her courage and force of character
were blended with piety in a combination of traits which
were reflected in her gifted son.
When the young couple resolved to leave Ireland, they
intended to plant a new home in Canada. Embarking
in a sailing ship, they arrived at their destination after a
voyage of many weeks. The northern climate was too
severe for them, and after a brief stay in Canada they
resumed their wanderings, settling in Baltimore a few
years before the future Cardinal's birth.
Thomas Gibbons possessed considerable aptitude for
business. He obtained a position as clerk — a term of
variable meaning in those days — with Howell & Sons, a
firm which conducted a lucrative importing business on
Gay Street, a short distance from the house in which he
took up his residence. For years he was entrusted with

EARLIEST YEARS 3
the responsibility of caring for the money brought by
some of the smart clipper ships which raced up the Patap-
sco River with the trade of half the world, and of de
livering to the captains the amounts needed when they
sailed on new quests for riches. It was his custom not
to transfer to them the funds for the outward voyage
until they had passed beyond call of the signals on land,
and then, having concluded his task of fidelity with the
final signing of the papers, he would row back to port.
So scrupulously exact was he in these transactions that
there is a tradition that the phrase, "as honest as Gib
bons" was used as a standard of probity in the shipping
district of Baltimore.
The city was then beginning to burst from its narrow
beginnings in a surge of maritime development and trade
adventure. Its daring seamen, like their brethren in
New England, were spreading their sails in every ocean,
while the commercial fleets of Europe were almost deci
mated by losses in war. Grave merchants in sober dress,
their throats wrapped in stiff black stocks, sat in count
ing rooms fronting on irregular lines of streets and traf
ficked ambitiously with Europe, South America and the
Indies.1 Privateer ships which not many years before had
ravaged commerce in hundreds of forays, still manned in
part by seamen who had shown that they could wield a
cutlass as well as trim a sail, crowded the wharves in
pursuit of peaceful commerce. Eager purchasers clam
ored for the cargoes of the clippers arriving at Baltimore,
and piled barter upon barter as some of the great for
tunes of America began to rise. In this fast widening
"Scharf, Chronicles of Baltimore, p. 407.

4 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
whirlpool of trade Thomas Gibbons found a congenial
field, whose opportunities for promotion encouraged him.
The house in which the future Cardinal was born was
fated, like himself, for length of years. It was not new
when his parents moved into it. Through the vicissitudes
of lower Gay Street, a part of Baltimore swept at inter
vals by torrents from near-by Jones Falls and racked by
successive tremors of municipal reconstruction, it stood
without material change until 1892, when the city ef
faced a group of buildings, of which it was one, in order
to obtain space for a plaza for parades and outdoor meet
ings. Buoyant from youth to age with zest for the simple
and wholesome things of life, he cherished memories of
his first home with vivid freshness. He spoke of it ten
derly in later years, recalling a flood of recollections from
a period which is lost to most persons in the blurred
impressions of infancy. When his mind was crowded
with the absorbing tasks that his career in the Church
brought to him, his footsteps often lingered at its site in
the course of long rambles about the city with which he
invigorated himself for large undertakings.
Almost in his last moments, when his powers rose in a
final rally, his thoughts swept backward as he spoke to a
companion of the beloved dwelling. No detail faded
from his treasured picture of the simple architecture of
its two stories, its rooms with high ceilings that once
seemed a world to him, the tall bedstead in which he
slept, the thin chimneys through which poured the smoke
from the cheerful fireplaces around which the family

EARLIEST YEARS 5
gathered in winter, and the high-pitched, sharply,
sloping roof.
Six children were born to Thomas and Bridget Gib
bons, the first three being daughters and the last three
sons. James was the eldest son. He was baptized in the
Baltimore Cathedral by the Rev. Dr. Charles I. White,
for whom in mature years he cherished a warm affection.
An entry in his private journal for April 4, 1878, when he
had sat for six months in the Archbishop's chair, reads:
"This morning the Rev. Dr. C. I. White, pastor of
St. Matthew's Church, Washington, was buried in Mt.
Olivet Cemetery, having died on the 1st. About twenty-
five of the clergy of the diocese were present at the ob
sequies in St. Matthew's Church, which was filled to
repletion, many distinguished Protestants and some of
the foreign ministers being present. I preached on the
occasion. It was this venerable priest that baptized me."
The life of James Gibbons, marked as the greatest
influence which has developed in America toward check
ing the dark forces of intolerance concerning religion,
began in an historic background befitting that task. The
city of his birth bore the name of the Catholic barons
who had set up amid the wild forests of the western
world a commonwealth in which for the first time liberty
of conscience went hand in hand with liberty in civil
affairs. Under Cecilius Calvert, second of the Lords
Baltimore, to whom the planting of the colony of Mary
land was committed by his dying father, Catholic,
Church of England adherent, Puritan, Presbyterian and
Jew shared equally in the benevolent protection of its

6 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
laws.2 When the shadow of approaching Cromwellian
domination darkened the outlook, the colonial Assembly
sought to preserve what it was possible to save out of the
threatened wreck of the system by ordaining the Toler
ation Act of 1649, which safeguarded every Christian in
the province from being in "anyways troubled, molested
or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion
or in the free exercise thereof."
This proved to be the offspring of a vain hope, for
one Protestant group after another wrested control of
the province from the benignant Calverts of that early
generation, replacing the Toleration Act with arbitrary
statutes which disfranchised Catholics and condemned
them to double taxation.3 Their equality of right was
not restored until the American Revolution, but the wide
meaning of their daring experiment in the genesis of the
United States is hallowed to this day in the common
wealth which they founded.
Half a century before Gibbons was born, the vision
of religious liberty which the Calverts cherished had
been incorporated into fundamental law by the fathers
of the Federal constitution. The harsh voice of intol
erance was further subdued when John Carroll, the first
American Archbishop, far-sighted and patriotic, a Wash
ington in the robes of a cleric, organized the Catholic
Church in thorough harmony with the new republic's dis
tinctive political institutions.
In the atmosphere of freedom, American Catholics
a Russell, Maryland, the Land of Sanctuary, p. 3a. Browne, Maryland,
the History of a Palatinate, p. 79.
"Archives of Maryland, Vol. VI, p. 419. Bacon, Laws of Maryland,
Act of 1756.

EARLIEST YEARS 7
multiplied. Their number in Maryland was estimated
in the year of Gibbons' birth at 75,000 out of a popula
tion of 500,000, a greater proportion than in any other
State of the Union.* They were for the most part a
strong group sprung from the pioneers who had helped
to plant the Cross in the wilderness at St. Mary's, when
the first Mass was celebrated in any English colony on
the continent, and from the early successors of those
pioneers. In Baltimore the honored names of some of
these families have been associated with everything that
is best in the progress of the city since it was founded on
a tidewater marsh owned by one of the Carrolls.
Although the life of Gibbons stretched well into the
twentieth century, the twilight of the eighteenth still
seemed to linger in the times in which he was born. He
was a link between two of the most interesting periods in
modern history. When he was eighty-three years old he
wrote :
"It must be very difficult for the present generation to
reconstruct for themselves the world into which I was
born; things are so completely changed. The Napoleonic
wars were still a living memory. Many people who were
by no means old when I was a boy had seen General
Washington; and when I was ten years old, men who
were as old then as I am now were fourteen years of age
at the time of the Declaration of Independence. Slav
ery was still in existence in the Southern states and was
to remain in existence until I was a grown man and a
priest. Machinery was just coming into use, but nobody
dreamed of the extent to which it would be employed
'Letter of Archbishop Eccleston to the Congregation of the Propa
ganda, quoted by Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United
States, Vol. 3, p. 447.

8 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
later on. Electricity in all of its uses was almost un
dreamed of. Men knew from the experiments of Ben
jamin Franklin that it might possibly be used, but the
telegraph, telephone and electric light were still to come.
Railroads were a new invention.
"The Catholic Church, both in England and in this
country, was a small and very depressed body. I was
eleven years old when Newman became a Catholic.
Those two great movements which were to spread Cath
olicism so marvelously throughout the English-speaking
world — I mean the exodus of the Irish people after the
famine, and the entrance of a large body of Anglicans
into the Catholic Church — were still to come. In
short, one may say that when I was a young man we
were still living on the legacy of the eighteenth cen
tury." 5
Before the Gibbons home streamed a tide of pictur
esque life — fashionable idlers who maintained many of
the traditions of the English aristocracy; folk of many
sorts coming in from the northeastern outskirts of the
city to the maze of rope and mast that covered the inner
harbor; coaches of the rich, with liveried servants on the
boxes, and white-arched Conestoga wagons rumbling in
from Pennsylvania with the crops of rich counties to
barter for the city's wares. Uptown, in the parade of
late Georgian fashion which passed on bright afternoons,
one might observe here and there the sons and daughters
of rich Santo Domingan planters, driven not long before
in a terrified swarm by the revolution of L'Ouverture to
find in Baltimore the homes of exiles. Merchants from
half a dozen States drank the old wines of the Fountain
B"My Memories," Cardinal Gibbons in the Dublin Review for April,
1917.

EARLIEST YEARS 9
Inn or Barnum's, crowding to the gay and busy city to
buy their supplies a year ahead.
The name of Johns Hopkins was on the sign of a
wholesale grocery store on Lombard Street, near Light
Street.8 A few hundred yards distant, on what was then
called German Street, was the dry goods establishment
of George Peabody.7 Around the corner, on Charles
Street, was the modest office of Enoch Pratt, iron mer
chant. Chief Justice Taney's handsome residence was
on Lexington Street, the second house from St. Paul
Street. In the courts of law, brilliant speeches flowed
from the lips of William Pinkney, Luther Martin, Wil
liam Wirt and Reverdy Johnson. Edgar Allan Poe,
recently dismissed from West Point, was walking the
streets, half submerged in a grand despair, seeking em
ployment as a writer or teacher. At the Adelphi Thea
ter, Junius Brutus Booth, then at the apex of his great
gifts, was playing nightly Two years before, a tottering
old man had been an object of respectful interest as he
used to enter his residence at the corner of Front and
Lombard Streets after attending Mass. He was Charles
Carroll, and the hand that turned the heavy brass door
knob had signed the immortal Declaration.
Thomas Gibbons became a citizen of the United
States, turning with relief from the political turmoil of
Ireland to the institutions of the country in which he had
found a new home. Those were the days of the two presi
dential terms of Andrew Jackson. When Jackson, near
the close of his second term, visited Baltimore, there was
"Mr. Henry C Wagner, antiquarian, of Baltimore, was the authority
for the facts regarding old buildings as given here.
'German Street is now called Redwood Street.

10 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in the multitude that greeted him one who was destined
to be the friend, confidant and counselor of many presi
dents — perhaps of more than any other American yet
born. He was James Gibbons, then about three years
old, held high in the arms of his mother to see the
famous man.
The lad's memory had already awakened to such an
extent that this incident found firm lodgment in it, and
remained there through the long years that unfolded
before him. When past the age of eighty he wrote thus
to the author of a book embracing the recollections of the
handful of survivors who had beheld "Old Hickory" in
the flesh :
"I was always interested in Andrew Jackson for per
sonal reasons. When I was an infant in the year 1837,
General Jackson received an ovation in Baltimore. The
procession escorting him through the city happened to
pass our residence and my mother held me up in her
arms to contemplate the hero of New Orleans, the Presi
dent of the United States." 8
Soon after this, the health of the elder Gibbons failed
and his physician advised him to take a long sea voyage.
His affairs had prospered fairly well in America before
the prospect of invalidism cast a dark veil over his fu
ture. The family formed the hope that in Ireland, the
home of his youth, he might regain strength, and at
length the decision was reached to reestablish the house
hold there. The little group embarked on the return
voyage in 1837, and founded a new home at Ballinrobe,
near Westport.
"Letter of Cardinal Gibbons to S. G. Heiskell, of Knoxville, Tennessee.

EARLIEST YEARS 11
Thomas Gibbons bought land in the vicinity of Ballin
robe and settled down again to the life of a farmer, upon
which he had once turned his back for the allurements
of America. That village thus became the second boy
hood home of the future Cardinal — a quaint and placid
place with groups of thatched cottages fronting on its
shaded streets. It nestles in a region of rolling fields
of Ireland's own green and charming lakes and moun
tains, secluded from the beaten paths of travel.
The municipal evolution which in time erased from
the street vista of Baltimore every vestige of Cardinal
Gibbons' birthplace proceeded from a state of restless
ness to which Ballinrobe was an utter stranger, and the
dwelling occupied by the Gibbons family during its stay
in that village continued to be well preserved throughout
his life. Its substantial three stories stood upon a hilly
street. For years at a later period it was occupied by a
boyhood friend of the Cardinal, whose recollections of
their association seemed as fresh as the verdure of the
neighboring meadows.
At the age of seven years, James was led as a shrink
ing lad to begin his studies in a private classical school
conducted in a building which faced the market square
of Ballinrobe. It was a crudely constructed house, with
an earthen floor, and the pupils were grouped in none too
comfortable seats placed along the walls. The school
was taught by a Mr. Jennings and afterward by John J.
Rooney, types of the thorough Irish pedagogues of those
days, to whom the easy steps of modern elementary edu
cation would have been anathema.
Young Gibbons soon mastered the rudiments and at a

12 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
comparatively early age began the study of the classics
and mathematics. By the laborious methods then con
sidered indispensable in disciplining the mind, he unrav
eled in turn the polished sentences of Virgil, Ovid,
Cicero and Livy, and grappled with Xenophon and
Homer. His grandfather on his mother's side, after
whom he had been named, helped by teaching him with
affectionate patience the principles of mathematics, and
thus accelerated his progress.
The unfoldment of the lad's mental traits soon brought
to the surface qualities that were to be of the greatest
use to him. When he was scarcely beyond the age of ten
years, the eagerness of his intellect and his power of
intense application became so marked as to attract at
tention, but his modesty tended to conceal the full pro
portions of his gifts. None of his schoolboy associates
who recorded in later life their views of him as a com
rade recalled a trace of the impatient zeal to surpass
others which so many bright youths are wont to display.
There were fifty boys in the school and not a few of
them rose to some distinction. One of them, Thomas
Tighe, became a member of Parliament and held other
important offices. His two brothers, Robert and James
Tighe, adopted the career of officers in the British Army,
as did another schoolmate of Gibbons, afterward Gen
eral Sillery. The future Bishop MacCormack, of Gal-
way, was also a pupil at Ballinrobe, and the ties of friend
ship which he then formed with Gibbons remained strong
after both of them had been elevated to episcopal
rank. Thomas Tighe lived to a ripe old age. He recalled

EARLIEST YEARS 13
James as "a most gentle, amiable boy, very studious and
clever, and a great favorite." 9
So rapidly did James advance in his classes and such
was the esteem in which he was held that he was some
times called upon to take charge of the school when the
master was absent, owing to sickness. More than any
other studies, the English classics fascinated him. His
favorites were Addison, Goldsmith, Johnson and Moore,
and to his pronounced fondness for the study of such
models as these was due, in large measure, that limpid
flow of expression which became a characteristic of his
literary style in later years. His memory was little short
of marvelous, exciting the comment of his teachers and
companions. He could quote offhand long passages
from poems that he had read.
Among those strenuous Irish lads, bubbling with vital
ity, sports were rough when the stern discipline of long
school hours was lifted. They wrestled and boxed, ran
and jumped, played cricket, football, handball and pris
oner's base, which later developed into the American
game of baseball. Young Gibbons, while not so sturdy
of frame as some of his companions, loved the rigor of
their contests as much as any. Although his health was
not the strongest, his ardent love of outdoor life was
developing a physical power which in future years en
abled him to sustain the greatest fatigues of mind and
body. In his favorite sport of football, his exploits pro
duced a lasting impression upon his comrades; and a
mark carried on one of his fingers through life was left
by an injury which he received in a game of cricket.
"Extract from a letter written by Thomas Tighe, May 27, 1909.

14 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
James was confirmed by Archbishop McHale at such
an early age that he had been rejected on account of his
youth when he sought the privilege in company with
other children; but, mingling in the stream of the
favored ones, he received the rite, notwithstanding this
obstacle, and was praised for his persistence. The deep
piety of his mother exerted a marked influence upon him
in the impressionable period of his early life. It was
due largely to her influence that he became an altar boy
in the Ballinrobe church.
Catholics in Ireland were then beginning to worship
freely after years of vassalage, the long struggle of O'Con-
nell having been at length successful in breaking some
of their bonds. So rigid had been the ban on the priest
hood that Archbishop McHale, who was consecrated in
1825, was the first Irish prelate in several centuries
who had been able to receive all of his ecclesiastical edu
cation in his native land.
The Gibbons family might have remained in Ireland
and the Cardinal's lot might not have been cast in his
native country had not the death of his father in 1847,
when the lad was thirteen years old, changed the whole
outlook. Thomas Gibbons' brave struggle against ill
health came to an end ten years after his return to Ire
land, and he was buried in a rural cemetery several miles
from Ballinrobe in the direction of the village of Partry.
When the eldest son of the family had entered the
priesthood, he cared tenderly for the grave and caused
to be erected around it an ornamental fence bearing a
tablet setting forth that it was provided by him as a
memorial to his father. Yew trees were planted at the

EARLIEST YEARS 15
corners of the lot, and within the screen of foliage was
erected a simple stone which told of the simple life that
it commemorated. The energetic mother, upon whom the trials of widow
hood thus fell with exceptional force, possessed resource
fulness equal to the emergency. The promise of America
had never faded from her mind. She had seen or heard
of boys born to poverty there who had risen to affluence
and fame with a rapidity unknown in the old world. The
head of the nation during the period of her stay in Bal
timore had battled as a young man with privation in the
backwoods of Tennessee. She could not know that a
President-to-be, at that same time a rail-splitter among
rude companions in Illinois, would some day be hailed as
one of the world's greatest men; but the idea of the op
portunity of America which Lincoln afterward came to
embody in the eyes of men and women everywhere was
vividly before her. The family had given up its early
hopes in order that the life of the husband and father
might be prolonged in the congenial climate of Ireland,
and now those hopes were born anew. If the children
remained in Ballinrobe, the mother felt that their scope
in life would be limited in a time of economic distress
and political disorder.
Five years elapsed, in the course of which the return
to America was often discussed in the family circle.
Gathered round a turf fire in the evening, the thoughts
of the mother and children turned to the scenes which
they had left behind. The mind of James was ever eager
as to history, and the land of his birth possessed a fas
cination for him. He read and listened to tales of the

16 LLFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
American Revolution, of the War of 1812, and of the
birth of the "Star-Spangled Banner" as the spirited guns
of Fort McHenry had repelled the attacks of a power
ful fleet near his first home.
While the family was in Ireland a new affliction be
fell it in the death of Catherine, the favorite sister of
James, when she was in her seventeenth year. This was
a loss which he never forgot. Most of the children were
long lived. Mary, the eldest, died at the age of ninety-
two years in New Orleans in 1920; the youngest of the
sisters, Bridget, married George Swarbrick in New Or
leans, and died there in 1913. John, the second son,
survived the Cardinal. The third son, Thomas, died in
New Orleans.
A final decision having been reached, even the hazard
of a winter voyage backward across the Atlantic was not
sufficient to deter Mrs. Gibbons. She embarked with her
children at Liverpool in January, 1853, on a sailing ship
bound for New Orleans. For two months the little
family endured the buffeting of gales before the islands
skirting the American coast were sighted.
The trials of the voyage seemed about to end happily
when near midnight, on March 17, the vessel went hard
aground on a sand bar close to the island of Grand Ba
hama, fifty-seven miles from the lights of the Florida
shore. Had there been a high wind, all on board would
probably have been lost; but the weather was calm
throughout the night, during which the passengers hud
dled together, facing an uncertain fate. When a bril
liant Spring sun rose over the rim of the semi-tropical
sea, they were transferred in small boats to the island,

EARLIEST YEARS 17
whence they were carried to Nassau and kindly treated
until they could continue their voyage.
James was within a .few months of being nineteen
years old when the family arrived in New Orleans. He
soon obtained employment as a clerk in a grocery store
on Camp Street, kept by William C. Raymond. The
city held a distinct place, then as now, as the emporium
of the sugar and cotton growing region of Louisiana, and
of a large part of the Mississippi Valley as well. Into
Raymond's store, with greetings of stately formality,
came elegant planters, leaders of agricultural industry, to
buy supplies for their families, their employees and their
slaves, for six months or a year ahead. For them, the
young clerk soon found, the periodical visit to New Or
leans was an event of social as well as business impor
tance. The Latin courtesy which the French stock of
the city had brought into life there softened the stiff
ness of trade intercourse. Days were sometimes con
sumed by a planter in making his purchases in one store,
and between him and the merchant there developed ties
that reached far beyond the circle of commercial inter
course. Alternating with these interesting personalities for
whom young Gibbons' services were performed in the
store, were rough river men who bought provisions for
the steamboats that bore the great tide of travel — and of
romance as well — up and down the Mississippi. Pur
chasers for families in the city were numerous, for Ray
mond's business prospered.
It was said of Gibbons in later life, when his versatility
impressed so many, that he would have succeeded in any

18 LD7E OF CARDINAL GD3BONS
occupation. Certainly there is ground for believing that
he would have succeeded in business had he chosen it as a
permanent career. That was the firm conviction of Ray
mond, who was attracted from the start by the young
clerk's intelligence, industry and fidelity. The prospect
of promotion was held out to him by his employer when
he was thinking seriously of a permanent decision as to
his future.
The year of the Gibbons family's arrival at New
Orleans was marked by the worst of the many outbreaks
of yellow fever which swept that city before medical dis
covery drove the scourge from the continent. Of a pop
ulation of approximately 100,000, more than 10,000
died before the late frost brought deliverance. The cry
"Bring out your dead" resounded in the streets daily, as
wagons went the rounds collecting bodies. Hundreds, it
is believed, perished from fear alone. James was the
only member of his family who was stricken and he was
attacked by the disease in its most virulent form.
He was ill throughout August, in the intense heat
of the Louisiana summer, and his "good Creole doctor" —
thus he spoke later of the physician who attended him —
virtually gave up his case as hopeless. His eldest sister,
Mary, nursed him when the task invited death for her
self. In accordance with the then prevailing treatment
for the fever, he was kept in bed under heavy coverings
to cause perspiration, hot baths were given to him, and
he was required to abstain from food. His weakness
became extreme.
Youth and excellent habits were in his favor. While
his health had not been vigorous, outdoor exercise had

EARLIEST YEARS 19
fortified his vitality. He said later that he had felt no
apprehension as he lay hovering between life and death.
After his slow recovery, he was happy to find that the
attack had left no permanent impairment of his physical
resources. A solution of his doubts as to his career in life was at
hand. In January, 1854, after he had been in New
Orleans less than a year, he attended a mission held in
St. Joseph's Church which fixed his aspirations in the
channel from which they were never to swerve. Three
remarkable young Redemptorist priests, the Revs. Isaac
Thomas Hecker, Clarence Walworth and Augustine
Hewit, sailed from New York to conduct the mission.
All were converts from Protestantism. Idealists by
nature and gifted with brilliant talents, they had run
the gamut of religious aspiration and had at last taken
refuge within the fold of the Catholic Church as the
haven where the eager inquiries of their restless natures
might find satisfaction. Hecker was easily the leader
of the group.10 In earlier years, he had been a com
panion of Ralph Waldo Emerson and George William
Curtis in the Socialistic community at Brook Farm.
Embarking later in business life, the experience failed
to satisfy him. He was converted to the Catholic faith
in 1844 and had been ordained a priest but five years
before the mission in New Orleans began.
On the voyage from New York, Hecker was stricken
with pneumonia, and did not recover sufficiently to take
part in the mission until near its close. Under the spell
of a sermon preached by Father Walworth the priesthood
"Elliott, Life of Father Hecker.

20 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
became the goal of young Gibbons, in which determina
tion he was influenced further by Father Duffy, a Re
demptorist, the pastor of St. Alphonsus Church, and
Father Dufoe, a Jesuit, stationed at the Church of the
Immaculate Conception. He was also powerfully im
pressed by a lecture delivered in New Orleans by Dr.
Orestes A. Brownson, the convert who became one of
the ablest champions of the Catholic Church that America
has produced.
Four years after this mission closed, Hecker, Wal
worth and Hewit, with two companions, obtained the
Papal permission to found the Congregation of Mission
ary Priests of St. Paul, in which they realized their
zealous hope of devoting their lives to preaching for the
conversion of Protestants. The great work of the
"Paulist Fathers" since that time has been their monu
ment ; but not the least of the fruits of the ardent labors
of these three men for the development of the Church
in America was the accession of the young New Orleans
clerk to the roll of "Ambassadors of Christ." 1X
When young Gibbons announced to his family his de
cision to become a priest, he found his mother reluctant
at first to acquiesce. Since she had lost her husband by
death, she had grown to lean more and more upon her
eldest son as his talents and character ripened with years,
and in him she had hoped to find the prop of her old age.
Mr. Raymond, too, was loath to see his youthful friend
forsake a business career in which the prospects of suc
cess seemed so bright. A warm friendship had sprung
a Walworth was the son of Reuben H. Walworth, a distinguished
Chancellor of the State of New York. Hewit had been a clergyman
of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

EARLIEST YEARS 21
up between these two which was to end only with the
death of Raymond, many years afterward. James' de
cision remained fixed and at last all consented to the step
which he was resolved to take.

CHAPTER II
STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND
Coupled with young Gibbons' determination to be
come a priest was another decision unusual for one
aspiring to a life of service within the Church. The
sense of locality was ever strong in him; and now he
resolved to make his native city and State, as far as his
superiors would permit, the scene of the labors upon
which he was about to enter. With him, charity and all
good works began at home. Had he remained in Ireland
he would probably have wished to minister at Ballinrobe
or Westport. There was something in him which caused
the immediate duty to those bound to him by association
to loom large. While the pursuit of remote objects of
magnitude often fascinated him, their attraction was less
than that of the task at his own door.
The Cathedral that Carroll had founded in Baltimore
in 1806 as the seat of Catholic influence in America was
no longer the only one in the United States. New dio
ceses had been set up and Bishops consecrated, as the
flock of the faith had increased in numbers. But still
there was inspiration in the memory of the Catholic be
ginnings that had been made in Baltimore, and young
Gibbons' imaginative mind welcomed eagerly the oppor
tunity to go back to the city after the distant journeyings
which had diversified the experiences of his youth.
22

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 23
Reflections born of another year spent in New Or
leans fortified his resolution to devote the remainder of
his life to the Christian ministry. Arrangements were
made for his admission to St. Charles College, then newly
erected in Howard County, Maryland, on land which
had been the gift of Charles Carroll, "the signer," to the
cause of education for the priesthood. Late in the sum
mer of 1855, just after his twenty-first birthday, he left
the city in which his family had at last found a perma
nent home and set out on the long journey to Baltimore.
His younger brother John, then beginning to rise in the
grain trade, from which he was to reap a harvest of
riches, remained behind as the mainstay of their mother.
Although he had lived in New Orleans but two years,
the young aspirant to the priesthood had taken firm root
there, as he did in every place where he made even a tem
porary home. With the exception of the following year,
in the vacation period of which he was not permitted by
the discipline of St. Charles to leave college, for fear
that the impulses of youth might cause him to abandon
the life of service to his fellow men, he returned for fre
quent visits to his family during a period of sixty-four
years. Students of St. Charles College of a later generation
heard from the Cardinal's own lips the story of his jour
ney from New Orleans to become enrolled there for his
first term. He thus related it :
"It is now nearly fifty-seven years since I started from
New Orleans to Baltimore to take up my ecclesiastical
studies, and I can assure you, for I know it from experi
ence, that traveling in those days was not quite so pleas-

24. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ant as it is to-day. There were no palace cars, no eating
cars, no sleeping cars, and we had to sit on the benches
of a day coach for several days. There was no railroad
connection then between the Crescent City and the Monu
mental City, and I had to ascend the Mississippi River to
Cairo; and I continued my journey on the Ohio River to
Cincinnati, and there took a train for Baltimore over
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which was then young
in its advancement toward modern facilities of travel.
"The road was not yet complete, and when we reached
the Alleghany Mountains we were obliged to cross a por
tion of them by stage. I reached the end of my journey
after a travel of sixteen days. It now occupies about
twice that number of hours to travel to the same place." 1
The Cardinal added this expression of thankfulness
to his Sulpician preceptors at St. Charles:
"I shall always hold in grateful remembrance the
fathers of St. Sulpice for having trained my heart to vir
tue and religion, and for having prepared me for the
ecclesiastical state. I shall forever bless the memory of
the Redemptorist father who advised me to select St.
Charles College for the pursuit of my studies, and I thank
an overruling Providence for having guided my steps to
the institution."
Giving in the same address his mature impressions of
the training to which he had been subjected, he said:
"When I came to St. Charles the strong discipline
developed us. The fathers taught us to love God; they
taught us by word and example to practice genuine char
ity and politeness towards one another. They allowed
us liberty without license, granting every freedom com-
1 Address of Cardinal Gibbons at the commencement of St Charles
College, June 13, 1912.

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 25
mensurate with good order, and they showed us the ex
ample of how to rule without tyranny. They shared in
our pastimes and amusements, and their greatest delight
was to contribute to our happiness and contentment of
mind. They sought by every means to cure us of that
sickness which is terrible to young students, — nostalgia
or homesickness.
"It was a kindly but strong discipline, which devel
oped the moral qualities of those who were called to the
priesthood and eliminated those who were unfit; and I
trust for the good of the American clergy that the char
acter of the moral training given at St. Charles will
remain always the same. What we desire above all are
priests who are upright and manly, and put holiness of
life in the first place."
Arriving in Baltimore on his way to the college, he
spent the night at a hotel there. What he had seen of
the city in his boyhood had been bounded by a narrow
range, but he had heard much more of it from his parents
when he was old enough to receive wider and deeper im
pressions. There was still the Cathedral, its two slender
and lofty towers surmounted by crosses seeming like up
lifted hands invoking a benediction upon the city. There
was Gay Street, the first vista that had opened before his
infant eyes, still much the same in 1855 as when he had
left it. But what a marvelous change eighteen years of
growth had brought in the city as a whole, as in some
other American cities of that time ! Tens of thousands
had been added to the population and Baltimore seemed
likely to overtake New York in the race for supremacy
in numbers, a prospect which the change of economic
lines in the Civil War swept away a few years later.

26 LIFE OF CARDINAL GD3BONS
Instead of the cloud of sailing ships, from huge square
riggers that roved halfway around the world, to graceful
sloops that skimmed the surface of the Chesapeake like
swallows, now a majority of the vessels in the harbor
were propelled by steam. On the east the Lazaretto
light,2 blinking at the marine procession that passed and
repassed, was no longer a lone sentinel on the outskirts of
Baltimore, but the expanse of houses was creeping be
yond it. To the west the swinging sign of the General
Wayne Inn, bearing a gaudy portrait of "Mad Anthony/'
in blue and buff, which had once cheered the teamster
with the thought that he would soon reach the city, was
now well within its limits.
On a gloomy day in early Autumn the young student
arrived at St. Charles, which was not far from Baltimore.
The Rev. Oliver L. Jenkins, president of the college,
received him. Father Jenkins called Ridgely Dorsey,
one of the forty students who attended the college at that
session, and said : "Dorsey, this is young Gibbons. Take
him downstairs to supper." Thus began a friendship
with Dorsey that lasted throughout their college days.
Gibbons had not been informed of the rule of silence
which prevailed at St. Charles except during recreation
hours and on holidays, and he spoke in after years of the
extent to which it had oppressed him. He first observed
it as the students marched to supper on the day of his
arrival, though they were permitted to talk at the table.
Soon afterward, when the bell rang summoning them for
night prayers, complete silence prevailed as they entered
"A beacon for shipping named from the former site of a seamen's
hospital.

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 27
the hall. As they went to the dormitory later, the line
was headed by Father Menu, of whom Gibbons finally
summoned courage to ask: "Where are we going?"
The priest pointed silently to the bed which the new
student was to occupy, and retired from the room without
uttering a word.
In the morning, when the bell again rang for prayers,
Gibbons was still mystified by the silence as the students
filed into the hall. Father Jenkins stood waiting to
officiate at the prayers. Gibbons, blithe, warm-hearted
and inclined to be sociable as always, walked up to the
priest and, putting out his hand, said in a voice whose
echoes appeared to reverberate loudly in the prevailing
calm : "I hope you are well this morning, Mr. Jenkins."
Father Jenkins, of course, did not pay any heed to this
remark, and Gibbons, embarrassed, subsided into com
plete acquiescence in the silence, although it continued
to be a sore trial to him for some time.
The institution was then housed in a single granite
building, erected from stone quarried in the near-by hills.
It served for all purposes — recitation rooms, accommo
dations for the professors and a dormitory for the stu
dents. The style of living, as Gibbons afterward re
called it, was rather primitive. The dormitory was
heated by a single large stove in the center, and in win
ter the students suffered much from cold at the ends of
the room.
This lack of comfort was soon felt severely. The
winter of 1855-56 was the coldest in Maryland since
1817.3 The average temperature for the season was
"United States Weather Bureau Records.

28 LITE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
3 1 .40 Fahrenheit, nearly five degrees below the normal.
The thermometer often recorded zero or thereabouts and
the students had to break the ice in their water pitchers
when they bathed. For the young man but lately arrived
from the warm climate of New Orleans the change was
especially trying.
Gibbons began his studies at St. Charles with the
diligence that had marked him during his schooling at
Ballinrobe. The course in the classics and other branches
of knowledge in preparation for the priesthood was rig
orous, being intended as a preliminary test both of the
mental capacity and the physical robustness of young
men who aspired to that career. Those who could not
meet the exactions were forced to drop out, realizing
their own lack.
The future Cardinal soon took high rank in his studies,
and was at the head, or near the head, of all his classes
throughout his residence at St. Charles. The thorough
preparation to which he had been subjected by Irish
schoolmasters stood him in good stead. In the interval
when he had been a clerk in New Orleans he seemed to
have forgotten nothing; in fact, men who were close to
him after he had risen to high positions in the Church
were unable to detect from their own observation that a
single fact which had once found a place in his mind was
ever dropped from it. The full course at St. Charles was
six years, but he had no difficulty in completing it in two.
His zeal for the study of Latin was all that could be
desired in an institution one of whose primary objects
was to train future priests to think, speak and write in

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 29
the universal language of the Church. Father Randanne
was the professor of Latin and he emphasized in his own
practise the rigorous methods of teaching the classical
languages which were then followed in schools every
where. In the case of Gibbons, however, he soon found
that the pupil gave some indications of surpassing the
master. One day the students were translating a lesson in
Tacitus and Gibbons was called upon to read a number
of lines. He pronounced them in Latin, following with
a translation into English and then construing the sen
tences. Father Randanne had a habit of requiring stu
dents whose recitations he wished to criticize to repeat
the reading of questioned passages in the hope that they
would perceive their own errors. All in the class knew
his meaning when he said to the young student :
"You will read and translate that again."
Gibbons obeyed the instructions, but read and con
strued the passage identically as before. Father Ran
danne was unmoved.
"Read it once more," he commanded.
The student went over the graceful sentences from the
Agricola a third time, exactly as he had done on the first
and second renderings. It was plain that he had no in
tention of attempting to obtain approval by making a
change. Father Randanne then explained wherein he had not
agreed with Gibbons concerning the translation of cer
tain sentences and that he had hoped for a change in
rereading. He gave his views of the translation and was

30 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
evidently disconcerted by Gibbons' course. The young
student maintained respectful courtesy, but gave no sign
that he had modified his own opinions in any degree, for,
being unconvinced, he could not bring himself to be
guilty of even a shadow of misrepresentation concerning
his real views. It was remarked of him by his fellow
students on other occasions as well as that one, that he
could not be budged when he believed that he was right.
For some time afterward Father Randanne, doubtless
with the object of maintaining discipline, treated Gib
bons rather severely, saying, "Come here, you Gibbons!"
when he wished to summon him. But he always found
that Gibbons knew the lessons well and that he had
reasons at his tongue's end for all conclusions that he
expressed. Father Randanne, in addition to teaching Latin, had
some disciplinary duties in connection with the students.
He was careful to observe — indeed, it was his duty to
do so — anything in them which appeared to him to indi
cate a worldly tendency, and to endeavor to stamp it out.
When Gibbons arrived at St. Charles, it was the fashion
of the day for young men to wear very tight trousers. He
had left New Orleans with two suits of clothes made in
the prevailing style, but in playing football and pris
oner's base the seams soon began to rip. The stern
Father Randanne had a new suit made for him, of which
Gibbons afterwards said that the waistcoat came up to
his chin and the coat descended to his heels, while the
legs were large enough for a man of exceptional size.
In bestowing the suit upon him, Father Randanne re
marked :

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 31
"I will cure you of your vanity." 4
In his classes Gibbons, while rather quiet on the whole,
was inquisitive. It was said of him that the questions
which he asked were clearly intended to bring forth
answers that meant something. He obeyed strictly all
the rules of the institution and his companions of that
day who spoke of him afterward agreed that his deport
ment was a model.
Some estimate of the measure which the students took
of him may be gathered from the fact that a number of
them fell into the habit of addressing him as "Dominus"
(master). Dorsey, who knew him perhaps as intimately
as any one else at St. Charles, said that there "seemed
to be something very great about him." It would appear
that most of the students were rather puzzled by his
exceptional versatility when they attempted to judge
his character and attainments. Then, as later, he ex
hibited capacity in so many different directions that no
single endowment appeared to impress the observer by
sheer contrast. Combined with sweetness of character
and unfailing good temper, he preserved a certain dignity
through which nothing could break. Some of his friends
accounted for the bestowal of his title of "Dominus" by
this trait.
He impressed Dorsey as being characterized by sim
plicity, modesty, straightforwardness and earnestness —
an accurate forecast of the Gibbons of the future. With
the students outside of classes, he was not loquacious.
His discriminating judgment of human nature, one of
'The anecdote of Father Randanne and the suit of clothes, un
doubtedly authentic, appears in Cardinal Gibbons, Churchman and
Citizen, by the Rev. Albert E. Smith and Vincent de P. Fitzpatrick.

32 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the most marked gifts which he possessed, soon became
known. In time, he was sought as a leader in recreations, but
he never pushed himself forward.5 While he seemed
frail, he was devoted to walking, and keen in outdoor
sports. The students were required to take long walks
for exercise and they often tramped the Frederick turn
pike from the college to Ellicott City, the county seat,
and return. Dorsey, who was the companion of Gibbons
on many of these excursions, was fascinated by English
literature and had an exceptional admiration for the
works of Samuel Johnson. The two often talked of
Johnson with enthusiasm, in which there were some
traces of the critical, as they swung along the smooth
roadway at an easy gait.
Prisoner's base, handball and football were the chief
games in which the students indulged. Gibbons was
ardent in these and was also fond of foot racing. He
had a habit of leaping fences and walls when on his
pedestrian excursions.
Across the Frederick turnpike from the college grounds
was the manorial estate of the Carroll family, of which
the site of St. Charles had been a part. At the time of
Gibbons' studies there, the master of the manor was
Colonel Charles Carroll, grandson of the famous man for
whom he had been named, and the father of a future
Governor of Maryland, then a boy on the estate.6 The
students were free to roam over the manor grounds at will
and to pluck the fruit which grew there in abundance.
'Reminiscences of Ridgely Dorsey.
"John Lee Carroll.

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 33
At times the Sulpician fathers, supplementing the simple
rations upon which they and the students subsisted, sent
several of the young men to gather cherries from the
abundance which reddened numerous trees on the estate,
and Gibbons shared in these quests.
One of his comrades at St. Charles was John S. Foley,
a member of a Catholic family of Baltimore, later Bishop
of Detroit, who, after the lapse of many years, wrote
thus of his recollections of the future Cardinal :
"The burdens of his high office have told upon his
slender frame with advancing years, and yet as he rises
before my mental retrospect, I cannot see much change
in the supple, trim figure that entered so ardently into
our youthful sports. He still preserves the grace of
movement of his early days, when, with all his apparent
delicacy, he proved himself to be as elastic as tempered
steel. Those were the days when the fixed rules of foot
ball a la Rugby were unknown or ignored, and I recall
with an accelerated pulse the dash with which the
Cardinal in petto broke into the melee around the elusive
sphere and ruthlessly beat down all opponents.
"Whatever he did was done with all his might and that
is the philosophy of his story. He engaged in his studies
in the same earnest, indefatigable fashion that he ex
hibited at football or in the racquet court, and his mind
was as active as his body, full of spring and resiliency.
He was a youth, too, of noble and generous impulses and
his unaffected modesty was the most charming trait of
his character. All these splendid attributes he has car
ried with him into the turbulent arena of life."
Bishop Burke, of Albany, who survived to a venerable
age, spent one year with the future Cardinal at St.
Charles. He recorded his impression that Gibbons

34 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"endeared himself to everybody by his amiability and
obliging disposition."
So zealous was Gibbons to continue his classical
studies, that he wished to remain at St. Charles for
another year, but Father Jenkins refused permission for
him to do so on the ground that he was already thor
oughly equipped to enter St. Mary's Seminary in Balti
more and begin the final stage of his preparation for the
priesthood. He was therefore listed for his diploma in
June, 1857. There were only four graduates in that
year, some of those who had begun the course having
dropped out. Gibbons was selected to deliver the ad
dress on Commencement Day to Archbishop Kenrick, of
Baltimore, who was expected to be the guest of honor.
Impressed with the importance of the task committed
to him, he spent a month, as he afterward related, in
preparing an address and then notification was sent to
Father Jenkins that the Archbishop could not be present.
Another prelate was invited and Gibbons recast the ad
dress, only to learn a few days before the commencement
that this plan had also been abandoned. It was too late
to obtain the services of a distinguished churchman and
Colonel Carroll, of the manor, was invited to preside
at the exercises. Gibbons reshaped his address once
more and shortened it, confining himself to references to
the Carroll family and to the courtesy which the people
of the manor had shown to the students during the period
of their residence at the college. In this form he was
able to deliver it.
In the summer of 1857, ne was free to return to New
Orleans for the first time since he had left that city. He

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 35
gave in a letter to Dorsey some account of his trip down
the Ohio and Mississippi, which, picturesque at all times,
deeply impressed his fresh imagination then. He wrote :
"New Orleans, August 7, 1857.
"My dear Friend Dorsey :
" 'What shall I say that thou are doing in the region
of Woodstock?' Are you meditating on Brownson or
Locke, poring over Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village' or
locked in the embraces of your beloved Johnson?
"I hope at least, my dear friend, that you are enjoying
yourself. I am scarcely yet settled at home, having ar
rived on last Saturday, after a journey of nearly three
weeks. I have seen many strange things on my travels;
after studying the theories of things for two years, I have
taken a practical view of the world.
"By a trip down the Ohio and Mississippi you can see
the world in miniature. You are sure to encounter on
the boat Yankees and Southerners, French, Dutch,
English, with a good supply of that ubiquitous (?) race
— the Irish. There is no better school for politics, for
here the merits of all parties are diligently discussed.
You may judge from the length of time that I was com
ing down that I had enough of time to make observations.
I cannot attempt to give you the least idea of the beauty
of the scenery to be met with in these rivers. It is, I sup
pose, the most majestic scene to be met with in the
whole world. If it were otherwise, I should be tired out
after a confinement of fourteen days on a boat.
"I was telling you that I feared a disappointment in a
boat at Cincinnati and my fears were realized. After
arriving in that city on Wednesday, I was obliged to
remain until the following Saturday, when I took passage
on the David Gibson. I spent the -first Sunday in Louis
ville, where I attended vespers at Bishop Spalding's
magnificent new Cathedral, and the following Sunday I

36 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
spent in Memphis, Tennessee, where we were discharg
ing freight. The third Sunday found me once more in
the bosom of my family. I need not tell you what hap
piness we mutually felt in meeting once more after so
long an absence.
"I have done very little in the way of study since I
came home. My leisure hours are principally spent in
paying visits and writing letters to our St. Charles
friends. I try to read some English works, but I can
not lay my mind down to get through one at a time.
I read a chapter in Blackwood's Magazine and then pick
up Macaulay's England, Chateaubriand or some religious
book. I had intended to ride out on the cars to see Ven-
issat 7 but I was informed yesterday by the Archbishop
that he had arrived safely.
"The weather at present is very hot but the city is
remarkably healthy. This, in fact, would be one of the
most agreeable cities in the Union were it not for those
modern locusts — the mosquitoes. They have a particu
lar attachment for me, as you could judge from my
physiognomy. "I am spending my time very agreeably, and I hope the
same for you. ...
"I hope you will favor me with a letter. I intend to
leave the first of September, so in order to receive yours
it must be sent before the 20th.
"I remain, your sincere friend in Christ,
"James Gibbons.''
On the visit to Louisville mentioned in his letter, he
had met for the first time Martin John Spalding, Bishop
of that diocese and destined to be one of his own prede
cessors in the episcopal chair of Baltimore. Before Gib
bons left on his vacation trip Archbishop Kenrick had
' A French student at St. Charles.

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 37
given him some pamphlets to be delivered to Bishop
Spalding, who in the transaction of this mission beheld
the self-effacing student whom he was to welcome to his
heart later with the affectionate title of his "Benjamin,"
the youngest protege of his old age.
With mental freshness renewed by the trip to New
Orleans, Gibbons returned to Baltimore in September
and began his training at St. Mary's Seminary under the
presidency of the Rev. Francois L'Homme, a French Sul
pician. Now there could be no shortening of the course
by virtue of his attainments. Since the Council of Trent,
the Church has insisted upon rigorously thorough prepar
ation for the duties of the priesthood, and repeated de
crees of Plenary Councils in the United States have rein
forced that decision.
Learning is held to be essential for the vocation, but
beyond and above that the supreme object of the discip
line is to make the aspirant like Christ, as far as human,
nature can approach the sublimest of ideals. From the
moment in the early morning when he is awakened by the
resonant call of the priest "Benedicamus Domino," and
responds with the formula "Deo Gratias" he is subjected
until he retires at night to a calculated process whose aim
is to intensify the spiritual aspect of his nature. Min
gled with the stern course in philosophy, theology, Scrip
ture, Church history and canon law, are prolonged medi
tations and devotions and searching scrutiny of charac
ter. Fatigue may grant no respite from the rigor that is
intended to eliminate self and fix the eyes of the begin
ner upon the goal of service and sacrifice. In the midst
of his sorest trials he must face his task without gloom,

38 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
for he must remember that the resurrection, with its life
and hope, is the central fact of Christian theology.
If he gives any sign of wavering resolution or of
deficient moral, mental or physical capacity, a quiet word
is spoken and the seminary sees him no more. To only a
carefully chosen group comes the voice of the Church
declaring in the language of Holy Writ: "Thou art a
priest forever."
The devoted fathers of St. Mary's had come to Balti
more in Archbishop Carroll's time to begin the work of
training a native priesthood, and French influence was
still strong in the institution, whose mother house re
mained in Paris.8 Owing to the inadequate facilities at
home in those days, many American priests were still
educated abroad, and a large number of others who
labored in the United States were of foreign birth.
Protestant churches, which did not exact such strict re
quirements, early recruited their ministers from native
soil and accepted them with such education as they could
obtain at home. The Lutheran clergy, most of whom
still spoke German in the pulpit, continued to be pre
dominantly Teutonic; and not a few of the Protestant
Episcopal clergy were Englishmen, or graduates of
English colleges. A largely increasing number of Ameri
cans were seeking holy orders in the Catholic Church,
and the tide was fast turning from Paris and Louvain.
A severe attack of illness prostrated Gibbons soon after
his admission to St. Mary's. It was believed to proceed
from malaria, a malady then common in the lower Mis
sissippi Valley, often confused with intermittent fever.
8 Guilday, The Life and Times of John Carroll, p. 469.

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 39
Alternate chills and fever prostrated him, and for five
weeks he was compelled to remain in bed most of the
time. This obstacle at the outset of his theological training
discouraged him. There were serious fears both among
the professors and the students that he was not strong
enough to complete the course. On one occasion he
entered Dorsey's room, staggered against the bed to sup
port himself, and exclaimed despairingly :
"Dorsey, I am afraid they will send me home because I
am ill and unable to attend classes."
He talked in this strain for some time, contemplating
with intense regret the prospect of being compelled to
give up his hope of entering the priesthood. At length
a slow improvement began and in December he was able
to resume his studies.
Called upon soon afterward to defend a point in phil
osophy, he surprised all who heard him by his ability and
thoroughness, worthy of an advanced student. His suc
cess in philosophy became so marked that he was ap
pointed master of the conferences held three times a week
by the students to discuss the points covered by the lec
tures of the professor and to arrive at a fuller understand
ing of them. The teacher of philosophy at that time,
the Rev. Dr. Francois P. Dissez, who had just begun his
preceptorial career at the seminary, became greatly at
tached to Gibbons and his appreciation of the ripening
mental power of the young student was keen through
out the course.
Like his pupil, Dissez seemed to be in frail health and
some made the prediction that neither of them would

40 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
survive more than a few years, at most. Nearly all of
the students and teachers who thus looked upon them
with pity had long been dead when Dissez celebrated in
1907 the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance into the
seminary. The only living member of the philosophy
class which he had taught as his first task at that insti
tution was present in the person of Cardinal Gibbons,
who voiced from an overflowing heart his affection for
his old instructor. Through his .long life, Father Dissez
cherished as one of his happiest recollections the zeal and
industry of his famous pupil.
Father Dissez left some notes on Gibbons' career at
St. Mary's.9 He recalled that Father Jenkins, president
of St. Charles, recommended Gibbons to the faculty of
the seminary with the encomium: "Bon esprit; talent."
At the beginning of the course Gibbons ranked second in
the philosophy class, but before the first year ended he
took the lead and retained it. Father Dissez wrote :
"James Gibbons manifested the bon esprit at St.
Mary's as at St. Charles' by his affability, politeness and
kindness toward all, superiors and fellow-students. He
was a regular and edifying seminarian. He profited by
all opportunities to increase his knowledge. Even in
recreation he liked to ask his professors about the subject
matter of his studies or readings. He had a special zeal
for the study of Holy Scripture ; in his private rule he set
apart one hour to read it every day. . . . Another excel
lent trait manifested by Mr. James Gibbons during his
seminary course was his tenderness exercised in a spe
cial way towards his excellent and severely tried friend,
• Article by the Rev. Dr. Wendell S. Reilly, in the Baltimore Catholic
Review, May 28, 1921.

STUDENT DAYS IN MARYLAND 41
Mr. Onthank, who died of consumption after a long
period of sickness." 10
Gibbons met every test at the seminary. He was de
scribed by his teachers as "having exceptional facility in
his studies, to which he applied himself with great eager
ness." He was "of a cheerful and even temper, and
gained the esteem and affection of all." n
He received the tonsure in the Baltimore Cathedral,
September 15, 1858, at the hands of Archbishop Ken-
rick, who conferred upon him the four minor orders
June 16 of the following year. The same prelate pro
moted him to the subdiaconate June 28, 1861; to the
diaconate June 29 and to the priesthood June 30.
Speaking at St. Mary's after half a century had passed,
he said :
"If I have accomplished anything in my fifty years as
a priest — if I have made men live better lives or guided
their footsteps to a holier existence — it has been because
of the influence of this venerable seminary and the holy
men who taught me. They always said, 'come,' not 'go' ;
their virtue was always leading us and their crosses were
always heavier than ours. In all my life, when difficult
situations confronted me, when life seemed dark and
unavailing, I have thought of the holy men who have
been here at the seminary. It was always an inspiration.
"There is one thing above all others which they taught,
and that was obedience. I doubt if in the history of this
diocese, since these good men came here to teach our
priests, there has ever been an appeal to Rome by a priest
from his Bishop."
"A fellow student to whom Gibbons had become attached at St.
Charles. "Records of St. Mary's Seminary.

42 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Deep shadows were drawing over the country in the
closing years of Gibbons' stay at the seminary. In their
brief periods devoted to general conversation, the stu
dents had anxiously discussed the exciting events of the
time — the John Brown raid, the fugitive slave riots and
the formation of the Southern Confederacy. Blood was
already being shed in the Civil War when the young
priest was ordained. His associations and sympathies
were with the Southern people, among whom he had
lived, but his judgment opposed secession as a political
step. He remained a Union man to the end, though
taking no part by word or deed in the struggle that was
rending his unhappy country. His not to draw the
sword, but to preach peace and mercy; not to stir the
passions of men, but to point them to the example of
their Divine Master. He had chosen his path; where
the Cross led, he would follow.

CHAPTER III
AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE
Stimulated by the plaudits of his preceptors at the
seminary, Father Gibbons was sent to do his first work
as a priest at Fell's Point, Baltimore, then a brawling out
post of the Patapsco river front. Rough men from many
ports jostled one another in its sailor boarding houses
and infested its squalid drinking places. Mingled with
honest but for the most part unlettered wanderers, who
followed the life before the mast or in the engine room
with no other lure than adventure, were wastrels of dis
sipation who, by an abhorrent custom of the time, had
been dragged half-stupefied from dens of vice by desper
ate captains to complete their crews. There were also
fugitives from the law who found safety in sea-roving
in those days before cables and the progress of diplomacy
had made extradition generally enforceable. With such
strata in sailor life, were reckless and often unfortunate
stragglers from the fringe of Baltimore's population, who
manned the oyster boats of the Chesapeake, on the win
try wastes of which in the dredging season there was no
authority but the ruthless will of the captains.
In the rude stories which spiced the shore liberty of
these men were echoes of pirate days not long gone by,
and of privateer battles for treasure, in which much blood
had been spilled in the early part of the century. Many
43

44 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of them had sailed when the swivel gun in the bow was
always kept loaded for action, and only a few years be
fore there had been a general discarding of those waspish
weapons. Some of the guns had been hastily tossed over
board, under duress of the port authorities, in the deep
water at Fell's Point, where they have since been recov
ered as historical relics.
Further back from the irregular line of crowded
wharves, but still embraced in the district of the Point,
were the homes of honest and peaceful folk who shud
dered at the turbulent scenes which they were sometimes
forced to witness. They were chiefly small merchants
and industrious mechanics, identified with the best in the
sturdy life of the growing city. Among their neat dwell
ings rose the tall spire of St. Patrick's Church, whose
Cross bespoke help and mercy alike to them and to the
restless and wayward spirits who surged in the streets
closer to the river.
It was to this church that Father Gibbons was sent
as assistant to the Rev. James Dolan, who was called
"The Apostle of the Point." Father Dolan fitted into
his surroundings as one chosen by Providence. Stouter
than the oak timbers in the ships swinging at anchor
near-by was the soul of this priest, who hesitated not, by
night or day, in storm or sunshine, to carry his message
of salvation to the gentlest or the most sodden within
his parish. He was ready to hear with pity the death
bed tales of men to whom came memories of Christian
homes and peaceful green fields in distant lands, which,
in the hour of dissolution, swept back over them, blotting
out the years in which they had scoffed at the better

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 45
things of life. If a letter were to be written to aged par
ents or perhaps wife and children of those remote days,
bringing a grateful message of love and repentance from
one long absent, the priest was ready for the task. No
obstacle appalled him. He was fearless in entering
rooms rank with the odors of stale drink to care for men
stricken with the multitude of diseases which the winds
of the sea waft from port to port on the ships that link
the commerce of the world.
One Sunday morning in July, 1861, the parishioners
of St. Patrick's saw within the sanctuary, beside the fa
miliar form of their rugged and great-hearted shepherd,
a young priest, lightly built, yet graceful and well-pro
portioned, of medium height, with a strong face and a
large, firm mouth, softened by a singularly sweet and
winning expression. When he spoke his voice was clear,
almost perfectly toned and musical, like the notes of a
silver bell, and reached easily to the furthest recesses
of the church. The fascination of his manner won the
hearts of all.
On that day he was introduced to the members of the
congregation as Father Gibbons, newly appointed to help
in the work of the parish.1 The tidings passed around,
with a background of half quizzical inquiry, "Father
Dolan has another assistant," for his people knew that
several young priests had been sent to help the pastor
within a short period of years and that, one by one, they
had vanished.
'Mr. John Malloy of Baltimore, who survived to a venerable age,
recalled distinctly the brief period of Father Gibbons' life when he was
stationed at St Patrick's, and the impression he produced on the con
gregation, of which Mr. Malloy was a member at the time. Some
of his recollections have been incorporated in this chapter.

46 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
In truth, the "Apostle of the Point" was so weighted
with a sense of the especial needs of the work which
lay at his hand that he could not bring himself to entrust
any important part of it to others. If there was a sick
call, he himself must go; if a confession, he must hear it;
if a funeral service, he must perform it and share in the
sorrow of the bereft; if a wedding, he must celebrate
it and join in the felicitations of the parishioners who
might be concerned. He felt that, more than any one
else, he knew his people, their unvoiced needs and the
means of opening their hearts to the ministrations of
Christianity which experience had impressed upon him.
Archbishop Kenrick had long sympathized with the
heavy burdens which Father Dolan took upon himself
and repeatedly urged him to avail himself of an assist
ant, but he continued unwilling to lean upon the help of
a younger man, unfamiliar with the currents of life that
surged round his picturesque field of labor.
Father Gibbons, for all his tact and submissiveness,
was no exception to the rule. He began the work at
Fell's Point with as much activity as Father Dolan would
sanction but he soon saw that he was to have as little real
share in it as his predecessors. Seven years before that
time Father Dolan, in his missionary zeal, had built a
little church on the edge of the city's eastern boundary,
in a district called Canton, and named it St. Bridget's,
after the patron saint of his mother, who was also the
patron saint of Father Gibbons' mother. It was still
within the jurisdiction of St. Patrick's parish, and Father
Gibbons had not been ordained more than six weeks
when Father Dolan sent him there to stay, saying in his

WHERE GIBBONS SERVED HIS ONLY PASTORATE
St. Bridget's Church, Baltimore, in 1865

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 47
blunt way : "Canton is a good school for a young priest."
Toward the end of 1861, Gibbons was made full pastor
of St. Bridget's by Archbishop Kenrick and began in an
independent field the only work as a parish priest which
he was destined to do.
The church stood on what was then called Canton
Lane, in a lonely place, surrounded by a wide expanse
of farms and market gardens. Only one dwelling — that
of Mrs. Bridget Smyth, a devoted member of the con
gregation, four of whose grandsons became priests — was
near. There was no rectory and Father Gibbons took up
his residence in a few small rooms built against one end
of the church, lacking in light and ventilation, the boards
of the floor touching the ground.
The good Mrs. Smyth, pitying the young pastor for the
hardships which he faced, sent him his first meal on the
Saturday evening when he arrived at Canton to begin his
labors.2 She cared for the housekeeping at the rectory
for some time, assisted by her daughters, and as a further
mark of her solicitude sent one of her sons to sleep there
every night, for it was considered dangerous to be alone
in that isolated locality, where the hand of the law
seemed not to reach.
The sweetness oiLFather Gibbons' personal ties, which
so many of the great and small of this world found to be
one of his most striking traits in his fruitful years that
were to follow, had already become bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh; and gratitude for Mrs. Smyth's simple
acts of kindness remained imprinted upon his heart, alike
'Surviving members of the Smyth family were the authorities for a
number of these statements.

48 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in the forests of North Carolina and the stately halls of
the Vatican. One night years afterward, attending a
fair at St. Bridget's, when the vivid red which he wore
proclaimed the rank to which he had risen, he asked if
any one named Smyth were present. A little girl went
forward and he said :
"When I came to this parish first, your grandmother
was good to me. No matter where any of her people may
be, I am always glad to see them. Never hesitate, my
child, to come and speak to me whenever you wish. Old
memories and old faces bring back to me a flood of recol
lections that carry with them a great deal of joy."
The neighborhood, in the temper of the times, was tur
bulent and dangerous. In the "Know Nothing" frenzy
which had lately passed, lawless groups bearing the names
of "Blood Tubs" and "Rough Skins," inflamed with
hatred for foreigners, had terrorized Canton, seeking to
drive from the polling places and proscribe from all
political activity those who dared to differ from them.
The first of the "Blood Tubs" had been butchers who
carried half-hogsheads of beef blood to the polls and
bespattered with the contents citizens who would not
vote the anti-foreign ticket. Their circle had been
swelled by other elements of the population eager to par
ticipate in the savage license of their operations. Alone
of all the American states, Maryland had been carried by
the "Know Nothing" party in a general election3 and
though it soon spurned its new found idols, traces re
mained of the violence of thought and action with which
it had been racked.
"McSherry, History of Maryland (continued by James), p. 352.

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 49
As the fury of the movement waned, the Civil War,
with its fierce clashes of opinion in a border State, rent
the city into two hostile camps. Federal troops swarmed
in and took possession, averting at the point of the
bayonet the threatened secession of Maryland. Armed
force supplanted civil law and the volunteer soldiers,
not yet trained to the restrictions of discipline, terrorized
the community.4 Cannon frowned upon the city from
a chain of fortifications which were hastily thrown up,
one of which, Fort Marshall, was in what is now High-
landtown, within the boundaries of Father Gibbons'
parish. The congregation of St. Bridget's was small, composed
for the most part of laboring men from the Canton cop
per works and rolling mills, whose daily clang of ma
chinery broke upon the peace of the farms and market
gardens. A number of the neighboring rural families
were also in the circle of worshipers. Father Gibbons,
affable then as always, tireless in his activity despite the
frailty of the flesh, soon came to know every member
of his flock by name. Some of them remained his friends
and familiars for generations, and his smile and instant
recognition were theirs whenever he met them. Quickly
he came to acquire an intimate knowledge of their per
sonal affairs, their family life, their material hopes and
strivings. The powers of his fast ripening mind and
the poise of judgment which he possessed even in early
manhood were ready to guide them in the affairs of this
world as well as of the world to come.
The crudeness of the living conditions to which he was
4 Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County, p. 132.

50 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
subjected was made worse by his own act. He gave up a
part of his scanty quarters for the purposes of a hall for
fairs, meetings and other church uses, leaving only a
small sleeping room which he could call his own. Re
turning at night from pastoral calls while a meeting was
in progress, he was sometimes compelled to pass through
the group of parishioners in order to reach this room,
saying as he bade them a smiling good night: "I must
go to bed now." So completely did he discard thought
of personal comfort that he established a parochial school
directly above his room, and the noise of the trampling
overhead did not seem to diminish his satisfaction that
the children of his parish were thus helped to start well
in life at a time when educational facilities in Americ^
were gravely deficient.
His fertile mind continued to conceive new plans and
he formed the project of building a brick rectory in con
formity with the simple architectural style of the church;
but there were no funds for the purpose and the resources
of the little congregation were far from sufficient for
the task. Nothing daunted, the young pastor decided to
obtain a large building in the center of the city for a
fair to raise money and applied to the lessee of Carroll
Hall, a place in which many large public assemblies were
held in those days. To his surprise, he found the lessee
by no means inclined to grant the application, but he
explained and pleaded and at length obtained what he
desired, besides ample apologies for what had seemed
to be discourtesy. A few words explained all : "I thought
you were a Yankee," said the stout-hearted sympathizer
with the Confederacy.

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 51
Thus tightly were the lines of the conflict drawn in
Baltimore, not only in political and business affairs, but
even in the home circle, where the strongest ties of affec
tion were sometimes transformed into the estrangements
of years. So intense was the war feeling that part of
the congregation of the Cathedral left on several occa
sions when the prayer for the authorities was said. This
prayer had been framed by Archbishop Carroll and
among other things, besought that the people might be
"preserved in union," which by no means accorded with
the views of the secessionists.
Gibbons wrote of this at a later period :
"I can very well remember a painful experience which
the Archbishop (Kenrick) went through during the first
year of the war. We have a prayer in America composed
by Archbishop Carroll for all estates of men in the
Church of God, and it was the Archbishop's custom to
have this prayer read publicly before Mass in the ver
nacular, especially in the Cathedral Church where, by
the way, it is still read. In this prayer there is a petition
that the union of the American people may be preserved ;
and when the Southern states began to secede, so high
did secession sentiment run in Baltimore that some of
the clergy begged him to omit the prayer in which the
objectionable petition found its place.
"At last, when all the clergy of the Cathedral had
begged to be excused, the Archbishop determined to read
it himself, and I suppose that during the reading of that
prayer he suffered more than one could well imagine;
for when he mentioned the Union of the States, many
people got up and publicly left the Cathedral, and those
who remained expressed their dissent from the Arch
bishop's petition by a great rustling of papers and silks.

52 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"It was from his Grace that I imbibed a strong at
tachment to the Union. I had been born a Southerner
and brought up a Southerner and my heart was, of
course, with the Southern states. Indeed, my brother
was actually fighting in the army of the Confederacy;
but I could never believe that secession would succeed
and even if it should succeed I could not help but see that
it would be the destruction of what was already a grow
ing and what might become a very great nation. There
fore my head was always with the Union." 5
The fair at Carroll Hall and others held for the same
purpose were so successful that a well constructed brick
rectory soon rose beside the church at Canton, with
scarcely any direct cost to the congregation. The young
pastor used all his resources in stimulating these efforts.
One summer in the course of a visit to New Orleans to
see his mother she gave him a gold watch to take the
place of a silver one which had been a gift to him from
his sister while he was in college. When he returned to
St. Bridget's, the silver watch was contributed to the
money raising project and a considerable sum was
realized by disposing of it. The parishioner who ob
tained it treasured it throughout his life and when he
was far advanced in years it was an open sesame to an
audience with the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore.
Soft berths were not for newly ordained priests of
the Catholic Church in those days any more than they
are now. The number of the clergy was far below the
requirements and the sacrifices pledged in ordination
vows were exacted to the point of literal fulfilment.
5 "My Memories," Cardinal Gibbons in the Dublin Review, April,
1917.

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 53
Soon after Father Gibbons went to Canton, Archbishop
Kenrick directed him to take charge also of St. Law
rence's Church, since renamed for Our Lady of Good
Counsel, on Locust Point, a mile across the Patapsco
from St. Bridget's. Every Sunday morning, in mid
winter snows no less than in the zephyrs of summer, he
was accustomed to leave Canton at six o'clock for his
double task of the day. He was rowed in a skiff across
to Locust Point, heard confessions at St. Lawrence's,
said Mass, preached, baptized and attended sick calls;
then recrossed the river to Canton, where he celebrated
high Mass at half past ten o'clock and preached again.
In storm and cold, his kind-hearted housekeeper used
to bundle him up for the journey and tie her shawl over
his head, but many of these trips meant keen suffering
for him. Sometimes, when the river was impassable be
cause of ice, he traveled to St. Lawrence's in a sleigh or
carriage, crossing at the head of the harbor of Baltimore
by way of Light Street, several miles west of Canton.
As no Catholic clergyman may celebrate Mass except
while fasting, it was generally about one o'clock in the
afternoon when, after a morning's arduous labor, he
could eat. His digestion was permanently wrecked by
this ordeal, which compelled him to observe great care
in diet throughout his life. He used to say: "It killed
my stomach."
The fatigues and hardships which he endured soon
caused a general collapse of his health. To his parish
ioners, as one of them recalled it, he seemed to be "going
all the time." Some of them expressed the opinion that
he "could not live two months." Tuberculosis was

54 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
suspected; but one day he returned from an examination
by his physician and joyfully announced that his lungs
were sound.0
Natural inclination developed in earlier years had
made him a pedestrian and the large area of his parish,
in which there were no public conveyances at the time,
compelled him to tramp over the lonely roads on many
of his pastoral visits. His habit of taking long walks
continued throughout his life and was perhaps the most
potent means of sustaining him in his manifold and pro
longed activities, the endurance of which so often caused
amazement in others. No detail of the field was too
small to receive his painstaking attention; no locality
too dangerous to be penetrated by the devoted priest,
bent on his merciful mission.
His already trying duties in the care of two congrega
tions were augmented considerably in labor and much
more in stirring adventure by service as volunteer chap
lain at two of the principal forts in Maryland. Besides
performing ministrations to all who needed him at Fort
Marshall, not far from St. Bridget's, he was called upon
frequently for like service at Fort McHenry, within the
boundaries of St. Lawrence's parish. The latter fort,
hallowed by memories of the birth of the "Star-Spangled
Banner," became early in the war the principal place in
Maryland for the confinement of Confederate prisoners.
Father Gibbons ministered to Blue and Gray alike, often
"Mr. John J. Donnelly and Mrs. Peter Hagan, members of St.
Bridget's Congregation, 1861-65, who lived to old age, recalled dis
tinctly a number of incidents of that period which have been included
in this work. Traditions linger from the same period, which have been
rejected unless confirmed.

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 55
under circumstances which touched his deepest human
sympathies. A case which moved him powerfully was that of John
R. H. Embert, a Confederate soldier, who, obtaining
leave to visit his family in the eastern part of Maryland,
was arrested as a spy and condemned to death. As the
young priest became familiar with the circumstances of
this instance of court-martial injustice, he fervently
hoped that some way might be found to avert the sen
tence. While he devoted himself to prayer for the de
liverance of Embert, the sympathies of men powerful
in civil life were enlisted by others in an effort to obtain
a revocation by higher authorities. Besides Embert, who
was a Catholic and whose spiritual counselor Father
Gibbons was, two others, doomed to be shot after con
viction of the same offense, were in the fort at the time.
They were Samuel B. Hearn and Braxton Lyon. A
fourth prisoner awaiting execution of the death sentence
there was William H. Rodgers, said to have been a
blockade runner.7
One hope after another failed in the desperate en
deavor to obtain clemency for Embert, Hearn and Lyon,
who were to be shot immediately after twelve o'clock
Sunday night, August 29, 1864. On the previous night
a number of men and women of prominence in Baltimore
went to the home of John S. Gittings, president of the
Northern Central Railroad, to beseech his aid in saving
the lives of the three men. They urged Mr. Gittings
to make a direct appeal to President Lincoln, relying
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Vol,
7, PP. 792, 834, 1040, 1291; Vol. 8, pp. 87, 114, 115, 132, 395, 436, 650.

56 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
upon the fact that he had befriended the family of the
President when the latter, hearing rumors of a plot to
assassinate him, traveled to Washington by a circuitous
route in 1861 on his way to be inaugurated.
Lincoln, in the course of the journey, had left his
wife and children at Harrisburg, proceeded to Philadel
phia by special train and there boarded the regular mid
night train for Washington. Mrs. Lincoln and her three
sons had continued their trip according to the original
plan over the Northern Central Road from Harrisburg
to Baltimore, where they were taken to the home of
Mr. Gittings and hospitably entertained until they could
go on to the national capital. Though Mr. and Mrs.
Gittings had extended this aid to the Lincoln family
in a time of sore need, the railroad president was a
staunch Democrat and his wife was an ardent Southern
sympathizer, the daughter of Colonel Ritchie, a distin
guished editor of Richmond, Virginia.
When the visitors urged him to implore mercy from
Lincoln in behalf of the three men, Mr. Gittings de
murred, saying that he had no influence with the Presi
dent and that in any event it was- probably too late to
intervene. They then turned to Mrs. Gittings, whose
womanly heart was softened by their pleas, and she con
sented to go with them to Washington.
On the night fixed for the triple execution, the party
arrived at the White House. Lincoln had already re
tired, but when he learned that Mrs. Gittings desired
to speak with him he came down a darkened stairway,
holding a lighted candle high above his tall and gaunt
form. Gravely he listened to her pleading and replied:

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 57
"Madam, I owe you a debt. You took my family
into your home in the midst of a hostile mob. You gave
them succor and helped them on their way. That debt
has never been paid, and I am glad of the opportunity to
pay it now, for I shall save the lives of these men."
The sentences were suspended at once by an order
which reached the fort such a short time before midnight
that Father Gibbons had already arrived to prepare
Embert for death. None joined in the rejoicings with
greater fervor than the young chaplain. The sentence of
Embert was afterward commuted to imprisonment in
the Albany penitentiary for the duration of the war.8
Soon after the close of the war, when Father Gibbons
had been transferred to the Baltimore Cathedral, he
was surprised to receive a visit from Embert. They
exchanged warm greetings, for he had conceived a high
admiration for the young soldier who, in the ordeal at
the fort, had endured with a calm and inspiring courage.
Their mutual salutations were scarcely finished before
his caller said:
"Father, I am delighted to see you under more favor
able circumstances than confronted us at Fort McHenry.
You did not have an opportunity of seeing a knot tied
around my neck on that occasion and I ask you now to
tie a more pleasing knot."
He had come to be married and Father Gibbons per
formed the ceremony.
One of the prisoners whom the young priest was called
to attend at Fort Marshall was found to be in a des-
* Cardinal Gibbons' recollections of these facts as given here were
supplemented by the reminiscences of John S. Gittings, grandson of
the railroad president who befriended Lincoln's family.

58 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
perate state from fever. Father Gibbons heard his con
fession and then talked to the man of his life. The
soldier had run away from home and his mind wandered
back to his early associations.
"Where is your home?" asked Father Gibbons.
"In Ireland," was the reply.
"What part of Ireland?" the priest asked.
"The western part," said the soldier.
Father Gibbons at length found that he was from
Ballinrobe and that his name was Conway.
"Ah," he remarked, "then you know the pastor of
the church there?"
"He is my brother," the soldier answered.
"You are Hal Conway!" exclaimed Father Gibbons,
and a burst of recollection came over him as he saw in
the sick soldier a former comrade in the school at Ballin
robe which he had attended.
The meeting revived Conway in a marvelous way and
his recovery began almost immediately. The priest sent
him some fruit and other delicacies and continued to
take a warm interest in him until his cure was complete.
Despite the fact that he was a Union sympathizer,
Gibbons was sometimes "harshly treated," as he after
ward said, by the military authorities at the forts at
which he served as chaplain. He wrote:
"I remember that on one occasion after having heard
the confession of a Southern prisoner, I tried to get him
some much needed nourishment which had not been pro
vided for him by the doctor of the hospital ; and for this
act, by which I tried merely to help a suffering fellow
creature, irrespective of his politics, I was told that my

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 59
services would be no longer acceptable at the fortress
(McHenry) and that I need not return. However, I
did return, since I threatened to make known to the
higher authorities what had taken place; and men who
execute martial law with little regard for the feelings
of those below them are often very sensitive as to the
feelings of those above them." 9
Father Gibbons' courage was repeatedly tested in that
trying period. Returning to St. Bridget's rectory one
night after attending to pastoral duties, he found a
vagrant soldier sleeping in the yard and started to arouse
him. The soldier, in a frenzy of rage at being disturbed,
leaped to his feet, seized a paling from a broken fence
and rushed at the priest with the fury of a tiger. Father
Gibbons, realizing the irresponsible condition of the man
and wishing to avoid a personal encounter, turned and
ran toward his door, but soon found himself trapped in
an angle formed by a wall and the fence from which
there was no escape.
With a powerful sweep the soldier raised the club
to strike him a murderous blow, when, realizing that he
must defend himself quickly if at all, he summoned his
strength, knocked the man down and thoroughly sub
dued him. When the soldier came to his senses he
realized that the frail young man in priestly dress was
more than his match, and beat a precipitate retreat.
On another night, arriving at his rectory after col
lecting money for the church, Father Gibbons found the
housekeeper outside the main door weeping in a panic
of fear. She told him that a crazy man was inside who
'"My Memories," Cardinal Gibbons in the Dublin Review.

60 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
had taken possession of the premises and was threaten
ing everybody. Father Gibbons, undeterred by her story,
calmly entered the building and found that the tale
was not overdrawn. The intruder was of herculean size
and was raving, a menace to everybody in the house un
less he could be subdued. Father Gibbons found no
weapon at hand but an umbrella, with which he be
labored the man to such good effect that in a short time
he forced him to leave.
Drunken soldiers were a danger to all civilians in the
vicinity of the forts, but Father Gibbons was never
known to quail before them, although he always avoided
a conflict when he could do so. It was established be
yond doubt that when put to the test he could defend
himself against any one, for he possessed a high degree
of moral courage before which men of greater physical
prowess retreated in dismay.
Wherever he went the tragedies of war confronted
him, sometimes relieved by bright incidents that seemed
to dawn suddenly out of darkness. On one of his trips
to New Orleans, which he contrived to continue at in
tervals despite the terrific struggle for the possession of
the Mississippi River that was in progress, he became
interested in Colonel Luke Blackburn, a soldier in a
ragged jacket whom he met on a steamboat. There was
a negro nurse on the same boat caring for a baby. On
one occasion she wished to get a drink of water and asked
Colonel Blackburn if he would hold the baby while she
went away for a moment. The Colonel obligingly com
plied and soon he and the infant were on the best of

AN ADVENTUROUS PASTORATE 61
terms. The baby pulled his beard and played with him
in glee. When the nurse returned, the Colonel asked :
"Whose baby is this?"
"Massa Blackburn's baby," she answered.
"Which Master Blackburn's?"
"Massa Luke Blackburn's."
It was the soldier's own child, born soon after he had
started for the war. To his intense joy he learned that
his wife was also on the boat, having come to meet him
with the baby, upon whose countenance, reflecting some
of his own features, he had never before looked. There
was a reunion in the felicitations of which the future
Cardinal shared.
On the night of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Father
Gibbons was preaching in St. Joseph's Church, Balti
more. His topic was the crucifixion, and he dwelt upon
the ingratitude shown by Judas. With one of those
apt similes which were characteristic of the style of his
sermons, he applied the lesson to possible contemporary
conditions, developing his theme on these lines:
"Imagine a great and good ruler, who had done every
thing to deserve the confidence and affection of his sub
jects, and who had lived only for his country and had
no desire but for his country's good — imagine such a
ruler struck down by the hand of an assassin! Would
you not feel, my brethren, a deep indignation at his
murder?" A short time after the congregation had been dis
missed, the streets were filled with scurrying people and
from lip to lip passed the fateful bulletin : "Lincoln has

62 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
been shot!" In the light of the tragedy which startled
the world, the words of Father Gibbons took on a strange
significance. That night there was a great commotion in Baltimore,
intensified by the fact that the city was the home of the
Booth family, of which the assassin was a member. A
week later the body of the murdered President was
brought to the city and Father Gibbons with some of the
other clergy marched in the procession which escorted it
to the rotunda of the Exchange, where it lay in state.10
The young priest's heart had bled for the agonies of
the helpless which are always the fruit of war, no matter
what the issue to be decided, nor under what flag the
sword be unsheathed; and now it bled for the sufferings
that followed as the wounds left by the conflict were
slowly healed.
10 Scharf, Chronicles of Baltimore, p. 634.

CHAPTER IV
THE PATH OF PROMOTION
A decision formed after a sleepless night passed in
a tempest of doubts in his isolated suburban rectory at
Canton fixed the future of Father Gibbons. Surrounded
by darkness and solitude whose peace contrasted with
his own feverish thoughts, he attached to the resolution
which was taking shape in his mind no more importance
than might belong to an obscure priest's conception of
his duty; but as the part for which he was cast in life was
revealed by the passage of years his thoughts often
wandered back to those troubled hours in June, 1865,
when he struggled to decide whether or not to accept a
call from Archbishop Spalding to become his secretary
and thus to give up the pastoral care of the flock at St.
Bridget's. The deeper chords of the young priest's nature were
touched as perhaps they had never been touched before.
Other faithful men recently out of the seminary like
himself might have seen in the call nothing beyond a
welcome promotion which was likely to open a much
larger scope of usefulness and influence; but to him it
meant the turning away from a humble field of labor
in which he would have been fully content to remain
indefinitely. It appears clear that he had expected nothing else
63

64 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
than to devote his life to pastoral work; he had not cared
to make the ways of ecclesiastical ambition his ways.
Besides, he felt in the ties that he had formed with the
simple folk whom he served a personal force to which
most men would have been strangers. The thought that
these people might become lesser objects of his solicitude
or that he could allow them to pass even partly from
the circle of his intimate affections was abhorrent to him.
So it came that when the Archbishop's summons
reached him he was plunged at once into the depths of a
racking perplexity. As he recollected his own emotions
afterward, he thought well of the prospect at first and
was a little elated at the compliment. Soon this was
succeeded by feelings which he described as homesickness
and which rapidly ran down the scale of depression. The
people of Canton whom he served were very poor, but
thoroughly receptive to the ministrations of the Church.
In a burst of youthful sentiment he came to the conclu
sion that he could not desert them. Spurred by the im
pulses thus aroused, he went post-haste to see the Very
Rev. Henry G. Coskery, Vicar General of the diocese,
and some of the other superior clergy, begging them to
exert their influence with the Archbishop to permit him
to remain at St. Bridget's.
He unburdened his heart with these eager petitions on
a Saturday. Returning to his rectory in the evening, an
other flood of emotion swept over him, and he became,
as he described it, "full of remorse." He pondered :
"Am I to carry out my own desires or to work as duty
calls? Am I setting a good example of obedience and
sacrifice by insisting upon remaining here when I am

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 65
summoned elsewhere by my ecclesiastical superiors? If
this wish be gratified, I will be disappointed later for
not obeying; I will realize that my field of labor is chosen
by myself, of my own desire, and not in submission to
the call of duty."
Pacing his room or tossing upon his bed throughout
the night, he sought in vain through weary hours for
light. At length his mind was gradually calmed and its
confusion was lost in the harmony of a clear vision of
the part that must be his. Rising early in the morning,
he wrote a letter to Father Coskery retracting his previous
appeal and declaring that he was ready with complete
submission to obey the wish of the Archbishop. He gave
this letter to a young student who was with him at the
rectory to deliver to the Vicar General, and entered with
a new peace upon the priestly labors of the Sunday which
dawned. Years afterward he would sometimes tell this story
to young priests upon whom, faced by doubts such as
his, it exerted a profound impression. He used to tell
them that never would he forget the absolute misery
which came over him in the darkness of that night. His
whole life might have been — probably would have been
— changed if he had remained at Canton; as he remarked
when he was nearly eighty years old : "I might have been
there yet." He felt that the ordeal had meant for him
a revelation of the mysterious working of Divine Provi
dence directly guiding the affairs of men, in which he
firmly believed through every vicissitude to the end of
his days on earth.
The people of St. Bridget's were as unwilling to part

66 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
from the young priest as he had been to part from them.
A committee waited on Archbishop Spalding to beseech
that he might be retained, setting forth in simple, heart
felt eulogy that his work there had been a means of
blessing to all of them and that he was especially fitted
to minister to their spiritual needs. The discriminating
Archbishop replied:
"Children, he is too enlightened for me to leave at
Canton. I want him near me."
Thus their efforts failed.
The position of secretary to the Archbishop of Balti
more is traditionally a stepping stone to promotion in
the Church. It was then differentiated from all posts of
corresponding rank in other dioceses by the fact that the
head of the Primatial See in the days before the appoint
ment of a Papal Delegate in the United States was to a
great extent the representative and spokesman of the
Supreme Pontiff in the country as a whole. To him were
addressed all general communications from the Vatican
to the Hierarchy of America, and he received commis
sions to act for the Pope in the adjustment of contro
versies and the administration of corrective measures.
Through his reports Rome learned in large part of the
operations and progress of the Church in America and
of the numerous problems, some of them calling for the
exercise of the greatest prudence and wisdom, which
originated within this jurisdiction.
The duties of the Archbishop of Baltimore were thus
greater both in importance and volume than those of
any of his brethren of the same rank in America. His
secretary, through whom the mass of his business passed,

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 67
was far irom being only a transcriber of the extensive
correspondence which had to be kept up. While the
head of the See dictated the correspondence and docu
ments that were considered vital, or wrote many of them
with his own hand, as the archives of the diocese show, he
entrusted to his secretary the framing of lesser communi
cations of importance which involved wide knowledge of
Church conditions, canon law and general policies. Some
of those who filled the position of secretary rose to
bishoprics; others to positions in the Church only a little
less high.
Archbishop Spalding was in feeble health in 1865,
having suffered for many years from a severe bronchial
and gastric affection. The Second Plenary Council of
Baltimore was near at hand and he needed as secretary
a priest upon whom he could lean far more than usual.
Thus he came to make requisition for the young man
whose winning personality he first had an opportunity
to observe in the visit which young Gibbons paid to him
in Louisville when a student, and whose gifts of mind
and character as exhibited in the minor field at Canton
had produced a strong impression upon him.
The judgment of Archbishop Spalding was confirmed
by a few weeks' contact with Father Gibbons in his
household. The man whom he needed and desired had
been found — one upon whom, in the exacting labor which
he could not forego in his declining years, he could de
pend for help, both as to the largest tasks and the
smallest. Between these two, widely separated by age and rank,
there sprang up the closest ties. "My relations with

68 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
him were of a most intimate and affectionate nature,"
said Gibbons of the Archbishop. "I reverenced him as a
father; and he deigned to honor me as a son."1
Archbishop Spalding and his successor in the See,
Archbishop Bayley, were chiefly instrumental in recog
nizing the remarkable gifts of Gibbons and obtaining
his advancement in the Church to positions in which those
gifts would be most useful. Both were keen judges of
character and their vision penetrated the screen which
the young priest's modesty threw around himself. In
manner no one could exhibit greater simplicity than he.
He sought to impress none by an appearance of either
mental profundity or especial energy. In the presence
of churchmen older than himself, he was accustomed to
preserve a respectful silence upon important matters.
Whatever task came to hand he did with all his might,
but his aims, so far as any one could observe at
that stage of his career, did not range far into the
future. It was difficult then for a man of average mental
processes and powers to take the true measure of Gibbons,
just as it was when he was at school and even when he
became a prince of the Church. He avoided the man
nerisms with which most men display their capacities of
varying degrees. Appearing not to value himself above
the ordinary, persons of a limited range of perception
were inclined to take him at that estimate. He could
seem to the lowly as one of them and yet men in high
places thought him worthy to sit with them as an equal,
'Discourse of Bishop Gibbons in the Baltimore Cathedral at the
Month's Mind service for Archbishop Spalding, March 7, 1872.

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 69
if not a superior. His dawning individuality was rather
baffling to many persons.
Archbishop Spalding valued the young secretary's
simplicity of character as well as his intellect. He found
Gibbons not only alert, responsive and indefatigable in
the performance of his duties, but a devoted companion
whose vivacity cheered the venerable prelate. In his
physical feebleness he needed some one to accompany
him on the trips to health resorts which his failing powers
required at intervals, and he found in his secretary one
whose association pleased him in this as in every other
relation. The Archbishop wished Gibbons to speak to him on
all subjects with complete frankness, valuing the sin
cerity which evidently inspired his companion, the youth
ful freshness of an open mind and the keen judgment
of men and things obtained by contact with persons in
all walks of life. Gibbons fell in with the mood of his
superior. There was, in fact, a bond of congeniality be
tween them which is seldom seen between individuals
anywhere. When he had become Cardinal, the secretary
of those days recalled as one of the most pleasant parts
of his life the period passed in Spalding's household, and
the informality of his relations with that prelate, with
whom, he used to say, "I was rather free."
Among the resorts which they visited in summer were
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and Sharon
Springs, New York. Although the Archbishop was
accustomed to relax his overstrained energies there, he
never failed to perform the ministrations of religion for
others during his stay. Father Gibbons said of him :

70 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"On visiting one of the mountain springs or the sea
shore, his first inquiry was whether the neighborhood
contained a church or chapel and a stationary priest.
Otherwise he made provision at once for Sunday services
to be held in an apartment of the hotel. He almost in
variably preached, and the fame of his name was always
sure to enlist a large and enlightened congregation.
"On the last of these occasions when I was with the
Archbishop, he preached in a rustic chapel in West Vir
ginia. The people gathered from the neighborhood to
hear him and among others were several mothers with
their infants at their breasts. During the sermon these
babes kept up unceasing cries to the great inconvenience
of the preacher and the annoyance of the congregation.
One of the parishioners proceeded to remove the dis
turbers, but the Archbishop forbade, remarking to me,
as we returned to the hotel, T would suffer any incon
venience rather than deprive these poor mothers of the
satisfaction of hearing Mass and listening to the word
of God.' "
At some of the places which the Archbishop and his
secretary visited there were few Catholics, and discus
sions sometimes arose with guests in the course of which
criticisms or misunderstandings of the Church were ex
pressed or implied. Spalding was ready to reply to
arguments and to dispel false conceptions, but Gibbons,
as was becoming, was usually only a listener on these
occasions. He thus recalled one incident of that kind :
"The Archbishop was informed that the proprietor of
the hotel (at which they were visiting) had turned away
from the religion of his ancestors and had also modified
the spelling of his name. Desiring to cultivate the
acquaintance of his Grace, he asked the Archbishop

GIBBOXS AS PRIEST IX 1866
Father Gibbons Standing; the Rev. Henry B. Coskery Seated

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 71
whether he spelt his name Spaulding or omitted the let
ter u. 'Sir,' the Archbishop briskly replied, 'the Spald-
ings will never change their faith and they have never
altered the spelling of their name. They were never
ashamed of their faith or their name.' "
His duties in the direct relation to the Archbishop
were not permitted to monopolize Gibbons' time. It
was not in him to be idle or to limit his efforts at any
period of his life to what might seem to be a narrow
field. He was active as a clergyman at the Cathedral
and in January, 1866, established the first Sunday School
there, which became so popular that he was able to report
in a letter to the secretary of the Maryland Senate, call
ing attention to the work of the parochial schools, that
its average attendance in the second year of its existence
was 500. This was proof of a remarkable degree of
interest at a time when the Sunday School movement
was, comparatively, in its infancy.
He taught classes in catechism regularly at Calvert
Hall School and St. Mary's Orphan Asylum. At all
times he was ready to respond to calls for his services
at baptisms, marriages and funerals. It was well re
membered that he showed exceptional zeal in visiting
the sick and the poor.
The thoroughness with which he undertook every duty
was shown by a long letter which he wrote to the Rev.
Thomas A. Becker in Richmond. Father Becker had
been the librarian of the archdiocese, and, when he was
sent to Richmond, Gibbons was appointed as his suc
cessor. Before he left Baltimore Gibbons had a talk
with him, endeavoring to learn every detail of the work,

72 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and also studied the system in use at a public library
there, in which approved methods of the time were in
use. Still unsatisfied, he sent a letter to Father Becker
asking for more information. He wrote of his request:
"You must not attribute it to any obscurity on your
part, but rather to my dullness of comprehension."
He suggested a plan for placing a catalogue label in
each book of the library and added :
"I offer this opinion timidly, trusting to your large
experience and judgment more than to my own crude
notions." The letter concluded:
"The regret you experience in leaving Baltimore is
felt, I am sure, by those of us who had the pleasure of
forming your acquaintance during your short stay among
us. I can indeed appreciate your feelings, for if I am
so distressed at abandoning my own humble parish, I
can well imagine your grief at parting with a place and
with gentlemen so congenial to your good taste; but I
hope you will have the reward of your sacrifice." 2
His sermons soon attracted attention and he was in
demand at churches throughout the city. At that period
his rare gifts as an orator in the best sense which set
him on a pinnacle as a preacher in later years were being
rapidly perfected by experience and mature thought.
The simplicity and force of his language could not fail
to charm; his logic was sound, his learning solid; and
the clearness and sweetness of his voice, which could fill
'Letter of Father Gibbons to Father Becker, November 24. 186*.

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 73
a large hall without effort, combined with magnetism of
manner that gripped the attention instantly, formed a
rare medium for the virile ideas with which his pulpit
utterances teemed.
It was a time when the Church had need of her strong
men. The passions following the Civil War were at their
worst and grew daily in ferocity. The United States
Government had used pressure at Rome against the ap
pointment of Archbishop Spalding to the See of Balti
more, because it was feared that he was not sufficiently
in accord with the policy of the Federal authorities
toward the South.3 This had failed and the Church
had been able to proceed serenely on her mission un
clouded by the storms of the political atmosphere.
Wide regions were in ruin and the ministrations of
religion were more necessary and at the same time more
difficult to convey than before the gigantic conflict. Hun
dreds of families in the diocese of Baltimore as else
where were mourning the loss of father, brother or son.
In the counties of southern Maryland, the soil in which
the Catholic faith had first taken root among English-
speaking people in the western hemisphere, the slaves had
been freed, and poverty spread its shadow where the
refinements of an affluent aristocracy had lately flour
ished. To meet the emergency by dealing comprehensively
with all the pressing problems of the Church in America,
Archbishop Spalding wrote in his journal February 7, 1864: "There
appears to be no doubt that the Government is interfering at Rome in
regard to the appointments to the Sees of Baltimore and New York";
O'Gorman, History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States,
P- 433! Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, Vol.
4> P- 493 ! Riordan, Cathedral Records, Baltimore, p. 77.

74 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore was convened
in the Cathedral in October, 1866. Archbishop Spald
ing presided over it, and Father Gibbons performed
an abundant share of the almost incredible mass of work
connected with that undertaking. He was made the
assistant chancellor of the Council, and for the first time
was thrown into an arena where the larger outlook of the
Church immediately confronted him. It wrought a
transformation in him.
Here at last was the thing for which he was fitted.
Now he had found a field so congenial that he was almost
exuberantly happy all the time in his task. Labor seemed
light as the broadening experiences which he met con
stantly stimulated him. His preference was ever for
the greater task, and then and at all stages of his subse
quent life the lightning rapidity of his mind — for he
was already on the threshold of the fulness of his powers
in 1866 — enabled him to grasp in what seemed to be an
instantaneous manner intricate and manifold problems
which confused and thwarted other men. Mental con
ception on the broadest lines was easier and simpler to
him than on narrow lines. In the atmosphere of the
great operations of the Church his spirit and intellect
found at last a scope worthy of himself.
It was soon evident, not only to the appreciative
observation of Archbishop Spalding but to the men of
exceptional powers and range with whom Father Gibbons
was thrown in contact in the Council, — the Archbishops
and Bishops of the United States, — that he fitted into
these surroundings as if they had always been a part of
him. Possessing traits of statesmanship that might have

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 75
carried him to any height had he chosen a career of
political advancement, men of lesser parts began, as it
were instinctively, to consult and trust him. Where
others might be unprogressive, impractical, out of touch
with the times, too ardent or controversial, he was cool,
judicious, far-seeing, enlightened, inspired by sentiments
of lofty patriotism as well as by the fire of apostolic zeal.
He was already formulating in his mind those grander
ideas which he was one day to impress upon the world;
and his contact with the leading men of the Church in
America served to give him the bearings with which he
might start upon the decisive part of his career.
It had been remarked of him, as his powers developed,
that he seemed destined for leadership, but he had scant
opportunity to show his real mettle in the little field at
St. Bridget's. Now he was on the eve of the develop
ment that was to be his. He rose to the opportunity with
a strength, poise and brilliancy which none could mistake.
So thorough was the preparation for the Council which
Archbishop Spalding had made with the help of his
gifted lieutenant that it was able to complete its work
in two weeks. Among its most important acts was the
constitution of a number of new dioceses, subject to con
firmation by the Holy See, to stimulate the spread of
the faith in the stricken South and in fast growing com
munities of the North and West. One of the new juris
dictions was the Vicarate Apostolic of North Carolina.
So strong an impression had Father Gibbons made upon
the assembled Bishops that, although but thirty-two years
old and only five years removed from the seminary, he
was unanimously nominated for that important post.

76 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
So far from being elated at the honor bestowed upon
him, which was all the more marked because of his com
parative youth, Gibbons was oppressed by the "appalling
burden," as he called it, and was long in doubt as to
whether or not he ought to accept. His feelings were
never the commonplace impulses which play along the
surface of the average man's character, but reached the
depths. To him no task meant routine, however noble
that routine might be. A bishopric was a battle, and a
bishopric in North Carolina at that time meant a battle
in which the odds were heavily against him. He wrote
to his friend T. Herbert Shriver, then a student at St.
Charles College : "Baltimore, "February 19, 1868.
"My dear Herbert :
". . . The long threatened documents from Rome
have come at last, or at least official letters from Cardi
nal Barnabo confirming most of the nominations made
at the late Plenary Council. Among the batch was one
for your devoted friend myself. It was stated in the
letter that the Bulls would be sent forthwith. Already
the Archbishop in his kindness is preparing for me some
of the episcopal paraphernalia. In contemplating these
shining but oppressive insignia I compare myself to a
bull decked out for the sacrifice. . . .
"Do pray for me, dear Herbert, that if I accept this
appalling burden, the very thought of which makes me
gloomy, although I try to keep up a cheerful appearance,
God may give me light and strength necessary for the
tremendous office. . . . "Your friend in Christ,
"Jas. Gibbons."

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 77
The decrees of the Council were signed by seven Arch
bishops, thirty-nine Bishops or their procurators and two
Abbots. An important declaration, destined to be quoted
as a precedent for the fathers of the Church in Rome
itself in a few years, related to the office of the Supreme
Pontiff. The Council decreed that he spoke with the
"living and infallible authority" of the whole Church,
which "was built by Christ upon Peter, who is the head,
body and pastor of the whole Church, whose faith Christ
promised should never fail."
Especial importance was laid by the Council upon
regulations which were to guide the fast expanding body
of the priesthood in carrying the message of the Church
to the people. These regulations helped to prepare the
way for the work that Gibbons was to do in high
station. Preachers, it was declared, were to employ an
explanatory rather than a controversial style in their
sermons, and were to adapt themselves to the capacity
of their hearers. Attacks were not to be made from the
pulpit on public magistrates, nor were priests to mingle
political and civil topics with religious doctrines. In
reprehending vices they were never to become personal.
They should declare the truth fearlessly, without being
influenced by human motives. Prolixity in sermons was
to be avoided and care must be taken not to bestow undue
praise in funeral orations. Priests should avoid recourse
to civil tribunals if possible. They should be careful
never to attend nor to have any connection with improper
spectacles and games.
Regarding the solicitation of money for Church uses,
a problem of exceptional difficulty, because many of the

78 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Catholic flocks were composed almost wholly of the poor,
it was emphasized that priests were not to be importunate
in addressing their .congregations. The practise of taking
money on deposit for which interest was to be paid was
condemned. Entrance money must not be collected at
churches. Free burial must be given to the poor. Catho
lics might be buried with sacred rites in non-Catholic
cemeteries if they possessed lots in such places, provided
they were not obtained in contempt of Church law. Mar
riages of Catholics and non-Catholics, far more common
in America than anywhere else in the world, were to
be discouraged. Bishops, it was directed, should seek to
use a uniform method in granting matrimonial dispensa
tions. The clergy were warned to avoid idleness as a pest,
for the Church has ever held that only in the ceaseless
activity of their calling can they find the self-effacement
which is necessary to divorcing their task as far as pos
sible from the weaknesses of the flesh. Greater provision
for the education of priests and the erection of prepara
tory schools as well as seminaries for them was recom
mended. Stress was laid upon the proper education of
youth. It was urged that parish schools should be erected
by every congregation and that the instruction, when
possible, should be by teachers belonging to religious
congregations. Catechism classes were to be instituted
in the churches for children who attended the public
schools. Mingled with the definite acts of the Council, its pre
cise rules, its formulas of thought and conduct, was the
expression of a dream in the rich realization of which

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 79
the young assistant chancellor, as Archbishop of Balti
more, was to have the decisive part. That vision took
the form of an expression of a strong desire for the estab
lishment of a Catholic university in the United States
which might serve as the capstone of a general system
of Church education and afford to youth who sought to
preserve their faith without fraction of loss an oppor
tunity to obtain the greatest facilities for cultural de
velopment under the guidance of their own spiritual
superiors. In addition to the Masonic Order, long previously
condemned by the Church, the Odd Fellows and the Sons
of Temperance were classed as forbidden societies. The
faithful, it was decreed, should not enter any organiza
tion which, having designs against Church or State,
bound its members with an oath of secrecy.4
The closing ceremonies of the Council were attended
by President Andrew Johnson, whom Father Gibbons
met on that occasion, the first of a long line of Presi
dents whom he was to know personally, and with many
of whom he was to have close and important relations.5
The nominations of the new Bishops were not con
firmed until 1868 and in the meantime Father Gibbons
continued his work at the Cathedral. The surroundings
of the archiepiscopal house there are singularly adapted
to bringing out of priests their capacity for the executive
work of the Church. Baltimore was for many years,
'Acta et Decreta Cone. Plen. II, Baltimore, 1868; Sermons and Pas
toral Letters, Second Plenary Council, published by Kelly & Piet, Balti
more, 1866.
"Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, Vol. 4,
p. 720.

80 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and still is to a considerable extent, the Catholic center
of America, the Rome of the Western World. The
Cathedral parish contains some of the most important
Catholic families of the United States, pillars of the
Church since the days of the Calverts. The clergy thus
have under their spiritual care a highly cultivated ele
ment in whose social life they mingle and from whose
environment they draw inspiration.
The archiepiscopal residence stands in dignified semi-
isolation upon a large lot on Charles Street in surround
ings which in 1865-68 were almost Athenian in their
refinement. It is of gray stone and brick, two stories
high, with a large basement, and is constructed along
graceful lines with the breadth of proportion charac
teristic of Baltimore homes of the better class in the early
part of the nineteenth century, but without any trace
of magnificence of architecture or ornament. At the rear
a paved walk leads to the Cathedral, which stands, like
the house, on a commanding eminence overlooking down
town Baltimore.
A tall flight of steps leads to the front door of the
house, which sets back in a recess of the wall. Inside is
an English hallway, extending the full length of the
building, flanked on each side by spacious rooms fur
nished with simplicity, almost scantily. Not a trace of
luxury is to be seen. On the walls are religious paintings
and portraits of prelates identified with the archdiocese,
with a bust or two here and there. A bay window stand
ing out boldly is a vantage-point for reviewing parades.
The residence was originally a small building erected
during the administration of Archbishop Whitfield and

THE PATH OF PROMOTION 81
occupied by him for the first time in 1830. Captain
William Kennedy and his wife contributed a large sum
in 1865, the year in which Father Gibbons began his
work in the household, by means of which two wings
were built and another story was added. A conspicuous
tablet in the well-stocked library commemorates this
gift. Here, when Gibbons was a member of Archbishop
Spalding's staff, was the heart of fashionable Baltimore.
Across the street and up and down were the houses of,
the rich and cultured, the historic families of Maryland,
and on the sidewalks trooped the belles and beaux of
the city. Charles Street at that point did not twist as
sharply in 1865 as its neighbor, St. Paul Street, which is
said to have followed the tracks of a cow-path in colonial
times; but so numerous were the hills that scarcely a
level spot was to be found in it. Inside and outside the
archiepiscopal residence the atmosphere was one of lofty
things and every priest who lived there felt its stimulus.

CHAPTER V
NORTH CAROIINA MISSION LABORS
As the "boy Bishop" — the youngest of twelve hundred
in the world-wide Catholic Hierarchy and one of the
youngest upon whom that rank was ever conferred —
the new Vicar Apostolic started on his mission to North
Carolina. He was elevated to the episcopate in the Balti
more Cathedral, August 16, 1868, receiving as his titular,
See Adramyttum, one of the ancient seats of the faith in
Asia Minor which had been severed from Christendom
by the scimitar. Archbishop Spalding conferred the
crozier, ring and miter upon him and at the same time
upon another graduate of the "School of Bishops"— the
Baltimore Cathedral household — the Rev. Thomas A.
Becker, who had been appointed to the See of Wilming
ton, Delaware.
What a difference between the tasks marked out for
these two men! What a difference between the Wil-
mingtons to which they were going! In Wilmington,
Delaware, situated in one of the smallest and least popu
lous American States, there were single Catholic churches
whose congregations were larger than the entire Catholic
community of North Carolina, then numbering barely
800 souls among 1,000,000 inhabitants in that large com
monwealth. There was in Delaware no lack of priests,
with rectories and parochial halls for them and means
82

GIBBONS AS THE YOUNGEST BISHOP
From a. photograph taken soon after he became Vicar Apostolic of
North Carolina.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 83
at hand for the modest material sustenance which they
required. In Wilmington, North Carolina, on the other
hand, there was but one priest and in all the remainder
of the State, stretching nearly five hundred miles from
the mountains to the sea, there were only two. Of these
three it might be almost said that, like their Divine
Exemplar, they had nowhere to lay their heads.
Delaware, though its rural portions were isolated from
the main channels of railroad communication and, in the
post-colonial social conditions which lingered there, not
a little of the prejudice against Catholics derived from
English sources remained, was not, on the whole, unrecep-
tive to the faith. North Carolina, except for a thin
wedge of the population, regarded Catholicism with a
deep-seated misunderstanding born of years of remote
ness. At the double consecration ceremony, another Cathe
dral priest, the Rev. Thomas Foley, chancellor of the
archdiocese and afterward Bishop of Chicago, delivered
the sermon. From the depths of an overflowing heart
he addressed the new Vicar Apostolic with words of en
couragement, even prophecy, as to the arduous mission
about to be undertaken. He said :
"I cannot congratulate you on going to North Caro
lina, but I do rejoice for the honor which the Church of
God has conferred upon you and I congratulate your
flock, few and scattered, upon the advantage they are
to derive from the Apostolic mission you are to establish
in that State, which, in a religious sense, may be called a
desert. It will not be long, I predict, before that desert
will be made to bloom and produce much fruit, and your

84 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
vicariate, now so poor and uninviting, will be able to
compare with dioceses of longer existence in religious
prosperity." Father Foley could not allow the occasion to pass
without bearing testimony to the priestly virtues which
he had observed in close contact with Bishop Gibbons,
saying: "You have been associated with us, like your right
reverend companion at this altar. You were of our
household and home. We have had the opportunity of
observing in both of you not only those great charac
teristics which ought to be found in every Christian priest,
but also those interior traits of virtue which embellish
and complete the man of God. We, then, who have lived
with you for years, if our testimony be of value, added
to that which the Holy Spirit, the Supreme Pontiff and
the prelates of our country have given, cheerfully and
truthfully give it. We have seen you both doing the toil
of the priesthood, helping the poor, instructing the igno
rant, visiting the sick at all hours, thinking nothing too
laborious or too fatiguing and always willing to take not
only your share of the labors, but ready to take a larger
portion that you might relieve your brother priests." 1
The young Vicar Apostolic remained in Baltimore for
a short time, continuing his assistance to Archbishop
Spalding. One of his earliest episcopal acts was to con
firm a class at St. Bridget's, where his former parishioners
welcomed him with a joy that reflected their affectionate
interest in his rising career and their gratitude for the
labors which he had performed among them.
'An extended account of these ceremonies was given in the Catholic
Mirror, then the Church paper of the Baltimore Archdiocese, August 22,
1868, which is the authority for many of the facts related here.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 85
Among the first of his North Carolina flock with whom
he came in close contact was a young woman, Frances
Fisher, known later as a successful novelist under the
pen name of Christian Reid, who has recorded her im
pressions of him at that period.2 In 1867 she had just
been received into the Church as a convert. She went
to Baltimore in the winter of 1867-68 and was in
structed in the faith by Bishop-designate Gibbons, of
whom she thus wrote many years later :
"At that time the news had come to the small band
of Catholics in North Carolina that they were to have a
Bishop of their own and that the choice of the Holy See
had fallen on a priest attached to the household of the
Archbishop of Baltimore. So it chanced that when, as
a very youthful convert just received into the Church
and seeking a spiritual guide for those first steps in the
practice of the faith which are so difficult for a convert,
I went to Baltimore in the winter of the year mentioned,
it was with the consciousness of a certain claim upon the
attention of one who, although personally unknown to
me, was the designated Vicar Apostolic of the State from
which I came. How readily this claim was acknowl
edged, with what courtesy and kindness the stranger
who sought him was received, no one who knows Cardinal
Gibbons can doubt, for the suavity which has always been
such a marked trait of the prelate was not less a trait of
the priest.
"Looking back with a much wider knowledge than I
then possessed, I am sure that no convert ever found a
gentler or more winning guide nor one who more quickly
made the newcomer feel at home in her Father's house.
It is not strange, therefore, that in all the memories of
'Miss Fisher was the daughter of a Confederate colonel who had
been killed early in the Civil War. She became Mrs. Tiernan.

86 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
one whom I was destined afterward to see often and to
know at least comparatively well, the earliest are the
most vivid, and that beside the splendid, scarlet-clad
figure of the Cardinal, there stands ever a picture of the
modest young priest, of whom Archbishop Spalding,
kindest and most genial of prelates, remarked, turning
an affectionate glance upon him: 'You know, we are
going to send this little man as Bishop down to North
Carolina.' " 3
Severe illness prostrated Gibbons almost on the eve
of his installation in his new post. He wrote to his
friend T. Herbert Shriver: "Baltimore, "Oct. 19, 1868.
"My dear Herbert:
"I received and read your letter in my sick bed on
Friday or Saturday. I am just recovered, thank God,
from a sudden attack of illness which the doctor feared
at one time might culminate in pneumonia.
"I had an engagement to preach yesterday in the
Cathedral in behalf of my new diocese, and, notwith
standing my feeble health, I managed to crawl into the
pulpit and say something to the point, and I believe with
fruitful result to myself if not to the congregation. It
is good even for the preacher himself to profit by his
preaching. . . . "Truly yours in our Lord,
"James Gibbons."
Archbishop Spalding, although indisposed on account
of his health to make long journeys, broke his rule of
custom to accompany his protege to North Carolina for
the installation ceremonies there. They arrived in Wil
mington on Friday evening, October 30, and were greeted
"Letter of Christian Reid, December, 191 1.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 87
by a delegation of the laity headed by the Rev. Mark
S. Gross, the priest of St. Thomas' Church, the only
sanctuary of the Catholic faith in that city. The ecclesi
astical visitors were escorted in carriages to the residence
of Colonel F. W. Kerchner, one of the prominent resi
dents of Wilmington and a parishioner of St. Thomas',
who welcomed them with Southern hospitality. Major
Reilly made an address in behalf of the scant body of
the laity, expressing gratitude that at last a Bishop had
been sent to the state to build up the work of the Church
and pledging the cooperation of Catholics as far as their
means would go.
The new Bishop, who had already developed that
singular felicity of expression on public occasions which
often served him so well, responded with thanks for the
warm-hearted sincerity of his reception. He avowed
the hope that the future would strengthen the bonds
established between the diocese and himself. The Catho
lics in the State, he knew, were few. He had not come
among them to seek personal comfort; sent by consti
tuted authority, he had only one object — their spiritual
guidance and the salvation of souls — regardless of sacri
fices and difficulties. He was ready to expend his utmost
efforts in the work and he did not doubt that he would
receive cordial cooperation. Archbishop Spalding
spoke briefly, encouraging the Carolina Catholics with
hopes for the spread of the faith.
On the Sunday after his arrival, while rain descended
as if to fructify the seed that was being planted, the
Bishop was installed in St. Thomas' Church. Arch
bishop Spalding preached, his sermon serving as a cordial

88 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
introduction of the new prelate to the vicariate, as well
as a whole-hearted expression of his confidence in Bishop
Gibbons born of the closest personal observation. The
Archbishop said:
"Your Bishop was recommended by the council of
Bishops held in Baltimore a few years ago. He received
their unanimous vote and holds his commission from
Rome. I know him well. He is beloved by all who
know him in Baltimore.
"There are few Catholics here and they are poor. We
cannot expect much at first. The Kingdom of God,
steady in its increase, is the work of more than eighteen
hundred years. The Apostles were poor. They enriched
the world with their heroic deeds of Christianity. They
never failed nor will they ever fail in their successors.
I recommend your Bishop to you, not only to Catholics,
but to all good Christians who have the spread of Christ's
religion on earth at heart. . . . He has not yet chosen
his seat. For the present he will reside among you. He
improves upon acquaintance. Though he will be found
uncompromising in his principles of faith, he will be
charitable to all and assist all, irrespective of sect or
creed." Bishop Gibbons postponed his own address to the con
gregation until vespers the same day. On that occasion
he began with an appealing touch of personal relation
ship, expressing his deep gratitude to the Archbishop
who had left many pressing duties in Baltimore "at the
call of friendship" to establish him in his new diocese.
While he had come among them as a stranger, he felt
that he could not look upon himself entirely in that
light, called as he was by the supreme head of the Church
to be their spiritual father. Although he scarcely knew

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 89
a face among all those in front of him, he knew the peo
ple of the diocese as citizens and sons of the South, for
so was he. They were not only united to one another
by the bonds of faith, but were brothers linked by the
ties of a common country and having the same material
interests. He had not doubted that a welcome awaited
him in North Carolina and would do his best to prove
himself worthy of it.4
A more unpromising field for any effort requiring a call
for material resources would be difficult to imagine. The
contending armies had swept bare large areas of the
State, the sudden freeing of the slaves had disorganized
labor and there was a general paralysis of industry.5
Added to these evils was the hopelessness bred by the
political and economic chaos of the reconstruction period,
when the State was dominated by a combination of
negroes with emigres from the North who were called
"carpet-baggers." On the night following his arrival, Bishop Gibbons
witnessed a torchlight procession of negroes, a political
campaign being in progress. As he described the wild
disorder of the scene, it appeared like an inferno. "Is
my lot to be cast in these surroundings?" he thought,
with dismay.
The ignorant elements then in power even seized
churches and devoted them to any use that suited their
whims. Soon after the new Bishop arrived he learned
how the Catholic church at Newbern had been saved
Catholic Mirror, November 14, 1868; Wilmington Daily Journal,
November 3, 1868.
Hamilton, Reconstruction in North Carolina, pp. 178-183.

90 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
a short time before. Captain McNamara, of the Federal
army, was riding past the church when he saw a body
of persons gathered about the building, apparently in
charge of it, and inquired as to their business.
"We have occupied this church for school purposes,"
said one of them.
"What is your authority?" inquired the captain.
"Our authority is that of the United States Govern
ment and of Jesus Christ," answered the school mistress.
"Well," remarked the captain, "that is good authority;
but, as a Federal officer, I am accustomed to obeying
written authority. Can you show papers from the sources
you have mentioned?"
The teacher was at a loss for words and the captain
continued :
"As you cannot produce the papers, my order is that
you vacate this church at once and enter it no more for
such purposes."
The Bishop soon had occasion to observe other mani
festations of the corrupt and chaotic political conditions
into which he was thrust. When he went to cast his first
vote in the State, a negro official demanded that he show
naturalization papers and he had difficulty in convincing
the suspicious functionary that he was native born. An
other negro official ordered him peremptorily to tear
down a frame shed on the church property in Wilming
ton, because a city ordinance provided that buildings
should be of brick or stone. The Bishop pointed out that
wooden buildings were standing on city property, but
the negro insisted and he was forced to cover the shed
with tin.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 91
Writing later of his experiences at this period,6 he ex
pressed the view that "while right-thinking men are ready
to accord to the colored citizen all to which he is fairly
entitled, yet to give him control over a highly intellectual
and intricate civilization in creating which he has borne
no essential part and for conducting which his anteced
ents have manifestly unfitted him, would be hurtful to
the country as well as to himself." In a subsequent po
litical campaign in Maryland 7 he declared against taking
the suffrage from negroes by any method, but he adhered
consistently to the view that their domination in political
affairs would be madness.
The contrast of the Bishop's living quarters in Wil
mington to those which he had recently occupied in the
archiepiscopal house in Baltimore was great. Father.
Gross shared with him the scanty accommodations of
what was called a "lean to" — four little rooms built
against the rear wall of the church, two on the ground
floor and two upstairs. The furnishings were of the
simplest. These two devoted men of God slept on cots
and ate from a table of rough boards, sometimes prepar
ing their food with their own hands if they had no funds
with which to employ help. The floors were bare of
even a rug. Money was lacking then and for a long time
afterward to erect an episcopal residence.
Bishop Gibbons and Father Gross became attached
to each other by the warmest ties. Father Gross' large-
hearted charity led him to give away so much that the
Bishop sometimes found himself hard pressed to supply
Reminiscences of Cardinal Gibbons read before the United States
Catholic Historical Society of New York, May 25, 1891.
1908.

92 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
even the meager funds required for their little establish
ment. It was said of that saintly priest that if he had
more than one hat or pair of trousers he was sure to
bestow the extra one on some needy parishioner. On
one occasion when he entered a store it was noticed that
he wore a laced shoe on one foot and a buttoned shoe
on the other. When asked about it he replied that he
had given a pair to a poor man and had not noticed that
they were not alike.
The penury of some war-wrecked families in Wilming
ton was relieved, even though it could be only in small
part, by sums accumulated through the rigid self-denial
of the Bishop and his companion.
Before he left Baltimore the Bishop had raised $7000
with which to buy additional ground adjoining St.
Thomas' Church. It was a small building and he de
signed to enlarge it. Deferring this undertaking until a
more propitious time, he consolidated the foundations of
the work in Wilmington preparatory to a general survey
of his vicariate.
Then began one of the most novel missionary tours
ever undertaken by a Bishop. Throughout the State he
traveled, preaching and teaching, winning Protestants as
his friends no less than Catholics, studying each locality
and, whenever opportunity offered, planting the seeds of
a congregation. The frankness of his appeal opened
a way for him everywhere and the leading people of
the State, regardless of creed, welcomed him to their
homes. When no other means were available, he in
structed and preached in Protestant churches, court
houses, public halls and even in Masonic lodge rooms,

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 93
which were in some cases the only public buildings avail
able for the purpose in places that he visited.
Perhaps the most novel of these experiences was at
Greenville, which he reached early one morning by boat.
He went to the town hotel to register and there met Dr.
O'Hagan, a Protestant physician, who urged that the
Bishop should be his guest. During the morning he held
a sort of levee, people of all creeds calling to welcome
him to the town and wishing him God-speed in his labors.
When it was learned that he intended to preach, the
local judge offered him the use of the court house and
the trustees of the Methodist Church were so moved by
the personal impression which he had made that they
put their house of worship at his disposal. With a
stroke of daring, he chose the church and preached there
at night to a large congregation, nearly all of whom
were Protestants. The people were summoned by the
church bell ; the Methodist choir assisted in the services ;
the Bishop, standing in the Methodist pulpit, read from
a Protestant Bible and the only part of the service which
was distinctively of his own faith was the sermon.
Everywhere crowds flocked to hear the liberal and
zealous apostle whose fast rising local fame preceded
him. There developed a pride in the youthful prelate,
their own Bishop, preeminently a man of the people,
mingling with all and gaining friends everywhere by his
rare graces of manner. His gifts as a preacher were
enough in themselves to form a powerful attraction in
the communities to which he went. Aimed especially
to win those who were full of hostility to his creed, his
sermons were of the simple truths of the Gospel, the

94 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
brotherhood of man, duty to God and country. Preju
dice melted before his words. In the broken condition
of the South, it was recognized on every hand that where
Bishop Gibbons founded a church it was an element of
stability, of spiritual, social and material improvement,
an inspiration to .hope and progress. Carolinians knew
that he felt their woes as his own and shared in their
struggle upward from the ruins left by war. It was said
of him that he came to know every Catholic in the State
by name, as well as a multitude of Protestants.
Many of the Bishop's journeys were made in districts
where the lack of means of communication presented
great obstacles. On his travels remote from railways the
vehicle which he used customarily was an insecure wagon
of a type locally known as a "democrat." One of those 8
who later recalled this old wagon said of it :
"It was indeed a dilapidated affair, drawn by two
horses. The Bishop sometimes had a young priest with
him who drove, or a colored man who assisted. The
space which they did not occupy was filled with packages
of clothing and such things as sugar, flour and medicines.
Most of these supplies were for the poor families with
whom they might stop; but they also carried their clerical
robes for ceremonies and food for themselves, for many a
time did that old wagon stop in the forest where they
must eat their noonday meal.
"We often asked the Bishop to give up the old wagon
and get another, for it finally became so rickety that I
thought it dangerous ; to break down twenty miles from
any human habitation is not a trifling matter. But he
always replied that he thought the wagon might last a
while longer. When some of the Church members
'Mrs. O'Connor.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 95
offered to buy him one, he answered : 'Friends, you can
give me the money, if you will, for the Church needs it,
but not for any vehicle for my own use.' "
This wagon, despite its imperfections, traversed thou
sands of miles in the State on its mission of mercy and
help, bearing him who would one day speak among the
leaders of the world with a voice that carried authority.
Repeatedly he risked life and health in assisting families
ill from contagious diseases. Without a thought of per
sonal danger — those who knew him best could recall no
occasion when he showed any sign of fear — he entered
straggling hamlets where every stranger was looked upon
by the clannish mountaineers as a possible enemy. The
whispered terrors of the "feud belt" could not deter
him. So rare were priests in North Carolina in those days
that they sometimes had difficulty in identifying them
selves. The Rev. Lawrence P. O'Connell, of the Bishop's
little fold of three clerics, one of whom sometimes accom
panied him, was traveling alone near Asheville, when,
worn out by a long journey, he arrived at the house of
a Catholic family and presented himself. The woman
of the house had been imposed upon by a pretended
clergyman some time before and instantly indicated her
suspicions to Father O'Connell. He showed her his
missal, breviary and vestments, which he carried in a
valise, but still she was unconvinced. In despair the
tired priest gave up the attempt and turned heart-sick
from the door. Seeking spiritual comfort, he sat down
beside a fence and began saying his beads. The woman

96 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
opened the door, saw him at his devotions and was con
vinced at last.
"Now," she said, "I know you are a holy man of God.
I can be deceived by other things, but not those beads."
She welcomed warmly to her home the stranger whom
she had so lately rejected with scorn.
In making a visit to an outlying community with the
third of his priests, the Rev. H. P. Northrop,9 the man
whose guest the Bishop was to be drove up in a carriage
sitting bolt upright as if by a great effort and gripping
the reins tightly. When he drew nearer, it became
apparent that he was intoxicated and was trying to dis
charge his function without betraying himself. The
Bishop reprimanded him severely, saying that it was the
first time in many years when a Bishop had visited the
locality and that it was due to the circumstances that
the host should conduct himself properly.
"Your Grace," was the ardent reply, "I felt so over
joyed because a Bishop was coming that I just could
not help getting drunk!"
Making the best of circumstances, the Bishop and
Father Northrop entered the carriage and each took a
position on one side of their host, holding him erect by
their combined efforts while he drove them to their desti
nation. Bishop Gibbons began his first tour of the vicariate
on November 10, a little more than a week after he had
been installed by Archbishop Spalding. Entries in the
journal which he began to keep when he was made a
Bishop record his experiences at the outset of that trip.
'Afterward Bishop of Charleston, S. C.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 97
They reveal the painstaking attention to details which
he did not consider it unworthy to practice in his work,
and which often in the course of his life gave him a
marked advantage in comparison with men who were
less thorough. The extent of his success in breaking
down barriers between Catholics and Protestants is indi
cated in a number of the entries. Some of them are : 10
"10. Father Gross and myself visited Fayetteville,
according to previous engagement. The church lot in
Fayetteville is 300 x 100. The church is a frame build
ing, 40 x 60, with a well-sounding organ, and galleries
running all around the church. It has also a tower roof.'
The building is sadly in need of repairs. I ordered a
shingle roof to be put on at once, at a cost of $155. The
outside requires painting; the shutters, etc., should be
repaired without much delay. Adjoining the church is
a neat little pastoral residence, with three rooms and a
kitchen on the premises. This is the oldest church in
the State, or, at least, is on the site of the oldest, which
was built in 1825 — afterward burned. The present
church, St. Patrick's, was built about 1835 by Rev. Dr.
McGinnis, and has been successively in charge of Fathers
Whelan, Murphy, McGowan, Ryan, Dunne and Quigley.
Bishop England is said to have visited the place for the
first time in 1821.
"11, 12. I preached on Wednesday and Thursday
nights. The first night the church was comfortably filled.
On the second night, available space in the pews, aisles
and galleries was crowded. Some 500 were present, in
cluding a Presbyterian and a Methodist minister. The
entire Catholic population of Fayetteville and immediate
vicinity amounts to about 50. The sheriff of the county,
The extracts from Gibbons' journal given in this work are literal
transcriptions, except that the abbreviations which he sometimes used are
spelled out for the sake of clearness to the reader.

98 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Freedman's Bureau agent, officer commanding U. S.
troops and clerk of the court are numbered among the
Catholics. They gave me an invitation to be their guest
at the hotel, which I thought it better to decline.
"13. I returned to Wilmington, Father Gross hav
ing advanced as far as Egypt u to visit a few Catholics.
He will visit Fayetteville the third Sunday of every
month. "19. Arrived at Goldsboro, 81 miles from Wilming
ton. The population numbers about 3,500 souls, of
whom thirty are Catholics. I preached in the town hall
in the evening. Father Northrop, who met me here and
accompanies me on my visitation, is staying with me at
Mr. Robinson's.
"20. I confirmed eight persons, all the children of
Mr. Robinson. Steps will soon be taken for the erection
of a Catholic church in the town. I appointed three
Catholics — Mr. Robinson, Mr. Wood, deputy sheriff, and
Mr. Duffy — to secure a lot and raise funds for the erec
tion of the church. The Protestants are said to be kindly
disposed and willing to contribute to the good work.
Father Northrop baptized a colored girl, previously in
structed. "Arrived at Newbern, about 60 miles from Golds
boro. The church is in excellent order, having been
recently painted, sanctuary and aisle carpeted, etc.
Bishop England visited this city in 1821, '23, 24. Steps
were taken as early as 1824 to erect a church, in which
year a lot was secured. The church, however, was not
commenced till 1839. In 1841 it was completed. In
consequence of the death of Bishop England, which oc
curred in 1842, the church was not dedicated till 1844)
when that ceremony was performed by Bishop Reynolds.
The Church of St. Paul was successively under the pas
toral charge of Rev. Messrs. Barry (afterward Bishop
UA town in Chatham County.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 99
of Savannah), Byrne (subsequently Bishop of Little
Rock), Baker, Whelan, Fielding (who, I am informed,
has apostatized and now resides in Columbia, S. C),
Gillick, Ferrall, Murphy, Doyle, Mulloney, Ed. Quigley,
Coffey, Coghlan and Thos. Quigley. Father Northrop
is now in charge. The Catholic population numbers at
present about no souls, which shows a gratifying in
crease, resulting chiefly from conversions, as the aggre
gate population of the city is almost stationary. The
congregation are devoted to their young and zealous pas
tor. St. Paul's is 52 x 36.
"22nd. On Sunday morning at 7.30 I gave confirma
tion to twelve persons, six of whom are converts. At
High Mass I preached to a large congregation, the great
majority of whom are Protestants. On Sunday night I
preached another sermon, but a fire, which suddenly broke
out in a neighbouring frame building, alarmed the audi
ence, which hastily fled from the church."
Leaving Newbern, the Bishop stopped at Swift Creek,
where he confirmed Mr. and Mrs. Nelson in a garret,
"the only unoccupied place at our disposal." At the
town of Washington, he "found the door of our good
host, Dr. Gallagher, barred and the whole family absent
at a wedding." On the 26th, he "said Mass in Dr.
Gallagher's house in the presence of nine persons, who
comprised the entire Catholic population" of the town.
Among the worshipers was "an old lady who had heard
Mass before but once in eight years." The Bishop was
informed that "the Episcopal minister had announced
from his pulpit on Sunday that I would preach to-night,
but I am compelled to leave in order to meet the boat
in time to reach Plymouth."
He jotted down in his journal the following accounts

100 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of his visit to the last named town and his subsequent
movements :
"Nov. 27. Last evening we reached Plymouth, a dis
tance of 35 miles from Washington. We were hospitably
entertained by Capt. McNamara, who had preserved
the church at Newbern from destruction. . . . This
morning I said mass at Capt. McNamara's. After
breakfast Father Northrop and I drove out about five
miles in the country to Mr. Isaac Swift's house, where I
baptized and confirmed that gentleman. He was once a
rich planter. He is now his own wood-cutter. I started
to pursue the journey twelve miles further for the pur
pose of visiting a Catholic family, but the vehicle broke
down and we were obliged to return. . . . We reached
Edenton tonight by steamer across the Sound, 20 miles
from Plymouth.
"30. ... At night preached to a large congregation,
chiefly of Protestants. St. Ann's Church is an imposing
brick building, the finest Catholic Church in the state,
about 35 x 58. . . . The Catholics of Edenton and vicin
ity number 18, about half of whom are converts. They
are anxious to have a priest residing among them, who
would make Edenton his centre and attend from it the
neighbouring missions. They expressed a willingness to
give him a competent salary. I hope that Providence will
soon enable me to gratify their wishes. Meantime, I
promised to ask Father O'Keefe to send them, if possible,
a priest once a month.
"Dec. 2. . . . Reached Littleton about 12 M. Found
in the woods a family of Catholics named Divine, con
sisting of both parents and ten children, two of whom are
married in the neighborhood. The father had not seen
a Bishop before for 36 years. His wife is a North Caro
linian and a convert. This man's vigilance and the
religious education of his children are truly edifying.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 101
The same evening we went six miles further to visit two
Catholic families named Madden. Whole distance
travelled today, 66 miles.
"7. Arrived in Tarboro, about 50 miles from Hali
fax. ... I preached in the courthouse in the morning
and evening on Sunday to a large audience. The most
intelligent citizens of the town were present, including
three judges, one of whom is a former United States
senator. "8. Reached Wilson, about 41 miles from Tarboro.
... I preached tonight in the courthouse to a respect
able congregation. A movement is also being made here
for the erection of a church. Many Protestants have
promised to subscribe.
"11. Arrived this evening at Raleigh. Wm. Grimes,
Esq., was awaiting our arrival at the depot and drove us
to his splendid dwelling.
"14. Saturday I preached in the morning and again
in the evening to an overflowing congregation. The
members of the legislature, now in session, attended in
large numbers.
"16. Preached again in Raleigh tonight and prom
ised to send books to the Attorney General, who desires
to learn more of the Church, with the view of becoming
a Catholic. "17. Arrived in Wilmington tonight after an
absence of four weeks. The following is a brief summary
of our travel and its results : Number of miles travelled
by rail, stage and steamboat, 925 ; number of towns and
stations visited, 16; number of Catholics in various
places, 400; converts confirmed, 16; total number, 64;
converts baptized, 10; total number, 16."
While in Raleigh the Bishop wrote to Archbishop
Spalding reporting upon his labors of the first six weeks
in his new field. This was the letter:

102 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Raleigh, N. C,
"December 15, 1868.
"Most Rev. Dear Archbishop :
"After a long and arduous campaign of four weeks
and before returning to Wilmington, I thought a few
lines would be interesting to you, giving you an account
of our present status and future prospects.
"You will rejoice to hear that I have been received
everywhere, both by Protestants and Catholics, with
cordial welcome. Providence seems to have favored us
specially by placing in each town some chosen spirits
who take care of Father Northrop and myself, and who
take an active interest in the welfare of the Church.
"In four or five places the people are clamoring for
churches, the public generally, irrespective of religion,
expressing a willingness to contribute. Some, it is true,
are influenced in this respect by the selfish motive of in
viting immigrants, others by a spirit of inquiry, Ameri
can fair play, and by an entire estrangement from the
sects which surround them. The Catholics, of course,
have a higher motive.
"The people seem very desirous of hearing a Catholic
priest or Bishop. Wherever I have preached, whether
in churches or courthouses, there were always, without
exception, crowded houses and the greatest attention was
manifested. I hope curiosity was not the only motive.
Even intelligent people are strangely ignorant of our
faith. One gentleman gave me a very curious definition
of the word 'Catholic,' but he was modest enough to
ask for information.
"I have spent four weeks in travelling through Father
Northrop's mission and am not done yet. Our life is
extremely varied. Sometimes we have to share the same
room and the same bed, to see the daylight through many
a crevice and to live on corn bread. But more frequently
we enjoy all the luxuries of the season. I shall not soon

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 103
forget the kind hospitality of Judge Manly, of Newbern,
of Col. Moore, of Edenton, and of numerous others on
the route. The universal Irish race is, of course, every
where represented and they are always defenders of the
faith. . . .
"Here in Raleigh we have received every mark of
respect. The proprietor of the hotel — a Protestant —
had rooms prepared for us, but they were not needed.
Wm. Grimes, Esq., was waiting for us at the depot in
his carriage. He drove us to his magnificent dwelling
in the suburbs. Mrs. Grimes is a Catholic and I am
happy to say that he is not far from the Kingdom of
God. . . .
"Yesterday I preached twice in the Catholic Church
to crowded houses. The legislature, now in session,
turned out en masse. . . .
"Yours in Christ,
"James Gibbons."
The need of money to carry on the work was pressing
and help from the Propaganda was welcome. On De
cember 18 the Bishop made this entry in his journal:
"During my visitation in the early part of this month,
I received a draft for 1600 francs from the Congregation
for the Propagation of the Faith, with a statement that
8000 francs have been allowed me for 1868, the balance
payable at some future time."
There were many indications of the post-bellum pov
erty of the people, as will be seen in some of the follow
ing entries :
"Dec. 23. Wrote to Rock Hill Academy, Md., ask
ing the Brother Director to admit a son of Dr.  to
that institution, payment to be made next year on condi
tion that the crops will be successful.

104 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Jan. 24 [1869]. The regulations to be observed
during Lent, which I issued today, are the same as those
of Baltimore, except that milk is allowed in this vicariate,
owing to the scarcity of tea and coffee in certain sections
of the State.
"Feb. 22. In reply to a circular from Bishop Moore,
recommending a general subscription in behalf of the
American College (at Rome), I submitted to his Lord
ship the impoverished condition of the State and the
smallness of the Catholic population, expressing my re
gret at not being able to contribute to the fund."
The entries continue:
"June 2. Visited Lillington, New Hanover County
and preached at night in the Masonic Hall.
"July 11. Today I installed Rev. J. V. McNamara,
pastor of St. John's Church, Raleigh, at High Mass, in
the presence of a very large and respectable congregation.
. . . The governor, chief justice, several of the associate
judges, and many other prominent citizens were present.
"Aug. 1. This morning (Sunday) Father O'Connell
and I, accompanied by a large number of people, went to
Concord by special train, where I dedicated the new
church under the invocation of St. James the Apostle.
The Catholic population connected with Concord num
bers about sixty souls, all converts, with one exception.
"3. Last night I preached in the town hall (at
Salisbury) and at the end spoke to the audience on the
importance of having a Catholic Church in their midst.
. . . Yesterday morning I said Mass in Miss Fisher's
house in the presence of the Catholics of the town and
confirmed six adults, of whom one is a convert.
"5. Reached Morgantown, about 80 miles from Salis
bury. We could discover in this town only three Catho
lics. One of these, Mr. McGraw, has ten children, all

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 105
Protestants, a sad instance of the result of mixed mar
riages. . . .
"6. By private conveyance we arrived this evening
at Moore's, McDowell County. We travelled over a
beautiful mountain country. The scenery about Moore's
is sublime and the climate invigorating.
"8. Yesterday we arrived at Mr. Malone's, near
Old Fort, fifteen miles from Moore's. I preached in
the evening in the rear of Mr. Malone's house in the
presence of a considerable number of persons. . . . Yes
terday morning we observed the total eclipse of the sun
from the Blue Ridge.
"12. We arrived in Asheville on the evening of the
9th after travelling on horseback 24 miles. ... I have
authorized Rev. Jeremiah O'Connell to appeal at once
to the citizens of Asheville for subscriptions and to com
mence the erection of a brick church.
"15. Preached this evening in the Courthouse of
Asheville." The next day the Bishop returned to Wilmington, hav
ing completed his second episcopal tour in the State, in
the course of which he had travelled 985 miles and con
firmed 106 persons.
In his trip to Salisbury mentioned in his journal the
Bishop was the guest of the family of Miss Fisher, who
had visited him in Baltimore to receive instruction in
the faith. Of that occasion she wrote:
"Among the memories of the time, the most vivid is
of his first visit to Salisbury, one of the oldest colonial
towns in the state, yet which contained hardly more than
a dozen Catholics. There was no (Catholic) church in
the place — churches were few and far between in North
Carolina in those days — and like many priests who

106 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
came, the Bishop said Mass in the drawing room of the
private house in which he was entertained and there ad
ministered the Sacrament of Confirmation to men and
women, grown to maturity, who had never before seen
a Bishop of their Church. How clearly memory recalls
him on this visit and others which followed — the slender
form, the pale, ascetic face, the manner full of kindness
and the unfailing suavity!"
Prolonged exposure in a furious storm on one of his
trips came near costing the precious life of the young
Vicar Apostolic. This expedition was to Newton Grove,
nearly one hundred miles from Wilmington, in a region
of almost primeval wildness, where the most remarkable
of all the missions which he was instrumental in develop
ing in North Carolina sprang up. His own account of
the origin of this mission and of his hazardous journey
was: "While I was absent in Europe at the Vatican Coun
cil, in 1870, a letter came through the post addressed
'To any Catholic Priest of Wilmington, N. C Father
Gross received the letter, which was one of inquiry about
the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and from Dr. J. C.
Monk. A correspondence was opened between us after
my return from Rome. I recommended certain Catholic
books. Dr. Monk procured these, and, having more,
fully instructed himself and his family in the faith, he
and his household were all received into the Church. He
came to Wilmington to make a profession of faith. I
baptized the family and learned, with the deepest inter
est, of the circumstances that had led to his conversion
and of his hopes in regard to the community in which he
had lived all his life as a prominent physician.
"This was a remarkable conversion. The finger of God

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 107
was here. Nor was the conversion to be barren of results.
Dr. Monk returned home, after receiving my promise of
a visit to his family. In due time Father Gross visited
Newton Grove, and to a great throng in the open air
preached on the true faith. From that time an earnest
inquiry into the tenets of the Catholic Church sprang
up among the people.
"Dr. Monk was a providential man for the diffusion
of the faith. He was highly respected, and as a physician
had access to every family in all that region. His zeal
to enlighten the people was surpassed only by his solid
piety and good example. Possessed of means, he liber
ally aided in every way the spread of the faith.
"A few months later I redeemed my promise of a visit
to Newton Grove. The trip came near imperiling my
life. I remember it was the month of March. The day
of my departure opened with difficulties. The railway
train left very early in the morning. Rising at 4 o'clock,
I found the weather cold and rainy. The carriage failing
to call for me, I was compelled, with the help of a boy,
to carry my large, heavy valise, packed with mission ar
ticles, the distance of a mile to the depot. As I traveled
northward, the rain became a furious storm of sleet and
snow. Reaching the station, I found the brother of Dr.
Monk, who had come to meet me, on horseback, with ax
in hand, to cut our way through the forests. The sleet
and snow had covered the country and bound to earth, in
many places across our course, the pine saplings that
grew in dense bodies up to the margin of the road. A
neighbor was with him to take me in his buggy.
'We started. It was a journey to be remembered — a
trip of twenty-one miles in the teeth of wind, rain, sleet
and snow. After a short exposure, I was all but frozen
by the violence of the storm and the intense cold. We
had ridden a number of miles, when, to my delight, my
friend drew rein at his own house. I entered the hos-

108 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pitable door, and the change was most grateful — from
cold and misery to warmth and comfort.
"In a few moments the housewife had brought in a hot
bath for my frozen feet, and the husband a supplement
in the way of a hot drink. The generous hospitality re
stored, in a very short time, my almost perished frame.
They were both strangers, but the closest friends could
not have treated me more kindly. I remained for dinner,
and, as the weather had become clear, we proceeded on
our journey.
"The next morning being Sunday, I celebrated Mass
in Dr. Monk's house, and preached there later in the
day to an earnest audience. The religious interest was
profound. It promised to become, as it truly did, a move
ment of the whole district toward the Catholic Church.
"Regular appointments were made for a visit by a
priest, and in a short time the brother of Dr. Monk, with
his family, embraced the Catholic faith. The congrega
tions that met on the occasions of the priest's visits to
Newton Grove were so large that it became necessary to
erect a temporary structure of rough boards for their
accommodation. This tabernacle answered admirably
for the services, which were arranged to suit the primitive
state of affairs in that section. The priest appeared on
the rostrum in his secular dress, and, after prayer and
reading of the Scriptures, delivered a long instruction on
the Catholic Church or some one of its doctrines. The
preaching, directed at the conversion of the people, was
necessarily simple in its character, historical and didac
tic. Catechisms and books of instruction were freely dis
tributed after the sermons. An attractive feature of these
services was the singing, by select voices, of beautiful
hymns. "The Catholic movement daily gathered strength by
the accession of many of the most respectable families in
the vicinity. Within a short time the number of con-

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 109
versions 12 warranted the erection of a church and school-
house. On their completion, this apostolic mission be
came firmly established and continues to prosper." 13
Another church sprang up from a visit by a priest to
three Irish brothers, peddlers, who had settled eighty
miles from a church. Their families were baptized, and
conversions among the country folk multiplied. In a
short time a flourishing parish was established.
A missionary found at Chinquepin, a village far in the
recesses of the North Carolina pines, an old Irish woman
who had not seen a priest in forty-five years. She said
that her faith was still as fresh as her native sod, and
that she had never omitted her prayers. A congregation
of converts was founded, for whom a chapel and a school
were subsequently erected.
Among the congregation at Newbern, of which Father
Northrop was in charge, was Judge Mathias Manly, son-
in-law of Judge Gaston, the most conspicuous Catholic
whom North Carolina had produced. Judge Gaston had
been a leader of the Constitutional Convention of 1865,
which, chiefly in response to his eloquent pleas, abolished
the restrictions that had prevented Catholics from hold
ing certain important offices of trust and established full
religious liberty in that State.
Father O'Connell's church was in the flourishing city
of Charlotte. That priest, whom the Bishop appointed
as his Vicar General, had served as a Confederate chap
lain and after the war had taken up missionary work in
Charlotte and the district roundabout.
"The number of conversions was 300.
" Reminiscences of Cardinal Gibbons read before the United States
Catholic Historical Society in New York.

110 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Bishop's journal contains no entry from Septem
ber 20, 1869, to October 4, 1870, owing to his attendance
at the Ecumenical Council in Rome. In his absence im
provements to St. Thomas' Church, in Wilmington, were
completed. He thus described them on his return:
"The Church has been enlarged and much improved.
The enlargement of the building has been 24 x 40 feet,
the principal part of which forms my present commodi
ous dwelling. Total cost, including Russell's lot, en
largement and improvement of church, marble altar and
paintings — $7000."
The Bishop set out in November, 1870, for a second
trip over the eastern part of the State, visiting many
towns. Conversions were still numerous. In his
journal, under date of November 30, he wrote:
"A certain Irish Catholic in Plymouth was induced to
join the Baptists. Immersed, he was invited to say
prayer. He gave out, 'Hail, Holy Queen !' The aston
ishment of the audience was immense. He has since
returned to the Church."
Further contributions from the Propaganda were
noted. The Bishop wrote July 13, 1871, that he had
returned from the diocese of Albany, where he went to
collect funds.
In August, 1871, he started on a visitation to the
western part of the State. From the town of Company
Shops to Greensboro he was "conveyed on a freight en
gine." At Gaston he found a congregation of 80, where
there had been but 36 on his first visit, two years before.
At Lincolnton he "preached to a large audience in the
courthouse, the people being, no doubt, moved by some

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 111
curiosity to see the first Bishop who was ever present in
that town." He found that a handsome church had been
erected by this time at Asheville, which he dedicated
September 24, preaching on "Charity."
Entries of this kind multiply in the journal, which
forms a concise record of apostolic activity that must
have taxed the Bishop's energies to the utmost.
Bishop Gibbons recognized that schools were one of
the greatest necessities of the stricken South and a potent
means of propagating religion. Of his persistent efforts
to cooperate in the educational development of North
Carolina, Father Gross wrote:
"We can testify to his self-sacrificing zeal for the
establishment of Catholic schools throughout the vicari
ate under stress of direst poverty and in most adverse
surroundings. To this end he not only sacrificed money
and time and labor in begging money but descended to
teach himself daily a class in the parochial school to help
and encourage the priests whose services for the want of
lay teachers had to be gratuitously engaged." 14
With poverty on every hand and the long train of ills
that come with it, Bishop Gibbons had realized before
he left Baltimore that the work of the Sisters of Mercy
was greatly needed in his vicariate. Less than a week
after he had been installed he made this entry in his
journal :
"Wrote to Rev. Francis MacCormack15 at Westport
in reference to the Sisters of Mercy, whom I desire to see
established in Wilmington at an early day."
,jThe Rev. Mark S. Gross in the Carmelite Review, May, 1895.
This was his former schoolmate in Ireland, afterwards Bishop of
Galway.

112 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Within a year the indefatigable Bishop had raised the
money with which to buy ample quarters in Wilmington
for the Sisters of Mercy, a group of whom he brought
from the mother house in Charleston. He installed them
in the Peyton mansion, an old-fashioned Southern home
which he had purchased for $16,000 — a fortune in Caro
lina in those days. The people wondered whence the
money had come. Only a small part of it had been
raised in the vicariate, the Bishop having obtained most
of the sum in the course of several visits to the Northern
States. He raised more than $5,000 in Albany alone.
The Sisters founded schools at Charlotte and Hickory as
well as at Wilmington.
One of the most important steps that marked the
Bishop's administration was the establishment of Mary
Help Abbey by the Benedictine order at Belmont, near
Charlotte. The Rev. J. J. O'Connell gave for this pur
pose his estate of 500 acres. Although the field seemed
far from favorable, application was made to Arch Abbot
Wimmer, of St. Vincent's Abbey, Pennsylvania, to sup
ply a colony for the vicariate. A similar petition from a
far more promising quarter was presented to the Abbot
at the same time but he chose North Carolina and the
Rev. Herman Wolf, who had been a Lutheran minister,
was sent to Belmont as prior.
For a time it seemed that Arch Abbot Wimmer's apos
tolic zeal had outweighed his judgment. Temporary
shelter for the fathers was obtained in a frame tavern, a
hundred years old, of revolutionary celebrity, and they
began their work with their customary thoroughness, but

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 113
the outlook continued to be so discouraging that the
abandonment of the priory was debated in the chapter
of the Abbey in Pennsylvania. While the decision on
this point wavered a number of young Benedictines vol
unteered to go to Belmont if allowed to take with them
an Abbot of their own selection. Their offer was accepted
and they chose the Rev. Leo Haid as their leader in the
undertaking.16 With his administration marked prog
ress began. A group of handsome and ample buildings
was erected and St. Mary's College was launched as one
of the successful educational institutions of the South, a
training school for native Southern clergy so much
needed in the work of the Church.
Indeed, one of Bishop Gibbons' chief obstacles had
been to obtain the services of a sufficient number of
priests to keep pace with the congregations and institu
tions which he founded. Before he left Baltimore he
had realized his possible difficulties in this respect, as
the following entries in his journal for 1868 show:
"Sep. 25. Daniel Driscoll, of Taunton, Mass.,
18 years old; Patrick Moore, of Connecticut, 20 years
old and John P. Doyle, of Kentucky, 17 years old, have
promised in the presence of their confessor to devote
themselves to my diocese. They are now studying at
St. Charles College. I have promised to raise the money
necessary for their education and support, if other means
fail. "Oct. 10. Mr. Hands, heretofore of the diocese of
Hartford, has attached himself to the vicariate apostolic
Abbott Haid afterwards became Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina
and titular Bishop of Messene. being consecrated by Cardinal Gibbons,
July 1, 1888.

114 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of North Carolina. He commenced theology this
year." 1T
The spiritual rewards which these young soldiers of
the Cross might obtain were the only incentives to their
zeal. Not only was the work to which they devoted
themselves full of obstacles, but they were altogether un
salaried. As the field was developed and the success of
Bishop Gibbons became known in other dioceses, it be
came less difficult to obtain outside help.
The impressions which Bishop Gibbons received in
North Carolina were among the most profound and de
cisive of his life. Young, ardent and intensely alert to
conditions which surrounded him, he formed there defi
nite views and aims from which he never departed. Be
fore he had been sent out as Vicar Apostolic his thoughts
had followed, in the main, the normal channels of those
of a young priest schooled in the repressive discipline of
the seminary and thrust into the active labors of a parish,
where he saw few persons not of his own faith. In the
vicariate, overwhelmingly Protestant in population, he
was confronted with obstacles which brought out all his
resourcefulness, forcing him to choose between timidity
and daring. To have subsided into a routine of minis
tering faithfully to the handful of Catholics in the State
and such others as might fall to his spiritual care by the
ordinary processes of accretion was an attitude of mind
of which he was incapable. He could never accept even
partial defeat in a cause that enlisted his sympathies to
the full. If the Church in North Carolina were to grow
"These two early entries in the Bishop's journal were made in Latin,
which he abandoned as being too cumbersome, and nearly all the others
are in English.

NORTH CAROLINA MISSION LABORS 115
with strong vitality, the growth must be among non-
Catholics, even for the most part among people in com
munities where the Catholic Church was distrusted and
shunned with the force of misunderstandings that were
generations old. His problem was to overcome a mass
prejudice or allow it to nullify his best efforts. Only
by conquering it could he lay a foundation for the rapid
spread of his own faith.
Thus by simple force of circumstances he came to study
the non-Catholic viewpoint in order that he might make
his appeal with hopefulness. He conceded to well-dis
posed persons not of his faith a desire equal to his own
for the truths of Christianity. In all works inspired by.
the brotherhood of man, he maintained cordial contact
and cooperation with them. He was not less a Catholic
when he left North Carolina than when he went there.
In fact, it seems that the foundations of his belief had
been strengthened by opposition; but he had acquired a
broad charity, a wide horizon of view, from which he
never separated himself in later life and which stamped
him preeminently as a friend of men of other creeds.
Impressions gained in country towns and secluded rural
homes were felt later in the Vatican itself.

CHAPTER VI
YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCII
The call of the Church went out to Bishop Gibbons
summoning him to Rome from his mission field among
the primitive solitudes of the mountains and the peace of
the sparsely populated valleys of North Carolina. It
went out equally to the Bishops on the further waters of
the Yangtse Kiang, in the morasses of Central Africa
and wherever throughout the world the Hierarchy had
spread from the seat of Peter. For the first time since the
Council of Trent, 300 years before, there was to be an
ecumenical assembly of the Church, and all the Bishops
were convoked to deliberate in the providence of God
upon the welfare of the souls of men.
Gibbons had served his vicariate scarcely a year when
the convening of the Vatican Council wrought this trans
formation in the background of his life and labor, one of
the most striking that could come to any man. The lone
missionary traveler of the hills was now to sit in the most
august assemblage which the world sees, with an equal
voice in its decisions that would carry the full weight of
spiritual authority over 250,000,000 Catholics. From
an atmosphere of deep-seated mistrust of Catholic doc
trine, he was shifted into the most exalted tribunal for
the expression of that doctrine. Both experiences sank
116

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 117
deep into his receptive mind and both served to
strengthen his preparation for the leadership which lay
almost at his feet.
For American Catholics the Council of the Vatican had
a meaning which they had not known. When the Bish
ops sat at Trent, America had been discovered only a
short time and not all of them were sure that it was not a
part of the mysterious Indies. So secure was the Papacy
in its political power that Alexander VI had but recently
issued his Bull of Demarcation giving to Portugal all of
the newly discovered lands east of a line 100 leagues
west of the Azores and to Spain all to the westward.
America had no episcopate and only a few adventurous
priests had gone forth as messengers of the faith to the
unknown peoples scattered over its vast area. Now it
was the home of many millions of Catholics, and the
Pontiffs were beginning to see in its future the Church's
brightest hope for the expansion of her spiritual influ
ence. Of the 737 members who sat in the Vatican Coun
cil 113 were from North and South America.
There had been, too, an immense development of the
Catholic faith among the English-speaking peoples. In
the Council of Trent England was represented by one
prelate and Ireland by three; there was no Bishop from
Scotland. The English-speaking episcopate at the Vat
ican Council marshaled a strength of more than 120
members, assembled from the United States and Canada,
England, Ireland and Scotland, Oceania, the Indies and
Africa. Bishop Gibbons later hazarded the prediction
that "at the next Ecumenical Council, if held within a
hundred years, the representatives of the English Ian-

118 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
guage will equal, if they do not surpass, in number those
of any other tongue." *
In the overshadowing issue of the Vatican Council the
English-speaking Bishops had an especial concern, be
cause their work was among predominantly Protestant
populations. That issue was the declaration of the doc
trine of the infallible teaching office of the Roman Pon
tiffs. The American Bishops did not question the truth
of the doctrine; they unalterably adhered to it in both
belief and practise. Some of them could not see, how
ever, any use in defining it at that time and were strongly
of the opinion that it would raise another barrier between
them and the Protestants when their Church was at last
piercing the clouds of misrepresentation which had dark
ened her pathway so long.
True, the doctrine sought to be defined was very dif
ferent from a declaration of personal infallibility on any
or all subjects, but the American Bishops regarded with
misgivings the prospect that non-Catholics would under- ,
stand it in that light. In outline it was that the Pontiff,
when speaking in the exercise of his office as the shepherd
of all Christians, and declaring a doctrine of faith and
morals to be held by the Universal Church, was infallible.
The chief obstacle to the spread of the Catholic
Church in the United States had been the impression that
she was subject to foreign control. Enlightened Ameri
cans of Protestant ancestry could not wholly reconcile
themselves to Papal supremacy of a universal Church. It
did not convince them to be informed that the definition
1 "Personal Reminiscences of the Vatican Council," Cardinal Gibbons
in the North American Review for April, 1894.

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 119
of the dogma was merely an expression of a belief and
tradition long held and that it was without bearing upon
civil government.
From the time of Henry VIII this had been a sub
ject which had aroused English Protestants to defiant
denial. Sovereigns in their coronation oaths at West
minster had abjured it as a heresy. In continental
Europe, whence came the chief support of the movement
to declare the doctrine, it had been accepted so long in
its true meaning that the question appeared there in a
different light from that in which it presented itself to
English-speaking churchmen.
Only two of the Cardinals whom Pius IX consulted
in December, 1864, when he first announced that he had
been deliberating regarding an Ecumenical Council, spoke
of Papal infallibility. A few alluded to the preservation
of the Papacy as a temporal power, then supported by
troops of Napoleon III in the midst of Italian hostility.
Nearly all of the Cardinals, however, strongly advised
that a Council be convoked. They declared it to be their
opinion that the especial characteristic of the time was
a tendency to overthrow the ancient Christian institutions
founded upon a supernatural principle and to erect a new
order, based upon natural reason alone. The Cardinals
dwelt upon the need of amending the discipline of the
Church, untouched for three hundred years ; of better pro
vision for the education of the clergy and the government
of monastic orders, and for bringing the laity to a more
general obedience to ecclesiastical laws.
Pius deliberated long before finally deciding to con
voke the Council. The bull of indiction was dated June

120 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
29, 1868, and the tremendous work of preparing in detail
for the labors of the gathering began. It was to be an
"extraordinary remedy for the extraordinary evils of the
Christian world." 2
Bishop Gibbons sailed from Baltimore in the company
of Archbishop Spalding and other American prelates in
October, 1869.3 He said of his association with his
friend and patron in the course of that journey:
"I was his inseparable companion in our voyage across
the Atlantic, during our sojourn in England, in France,
in Italy and in Rome. For ten months we sat at the same
table and slept under the same roof."
What emotions swept the imagination of the young
Bishop as he beheld for the first time the Eternal City,
the chosen seat of the successors of Peter ! Ardor tinged
his view as he gazed upon the storied Vatican, in whose
basilica he was to sit with the fathers of the Church from
every quarter of the globe. The experiences which befell
him in the crowds that flocked to Rome during the ses
sions of the Council fascinated and stimulated him. He
wrote :
"At the close of the first solemn session the prelates
passed out from the Council chamber into St. Peter's
Church, and mingled with the crowd of some 50,000 spec
tators. In advancing toward the front door of St.
Peter's, I became separated from Archbishop Spalding,
who always favored me with a seat in his carriage. I
was as much bewildered as a stranger would be in a Lon
don fog, and as I was utterly unacquainted with the sur
roundings, I did not attempt to find my way to the car-
' Cardinal Manning, True Story of the Vatican Council.
Catholic Mirror, October 23, 1869.

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 121
riage which was awaiting us in one of the many courts
of the Vatican. The rain was pouring in torrents, a car
riage could not be secured at any price, and, encumbered
as I was with the impedimenta of cope and mitre, a jour
ney on foot to the American College, a mile or more away,
was out of the question.
"I applied in vain to the occupants of several car
riages, but all the seats were engaged. At last, when it
was growing dark, a solitary carriage remained on the
piazza, occupied by a Bishop. It was my last chance. I
requested him to give me a seat, and explained my help
less condition, speaking to him in French, as that was
the most popular language among the prelates.
"The Bishop looked at me with a good-humored smile,
which seemed to say: T think you understand English
quite as well as French.' And then he replied to me in
English: 'The carriage, my lord, is engaged for five of
us, but we cannot leave you stranded. We must make
room for you.' Rarely did our English tongue sound so
sweet in my ears, and seldom was an act of kindness
more gratefully accepted. My good Samaritan proved to
be a Bishop from the wilds of Australia." 4
The oldest Bishop who sat in the Council was in his
eighty-fifth year, while the age of Gibbons, the youngest,
was just half a century less. He became the last sur
vivor of that memorable gathering. "My youth and in
experience," he wrote, "imposed upon me a discreet
silence among my elders. I do not remember to have
missed a single session and was an attentive listener at
all the debates."
When he arrived in Rome it appeared that the ques
tion of Papal infallibility was not likely to come before
, '"Personal Reminiscences of the Vatican Council," Cardinal Gibbons
ffl the North American Review, April, 1894.

122 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Council. The commission which had framed the
schemata, or list of topics to be considered, had agreed
with but one dissenting voice that the subject ought not
to be proposed for decision unless there was a demand
from the Bishops for action on it. Nevertheless, a ma
jority of the American prelates saw with dismay a rapidly
growing sentiment in favor of bringing up the question;
and at length 450 of the Council's members, a consider
able majority, signed a petition for its consideration ad
dressed to the Commission on Postulates or Propositions,
which could introduce new subjects into the schemata.
About 100, including many of the Americans, signed
a counter-petition, but it became clearly evident that it
was more difficult to marshal influence on that side of
the question. The Americans had a consultation at their
college in Rome and a large majority of them declared
that it would be inexpedient to propose the definition of
the doctrine. Bishop Gibbons, on account of his youth,
did not feel justified in expressing any opinion in the
formal discussions.
The view of the Americans was that as the whole
episcopate, the priesthood and the faithful with few ex
ceptions had received with veneration and docility the
doctrinal decisions of the Pontiffs, no necessity for such a
definition existed. A learned theologian who expressed
their opinion wrote:
"Let that suffice which has already been declared and
has been believed by all, that the Church, whether con
gregated in Council or dispersed throughout the world,
is always infallible, and the Supreme Pontiff, according
to the words of the Council of Florence, is the teacher of

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 123
the whole Church and of all Christians. But as to the
mysterious gift of infallibility which, by God, is be
stowed upon the episcopate united to the Pope, and at
the same time is bestowed in a special manner on the
Supreme Pontiff, it may be left as it is. The Church,
as all Catholics believe, whether in an Ecumenical Coun
cil or by the Pope alone without a Council, defines and
explains the truth of revelation. It is not expedient or
opportune to make further declarations unless a proved
necessity demands it, which necessity at present does not
appear to exist."
The American view could rest only on the question of
opportuneness, for one of the effective arguments used
by the advocates of the doctrine of infallibility was the
declaration on the subject by the Second Plenary Council
of Baltimore, of which Gibbons had been the assistant
chancellor. That declaration was cited early in the dis
cussions, being embraced in an appendix to the petition
of Bishops addressed to the commission on Postulates or
Propositions. It was :
"The living and infallible authority flourishes in that
Church alone which was built by Christ upon Peter, who
is the head, leader and pastor of the whole Church, whose
faith Christ promised should never fail ; which ever had
legitimate Pontiffs, dating their origin in unbroken line
from Peter himself, being seated in his chair and being
the inheritors and defenders of the like doctrine, dignity,
office and power. And because where Peter is, there also
is the Church, and because Peter speaks in the person
of the Roman Pontiff, ever lives in his successors, passes
judgment and makes known the truths of faith to those
who seek them, therefore are the Divine declarations to
be received in the manner in which they have been and

124 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
are held by this Roman See of Blessed Peter, that mother
and teacher of all churches, which has ever preserved
whole the teachings delivered by Christ, and which has
taught the faithful, showing to all men the paths of sal
vation and the doctrine of everlasting truth." 5
Bishop Gibbons, despite his own views on the ques
tion of opportuneness, was profoundly impressed, as he
wrote, by the "fearless and serene conduct of the great
majority, who, spurning a temporizing policy and the
dictates of human prudence, were deterred neither by
specious arguments nor imperial threats nor by the fear
of schism from promulgating what they conceived to be
a truth contained in the deposit of divine revelation."
Those who demanded the definition declared that
nothing which was true could be said to be inopportune.
Had not God revealed it? they asked, and could it be
permitted to think that what He had thought it oppor
tune to reveal it was not opportune to declare? In the
minds of objectors, "opportune" must refer to something
of a political or diplomatic character, some calculation of
expediency relating to peoples or governments. This
caution would be proper for legislative bodies or cabin
ets debating public questions of a secular nature ; but the
Church deals with the truths of revelation, and it is at
all times opportune for her to declare what God has
willed that man should know. It had been said that
many revealed truths were not defined. This was true
and would be a strong argument if the truth had never
been denied. The infallibility of the Roman Pontiff hav
ing been denied, its definition became necessary. Some
5 Acta et Decreta, Cone. Plen. II, Bakimore.

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 125
persons, in order to throw doubt upon the doctrine or to
prove it false, represented the denial of it to be ancient
and widespread. This increased the need of declaring
it by an authoritative decree. Protestants would say:
"If you are not doubtful, why do you hesitate to declare
it?" Antagonists hoped to find objection among Catho
lics in order to gain leverage for an opinion that the
Church was not really united and therefore not the au
thoritative custodian of the deposit of Divine truth.
All Catholics, it was set forth by the supporters of the
definition, believed that the Church, by the assistance of
the Holy Ghost, was infallible. If it were left open to
doubt whether the teaching of the head of the Church
were true, those who believed that he might err could
always contradict it. The Church during eighteen cen
turies had done many acts of supreme importance by its
head alone. Were these acts fallible or infallible? The
question had been formally raised and, for the sake of
Divine truth, it was contended, must be as formally
solved. Bishop Gibbons set down succinctly the alignments of
view on this subject in a diary of the Council which he
kept. He wrote :
"The difference of opinion that existed among the
Bishops on the subject of infallibility is known through
out the four quarters of the globe. What was the cause
of it? If anyone imagines that all who joined in oppos
ing a definition from the outset were actuated by the
same motives he would certainly be wide of the mark.
While the main point of the controversy was held by the
ultramontanes without exception and there was but the
one question as to the formula to be used, the opposition,

126 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
as they were generally called, taken altogether, had no
fixed principle of accord, save an agreement to disagree
with the defining of the doctrine as of faith. To analyze
the constituent parts of this body, we shall class them
according to ideas.
"The first class comprised those who, believing the
doctrine themselves, or at least favoring it speculatively,
did not think it capable of definition, not deeming the
tradition of the Church clear enough on this point.
"The second class, the most numerous, regarded the
definition as possible, but practically fraught with peril
to the Church, as impeding conversions, as exasperating
to governments. For the sake of peace and for the good
of souls, they would not see it proclaimed as of faith.
"All of these dissident prelates, we are bound to say,
acted with conscientious conviction of the justice of the
cause they defended. They were bound in conscience to
declare their opinions and to make them prevail by all
lawful influences." 6
The young American prelate was also greatly im
pressed by the freedom of discussion which prevailed and
which produced in his mind a deep realization of the
democracy of the Church. He wrote in his diary:
"If on one side or the other of this most important and
vital question anyone went beyond the limits of moder
ation or used means not dictated by prudence or charity,
it is nothing more than might have been expected in so
large a number of persons of such varied character and
education. Instead of being shocked at the little occur
rences of this nature, we should rather be struck with
admiration for the self-restraint and affability which
*Bishop Gibbons in conjunction with Bishop Lynch of Charleston,
S. C, prepared a series of articles based upon this diary which were
published in the Catholic World at the time of the Council's sessions and
republished in his Retrospect of Fifty Years.

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 127
were shown, despite the intensity of feeling and strength
of conviction. In a word, that the Council of the Vat
ican did not break up many months ago in disorder and
irreconcilable enmity 7 is because it was God's work and
not man's. It is because charity ruled in it in spite of
defects." Expressing nearly a quarter of a century later 8 his
views on the same aspect of the Council's work, Gibbons
wrote :
"The most ample liberty of discussion prevailed in the
Council. This freedom the Holy Father pledged at the
opening synod and the pledge was religiously kept. I can
safely say that neither in the British House of Commons
nor in the French Chambers nor in the German Reichstag
nor in the American Congress would wider liberty of
debate be tolerated than was granted in the Vatican
Council. "The presiding Cardinal exhibited a courtesy of man
ner and forbearance even in the heat of debate that were
worthy of all praise. I don't think that he called a
speaker to order more than a dozen times during the
eighty-nine sessions, and then only in deference to the
dissenting murmurs or demands of some Bishops. A
prelate representing the smallest diocese had the same
rights that were accorded to the highest dignitary in the
Chamber. . . .
"I well remember how during and after the Council a
good many writers in the public press affected to be
shocked and filled with virtuous indignation that there
should be an outburst of feeling or even any display of
parliamentary contention in a council of Catholic
Bishops. . . . Had the deliberations been carried on in a
This passage was written a short time before the close of the Council.
Cardinal Gibbons in the North American Review for April, 1894.

128 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
humdrum style without criticism or opposition on the part
of the minority, the outcry against the Council would
have been all the louder. Then it would have been
charged with a fair show of reason that there was no
spirit or manhood among the fathers, that they were so
many figure-heads ready to bow at the nod of the Pope.
"The Bishops were men with human feelings. They
were freemen fettered by no compact, bound by no cau
cus, filled with a profound sense of responsibility to God
and their consciences. They were discussing questions not
of a political or transitory nature, but questions of faith
and morals. . . .
"Every great 'Council of the Catholic Church has been
marked by an intense earnestness of debate. There was
not only discussion but 'much disputing" in the Apostolic
Council of Jerusalem. . . .
"I have listened in the Council chamber to far more
subtle, more plausible and more searching objections
against this prerogative of the Pope [the infallible teach
ing office] than I have ever read or heard from the pen or
tongue of the most learned and formidable Protestant
assailant. But all the objections were triumphantly
answered. . . . Since the last vote was taken in the
solemn session of July 18, 1870, all the Bishops of
Christendom, without a murmur of dissent, have accepted
the decision as final and irrevocable."
One of the American prelates, Archbishop Kenrick, of
St. Louis, was "violently opposed to the definition, not
only because of what he considered its inopportuneness,
but because he did not see that it was part of the deposit
of faith"; but as soon as it was promulgated, he fully
accepted it. Many years later some one spoke in criti
cism of his attitude in the Council to Leo XIII, who had
then become Pope, to which Leo replied with spirit:

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 129
"The Metropolitan of St. Louis was a noble man and
a true Christian Bishop. When he sat in Council as a
judge of the faith he did according to his conscience and
the moment the decision was taken, although it was
against him, he submitted with the filial piety of a
Catholic Christian." 9
None claimed personal infallibility for the Pontiff. In
order to exclude the possibility of this interpretation, the
title of the Vatican Council's decree was changed from
De Romani Pontificis Infallibilitate to De Romani
Pontificis Infallibili Magisterio. It was held to be a
Divine assistance inseparable from the office and not a
quality inherent in the person of the Pope.
The final form in which the definition was adopted
was: "Therefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition re
ceived from the beginning of Christian faith, for the
glory of God our Savior, the exaltation of the Catholic
religion and the salvation of the Christian people, the
Sacred Council approving, we teach and define that it is a
dogma Divinely revealed: That the Roman Pontiff,
when he speaks ex cathedra — that is, when in the dis
charge of the office of pastor and teacher of all Chris
tians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he
defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held
by the Universal Church — is, by the Divine assistance
promised to him in Blessed Peter, possessed of that infal
libility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that the
Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regard
ing faith and morals ; and that, therefore, such definitions
of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves and
not from the consent of the Church."
'Retrospect of Fifty Years, Vol. I, pp. 33-33.

130 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The chapter on Papal infallibility came to a vote in
the Council in July. On the first vote 451 of the fathers
answered placet, or aye, 88 non placet, or no, and 62
placet juxta modum, or aye with modifications. Nearly
two hundred amendments, some of which were adopted,
were offered. When the time came for the final action
in public session, 533 voted placet, and only 2 non placet;
fifty-five absented themselves in order to avoid being
recorded on the negative side of a question whose decision
they considered inopportune; eleven others were absent
from unknown causes, and were supposed to have left
Rome, as permission had been given several days before
to begin the journey homeward.
The two who voted non placet were Bishop Fitzgerald,
of Little Rock, Arkansas, and the bishop of the Italian
Diocese of Caiazzo. They at once made their submission
and subscribed to the decree. Bishop Gibbons voted
placet on the question when it came before the Council.
Nothing need be said here of the monumental work
of the Council in dealing with the general doctrinal, dis
ciplinary and social problems that had arisen since Trent.
On no question except that of infallibility was there a
distinct line of difference between a majority of the
Americans and the other fathers who sat with them. It
was the one declaration of the gathering which pro
foundly stirred the external world.
The protection without interference which the Catholic
Church and all religious denominations receive in
America was now in evidence with a new light thrown
upon it. Here there were no political bonds between
Church and State which might be affected by the declara-

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 131
tion in Rome. No office holder or politician in America
had any vestige of authority to meddle in doctrinal def
initions which in no way concerned the civil government.
There was no concordat to be debated in Congress.
Perhaps it is true that in America the spread of the
Catholic faith was impeded for a time, but its marvelous
development in the closing years of the nineteenth cen
tury and since is complete evidence that the declaration
of Papal infallibility was not a permanent obstacle to the
increase of spiritual results west of the Atlantic. Ag
gressive anti-Catholicism flared up once or twice but the
fears of some American Bishops that the appalling pro
scriptions of the "Know Nothing" times might be re
vived proved to be groundless. Every outburst of intol
erance in the United States found its strongest corrective
in enlightened public opinion. The liberality of the
young Vicar of North Carolina who sat in the Vatican
Council became ultimately the most powerful factor in
this happy state of affairs.
Of the members of that memorable gathering in the
Vatican in 1870 it is safe to say that none was more im
pressed with it than its youngest Bishop, ordained but
nine years before, to whom life was still fresh when he
was projected into the midst of its wisdom and grandeur
and solemnity. He sat in an assembly whose delibera
tions represented the accumulated experience and weight
of an institution whose roots were planted in the be
ginnings of Christianity and whose development had em
ployed a large proportion of the master minds of the
world from Peter to Constantine and down through the
ages. The contrast was not lost upon him of this ancient

132 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
instrument for the salvation of the world and the new
ness of his own country, behind which there were then
not a hundred years of independence.
Gibbons sat with two men with whom he was to work
hand in hand in the great affairs of the Church and the
world during a long period of the most decisive ecclesi
astical and political evolution in modern times. While
he could not realize what either of them would mean to
his own life, their personalities impressed him. Of the
future Leo XIII, then Cardinal Pecci, he wrote:
"Although Cardinal Pecci did not take part in the pub
lic debates of the synod, he was one of its most influential
members and the weight of his learning and administra
tive experience was felt in the committee to which he
was appointed."
Later Gibbons expressed the opinion that there was a
design of Providence in the fact that he who was to be
"elected the head and judge of his brethren in 1878
should not have been involved in their disputations in
1870, but that he should enter his high office joyfully
hailed as the harbinger of peace and concord by prelates
of every shade of theological opinion."
This was his picture of Manning :
"Dr. Manning's reputation as an English speaker is
established wherever the English language prevails. His
Latin oration in the Council . . . exhibited the same
energy of thought and the same discriminating choice of
words which are striking features of his public dis
courses. Dr. Manning has a commanding figure. His
flesh and his face are the personification of asceticism.
His sunken eyes pierce you as well as his words. He has
a high, well developed forehead, which appears still

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 133
more prominent on account of his partial baldness. His
favorite, almost his only gesture, is the darting of his
forefinger in a sloping direction from his body, which
might seem awkward in others but in him is quite natural
and gives a peculiar force to his expression. His coun
tenance, even in the heat of argument, remains almost
as impassive as a statue.
"He knows admirably well how to employ to the best
advantage his voice as well as his words. When he
wishes to gain a strong point he rallies his choicest bat
talion of words, to each of which he assigns a most ef
fective position ; while his voice, swelling with the occa
sion, imparts to them an energy and a power difficult
to resist." 10
Gibbons also wrote that Manning's emaciated form
and ceaseless activity suggested a playful remark made
to him by Archbishop Spalding: "I know not how your
Grace can work so much, for you neither eat, nor drink,
nor sleep."
Of the American prelates Gibbons was naturally most
interested in Spalding, who was busily engaged as a
member of the two most important committees of the
Council, but who spoke only once in the course of the
sessions. Of the head of the archdiocese of St. Louis he wrote : ,
"Archbishop Kenrick spoke Latin with admirable ease
and elegance. I observed him day after day reclining in
his seat with half closed eyes listening attentively to the
debates without taking any notes, and yet so tenacious
was his memory that when his turn came to ascend the
rostrum he reviewed the speeches of his colleagues with
Bishop Gibbons' Diary of the Vatican Council.

134 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
remarkable fidelity and precision without the aid of
manuscript or memoranda."
Gibbons pronounced Archbishop McCloskey, of New
York, who was to become five years later the first Ameri
can Cardinal, a "silent Solon." He retained throughout
his life colorful memories of the entire gathering and of
the striking personalities with whom he came in contact.
The democracy of the Church he saw strikingly exempli
fied in Cardinal Prince Schwarzenberg, Primate of Bo
hemia, and Cardinal Simor, Primate of Hungary, the
two most influential churchmen of what was then the
Austrian Empire. Schwarzenberg, a handsome man of
commanding presence, was a prince of the realm as well
as of the Church. Simor sprang from the people and
was glad to avow it. He told Bishop Gibbons that he
employed four different languages in the government of
his diocese — Latin, German, Hungarian and Sla
vonian. Next to the young American prelate sat a Vicar Apos
tolic from China, who used six dialects in his vicariate.
One Bishop of a Chinese diocese had traveled twenty-
three thousand miles to attend the Council. Several
blind Bishops had to be guided by servants as they took
their places in the assembly. Some of the feeblest were
so exhausted by their travels that they died in Rome or
on the way, martyrs to their obedience to duty.
Archbishop Darboy, of Paris, who shared the confi
dence and expressed the views of Napoleon III, made a
deep impression upon the other prelates. He had seen
die assassination of two of his predecessors, Archbishops

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 135
Affre and Sibour; and in less than a year after the Coun
cil adjourned was himself shot to death in the prison of
La Roquette amid the ravings of the Commune.11
The Council, as the Bishop was careful to set forth in
his diary, sought only to preserve the faith of the
Church as originally delivered by the Apostles. He
wrote :
"The faith of the Church is ever one. . . . The er
rors or heresies prevailing at any time; the uncertainty
in some minds or other needs of a period may render it
proper or necessary to give a fuller, clearer and more
definite expression of that faith on points controverted
or misunderstood. The question always has really been
the faith held in the past from the beginning by the
Church on these points. ... It is thus that the Vatican
Council takes up matters of faith, not to add to the faith,
but to declare it and to establish it when it has been
impugned or doubted or misunderstood."
Father Hecker, who expressed the general view of
American Catholics, considered that the Vatican Council
opened a new outlook, especially for America, the tend
ency of whose free institutions, he held, was to make
men Catholics. The constitution of the Church having
been fixed in permanent form and the capstone applied
by the definition of Papal infallibility, he declared that
in the wide radius left for liberty of thought and action
the fullest development of the individual soul should
be sought.12
"Personal Reminiscences of the Vatican Council, Cardinal Gibbons in
the North American Review, April, 1894.
"The Very Rev. Isaac Thomas Hecker, The Church and the Age,
PP- 12-13.

136 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Now at last Bishop Gibbons had a clear perspective
which could not fade from his mind of what the Catholic
Church means to the world. In the Second Plenary
Council of Baltimore he had seen what it means to the
United States. These opportunities come to few men,
and to still fewer when they are as young as he was.
Five days after the Vatican Council adjourned he passed
his thirty-sixth birthday.
As the Council was one of the principal formative ex
periences of his life, a survey of the impressions which
it produced upon him, of the part which the American
prelates took in it and of its general outlines is necessary
to a comprehension of many conceptions and acts of his
subsequent career. He acquired, in the first place, inef
faceable confirmation of what he had learned in the
theological seminary, and in his then comparatively brief
work as an ecclesiastic, of the unity of faith held by the
Church throughout the world. He saw this put to the
test in the differences of human opinion voiced with such
high ability and so much energy in the debates on the
doctrine of Papal infallibility. Then he saw the calming
of the troubled waves as if by a miracle in the unanimous
adherence to the doctrine when it was once promulgated
with authority.
Gibbons also derived from the Council a clear com
prehension, which never left him, of what his individual
efforts might mean to the Church and to the world.
While he maintained the modest attitude which was
proper for a junior Bishop, he saw that decisions were
reached through the instrumentality of leadership.
Forming his views as to the problems that would come

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 137
before the Church in the future, he need be second to
none of equal rank in influencing decisions.
The young Vicar Apostolic saw still another condition
which made a lasting impression upon him. Ties be
tween Church and State, which were then, to the Euro
pean mind, normal, led sometimes to conditions that
negatived what those ties were supposed to mean. Per
haps more was to be feared from Catholic than from non-
Catholic sovereigns. Regalism — the interference of
Catholic monarchs in the purely internal affairs of the
Church — had grown to be an almost insupportable
burden. Political pressure hampered the Pontificate in
the selection of Bishops, and priests were interfered with
almost at the steps of the altar. Private ambition and
intrigue beset every step in the adjustment of the direct
relations between Church and State in Europe. Ecclesi
astical seminaries, basking in the favor of powerful rulers,
taught what Rome called heresy.
Threats which kings and statesmen made in attempt
ing to sway the action of the Vatican Council were known
in all the chancellories of the world. The Austrian,
French and Spanish Cardinals spoke with the weight of a
power, which had been allowed them by custom rather
than law, of vetoing the election of Popes.13 The dif
ference between this European background, the result of
long historical processes, and the full freedom of the
American Bishops in the Council was not lost upon Gib
bons. In the course of his return home in company with
The privilege of exercising this power was forever barred by the
Church after the veto of Austria prevented the election of Cardinal
Rampolla as the successor of Leo XIII in 1903.

138 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Archbishop Spalding, they paid a visit to the Bishop of
Annecy in Savoy. The splendor of the Bishop's palace
impressed him. His view of the French prelate's im
portance was further emphasized by observing a sentinel
at the door furnished by the Government as a guard of
honor; but the Bishop soon disabused him of his favorable
impressions. When Gibbons commented on the honor
paid him the Bishop replied :
"Monsignor, all is not gold that glitters. I am not able
to build even a sacristy without the permission of the
Government." In the Council Gibbons had an opportunity to gauge
the Church's immeasurable influence in the social and
material uplifting of humankind. When she speaks
upon social justice, the power of her voice radiates far
beyond even the wide-sweeping circle of her own faith.
She declares her judgment upon questions that pro
foundly affect labor and capital in order that the dis
tribution of the fruits of the earth may not be carried out
in defiance of Divine law. She sets herself against move
ments, whether in political guise or not, which contra
dict the principles of Christianity. She speaks on morals
and manners, education, the family, amusements and a
multitude of other things, the total of which affects the
lives of human beings profoundly.
The Vatican Council appealed to Gibbons' imagina
tion, but his was not an imagination that roved in fathom
less clouds of unreality. It was of the perceptive kind,
which visualized and brought to close range things that
seemed obscure and distant to most minds. The Council
stirred his inmost soul, but stirred it to deeds rather than

YOUNGEST IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL 139
to speculation. Filled with the inspiration of the Coun
cil, he returned to his task in North Carolina with a
flood of light upon the larger work of the Church which
was to guide his footsteps along many a difficult path
that would open before him.

CHAPTER VII
BISHOP OF RICHMOND
The road for Bishop Gibbons' rapid journey upward
to the leadership of the Church in America soon opened
again. The bishopric of Richmond, his second episcopal
appointment in four years, was bestowed up him at the
age of thirty-seven, when most clerics of parts are scarcely
beginning to consider promotion from the ranks as a dim
prospect. When that seat was vacated in 1872 by the
death of the Right Rev. John McGill, his superiors
turned to him with united judgment; and his selection as
administrator of the diocese was followed by his per
manent appointment by Rome. None hailed his eleva
tion with more delight than Archbishop Spalding, then
sinking fast under the burden of years and infirmities,
whose urgent recommendation had been given in his
favor. Although the Archbishop lived to see his counsel
heeded in the nomination of the head of the See, his
death prevented the gratification of his fatherly wish to
install Gibbons in the new diocese.
The selection of another incumbent for the vicariate of
North Carolina presented some difficulties, and it was
decided that Bishop Gibbons should continue as admin
istrator there at the same time. The situation of Rich
mond was favorable to the supervision of both jurisdic
tions, and it was not doubted that his energy and seem-
140

GIBBONS AS BISHOP OF RICHMOXD

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 141
ingly endless resourcefulness would be equal to the double
task. His light could be hidden no longer, for in their asso
ciation with him at the Vatican Council the chiefs of the
Church had not failed to discern the gifts of leadership
which he possessed, even though these were partly masked
by the self-effacement that characterized him throughout
the sessions in Rome. It was impossible for any one, pre
late, priest or layman, who might come in contact with
him then or at any future time, not to be attracted to him.
He possessed, in a rare combination, singular sweetness
of personal disposition with intellectual equipment for
the greatest tasks and a prodigious capacity for work.
Not only were his superiors in the Hierarchy glad to
acknowledge the commanding traits which they saw in
him, but his brother Bishops were ready to welcome any
promotion that might come to him. Wherever he was
in contact with priests, the mass of them became his
devoted followers. They trusted in his almost instinctive
trait of justice, which was linked with a wide charity and
a degree of tact perhaps unequaled by any executive of
his time, in or out of the Church.
Human nature seemed almost an open book to him, as
to many other men who combine in themselves the ele
ments of lofty success. He could form an instantaneous
and often accurate judgment of one whom he met for the
first time, and was able to modify such a view readily as
circumstances might require. Although his character
was conciliatory, it was of the kind whose strength was
bound to dominate in the end. Few could attain with
equal ease a purpose in the face of obstacles.

142 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Virginia was a field only less difficult for a Bishop to
cultivate than North Carolina. In the oldest of the
American colonies, more than in any other of them,
lingered the atmosphere of the England of Elizabeth,
with its prejudices against the religion which her father
had first championed and then attempted to stamp out
in his kingdom with all the resources of his power. Under
a sailcloth spread between the boughs of trees on James
town Island, in May, 1607, the Rev. Robert Hunt had
read the first service of the Church of England on Vir
ginian soil.1 That church remained as firmly established
in the colony as in the mother country until the revolu
tion, and it transplanted to the banks of the James and
the Rappahannock its characteristic institutions. The
local vestries were entrusted with political as well as
ecclesiastical functions, such as the care of orphans and
the poor, and the pay of the colonial clergy was taken
from public taxation. Anti-Catholic, anti-Puritan and
anti-Quaker feeling was strong in Virginia and there was
official frowning upon open worship other than that of
the establishment, but happily without active persecu
tion. Marked traces of these conditions, especially in the
tidewater counties of the State, survived the revolution
and were not obliterated even in the passing of the first
century of American independence. The ecclesiastical
and social predominance of the Episcopal church con
tinued to be evident in the outward aspect of community
life there, being too closely threaded in the institutions
of the people to be withdrawn suddenly. Presbyterians
*Lyon G. Tyler, Cradle of the Republic, p. 116.

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 143
and Lutherans, however, entered the Shenandoah Valley
in large numbers, and other denominations, especially
Baptists and Methodists, soon outnumbered the Episco
palians in the mountainous districts of the State.
In North Carolina there had been scarcely any immi
gration of Catholics to furnish a foothold for the Church.
There was little more in Virginia, but still enough to
plant a nucleus in each of the larger cities, such as Rich
mond, Petersburg and Norfolk. Not until 1791 was the
first Mass said in Richmond and for a score of years
after that the growth of the Church in the State was ex
tremely slow. The diocese was founded in 1820, but the
outlook was so unpromising that it was abolished and
united with Baltimore two years later. In 1840 it was
reestablished by Bishop Wheeler, who administered it
for ten years, and was succeeded by Bishop McGill, who
labored in it for twenty-two years. Bishop Gibbons was
therefore but the fourth in succession counting from
Bishop Kelley, who was in charge during the brief period
1820-22. Maryland and Virginia, so closely akin in many things,
are totally unlike in church antecedents and influences.
One has been receptive by tradition and feeling to the
Catholic Church; the other has been the opposite.2 In
parts of Virginia a Catholic priest is unknown even at
this day and would be looked upon as a curiosity if he
should appear.
The post-bellum poverty which had hampered Bishop
Gibbons in North Carolina in obtaining material support
for the building of new churches and schools was even
1 Browne, Maryland, the History of a Palatinate, pp. 27, 86.

144 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
more distressingly evident in Virginia, where, in the four
years' struggle for the possession of the Confederate cap
ital, great contending armies had ranged throughout the
State. Groups of blackened chimneys marked the sites
where flourishing villages had stood, fields were swept
bare and the economic resources which escaped the seizure
of the Federals had been given to the half-starved Con
federates. Of the able-bodied men of the State, a large proportion
had been killed or maimed. Agricultural labor had been
demoralized by the sudden freeing of the slaves and on
many farms there was no man to sow or reap, no seed
to plant.3 Attempts at economic recovery were almost
paralyzed by the misgovernment of the carpet-bag
regime. Bishop Gibbons, who had begun in North Carolina
with only three churches, had at the outset in his new
jurisdiction fifteen churches, the same number of chapels
or stations, sixteen parochial schools and seventeen
priests. Overflowing with initiative, he began a vigor
ous administration of which the results were soon ap
parent. His task was, as before, to win converts to the
faith. The same liberality of view that had endeared
him to the people of North Carolina without regard _to
creed appealed with equal strength to the predominantly
Protestant population of Virginia. In the principal cities
and towns of the State where his voice was soon heard
and his personality felt, his sermons were largely ad
dressed to non-Catholics, who comprised in many cases
fully half or more than half of his audiences.
3 Cooke, History of Virginia, pp. 506-7.

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 145
The Bishop's tact and quick perception were employed
to the utmost in gauging his auditors. If they seemed to
be seeking an exposition of Catholic doctrine as a forti
fication of their own faith, few could give it as well as he;
but, did they come to listen that they might disapprove,
he won their attention at the outset by the presentation
of the simple truths of Christianity and then proceeded
to a discussion of his theme with a breadth and charity
of view that disarmed criticism. None could be offended.
Protestants thanked him for visiting their towns and
Catholics looked upon him as a shining exemplar of their
faith. His journal gives a faithful record of his labors in
Virginia during that period. The following extracts
cover his induction into the See, the passing of Spalding
and the accession of Bayley to the archiepiscopal seat
which Gibbons was soon to occupy :
"Jan. 14. [1872 J. Bishop McGill, of Richmond,
died. "16. Was buried on the 16th.
"17. On reaching home from the funeral, a telegram
was before me, announcing my appointment as admin
istrator of the diocese of Richmond, sede vacante. This
appointment was made by Most Rev. Dr. Spalding, with
the advice of Drs. Wood, Lynch and Becker, who partici
pated in the funeral obsequies.
"Feb. 7. Archbishop Spalding died. A great light is
extinguished in Israel. I attended the funeral, having
before his death given him the Holy Viaticum and read
for him the profession of faith.
"27. Very Rev. Father Coskery died. R. I. P. He
appointed me his administrator.
"Aug. 29. This morning I received from the Holy

146 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Father, Pius IX, the bulls creating me Bishop of Rich
mond. The bulls were dated July 30. I retain jurisdic
tion over the vicariate of North Carolina till the Holy
Father is pleased, at the suggestion of the Bishops of
this province, to appoint a Bishop for North Carolina.
Dr. Bayley, of Newark, received his bulls appointing him
Archbishop of Baltimore. They are of the same date.
"Oct. 6. Today I preached my last sermon in Wil
mington before moving my residence to Richmond, where
I am to be installed on the 20th. Archbishop Bayley
will be installed on the 13th.
"20. I was installed in the See of Richmond. The
Most Rev. Dr. Bayley, Archbishop of Baltimore,
preached the sermon and Right Rev. Dr. Becker pontifi
cated. At the end of the Mass I delivered an address.
Some 34 priests were present, including, with two or
three exceptions, all the clergy of the diocese of Rich
mond. The church was crowded to its utmost capacity
and many could not obtain admittance for want of room."
Soon after this he began a series of episcopal visita
tions marked by vigorous and skilfully directed efforts
either to extend the work of each congregation or to plant
a new one. Early in November he went to Lynchburg,
where he preached and confirmed. From that city he
proceeded to Lexington, where Robert E. Lee had died
but two years before and where "Stonewall" Jackson had
taught in the Virginia Military Institute. There was no
Catholic church in the town and for want of better
quarters the Bishop was compelled to confirm ten per
sons in the fire engine house. In the presence of a bril
liant assembly reminiscent of ante-bellum social life in
Virginia, he performed the ceremony of marriage for
John B. Purcell and Miss Olympia Williamson. One

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 147
of the guests was General George Washington Custis Lee,
son of the Confederate chieftain.
Continuing his habit of painstaking care in his work,
he set down in his journal at that time exact financial
details of the diocese, including the value of Church prop
erty, insurance, expenses and receipts. The annual sta
tistics of St. Peter's Cathedral, the figures of the Altar
Society's annual report and even the names of officers of
temperance societies organized in Richmond under his
administration were recorded in his own handwriting —
a small, regular and legible script.
Early in 1873 he made a trip to North Carolina,
preaching, lecturing, confirming and generally stimulat
ing the work of the vicariate. He confirmed a class of
nine at Raleigh, including the mayor and his wife, who
were converts.
Returning to his duties in Virginia, he visited Alex
andria, Fairfax, Gordonsville, Warrenton, Middleburg,
Winchester and other places in the Northern part of the
State, where memories of Washington, Madison, Mon
roe, Marshall and other early statesmen of the Republic
abounded and where history had imprinted her stamp
anew in the Civil War. Every church in the diocese re
ceived his attention and the entries in his journal began
to record a flow of accessions. Among his memoranda of
these visitations were the following :
"April 19. Visited Mrs. Lewis's family in King
George County, 20 miles south-east from Fredericksburg.
Mrs. Lewis's husband is the great-grand-nephew of
George Washington. Said Mass, preached and confirmed
three children of Mrs. Lewis.

148 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"May ll. Yesterday I reached Warrenton, being
the guest of Mrs. Payne. This morning I preached at
High Mass on 'The Infallibility of the Pope' and after
Mass confirmed 24 candidates, including one convert,
Lieutenant Beattie, who served under Col. Mosby during
the war.
"May 18. At early Mass this morning I confirmed
at Alexandria 117 candidates, of whom 1 1 were converts,
including Col. Kilgour, the district attorney. ... At
High Mass I preached on 'The Unity and Catholicity of
the Church.' "
The completion of an exceptionally large parochial
school in Richmond is thus chronicled in his journal for
September 28, 1873:
"The Cathedral male school and academy, corner
Ninth and Marshall streets, was dedicated this (Sun
day) evening in the presence of a very large multitude,
including the German and English beneficial societies.
"The ground cost $16,000.
"The building, $18,000.
"Furniture etc., $3,000.
"Total cost, $37,000.
"187 boys entered a few days after the opening. It
is hoped that the number will be increased to 200."
Early in 1874 he had an attack of fever while on a
visitation to North Carolina. He wrote in his journal:
"Jan. 17. We reached Goldsboro. Here I was at
tacked with fever the same night.
"18. With much difficulty the next morning (Sun
day) I said Mass and confirmed eight candidates, includ
ing two converts, in the chapel. I retired immediately
to bed, where I remained till Monday, the 19th, when I
proceeded on to Wilmington with Father Gross, who

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 149
met me at Goldsboro. Father Townshend filled my en
gagement at Goldsboro. My engagement at Sampson
is postponed. "19. I arrived in Wilmington and am weak, but
convalescing." Abundant results were developing from his aggressive
administration. Further entries in his journal were:
"March 30. This morning William S. Caldwell
Esq.,4 made me a present of his beautiful property sit
uated on the Northeast corner of Marshall and Ninth
streets (Richmond). On the lot a beautiful three-story
house is erected. He also makes me a present of the
rich furniture which adorns the house. He sent me the
deed from New York. My intention is to use the build
ing for a male orphan asylum. The property is worth
about $20,000. About a year ago it was purchased by
Mr. Caldwell at an executor's sale, Mr. C. being executor
of the estate, which had belonged to his late sister, Mrs.
Deans. The house and lot cost $16,000 and the valuable
furniture nearly $6,000.
"April 21. Mr. Caldwell has expressed the desire
that the house recently donated by him to me should
be used as a home for the Little Sisters of the Poor. The
Sisters were incorporated on the 16th under the title of
'The Little Sisters of the Poor in Richmond.' Both
houses of the legislature passed the bill unanimously,
suspending the rules in order to expedite its passage.
The Governor promptly signed the bill. It is my inten
tion, as soon as the Sisters arrive, to hand the property
over to them, together with the furniture it contains."
[The Bishop here pasted the act of incorporation in his
journal.] Father of Mary Gwendoline Caldwell, who afterward gave $300,000
tor the founding of the Catholic University at Washington.

150 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"May 23. Mr. W. S. Caldwell, the donor of the
property occupied by the Little Sisters of the Poor, died
today. R. I. P.
"Aug. 11. Assisted by Fathers Gross and Reilly, I
blessed the new Church of St. Mark, near Dr. Monk's
residence, in Sampson county, North Carolina. Re
ligious exercises were held for three consecutive days in
the church and were well attended, especially on Sun
day, the 11th, when nearly 500 persons were present.
The church is a neat frame building about 35 by ^ and
was built chiefly by the exertions of Dr. Monk.
"Oct. 13. This afternoon the Little Sisters of the
Poor arrived and immediately took formal possession of
their new home, corner Ninth and Marshall streets. The
community numbers six members, of whom the superior
is Sister Virginia — very appropriately called. * * * I
have deeded the property to them and in accordance with
the wish of Mr. Caldwell, which he made known to Mr.
Charles O'Conor, of New York, I shall deliver to the
Sisters the $2,000 which were bequeathed to me by the
late Mr. Caldwell.
"Dec. 4. I returned from a visit to Lancaster and
Northumberland counties, whither I went on the 29th
inst. with Father Tiernan. We found about 20 Catholics
in both counties. There is much religious indifference
among the non-Catholics. The few faithful manifest
generally a zealous spirit. I preached in an old shop
at Lancaster Court House, the court house having been
refused me. The audience was small.
"Feb. [1876]. On Sunday, Jan. 30, I introduced
to the congregation in Petersburg the new community of
Sisters of Charity just established there and afterward
preached during the High Mass.
"6. I preached at the rededication of St. Bridget's
Church in Baltimore.5
° His only pastoral charge.

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 151
"March 25. Bishop Kain, of Wheeling, having
asked of the Holy See a redistribution of the dioceses of
Richmond and Wheeling, the Cardinal 6 inclosed to me
a copy of the Right Rev. Bishop's petition. I imme
diately wrote to the Cardinal, objecting to the proposed
change, which was that the diocese of Wheeling should
include all West Virginia and the diocese of Richmond
all Virginia. This morning I received a reply from the
Cardinal acquiescing in my objection and declining to
authorize any change.
"June 7. I replied to Dr. Benoit, President of Mill
Hill College, England, accepting his proposal of send
ing to Richmond two fathers for the evangelizing of the
negroes. I promise to pay traveling expenses and one
thousand dollars a year for three years.
"July 20. I visited Danville and preached there at
night in the Odd Fellows Hall.
"July 28. Went by private conveyance to Coving
ton, Allegheny county, a distance of 42 miles,7 having
crossed the North Mountain.
"30. Preached and confirmed in the Methodist
church. "Oct. 13. Sent Cardinal Franchi 126 pounds sterling
and 13 shillings for the Holy Father. I urged also the
early appointment of a Vicar Apostolic for North Caro
lina. "Nov. 26. During the present month, at the request
of Archbishop Bayley, who is infirm, I administered con
firmation in several churches in Washington and Balti
more, also at Laurel.
"Jan. 3 [1877]. I bought for the Little Sisters of
the Poor the property known as Warsaw, occupying a
whole square bounded by Harvie, Main, Penn and Floyd
streets. The property cost $12,500."
° Cardinal Franchi.
From Lexington.

152 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
A robber broke into Bishop Gibbons' room at the house
of a Mr. Conigland at Halifax, North Carolina, while
he was visiting there early in January, 1874. His
journal shows that he had preached on the evening be
fore in a schoolhouse to a "congregation of about 20
persons," the small size of which he accounted for by
"the exceedingly dark night and rainy weather." He
added: "It was with much difficulty that we could be
conveyed from Mr. Conigland's to the schoolhouse."
That night the Bishop was disturbed about 4:30
o'clock by the barking of dogs. Awaking, he heard at
first indistinctly, but soon with clearness, a noise in his
room caused by a thief who was searching for plunder.
With the fearlessness which he always showed in emer
gencies of every kind, he leaped from his bed to attack
the robber, who fled precipitately, not daring to risk the
impending conflict. The Bishop wrote in his journal
in describing the incident :
"I called out once or twice 'Who is there?' but re
ceived no answer, and, suspecting a robber, I jumped out
of bed and the robber just escaped, leaving my vest at
the door, which contained about $150. Fortunately I
missed nothing, though my Cross was lying on the table
and my watch under the pillow. I have reason to thank a
watchful Providence for the safety of my effects and
still more for the preservation of my life. The would-be
robber had entered the house through a window and on
retreating left on the ground the print of a large naked
foot. It was fortunate that I did not seize him, as he
probably would have overpowered me."
While in Wilmington on one of his visits, the Bishop
issued a pamphlet on "Sacramental Confession" which

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 153
he records was "in reply to a 'charge' by the Right Rev.
Dr. Atkinson, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of North
Carolina." His journal also shows that after his return from the
Vatican Council he took occasion to preach or lecture
frequently on the much discussed work of that gathering,
particularly the declaration of the infallible teaching
office of the Papacy. Entries of this kind are numerous
in his memoranda of labors in both Virginia and North
Carolina. Another subject which he often discussed in
the pulpit was Christian education, there being a great
lack of parochial schools in the diocese and vicariate.
Already he had begun to devote a considerable share of
attention to work in behalf of temperance in the use of
liquor, and his journal shows that not a few of his ad
dresses on that topic were made at the request of and
before non-Catholic organizations.
His records of the finances of his diocese present some
interesting figures. For the year 1874 his tabulation
indicates that the clergy of the Richmond Cathedral were
by no means affluent, the following being among his
memoranda: Clergyman's salaries, $320.41; servants' wages,
$333-5° I organist's salary, $300.00.
The household expenses for the several clergy
who resided with him were set down in the list as
$1948. Everywhere he went, Gibbons was a "Defender of the
Faith," a role in which he took unquestioned preeminence
later. He thus related the story of the conversion of
an infidel in Richmond:

154 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"I was requested by a lady in Richmond to call on her
husband, who was suffering from a fatal malady, while
his mind retained its vigor. This gentleman had been
brought up in the school of Voltaire and his followers,
whose infidel teachings he had imbibed, and he avowed
himself not only an unbeliever in the Catholic faith, but
even a skeptic in all revealed religion.
"In my conference with him I endeavored by every
argument at my command to remove his objections
against Christianity, and to prepare him for a rational
acceptance of our holy religion. After listening to me
with great patience and close attention, he courteously
but frankly informed me that my remarks did not alter
his views on religion, that between him and me there
was an impassable gulf which no reasoning of mine could
bridge over.
"Though mortified and discouraged by his candid
reply, I did not despair, but resumed the conversation,
substantially as follows : 'You certainly acknowledge, as
an intelligent man,' I said, 'the existence of a Supreme
Being, the Author of all creation and of all life.' 'Every
man,' he replied, 'that uses his brains must concede that
truth.' 'You must further admit,' I continued, 'that as
this Author of our being is omniscient, He knows our con
dition; as He is omnipotent, He has power to succor us,
and as He is infinitely good, He is not insensible to our
wants. He, from whom all paternity is derived, must
possess in an eminent degree, those paternal feelings that
an earthly father has for his child.' 'That truth,' he re
plied, 'irresistibly follows from our conception of a Being
infinitely intelligent, powerful and beneficent.' 'Is it not
reasonable to suppose,' I added, 'that a Creator so benevo
lent will be moved by our entreaties, and that He will
mercifully hearken to our petitions?' T cannot deny,' he
said, 'the reasonableness of your conclusion.'
" 'Then,' I observed, 'you admit the utility of prayer,

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 155
and I ask you to promise me to offer up to this Supreme
Providence this short petition: O God, give me light to
see the truth, and strength to follow it.' He gave me
the earnest assurance that he would repeat this prayer
day by day as long as he had strength.
"Some days later I received a pressing message from
my invalid friend to visit him again as soon as possible.
I did so, and on entering his room I was deeply impressed
with the glow of enthusiasm that shone on his face.
Before I had time to address him he burst forth into an
eloquent profession of faith in the divinity of the Catho
lic religion, and begged to receive the grace of Baptism
in the presence of his old friends and associates, some
of whom had shared in his unbelief. He died some weeks
afterwards, fortified by the consolations of religion.
"From the depth of his spiritual darkness he had im
plored light from the Father of Light, and the Lord
darted into his soul a ray of heavenly light that illumined
his mind and tranquillized his heart more effectually
than any human reasoning could have accomplished." 8
During the five years when Bishop Gibbons presided
over the Richmond diocese, the number of churches in
creased from 15 to 24, with about the same number of
chapels or stations, to which 24 priests ministered. Ten
new parochial schools were established. The diocese was
kept virtually free from debt.9
He was not able during this period to obtain the ap
pointment of a Vicar Apostolic for North Carolina. The
faithful Father Gross wrote in February, 1876:
"When, on the death of the Bishop of Richmond,
Bishop Gibbons was nolens volens inducted by his Holi-
He gave this account in a sermon on "Prayer, Source of Light, Com
fort and Strength."
Catholic Standard, Philadelphia, October 27, 1877, quoted by Reily,
Collections in the Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons, Vol. 2, p. 113.

156 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ness Pius IX into the See of Richmond, with the title
of Administrator Apostolic over the vicariate of North
Carolina, it was but the change of an additional new
field, bringing an increase of the same arduous duties.
The change was, and still is, keenly felt by the people
and especially by the clergy of North Carolina. But
the vicariate is not forgotten, nor is it neglected. Fre
quent visits are made in the State, when the Bishop lec
tures upon Catholic truths and cheers the hearts of all,
laity and clergy, by his presence. The citizens of Wil
mington, Raleigh, Charlotte, Salisbury and Fayetteville
frequently enjoy his strong and engaging discourses in
explanation of Catholic doctrine. He has multiplied
his help by the admission of priests for the mission. . . .
"But, thank God, if the field of North Carolina has
been well worked, the fruit has been abundant. No
Catholics are more fervent; no people are more easily
won over to the faith. Of three missions, two of them
can boast of a hundred converts each; the other of thirty.
Male and female Catholic schools have been established.
In a word, Rev. Dr. Gibbons found in North Carolina
in 1868 three priests (one borrowed, since returned),
now there are seven or eight; he found 700 Catholics,
now there are 1600; . . . The word is still 'onward'
in North Carolina.
"An impression prevails that the Catholics could not
support their Vicar and Bishop, hence his removal. They
could not honor him, indeed, with these episcopal sur
roundings becoming, but not necessary to, his sublime
office of Bishop. Such wealth of catholicity North Caro
lina does not possess. The Pope's Vicar did not come
to find and enjoy the becoming honors and dignity of an
established diocese, but to accept and to perform the
duty of a Bishop — to preach the gospel, to convert souls;
to accept the poverty of a vicariate, and by his apostolic
labor, to make it rich with the wealth of Catholic faith.

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 157
"The field of North Carolina, with its poverty and
trials, and sparse Catholicity, was, and is yet, not too
much for our Vicar, nor for any one whom the Holy
Father may judge to send. Everything has a beginning.
Even the gospel of Christ has its seed. Others may enter
into our labor and may enjoy its fruits. The more
numerous and imperative wants of the Richmond diocese,
widowed by the death of Rev. Dr. McGill, removed our
Vicar. Rather the spiritual poverty of the Richmond
diocese caused the transfer than any failure in North
Carolina. "Our Vicar was removed with the promise of another;
but our Bishop's zeal is so untiring, his charity so un
selfish, that though we constantly regret, we feel the
less his transfer. Catholicity is still advancing in North
Carolina, and rapidly, though our Vicar's undivided
efforts would, of course, produce still greater results." 10
Bishop Gibbons' ties with the archdiocese of Baltimore
were closer during his period of residence in Richmond
than while he had lived in Wilmington. He frequently
visited Baltimore to assist in ecclesiastical ceremonies
and became, in fact, almost as much identified with one
diocese as the other. His selection as the preacher at
the consecration of the Baltimore Cathedral May 25,
1876, was singularly happy, as no one could have been
expected to speak with more deeply aroused sensibilities
of that edifice.11 It had been a part of his life and his
life had been a part of it.
The occasion was one to move powerfully any Catholic
prelate. Within two hundred feet of the Cathedral had
Letter to the Southern Cross, February 9, 1876, quoted by Reily, Vol.
II, p. 106, et seq.
The corner-stone of the Cathedral had been laid in 1806 by Arch
bishop Carroll, but it wag not free of debt until seventy years later.

158 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
been old St. Peter's Church, the first of the Catholic
religion in Baltimore, erected about 1770 on the north
side of what is now Saratoga Street, near Charles Street,
on land bought six years before from Charles Carroll,
father of Charles Carroll of Carollton. For the realiza
tion of his dream of a Cathedral, Archbishop Carroll had
raised $225,000, a great sum in those days, by collections,
subscriptions and even by a lottery, which accorded with
the custom of the times. Benjamin H. Latrobe, the
architect of the Capitol in Washington, drew the plans.
The Cathedral was cruciform in its original outlines.
It is now capped by Byzantine towers which dominate its
architectural tone. The great blocks of granite for its
construction were hauled from Ellicott City, ten miles
distant, by oxen. John Eager Howard, hero of the bat
tle of the Cowpens, gave much of the large lot on which
it stands and which lends to it the spaciousness of lawn
and terrace lacking in so many Cathedrals planted in the
midst of crowded building areas in American cities.
The War of 1812 stopped the work, and while still un
finished the edifice was dedicated May 31, 1821, by
Archbishop Marechal. Seven years later the same Arch
bishop gave it a large bell, bought in his native France,
and completed one of the towers. Archbishop Eccleston
finished the second tower and Archbishops Kenrick and
Spalding erected the noble portico adorned with huge
pillars. In the crypt of this venerable church the bodies of
Carroll and the succeeding Archbishops have found
sepulture. The Provincial Council of 1829, the first of
the Catholic Church in any English-speaking country

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 159
since the Reformation, was held within its walls. Among
the historic church edifices of America the Baltimore
Cathedral is easily first in importance, though not in
antiquity.12 In his sermon at the consecration, Bishop Gibbons
dwelt on the history of the Cathedral and the permanency
of the Church and then struck a note which had already
become characteristic of him. He said :
"Need it be repeated that the Church is slandered
when it is charged that she is inimical to liberty? The
Church flourishes only in the beams of liberty. She has
received more harm from the tyranny and oppression of
kings and rulers than any other victim of their power.
We pray for the prosperity of this our young country.
In this, its centennial year, we rejoice that it has lived
to show a sturdy life of liberty and regard for right and
we raise the prayer, 'esto perpetual "
The same note from the same strong voice was to be,
heard in the Cathedral pulpit only a little more than
a year later when the Bishop of Richmond had become
Archbishop of Baltimore. The way was being prepared
for the honors that were to come to Gibbons. On March
28, 1875, he wrote in his journal:
"Archbishop McCloskey is created Cardinal, being the
first American who has received that dignity."
On April 27 he noted:
"I was present with many prelates at the ceremony
of conferring the (red) biretta on Cardinal McCloskey
in the Cathedral of New York."
"Riordan, Cathedral Records, pp. 93-98.

160 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
While his thoughts at the time were far from associat
ing his own career with that honor, it is interesting to
observe that he viewed it in much the same light as that
in which his appointment as Cardinal afterwards im
pressed him — an honor to his country and to its Prot
estant as well as Catholic people. He thus expressed
himself: "The Hierarchy of the United States will rejoice to
hear that this eminent dignity has been conferred on an
American prelate who has endeared himself to the Church
by his long services in the cause of religion, his marked
ability, his unostentatious piety and great suavity of
manners. I am persuaded also that not only the Catholic
body of this country but our citizens at large will receive
with just pride the intelligence that the Holy Father
has determined to associate an American Bishop with
the members of the Sacred College. There is no doubt
that the venerable Archbishop of New York will fill with
marked distinction and wisdom that exalted and re
sponsible position." 13
While serving in Richmond Bishop Gibbons uttered
the first of those vigorous declarations on public ques
tions which the whole nation came to heed later. He
assailed the proposal made by President Grant in a mes
sage to Congress December 7,. 1875, for the enactment
of a Constitutional amendment tending in the direction
of Federal control of education, saying:
"The Constitutional amendment regarding the school
question, recommended by President Grant, if carried
out, would reduce our American republic to the condi-
13 New York Herald, March 14, 1875.

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 161
tion of things that existed in pagan Rome. In the Old
Roman empire the individual was absorbed by the State,
which was a political juggernaut crushing under its
wheels all personal liberty. . . .
"The most crushing of all despotisms is that of a
centralized government. It is the idol before which the
citizen must offer in sacrifice his personal liberty as well
as his parental rights over his children, for the govern
ment, in assuming the education of the child, usurps the
place of the father and robs him of his most sacred privi
lege — that of directing the training of his offspring. And
what becomes of liberty when it is lost in the individual
and the family? It is to that personal freedom (which
always involves personal responsibility and personal
energy) that we are chiefly indebted as a nation.
"The general government has no more right to dictate
to the father when and where and how he must educate
his children than it has to prescribe his food or the shape
of his clothes. Those who advocate this system of cen
tralization are slavishly imitating the most absolute gov
ernments in Continental Europe. Besides, if popular
education is wrested from the family and the State and
placed in the hands of the Federal government, of what
ever political party, it will give the administration an
overwhelming patronage which would destroy all balance
of power and reduce minorities to a mere cipher. Nor
do I see how paganism and religion can be simultaneously
excluded from the schools as the President proposes, for
if an education excludes all religion it is necessarily
pagan, there being no medium between the two terms.
"To tax church property and charitable institutions is
putting a premium on infidelity and avarice and makes
religion and philanthropy arduous by imposing a penalty
on those who maintain Christianity and support chari
table houses. The inevitable result of such taxation
would be to cripple the churches and increase the burden

162 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of the State by making it the almoner of those poor who
are now maintained by private benevolence." 14
The Bishop expressed the belief that the American
people would never indorse such proposals.15
The Bishop's farewell sermon to the people of his
diocese in St. Peter's Cathedral, October 14, 1877, when
he had been elevated to the See of Baltimore, reflected
the modesty with which he contemplated the results of
the task that had been fulfilled. Though he had done
so much for Virginians, he gave the human credit to
his predecessor, Bishop McGill. He said:
"Ever since I took charge of this portion of the Lord's
vineyard, God has singularly blessed us. To Him be
all the honor and glory. Every other cause of success
is secondary to Him. Paul soweth, Apollos watereth,
but God giveth the increase. Without Him, we would
have made no progress. We would have fished all night,
like Peter, and caught nothing.
"Next to God, you are indebted to my venerable and
illustrious predecessor, who left the diocese in a solvent
and healthy condition. He was a man of eminent pru
dence and discretion, and of caution verging on timidity.
He might have gained for himself a great name for
enterprise and material progress by erecting churches
and other institutions throughout the diocese, without
regard to expense. But with all that, he might have
bequeathed to his successor a load of debt which would
have paralyzed his usefulness and crushed his heart.
"President Grant in this message proposed an amendment to the
Federal Constitution requiring the States to maintain free schools adequate
to the education of every child, "forbidding the teaching in said schools
of religious, atheistic or pagan tenets," and prohibiting the granting of
school funds in any State, "in aid directly or indirectly of any religious
sect or denomination." He also favored the taxation of all church
property. " New York Herald, December u, 1875.

OLD ST. PETER'S CATHEDRAL AND BISHOP'S RESIDENCE, RICHMOND, VA., IN 1876

BISHOP OF RICHMOND 163
"He left me few debts to pay and few scandals to
heal. He left a diocese without incumbrance and a
character without reproach. It was fortunate for this
diocese that Bishop McGill presided over its destinies
for upwards of twenty years, for he stamped his char
acter upon the older clergy, who had the happiness of
observing his edifying life and of being associated with
him in the ministry.
"It is very gratifying to me, though this is the first
occasion I have done so, to speak in terms of praise of
the clergy of this diocese. Other priests, indeed, I have
met who have a greater reputation for learning and the
graces of oratory, but taken as a body, I have never met
any priests to surpass those of this diocese in attachment
to duty, in singleness of purpose, in personal virtue and
obedience to the voice of authority. And if I be
permitted to single out some of the clergy from among
their colleagues, surely I can point with peculiar joy to
the Cathedral clergy, who have lived with me as mem
bers of the same household, and who have always de
ported themselves in a manner becoming their sacred call
ing. ... If I could lift the veil and reveal to you their
domestic life, I could disclose to you a spirit of order,
peace and brotherly concord which I hope to see imitated,
but dare not hope to see surpassed.
"As for you, brethren of the laity, you can bear me
witness that I never indulged you by vain flattery, but
that I have always endeavored to propose to you your
duty, no matter how distasteful it might have been to
flesh and blood. But on the present occasion I would be
doing violence to my own feelings if I did not express
my deep sense of admiration for the piety of many of
you, which edified me; for the obedience of all of you,
which consoled me, and for your spirit of generosity,
which strengthened my hands. I have never had occasion
to rebuke you for any factious opposition, still less for

164 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
any manifestation of a rebellious spirit, and I have al
ways found you ready with heart and hand to second any
effort I proposed for the advancement of religion. . . .
"I cannot without regret depart from a city to which
I am bound by so many attachments, and from a people
who have always manifested so much kindness toward
me. I ask your prayers all the time. I do not ask you
to pray that I may have a long life — that is immaterial
— but pray that God may give light to my understand
ing, strength to my heart and rectitude to my will, in
order to fulfil well the duties that may devolve upon me.
I pray that God may send you a Bishop according to
His own heart — a man of zeal and mercy, who will cause
virtue and religion and faith to flourish and bear fruit
throughout the length of the diocese." 16
His fellow citizens of Richmond without distinction
of religious belief viewed his departure with regret. Al
ready he had become much more than an ecclesiastical
figure in the public eye. Many testimonials of the esteem
for him which had become deeply rooted there brightened
his last days in the diocese. His journal contains this
entry for October 16, 1877, recording the parting evi
dence of his priests' affection :
"The clergy of the diocese dined with me today, hav
ing kindly come from their respective homes to say good-
by. After dinner, through Father O'Keefe, they pre
sented me a beautiful chalice. The paten and cup are
solid gold; the other parts are silver gilt."
M Catholic Mirror, October 20, 1877.

CHAPTER VIII
ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE
Now the frail student who had staggered half faint
ing from the classroom, despairing over the thought that
early death was to be his portion, instead of the ecclesi
astical career which he so ardently desired, was near the
climax of his transformation in the processes of time.
At forty-three years of age he was called from Richmond
to become Archbishop of Baltimore, and his elevation to
the See was marked by an outburst of general acclamation
in the two dioceses such as the elevation of no Catholic
prelate in the United States had evoked before that time.
Intolerance in religion, the monstrous foe which he
had faced with undaunted courage and fought unceas
ingly from the moment of his advent in North Carolina,
was beginning to weaken under his powerful assaults.
Non-Catholics as well as Catholics hailed his promotion
as an honor bestowed upon a man of God and a man of
the people, a friend of humanity without distinction of
creed, a patriot whose civic example was inspiring to
all his fellow countrymen.
His gifts were too evident to be concealed longer by
his exceptional modesty, and his comparative youth
seemed rather to emphasize them. Modesty in his case
was far removed from shyness, for there was no trace of
timidity in him. Neither did he exhibit evidences of the
165

166 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
self-consciousness with which many excellent men are
burdened. His modesty had taken the form of habitual
deference not only to his superiors in rank but also to
those on an equality with him, and even to many of
his inferiors, including persons of the laity whose judg
ment he considered valuable. He had not seemed desir
ous of asserting his own personality or of dictating opin
ions to others, and few men in executive posts were as
receptive as he to workable suggestions from any source.
Yet he was never for an instant oblivious of the au
thority which he possessed, and the use of which was
required by his vows, as the few who sought to question
that authority, in the inevitable experiences of a Bishop's
life, had ample reason to know. Greater forcefulness
could not have been shown than his when one of the
pastors of the church at Asheville became recalcitrant.
Bishop Gibbons wrote of this experience to Archbishop
Bayley that it brought "the most trying moment of my
life," but he did not quail in the performance of his full
duty until his jurisdiction had been reestablished without
question. Two successive Archbishops of Baltimore had deemed
him fitted to sit after them in the seat of Carroll. Arch
bishop Spalding at his death in 1872 left a list of those
whom he considered eligible to take up his work, and
on it was the name of Gibbons, then only thirty-eight
years old, who but four years before had been his secre
tary. In the judgment of Rome, however, it was fitting
that the young Vicar Apostolic should wait, and James
Roosevelt Bayley, one of the most interesting figures

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 167
whose impress has been left upon the Catholic Church
in America, became next in line.
Bayley was a near connection of the Roosevelt family
of New York, from which an American president after
wards sprang. He was a grandson of Dr. Richard Bay-
ley, celebrated as an anatomist and a pioneer of Ameri
can medicine. Born to luxury and culture, he mingled
in the fashionable social life of New York City in his
younger days. His family were of the Protestant Epis
copal faith and, his thoughts turning to the ministry,
he was ordained in that church, serving as rector of an
important congregation in New York. Converted to
the Catholic Church, he studied for orders at the semi
nary of St. Sulpice in Paris and was ordained by Arch
bishop Hughes, famous as the head of the New York
archdiocese in the Civil War. On account of his ripe
scholarship, he was made president of St. John's Col
lege, Fordham, New York.1 His contributions to litera
ture were considerable.2 He was serving as Bishop of
Newark when a warm friendship sprang up between him
and Archbishop Spalding.
Bayley did not wish to go to Baltimore, saying: "I
am too old a tree to be transplanted." He refused to
accept the idea of the change until the Papal decree
ordering it had been issued. He and Gibbons had been
thrown intimately together at the Vatican Council. The
Bishop of Newark was then a score of years older than
the Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, but soon strong
^Now Fordham University, New York City.
O'Gorman, History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United
States, p. 474.

168 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ties developed between them. In the long months of
the Council, when Americans were participating for the
first time in a general synod of the Church, the older
prelate learned to admire both the talents and the graces
of the younger. Gibbons in turn was captivated by the
intellectual powers, the broad and deep cultivation, the
strong nature of Bayley; and their friendship continued
during the years immediately following their return to
America, until unexpected fate threw them in closer
contact. Bayley's practical experience in life before his retire
ment into the semi-isolation of the Church had continued
to be of the greatest use to him. He was a keen judge
of the capabilities of others and saw in his young friend
traits that would adorn the most exalted positions.
Gibbons was one of the first to be informed of the
elevation of the new Archbishop, who was to exert such
a marked influence upon his life. He wrote to Bayley:
"Wilmington, N. C,
"Most Rev. dear Friend : gu > / ¦
"I have just received a private dispatch announcing
your appointment to Baltimore.
"I am permitted to give vent at last to my feelings
by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to God and con
gratulations to you. The wishes of my heart are now
fulfilled. "You will be glad to learn that you have been the
desired of Baltimore, as I have reason to know, for many
opened their hearts freely to me on the subject.
"Devotedly yours in Christ, "James Gibbons,
"Vic. Ap. N. C."

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 169
These two prelates were inducted into their new posts
almost at the same time. On October 13, 1872, when
Bayley was invested with the pallium in the Baltimore
Cathedral, Gibbons took part in the ceremony. The
next Sunday the new Archbishop installed Gibbons in
St. Peter's Cathedral, Richmond, as the head of that
diocese. Soon after Archbishop Bayley's transfer to Baltimore
his health became even more infirm. Lacking a coad
jutor, he turned to Bishop Gibbons for assistance in
confirmations and other ceremonies over which he was
unable to preside. Richmond being only a few hours
distant from Baltimore by railroad, the arrangement was
a convenient one. The warm friendship of the older
prelate for the younger, together with Gibbons' ready
acquiescence in all of the Archbishop's plans, led to these
calls becoming increasingly frequent.
Intimate association tightened the bonds between these
churchmen which, as in the former instance of Spalding
and Gibbons, became almost as close as those of father
and son. They were in frequent correspondence. At
one time Archbishop Bayley's sight became impaired and
Bishop Gibbons wrote : "Richmond, Va.,
"March 2, 1874.
"Most Rev., dear Archbishop :
"I learned this morning from Bishop Whelan that
your eyes are again giving you trouble. I know of no
affliction greater than impaired sight, especially to one
like ourselves, who spend so much time among the
ancients. The appearance of your eyes gives no indica
tion of weakness. I trust there is nothing serious.

170 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"I hope your Grace will soon pay me your promised
visit. You can here enjoy a few days' otium cum
dignitate. Whatever dig. you have at home there is
little of the otium. . . .
"Yours affectionately in Christ,
"James Gibbons,
"Bishop of Richmond."
In the same year he wrote to the Archbishop telling
frankly of some of the difficulties which he encountered
in North Carolina, but showing characteristic hopeful
ness. He thus summarized his experiences:
"I have been lately weeding my two big gardens of
Virginia and North Carolina. It is hard "work while
one is at it, but is pleasure when it is done." 3
In a subsequent letter he alluded to the calmness with
which the Archbishop contemplated death as a prospect
of relief from physical afflictions and, singularly, ex
pressed a strong desire on his own part to live, perhaps
feeling the irresistible urge of the larger part in life which
awaited him. He wrote :
"Richmond, Va.,
"November 5, 1875.
"Most Rev., dear Archbishop:
"As I have not heard from your Grace for some time,
I have thought this morning of throwing out this as a
bait to catch a letter from you. I was in Maryland in
September, when I gave a five days' retreat to students
of St. Charles' College. I went thence to Emmitsburg,
where I was successful in obtaining two communities of
Sisters of Charity for two of my Virginia missions. That
community is best suited to my section of the country.
'Letter of Bishop Gibbons to Archbishop Bayley, April 23, 1874.

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 171
"You were looked for with eagerness at Emmitsburg
when I was there. Mother Uphemia, though far from
wishing your speedy demise, pointed out to me with true
exultation your future mausoleum. May it long remain
empty of its guest! Would that I could contemplate
death with as much complacency as your Grace. I de
claim tolerably well on death in general; but when the
question is narrowed down to myself, ah! there's the
difficulty. . . .
"A very successful mission at our Cathedral closed last
Sunday night. It was given by the Jesuits. They car
ried out my wishes to the letter by avoiding controversy
in their sermons. My little experience in this region has
convinced me that polemical discussions do not effect as
much good as moral discussions interlarded with some
points of doctrine. . . .
"I was exceedingly rejoiced to learn of Mr. Carroll's
election.4 It appeared to me that his defeat would have
deterred Catholics from presenting themselves as can
didates and would have tempted political parties
virtually to exclude them from aspiring to places of
honor, as used to be the law in Great Britain. All honor
to my native State ! . . .
"Affectionately yours in our Lord,
"James, "Bishop of Richmond."
The big turn of the road for Gibbons came in sight
in 1874, a short time before he reached his fortieth
birthday. In that year Archbishop Bayley formed the
definite decision to propose him for coadjutor in the See
of Baltimore with the right of succession, and wrote to
him announcing that conclusion, which meant that the
young Bishop of Richmond would soon receive, in all
The election of John Lee Carroll as Governor of Maryland.

172 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
probability, one of the highest honors of the Church in
America. Besides, it meant presiding over the See where
his hopes and thoughts had centered so long.
It was an offer which might have been expected to
attract any man, and to have drawn forth a grateful
reply of immediate acceptance. But Gibbons at this
second decisive stage of his life, as at the first when he
was called from the Canton pastorate, showed an inclina
tion to obstruct his own advancement in the Church.
He wrote a letter to Bayley which seems to have had
the effect of shaking the Archbishop's resolution tem
porarily. This was his reply to the offer :
"Richmond, Va.,
"July 22, 1874.
"Most Rev., dear Archbishop:
"After three weeks absence, I returned home last
evening and found your welcome letter awaiting me . . .
"I would rather be silent than speak about the co-
ad jutorship. It has started various conflicting thoughts
in my mind. I have a grounded fear that I would not
satisfy your Grace's expectations and that I would not
improve on closer acquaintance.
"One thing would reconcile me to the change — the
reasonable prospect of your long life. I shall say no
more but silently pray that God's will may be done.
Things are now, thank God, in such splendid order
in this diocese that I have little trouble directing
affairs. . . .
"I was sorry to hear of your sudden attack. You
have acted wisely in leaving 106 North Charles Street5
where St. Quietus is not recognized, but St. Campanus is
B The former number on Charles Street, Baltimore, of the Archiepis
copal residence.

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 173
always heard ... I hope that before the Fall comes
you will visit one of our Virginia springs.
"Affectionately your friend and brother in Christ,
"James Gibbons,
"Bishop of Richmond."
Bayley was well aware that the "one thing" which
Gibbons said would "reconcile" him to the change — the
"reasonable prospect of your long life" — was but 'a
feeble hope. The letter was, in effect, an expression of
unwillingness to accept the appointment, although not
an absolute declination to do so. Bayley pressed the
request; but Gibbons insisted that he ought not to accept
the coadjutorship for two reasons, general incapacity
and physical weakness on his part.
The Archbishop temporized with the situation, the
need of early action being felt the less because Bishop
Gibbons never allowed his own preoccupations to inter
fere with helping in the work in Baltimore. Although
he was then the spiritual overseer of all the Catholic
churches in Virginia and North Carolina, his capacity
as an administrator enabled him to keep both organiza
tions going at high speed with a minimum of effort on
his own part. He had already developed the habit of
training others to execute independent responsibilities,
though always insistent upon having full information
and directing general policies.
The eyes of the people of the archdiocese of Balti
more, no less than the discriminating vision of the Arch
bishop, continued to turn to him as the coming man. In
Baltimore he had been born and baptized; studied for
the ministry and been ordained; served as parish priest

174 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
at St. Bridget's and as assistant at the Cathedral; and
the numerous body of the clergy there looked upon him
as a friend and a natural leader.
Archbishop Bayley, after two more years of associa
tion with Gibbons, obtained a full understanding with
him, and proceeded, none too soon, with the proposal
of the nomination of a coadjutor. He wrote in his
diary March 24, 1876:
"Two years ago the doctor advised me to obtain the
assistance of a coadjutor. My health troubles me so
much I find it difficult to attend to my duties. Today
I wrote to his Eminence Cardinal McCloskey, Arch
bishops Purcell, Kenrick, Wood and Williams, asking
them to assist me in obtaining as my coadjutor cum jure
successions the Bishop of Richmond." 6
The time was ripe for the decisive change in Bishop
Gibbons' career. Events moved fast. In May, 1877,
he was appointed titular Archbishop of Janopolis and
coadjutor to the incumbent of the See of Baltimore, with
the right of succession; and when that prelate died at
Newark, October 3, in the same year, he succeeded to the
post at once.
These events are briefly recorded in his journal thus:
"May 15 [1877]. Received a telegram to-night
from Mr. McMaster,7 stating that I was preconized Co
adjutor Bishop of Baltimore cum jure successionis. Fiat
voluntas tua. In manu tua sortes mea.
0 The Rev. M. J. Riordan, The Catholic Church in the United States
of America, Vol. 2, p. 31.
'James A. McMaster, Editor of the New York Freeman's Journal-

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 175
"July 26. Returned from a vacation tour to Bos
ton, Portland, Montreal and Niagara Falls after an
absence of three weeks. Father Gaitley 8 accompanied
me. "Aug. 1. The bulls appointing me Bishop of Janop-
olis in partibus, and releasing me from the charge of the
diocese of Richmond, arrived by mail from Rome today.
"2. Very Rev. Dr. Dubreul 9 writes that the bulls
appointing me coadjutor to the Archbishop of Baltimore,
cum jure success, were forwarded to him from Philadel
phia by Archbishop Wood, who was the bearer of them
from Rome. May God give me light to know my duty
and strength to fulfil it.
"27. Repaired to Newark, where the Most Rev.
Archbishop10 is sojourning after his return from Europe.
His health is so precarious and critical that I anointed
him on the morning of the 29th.
"Sept. 5. I have written to the Holy Father,
acknowledging receipt of the bulls appointing me to
Baltimore, thanking his Holiness for his confidence in
me and accepting the charge.
"28. Father Janssens lx arrived from Europe. With
the concurrence of the Archbishop, I have appointed him
administrator of Richmond and North Carolina sede
vacante. Summoned by telegram, I left for Newark to
see the Archbishop, who is reported to be dying.
"Oct. 3. This morning, about 10:30, the Most Rev.
James R. Bayley, Archbishop of Baltimore, died in
Newark after a prolonged illness. His death was peace
able and without a struggle. May his soul this day be
in peace."
"His former classmate, for many years pastor of St. Patrick's Church,
Baltimore. "Superior of St. Mary's Seminary and Vicar General of the Arch
diocese of Baltimore.
^Bayley. Vicar General of the diocese of Richmond; afterward Archbishop
of New Orleans.

176 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The funeral of Archbishop Bayley in the Baltimore
Cathedral, October 9, was marked by many tributes of
clergy and people to the work of that remarkable man.
Cardinal McCloskey, of New York, who had been raised
to the Sacred College two years before; Archbishop Wood
of Philadelphia, Archbishop Gibbons and many Bishops
and priests were present at the services. Bishop Thomas
Foley, of Chicago, delivered the funeral discourse, re
calling the exceptional contributions which Bayley had
made to the progress of the Catholic Church and the
spiritual welfare of the American people.
The Archbishop had asked that when his labors were
ended his body should rest near the grave of his aunt,
Mother Seton, who introduced the Sisters of Charity into
the United States. It was taken to Emmitsburg, and
lowered into the vault beside all that was mortal of that
saintly woman.12
The journal of Gibbons sets at rest a misconception
which attained considerable currency. He had continued
to reside in Richmond up to the time of Bayley's death.
Some of the canonists were disposed to put forward the
contention that as he had not transferred his seat to
Baltimore he could not rightfully succeed to the arch
bishopric, and that the process of selection would have
to be carried out again. When he moved in and took
possession as Archbishop of Baltimore in October, they
softened their contention by asserting that as possession
was nine points of the law it was useless to raise the
question of the tenth point. Gibbons was considered by
some of these observers to have settled the matter with
a Riordan, Cathedral Records, p. 85.

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 177
a coup, though the quotations from his journal just given
show that all the formalities of his transfer had been
complied with.
When he removed his residence to the archiepiscopal
house in his native city, there to spend the remainder of
his days, he was at the halfway point of his life. It is
an interesting circumstance that the span before him was
then exactly forty-three years, his age upon his elevation
to the archbishopric.
That the new Archbishop began his administration
with the vigor which marked it throughout, is shown by
these entries in his journal recording his earliest activi
ties and impressions in the seat which he was to occupy
so long:
"Oct. 19 [1877]. I arrived in Baltimore, my future
home, from Richmond and immediately entered on my
new duties. The clergy attached to the Cathedral are
Rev. Thomas S. Lee (rector), Rev. W. E. Starr (chan
cellor) and Rev. Alfred Curtis (secretary), all pious,
zealous and accomplished gentlemen, as far as my ob
servation and information enable me to judge.
"23. I attended a meeting in regard to the American
College, Rome. The meeting took place in the Cardi
nal's house, New York, and was attended by the prelates
composing the Executive Committee, viz., his Eminence,
the Archbishops of Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia,
and the Bishops of Newark and Hartford. Bishop Lynch
was also present.
"22. I visited Rock Hill (College), where I was
hospitably entertained by the Brothers. Several priests
and laymen were present.
"27. I visited Woodstock 13 and met with a very
A seat of the Jesuits in Howard County, Maryland.

178 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
flattering reception from the fathers and students. The
Provincial, Father Brady, accompanied me from Balti
more. "29. I made a visitation to the Carmelite Convent
in company with Father Hespelin, C. SS. R., the chap
lain. I found the sisters in excellent health notwith
standing — or rather because of — their abstemiousness,
and a good spirit appears to pervade the community.
"30. Captain William Kennedy, of happy memory,
left $5000 that the capital should be invested and masses
be said for himself and family from the interest accruing.
This $5000 had been invested in city bonds until to
day, when I had the amount transferred to city stock:
$300 a year is the interest on the $5000, which is divided
equally among the three Cathedral clergy, who are
obliged to say annually one hundred masses for Mr.
Kennedy and family. The rector of the Cathedral is
charged with the duty of carrying out the terms of this
fund. This bequest is duly recorded on a bronze tablet
in the sacristy."
The new Archbishop at once gave evidence of his keen
judgment of men, perhaps unexcelled in his time. For
the vacant bishopric of Richmond his choice was the Rev.
John J. Keane,14 then assistant pastor of St. Patrick's
Church, Washington, whom he considered — thus he
wrote — "a rare combination of head and heart." Gib
bons set down as follows in his journal the steps taken to
select his successor in Virginia :
"Oct. 20 [1877]. I invited the Bishops of the prov
ince to attend a meeting at my residence for the pur
pose of making nominations for the vacancy of Rich-
" Afterward the first rector of the Catholic University of America and
Archbishop of Dubuque.

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 179
mond. All the Bishops excepting Dr. Moore of St. Au
gustine were present, viz., Bishops Lynch, Becker, Gross
and Kain. The following names were agreed upon:
Mgr. Chatard, Rev. J. J. Keane, Assistant Pastor of St.
Patrick's, Washington, and Rev. Harry Northrop of
Charleston. "Dec. 7. Wrote to Cardinal Franchi in relation to
the Richmond appointment, strongly recommending Rev.
Father Keane and expressing the fear that the removal
of Mgr. Chatard at the present juncture from the rector
ship of the American College would be injurious to the
College. "Aug. 1 [1878]. The bulls which were forwarded
to me for Dr. Keane of Richmond from Rome April 13
arrived to-day. The post office officials of Baltimore,
not being acquainted with Italian, did not understand
the name 'Giacomo' and advertised the letter 'G. Gib
bons.' Not being called for, it was sent to the Dead
Letter Office, New York, whence it was recovered after
I had made some investigations at the Post office."
The vicariate of North Carolina was more difficult to
fill. For this place Archbishop Gibbons recommended
the humble and devoted priest who had willingly shared
his labors and privations at the outset of his episcopal
career. He recorded in his journal :
"March 17 [1880]. Definite information has
reached me in reference to the appointment by the Holy
See of the Rev. Mark S. Gross to the Vicariate of North
Carolina. I urged the appointment very strongly last
January. "April 6. Wrote to Cardinal Simeoni acknowledging
the receipt of the Apostolic briefs for Rt. Rev. M. S.
Gross and expressing the hope of soon meeting his
Eminence in Rome.

180 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Oct. 8. I wrote to Cardinal Simeoni in regard to
Father Mark Gross' resignation, hoping that it will be
accepted on account of his ill health and dread of the
responsibility, and suggesting that Bishop Keane be ap
pointed Administrator of North Carolina till a new
appointment is made."
The resignation of the simple-hearted Father Gross
had been presented at a meeting of the Bishops of the
province held in Baltimore. Gibbons was greatly im
pressed when his protege, Bishop Keane, made a char
acteristic proposal to take up the work of the vicariate
and devote his full energies to it if the Holy See would
release him from the bishopric of Richmond. Setting
down an account of the meeting in his journal the Arch
bishop wrote:
"I shall refer his (Bishop Keane's) magnanimous prop
osition to Cardinal Simeoni with the suggestion that it
be not accepted."
Bishop Keane continued for some years to perform
the duties of both the bishopric and the vicariate, as
Gibbons had done before him. The vicariate was finally
filled by the appointment of the Rev. H. P. Northrop,
who had long labored as a priest in the field. Archbishop
Gibbons installed him in St. Thomas' Church, Wilming
ton, in January, 1882, returning to that city in the ful
ness of his new honors to greet his old flock.
None welcomed the Archbishop to Baltimore with
more fervor than his former congregation at St. Bridget's,
where only twelve years before he had served in his only
pastorate. He thus recorded his return to them in his
new Capacity:

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 181
"Dec. 2 [1877]. I preached at High Mass in St.
Bridget's Church on 'Sanctity' and at Vespers I con
firmed. The pews and galleries were crowded and a good
portion of the aisles filled.
"6. I attended St. Bridget's fair with Dr. Foley."
Gibbons had already developed out of his many-sided
nature a warm interest in work for the reclamation of
wayward boys, which he retained throughout his life.
He wrote:
"Oct. 23 [1877]. I presided at a meeting of the
trustees of St. Mary's Industrial School, at which we
agreed to purchase the building known as the Black
Horse Tavern, at the corner of High and Low Streets
(Baltimore), from William A. Stewart, trustee. The
purchase was afterward effected by William H. Ward,
property agent, for $11,700. The building will be used
as a home for the boys who have been provided with
occupations in the city from St. Mary's Industrial School
and for other destitute boys. It will be in charge of the
Xavierian Brothers. Many 'arabs,' it is hoped, will be
thus reclaimed.
"Dec. 9. . . . At 3:30 I went to the Industrial
School with Dr. Chapelle, Col. Boone and Mr. Kerchner
and confirmed 105 boys. The institution now contains
370 boys and is in a very flourishing condition, being
supported jointly by the State, city and private charity.
"Nov. 4 [1878]. The fair for St. James' Home for
Boys 15 commenced this evening. Governor Carroll was
introduced at the fair by me and delivered an address.
Most of the city churches had tables at the fair.
"20. The gross receipts of St. James' fair amount
to $11,300.43."
"The institution at High and Low Streets, Baltimore, the purchase
of ground for which the Archbishop had arranged a short time before.

182 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Archbishop took so much interest in this fair that
he set down in his journal in detail the receipts obtained
at each table. His zeal for the institution continued and
his greatest preoccupations were not permitted to inter
fere with it.
The new head of the archdiocese began a series of ser
mons at the Cathedral which soon became, in a marked
degree, one of the attractions of the city. Non-Catholics
as well as Catholics who had known of him from his
work in Richmond crowded the pews and aisles to hear
him. Rarely he preached on a conversational theme;
never with a sensationalism designed to attract the un
thinking. He felt that the Gospel itself was strong
enough to draw men if it could be presented to them
with clearness and simplicity. He made no compromise
with truth and palliated no sin because of the mightiness
or the lowliness of those who practised it. As he cus
tomarily sustained his viewpoint from that of the
Apostles, many Protestants found more spiritual sus
tenance in his discourses than in those of their own
pastors. These sermons were begun soon after he had taken up
his duties in Baltimore. His journal contains these
entries :
"Dec. 16 [ 1877 J. I preached my first sermon at the
Cathedral since my appointment. (Third Sunday in Ad
vent, on 'The Presence of God.')
"31. Preached tonight at the Cathedral."
One of the last acts of Pius IX was to send the pallium
to Gibbons. The Archbishop's journal thus records:

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 183
"Dec. 10 [1877]. I received a cable dispatch from
Rev. Dr. O'Connell, stating that he sailed to-day from
Liverpool on the Germanic. He bears the pallium to
me from the Holy Father.
"22. Dr. O'Connell arrived this morning with the
pallium from Rome, with which I am to be invested Feb
ruary 10.
"Jan. 7 [1878]. The death of the Holy Father,
Pius IX, was announced about 1 P. M. to-day. Dis
patches were kindly forwarded to me from the telegraph
office as soon as they came.
"8. About 9 this morning I was officially notified by
Cardinal McCloskey of the Pope's death and was re
quested to communicate by telegraph the same intelli
gence to all the Archbishops of the country, which I did.
[Here is inserted the circular issued by Archbishop Gib
bons to the clergy and laity of the archdiocese, giving
directions for draping the churches in mourning for thirty
days and for Masses and the tolling of bells.]
"Feb. 10. This morning I received the pallium in
the presence of a large number of prelates and priests.
I was hesitating about proceeding with the ceremony in
consequence of the Holy Father's death, but yielded to
the judgment of the clergy and several prelates, includ
ing Cardinal McCloskey, whom I consulted and who ad
vised me not to postpone the ceremony."
The pallium was placed upon his shoulders by Bishop
Lynch, of Charleston, in the Cathedral of Baltimore.
That city has been distinguished since the time of Carroll
for the imposing character of its ecclesiastical ceremonies
and the procession from the archiepiscopal residence to
the church embraced a large gathering of the Hierarchy
and clergy, not one of whom lived to see the completion
of the career of the man whom they had assembled to

184 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
honor. There were Corrigan, of Newark, destined to
succeed to the See presided over by the venerable Mc
Closkey and to measure his strength against Gibbons in
many a controversy regarding policies of the Church in
America; Spalding, of Peoria, who was then full of his
great project of founding the Catholic University; Kain,
of Wheeling, afterward Archbishop of St. Louis; Gross,
of Savannah, soon to be Archbishop of Oregon; Foley, of
Chicago, close friend of Gibbons from early days; Becker,
of Wilmington, Delaware, also bound to him by ties of
personal intimacy, and Fitzgerald, of Little Rock,
opponent of the decree of Papal infallibility passed by
the Vatican Council until the Pope had proclaimed it.
Archbishop Williams, of Boston, upholder of the hands
of Archbishop Gibbons on many a trying occasion, was
the senior in rank at the ceremony. America then had
no Apostolic Delegate, but Bishop Conroy, of Ardagh,
delegate of the Holy See to Canada, was present.
Such a gathering of leaders of the Catholic faith in
the old Cathedral could not fail to be inspired by its
surroundings. Bishop Lynch, in his discourse, was moved
to rehearse in outline what this Church, assembled in
the plenitude of her power, had done for society, truth,
virtue and science. He recalled that men still lived who
could remember when Carroll was the only American
Archbishop, while his successor could now count ten other
Archbishops and sixty Bishops whose authority stretched
from ocean to ocean. Never, he said, had the Church
in America been stronger and truer in faith nor more
united for aggressive work in pursuit of her mission.
Men were needed to control like skilled pilots the marvel-

CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,
BALTIMORE

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 185
ous progress of this undertaking and it was a cause of
congratulation that Baltimore had an Archbishop who
had already given promise of being a worthy successor
of the eminent prelates who had preceded him. Re
ferring to the fact that he was placing upon Archbishop
Gibbons the last pallium bestowed by Pius IX, he paid
an eloquent tribute to the long labors of that Pontiff.
As the Archbishop rose to reply he gazed, not like a
stranger sent into a new field, upon the faces of strangers,
not as in Wilmington and Richmond upon men and
women who had scarcely heard of him before, but upon
a crowded congregation of the leading people of Balti
more, many of whom for years he had counted as his
friends. Here at last he was at home ; here in this vener
able church the greatest work of his life could find ex
pression. Replying to Bishop Lynch, he said :
"The See of Baltimore is indeed replete with historical
interest, whether we consider its venerable antiquity as
far as that term can be applied to a nation as young as
ours, or whether we consider the illustrious line of
prelates who have presided over its destinies. The morn
ing of Bishop Carroll's consecration in 1790 brings us
back to the dawn of our American history, which followed
the dark and eventful night of our American Revolution.
Washington sat in the Presidential chair. The elder
Adams, Jefferson and Madison were still in the full vigor
of active political life; the United States as then con
stituted had a population of 4,000,000; the City of
Baltimore, which now rejoices in its hundreds of thou
sands of souls, had only 14,500; while the Catholic popu
lation of the United States at that time may be estimated
at 25,000 souls, or less than one-quarter of the present
Catholic population of Baltimore.

186 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"But if this See of Baltimore is venerable for its
antiquity, it is still more conspicuous for that bright con
stellation of prelates who diffused their light over the
American Church as well as over this diocese. It is not
necessary that I should enlarge upon the greatness of
these eminent men; for many of them were personally
known to yourselves by familiar acquaintance. . . .
"Otherwise I might speak of Bishop Carroll, who
possessed the virtues of a Christian priest with the patri
otism of an American citizen. I might speak of a Neale
'whose life was hidden with Christ in God' ; of a Mare-
chal, who united in his person the refined manners of a
French gentleman with the sturdy virtues of a pioneer
prelate; of a Whitfield, who expended a fortune in the
promotion of piety and devotion; of the accomplished
Eccleston, who presided with equal grace and dignity in
the professor's chair, on this throne and at the council
of Bishops; of a Kenrick, whose praise is in the churches,
and who not only adorned this See by his virtues but also,
I might say, illuminated all Christendom by his vast
learning. "I might speak of a Spalding, whose paternal face is
to this day stamped upon your memories and affections,
whose paternal rule I myself had the privilege of experi-,
encing and whose very name does not fail, even at this
day, to evoke feelings of heartfelt emotion; of a Bayley
I can simply say that those who knew him best loved him
most. His was a soul of honor. He never hesitated to
make any sacrifice when God's will and his own con
science demanded."
The Archbishop could not forego the expression in
public of the modest doubts of his own capacity which
he had recorded in his letter to Archbishop Bayley when
the appointment to Baltimore was first offered to him.
All who knew him felt that his words bore the stamp

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE 187
of deep sincerity when he alluded to the "alarm" which
he felt when called to that important See, because he
was to take up the lines fallen from the hands of the
strong man who had preceded him. If he was discour
aged, he said, by the sense of the weight of the obliga
tions resting upon him he had also, thanks to God, great
grounds of hope and confidence, and this confidence was
in the clergy of the diocese. He could say of them as
he had said of the priests of Richmond, that they en
joyed an honored reputation among the clergy of the
country. He wished to say that he confided in his brethren of
the regular and secular clergy. They would labor to
gether in promoting the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, in
vindicating the claims of the Apostolic See and in foster
ing faith, charity, religion, piety and pure patriotism,
which would flourish still more in the favored State of
Maryland, "the land of sanctuary and the asylum of
civil and religious liberty." He signalized his grasp of
local circumstances in the State by giving an especial
expression of his confidence in the Jesuits, the "glorious
pioneers of the Cross in this region." In conclusion the
new Archbishop asked his hearers to pray for the Pontiff
whose soul had just been released from the bonds of
earth.16 " Catholic Mirror, February 16, 1878.

CHAPTER IX
PREIATE OF THE PEOPLE
Non-Catholics vied with Catholics in applauding the
selection of Gibbons for the See of Baltimore. He was
the first native of the city to fill the archbishopric, whose
associations, more than those of any other in America,
were interwoven with the birth of religious liberty and
of the Catholic faith and Hierarchy among English
speaking people on the continent.
The pioneer days of North Carolina were but a
memory now. His task was to strengthen the founda
tions of the Church in the oldest diocese of America; to
multiply her efforts in the city where she had found her
most congenial home. At once he became a leading
figure in the community, apart from "his ecclesiastical
office. It had not been the fashion for Catholic Arch
bishops, nor, indeed, for Bishops of any other faith, to
take part in the complex activities of life in a modern
American city. They had rather sought seclusion and
had regarded the boundary of ecclesiastical duty as one
beyond which they ought not to trespass. Mingling with
the world had seemed to them to be a contamination or
a compromise with the material life.
Not so with Archbishop Gibbons. He was among
and of the people. His predecessors in the See had been
scarcely known to non-Catholics. He became so well-
188

PRELATE OF THE PEOPLE 189
known that in a short time he was as familiar to them
and perhaps as much beloved by them as by Catholics.
On one occasion, when he was passing through the streets
with a visitor, they came to the door of a beautiful
church from which a large congregation was beginning
to emerge. Archbishop Gibbons was saluted so often,
and gave so many salutes in return, that his companion
remarked :
"You seem to be well acquainted in this parish?"
"Ah!" he replied. "These are our Episcopalian
friends." He felt from the beginning that the lingering trace of
distrust of the Catholic Church and Hierarchy by cer
tain elements of the people was due in large part to a
lack of understanding. One of his great purposes was
to remove this cloud, to bring out the Church into the
brilliant light of public observation among Americans,
that all might see her mission and the mission of her
priesthood as being a spiritual one. He yielded to none
in his devotion to American institutions and the govern
ment of the United States, and he felt that the influence
of the Church was for the perpetuity of law and order
and constituted authority. A student of history, an in
tense admirer of those great figures in American life who
had erected a nation of unexampled population and pros
perity where once the Indian had roamed through the
forest or pushed his canoe along the stream, he was fond
of recalling that Catholics had been among the first of
the pioneers who had helped to make the United States
what it is.
In his own Maryland the faith which he held had

190 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
been inseparably linked with the origin of the English
province founded by the Calverts on the banks of the
Potomac and the Chesapeake. Jesuits had borne aloft
the Cross to light the pathway of civilization westward,
along the Ohio and the Mississippi and down to the
Gulf, near the shores of which part of his youth had
been spent.1 These men of God had left enduring
memorials of their heroic sacrifices in the early days.
In the Revolution, Catholics had been eminent in the
halls of statesmanship and on the field of battle. None
craved more than they the full freedom of religion and
civil government which under Washington had been
won for the fringe of struggling colonies planted by ad
venturous Englishmen. They had felt far more than
Protestants the restraints of alien rule.
Almost simultaneous with the establishment of the new
nation had come the consecration of Carroll to found
the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United
States. The Church had grown and prospered as the
nation had become stronger. In every war and every
time of stress her members had been one with their Prot
estant brethren in their sterling examples of patriotism
and devotion to the common country.
Still, in Baltimore, as elsewhere, there was no deny
ing that some distrust of Catholics remained. It had been
too deep-seated a feeling to be erased in less than a cen
tury. The keynote of Gibbons' attitude was liberality.
As a churchman, none was more devoted to his Church;
'Hughes, History of the Society of Jesus in North America, Vol. II,
p. 255.

PRELATE OF THE PEOPLE 191
as an American, it was soon evident, none was more
devoted to America.
His strong nature was upheld by a deep and simple
faith that Providence directly guides the affairs of men;
and if his life be scanned for a striking instance to con
firm this view, surely none could have been more impres
sive than the circumstance that the month in which he
received the pallium was marked also by the elevation
to the Papacy of Leo XIII, with whose career his own
was to be so closely linked. These two men of advanced
and liberal ideas, each a Catholic of Catholics and at
the same time breathing the atmosphere of the times,
alert, progressive, knowing how to "take occasion by the
hand," labored concurrently in the most important
periods of their careers. With a less sympathetic Pontiff
the work of Gibbons would have been impossible; and
Leo did not hesitate to say again and again that the
encouragement and active help which he received from
the Archbishop of Baltimore formed one of the potent
influences that sustained him amid the hostility and mis
understanding with which he was often beset.
A memorandum in the Archbishop's journal for Feb
ruary 20, 1878, covers the elevation of Leo and also a
circumstance which left the way open for the second
American Cardinal to be the first from this country to
take part in the election of a Pope. He wrote :
"Feb. 20. I received from the Associated Press a
telegram announcing the election of Cardinal Pecci as
Supreme Pontiff under the name of Leo XIII after the
third ballot. . . . Cardinal McCloskey did not arrive

192 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in time for the conclave, having arrived in Queenstown
from New York on the 18th.
"March l. I sent the Holy Father a letter of con
gratulation." Gibbons' rare faculty of judging men was again in
evidence soon. Dr. Dubreul, the successor of the Arch
bishop's teacher, the Rev. Frangois L'Homme, as
superior of St. Mary's Seminary, died, and for the
vacancy he recommended the Rev. Alphonse L. Magnien
who, like Bishop Keane, exemplified Gibbons' favorite
type of a "rare combination of head and heart." Dr.
Magnien was one of the numerous body of men occupy
ing the lesser executive positions in the Catholic Church
who, if they had devoted their talents to material pur
suits, would be ranked as leaders of exceptional emi
nence. His influence upon the standards of the Ameri
can priesthood was broad and lasting. Following are
some entries in the Archbishop's journal bearing on this
change :
"April 23 [1878]. Very Rev. Dr. Dubreul, Vicar
General of the diocese and superior of the seminary, was
buried to-day within the seminary grounds, having died
on Saturday last, the 20th (Easter Saturday). A very
large number of the clergy of the diocese and some from
other dioceses, including Bishop Shanahan, were present.
I celebrated the Mass and Rt. Rev. J. J. Keane, Bishop-
elect of Richmond, preached an appropriate discourse.
Dr. Dubreul came to this country in 1850 and in i860
succeeded Rev. Father L'Homme as Superior of the Semi
nary. His death is a great loss to the Seminary, to
the diocese and to me. R. I. P.

PRELATE OF THE PEOPLE 193
"May 10. I appointed Rev. Father McColgan Vicar
General in place of Dr. Dubreul, deceased.
"June 5. I wrote to the Superior General of the
Sulpicians in Paris advising the election of Father
Magnien as superior of the seminary in Baltimore. The
superior general asked me to give my opinion on the
subject." Father Magnien was essentially a practical man with
a clear vision and sound judgment; unshaken on ques
tions of principle, but still adapting himself to circum
stances with rare tact. Gibbons and he were soon in full
accord on the ideals of the priesthood and the methods
by which these might be realized through the training
at St. Mary's, the mother of so many devoted "ambassa
dors of Christ." The settled purpose of both was to
develop men of God and at the same time more practical
men, who would know how to reach out widely with
strong personal appeal in the communities which they
served. Magnien fully shared the view of the Archbishop that
it was necessary for priests to be more in touch with the
times and that they must accomplish this without in
the least detracting from the sacred character of their
calling. They felt that priests must have a redoubled
interest in the temporal as well as in the spiritual affairs
of their flocks and must be able to meet them out of
church as well as at the altar and in the confessional.
They wished them to know the laws, the institutions,
the spirit of their country; to share with liberal minds
and active help in movements for social betterment, for
economic progress, for anything that would lift men.

194 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
There is a great gap between this ideal which they did
so much to set before American priests and the sensation-
monger who clutches at merely transient events as mate
rial for constructing something to draw a congregation,
which might be repelled by his shallowness and bigotry
if he trod the even path of the Gospel.
For more than a quarter of a century Dr. Magnien
exercised a deep influence upon the Church in America.
He was the constant companion and adviser of the head
of the See of Baltimore during that long period, being
one of a small body of men on the order of a cabinet
of state whom the Archbishop was in the habit of con
sulting. At the death of Magnien in December, 1902,
the Archbishop, who had then long been a Cardinal, wrote
the preface for a memorial volume on the priest and
teacher in which he said that Magnien had been "the
half of my soul." He paid his tribute thus:
"For five and twenty years I was associated with Dr.
Magnien by the ties of unbroken friendship and of al
most daily intercourse. . . . He had the happy faculty
of grasping the salient points of a question with intuitive
vision. His judgment of men and measures was rarely
at fault. He was in the habit of giving me his estimate
of the ethical and moral standards and characteristic
traits of the newly ordained priests ; he would even fore
shadow their future careers as developed in the labors of
the ministry. The subsequent lives of these clergymen
usually verified the forecasts of the sagacious observer.
... I have been so accustomed to consult the venerable
abbe on important questions and to lean upon him in
every emergency that his death is a rude shock to me

PRELATE OF THE PEOPLE 195
and I feel as if I had lost a right arm. He was, indeed,
the half of my soul." 2
Archbishop Gibbons, with his zest for the picturesque
and the historic, thoroughly enjoyed a group of experi
ences in southern Maryland which come to every suc
cessor of Carroll. In the counties of that part of the
State, whose traditions reach far back, there is an aspect
of religious life which carries a trace of the times when
baronial estates were set up in the lofty forests and on
the brilliant green plains of that favored region under
the aegis of the lords proprietor, whose powers, secured
by charter, made them viceroys of the wilderness.3 Upon
their ample acres the priest was a man of power and
leadership second only to the master of the manor, and
the Sunday Mass in the church or chapel was the prin
cipal social as well as religious event of the week.
The Calverts themselves were rural barons and in
the earlier stages of their colonial project they looked
to a reproduction of their own social life in the new
commonwealth which they planted. The unexpectedly
independent course of the early assemblies at St. Mary's
interfered with a full realization of this aim; but it was
true that, despite the violence of the Cromwellian period
and the grievous discriminations in religion which fol
lowed the accession of William III, Maryland was the
only colony in English speaking America in which
wealthy Catholics founded large estates and handed them
down from father to son.4
Very Rev. A. L. Magnien, a Memorial, pp. 5-8.
Charter of Maryland, Scharf, Vol. I, pp. 58, 59.
Burton, Life and Times of Bishop Chaloner, Vol. II, pp. 128, 130.

196 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
In the rural churches it was and still is a novel sight
when the cavalcade of gentry assembles for High Mass
and the general interchange of social amenities. Slaves
as well as masters went to the services before the Civil
War, the negroes occupying seats in galleries set apart
for them and still reserved, in some cases, for their
emancipated descendants. The blacks were instructed
and trained with patient persistence in the practises of
the Catholic faith, whose ministrations contributed to
securing good treatment for them and making them con
tented with their lot. It was a common saying that "a
Catholic negro is a good negro." The confession and
penance, as well as the sacred character which they will
ingly acknowledged in the priesthood, exercised a power
ful restraining influence upon them. While the Church
in no sense sympathized with slavery as an institution,
submission to constituted authority was taught to the
negro, and the responsibility of exercising authority with
mildness and justice was impressed upon the master.
Nature and training had made Gibbons an apostle
who delighted in going from one community to another,
inspiring pastors and flocks with new zeal in the cause
of religion, buying a lot for a church here, aiding a build
ing fund there, preaching, confirming and meeting the
people in their homes. In Southern Maryland that part
of his disposition found full scope. He wrote in his
journal: "May 12 [1878]. Sunday; I administered con
firmation and preached at White Marsh Church, Prince
George's County, having arrived the evening before by

PRELATE OF THE PEOPLE 197
(the) Pope's Creek Road 5 from Calvert Station 6 at 4
p. m. The nearest station to White Marsh is Collington,
distant about two and a half miles. The church at
White Marsh (or rather the mission) is one of the oldest
in the State and country. Sunday evening I paid a visit
by invitation to Governor Bowie, who lives about four
miles off."
After this visitation the Archbishop returned to Balti
more, charmed with the hospitality which he had received
and which at that time preserved almost completely the
atmosphere of the ante-bellum South. He soon set out
again for the same region, as his journal shows:
"June 7. I reached St. Inigoes, St. Mary's County,
with Father Curtis, with a view of administering con
firmation throughout the county. We drove to the site
of old St. Mary's town, about six miles distant, which
was the original seat of government of the Maryland
colony. St. Inigoes is one of the oldest if not the oldest
church in the country, or rather the present church is
built near the site of the oldest church. The place is
replete with sacred traditions. Across the St. Mary's
River is Rosecroft, illustrated by the pen of J. P. Ken
nedy in his 'Rob of the Bowl,' 7 which I can see from
the porch of this house of the Jesuit Fathers where I am
staying. "9. I preached and confirmed at St. Inigoes sixty-
four persons, of whom three were converts. The con
gregation was very large and the weather delightful.
"10. An entertainment was given today to the mem
bers of the congregation, the proceeds being devoted to
"Railroad.'Baltimore.
'A novel which was widely read in the middle of the nineteenth
century.

198 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the new Church of St. Michael, now in course of con
struction near Point Lookout.8 I addressed the assem
blage before the dinner, which was followed by an im
promptu tournament." 9
Facilities of transportation in Southern Maryland were
then scanty and the Archbishop did not lack adventure
in his journey. He thus chronicled one of his experi
ences :
"June 12. After spending last night at Mrs. Keys'
we went to St. George's, where I preached and confirmed
thirty, including six converts. (The) same evening we
drove to Mr. Greenwell's at Lady's Chapel, eight miles
distant. On our way we had an adventure. One of the
horses harnessed to the carriage could be induced only
with the greatest difficulty to ascend the hills. Finally
we came to a creek about four hundred feet wide. When
the carriage reached the centre of the creek he obstinately
refused to move. After patiently sitting in the carriage
for an hour hoping for something to turn up we saw a
man at a distance whom we hailed and who procured
us a boat in which Father Curtis and myself came ashore.
The refractory horse was unharnessed in the water and
the carriage drawn ashore. Our young driver was very
exultant because he did not once swear during the long
ordeal." On July l of the same year the Archbishop was the
guest of Governor Carroll at Carroll Manor, in Howard
County, on which estate, as a young student at St.
8 In St. Mary's County.
"Southern Maryland is one of the few districts in the United States
where large public entertainments of a novel character called tourna
ments are still given. The knights, dressed gaily in bright colors, tilt
with long and sharply painted lances at rings suspended from posts.
Some of the customs of medieval chivalry survive in these entertain
ments.

PRELATE OF THE PEOPLE 199
Charles' College, near-by, he had tramped the leafy
roads for diversion in the intervals of his preparation for
the priesthood. He attended on that occasion the first
commencement of his alma mater since his elevation to
the archbishopric.

CHAPTER X
BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE
Washington being in the diocese of Baltimore, Gib
bons made several visitations there soon after he
became Archbishop. The inclusion of the National Cap
ital in the See had seemed to the other Archbishops since
Carroll to impose the necessity of vigilance in preserving
aloofness from public affairs. But Gibbons had more
than a diocesan mind, even more than a national mind.
His was a world mind and at last it could begin to reach
out fully when he had been installed in a post of high
authority. His natural breadth of ideas had found
scope in the Second Plenary Council and the Vatican
Council, though their expression on those occasions had
been restricted on account of his youth. In North Caro
lina and Virginia circumstances had imposed a further
restraint upon him. Now as Archbishop of Baltimore he
was free to stand revealed as his true self.
His relations with Presidents of the United States
soon began through natural processes. The Archbishop
of Baltimore is a member of important boards and
bureaus of the Church and Gibbons became greatly in
terested in the work of one of these which has to do with
missions among the Indians. This was the cause which
brought him in contact with Hayes at the White House
in the same year in which he received the pallium; and
200

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 201
Admiral Ammen, a retired naval officer, whose home
was in Maryland not far from Washington, was the
means of establishing the contact. Gibbons wrote in
his journal:
"Jan. 3 [1878]. I visited by invitation Admiral
Ammen, of Ammendale, thirteen miles from Washington,
with a view of inspecting a lot of five acres which he
proposes to donate for a church. The Admiral has an
interesting family of four children and is a convert. He
is a particular friend of ex-President Grant, from whom
he had just received an affectionate letter (from Europe)
in which he playfully referred to the fact that the Ad
miral had saved his (the President's) life from drowning
when both were lads.
"Aug. 14. I wrote to Admiral Ammen in reply to a
letter from him stating that the President would be
pleased to see me in regard to the Catholic Indians. The
President acknowledged the superiority of the Catholic
missionaries over all others in benefitting the Indians."
The company of the popular and patriotic Archbishop
was sought by Catholics of prominence in Washington at
dinner parties, at which he met many of the leaders in
all departments of the Government. He continued to
attend these dinners at intervals throughout his life and
soon acquired an exceptional acquaintance among influ
ential men at the capital. The first of the entertain
ments of that kind at which he was present was held at
the house of a New York Senator early in 1878. The
Archbishop thus noted it :
"March 26. On Monday (the) 25th, I dined at U. S.
Senator Kernan's (in Washington) with himself and
family, Senators Bayard, Johnston, of Virginia, and
Stephenson, of Kentucky, and Mr. R. T. Marriott."

202 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
. On the same day he wrote :
"Among those that I confirmed in Georgetown was the
widow of President Tyler."
He met President Hayes on subsequent occasions, as
shown by this paragraph in his journal :
"July 6 [1879]. I wrote to Cardinal Simeoni of
the good feeling which now exists between the civil
authorities and the Church, manifested by the President
and cabinet attending our college commencement, by the
Governor doing likewise and by the lately enacted law
remitting to a great extent the tax on church property."
In common with all Americans, Archbishop Gibbons
felt the deep shock when President Garfield was shot and
fatally wounded by an assassin July 2, 1881. He
promptly issued a circular letter to the clergy of the
diocese expressing his horror at the deed and directing
prayers for the President's recovery. The circular read:1
"ARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE,
"Baltimore, July 5, 1881.
"Rev. and dear Sir: —
"You in common with all others have heard with
amazement and horror of the late attempted assassina
tion of His Excellency the President of the United States.
It is scarcely possible to imagine a deed more appalling
to men or more iniquitous before God ; for if it is such a
crime to slay even a private citizen, what an enormity it
is to attempt the death of one who, while representing the
whole nation, is also as to matters temporal the highest
vice-gerent of God himself in the land? And the act of
the assassin is the more heinous since he had neither a
1 Archiepiscopal archives preserved in the Baltimore Cathedral; re
ferred to on subsequent pages as Cathedral archives, Baltimore.

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 203
private grievance to avenge nor the semblance of a public
wrong to redress.
"Our detestation of the wretch who has stricken down
our head is yet increased when we add to the official dig
nity of the sufferer his accessibility and affability to all
and his committing, like all his predecessors, his personal
safety entirely to the good will and good sense of those
over whom he presides. Well may we stand aghast when
in this crime we see the mischief of which a single in
dividual is capable when he has once ceased to fear God,
to value man and to dread the consequences of giving free
scope to his own passions.
"In the face, then, of this most hideous deed, we are
called upon to express our loathing of the crime and our
deep sympathy for him whom this crime has placed in
such great suffering and such imminent peril. For while
the Catholic Church is happily above all parties and is.
far from the wish to take to herself the decision of the,
very transient and as a rule not very momentous ques
tions as to which these parties are at issue, yet none more
than the Catholic Church inculcates respect for every
duly constituted authority or more reprobates or threatens
everything by which such authority is assailed.
"You will, therefore, with all the power at your com
mand, urge your people to pray during Mass and at other
times for the recovery of his Excellency and on Sunday
next, should he then still survive, you will say in his
behalf, before or after Mass and together with all your
people, the Litany of the Saints, as at once entreating
God to spare his life and also as making an act of expia
tion for a crime which pertains to us as a nation and not
only concerns but tarnishes us all.
"Very faithfully,
"Your servant in Christ "James,
"Archbishop of Baltimore."

204 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Archbishop instructed his secretary, Father Curtis,
to send to Mrs. Garfield a copy of the circular with the
following note :
"To Mrs. James A. Garfield.
"Madam: "I am instructed by his Grace, the Archbishop of Balti
more, to transmit to you the accompanying circular ad
dressed by him to the clergy of his diocese and at the
same time to express to you his profound sympathy with
you in the sore affliction which has so suddenly and so
unrighteously befallen you.
"In assuring you of his sympathy he speaks not for
himself only, but for all Catholics. We all pray that
God may support you in your suspense and in due time
give relief to you and to the whole nation in his Ex
cellency's recovery.
"I have the honor to be, madam, with great respect,
"Your faithful servant in Christ,
"A. A. Curtis,
"Secretary to the Most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore."
Further developments are indicated thus in the Arch
bishop's journal:
"July 5 [1881]. The President, on being informed
that I have issued the circular, said to Col. Rockwell:
'Bless the good will of the people' ; and Mrs. Garfield in
a note to Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren, expressed her thanks
and promised to show the circular to the President on
his recovery.
"August 1. I wrote to Cardinal Simeoni an account
of the attempted assassination, referring to the letters
of the American Bishops on the subject and the gratitude
for the Catholic sympathy and prayers."

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 205
After the death of President Garfield on September
19, the Archbishop took occasion in a sermon in the Balti
more Cathedral to answer the doubts as to the efficacy of
prayer which had been raised in the minds of some by the
fatal ending of the President's illness despite the united
petitions of the nation. This sermon attracted marked
attention, not only on account of the tension of the times,
but on account of its general application and the source
from which it came. Following are extracts which illus
trate the tenor of it :
"Has not the death of the President, notwithstanding
the prayers that were offered for his recovery, tempted
some of you to doubt the efficacy of prayer? Will not
some one say in his heart, as a certain person said to me :
'I have prayed for the life of the President and prayed
in vain; my family prayed for him; this congregation
prayed for him; the City of Baltimore prayed for him;
the State prayed for him ; the nation prayed for him and
prayed in vain. How can you reconcile the rejection of
our prayers with the promise of our Lord when He says
'Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name shall
be granted unto you"?
"You see I put the objection as strongly as possible.
I answer, notwithstanding your objection, that these
words of our Savior are most true : 'Ask and you shall
receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be
opened unto you.' No good prayer ever goes unanswered.
If a single drop of water is never unhallowed, still less is
the smallest prayer uttered in vain that ascends to the
throne of Grace.
"And now in reply I affirm that God answers our
prayers in one of two ways — either directly or indirectly.
Sometimes he grants us the direct and specified objects

206 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of our petitions : sometimes he denies us the direct object
of our prayers but grants us something equivalent or even
better than we ask for. Just as a prudent father with
holds from his child a dangerous toy and gives him in
stead something harmless and useful, so our heavenly
Father gives us what to him seems best and our wisdom
is but folly compared to the infinite wisdom of God.
"First: In regard to the President, if God in re
sponse to your prayers did not save his life he has done
more. He has saved the life and preserved the peace of
the nation. And the life of the nation is of more value
than the life of any individual.
"Second: He was pleased to prolong his life for
nearly three months after he received the fatal wound.
Had he died immediately from the wound, what terrible
consequences might have followed! So intense at the
moment was public feeling, so strong (though most un
just) was the suspicion aroused against the members of a
certain political party, so bitter was the animosity engen
dered by these suspicions that if the President had imme
diately died it needed but a spark to ignite the flame. The
first assassination might have been followed by others and
anarchy and confusion and sedition might have reigned
supreme for a time. But God mercifully spared his life
till the excitement subsided, when cool reason would
regain her throne and men could plainly see that the
assassination was the work of one man alone, having no
collusion with anybody else.
"Third: As another fruit of our prayers, God has in
spired the nation with a greater abhorrence of assassina
tion and a greater reverence for the Chief Magistrate of
the country.
"Fourth: Again, as another fruit of our prayers dur
ing the terrible ordeal through which we have passed,
party spirit has yielded to the nobler and healthier senti
ment of patriotism. Men forgot for the time being that

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 207
they were of the North or the South; they forgot that
they were Stalwarts or Conservatives, Republicans or
Democrats, administration or anti-administration men.
They remembered only that they were Americans.
"Let us remember that the chief object of prayer is not
to ask_and receive favors of God. That were a narrow,
selfish consideration. God forbid that He should always
grant us according to the desires of our hearts : this would
be abandoning us to our own folly and the withdrawing
of His providence from us. We are always safe in leav
ing the result of our prayers to His discretion. The
primary motive of prayer is to acknowledge our filial de
pendence on God and His fatherly care of us.
"May God bless and preserve our beloved country!
While Presidents and administrations pass away may our
Government live and prosper! May it always rest on
the solid foundations of law and order and justice and
the devout recognition of an overruling Providence!
That is the only sure foundation for its permanent dura
tion." In the autumn of the same year Gibbons issued what
was perhaps the first official direction by a prelate of the
Catholic Church in conformity with the national observ
ance of Thanksgiving Day. That festival was then far
less widely celebrated than it has since come to be; in
parts of the country it was almost ignored. Its Puritan
origin was not relished by some, and clergymen of vari
ous creeds whose ways were not Puritan ways were dis
posed to pay scant attention to it.
Not until the time of Lincoln, indeed, did the custom
begin of issuing an annual presidential proclamation
exhorting the whole body of the people to demonstrate
in unison gratitude for the blessings of the year. Lin-

208 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
coin's precedent, born of the Civil War 2 and associated
in some minds with its strife and passions, excited revul
sion as well as assent. One of the strong influences which
contributed to the unified national feeling on this subject
that finally developed was the example of Archbishop
Gibbons. On November 14, 1881, he issued a circular to the
clergy and laity of the archdiocese of Baltimore, which
became a model for other Catholic Bishops who subse
quently joined in the program that he initiated. It read:
"St. Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, desires that
'prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for
kings and for all that are in high station, that we may
lead a quiet and peaceable life in all purity and chastity;
for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God Our
Savior.' If the Apostle felt it to be an imperative duty
to pray for the welfare of his rulers of the time, who were
manifestly hostile to the Christian religion, surely it
behooves us to pray with alacrity for the continued pros
perity of our beloved country, when we recall to mind
the many advantages which we enjoy as Christians and
citizens under our system of government. . . .
"We should pray for all our functionaries, both state
and national, that they may discharge the important
trusts confided in them with a due and conscientious re
gard for the interests of the people.
"We should also give thanks to the 'Giver of all good
gifts' not only for the blessings we have received from
His hands, but also for the tranquillity and peace we en
joy and for the harvest with which the land has been
generally favored.
"Although the Church every day through the voice of
her ministers returns thanks to God for His manifold
'Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. IV, pp. 320, 354.

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 209
gifts, there are special times and occasions when we
should render to Him a more public and solemn recogni
tion for the spiritual and temporal favors which He
vouchsafes to us. A fitting occasion will be presented
to us for offering to God the homage of our adoration
and gratitude on Thursday, November 24, a day specially
recommended for public and national thanksgiving by
the Chief Magistrate of the nation.
"You are therefore invited to exhort the members of
your congregation to assemble in church on that day and
to assist in Mass to be celebrated in an hour which you
will deem most convenient ; and at the close of the Mass,
the prayer of Archbishop Carroll for the authorities will
be recited."
The Archbishop himself delivered the Thanksgiving
sermon in the Baltimore Cathedral, in which he highly
commended the national custom to all Americans with
out distinction of creed, saying:
"It is a source of great satisfaction to every devout
Christian that the chief executive of our nation, as well
as the governors of the States, is accustomed once a year
to invite the people of the United States to return thanks
to God for His blessings to the country. The public act
of our chief magistrate in proclaiming the supreme do
minion and providence of our Creator cannot fail to
exert a salutary influence on our citizens at large, and to
secure for us a continuance of divine favors. Let each of
us, also, beloved brethren, be diligent in offering thanks
to God for the individual blessings we have received,
and then we may hope to be more abundantly refreshed
at the fountain of grace, for the prayer of thanksgiving
is a heavenly stream that flows into the ocean of Divine
love and returns to us again in showers of benediction."
Although Gibbons' mind and sympathies could not be

210 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
cramped within any locality, he had cherished from early
days a deep affection for his native city of Baltimore;
and the kindly and hospitable people who formed a large
part of its population found almost immediately upon
his induction into the See that he was ready at all times
to extend wholehearted and potent cooperation in their
public projects. Previously they had felt hesitancy in
calling upon the Archbishop of Baltimore, or any Protes
tant cleric among them, to participate in such affairs.
They had felt that the tradition of these offices was
ecclesiastical only, and that the attempt to trespass upon
it would be an unwarranted intrusion. The mass of the
people of the city had seen little of the men who presided
over the archdiocese. They had held the office in distant
deference as something detached from the material af
fairs of the community.
Gibbons brought a reversal of this. When Balti-
moreans prepared with a degree of public spirit rarely
found even in an American city for the observance in
1880 of its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary as a
municipality, they soon found that he was in hearty ac
cord with their plans. They were no less surprised than
delighted when he issued a circular to the clergy of the
city which he directed to be read in the churches on
Sunday, October 10, of that year, advising that Catholic
organizations should take an active part in the parades
and other festivities to be held and that the clergy and
the authorities of the parochial schools should march with
them. At the same time he exhorted the people to "avoid
all sinful excess" during the celebration. Extracts from
the circular are:

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 211
"The Catholics of Baltimore have already, as you are
aware, given to their fellow citizens unmistakable proofs
of their readiness to cooperate with them in making the
celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the founding of this great and beautiful city a com
plete success. This is as it should be, for the approaching
festivities will be a most fitting occasion for us to realize
the many advantages which we enjoy in this community,
to thank God for all His graces, especially for the
precious blessing of civil and religious liberty, as well as
to honor the memory of those farseeing men who founded
Baltimore, to whose wisdom and moderation its citizens
are, in a great measure, indebted under God for the free
dom and prosperity which they now enjoy. . . .
"But above all we should render our thanks to Him
who is the Giver of every good gift, who in His mercy
has cast our lot in a city founded on the land of the
Catholic Carrolls, whose Cathedral may not unjustly be
called the mother of episcopal Sees within the bounds
of the United States, a city whose inhabitants in the past
have witnessed the most interesting events of Catholic
history in this country." 3
Catholic organizations were especially numerous in
Baltimore and the host of them which responded to the
Archbishop's appeal contributed greatly to swell both in
numbers and in picturesqueness the parades of the cele
bration. Leading men of the city, who organized the
series of public spectacles which marked the occasion,
never ceased to remember with gratitude the active and
cordial help of the Archbishop. A Te Deum was sung in
the Catholic churches of Baltimore on the Sunday fol
lowing the civic observance.
"Cathedral Archiyes, Baltimore.

212 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
An entry in Gibbons' journal in that year was signifi
cant of coming problems that were to develop in the
Church. It read :
"April 10. [1880]. Wrote to same (Cardinal
Simeoni) in relation to a charge that the German people
were sometimes neglected by Bishops in this country and
in relation to the expediency of removing females from
our choirs. I stated that the charge was untrue as far as
my information extended and I declared the removal of
ladies from our choirs in my judgment impractical and
inexpedient." Catholic Bishops being required to go to Rome every
ten years, unless excused by the Pope, Archbishop Gib
bons made a visit ad limina in 1880. It was his first trip
to the Eternal City since the Vatican Council ten years
before, and was marked by his first meeting with Leo
XIII as Pontiff. Leaving Baltimore April 20, he sailed
from New York to Liverpool and proceeded by way of
London and Paris to Rome, where he spent twenty-three
days. He had two "delightful audiences of the Holy
Father" (thus he wrote in his journal), and a number
of conferences with Cardinals Simeoni and Nina, who
were particularly concerned with the affairs of the Church
in America. Cordiality met him on every hand, for the
new aspect which he was giving to the life and activities
of a Catholic Archbishop in the United States was well
known in Rome and had the complete approval of the
far sighted Leo.
That Pontiff, who had then sat for two years in the
chair of Peter, was beginning to formulate definitely the
enlightened and liberalizing policies which distinguished

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 213
his years in the Papacy. His thoughts were the thoughts
of Gibbons. His resolutions were the resolutions of
Gibbons. Each in his own sphere penetrated with clear
view the clouds of misunderstanding which then ob
scured the problems of the world to so many in high
places. They shared boldness of view and quickness of
decision. In Europe the Church had been compelled to deal with
governments, for only through governments, as political
society was then constituted, could she reach the people,
the salvation of whose souls was her overwhelming con
cern. But now there were the beginnings of a new align
ment. It was less necessary for the Church to consider
kings and prime ministers and various powerful individ
uals whose entrenched rights proceeded from birth or
tradition. True, in much of Europe parliaments were
feeble and the people, groping half blindly in the exer
cise of their new powers, fell into divisions which griev
ously obstructed them in the realization of their better
political and social hopes. But for Leo it was not nec
essary to wait until the transformation of the political
setting was complete so that all might discern its out
lines. His was the gift of vision and Gibbons' was the
gift of vision. To the Pontiff it was clear that in the
providence of God the Church must now appeal to peo
ples, and in a broad sense he aimed with unwavering
policy to cooperate with the great democracies of
America and France in promoting her expansion. His
ear was ready for the enlightened advice of Gibbons.
Like the Archbishop of Baltimore, he felt that the
wall which had obstructed the Church in the United

214 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
States must be permitted to stand no longer. It was
neither his wish nor that of Gibbons to combat prejudice
by merely denouncing it. They preferred to show by
luminous example which would guide the Church on a
new pathway that a Catholic was no less an American
because he was a Catholic — no less a citizen in the high
est and truest sense because his supreme spiritual shep
herd on earth was the Pope.
Gibbons took new hope and heart from his conferences
with Leo. The time was ripe for his work. When others
might doubt, delay or obstruct he felt that he might pro
ceed with sure step, looking to the wisdom and statesman
ship of the Pontiff with a reliance which would not fail
him. Refreshing himself with a leisurely trip homeward, he
stopped at Florence, Bologna, Verona and Innsbruck and
witnessed the Passion Play at Oberammergau. Then he
proceeded to Munich, Mayence, Cologne, Amsterdam,
Brussels and Paris. Crossing to England, he visited Lul-
worth Castle, where Archbishop Carroll had been conse
crated for the work that had now fallen into his hands
and which he was resolved to carry on in a vastly greater
field with the spirit which on the part of the first incum
bent of the See of Baltimore had won the unstinted ad
miration of Washington.
The great Victorian, Newman, was then at the summit
of his fame, basking in the full ecclesiastic favor which
brightened his later years. Archbishop Gibbons could
not forego a pilgrimage to the oratory of Edgbaston, near
Birmingham, whence the light of that master shone upon
the English speaking world. He reached Birmingham

BROADENLNG PUBLIC LIFE 215
on his own birthday, July 23, having been invited to
dine with the Cardinal, but, arriving too late, breakfasted
at Edgbaston the next day. Gibbons found Newman
exhibiting the simplicity of true greatness, living ab
stemiously and quietly. His cassock was a plain one of
black and his manners were as unostentatious as his
attire. The fountain of his brilliant conversation flowed
freely and the American prelate was charmed to discern
in his rounded sentences the same literary quality which
on the printed page was fascinating the world.
Newman talked freely with Gibbons of his then recent
trial on the charge of libeling the ex-priest Achilli and
of the prejudice which had beset him throughout the
progress of the case. The English Cardinal remarked
that Gladstone had asked his permission to propose a
resolution in the House of Commons apologizing to him
for the injury done but that he had declined this method
of vindication, preferring to trust to the impartial jus
tice which would come in time.
Gibbons bore away as treasures of the interview copies
of several of Newman's works autographed in the hand
that had held the pen from which their limpid sentences
had flowed. He remarked upon the "wealth of anecdote
and narrative" that came so abundantly from Newman.
Soon after his return to America, he was stricken by
a personal bereavement. His mother, whom he had often
visited in her declining years and the struggles of whose
untimely widowhood he vividly remembered, died at the
home of his sister.4 His journal of the following day
contains this simple entry :
'Mrs. Swarbrick, in New Orleans, May 7, 1883.

216 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"My dear mother died last night at the age of eighty
years. May she rest in peace."
Amid the greatest pressure of his career in the ecclesi
astical world he had never ceased to be solicitous of his
mother's welfare. Her strength of character had been
one of his most potent inspirations and he returned her
affection with a degree of filial devotion seldom observed
in the great or the small. Family ties remained strong
with him throughout his life. He continued to visit
New Orleans every Lent as the guest of his brother, John
T. Gibbons, who had risen to wealth as a grain merchant.
There, amid peaceful domestic scenes, his devotions of the
season were uninterrupted by the strain of public duty.
The uncertainty of human events in another direction
was strikingly illustrated by an experience of the Arch
bishop March 4, 1885, when Washington was resounding
with the acclamations of a multitude assembled at the
inauguration of President Cleveland, following the ex
citing campaign in which Mr. Blaine had been defeated.
His journal for that day has the following entry:
"Mrs. Walker (James G. Blaine's sister) was buried
from the Cathedral. Mr. Blaine was present. I was
assisted in the sanctuary by Father Curtis and preached."
Mr. Blaine had become his warm friend. On the occa
sion of a subsequent visit to the Archbishop, that striking
figure in American politics whom admiring ones loved
to call "the plumed knight," expressed himself as pro
foundly impressed with the vanity of earthly glorjr,
whose chief prize in his eyes had been snatched from
him. He enumerated on his fingers Presidents who had

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 217
been weighed down by the cares of state and whose pub
lic careers had been cut short suddenly by death.
The Archbishop had observed with interest that Mr.
Blaine's failure to obtain the coveted post of chief magis
trate had been due to the ill-judged speech of a Protes
tant clergyman 5 who had declared him to be the cham
pion against a party identified with "rum, Romanism and
rebellion." Gibbons' comment upon this was that the
Republican candidate would have been elected "were it
not for the ill-timed speech of a fanatical preacher." 6
The anarchist riots in Chicago, May 4, 1886, pro
foundly moved the Archbishop with a sense of danger to
the country. Preaching five days later at the dedication
of the Church of the Holy Cross, Baltimore, a large num
ber of whose members were of German birth, he de
nounced anarchy, socialism and nihilism with a vigor
that foreshadowed the powerful blows which he dealt
later to political radicalism in all its forms. He said :
"The Government of the United States is a govern
ment for the benefit of the people. Strangers from every
part of Europe are welcomed to our shores. Like the sun
that shines over all, the Government of our country sheds
its genial rays upon all classes without regard to race,
nationality or religion. The glorious banner of our coun
try protects alike the humble and the poor, the mighty
and the rich. Every man in the United States has an
opportunity for carving for himself an honest livelihood
and many have opportunities of acquiring independent
fortunes. "The German population of Baltimore forms an im
portant, conservative and influential element of our peo-
°The Rev. Dr. Burchard.
"Sermon in the Baltimore Cathedral.

218 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pie and the same may be said of the German population
throughout the United States as well as that of other na
tionalities. They contribute largely to the development
of the resources of this country and daily augment our
material prosperity. But, as the events of the last few
days in Chicago have shown, there exists in this country
a small but turbulent element composed of men who
boldly preach the gospel of anarchy, socialism and nihil
ism. These men are pirates preying upon the industry,
commerce and trade of the country. Their favorite
weapon is dynamite. Their mission is to destroy rather
than to build.
"Instead of strengthening the hands of the Govern
ment that upholds and protects them, they are bent upon
its destruction. Instead of blessing the mother who
opens her arms to welcome them, they insult and strike
her. If these men had their way, industry and trade
would be paralyzed; honest labor would be unrewarded
and gaunt poverty would stalk over the land.
"They have no conception of true liberty. They would
retain for themselves a large share of freedom, leaving
to others only a morsel.
"The citizens of the United States enjoy the amplest
liberty, but it is a liberty of law, of order and of au
thority. Liberty without law degenerates into license.
We have no standing armies in this country and I am
glad of it 7 for such armies are a great strain upon the
resources of the country, and necessarily condemn large
numbers of men to a life of forced idleness. The
strongest force of a nation lies in the laws of the land
judiciously administered, when these laws are sustained
by healthy public opinion. The strongest bulwark of a
nation is found in the intelligence, virtue and patriotism
of its native and adopted citizens. So long as they love
* Standing army of the United States was then only a nucleus unit of
25,000 men.

BROADENING PUBLIC LIFE 219
their country and are ready to die for her, if necessary,
we will have nothing to fear from anarchism, socialism
and nihilism. Socialism is a foreign plant, a noxious
exotic which grows only in dark places and withers and
decays under the genial sun and atmosphere of the
United States."
Having been brought near the brink of death from yel
low fever in his youth in New Orleans, he sought assidu
ously to assist the sufferers from another visitation of
that pestilence with which the city was afflicted in 1878.
On September 4 of that year, he addressed a letter to the
clergy of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, directing that a
collection be taken in all the churches for the fever suf
ferers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Deplor
ing some of the methods of the Federal quarantine, he
declared that the prevalence of the fever was aggravated
by the "blockade which is enforced against these cities
(New Orleans, Vicksburg and Memphis), which places
them in a state of isolation, which has paralyzed trade
and commerce, has thrown out of employment hundreds
who were able to work, and has reduced them to a con
dition of forced idleness. While we contemplate the
sad spectacle of so many faithful priests and sisters and
volunteer nurses, dying like brave sentinels at their posts,
victims of heroic charity; while we behold so many hun
dreds of our fellow beings of every race and religion
swept away by the poisonous pestilence, we should be
doubly grateful to God that we are preserved from so
dreadful a visitation, and that we are in the enjoyment
of social and commercial relations with the outside
world." 8
"Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.

CHAPTER XI
THE VERSATIIE REACH
The range of public activities in which Archbishop
Gibbons showed a willingness to join in Baltimore was
nothing short of amazing, whether it be considered in
comparison with his own more intimate preoccupations
or on the basis of precedent. A ready response to one
appeal soon brought another from a different source, for
groups of people naturally felt complimented by his
versatile and comprehensive perception of their whole
some material interests. Unsparing of himself in labors
and commitments of every kind, he refused aid to no
good cause, whether it was for the benefit of Catholic or
Protestant, Jew or Gentile.
Thus he soon became more thoroughly identified in the
public mind with the general interests of the city than
any other of its citizens. Although that position was
unique for a churchman, it seemed in his case to be the
most natural thing in the world. It was, in truth, an ex
pression of his own disposition, for none who knew him
could doubt that in the broadest sense his life was for
all humanity.
At first the demands of the community on the Arch
bishop were in the line of his ecclesiastical calling. He
was besought to offer prayer on formal public occasions
as Baltimore's foremost cleric, and he never hesitated to
220

THE VERSATILE REACH 221
comply when he could do so, reciting a simple but elo
quent petition in which all could join, and ending with
the Lord's Prayer, which many repeated in reverent uni
son with him. Possessing the rare gift of using the right
word at the right time, he could speak upon any subject
with direct simplicity to his fellow citizens. Brushing
aside all distinctions of creed and rank in common effort
with others, he sat on public platforms with Methodists,
Jews and Quakers. None spoke with more sincere patri
otism, more progressive spirit. Governor and Mayor
regarded him as a friend and leaned upon his advice.
On a social occasion, he could be charming. When
Baltimoreans have some particularly important business
to transact, it is their custom to have a banquet. It is
characteristic of them that some of their greatest inspira
tions to public achievement have been born amid the gas
tronomic delights of the diamond-back terrapin and the
canvas-back duck. It grew to be a familiar spectacle to
see the Archbishop at the banquet board in the place of
honor, at the right of the presiding officer. He seldom
remained to the end, and took no part in the purely con
vivial aspect of the gathering. When he spoke, it was,
as a patriot no less than a preacher. His habit of grace
fully fitting into his surroundings was nowhere more
conspicuous than at the social board.
On the streets of the city his slender, graceful form
in clerical black, relieved by a touch of purple, became
familiar to passers-by as he took long walks, swinging
a cane and chatting in animated fashion with a com
panion. The habit of indulging in this form of exercise
and diversion had persisted from the care-free years when

222 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pedestrian excursions were compulsory for him as a stu
dent at St. Charles' College. As in those days of his early
manhood, he often had as a companion a student who
was preparing for the priesthood.
This young man, usually from St. Mary's Seminary,
only a short distance from the archiepiscopal residence,
was sometimes inclined to be overwhelmed and confused
by the honor of being selected to walk with the Arch
bishop, but was soon put at ease by Gibbons, who was
consummately able to be all things to all men. It seemed
to distress him when any one appeared to be constrained
in his presence, but constraint vanished under the influ
ence of his ready tact. The student found in the simple,
kindly, unaffected cordiality of the prelate a means of
forgetting their disparity in rank.
They chatted at times almost as boys, for the Arch
bishop's heart was essentially youthful, and he loved the
frankness that bubbles in the period of life before
heavy responsibility imposes its burden of caution.
The student came to feel that he was talking with one
of the gentlest and most sympathetic of men to whom
nothing human was foreign.
It was not unusual that before they had progressed far
the young man found himself telling the Archbishop of
his home State, perhaps far distant, the condition of the
Catholic Church there, the attitude of the people toward
the Church and general social and political conditions.
These impressions were what Gibbons was particularly
seeking, for he had habitually adopted such means of
obtaining information not only in the case of seminarians
with whom he walked, but with many others with whom

THE VERSATILE REACH 223
he came in contact, thus building up his comprehensive
knowledge of men and things in his own country. So
tactfully did he draw out the student that, unless advised
in advance by some one who had undergone a similar
experience, the young man usually, did not know that he
had done more than entertain with random conversation
his ecclesiastical superior in a brief period of relaxation
of mind.
The Archbishop thus formed estimates of young
priests which he turned to rarely good account in assign
ing them to work and promoting them after they had
finished their studies. Bishops in petto disclosed them
selves to him on these walks. One of his greatest services
to the Church in America was the elevation through his
instrumentality to her higher posts of a group of men
who have made the Hierarchy in this country a far
stronger body than it had ever been before his time.
The excursions were so long that the student was often
thoroughly tired out at the conclusion, for in those days
the Archbishop thought it nothing exceptional to cover
four or five miles in the hour and a half usually allotted
for his afternoon walk. Traversing the streets at a rapid
pace, usually with his head bent as if in thought, he was
yet able to discern everything in his vicinity. At first
dozens, and in later years hundreds of people in all
walks of life raised their hats and saluted him on terms
of acquaintance as he swung along. Now and then he
stopped to chat. His memory for names and faces was
often amazing to friends who saluted him, as he spoke
of family affairs and personal details which might have
seemed insignificant to many.

224 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
With a wholesome naturalness, he would pause now
and then to observe the progress of street incidents. An
observer related that on one occasion in a part of the
city far removed from the archiepiscopal house he once
saw a group of boys angrily disputing over a baseball
game, and in the midst of them a slender man seeking to
calm them and arbitrate their dispute. The angry voices
subsided; peace was restored, smiles replaced the scowls
that had darkened the youthful countenances, and the
game proceeded as before. As the observer drew nearer,
he was amazed to find that the peacemaker had been the
Archbishop, who serenely resumed his walk when the
incident had been disposed of.
Among those with whom the Archbishop sometimes
paused to chat in a friendly way were Protestant minis
ters, and as his years in the diocese increased the number
of these grew to large proportions. The unaffected cor
diality of such interviews produced profound impres
sions that often led to closer acquaintanceship, and to the
advice of the Archbishop being sought on many matters
by not a few clergymen of other creeds than his own.
He was fond of varying his pedestrian routes, and by
this means came to acquire a knowledge of the physical
aspects of Baltimore, its streets, buildings and public
institutions, which was perhaps not excelled by any other
resident of the city. One of his favorite journeys was
out Charles Street, on which the archiepiscopal residence
is situated, through a section then embracing the most
beautiful residences of the city, and into a network of
quiet suburban roads over which he proceeded until he
reached Notre Dame College for women. At the end of

THE VERSATILE REACH 225
this long walk, he was sometimes in a mood for rest and
the Sisters in charge of the college always kept a room
ready for him in which he might find complete privacy.
He did not shun the quarters of the city in which
poverty was apparent, nor even the rougher districts
along the water front where, now and then, his experi
ences were unpleasant. A resident of Baltimore once
intervened to rescue him when he was threatened by a
half-drunken idler in the vicinity of a wharf. The vag
rant was astonished when, in the course of the vigorous
rebuke which he received from the Archbishop's rescuer,
he learned of the distinguished office of the pedestrian
whom he had rudely accosted.
When Gibbons first fell into the habit of taking these
walks he was comparatively young and active and the
slow street traffic in Baltimore involved little danger to
him. As methods of transportation changed and auto
mobiles and trolley cars began to whiz through the
streets his youthful companions found it necessary to
guard him carefully from accident. One of them whose
quickness was perhaps a means of preserving his life on
a certain occasion after he had become a Cardinal thus
told of the experience :
"Nearing the middle of the street, a northbound auto
mobile truck approached us. We stopped to let the ma
chine pass. Suddenly a fast moving touring car swung
out from behind the truck. It was bearing down on us.
I hastily seized the Cardinal's arm and rushed him across
to the sidewalk.
"When we arrived safely on the sidewalk, I apologized
to his Eminence for my lack of gentleness.
" 'Oh,' replied his Eminence, 'never mind that, my

226 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
son,' and standing on the corner, apparently to regain
his usual composure, he continued, 'let me tell you a
story.' " 'Two of my clerical friends were roughing it in
the backwoods of Virginia. One day as they were tramp
ing along, one suddenly struck the other a heavy blow —
a blow that knocked him sprawling. The one who had
dealt the blow assisted his friend to his feet. At the same
time he apologized for his apparent rudeness in these
words : "If I had not. hit you, you would have stepped
on a rattlesnake."
" 'Thus you see,' concluded the Cardinal, 'that it is
necessary to use rough tactics sometimes.' "
Gibbons regulated his walks so that almost invariably
he returned to the Cathedral at two minutes before six.
Sometimes he amused himself, upon entering the Cathe
dral grounds, by turning to the seminarian who was with
him, and asking him to guess the time. One of his com
panions on an afternoon walk taken when Gibbons was
advanced in years relates this incident :
"Knowing that the Cardinal would ask me to guess
the time, I took out my watch when we were several
blocks away from the Cathedral and noticed that it was
ten minutes to six.
"When we entered the Cathedral grounds, his Emin
ence turned to me, and said : 'Mr.  , let us guess the
time. You have the privilege of making the first guess.'
" T guess that it is four minutes to six, your Emi
nence,' I replied.
" 'And I believe that it is two minutes,' said his
Eminence. "Watches were compared. The Cardinal had guessed
the exact time."

THE VERSATILE REACH 227
Gibbons' whole attitude in and out of his ecclesiastical
relation was a powerful appeal to non-Catholics. On an
extremely hot Sunday in midsummer, while in Southern
Maryland, he asked the clergyman who accompanied him
to preach. At the conclusion of the sermon, when the
priest descended from the pulpit almost exhausted by a
vigorous discourse on the doctrine of absolution, he was
surprised to see the Archbishop ascend the steps and
preach again, but on a very different topic — one which
appealed to persons of all creeds.
"I thought you asked me to preach?" exclaimed the
astonished clergyman, when the congregation had been
dismissed. "Did you not see," replied the Archbishop, "that more
than half of the congregation were Protestants?"
Gibbons had not been in the diocese long before it was
observed with especial interest that he never failed to
register as a voter and that on election days he was
usually one of the most prompt in his precinct in casting
his ballot. In the early days of his archbishopric, the
election officials, mostly politicians of a small sort who
resided in the neighborhood of the archiepiscopal resi
dence, were surprised and agitated at the unexpected spec
tacle of the prelate performing his civic duty with the
simplicity which might mark any of his neighbors. In
time they took it as a matter of course, and the only
unusual manifestation when he appeared to vote was
the deference which was shown to him by all in the
polling place.
He did not identify himself with any party, but few
men in the country were as well informed upon general

228 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
political conditions as he. At night, in the quiet of his
residence, he read much of United States history and
civil government. They were his favorite studies apart
from those which pertained to his office in the Church.
He became one of the most deeply versed of Americans on
the Federal Constitution, its history and its interpre
tation. Theology, canon law and church history occupied
much of his reading, but his religion was not predomi
nantly of the speculative kind ; it was a religion of action,
whose supreme expression was service to his fellow men.
When he preached or spoke of religious topics, he usually
reasoned in simple terms with others, rather than at
tempted to influence them by the weight of logic and
learning. "Happily," he once wrote, "it did not please
God to save the world by logic or philosophy, nor would
it have pleased man. The world was never governed by
philosophy; it has never wanted to be, and it never will
be. Christianity knows the nature of man; it has a far
deeper wisdom than was ever dreamed of in the philoso
phies of the great thinkers." 1
Under Gibbons' regime in the diocese of Baltimore,
new churches, schools and reformatory institutions in
creased fast and converts swelled the congregations. The
number of churches was more than tripled while he was
Archbishop. Every Catholic was heartened by the bold
strokes of such leadership. His direct influence seemed
to be felt in the most remote chapel of his jurisdiction,
for no detail of the field was too small to receive the
1 Reply to Thomas A. Edison's views on immortality, Columbian Maga
zine, March, 191 1.

THE VERSATILE REACH 229
painstaking attention which he seemed to be able to
shower so widely in abundant streams.
His labors were incessant. Men of the most robust
physique could scarcely keep up with him. His health
as he reached the peak of maturity showed improvement,
but his digestion remained weak and at times he appeared
almost emaciated. On one occasion it was said of him
that his frame seemed barely substantial enough to hold
the soul within. His form, however, was compact and
sinewy, and the iron resolution which drove him forward
in his work could not be daunted by slight physical ills.
His pathology, indeed, was a marvel. Organically
sound from boyhood, he was nevertheless subject to
periods of feeble vitality. This was partly due to poor
nutrition which had continued since his days in the Can
ton pastorate, when the excessive strain of the long fasts
before two Sunday Masses had made heavy inroads on
his digestion. Prudence in diet and regularity of exer
cise reduced this obstacle but never removed it. At times
he showed a tendency to collapse under strain, but this
was offset by an amazing power of quick recuperation.
After a long and fatiguing ecclesiastical ceremony, he
would sometimes seem exhausted; but a rest of half an
hour or even less would restore him as if he had taken
a deep draught from a fountain of perpetual strength.
Large undertakings inspired him physically as well
as mentally. His eyes would become alight under this
stimulus, every feature of his keen face would become set
in firm outline and even a slight habitual stoop of his
shoulders would be strangely missing. The wonderful
engine of his mind never lost a fraction of its power,

230 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
but throbbed at the same high pressure in physical accel
eration or depression.
The potent influences that held him up were clearly
not physical. To him life was a spiritual warfare, and
he was a soldier advancing to the charge who could not
falter until stricken down. His optimism was boundless.
Now and then he would show impatience, as all men do,
but he avoided worry. There was a calm confidence upon
him which seemed to be not of this earth.
Amid all the burdens which fell upon him he practised
his devotions, which occupied several hours a day, with
unfailing regularity. He arose at six o'clock every morn
ing. Sometimes he took a little light exercise in his
room to start the circulation of his blood, which was dis
posed to be sluggish. Soon afterward he said Mass and,
following a light breakfast, was alert for the business
of the day. His callers were perhaps more numerous
than those of any other Archbishop in the world, because
he denied himself to none. Some came for religious con
sultation, others for advice; still others, to solicit alms,
to invite his participation in public affairs, to urge his
presence in churches, to seek his advice on a variety of
subjects that would bewilder an ordinary man.
At his front door was usually an usher, generally a lad
whom he had befriended by means of this employment,
and whom later he placed in a position where there was
a chance to rise in the world. This usher received the
cards of visitors and escorted them to one of the two re
ception rooms on the main floor of the archiepiscopal resi
dence. Not infrequently there were waiting groups in
both of these rooms, and the Archbishop was kept busy

THE VERSATILE REACH 231
going from one of them to the other, almost as if it had
been a general reception.
In an interval he would trip lightly up the stairs to
his study, where he would write or dictate; but at the
next call he would descend again with unruffled patience
and a cheerful cordiality which made the visitor feel
thoroughly at home. He could turn to each caller with
complete ease, as if the last one had been the first whom
he had seen. The breadth of his character and observa
tion, together with the ready social faculty which was a
part of him, gave him the power of meeting almost all
persons on a footing of congeniality.
His purse at that time was not over full, though he was
beginning to receive a considerable revenue from royalties
on "The Faith of our Fathers," his famous apologia
which leaped into immense popularity. This went al
most as quickly as it came. He helped students with
contributions, assisted the poor, subscribed to worthy
undertakings and was a patron of literature and art. It
was said of him that he was perhaps the readiest man in,
Baltimore to give a response to an appeal for aid. With
all his keen discrimination of character and his power of
reading men, kindness of heart predominated in his
impulses. His memory for names and faces and his exceptionally
large acquaintance contributed greatly to swell the num
ber of his visitors. He could identify children by their
resemblance to their parents, and was fond of testing
his capacity in this respect, to the surprise of fathers and
mothers. Couples whom he had married were his friends
forever, and he wished not to lose sight of any of them.

232 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
He dined about one o'clock; then he rested a while,
perhaps received more callers, and about 4:30 o'clock
came the daily walk or drive. After supper he studied
or made visits. At times he had a habit of dropping in
on parishioners or other friends in the evening, chat
ting half an hour, perhaps remaining for a cup of tea,
and always being the life of any party in which he hap
pened to be.
Distinguished foreigners visiting America for purposes
of observation made a practise of coming to Baltimore to
call at the house of the Archbishop, the head of the
primatial See of America. He could often speak to them
in their own tongues. Not a few of them conveyed their
impressions of him in books which they subsequently
wrote. Through all of his busy hours were scattered numerous
devotional exercises. He spent more time in reading the
Scriptures than any parish priest of his diocese, and was
always ready for the humblest duties of the ministry.
Calls for marriages, baptisms and funerals found him
willing to respond if the time could be spared from his
necessary episcopal duties. His, discourses to bridal
couples were particularly happy, and many of them kept
his picture in their homes throughout life. The sacred-
ness of marriage, its responsibilities and duties was a
favorite theme with him. He did not cease to emphasize
that this was the foundation of the social structure and
his influence was bent toward the maintenance of proper
home life among Americans.
When occasion offered, he never failed to exalt the
nobility of wifehood, motherhood and womanhood. He

THE VERSATILE REACH 233
valued the judgment of women, as well as their devotion
to the cause of religion. In many households he watched
the home circle spring up and now and then a visit or a
word of encouragement from him helped to strengthen
the foundations.
Often he said High Mass and preached on Sundays
and he was foremost in Lenten devotions. Once every
year he went into retreat with the clergy of the diocese,
allowing nothing to interfere with this period of spiritual
refreshment. The institutions for the reformation of youth in
Baltimore and its vicinity were objects of his especial
solicitude. His interest in children caused him to visit
these institutions frequently, speaking simple words of
encouragement and vigorous common sense to those who
needed his guidance. He did not believe in severe re
striction of the wayward, though firmness he considered
to be thoroughly necessary. His view was that in almost
every person, young or old, there is much of good, which
needs only to be awakened by proper influences. It was
due as much to his personal guidance and frequent aid
as to any other cause that the benevolent and reformatory
institutions maintained by Catholics in the diocese of
Baltimore have been conspicuous in the front rank of the
most enlightened of charities.

CHAPTER XII
THIRD PIENARY COUNCII OF BAITIMORE
It was as a churchman that Gibbons did his greatest
work. In the calling to which he consecrated his life, all
his resources of intellectual gifts and the flower of his
graces of character were unstintedly used. Although the
preponderance of his ability in the purely ecclesiastical
field was obscured in the public mind by the far-reaching
nature of his general activities, it was indelibly impressed
upon the Hierarchy and clergy, and remains for them a
permanent inspiration.
The decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Balti
more have been the chart for the Catholic Church in
America since 1884. Under them she has attained a
growth unequaled in any other part of the world, and
has made clear her place in harmony with the civil insti
tutions of the country. The organization and guidance
of that Council, over which Gibbons presided as Apostolic
Delegate, was the greatest constructive project upon
which he ever embarked. His was the mind that con
ceived its broad outlines; his the vision that was re
flected in its enlightened acts. The Council contained
some exceptionally able men, and a measure of the force
of his personality may be obtained from the fact that he
was the master spirit of a gathering in which so many
were strong leaders by nature and training.
234

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 235
Greater results have flowed from the Third Plenary
Council of Baltimore than any other national council of
the Church held in the three hundred and fifty years since
the fathers met at Trent, and they have been immeasur
ably more far-reaching. When Gibbons planned for
America he was unconsciously planning for the world;
for the Council received Papal commendation as the
model for bodies of that kind that were convoked subse
quently. First the churchmen of Canada, Australia and
Ireland accepted it as a pattern in framing their own de
crees and then others of different nationalities followed.
Its work stands as the perfected type of a fabric
of ecclesiastical legislation covering alike fundamentals,
complexities and contingencies; as an expression both of
the universal aims of the Church and of the details by
means of which those aims may be realized.
The first characteristic of its legislation is loftiness
and breadth of range; the second completeness; the third
adaptability to the conditions of the modern world. It
contains not a single obsolete canon. And he who drew
this constitution became its chief administrator; no one,
else could interpret it into churches multiplied and souls
saved as he could do it. As it was happy for the United
States that Washington, the chairman of the convention
which framed the Federal Constitution, was the first
President to guide the practical application of that in
strument, so it was happy for the Catholic Church that
Gibbons' hand was at the helm of the Church in America
while she first steered her course by the decrees of the
Third Plenary Council.
Let those who think that the Catholic Church does not

236 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
adapt herself to national conditions — and they are vastly
fewer since Cardinal Gibbons lived — and that her
methods in America are fixed with iron rigidity by influ
ences external to the country, reflect that the Bishops
sat together with broad powers and full freedom of voice
in 1884 to frame regulations for the whole body of the
priesthood and laity in the United States. True, these
regulations were valid only when approved by the Pope,
but they were approved without material changes. They
did not alter faith and doctrine, for these things are apart
from nationality, and the Church in America no less
derives them from the fountain head in Rome than the
Church in every other part of the world. But the range
of the Council's decrees was far wider than that of the
decisions of any non-Catholic ecclesiastical body of its
time in America, and in the domain of organizing the
/Church in its jurisdiction for meeting directly and in-
jtimately the needs of the people it was practically un
limited. Such, indeed, was the amplitude of the powers
possessed by the American episcopate, that it was said
that Pius IX once wittily remarked when besought to
perform an act which he considered beyond the proper
exercise of his powers : "Only an American Bishop can
do that."
It was Gibbons' consummate handling of the Third
Plenary Council which caused Leo XIII to make him a
Cardinal. When the project of the Council was broached, his first
inclination was to oppose the holding of it at that time.
He feared that it would serve as a pretext for a revival of
the intolerant criticism of the Church which had marked

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 237
her previous general councils in America. It would have
dismayed him if, when his warfare against that blighting
influence was just beginning to take wide effect, there
had been a new parading before the public mind of fanci
ful tales that Catholic prelates were meditating in secret
conclave assaults upon the civil liberties of the nation.
His memory of the "Know-Nothing" agitation, which
flamed with virulence in and after 1852, when the First
Plenary Council of Baltimore was held, was still vivid.
He had been shocked again by the chorus of alarmist
voices which railed against the Second Plenary Council.
In his view it was best to reduce to a minimum new gen
eral legislation for the Church in America when the
minds of so many of his fellow countrymen were dis
turbed by varying degrees of distrust of that spiritual
body, the extension of whose influence over the souls of
men in America was his chief concern.
Between the Plenary Council of 1852 and its successor
fourteen years had elapsed. In 1884 there had been an
interval of eighteen years since the Second Plenary Coun
cil, of which he had been the Assistant Chancellor, had
formulated its decrees. While these may be considered
long periods, it should be remembered that the Catholic
Church aims at permanency in all of its functions, seek
ing to build the foundations so broad and deep that tem
porary currents of change cannot affect them. Arch
bishop Gibbons, knowing that means were at hand for
revising and adding to the disciplinary regulations of the
Church in America, believed that these means could be
made effective without the exceptional step of convoking
a national council. He wrote in his journal :

238 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Jan. 4 [1882 J. Most Rev. Dr. Corrigan, at the in
stance of Cardinal McCloskey, called on me in relation
to the expediency of holding a national council. Some
Bishops and clergy of the United States have been urging
Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Propaganda, to author
ize and recommend the council as important to the inter
ests of religion. Cardinal Simeoni asked his Eminence
of New York to give his views, which are rather adverse
to the measure. I gave as my opinion that it would
not be expedient to hold a council for some time to come;
but as a preliminary step, provincial councils might be
held, or the Bishops of each province might assemble
informally and consider what subjects might be discussed
in the plenary council. The Bishops of the West seem to
favor a national council, as some of them have intimated
to me."
The demand by members of the Hierarchy of the West
for a general council sprang from the amazing material
changes in that part of the country which had expanded
proportionately the opportunities of the Church. With
the building of the Union Pacific Railroad and the rapid
development of other lines of transportation in the re
gion West of the Mississippi River, waste lands where
only the Indian had roamed, or perhaps an adventurous
miner had strayed in search of sudden wealth, had
changed into prosperous and populous communities which
afforded fertile fields for the ministrations of religion.
The territory once embraced in the Louisiana Purchase,
and subject in turn to the ecclesiastical laws of Spain and
France, had become united by the telegraph, as well as
the railway, with the older communities of the East, in
which precedent had been derived largely from the
Hierarchy of Great Britain. Still further toward the

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 239
Pacific, States and Territories had been organized out of
the immense region wrested from Mexico by the fortune
of war. Here, too, the ecclesiastical customs were in
some instances different from those which prevailed in
other parts of the nation, and there was no longer such a
separation by distance that uniformity was not essential.
Not long before, the Archbishop of St. Louis and the
Bishop of San Francisco had rarely seen the Archbishop
of Baltimore, because of the great distances and the other
physical obstacles which separated them ; but now it had
become easy to assemble the whole Hierarchy for effec
tive and concerted action.1
Wherever the Catholic Church goes she organizes.
Her methods necessitate concentration of authority and
purpose. The mission which springs up in a primeval
grove is as much subject to the spiritual oversight of
the Supreme Pontiff as is the magnificent Cathedral in
one of the capitals of Europe. The mode of worship
is not left to chance, nor circumstance, nor popular
caprice; but must conform to the ritual of the universal
Church, as decreed by the fathers assembled in the pleni
tude of their authority.
Although the priest may penetrate an unexplored coun
try; although he may journey over wild mountains, or
along streams where untutored natives had never seen a
white man ; he is bound as closely by faith and discipline
to the great ecclesiastical organization of which he is a
part as is the canon of a basilica in Rome. The language
in which he may celebrate the mysteries of the Mass is
not the one which he learned from his mother, not the
1 Memorial Volume, Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, pp. 211-22.

240 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
one which may be spoken in the locality where he happens
to be, but the one which has formed the casket for the
deposit of Catholic faith from the days of the martyrs.
Thus the Church was spreading in 1884 in Western
America; thus she has spread from the days when she
began her mission to mankind.
The United States in that year was still, in the eyes
of Rome, a missionary country, subject to the jurisdic
tion of the Congregation of the Propaganda.2 The
Church here had no comprehensive framework of canon
law which would serve as an enduring basis. Her gifted
doctors in Europe had framed such constitutions from
ancient times, modified to suit conditions which arose
from century to century among the peoples to whom they
ministered. While much had been accomplished in that
direction by the first two Plenary Councils of Baltimore,
the task was far from complete and the necessity for
its full accomplishment was one of the chief reasons
which led to the convoking of the third Council.
In time, as opinion among the American Hierarchy
crystallized, Leo XIII summoned the Archbishops to
Rome to confer on the subject. Gibbons wrote in his
journal: "March 13 [1884]. I left Baltimore on the 8th of
October last year and sailed from New York on the 10th
on the Cunard steamer Gallia. I reached Rome Novem
ber 1st in response to an invitation of the Holy Father,
who desired that the Archbishops of America would con
fer with him in relation to the Church of the United
States. All the Archbishops were present personally or
through a representative except the Archbishop of San
1 This condition was removed by Pius X in 1908.

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 241
Francisco. Our conferences closed about the middle of
December. The Holy Father was pleased to direct that
a Plenary Council be held in Baltimore November 9 of
this year and has charged me with the office of Apostolic
Delegate. Rev. Dr. O'Connell 3 accompanied me on my
journey and was of great service and comfort to me.
I reached home in good health today, thank God. The
clergy and laity had made extensive preparations for a
public reception on my return, which I declined."
The decision to hold the Council did not deter Arch
bishop Gibbons from his resolute purpose to prevent, so
far as in him lay, any active step which might alienate
non-Catholics. It was characteristic of him that if he
could not accomplish any of his larger purposes by one
means he was always able to find another way to achieve
the same object. Not only did he decide to bend his
utmost efforts to avoiding an interruption of the con
ciliation of non-Catholics, but he formed the bold design
of actually hastening that conciliation by means of the
Council itself. Possessing the power of Apostolic Dele
gate and being charged with the supreme guidance of
the gathering, he determined that in its acts it should
express a liberal spirit which would appeal to Catholic
and non-Catholic alike.
For this he must needs depend upon the powerful
support of Leo, who accorded it to him gladly. In their
first interview in Rome in regard to the Council, the Pope
had said to him:
"I dislike severe and harsh measures. I dislike anathe
mas. I love to appeal to the good sense and intelligence
Afterward Bishop of Richmond.

242 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and heart of the world. As the Vicar and servant of
Christ, I desire to draw all souls more closely to our com
mon Master. To all I am a debtor. I have the solicitude
of all the churches of Europe, Asia, Africa, and espe
cially of your own great and beloved country, whose
spiritual progress gives me such consolation." 4
Foremost in the details of the Archbishop's plan was
his determination to spare no effort that the Council
should take a strong stand in behalf of the position of
the Catholic Church as a powerful supporter of Ameri
can civil institutions. He wished this course to be so
clearly marked that the voice of criticism would be stilled
in advance. It would open, he believed, the hearts of
tens of thousands to the spiritual appeal of the Church;
and it conformed in every respect with his own judg
ment of what was right and fitting.
Second, the Apostolic Delegate wished the Council to
lay a broad and deep foundation for the disciplinary
evolution of the Church here that would bring it thor
oughly and intimately in harmony with American insti
tutions. He desired that Catholic educational facilities
should be so multiplied that every American priest might
be trained in his own country and thus, to the utmost
extent possible, the overwhelming mass of the clergy
would be natives of the land where they labored.
Third, he was firm in the decision that every unfinished
problem of the Church here should be taken up and solved
with finality, so that there might be no need of another
Plenary Council for a far longer period than had elapsed
* Archbishop Gibbons told of this conversation in a sermon in the
Baltimore Cathedral in March, 1884, a few days after his return from
Rome.

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 243
between the first and the second, or between the second
and the third Councils.
Preaching in the Baltimore Cathedral soon after his
return, he expressed thanks for the offer of a public re
ception by the city authorities and people of Baltimore
in honor of his arrival, which he had declined. He said :
"I am myself opposed to such public demonstrations,
and though they may be appropriate on some occasions,-
I felt that I had not the age nor the merits to deserve
such. It would have taken place in the midst of Lent,
and I would have felt very much mortified to consider
myself conducted home in a procession of triumph at
a time when the Church directs our minds to the spectacle
of our Savior conducted to suffering in a procession of
shame." The Archbishop in the same discourse spoke of his
experiences in Rome. After saying that he had three
private audiences with Leo XIII, and two others in
company with his brother prelates, he drew a picture of
that Pontiff which was significant of their relations at
that time and for many years to come. He said :
"No one can stand a half hour in the presence of Leo
XIII without giving thanks to God for granting to his
Church so great a Pontiff and without being profoundly
impressed with the breadth and elevation of the senti
ments that inspire him. . . . Notwithstanding his ad
vanced age and delicate, I might say emaciated, frame,
the Pope is indefatigable in his labors. In my first in
terview with him, he informed me that he began his audi
ences that morning at half past eight o'clock. They
continued until his frugal meal at one o'clock, and were
resumed and lasted probably until nine o'clock at night.
I was informed by a member of his household that he

244 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
allows himself but little repose, and that sometimes when
the city is buried in sleep the aged Pontiff is engaged
until after midnight in writing his masterly encyclicals
or doing some other good work in the interests of the
Christian commonwealth."
Regarding his conferences with his brother Archbishops
in Rome, which had been held at the College of the:
Propaganda under the presidency of Cardinal Simeoni,
assisted by Cardinals Franzelin and Jacobini, he said
that they had been characterized by the "most ample free
dom of discussion, joined with the most perfect harmony
and good feeling."
The Archbishop also spoke of the life of the Cardinals
— his future associates — saying:
"Whatever may be the pomp which surrounds them
on public occasions, the Roman Cardinals, especially
those engaged in the congregations, are the hardest
worked officials in the Eternal City. They are conspicu
ous for their learning and piety, and lead simple lives
in the sanctuary of their homes, and, some of them even
lives of great austerity. If profound knowledge and
clear insight into character and good common-sense and
sterling virtue and unwearied application to the duties
of office form the essential elements of prudent coun
sellors, the Roman Cardinals constitute the most able
senate of any deliberating body existing in the world."
Every time the Archbishop went to Europe — and those
times were many in the course of his life — he came back
with a firmer faith in the institutions of his country.
Dwelling in the same sermon upon his observations of
general conditions abroad, he expressed a viewpoint
which had already become characteristic of him when
he said :

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 245
"The oftener I go to Europe, the longer I remain there,
and the more I study the political condition of its people,
I return home filled with greater consideration for our
country and more profoundly gratified that I am an
American citizen. When I contemplate the standing
armies of over a million soldiers in each of the principal
countries of Europe; when I consider what an enormous
drain these armies are on the resources of a country and
what a frightful source of immorality; when I consider
that they are a constant menace to their neighbors and
an incentive to war, and when I consider that the subject
of war engages so much of the attention of the cabinets
of Europe; and when, on the other hand, I look at our
own country with its 55,000,000 inhabitants and its lit
tle army of 25,000 men scattered along our frontiers, so
that we might travel from Maine to California without
meeting a soldier or gendarme ; and when I consider that
if need be every citizen is a soldier without being con
fined to barracks and is ready to defend or die for his
country; when I consider that we have no entangling
alliances; when I reflect upon our material prosperity;
above all, when I consider the happy blending with us
of authority with civil and religious liberty; with all
our political corruption, I bless God for the favors He
has vouchsafed us, and I pray that He may continue to
hold over us the mantle of His protection." B
Archbishop Gibbons again showed his judgment of
men in selecting Dr. Dennis J. O'Connell to assist him
in the immense task of preparing for the Plenary Coun
cil. He could not have chosen an ecclesiastic better fitted
by keen insight into the workings of the universal Church
and rare comprehension of the true spirit of the American
people. The work was congenial to the natural bent of
"Catholic Mirror, March 22, 1884.

246 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
both and its prodigious labor did not deter either of
them. An outline was completed of the numerous topics to
be treated by the Council and the general scope for all
the deliberations of the prelates in Baltimore was accur
ately marked out. Upon the Archbishop's return from
Rome he applied himself indefatigably to a continuance
of his preparation for the assemblage, being engaged on
the undertaking every day up to the time of the meeting.
Soon after his return, he issued a pastoral letter 6 pro
testing against the seizure of the American College in
Rome. This subject powerfully moved Catholics in the
United States at that time. The Italian government,
under laws passed in 1866 and 1873, had levied upon
the property of the Propaganda, including the American
College. While the title to this property was in the
name of the Propaganda, it had been established and
maintained by the contributions of Americans resident
in Rome and American Catholics generally.7
By direction of President Arthur, a diplomatic note
was addressed to the Italian Government, asking, if not
a perpetual abandonment of the intended sale, at least
a stay of proceedings until some settlement could be
reached. Gibbons, in his pastoral, presented vigorously the jus
tice of the American case, saying:
"It cannot be called intermeddling in the proper juris
diction of a foreign government if we use our endeavors
to prevent it from appropriating our property. The title
'Archives of the Baltimore Cathedral.
T Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, pp. 373-76-

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 247
of the building known as the American College may have
been placed in the name of the Propaganda for conven
ience and security, but nevertheless the fact remains that
it was purchased and fitted up by the contributions which
you and your fellow Catholics made and it is in reality
the property of Americans. And the Propaganda is an
international institution; its aims are international — the
diffusion of Christianity and of Christian civilization—
and it has received no endowment whatever which was
not intended for that purpose. Three grave interests of
ours are involved in the fortunes of this congregation:
the expeditious and gratuitous transaction of all our
ecclesiastical affairs with the Holy See, the prosperity
of our American College and the education of other stu
dents for our American missions in the Urban College,
which is the property of the Propaganda.
"It was in consideration of the privilege extended to
us by the Propaganda of admitting our students gratui
tously to the benefit of its lectures that our own Ameri
can College was founded, and some of the most distin
guished ecclesiastics that appear in the history of the
American Church and of our diocese were students of the
College. "This, moreover, is a subject that appeals not only to
yourselves and to all your fellow Catholics throughout
the missions, but also to every lover of right and of
humanity throughout the world; for, after the Church
itself there exists to-day no greater organization for the
diffusion of Christianity and of Christian civilization,
or for drawing together in the peaceful harmony of one
common family all classes and varieties of men, than the
Propaganda. Representatives of every clime are to be
found within the walls of its university.
"Who, then, without a feeling of regret or of indigna
tion, can contemplate the idea of such a noble institution,
after doing its work of promoting 'peace among men of

248 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
good will' for nearly three hundred years, falling at last
a victim of injustice? Even Napoleon, who seemed to
have had respect for nothing that could furnish him with
means for carrying on his ambitious campaigns, had too
much reverence for the Propaganda to despoil it. Hu
manity has certain rights and interests in common and
surely the protection of the Propaganda is one of them."
Meetings of protest against the seizure were held in
the United States. Gibbons thus recorded in his journal
a meeting of that kind in his own diocese :
"June 29 [1884]. Sent to Cardinal Simeoni a copy
of the proceedings of a meeting held in Washington this
month, protesting against the threatened spoliation of
the Propaganda property."
The American protest was effective and the property
was restored by the Italian government.8
Gibbons had devoted himself so unsparingly to the
preparations for the Council that when the opening day
arrived he was near a physical collapse. He said years
afterward :
"When I started to read the prayer at the beginning
of the first session, my hands trembled violently. I was
a young man then [he was fifty years old] and I might
have been expected to stand the strain better. How
ever, I felt my strength and buoyancy gradually rising
as the Council proceeded until I was in good physical
condition before the end. Think of what it meant, with
several score of Bishops present and I, the presiding
officer, the youngest of them all! I never stopped for
difficulties, even if I was dismayed at times. There was
a Providence in it all, but sometimes I felt great weak
ness." "Brann, History of the American College, Rome, p. 154.

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 249
As the authoritative presiding officer of a deliberative
body, large or small, Gibbons was not surpassed, if
equaled, by any man of his time. He showed the posses
sion of that rare gift so that all could see it upon many
occasions; but never more conspicuously than at the
Third Plenary Council. It was natural that many dif
ferences of opinion should develop in that body, for its
members represented communities as diversified and
widely separated as communities in the immense domain
of the United States could be. The tradition of the
Church allowed them that full freedom in the expression
of opinion which is permissible even in the precincts of
the Vatican and which, in the clash of ideas, develops
the vital spark that fuses the predominant judgment of
learning, experience and piety. When debaters such as
Ireland, of St. Paul, Ryan, of Philadelphia, Hennessy, of
Dubuque, Keane, of Richmond, Spalding, of Peoria, and
Gilmour, of Cleveland could not agree, the Apostolic
Delegate was able to find ground upon which all could
stand. In this task, as all others which fell to him, he seemed
to respond more fully as greater demands were made
upon his resources of ability and tact. With rare com
prehension of human nature, he could say a word in the
Council here, bestow a smile there, express a doubt at
the right moment, and seize the favorable opportunity to
press a point. Although the opinions of individual mem
bers of the Council were inevitably influenced by great
differences of initial viewpoint, and it was a "melting
pot" in which the diverse tendencies of the American
people were mingled, they proved that they possessed

250 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
within themselves resources for the construction of great
national ideas.
The Council's principal function of providing for the
spiritual needs of the people was performed with thor
oughness and vision. The influence of Archbishop Gib
bons was seen in the appointment of a commission to
prepare a catechism for general use, which was made
obligatory after its publication. As an organizer of
Sunday schools and a teacher in them, and as one who
had been ardently solicitous to win converts to the
Church, he realized the need of a simple outline of faith
which would appeal to all and be comprehensible by
all. He was a natural teacher, possessing many of the
pedagogical traits and a profound interest in the general
subject of education. Throughout his life this zeal was
exhibited in a multitude of works. Men professionally
trained for complex educational activities were some
times surprised to discover that his intimate grasp of
such subjects equaled or surpassed their own.
Another commission of the Council framed with exact
ing care and the labor of years a manual of prayers
printed in parallel Latin and English which is a model
of its kind and is the standard for American Catholics.
The Archbishop to the end of his days continued to exhort
the use of this manual both in devotions in church and
those in the home.
Still another commission was appointed to aid the
missions among the Indians and negroes, in whose wel
fare he had shown especial zeal. His sympathy was pro
found for the pathetic fate of the aborigines of America,
and his efforts could always be enlisted in pleading for

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 251
the religious and secular education of their modern
descendants as one means of restoring the balance of jus
tice on the part of the white race. Numerous institu
tions for negroes stand to this day as monuments of his
solicitude for their spiritual and material welfare.
Uniformity in feasts of obligation throughout the
United States was obtained by a decree that these six
were to be observed and no others : The Immaculate Con
ception, Christmas, Circumcision of Our Lord (New
Year's Day), Ascension, Assumption and All-Saints' Day.
The pastoral letter issued by the fathers of the Coun
cil at the close of their sessions expressed clearly the
objects which they had sought to accomplish, as well
as defined briefly their principal decrees. The influence
of Gibbons was evident in a number of the most impor
tant declarations and in none more so than the definition
of the harmony between the Catholic Church and the
American people. On this point the following extract
may be quoted :
"We think we can claim to be acquainted with the
laws, institutions and spirit of the Catholic Church, and
with the laws, institutions and spirit of our country; and
we emphatically declare that there is no antagonism
between them. A Catholic finds himself at home in the
United States; for the influence of his Church has con
stantly been exercised in behalf of individual rights and
popular liberties. And the right-minded American no
where finds himself more at home than in the Catholic
Church, for nowhere else can he breathe more freely that
atmosphere of Divine truth, which alone can make him
free. "We repudiate with earnestness the assertion that we

252 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
need to lay aside any of our devotedness to our Church,
to be true Americans; the insinuation that we need to
abate any of our love for our country's principles and
institutions, to be faithful Catholics. To argue that the
Catholic Church is hostile to our great Republic, because
she teaches that 'there is no power but from God'; be
cause, back of the events which led to the formation of
the Republic she sees the Providence of God leading to
that issue, and back of our country's laws the authority
of God as their sanction — this is evidently so illogical
and contradictory an accusation, that we are astonished
to hear it advanced by persons of ordinary intelligence.
We believe that our country's heroes were the instruments
of the God of Nations in establishing this home of free
dom; to both the Almighty and to His instruments in
the work we look with grateful reverence; and to main
tain the inheritance of freedom which they have left us,
should it ever — which God forbid — be imperiled, our.
Catholic citizens will be found to stand forward, as one
man, ready to pledge anew 'their lives, their fortunes and
their sacred honor.'
"No less illogical would be the notion that there is
aught in the free spirit of our American institutions in
compatible with perfect docility to the Church of Christ.
The spirit of American freedom is not one of anarchy or
license. It essentially involves love of order, respect for
rightful authority and obedience to just laws. There
is nothing in the character of the most liberty-loving
American which could hinder his reverential submission
to the Divine authority of our Lord, or to the like au
thority delegated by Him to His Apostles and His
Church. Nor are there in the world more devoted ad
herents of the Catholic Church, the See of Peter and
the Vicar of Christ, than the Catholics of the United
States. "Narrow, insular, national views and jealousies con-

THIRD PLENARY COUNCIL 253
cerning ecclesiastical authority and Church organization
may have sprung naturally enough from the selfish policy
of certain rulers and nations in bygone times; but they
find no sympathy in the spirit of the true American
Catholic. His natural instincts, no less than his re
ligious training, would forbid him to submit in matters
of faith to the dictation of the State or to any merely-
human authority whatsoever. He accepts the religion
and the Church that are from God, and he knows well
that these are universal, not national or local — for all,
the children of men, not for any special tribe or tongue.
We glory that we are, and with God's blessing shall
continue to be, not the American church, nor the church
of the United States, nor a church in any other sense
exclusive or limited, but an integral part of the one holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, which is
the Body of Christ, in which there is no distinction of
classes and nationalities — in which all are one in Christ
Jesus." 9
'Memorial Volume, Third Plenary Council, Part 3.

CHAPTER XIII
BIRTH OF THE CATHOIIC UNIVERSITY
The principal aims and preponderant results of the
Third Plenary Council of Baltimore were educational.
Through its instrumentality the Church in America defi
nitely outlined for the first time the scope of a general
system of education springing from herself, leaving no
part of the field unprovided for, and prescribing steps for
the physical realization of these purposes.
Unappalled by a deficiency of financial resources in
proportion to this wide project, the Council framed, with
painstaking care, provision for the education of priests,
for the higher education of the laity and for primary
education. Archbishop Gibbons rejoiced in his heart at
the boldness of the step, and in his deep faith could see
no permanent obstacle to its success within the range of
a few generations at most.
He had already formed in his own mind a clear con
ception of two definite aims always to be borne in mind
in the diffusion of religion among the American people.
These were education and the lifting of the material con
dition of the poor. While the aims to which he devoted
himself were manifold, perhaps they all blended into
these two main aspirations.
The foundation of the Catholic University of America
was the pinnacle of the new project. In the debates of
254

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 255
the Council of 1866, the establishment of a university
in which the loftiest ideals of the Church for the training
of her priesthood and laity should be fitly expressed was
advocated, but only as a distant goal. It was realized
that means were lacking, and that the moment was not
opportune to embark upon the undertaking in a manner
which promised its adequate fruition. There was
unanimity of opinion that the day was not far distant
when the university could be founded, and the Bishops
resolved always to keep that aim in sight as the climax
of their educational efforts.
Thus the idea lay dormant until the fervent zeal of
Bishop Spalding, of Peoria, opened the way for its trans
formation into reality. This John the Baptist of the
university project was a Kentuckian who had studied
at Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and
also in Cincinnati; but to obtain the ampler equipment
which he sought for his life work he determined to spend
five years at Louvain. Becoming impressed with the
serious disadvantages which grew out of the lack of a
Catholic university in his own country, he resolved to
devote himself to the realization of the project with
unceasing persistence. Embarking upon this mission,
equipped with exceptional talents and the ardor of com
parative youth, he won influential figures in the Church
to his view that the time had come to make a start.
Carrying his plea to Rome in 1882, he obtained the Papal
approval of a plan for organizing the university.
Archbishop Gibbons was one of the first American
prelates to throw his influence in favor of the decision to
hesitate no longer in this matter. When he went to Rome

256 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in the autumn of 1883 to frame, in connection with
other members of the Hierarchy, the outlines for the work
of the Third Plenary Council, he embraced the project
with eager hopes and with faith in its realization which
never afterward wavered. The prelates resolved to in
clude the founding of the university in their program,
and when the Council met Bishop Spalding was able to
announce a triumph. He presented an offer from Miss
Mary Gwendoline Caldwell of $300,000 — a large sum
for the purpose in those days before most universities
in this country possessed the great endowments which
have since come to them — to form a nucleus for the
needed fund. Her father, William Shakespeare Cald
well, had inherited a large fortune which he increased
by his own talents in business. While living in Rich
mond, Virginia, when Gibbons was Bishop there, he had
munificently endowed the work of the Little Sisters of
the Poor and bestowed with an open hand other bene
factions upon the Church.
The Council accepted the offer as a providential means
of beginning the task upon which it had resolved to
embark, and appointed a board of trustees to take charge
of the university project. Archbishop Gibbons headed
this board from the beginning and remained its head
throughout his life, devoting himself to the university
with unwearying solicitude and throwing the whole force
of his prestige, resources and efforts into the scale. An
appeal was made to the Catholics of the United States
to provide the means for the endowment of eight pro
fessorships with which it was decided that the university

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 257
could begin its work, and also for the erection of the
necessary buildings.
The idea found favor on all sides. An ample site was
obtained in Washington, in environments where the
university could feel at home as a national institution,
and where the patriotic inspiration of the students was
likely to be developed most strongly. The construction
of buildings was soon begun and a number of the men
of foresight who lent their unstinted efforts to the work
in its beginnings lived to hail a realization of it far be
yond their expectations.
Archbishop Gibbons saw with especial regret in 1884
that many American priests still found it necessary to
go to the great universities abroad, notwithstanding the
marked increase in the United States of schools for their
advanced training. The multiplication of such schools
that had taken place would have kept up, perhaps, with
normal progress by the Church, but her extraordinary
growth baffled calculations. Priests who studied in
Europe returned in some cases with ideas which were
not suited to the flocks which they served. None felt
more keenly than the Archbishop of Baltimore that it
was an urgent need to develop a thoroughly American
Catholic university, one in faith with the Catholic body
throughout the world, but in touch with the spirit and
aspirations of the people whom it was designed to serve.
An overflowing tide of immigration was then sweep
ing in and there was no dissent within the Church from
the view that the newcomers who were unable to speak
English should receive, in the period soon after their
arrival, the ministrations of religion from clergymen who

258 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
could speak their own languages and who could sym
pathize with and help them in their homes on an intimate
footing. The Third Plenary Council went so far in its
solicitude for them as to decree that immigrants were
to be instructed at first by priests speaking their own
tongues. Thus it continued to be true that a considerable
proportion of the priesthood was made up of men of
foreign birth, for the Catholic Church is the shepherd of
by far the largest proportion of the immigrants who
come from countries where English is not spoken.
The real obstacle was that a number of the clergymen
who served English speaking congregations were also of
foreign birth and training. While educational facilities
for the training of priests were still inadequate in Amer
ica, this could not have been avoided, as the Catholic
Church insists upon their rigorous schooling in accord
ance with the decrees of the Council of Trent and the
Vatican Council; they could not be content with the
moderate education which often sufficed for clergymen
of some Protestant faiths. In the century before the
birth of the American Republic, when the Catholic re
ligion was proscribed almost constantly in Great Britain
and Ireland, and was harassed to a lesser extent, but still
grievously, perhaps more by public opinion than by force
of law, in a number of the American colonies, virtually
all of the priests who labored in the Church in America
were foreigners.
When the Federal Constitution abolished discrimina
tions and gave to the Catholic Church, as to all others,
a free field among the American people, the fathers of
St. Sulpice in Paris had hastened to send to Baltimore a

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 259
group of their members to found a college for the train
ing of priests. This was naturally under French influ
ence for many years. For a long time no resources to
found such schools were to be had in America and all
of those which sprang up were, from necessity, of Euro
pean origin. It had continued to be difficult to send
forth for ordination Catholic ministers of religion who
had been associated with no educational training except
that of their own country. Waves of immigration had
complicated the problem since colonial times, when the
American priesthood had a French tinge just as the clergy
of the Church of England were of English origin. When
the flood of Irish immigration came later, the priests were
largely of Irish birth; and as Germans, Austrians, Ital
ians and Poles began to swarm hither, there was another
influx of foreign influence.
Archbishop Gibbons, a native American, an optimist
regarding his own people, felt that this should be
changed. While a priest could execute his Divine mis
sion, without being one in social environment with the
recipients of his ministrations, he felt that it was far
better to have American training for Americans. It was
also highly important to have a cultured clergy — men
who, while able to penetrate among the homes of the
poor, to carry their evangel into the nurseries of vice and
degradation, could also meet the highest types of the
people on a footing of perfect equality. Tens of thou
sands of Catholics, a host increasing faster every year,
were men and women of culture, refined in their social
instincts, moving in the best circles of city, town or
country. The priests ministering to them should have

260 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
some polish, some versatility of education and associa
tion, some measure of the general impulses of those with
whom they came in contact.
The fathers of the Third Plenary Council set forth
in their pastoral letter that one of their first cares had
been to provide for the education of aspirants to the
priesthood. On this point they said:
"It has always been the Church's endeavor that her
clergy should be eminent in learning, for she has always
considered that nothing less than this is required by their
sacred office of guarding and dispensing Divine truth.
'The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge,' says the
Most High, 'and the people shall seek the law at his
mouth.' This is true at all times; for no advance in
secular knowledge, no diffusion of popular education,
can do away with the office of the teaching ministry,
which Our Lord has declared shall last forever.
"In every age it is and shall be the duty of God's
priests to proclaim the salutary truths which our
Heavenly Father has given to the world through his
Divine Son; to present them to each generation in the
way that will move their/ minds and hearts to embrace
and love them; to defend them, when necessary, against
every attack of error. From this it is obvious that the
priest should have a wide acquaintance with every de
partment of learning that has a bearing on religious
truth. "Hence in our age, when so many misleading theories
are put forth on every side, when every department of
natural truth and fact is actively explored for objections
against revealed religion, it is evident how extensive and
thorough should be the knowledge of the minister of the
Divine Word, that he may be able to show forth worthily
the beauty, the superiority, the necessity of the Christian

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 261
religion, and to prove that there is nothing in all that
God has made to contradict anything that God has
taught. "Hence the priest who has the noble ambition of at
taining the high level of his holy office may well con
sider himself a student all his life; and of the leisure;
hours which he can find amid the duties of his ministry,
he will have very few that he can spare for miscellaneous
reading, and none at all to waste. And hence, too, the
evident duty devolving on us to see that the course of
education in our ecclesiastical colleges and seminaries
be as perfect as it can be made.
"During the century of extraordinary growth now
closing, the care of the Church in this country has been
to send forth as rapidly as possible holy, zealous, hard
working priests, to supply the needs of the multitudes
calling for the ministrations of religion. She has not,
on that account, neglected to prepare them for their
Divine work, as her numerous and admirable seminaries
testify; but the course, of study was often more rapid
and restricted than she desired. At present our improved
circumstances make it practicable both to lengthen and
widen the course, and for this the Council has duly
provided." In conformity with the principles thus set forth, the
Council decreed that more preparatory seminaries for
the education of clerics were to be organized. The teach
ing in them was to embrace Christian doctrine, music and
the Gregorian chant, besides the usual branches of pro
fane learning. The student was to be taught to speak
and write Latin and instruction in Greek was also to be
given, as well as an adequate course in English.
Care must' be taken in selecting candidates for admis
sion to the greater seminaries and they must be zealously

262 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
trained in virtue and learning. They were to take two
years' work in philosophy and four years in theology.
The theological course was to embrace the dogmatic and
moral branches of the subject, biblical exercises, Church
history, canon law, liturgy, and eloquence. Especial care
in the appointment of the spiritual directors and the pro
fessors in the seminaries was enjoined. Clerical students
must spend their vacations in a manner becoming their
profession. After ordination, priests must take an examination
annually for five years in Scripture, dogmatic and moral
theology, canon law, Church history and liturgy. All
priests were to make a spiritual retreat once a year, if
possible, or at least every two years. They should de
velop themselves by solid reading and study, and avoid
conduct that would raise the least suspicion of evil.
Parochial schools were declared to be an absolute
necessity, and pastors were directed to establish them.
It was held to be desirable that instruction in these
schools should be free. Colleges and academies for the
higher education of those who passed through the
parochial schools were to be encouraged by all possible
means. The declarations of the Council on the subject of popu
lar education were particularly noteworthy as furnishing
the basis on which the school question was afterward
worked out by American Catholics. The pastoral letter
treated of it as being of supreme importance. Affirming
with earnestness that the system of Catholic schools was
a prop for the State, it proceeded :

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 263
"The cry for Christian education is going up from all
the religious bodies throughout the land. And this is no
narrowness and 'sectarianism' on their part; it is an
honest and logical endeavor to preserve Christian truth
and morality among the people by fostering religion in
the young. Nor is it any antagonism to the State; on
the contrary, it is an honest endeavor to give to the State
better citizens by making them better Christians. The
friends of Christian education do not condemn the State
for not imparting religious instruction in the schools as
they are now organized; because they well know it does
not lie within the province of the State to teach religion.
They simply follow their consciences by sending their
children to denominational schools, where religion can
have its rightful place and influence."
The letter set forth with vigor the Church's general
zeal for education and the usefulness of that zeal to
mankind then and in the past, saying:
"Popular education has always been a chief object of
the Church's care; in fact, it is not too much to say that
the history of civilization and education is the history
of the Church's work. In the rude ages, when semi-
barbarous chieftains boasted of their illiteracy, she suc
ceeded in diffusing that love of learning which covered
Europe with schools and universities; and thus from
the barbarous tribes of the early Middle Ages she built
up the civilized nations of modern times. Even subse
quent to the religious dissensions of the sixteenth century,
whatever progress has been made in education is mainly
due to the impetus which she had previously given. In
our country, notwithstanding the many difficulties at
tendant on first beginnings and unexampled growth, we
already find her schools, academies and colleges every
where, built and sustained by voluntary contributions,

264 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
even at the cost of great sacrifices, and comparing favor
ably with the best educational institutions in the land.
"These facts abundantly attest the Church's desire for
popular instruction. The beauty of truth, the refining
and elevating influences of knowledge, are meant for
all, and she wishes them to be brought within the reach
of all. Knowledge enlarges our capacity both for self-
improvement and for promoting the welfare of our fellow
men; and in so noble a work the Church wishes every
hand to be busy. Knowledge, too, is the best weapon
against pernicious errors. It is only 'a little learning'
that is 'a dangerous thing.'
"In days like ours, when error is so pretentious and
aggressive, every one needs to be as completely armed as
possible with sound knowledge — not only the clergy, but
the people also — that they may be able to withstand
the noxious influences of popularized irreligion. In the
great coming combat between truth and error, between
faith and agnosticism, an important part of the fray
must be borne by the laity, and woe to them if they are
not well prepared! And if, in the olden days of vas
salage and serfdom, the Church honored every individual,
no matter how humble his position, and labored to give
him the enlightenment that would qualify him for future
responsibilities, much more now, in the era of popular
rights and liberties, when every individual is an active
and influential factor in the body politic, does she desire
that all should be fitted by suitable training for an in
telligent and conscientious discharge of the important
duties that will devolve upon them.
"Few, if any, will deny that a sound civilization must
depend upon sound popular education. But education,
in order to be sound and to produce beneficial results,
must develop what is best in man, and make him not
only clever, but good. A one-sided education will de
velop a one-sided life ; and such a life will surely topple

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 265
over, and so will every social system that is built up of
such lives.
"True civilization requires that not only the physical
and intellectual, but also the moral and religious well-
being of the people should be promoted, and at least with
equal care. Take away religion from a people, and
morality would soon follow; morality gone, even their
physical condition would ere long degenerate into cor
ruption which breeds decrepitude, while their intellectual
attainments would only serve as a light to guide them
to greater depths of vice and ruin.
"This has been so often demonstrated in the history
of the past, and is, in fact, so self-evident, that one is
amazed to find any difference of opinion about it. A
civilization without religion would be a civilization of
'the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest/
in which cunning and strength would become the sub
stitutes for principle, virtue, conscience and duty. As a
matter of fact, there never has been a civilization worthy
of the name without religion; and from the facts of his
tory the laws of human nature can easily be inferred.
"Hence education, in order to foster civilization, must
foster religion. But many, unfortunately, while avowing
that religion should be the light and the atmosphere
of the home and of the Church, are content to see it ex
cluded from the school, and even advocate as the best
school system that which necessarily excludes religion.
Few surely will deny that childhood and youth are the
periods of life when the character ought especially to
be subjected to religious influences. Nor can we ignore
the palpable fact that the school system is an important
factor in the forming of childhood and youth — so imr
portant that its influence often outweighs that of home
and Church.
"It cannot, therefore, be desirable or advantageous
that religion should be excluded from the school. On

266 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the contrary, it ought there to be one of the chief agencies
for molding the young life to all that is true and virtuous.
and holy. To shut religion out of the school and keep it
for home and the Church is, logically, to train up a gen
eration that will consider religion good for home and the
Church, but not for the practical business of real life. A
more false and pernicious notion could not be imagined.
"Religion, in order to elevate a people, should inspire
their whole life and rule their relations with one another.
A life is not dwarfed, but ennobled, by being lived in the
presence of God. Therefore, the school, which prin
cipally gives the knowledge fitting for practical life,
ought to be preeminently under the holy influence of
religion. From the shelter of home and school the youth
must soon go out into the busy ways of trade or traffic
or professional practice. In all these, the principles of
religion should animate and direct him. But he cannot
expect to learn these principles in the workshop or the
office or the counting-room. Therefore, let him be well
and thoroughly imbued with them by the joint influences
of home and school before he is launched out on the
dangerous sea of life.
"All denominations of Christians are now awakening
to this great truth, which the Catholic Church has never
ceased to maintain. Reason and experience are forcing
them to recognize that the only practical way to secure a
Christian people is to give the youth a Christian educa
tion. The avowed enemies of Christianity in some Euro
pean countries are banishing religion from the schools,
in order, gradually, to eliminate it from among the peo
ple. In this they are logical, and we may well profit
by the lesson.
"Two objects, therefore, dear brethren, we have in
view — to multiply our schools, and to perfect them.
We must multiply them till every Catholic child in the
land shall have within its reach the means of education.
There is still much to do ere this be attained. There

BIRTH OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 267
are still thousands of Catholic children in the United
States deprived of the benefit of a Catholic school. Pas
tors and parents should not rest till this defect is
remedied. No parish is complete till it has schools.
adequate to the needs of its children, and the pastor and
people of such a parish should feel that they have not
accomplished their entire duty until the want is supplied.
"But, then, we must also perfect our schools. We
repudiate the idea that the Catholic school need be in
any respect inferior to any other school whatsoever. And
if hitherto, in some places, our people have acted on the
principle that it is better to have an imperfect Catholic
school than to have none, let them now push their praise
worthy ambition still further, and not relax their efforts
till their schools be elevated to the highest educational
excellence. And we implore parents not to hasten to
take their children from school, but to give them all the
time and all the advantages by which they have the
capacity to profit, so that in after life their children may
'rise up and call them blessed.' "
[The Council refused to condemn the public schools
and forbade any one, whether Bishop or priest, either by
act or by threat, to exclude from the sacraments as un
worthy persons who chose to send their children to such
schools or the children themselves. Where there was no
Catholic school, or where the one available was little
fitted for giving the children an education in keeping with
their condition, the Council decreed that the public
schools might be attended with a safe conscience. In
such cases measures to provide for the religious instruc
tion of the children were to be taken by the parish priest.
The Council urged, however, that parochial schools
should be increased in number until every Catholic child
might have the benefit of a Catholic education, j

CHAPTER XIV
THE QUESTION OF SECRET SOCIETIES
Another question upon which the Third Plenary
Council bestowed attention was that of secret societies.
Its ordinances in regard to them were the basis upon
which the momentous decision upon the toleration of the
Knights of Labor was soon to be made in response to
the urging of Gibbons. In America, with its compara
tive absence of restriction of the individual, organiza
tions of every kind had multiplied amazingly. The
Church was bound to legislate upon an issue which in
the days of the secret bands of "Know Nothing" plotters
had involved the gravest considerations for religious
liberty. There was, of course, no purpose to disturb any socie
ties maintained for a lawful purpose that was not re
pugnant to religion. It was only those whose aims were
hidden behind the screen of a mysterious oath which
excited the apprehensions of the prelates. The pastoral
letter of the Council set forth definitely that the Church
by no means wished to oppose the general tendency to
form groups. The main outlines of the attitude expressed
in it were :
"One of the most striking characteristics of our times
is the universal tendency to band together in societies
for all sorts of 'purposes. This tendency is the natural
268

THE QUESTION OF SECRET SOCIETIES 269
outgrowth of an age of popular rights and representative
institutions. It is also in accordance with the spirit of
the Church, whose aim, as indicated by her name Catho
lic, is to unite all mankind in brotherhood. It is con
sonant also with the spirit of Christ, who came to break
down all walls of division, and to gather all in the one
family of the one Heavenly Father.
"From the hilltop of her Divine mission and her
world-wide experience, she sees events and their conse
quences far more clearly than they who are down in the
tangled plain of daily life. She has seen associations
that were once praiseworthy become pernicious by change
of circumstances. She has seen others which won the
admiration of the world by their early achievements cor
rupted by power or passion, or evil guidance, and she
has been forced to condemn them. She has beheld asso
ciations which had their origin in the spirit of the ages
of faith transformed by lapse of time and loss of faith,
and the manipulation of designing leaders, into the open
or hidden enemies of religion and human weal.
"Thus our Holy Father, Leo XIII, has lately shown
that the Masonic and kindred societies — although the
offspring of the ancient Guilds, which aimed at sanctify
ing trades and tradesmen with the blessings of religion;
and, although retaining, perhaps, in their 'rituals' much
that tells of the religiousness of their origin, and although
in some countries still professing entire friendliness
toward the Christian religion — have, nevertheless, al
ready gone so far, in many countries, as to array them
selves in avowed hostility against Christianity and
against the Catholic Church as its embodiment, so that
they virtually aim at substituting a world-wide fraternity
of their own for the universal brotherhood of Jesus
Christ, and at disseminating mere naturalism for the/
supernatural revealed religion bestowed upon mankind
by the Savior of the world. He has shown, too, that

270 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
even in countries where they are as yet far from acknowl
edging such purposes, they, nevertheless, have in them
the germs which, under favorable circumstances, would
inevitably blossom forth in similar results.
"The Church, consequently, forbids her children to
have any connection with such societies, because they are
either an open evil to be shunned, or a hidden danger to
be avoided. She would fail in her duty if she did not
speak the word of warning, and her children would
equally fail in theirs if they did not heed it.
"Whenever, therefore, the Church has spoken au
thoritatively with regard to any society, her decision
ought to be final for every Catholic. He ought to know
that the Church has not acted hastily, or unwisely, or
mistakenly; he should be convinced that any worldly
advantages which he might derive from membership in
such a society would be a poor substitute for the mem
bership, the sacraments and the blessings of the Church
of Christ; he should have the courage of his religious
convictions and stand firm to faith and conscience. But
if he be inclined or asked to join a society on which the
Church has passed no sentence, then let him, as a reason
able and Christian man, examine into it carefully, and
not join the society until he is satisfied of its lawful
character. "There is one characteristic which is always a strong
presumption against a society, and that is secrecy. Our
Divine Lord Himself has laid down the rule: 'Every
one that doeth evil hateth the light and cometh not to
the light, that his works may not be reproved. But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light that his works may
be made manifest, because they are done in God.' When,
therefore, associations veil themselves in secrecy and
darkness, the presumption is against them, and it rests
with them to prove that there is nothing evil in them.
"If any society's obligation be such as to bind its mem-

THE QUESTION OF SECRET SOCIETIES 271
bers to secrecy, even when rightly questioned by com
petent authority, then such a society puts itself outside
the limits of approval; and no one can be a member of
it and at the same time be admitted to the sacraments
of the Catholic Church. The same is true of any organi
zation that binds its members to a promise of blind obedi
ence — to accept in advance and to obey whatsoever
orders, lawful or unlawful, may emanate from its chief
authorities; because such a promise is contrary both to
reason and conscience. And if a society works or plots,
either openly or in secret, against the Church, or against
lawful authorities, then to be a member of it is to be
excluded from the membership of the Catholic Church."
The Council overlooked no department of the Church's
activities in America. Time has amply attested the
soundness and permanency of its legislation. It intro
duced in the United States, where priests had been re
movable at the will of the Bishop, a modification of the
system of irremovable rectors which had been in use in
Europe. The Council enacted that every tenth rector
should be irremovable where the circumstances justified
it, being secure in his tenure except when guilty of speci
fied offenses. It decreed that a parish, in order to have
an irremovable rector, must possess a proper church, a
school for boys and girls, and stable revenues for the
support of priest, church and school.
A candidate for such a post must have been in the
ministry ten years and have shown himself a satisfactory
administrator in spiritual and temporal affairs. The ex
amination for irremovable rectorships must take place
before the Bishop or Vicar General and three examiners.
Each candidate was required to answer questions on

272 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
dogmatic and moral theology, liturgy and canon law,
and to give specimens of catechetical exposition and
preaching. Regulations were established for recommending candi
dates for bishoprics and as to the appointment and duties
of diocesan consultors and episcopal tribunals. Warning
was given regarding abuses incident to such means of
raising money as picnics, fairs, and excursions, and balls
for religious purposes were prohibited. In all churches,
it was ordered, some seats must be provided for the poor.
The Council sent a letter of sympathy to the Bishops
of Germany, whose people were then groaning under
the May laws. The Archbishop of Cologne replied re
counting the difficulties of the Church in his own country
and added :
"We congratulate you, venerable brethren in the Lord,
because in your republic the Church rejoices in the
fulness of liberty, so essential to her and her due by right
Divine." Complete harmony marked the end of the Council; and
Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, wept as he expressed
the thanks of the prelates to the Apostolic Delegate for
the manner in which he had presided over their delibera
tions. He spoke of his presence at the First Plenary
Council, saying:
"I had never seen a more sublime sight; it was not
this grand old building, nor the gorgeous vestments, nor
the dulcet strains of the music that inspired me. It
was that assemblage of men from all parts of the coun
try, with different ideas and sentiments, but with one
common end in view — the good of our Church.

THE QUESTION OF SECRET SOCIETIES 273
"When Xerxes beheld his army of a million men stand
ing in their martial strength before him, he wept on re
flecting that not one of that mighty host would survive
a century, and so of us, venerable fathers, in half that
time death shall claim us all." x
Archbishop Gibbons was naturally moved to his in
most depths by the closing scene. As always in the
presence of a personal triumph, his modesty seemed to
be accentuated. In his reply he said:
"Whatever success has attended my part of the work,
I attribute, under God, to your kind forbearance and
uniform benevolence toward me. Mindful of the words
of the Apostle, you have not despised my youth. I have
witnessed the proceedings of the greatest deliberative
bodies in the world; I have listened to debates in the
House of Commons, the French Chambers and both
Houses of Congress. I have attended provincial, na
tional and ecumenical councils; but never did I witness
more uniform courtesy in debate, more hearty acquies
cence in the opinions of the majority than in the Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore.
"Venerable Fathers, we have met as Bishops of the
common faith; we part as brothers bound by the closest
ties of charity. Though differing in nationality, in lan
guage, in habits, in tastes, in local interests, we have met
as members of the same immortal episcopate, having
'one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all'; and if the Holy Father, whose portrait adorns
our Council chamber, could speak from the canvas, well
could he exclaim: 'Behold how good and how pleasant
a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity !'
"The words you have spoken in Council, like good
seed, are yet hidden from the eyes of men ; but they will
1 Catholic Mirror, December 13, 1884.

274 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
one day arise and bring forth fruit of sanctification. The
decrees you have formulated will foster discipline and
piety; they will quicken the faith and cheer the hearts
of millions of Catholics. ,
"This is the last time that we shall assemble under
the dome of this venerable Cathedral with the portrait
of God's saints looking down upon us. The venerable
Archbishop has reminded us of our short tenure of life;
but we are immortal! God grant that the scene of to
day may be a presage of our future reunion in the temple
above not made with hands, in the company of God's
saints, where, clothed in white robes and with palms in
our hands, we shall sing benediction and honor and glory
to our God forever." 2
The decrees of the Council, signed by fourteen Arch
bishops, sixty-one Bishops or their representatives, and
one general of a religious order, were taken to Rome by
Dr. O'Connell and several of the American Bishops.
They were approved and returned without substantial
changes. They seemed to have removed all doubt in the
mind of Leo XIII, if any existed, as to who was his right
arm in the western part of the world. In Archbishop
Gibbons he saw an enlightened thinker and an apostle
of the new democracy to which he was turning with hope
as the most fertile field for the Church's efforts. Now
that the Council had erased ecclesiastical complexities
due to the diversity of origin of the American people and
had given the Church in the United States a complete
and unified organization on which might be made the
impress of a truly national character, the field of oppor
tunity immensely broadened. The assimilative power
'Memorial Volume, Third Plenary Council, pp. 65-67.

THE QUESTION OF SECRET SOCIETIES 275
of the Church in America was to be tested no less than
that of the body politic; for both it was to be a time of
trial. Leo and Gibbons asked for no favors from, sought no
entanglements with, the government of the United States.
They wished only a free and open opportunity to carry
the appeal of the Church to the hearts and consciences
of Americans and welcomed the advent of a new order
in which their plans might be fulfilled.
After the decrees of the Council had been tested by
time, Leo expressed his especial commendation of them
in his encyclical letter of January 6, 1895, on "Catho
licity in the United States." He wrote :
"The love which we cherish toward the Catholics of
your nation moved us likewise to turn our attention at
the very beginning of our Pontificate to the convocation
of a Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. Subsequently
when the Archbishops, on our invitation, had come to
Rome, we diligently inquired of them what they deemed
most conducive to the common good. We finally, and
after mature deliberation, ratified by Apostolic authority
the decrees of the prelates assembled at Baltimore. In
truth, the event has proven, and still proves, that the
decrees of Baltimore were salutary and timely in the
extreme. Experience has demonstrated their power for
the maintenance of discipline ; for stimulating the intelli
gence and zeal of the clergy; for defending and develop
ing the Catholic education of youth.
"Wherefore, venerable brethren, if we make acknowl
edgment of your activity in these matters, if we laud your
firmness tempered with prudence, we but pay tribute to
your merit; for we are fully sensible that so great a har
vest of blessings could by no means have so swiftly

276 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ripened to maturity had you not exerted yourselves each
to the utmost of his ability, sedulously and faithfully to
carry into effect the statutes you had wisely framed at
Baltimore." 3
° Encyclical Longingue Oceani, translated by the Rev. John J. Wynne,
in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, pp. 326-327.

CHAPTER XV
ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE
The golden age of the Catholic Church in America
was now at hand, the age of Gibbons, in which she
flourished to a degree as unexampled for her as was the
prosperity of the age of Augustus for ancient Rome; in
which she suddenly flowered forth with a marvelous in
crease of her activities in all directions, tripling the num
ber of her followers, doubling the number of her churches,
and more than quadrupling the number of her priests; *
in which she stood accepted at last under the searching
gaze of public opinion as a staunch upholder of the civil
institutions of the country, a tremendous force for liberty
and law and order, shunning everywhere trespass upon
the civil functions of the State so that all could see her
stand, asking no favors but asserting her equality of
right; a prop and pillar, second to none, of all the just
aspirations that had throbbed in the bosoms of Ameri
cans since the days of Washington.
The master spirit of the Church in America during
that period was Gibbons. Possessing ample authority
'The number of Catholics in the United States in 1877, when Gibbons
became Archbishop of Baltimore, was 6,000,000; at the_ beginning of
1921 it was 17,885,646, not counting the number in the insular posses
sions. The churches increased from 8000 to 16,000 in the same period;
priests from 5000 to 21,000 and parochial schools from 1500 to 6000.
In the diocese of Baltimore, as we have already seen, the number of
Catholic churches was more than tripled. 277

278 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and the full support of Leo XIII during the most critical
part of the time, he dominated also by the force of his
personality. In the eyes of Americans the Catholic
Church was embodied in Gibbons. He was her type
and exemplar when criticism reared its head, and his
life and works and words were the most effective answer
to criticism. His influence was felt as strongly in the
distant dioceses of the Pacific coast as in the shadow of
his own Cathedral in Baltimore.
The irresistible forces of enlightenment, missionary
effort and patriotic zeal which Gibbons set in motion
began to show all their maximum effects immediately
after the Third Plenary Council. In the public mind
their amplified scope soon became associated with his
promotion to the honor of being the only Cardinal in
America, which distinction he possessed for a quarter
of a century.
He was of a different type from McCloskey, who died
October 10, 1885, after having been a member of the
Church's most exalted Council for ten years. No better
perspective of this difference of temperament could be
given than in the words pronounced in the funeral ser
mon over the first American Cardinal in St. Patrick's
Cathedral, New York, by him who was destined to be
the second, and who, comparing McCloskey with his
most famous predecessor in the See, said:
"McCloskey, meek, gentle, retiring from the world,
reminds us of Moses with uplifted hands praying on the
mountains; Hughes, active, bold, vigorous, aggressive,
was, as it were, another Joshua fighting in the valley,

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 279
armed with the Christian panoply of faith, truth,
justice." The methods of Hughes were the methods of Gibbons,
as America and the world were soon to see. As he spoke
those words he stood on the brink of battle, for there
was opening for him a succession of struggles to realize
his aims which might have made faint the heart of the
boldest had they been perceived then in their full out
lines. It was evident that the Pope was not to leave America
without a Cardinal. Previous to the elevation of Mc
Closkey, little personal preference in regard to the selec
tion by Rome had been expressed ; but now, overwhelm
ingly evident in public opinion from one end of the coun
try to the other and only less strong among non-Catholics
than Catholics, was the desire that the honor should fall
upon Gibbons. It was in effect a form of unconvoked
plebiscite in which his fellow countrymen registered their
choice by a majority so great that dissent seemed in
significant. True, here and there local preference for others found
voice. Friends of Archbishop Corrigan, who had been
raised from the bishopric of Newark to the See of New
York, hoped that he might receive the honor ; or that if a
red hat were bestowed elsewhere, the representation of
America in the Sacred College might be increased and
New York, the diocese embracing the greatest number
of Catholics in the world, might continue to have a resi
dent Cardinal also. In Boston the wise and clear-sighted

280 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Archbishop Williams was considered worthy of the
highest place in the gift of the Papacy.
Leo XIII, always especially keen to observe currents
of opinion in America, did not delay his choice long.
Archbishop Gibbons wrote in his journal:
"Feb. 10 [1886]. I received from my kind friend,
Archbishop Corrigan, a telegram informing me that he
had authentic information from Rome that the Holy
Father had determined to raise me to the Cardinalatial
dignity and that the biglietto would reach me about the
22nd of this month. I have also received congratulatory
telegrams from Archbishop Williams, Mgr. Farley 2 and
Mr. Benziger 3 The news is not yet known in our city.
Should the report be verified, may God give me, as he
gave to his servant David, a humble heart that I may
bear the honor with becoming modesty and a profound
sense of my un worthiness ; 'suscitans de terra inopem et
de stercore erigens pauperem ut collocet eum cum prin-
cipibus populi.' The Archbishop of New York says that
the Cardinal Secretary of State mailed the biglietto on
the 8th.
"11. Telegrams and messages of congratulation are
pouring in from all parts of the country."
There is a break of nearly a month in the references
to the subject in his journal. They were thus resumed:
"March 9. A cablegram from Wardo, Count
Soderini, announces the Holy Father's intention to
create me Cardinal.
"17. The following cablegram is published in all the
American papers: 'Rome, March 16th. It is officially
announced that at the Consistory to be held on April
'Then secretary to Archbishop Corrigan.
"The Catholic publisher of New York.

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 281
12th the following dignitaries of the Church will be
made Cardinals: Archbishop Gibbons of Baltimore;
Archbishop Taschereau of Quebec; Mgr. Feratti, Nuncio
at Venice; Mgr. de Rend, Nuncio at Paris; Mgr. Ram-
polla del Tindaro, Nuncio at Madrid and Mgr. Massella,
former Nuncio at Lisbon.'
"May 5. Received a cablegram from Dr. O'Connell
stating that the biglietto officially informing me of the
Holy Father's intention to raise me to the Cardinalate
was mailed in Rome May 3rd.
"6. Received from same a cablegram showing that
the Consistory would probably be held June 7th.
"7. The Holy Father was graciously pleased to ask
Dr. O'Connell to send me the following cablegram : 'The
Pope wishes to be the first to notify you.'
"18. Received from Cardinal Jacobini, Secretary of
State, the biglietto, an official document informing me
of the Holy Father's intention to raise me to the Cardi-
nalatial dignity at the next Consistory."
Cardinal Jacobini wrote:
"The Sovereign Pontiff wishes in a particular manner
to attest the high esteem and consideration he has for
the virtues which adorn your Grace and for the many
claims you already have on account of your merits as
well as to increase the lustre of the metropolitan See of
Baltimore, first among all the churches of the vast Re
public of the United States, and on that account adorned
with the honorable title of primatial See." 4
The Archbishop thus jotted down a memorandum of
the Consistory at which he was elevated :
"June 7. Answered a private congratulatory letter
of Cardinal Simeoni offering his felicitations on my ele-
* Letter of Cardinal Jacobini to Archbishop Gibbons, May 4, 1886,
Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.

282 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
vation to the Cardinalate. The Consistory was held to
day at which it pleased the Holy Father to place me
among the members of the Sacred College."
Twenty-three days after the Consistory would come
the twenty-fifth anniversary of Gibbons' ordination to
the priesthood. That event would have been celebrated
in the diocese of Baltimore in any event; now it took
on a greatly enlarged meaning. The Archbishop wished
to receive the red biretta on June 30, in order that the
anniversary thereafter might be a double one.
At first there was doubt that the messenger of the
Papal court would arrive in time for this plan to be car
ried out. The clergy and people of Baltimore, swayed
by their affection for the new Cardinal and a lively sense
of the honor done to his city and theirs, had begun with
out delay to make big preparations for the coming cere
mony. Cable messages were exchanged with Rome,
whose customary calm was broken — but by no means to
the displeasure of the Curia — by the American urgency
to hasten the ancient ceremony which was about to be
performed. Baltimore has been compared in certain rather striking
aspects to a European city; and one instance in which
the parallel might be traced is the warm-hearted interest
with which the people of the city as a whole regard the
Catholic Archbishop and the old Cathedral. Perhaps
there is in this an echo of the story of St. Mary's and
the beginnings of the American Hierarchy in the days.
of Carroll, but there is no doubt that the lofty character
of an influential portion of the Catholic laity there from
early times has had much to do with the feeling. Gover-

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 283
nor and Mayor, merchant and laborer, talked with eager
ness of the approaching ceremonial. The novelty of
seeing in a democratic community the venerable rite of
the investiture of a Cardinal excited popular anticipation
to a high pitch. The city prepared for a general fete
and wrote the name of Gibbons on the roll of its most
distinguished sons.
Heeding messages from Baltimore, Mgr. Straniero, the
Pontifical representative bearing the red zucchetto and
red biretta, accompanied by Count Muccioli, of the Noble
Guard, and the Rev. Thomas S. Lee, rector of the Balti
more Cathedral, who had been in Rome, made an early
start for Liverpool. Leo said to them at parting:
"Present to Cardinal Gibbons our affectionate paternal
benediction. We remember him with the most cordial
esteem and believe we could not confer the hat on a more
worthy prelate. We cordially hope that during his
Cardinalate our most holy faith may be blessed by great
increase of strength among the Catholics of the United
States." A fast steamer bore the messengers to America. Land
ing in New York June 21, they hurried by train to Balti
more, where a large gathering of the clergy and laity
met them at the railroad station. That evening at the
archiepiscopal residence, Count Muccioli, in clattering
sword and brilliant uniform, giving a picturesque re
minder of the temporal power that was novel in Amer
ica, presented the red zucchetto to the new prince of the
Church; and Mgr. Straniero, who bore the biretta to be
conferred June 30, announced his mission in the presence
of a distinguished assemblage.

284 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Nearly the whole American Hierarchy gathered in the
city for the main ceremony. On the morning of the 30th,
the venerable Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, as the
Pope's representative, bestowed the red biretta upon
Gibbons in the Cathedral, where Kenrick's brother, then
Archbishop of Baltimore, had ordained the young priest
a quarter of a century before.
The ceremony was preceded by an ecclesiastical pro
cession such as can be seen in no other American city, and,
indeed, in few cities of the world. Since Carroll's time
the Church had been accustomed to hold her most splen
did spectacles in the mother Cathedral of the United
States. For the elevation of Cardinal Gibbons, the
masters of ceremonial at St. Mary's Seminary, who from
the lore and precedent of the past had long been accus
tomed to devise imposing pageants, prepared one which
was then unprecedented in the country. There were hun
dreds of students for the priesthood in line, and other
hundreds of the regular and secular clergy, Capuchin
Fathers, members of the Benedictine Order, Lazarists,
Dominicans, Jesuits and Franciscans. In the body of
prelates who followed — in a Catholic procession the post
of honor being always at the end, following the Biblical
rule that "the first shall be last, and the last first" — the
herculean forms of Ryan of Philadelphia and Feehan of
Chicago, clad in episcopal purple, towered above the
others like great trees in a forest. Archbishop Kenrick,
so feeble that every step seemed to be an effort, tottered
along near the end of the procession. Last of all in the
long line came the new Cardinal, bearing himself with

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 285
the simple dignity which seemed to fit him like a garment
on important occasions.
When a Catholic procession of note passes in Balti
more, Protestants as well as Catholics on the streets are
accustomed to uncover their heads reverently; and in this,
respect their homage to the new Cardinal seemed to
ignore, even more than usually, distinctions of creed.
Within the crowded Cathedral sat many of the most dis
tinguished men of his native city and State who had
assembled to do honor to him.
The Pontifical High Mass was celebrated by Arch
bishop Williams, and Archbishop Ryan, one of the fore
most pulpit orators of his time, was selected to deliver the
sermon. Both of these men, powerful in the councils of
the Church, were bound to the new Cardinal not only
by ties of the closest personal friendship, but by deep
and unwavering sympathy with his enlightened aims.
The resonant voice of Archbishop Ryan proclaimed
the new prince of the Church in the light in which he
had become known, saying:
"Providence has fitted him for the position. He is in
perfect harmony with the spirit of the Church and can
represent her to the American people ; he is also in entire
harmony with the spirit of the country and can represent
it in the councils of the Church. He knows and feels
that there is no antagonism between the Catholic Church
and our political institutions; but, on the contrary, she
is nowhere on earth to-day more perfectly at home than
in this free land.
"On this day, twenty-five years ago, the present Cardi
nal was ordained to the priesthood by the greatest

286 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ecclesiastic whom the American Church has yet seen —
Archbishop Francis Patrick Kenrick, of this city. To
day the brother of that great prelate, venerable in years
and merits, after traveling over a thousand miles, ap
pears in this sanctuary to crown with the scarlet of the
Cardinalate the young priest of that day. The former
prelate prayed that God might 'bless and sanctify and
consecrate' the prostrate young Levite ; today his brother
prays that the same God may illumine and fortify the
prince of the Church.
"In this Cathedral where the new Cardinal was bap
tized, officiated as a priest, was consecrated Bishop, and
presided so wisely over the late Plenary Council, he re
ceives today the highest honors of the Church of God.
It is an honor not only to him, but to the American
Church; to this great State of Maryland, which, Catholic
in its origin, proclaimed from the beginning the doctrine
of religious liberty. It is an honor to this Catholic and
hospitable city of Baltimore, and I rejoice to learn that
its non-Catholic citizens appreciate it."
The Archbishop explained, as was appropriate in a
country to which the ancient dignity of the Cardinalate
was comparatively unfamiliar, the essentials of the struc
ture of government which aims to make the Church a
kingdom not of this world, but "visible, universal and
perpetual." He said:
"Behold that kingdom under one king, Jesus Christ,
and His visible representative on earth, the Sovereign
Pontiff, with judicial and legislative departments spread
throughout the whole earth, with more discordant ele
ments than any kingdom that ever existed, and yet with
more union of action and conviction and affection — a
kingdom that extends further than all others, and claims
the tribute of intellect and heart. Men acknowledge,

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 287
indeed, its power and wisdom, and try to account for
both on purely human theories. Some regard it as the
perfection of the monarchical system; others as a great
republic, whose officers, from the Pope to the humblest
Abbot, are elected by the governed, and whose religious
orders are the model in great part for our own form
of government. But the truth is that the Church is,
strictly speaking, neither of these, nor a wondrous com
bination of both; but a new and Divine institution, a
kingdom of God on earth, as the Scripture calls it. . . .
"The simple forms by which a few thousand converted
Jews were ruled in Jerusalem would be insufficient to
govern the children of every tribe and tongue and peo
ple, numbering over two hundred millions, ruled from
Rome as a center of unity. Hence we find that the
Sovereign Pontiff selected a body of ecclesiastics in Rome
whom he constituted his chief or cardinal counselors in
the great affairs of his kingdom. . . .
"These Cardinals form, as it were, a senate of the
Church, and what a magnificent senate ! . . . The selec
tion of these counselors of the Pope is left to his own
judgment; but the Fathers of the Council of Trent pre
sumed to suggest that the Roman Pontiff select them,
as much as possible, out of all the nations of the earth,
where suitable persons can be found. The wisdom of
this is evident. The members of the central governing
body ought to understand thoroughly the peoples whom
they govern. The present Pontiff, who is remarkable
for his knowledge of the outside world and of the genius
of this country, has, more than any other, perhaps, acted
on this great and most wise principle."
Archbishop Kenrick, addressing the Cardinal, said:
"It is nothing anomalous or contrary to the principles
of the Republic that we should have in our midst a
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and we

288 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
are confident that your appointment will continue to be
regarded, as it is now regarded, as a new element of
strength and harmony for all. The honor was one which
American Catholics had a right to expect on account of
the greatness of our country, the position which it oc
cupies among the nations of the earth and the influence
it has to exert over the future destinies of the human
race. . . .
"We congratulate your Eminence on your appointment
to so high an office. It will increase your cares and re
sponsibilities, but it will also increase your means of
usefulness as an honorable citizen of the Republic and
as a faithful Bishop of the Church of God."
The new Cardinal, in responding, gave expression to
a view upon which he often dwelt in later utterances,
hailing Leo XIII as a providential Pontiff. He said :
"I feel assured that your hearts will go forth with
mine in a message of thanks to our beloved Pontiff, for
the event we are celebrating today. It is an honor not
personal to myself; it is an honor which he confers on
this venerable See, which you all love so well, and on the
whole Church in America. It is a signal mark of his
admiration and high esteem for our beloved country, in
whose spiritual welfare from the first day of his accession
to the chair of St. Peter he has taken so enlightened an
interest. "God raises up men in every age to meet the emer
gencies of the occasion. He has providentially raised
up our present illustrious Pontiff to meet the special
wants of these times. As the first Leo, by his majestic
bearing and fearless eloquence, arrested the march of an
all-conquering warrior and saved Rome from destruc
tion, so has the thirteenth of his great name conciliated
one of the mightiest empires of modern times, giving

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 289
back peace and liberty to the Church of Germany. He
has been chosen umpire of two great nations of the east
ern world; and his impartial decision, gratefully
acquiesced in by their rulers, has hushed the clamor of
strife and restored peace and harmony.5
"Never, perhaps, in the history of the Church has the
moral influence of the Papacy been more strongly marked
and beneficently exerted than during the reign of Leo
XIII ; never have the true relations of Church and State
been more clearly enunciated than in his ever-memorable
encyclical letter, Immortale Dei.
"In no country of all the nations of the earth does he
find more loyal and devoted spiritual children than
among the clergy and laity of this free Republic. And I
am happy to add that our separated brethren, while not
sharing in our faith, have shared in our profound admira
tion for the benevolent character and enlightened states
manship of the present Supreme Pontiff.
"Beloved brethren of the laity, I say from my heart
of hearts that earth has for me no place dearer than the
sanctuary where I now stand and the diocese which I
serve. And how could it be otherwise? It was in this
Cathedral that I first breathed the breath of life as a
Christian. At yonder font I was regenerated in the
waters of baptism. Almost beneath the shadow of this
temple, in old St. Mary's Seminary, I was raised to the.
dignity of the priesthood by the hands of the venerable
Archbishop Kenrick, the illustrious brother of him from
whom I have the honor of receiving the biretta to-day.
It was at this very altar that I was consecrated Bishop
by my predecessor and father in Christ, the venerated
Spalding. "We of this diocese down to the humblest priest hold
it an honor as well as a duty to labor in the sacred soil of
"The reference was to the Caroline Islands dispute between Germany
and Spain, submitted to the Pope as arbitrator.

290 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Maryland, where the forefathers, two hundred and fifty
years ago, planted the Cross and raised the banner of
religious liberty and called forth the oppressed of other
lands to take their shelter beneath its protecting folds.
What holy enthusiasm should not these memories evoke !
What zeal should they not arouse for religion and
country! "May it be the study of my life to walk in the foot
prints of my illustrious predecessors in this ancient See,
and in the footprints of the first Cardinal Archbishop
in these United States, who has lately passed to his
reward and whose sterling merit was surpassed only by
his modesty and humility. And may it be your good
fortune also, dearly beloved brethren, to emulate the
faith and civic virtues of your ancestors, and to hand
down that faith and those virtues untarnished as precious
heirlooms to the generations yet to be."
Baltimore expressed its joy after the ecclesiastical
event of the day had been concluded. There was a
banquet to the Cardinal at St. Mary's Seminary, where
representative priests of the diocese, who had been first
of all to recognize in him the traits of a great com
mander, expressed their delight at his elevation. At
night there was a long parade in which Catholic Knights
and young men's societies passed through illuminated
streets. The Cardinal's prestige was no less strong in the fash
ionable society of the city than in the demesnes of the
poor, and a group of its principal figures attended a
reception given in his honor in the evening by Miss Emily
Harper, the granddaughter of Charles Carroll, of Car-
rollton, at her home on Cathedral Street.
Throngs gathered in front of the Cardinal's residence

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 291
at night, as if to honor a candidate for the presidency at
the height of a political campaign. They called for
him to appear, and waves of cheers arose as he smilingly
greeted them at the bay window of the house. When
quiet had been restored, he walked out on the portico of
the building and briefly expressed his thanks, concluding
with a prayer for a blessing upon all.
Again he spoke, almost with awe, of the confidence
reposed in him by Leo XIII, at the annual commence
ment the next day of St. Charles' College, where thirty-
one years before, a youth just from New Orleans, he had
pursued his classical studies in preparation for the priest
hood. He said:
"With respect to the references made in the course of
the addresses here to our Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XIII,
I wish to say in all simplicity and in all sincerity that
the predilection which he has appeared uniformly to
evince toward me, and the favorable appreciation which
he has made of what I have been able to do in the cause
of religion, have been a constant source of embarrassment
to me in his presence, and of wonder when distant from
him." The members of the teaching orders in the diocese, who
had observed with some surprise and more delight that
the Archbishop had never been too preoccupied to bestow
attention even upon many of the humbler details of their
labors and to extend cordial help which had been of un
told value to them, expressed in an especial manner their
rejoicing at his promotion. They were already accus
tomed to hear him speak words which inspired patriotism,
and he responded in the same vein when a large body

292 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of the Christian Brothers, representing the order in the
province of Baltimore, presented an address to him at
his residence. The Cardinal said :
"It is a source of inexpressible satisfaction to us to
feel the most perfect assurance of how free from friction
are the relations of the Catholic Church and the giant
republic of the West. It proves the elasticity, if we may
so speak, of Catholic doctrine. It proves that it is Catho
lic indeed, and has the capacity to adapt itself to all that
is good in the many forms of governments and persons.
Breathing the pure air of liberty, the Church expands,
with her finest strength, and grows in beauty and power.
"We would find yet more occasion to approve and love
her if we could contrast her state here with her condition
in other countries less happy in their government and
laws. Here the government extends over us the aegis
of equal laws without interfering with the just rights
of any.
"How much can you not accomplish, dear brothers, in
that spirit of self-sacrifice displayed by you in so many
fields of untiring effort! We see around us now the
monuments of those labors in the many young men reared
in the faith, in intelligence and learning, fitted for the
duties of citizenship, making them noble representatives
of the State of Maryland. You carry out the principles
of your founder, or rather, of the Gospel, for, after all,
everything must be referred to the Gospel. The secret
of your success is found in humility, piety and intelli
gence; they form a triple cord which cannot be broken.
Acting upon these principles in molding the minds,
hearts and souls of youth, you do more than Michel
angelo, whose genius brought out those beautiful images
in marble or on canvas which have for centuries been
the admiration and delight of every land and people.
"It is not a slight debt that this archdiocese and this

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 293
great city of Baltimore — the first great field of your
labors in this country — owe you. The clergy have ex
perienced the benefit of your labors. You have many
reasons to be proud of your mission in this archdiocese,
for that mission is the high one of instilling virtue into
young hearts and training their minds in knowledge."
The transformation of public opinion toward the
Church which the Cardinal had already set in motion,
and which was soon to be even more strikingly evident,
was plainly disclosed by the press. Up to that time the
newspapers of the country which were controlled by non-
Catholics — and most of them were in that category —
had seldom commented upon events relating to the
Church. Perhaps this was due in part to a wish not to
trespass on a field in which comment might not be wel
comed; but it was partly to be accounted for by the fact
that a barrier, whose origin no man could define exactly
unless recourse were had to ancient causes, had seemed to
exist between the Catholic Church as an ecclesiastical
structure, represented by the general body of her
Hierarchy, and the mass of non-Catholic interests in the
United States.
Restraint was now thrown off and from one end of the
country to the other newspapers of all shades of political
belief, whose owners and editors were of different re
ligious creeds, commented upon the elevation of Gibbons
as an honor to their country and an augury of happy
relations between the Catholic Church and American in
stitutions. The new Cardinal had not yet risen to the
full height of his popularity; but already some knowledge
of the traits which distinguished him as a man and a

294 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
prelate had penetrated wherever Americans were. The
newspapers saw in his selection for the Sacred College a
recognition of the most progressive tendencies in the
Catholic Church in America, and a hopeful sign of a
complete understanding of the United States by the
leaders of the Church in Europe. They felt that as an
American by birth and training, no less than by sympathy
and aspiration, he was exceptionally fitted to represent
this country in the highest councils at Rome.
More than that, these journals began to open their
columns to news of the Catholic Church. Hitherto there
had been distrust on both sides; many of the clergy had
felt that newspapers were inspired by misunderstanding,
if not bigotry, and were obstructive of their work; and
many of the newspapers, on their part, had been at least
not disposed to assist where their help seemed not to be
desired. Now the differences began to disappear.
Cordiality took the place of suspicion. News of the
Catholic Church had never been barred from any impor
tant American newspaper, but little of it had been
printed. At first some, then a great many, journals began
to solicit it and print it with as little hesitation as they
solicited and printed the news of non-Catholic religious
work. In a country where the newspapers exercise so power
ful an influence upon the general mental attitude of the
people as in America, the results must be obvious. The
new relation which thus came into being was of immense
value in removing causes of that intolerance concerning
religion which it was one of the overwhelming desires
of Cardinal Gibbons to combat to the death.

ELEVATED TO THE CARDINALATE 295
The favor with which Gibbons was regarded by Leo
XIII was welcomed by many newspapers as a great
benefit to America. The venerable Pontiff was then well
past three score and ten; none could foresee the remark
able age to which Providence was destined to spare him.
Least of all was it known how far Leo would go in en
abling Gibbons to carry out his broad designs for the.
extension of religion and the rescue of millions held down
by the weight of economic injustice.

CHAPTER XVI
SETTING THE LARGER TASK
The new Cardinal hailed in his larger relation to the
Church and the world an opportunity for translating into
action many ideas which had been taking shape in his
mind. He did not look upon his new office as merely
imposing an additional burden of responsibility, for the
greater the responsibility that came to him, the greater
seemed his ease, poise and capacity to meet its require
ments. Least of all did he consider it in the empty aspect
of a personal honor, for he had given ample evidence of
his willingness, from the day he entered the priesthood,
to labor in an obscure field if Providence should so allot
his destiny. His chief concern was not that he might
have to do too much, but that he should not fail to stretch
the opportunity to the utmost limit in the execution of
the broad policy which he now proceeded to formulate.
The essentials of this policy had already become
clearly defined in his own conceptions, but before adopt
ing them fully he decided to fortify himself with advice.
With thoroughness of plan, he sought to draw opinions
from such a variety of sources that he would have no
doubt of his own conclusions. Possessing a singular
capability for understanding others, and particularly for
understanding deep men whose thoughts seemed baffling
to some, he proceeded.
He had been buoyed up by a comprehension of the
296

SETTING THE LARGER TASK 297
enlighted views of Leo XIII from the time of their con
versations in Rome six years before. His impressions
then gained had been amplified and fortified by corre
spondence with Leo, and he had sounded the opinions
of Cardinals in Europe. With brother Bishops in Amer
ica he also took counsel.
His plans, he knew, reached far outside the Church,
though originating within it and operating from it as
the visible fountain of his inspiration and his authority.
He therefore consulted Americans in different walks of
life, statesmen in Washington, laymen of prominence and
vision, priests upon whom he relied; even some persons
who filled humbler roles in life. From all of these he
gained impressions of what the Church, the world and
America needed. His aims, rooted deep in his Catholic
faith, was service to men, and his policy was to be a
policy of service.
Once resolved in his own mind as to how to go on, he
never wavered. Even before the insignia of the Cardi
nalate had been bestowed upon him, he had reached that
point. Consistency of view, marked by a persistence
which nothing could break, was one of his traits. He
ended all debate with himself and proceeded to the stage
of accomplishment.
His primary aim was that the Church should adapt her
self to the fullest extent to the American democracy, for
he believed that the cause of religion in the United States
was bound up with the cause of democracy. He shared
the view of Leo that democracy was the coming form
of government, and that kingdoms and principalities
which then retained their power by the defiant assertion

298 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of prerogative were soon to topple. The Church, in Leo's
view and Gibbons', must recognize the new condition
without waiting for the completion of the wide changes
which were impending. It was not for her to uphold
any particular form of civil government, least of all to
steady it with supporting hand when it tottered from
weakness and decay, but to cooperate with men on the
basis of their own best enlightenment and the inevitable
tendencies in political life.
While Leo's conceptions on this subject were as broad
as the domain of the Church herself, the chief concern of
Gibbons was for his own country. As a leader in
the greatest of all democracies, measured by numbers
and material resources, he could cooperate with Leo.
New conditions in Europe, he firmly believed, were
echoes of the "shot heard 'round the world" that had been
fired at Lexington. As the impulse for the political
changes which had been operating in Europe for more,
than a century had come from America, so also America
had been the exemplar to the world in the gradual evolu
tion which had taken place. For democracy to fail in
the United States, for it to be hampered or obstructed,
or even distrusted, would be, in the opinion of Gibbons,
an incalculable misfortune and a setback to the progress1
of civilization.
One of the most powerful forces which could con
tribute to the orderly progress of free government on the
American continent was the Catholic Church. Gibbons
felt that this cooperation could be accomplished best by
a full acknowledgment of and thorough acquiescence in
the American system as the constituted civic authority

SETTING THE LARGER TASK 299
chosen by the people ; and that by the cultivation of the
American character, through the uplifting and steadying
influences of religion, means would be afforded for the
working out of all the problems which the people must
face. In his opinion, no union of Church and State in Amer
ica was practicable or even desirable. With each su
preme in its own sphere, he believed that the Church
would receive here, in reality, the most powerful protec
tion accorded her anywhere in the world. Above all, he
felt that her appeal to the hearts and consciences of
Americans would be vain unless it could be made clear
that the mass of Catholics in this country accepted, with
complete accord, the civil institutions under which they
lived, and unless the Church herself, through her Hier
archy no less than her priesthood and laity, was a power
ful upholder of those institutions. He wished the Church
in America to be as American as the Constitution itself,
spurning interference in political affairs and pursuing her
spiritual mission with serenity in the full confidence of
vindication by the public judgment.
Religion and democracy would be alike endangered,
the new Cardinal also held, by any further development
of those paroxysms of intolerance which were a danger
in an especial sense to a nation made up in part of con
flicting foreign elements in whose original home lands
the complete religious freedom of America was not com
prehended. He knew that grave clashes of opinion on
many subjects were inevitable in a republic. So long as
they were confined to genuine differences on measures of
public concern, he welcomed them as clearing the atmos-

300 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
phere by means of free discussion; but if, as had already
been the case in "Know Nothing" times, there should be
another political party which would seek to proscribe
members of any religious faith, he felt that the orderly
progress of the nation toward the realization of its own
best hopes would be thwarted. Intolerance in religion,
therefore, was a foe to be fought by all, as it endangered
not only the cause of religion, but the cause of free insti
tutions in their chief stronghold.
To the Cardinal it seemed impossible that the spread of
democratic government over the world, with its wide
opening of the quickened minds of the people to the
spiritual influences of religion, could be attained without
immense sacrifice unless there could be a lifting up of
men toward equality of opportunity. In political equal
ity merely as a dictum he could not see any permanent
relief from the ills of mankind. In his own country, as
throughout the world wherever free institutions took
root, men who were entitled to vote upon the highest con
cerns of the State must have the opportunity to prepare
themselves for that solemn duty.
In particular, the Cardinal felt that a battle must be
waged for the true interests of labor, that it might be
equipped for its full part under the new dispensation. It
could no longer be repressed as it has been for centuries,
during which it had been denied a full share of partici
pation in civil government; as the masses demanded
equal rights, and as they were to exercise them, they
must have opportunities for education, for acquiring
a sufficient degree of the comforts of life to enable
them to maintain homes in which Christian principles,

SETTING THE LARGER TASK 301
and principles of political virtue as well, should guide
the family.
Radicalism, with its ill-considered panaceas, he ab
horred as the greatest danger of all, but between this and
the general recognition of labor's just rights he saw
the widest difference. He stood for the recognition and
elevation of labor as one of the strongest props which
the Church in her spiritual efforts, and the State in its
civic efforts, could possess.
Another article of his public creed fully shared by the
Pontiff was that the reasonable assertion of nationalism
must not be stifled. The Church, he held, must compre
hend American national traits and take them into account
in delivering her message to the body of the people.
Some of these traits were of the greatest use to the
cause of religion as giving a foundation for the diffusion
of the faith. When nationalism took an aggressive guise,
it was, of course, to be discouraged. A conquering na
tion which might reduce others to vassalage would require
the Church again to deal with the arbitrary wills of small
groups of individuals, rather than with the great heart
of humanity as a whole.
The Cardinal's view that the American people, as they
had been organized in their own forms of political devel
opment, constituted the most fruitful field for the appeal
of the Church, was amply sustained by the unexampled
accessions to her numbers in the country during his life.
It was not in him to wait for these tasks to be under
taken one after another, and he formed the bold decision
to embark upon all of them at once. To lay the ground
work of one of his campaigns carefully, to carry it to a

302 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
conclusion and then to attempt others in succession,
would have required more than the normal span of one
life, and certainly a longer span than appeared at that
time to open before him. He did not stop at any time
to think how long he might live, but, on the contrary,
seemed to be utterly indifferent to that subject in later
years. Yet it would scarcely have occurred to any close
observer familiar with his physique and the excessive
strains which he almost constantly imposed upon it that
he would survive to the age of nearly eighty-seven.
There was no sign of any weakening of the organic sound
ness which he possessed, but his body continued to appear
frail and there was always the danger that ceaseless ap
plication to his work would undermine his health gravely.
His concern was not for himself, but for what he could
do for others in the span allotted to him.
Once resolved in his own mind as to how to proceed,
he discarded all considerations that militated against
the prosecution of his plans. There was wonderful deter
mination in his make-up. While disposed to concede and
conciliate to the utmost extent possible, going sometimes
in these respects far beyond the ordinary range which
human nature seems to leave open to the average man, he
was, nevertheless, as unbending as a bar of steel in the
pursuit of objects which he deemed essential. He had no
doubt of the necessity of his work. This being a fixed
quantity in his mind, action came next.
A man of ordinary temper would have been appalled
by the difficulties and perplexities of carrying on simul
taneously the number of big projects which he had de
cided to execute. For him the greatness of the under-

SETTING THE LARGER TASK 303
taking was only a stimulus. No demand was ever made
upon the resources of his mind which he did not seem
able to meet with ease.
The results which he sought were to be accomplished
chiefly within the secluded field of the Church's inner
councils. He must work by processes that were often
long and intricate. He could not summon to his sup
port a body of public opinion after the manner of a
statesman, for the Church aims above and beyond public
opinion, striving always toward the permanent and dis
carding the transitory.
His resources of statesmanship were to be drawn upon
to the utmost. He was to share in the larger thought
and guidance of the Church and, to a great degree, in the
larger thought and guidance of humanity as a whole ; for
most of his projects were not essentially ecclesiastical but
reached out for general benefits in which all would share.
Apart from determination, adroitness was his great
est resource, and of this he was a master. Probably there
was no man in his time superior to him in the skilful mar
shaling of legitimate forces on the side of some cause
which he wished to advance. He carefully calculated
elements of opposition and as carefully planned to re
move them by means in which only a man of his versatil
ity could be adept.
He could count upon no applause to encourage him in
the stages of his task. Often he must wait wearily for
the final accomplishment before any verdict could be ren
dered either by the ultimate court of judgment at Rome
or the opinion of his fellow men.
His work lay in two continents and nobody knew bet-

304 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ter than he that the American mind was different from
the European mind in regard to many points of public
policy at that time, although he felt convinced that this
difference would be lessened with the progress of years.
His overwhelming wish was to remove every obstacle
that impeded the spread of the Church in America, and
every obstacle to the full exercise of her influence in
sustaining and upholding the institutions of his country
as a bulwark of human liberties, potent for the welfare
of millions already, and millions yet to be born.
Essentially his program was that of a churchman.
Temperamentally he was both churchman and states
man. Foremost of all, he had the ready faculty of win
ning confidence and attracting men to his side. The sim
plicity and directness of his appeals were no less marked
than their cogency. None questioned his intense sincer
ity, his Catholicity, his patriotism; and where he was
able to exert a direct influence he was usually able to
command in the end confidence in his judgment.
All that was in him he assembled for the work that lay
before him. Even his physique seemed to expand under
the uplifting influence that inspired him. He worked
ceaselessly and wrote much. Thought came to him
quickly, almost as an inspiration; he was never at a loss
as to how to proceed. When difficulties obstructed him
in one direction, he tried another road. Sustained through
out by an intense belief in the justice of his reasoned de
cisions and by a sublime reliance upon Providence, he
was almost irresistible, as some of those who sought to
impede him soon came to know.
These wide conceptions were formed amid the peace

SETTING THE LARGER TASK 305
of his little workshop in the archiepiscopal residence in
Baltimore, a room whose appearance of placidity con
trasted with the conflicts upon which he unhesitatingly
resolved to embark. Against one wall of this study was
a writing desk; shelves full of books took up much of the
space of the other walls. There were a few leather-cov
ered easy chairs,' and a carpet upon the floor that was
plain and often worn. That was all. Simplicity per
vaded the apartment as it did the soul of its occupant.
Here in these surroundings he planned his campaigns;
here he consulted the powerful group of advisers and
lieutenants whom he assembled; here he conducted one
of the most extensive correspondences in the world ; here
he was baffled in defeats, which were few, and he rejoiced
in victories, which were many. For thirty-five years in
fluences radiated from that little room which were felt
in the most distant regions of the earth, wherever the
Catholic Church is a force in guiding the lives of men.

CHAPTER XVII
SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE
With American swiftness — for Cardinal Gibbons in
his personal traits and methods in the active affairs of
life exhibited to an unusual degree the characteristics
commonly attributed to his fellow countrymen — he pro
ceeded to the heart of his task. When he went to Rome
in the winter of 1887 for the ancient ceremony of the
conferring of the red hat upon him, the thought upper
most in his mind was far beyond the obvious perspective
of ceremony and public spectacle. Ever a keen judge
of time and place for his most significant acts, he was pre
pared to sow the seed of his ideas whence it might be
scattered most widely over the Christian world.
New demonstrations of popular esteem marked his
departure from New York, and in Paris he was exten
sively entertained. Arriving in Rome, he became the cen
ter of an influential American representation there as
sembled, including Monsignor O'Connell, then rector of
the American College; Archbishop Ireland, Bishop Keane
and others. Among such churchmen as these he was at
home both as leader and friend.
Conferences with the Pope ensued, at which conditions
in America were discussed; and on St. Patrick's Day, at
a public consistory in the Sala Regia, the Pontiff be-
306

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SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 307
stowed the hat and ring and performed the ceremony of
sealing and opening the lips.
To Cardinal Gibbons was assigned as his titular
church the ancient basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Standing in that church March 25, the day of his instaU
lation there, he delivered a message from America to
Europe whose echoes resounded immediately. He wore
the scarlet cassock, signifying that he would defend the
faith even to the shedding of his blood, as in the days
when Christians were thrown to the lions in the Colos
seum, not far distant. Surrounding him was the cen-
turied magnificence of architecture, painting, statue,
mosaic. The long ceremonial eloquently bespoke the
story of Christianity from the age of Constantine, through
the glories of Charlemagne, the brilliancy of the Italian
Renaissance and the reconstruction of modern Europe.
It was carried out with the precise formalism of early
Rome and in the majestic tongue in which martyrs
praised God as they went to their death. The atmosphere
was rich with incense and vibrant with sacred music.
Vestment and altar denoted antiquity. It was an occasion
to overpower the senses, to hush the voice of the pres
ent in the shadow of the accumulated grandeur and wis
dom of the past.
But the voice that spoke was not of the past; it was
a voice from a continent unknown during fourteen cen
turies of the Church's life, and from a man appearing as
the interpreter of a new people who had spread in mil
lions with incredible rapidity over that continent. Gib
bons spoke as if by inspiration, for he had not intended
to make an address on that occasion beyond the brief

308 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
response necessary to his participation in the ceremony.
Only a few days before Mgr: O'Connell had advised him
to extend his discourse and he had coincided in that view.
He said:
"The assignment to me by the Holy Father of this
beautiful basilica as my titular church fills me with feed
ings of joy and gratitude which any words of mine are
inadequate to express. For, as here in Rome I stand
within the first temple raised in honor of the ever-blessed
Virgin Mary, so in my far-off home, my own Cathedral
Church, the oldest in the United States, is also dedicated
to the Mother of God. This venerable edifice in which
we are gathered leads us back in contemplation to the
days of the catacombs. Its foundation was laid by Pope
Calixtus in the year of our Lord 224. It was restored
by Pope Julius in the fourth century, and renovated by
another Supreme Pontiff in the twelfth.
"That never-ceasing solicitude which the Sovereign
Pontiffs have exhibited in erecting these material tem
ples, which are the glory of this city, they have also mani
fested on a larger scale in rearing spiritual walls to Zion
throughout Christendom in every age. Scarcely were the
United States formed into an independent government,
when Pope Pius VII established a Catholic Hierarchy and
appointed the illustrious John Carroll the first Bishop of
Baltimore. Our Catholic community in those days num
bered a few thousand souls, and they were scattered
chiefly through the States of New York, Pennsylvania
and Maryland. They were served by a mere handful of
priests. But now, thanks to the fructifying grace of
God, the grain of mustard seed then planted has grown
to a large tree, spreading its branches through the length
and breadth of our fair land. Where only one Bishop
was found in the beginning of this century, there are now
seventy-five exercising spiritual jurisdiction. For this

SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 309
great progress we are indebted, under God and the fos
tering vigilance of the Holy See, to the civil liberty we
enjoy in our enlightened republic.
"Our Holy Father, Leo XIII, in his luminous ency
clical on the constitution of Christian States,1 declares
that the Church is not committed to any form of civil
government. She adapts herself to all. She leavens all
with the sacred leaven of the Gospel. She has lived
under absolute monarchies, under constitutional monar
chies, in free republics, and everywhere she grows and
expands. "She has often, indeed, been hampered in her Divine
mission. She has even been forced to struggle for her
existence wherever despotism has cast its dark shadow,
like a plant shut out from the blessed light of heaven.
But in the genial atmosphere of liberty she blossoms like
a rose. "For myself, as a citizen of the United States, and
without closing my eyes to our shortcomings as a nation,
I say, with a deep sense of pride and gratitude, that J
belong to a country where the civil government holds over
us the aegis of its protection, without interfering with
us in the legitimate exercise of our sublime mission as
ministers of the Gospel of Christ. Our country has lib
erty without license, and authority without despotism.
She rears no wall to exclude the stranger from among us.
She has few frowning fortifications to repel the invader,
for she is at peace with all the world. She rests secure
in the consciousness of her strength and her good will
toward all. Her harbors are open to welcome the honest
emigrant who comes to advance his temporal interests
and find a peaceful home. ,
"But, while we are acknowledged to have a free gov-
1 Cardinal Gibbons afterwards said that he had taken this encyclical
as the "text of my remarks" at his installation in his titular church.
(Sermon on "Personal Reminiscences of Leo XIII," delivered in the
Baltimore Cathedral in April, 1902.)

310 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ernment, perhaps we do not receive the credit that belongs
to us for having, also, a strong government. Yes, our
nation is strong, and her strength lies, under the over
ruling guidance of Providence, in the majesty and su:
premacy of the law, in the loyalty of her citizens and in
the affection of her people for her free institutions. There
are, indeed, grave social problems now employing the
earnest attention of the citizens of the United States,
but I have no doubt that, with God's blessing, these
problems will be solved by the calm judgment and sound
sense of the American people, without violence or revolu
tion, or any injury to individual right.
"As an evidence of his good will for the great republic
in the West, as a mark of his appreciation for the vener
able Hierarchy of the United States, and as an expression
of his kind consideration for the ancient See of Baltimore,
our Holy Father has been graciously pleased to elevate
its present incumbent, in my humble person, to the dig
nity of the purple. For this mark of his exalted favor
I beg to tender the Holy Father my profound thanks in
my own name and in the name of the clergy and faithful.
I venture to thank him also in the name of my venerable
colleagues, the Bishops, as well as the clergy and Catholic
laity of the United States. I presume also to thank him
in the name of our separated brethren in America, who,
though not sharing our faith, have shown that they are
not insensible — indeed, that they are deeply sensible — of
the honor conferred upon our common country, and have
again and again expressed their admiration for the en
lightened statesmanship and apostolic virtues and benev
olent character of the illustrious Pontiff who now sits in
the Chair of St. Peter."
The force of this pronouncement could not be mistaken,
for in Europe some form of union of Church and State
was then considered normal by both Catholics and Protes-

SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 311
tants and the view lingered that separation implied an
tagonism. The speech was "characteristically American,"
they said in Rome. Here was a Cardinal, barely out of
his first consistory, daring to assert in the very citadel of
the Church that separation in the United States did not
mean hostility by the State to the Church, but protection ;
that in the air of perfect freedom, unhampered by politi
cal bonds, the Church could work out her Divine mission
better and more quickly ; that union of Church and State
often meant interference, and that American liberty
meant the opportunity to win men to the faith free from
the vexation of human complications.
The message which the Cardinal sought to convey, as
he said afterward, was that "our duty is to preach the
Gospel and save souls" ; that it is wisest to separate en
tirely the ministry of Christ from politics, unless some
great moral question is involved ; that this course is bet
ter for the Church everywhere. He felt that in time
comprehension of the American system would grow; but
some one must be considered radical in launching the first
official declaration of it in the higher circles of the
Church, and he did not shrink from fulfilling that trying
mission. Adroitly based as his speech was upon a declaration by
the reigning Pontiff in the precision of an encyclical,
criticism was disarmed and powerless. In the letter
Immortale Dei, issued less than two years before 2 Leo
had declared:
"The Almighty therefore has appointed the charge of
the human race between two powers, the ecclesiastical and
'November i, 1885.

312 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the civil, the one being set over Divine and the other
over human things. Each in its kind is supreme, each
has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which
are defined by the nature and the special object of the
province of each* so that there is, we may say, an orbit
traced out within which the action of each is brought into
play by its own native right. . . .
"Whatever, therefore, in things human is of a sacred
character, whatever belongs either of its own nature or by
reason of the end to which it is referred to the salvation
of souls or the worship of God, is subject to the power and
judgment of the Church. Whatever is to be ranged under
the civil and political order is rightly subject to the civil
authority. Jesus Christ has Himself given command,
that what is Caesar's is to be rendered to Caesar and that
what belongs to God is to be rendered to God." 3
In a later encyclical * Leo vehemently rejected the
thought that the Church was seeking political control in
any country. He wrote:
"We must indicate a craftily circulated calumny mak
ing most odious imputations against Catholics and even
against the Holy See itself. It is maintained that that
vigor of action inculcated in Catholics for the defense of
their faith has for a secret motive much less the safe
guarding of their religious interests than the ambition
of securing to the Church political domination over the
State. Truly this is the revival of a very ancient calum
ny, as its invention belongs to the first enemies of Chris
tianity. Was it not, first of all, formulated against the
adorable person of the Redeemer? . . . 'We have found
this man perverting our nation and forbidding to give
tribute to Caesar and saying that he is Christ the King.' "
"Wynne, the Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, pp. 114-115.
'Letter Au Milieu des Sollicitudes, February 16, 1892, addressed to
the Bishops and faithful of France; Wynne, p. 253.

SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 313
The declaration on Church and State made by Gibbons
in 1887 was one of the first great steps by which Europe,
as a whole, has come to understand America better. None
had felt more keenly than American Catholics the lack
of comprehension of their country abroad, in the first
century of the Republic's existence, although many of
them understood the natural causes of this lack. Bishops
and laymen had shared the feeling, for it had been an
obstacle to the success of the efforts for the expansion of
the Church. They hailed with joy the fact that Cardinal
Gibbons had risen, as if by act of Providence, to remove
the obstruction. With one bold stroke he had crippled
an active force for that intolerance in America which
Catholics had endured so long.
Now Europe understands America as never before, and
imitates her in many things. The life of Gibbons exerted
a powerful influence in the direction of that understand
ing. It opened the way for a renewal of the brotherhood
that had been broken when t,he men and women who
colonized the Western world had fled from conditions in
Europe, determining that there should be in the future as
little bond as possible between them and the scene of
their old lives. The Spanish-American War opened mu
tual comprehension still wider, and the World War
widest of all. Gibbons lived to see these convulsions
supplement and amplify a change in European opinion
which, virtually unaided, he had striven by peaceful
means many years before to bring about.
The general idea of a better comprehension by Eu
rope and America of each other appealed to him, as to
Leo XIII, as a part of the work which they felt called

314 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
upon to do. It was one of the dearest wishes of Leo to
conciliate the great mass of Americans, in order that the
apostolic mission of the Church among them might pro
ceed unimpeded. It was one of the dearest wishes of
Gibbons to reciprocate that ardent desire from his dis
tant seat in the western hemisphere and to hasten it
toward realization with all the resources that he could
command in a life of untiring labor. Leo spoke as Pope,
detached from all nations. Gibbons spoke as head of
the primatial See in America, whose Catholicity was the
Catholicity of Leo, and whose patriotism was the patriot
ism of the fathers of the republic.
Gibbons did not aim in his speech in Rome to prescribe
conditions for Europe. It was for America only that he
spoke. And he denied with all the vigor that he could
summon the imputation that the American Government
was irreligious or hostile to religion in any way. He
emphasized this point in a later utterance, saying:
"American Catholics rejoice in our separation of
Church and State, and I can conceive no combination of
circumstances likely to arise which would make a union
desirable to either Church or State. We know the bless
ings of our arrangement; it gives us liberty and binds
together priests and people in a union better than Church
and State. Other countries, other manners; we do not
believe our system adapted to all conditions. We leave
it to Church and State in other lands to solve their prob
lems for their own best interests. For ourselves, we thank
God that we live in America, 'in this happy country of
ours,' to quote Mr. Roosevelt, where 'religion and lib
erty are natural allies.' " 8
""The Church and the Republic," Cardinal Gibbons in the North
American Review for March, 1909.

SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 315
On another occasion he said :
"And happily for the nation, this humble recognition
of a superintending power has been upheld from the
dawn of the Republic to our time. What a striking con
trast we present in this respect to our sister republic
across the Atlantic, which once bore the proud title of
'Eldest Daughter of the Church' ! The leaders of the
French Republic are so far carried away by the tide of
unbelief that they studiously eliminate the name of God
from their official utterances.
"How different is the conduct of our leaders and
statesmen! They have all paid homage to the moral
governor of the world. All the Presidents of the United
States . . . have invariably invoked the aid of our
Heavenly Father in their inaugural proclamations. It
is also the edifying custom of our Chief Magistrate to
invite his fellow-citizens to assemble in their respective
places of worship on the last Thursday in November, to
offer thanksgiving to the Giver of all gifts for the bless
ings vouchsafed to the nation. Both houses of Congress
are daily opened with prayer and all important civic and
political conventions are inaugurated by an appeal to the
throne of Grace. God's supremacy is also recognized by
the observance of the Christian Sabbath throughout the
land. "It is true, indeed, that we have no official union of
Church and State in this country. But we are not to infer
from this fact that there is any antagonism between the
civil and religious authorities, nor does it imply any in
difference to religious principles. Far from it. Church
and State move in parallel lines." 6
The Cardinal had been much impressed by his observa
tion of conditions in Europe arising out of the relations
'Sermon on "Will the American Republic Endure?" delivered in the
Baltimore Cathedral November 3, 1912.

316 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
then maintained between Church and State. In his ser
mon at the consecration of the Baltimore Cathedral 7 he
had given perhaps his first public expression of a view
which he repeated in various forms afterward. He said :
"Many persons labor under the erroneous impression
that the crowned heads of Europe have been the unvary
ing bulwarks of the Church, and that she could not sub
sist without them. The truth is, her worst enemies have
been, with some honorable exceptions, so-called Chris
tian princes. They wished to be governed by no law
but their passion and caprice. They chafed under the
salutary discipline of the Church, and wished to be rid of
her because she alone in times of depression had the
power and the courage to stand by the people. She
planted herself like a wall of brass against the encroach
ments of their rulers. . . . She told them that 'if the
people have their obligations, they have their rights,
too. The Cardinal's message on that March day in 1887
was to all Europe, the Protestant as well as the Catholic
part of it. In fact, he considered that the forms of union
which then existed between various States of Europe and
Protestant creeds had impeded religion most of all. The
Catholic Church, he pointed out, had always retained her
spiritual independence. Wherever she had formed a
union with the State, it had been an alliance of independ
ent powers, not the subjection of a vassal to her liege lord.
He once wrote:
"Whenever in Europe the opportunity presented itself,
the various Protestant Churches united with the State,
nay, rather they threw themselves at the feet of the State,
'May 25, 1876.

SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 317
and said 'Rule thou over us; be thou our king and
prophet." . . .
"There is a union that is inimical to the interests of
religion and consequently to the State; and there is a
separation that is inimical to the interests of religion and
consequently to the State; and there is a separation that
is for the best interests of both. In our country separa
tion is a necessity; and it is a separation that works best
for the interests of religion, as Mr. Taft recently said, as
well as for the good of the State. I fully agree with him,
and I can understand too, and sympathize with the great
Catholic leader of France, the Count de Mun, who re
cently exclaimed: 'In America separation means the
reign of liberty; in France the reign of impiety.' . . .
"Her [the Church's] doctrine on the subject has been
this : In a country wholly or predominantly Catholic, the
most desirable relation is the friendly union and coopera
tion of Church and State, neither power sacrificing its
liberty, and each acknowledging the other. That this is
the ideal relation, provided liberty be assured to those
not of the established Church, no sensible man can deny.
The Catholic Church states in form of doctrine what all
history shows to be inevitable — that where the Church
and State are practically two names for the nation, viewed
as a body of worshippers and as a political entity, it is
impossible to prevent an intimate union. If my Prot
estant friends will show me a free nation that really,
believes in one religion and has no union of religion with
the State, I will believe the Catholic doctrine unwar
ranted; but, while the union is ideally best, history surely
does not prove that it is always practically best." 8
In a tribute to Archbishop Carroll, delivered in a ser
mon at the Baltimore Cathedral,9 Gibbons said:
'"The Church and the Republic," Cardinal Gibbons in the North
American Review.
"December 19, 1905.

318 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"He [Archbishop Carroll] did not wish the Church to
vegetate as a delicate exotic plant; he wished it to be
come a sturdy tree, deep-rooted in the soil, to grow with
the full bloom and development of the country, accus
tomed to its climate, braving its storms and invigorated
by them, and yielding abundantly the fruits of sanctifi
cation." When he was seventy-nine years old and had observed
during a longer period the relations of Church and State
in America, Cardinal Gibbons expressed his mature views
on the subject, saying:
"The question arises, which is the best arrangement,
the official union of Church and State or the mutual inde
pendence of both? I have nothing to say in regard to
other countries, but our own friendly relation of Church
and State without official union is best for us.
"The Church has tried official union of Church and
State and she has tried friendly independence. In adher
ing to the first system she has often been hampered and
restrained in her Divine mission by the encroachment of
despotic governments. As far as our own country is con
cerned, I prefer our American system, where there are
friendly relations and mutual cooperation, where both
move in parallel lines without clash or conflict, each
helping the other in the mission it has from God. ....
"I do not wish to see the day when the Church will
invoke and receive Government aid to build our churches
or subsidize our clergy. For then the civil rulers might
dictate the doctrines we were to preach. May the happy
condition now existing among us always continue ; when
the relations between the clergy and the people will be
direct and immediate; when Bishops and priests will be
stow on their spiritual children their voluntary labors,
their tender solicitude, their paternal affection and pour,

SPEECH IN ROME ON CHURCH AND STATE 319
out for them their life's blood, if necessary, and when
they will receive in return the free-will offerings, the
devotion and gratitude of their beloved flocks." 10
No one was more aware than Gibbons of the commo
tion which his speech in 1887 in his titular church was
bound to cause, but he felt that, though the ground was
advanced, it was firm ground. Speaking to a friend on
the subject when he was nearly eighty years old, he said:
"I was surprised at my own audacity, but it was in me
and I had to say it. And do you know that I never re
ceived as much as one reproof for it ? But I was careful'
to save myself by applying my remarks only to this coun
try, and Leo XIII wrote a letter soon afterward in which
he expressed about the same views on the practical ef
fects of the separation of Church and State in America.
That was a long time ago, and it took a great deal more
boldness to say such a thing then than it takes now."
10 Sermon on "Civil and Religious Liberty'' in the Baltimore Cathedral,
December 7, 191 3.

CHAPTER XVIII
DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR
Labor's cause clamored for help in high quarters and
the issue could not wait. It was in conformity with
Cardinal Gibbons' wish, as well as with the current of
fast developing events, that the Church should give her
answer at the outset of his elevation to the Sacred College.
In the decade immediately preceding that time, great
forces of economic discontent had been throbbing in the
United States. As the mirage of inflated prosperity that
had followed the Civil War waned, labor, which had
basked in plenty, was reduced to begging for a dole of
employment in the cities, to which a far greater propor
tion of the population was flocking than ever before.
Swayed by a deep sense of wrong, but half blinded in the
search for remedies, the workers banded together in
unions on a scale that conformed with the immensity of
the population, and the sudden growth of those organiza
tions surpassed anything of the kind that the world had
known. Chief among them was the Knights of Labor, an order
which from a small beginning swelled in membership by
tens of thousands and, like a storm cloud, overspread the
political as well as the industrial structure of the coun
try. In the amazing swiftness of its rise, there was con
fusion as to its designs and, in some quarters, deep sus
picion. Its head, Terence V. Powderly, seemed to the
320

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 321
toiling masses a Peter the Hermit called to lead them
in a new crusade. Bearing the modest title of "general
master workman," he wielded greater power than the
governor of a State. He possessed many of the traits of
successful leadership and was inspired by a fervent belief
in the justice of his cause. Men thronged from the work
shops to hail him when he went from city to city pro
claiming his evangel.
The wonder of the organization's growth caused an
exaggeration of its strength in the popular mind. In 1886
it had a membership of 500,000, "although," as Pow
derly said to a committee of Congress, "we have been
credited with 5,000,000." x Simultaneously with this
movement, Henry George's economic theories were fast
winning converts, particularly in New York, his home,
where the influence of his powerful personality was
naturally felt most.
Labor had begun to knock importunately at the doors
of the White House and of Congress. The law against
bringing workingmen under contract from abroad had
just been passed; the Interstate Commerce Act, a meas
ure almost forced on the government by labor organiza
tions, and an extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the
impetus for which came from the same insistent quarter,
were being debated and were soon to be adopted. The
administration of President Cleveland had committed it
self to the establishment of a Department of Labor as a
unit in the executive system at Washington. The anar
chist riots in Chicago, with their bloody climax, had
shocked the nation but a few months before.
1 Carroll D. Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United States, p. 248.

322 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Some observers abroad who were distrustful of the
solidity of American institutions began to predict a con
vulsion that would wreck the Republic. In countries
habituated to the methods of militarism, then generally
prevalent in Europe, it was believed that a government
which maintained a standing army scarcely large enough
to man its coast defenses and a navy which at that time
was obsolete could not withstand the shock of a popular
tumult. Political equality, it was feared, had no cor
rective within itself for a sudden rising from the bottom.
If the laborer were equal to the capitalist before the law,
would he not rave in unrestrained power, it was asked,
as soon as he was able to comprehend what his oppor
tunities really meant?
In the earlier days of the United States, the labor ques
tion had adjusted itself; there had been land enough for
all; work for every hand; the laborer of to-day became
the employer of to-morrow. Capital was unorganized
and labor had felt no especial need to band together for
its own protection. In the carnival of energy which had
subdued half of the continent in a century, building teem
ing cities on virgin soil and spreading new common
wealths in bewildering succession from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, men had been too busily engaged in con
structive undertakings to debate the ethics of the labor
problem. But the work had now advanced far and there was time
to pause. Railroads spanned the continent and radiated
in every direction. Civilization had carried its banner
up the Rocky Mountains and to the shores of the Golden
Gate. The army of workingmen was still in being, but

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 323
there was not so much work. Nearly all of the desirable
lands opened by the government to free settlement had
been taken up. The economic pendulum was beginning
to swing, and times of scarcity were as certain to come as
periods of plenty.
American workingmen were not prepared for this.
They were no more ready to meet a sudden and general
economic change than were the rural colonists to face
the cannon's mouth in 1775. As they began to grope for
a solution, anarchy, imported from Europe, found here
what its arch plotters believed to be fertile soil for their
propaganda. Socialism swept across the ocean and began
its preachments in the cities. Vast industries had sprung
up whose captains aimed to control politicians and legis
latures. Before them dangled the gilded prize of
monopoly. At heart the body politic was healthy; these were
merely sores that had not reached the organism, though
they grievously affected the surface. In time their poison
might penetrate to the heart; none could tell. It might
be that once again men would take arms in their hands
to work out the problems of free government amid the
crash of battle.
Some employers of labor, particularly street railway
companies and industrial corporations which the Knights
antagonized, developed the practise of sending agents to
observe the meetings of the order and by such means were
able to proscribe its members. This led to the Knights
investing their meetings with a sufficient degree of se-
, crecy to prevent knowledge of the acts of individuals
( from reaching those hostile to them. Suspicion of their

324 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
purposes, which had already taken lodgment in a large
body of public opinion, was intensified by the mystery
thus thrown around them both in the United States and
in Canada, where the order was also strong. They were
accused before the Catholic Hierarchy of Canada as a
secret society working against religion. That body
adjudged them a forbidden organization, and this con
demnation was sustained by the Congregation of the
Holy Office.
Action by the Hierarchy of the United States thus be
came imperative, as the principles and methods of the
order were the same in both countries. Under the decrees
of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, the Knights
could be condemned in the United States by unanimous
action of the Archbishops; or, in case the Archbishops dis
agreed, the case could be referred to Rome.
The problem was now squarely before Gibbons, upon
whom would fall the duty of convoking the Archbishops
for a decision, and who, as the only Cardinal in the
United States, was bound to face an exceptional degree
of responsibility for the action that might be taken.
He had felt deep anxiety regarding the special eco
nomic tendencies then operative in America, which re
duced more and more the free opportunities that labor
previously enjoyed. At a later date, he gave his views
on this point as they had occurred to him when he was
immediately confronted by the need of a decision in re
gard to the Knights of Labor. He wrote :
"Those who live in these days 2 cannot conceive the
state of society in the seventies and the eighties. The
•1916.

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 325
money of the country was not only concentrated in the
hands of a very few people, but by means of this money
this small oligarchy was put in a position of getting com
plete control of our free institutions. The mass of peo
ple, dispossessed of land and of the means of production
and retaining only a figment of political power, were by
no means satisfied with this arrangement. All the more so
as large numbers of the working people — that is to say
the dispossessed — were members of the Catholic Church,
and among Roman Catholics there is, and must always be
a memory of a better tradition which preserved to every
man as much individual liberty as was compatible with
the rights of his fellow men.
"Accordingly numerous societies for the protection of
the workingman rose during the administration of Presi
dent Cleveland — societies to which working people began
to adhere more and more steadfastly as their only pro
tection from economic slavery, but which were vehe
mently attacked upon the other side as destructive, revolu
tionary and even anarchic; and indeed the oppression of
the wealthy was driving the poor into excesses, of which
the anarchist riots of Chicago were but one example.
"These societies could not long escape the wise over
sight of the Church, and it was a foregone conclusion that
within a few years the principle of such organizations of
working people must either be approved or condemned." 3
It was brought home to the Cardinal in the violent
clashes of opinion which marked discussions regarding
labor at that time that many Bishops were in grave alarm
over what they considered to be revolutionary tendencies
by the labor organizations. While Gibbons recognized
these tendencies, he had no fear of them. The chief cause
of concern to him was the prospect of the Church being
"Cardinal Gibbons, Retrospect of Fifty Years, Vol. I, pp. 187-188.

326 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
presented before the age as the friend of the powerful
rich and the enemy of the helpless poor. He felt that
"the one body in the world which had been the protector
of the poor and the weak for nearly eighteen hundred
years could not possibly desert these same classes in their
hour of need." *
As a preparation for his course, he conferred on the
question of the Knights of Labor and related social and
political conditions with President Cleveland, with whom
he was on terms of personal friendship. He also main
tained an active correspondence with Cardinal Manning,
the Church's apostle of labor in England. In his letters
to Manning he explained his views fully 6 and rejoiced
to find his own ideas on the relations between capital and
labor shared by one occupying such a distinguished posi
tion in the other grand division of the English speaking
world. Manning considered that Gibbons was bound to
do a great and needed work in America in advancing the
position of the laboring classes.
Gibbons summoned Powderly to Baltimore and con
ferred with him on several occasions at the archiepiscopal
residence. His keen mind searched out in these inter
views the essentials of the organization and purposes of
the Knights, as they related not only to Church rules and
traditions, but also to the general consideration of labor's
elevation to meet the new needs of the times, and the
lifting of unjust burdens that galled its back.
Fortified with the fullest information on the question
which he could obtain from any source, he called a meet-
* Retrospect, Vol. I, p. 188.
"Purcell, Life of Cardinal Manning, Vol. II, pp. 650-651.

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 327
ing of the Archbishops in Baltimore, before whom Pow
derly appeared by his invitation. At that meeting he
asked Powderly to explain to the prelates the precise
extent of the obligation of secrecy among the Knights.
Powderly convinced them that secrecy was enjoined on
the members only by a sjmpjejjledge and not by an oath ;
that it was approved by the Knights only in so far as it
was necessary to protect their business from enemies or
strangers. The pledge was not such, he showed, as to
hinder Catholics from manifesting everything in the con
fessional, or preventing the heads of the order from giv
ing full information to competent ecclesiastical authority
even outside of confession.
Some of the Archbishops were by no means ready to
part with their doubts as to the order. Even the en
lightened Ryan was difficult to convince and Gibbons
said later of his attitude on the subject: "At first I had
a great deal of trouble with him, but he came over to my
way of thinking at last." In the end, only two of the
twelve Archbishops — Kenrick, of St. Louis, and Sal-
pointe, of Santa Fe — voted for condemnation.
Of the bold acts of a bold life, Gibbons was now to
undertake one of the most amazing. The Congregation
of the Holy Office — the former "Inquisition" — had never
reversed itself in all its long history. In the general atti
tude expressed in its condemnation of the Knights, it
was sustained by what was then the preponderant public
opinion of the world. To attempt to obtain a reversal
seemed, in many eyes, nothing short of rash. When it
became known that the young American Cardinal was
resolved to make the attempt, extreme conservatives

328 LIFE OF CARDINAL GD3BONS
among European churchmen were disposed to shudder.
He was assailed, in and out of religious circles, as quix
otic, radical, even Socialistic. Epithets accumulated in
tensity as the tide of surprise rose higher.
Gibbons knew that at the outset of the fight he bore
the standard of a feeble cause. But he was sustained by
an unshaken belief that he was striving, as he said, in
behalf of "the only possible course for the Church to
take." He accepted hostility as inevitable from the con
ditions of the time, but his eyes were fixed on a goal be
yond those conditions. He wrote later:
"Amid how many fears such a course was taken no
body now can realize since Leo XIII has settled forever
in his wonderful encyclical yRerum Novarum the prin
ciples of economics which are alone consonant with the
Gospel. It seemed as if in taking the course which some
of us took ... we were destroying the Church's reputa
tion for conservatism as well as her usefulness as a con-
server of society; that we Bishops of the Church of God
were making of ourselves demagogues and the harbingers
of the red revolution." 6
In truth the Knights might have become Socialistic,
had a program of repression been maintained against
them. But in Gibbons' view, to condemn the order was
to condemn labor, for it was the one large organization
in the United States and Canada then identified in the
public mind with the new movement to assert labor's
rights. He had wished to discover if evils existed in the
order which could be remedied ; and Powderly had prom
ised both him and the Archbishops to alter anything in its
'Retrospect, Preface, p. 12.

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 329
constitution and laws which the Church might declare to
be repugnant.
His natural sympathy with the cause of labor dis
posed him to be lenient with its faults while the move
ment was in a formative stage. He realized that many
of its leaders were untrained, burning with a sense of in
justice and therefore overzealous — in some cases even
reckless. Every expedient, in his opinion, must be used
to lead the movement into such channels that the Church
could be its friend, even its defender. He firmly held
that the danger would be reduced by sympathy for the
real wrongs which were the basis of the entire agitation.
The movement, it appeared to him, was a process of
evolution. While it must be guided, it must not be co
erced. It must be allowed to spend its force and break
at last, like an ominous wave that disappears in foam,
upon the rocks of intelligence, soberness and calm pub
lic judgment.
He was emboldened in his stand by the fact that the
Knights not only showed no hostility to religion, but that
their declarations were of the opposite tenor. Powderly
was a Catholic; he told the Cardinal that he practised his
religion faithfully and received the sacraments regularly;
that he was not a member of the Masons or any other
association which the Church had condemned. He was
aware of nothing in the organization of the Knights, he
vehemently asserted, which was contrary to the laws of
the Church.
The Cardinal found that President Cleveland did not
see anything in the methods of the Knights which was un
patriotic or hostile to national institutions. The Presi-

330 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
dent had expressed sympathy with labor akin to his own
when they had conferred and he told the Cardinal of
steps on which he was then meditating for the ameliora
tion of social grievances by legislation. The Cardinal
was impressed by the fact that Congress was striving
earnestly for the passage of laws that would assert some
of the elementary rights of the working population, and
he did not wish the Church to take a stand that would
be less liberal and progressive than that of the civil
authorities. Besides, the battle against economic monopoly enlisted
his fervent support. He saw in the growth of monopoly
a danger not only to the just interests of labor, but also
to American institutions as a whole, and he felt that the
control of the country by organized wealth must be pre
vented at all costs.
Within the Church the argument had been pressed
that the faith of Catholics was imperiled by their mix
ing with Protestants in the Knights of Labor. The Car
dinal could not see in this any solid basis for condemna
tion, for he held that in the great body of the American
people, a majority of whom were non-Catholics, it was
impossible and indeed highly undesirable to separate per
sons of different religious creeds in civil affairs. He had
confidence in the fidelity with which American Catholic
workmen clung to their faith, and was most anxious to
prevent them from distrusting the Church or ceasing to
regard her as the friend of the poor. The organization of
Catholic labor confraternities, in which the clergy would
be present and exert their direct influence, he did not
consider necessary.

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 331
One of the most weighty grounds for the indictment
of organized labor was naturally the violence which had
accompanied some of the then recent strikes. No one
deplored violence in labor struggles more than the Car
dinal, but he was not willing to commit himself to a
general denouncement of the Knights for that reason,
because the chief officers of that order reproved violence
and exercised their influence to a marked extent in pre
venting strikers from transgressing the limits of legiti
mate action.
Above all, he felt that what he termed "the simple
rights of humanity and justice" were being denied, and
that they could not be restored without some regrettable
lapses into errors of both speech and action. He was
sure in his own mind that condemnation by the Church
would not stop either the growth of the Knights or the
labor movement, but that it would only embitter labor*
against her who had been its champion for centuries.
The most weighty concerns of the immediate future, he
held, were social.
As the essence of the question presented itself to his
mind, condemnation of the Knights was not only unnec
essary, but actually dangerous to the Church. He felt
that it would tend to encourage the cry that the Church
was un-American in the sense that she would be resisting
a movement which the governing powers of the country
were disposed to recognize as based upon justice. He,
also expressed the view that condemnation would fail of
its object because he did not believe that the submission
of Catholic workingmen in the United States to such a
course could be obtained.

332 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Several Bishops in France, and not a small number of
Catholic writers, voiced alarm at the advanced and lib
eral views of Gibbons and Manning. The element in
England which was unable to understand the great pur
poses of Manning was eager to cry "beware!"; but in
America, as the task of Gibbons developed and the real
significance of what he was doing came to be clearly seen,
the tone of comment in and out of the Church became
more and more one of heartening support.
When Gibbons sailed for Europe to receive the red hat,
he had determined to remain in Rome and wage the battle
for labor until it resulted in victory or defeat. He knew
well that the atmosphere which he was about to enter was
hostile to his views ; and he was further obstructed by the
fact that every appeal that he could make was to be met
by a counter appeal from Canada. One of his compan
ions on the voyage to Europe was Cardinal Taschereau,
on whom also the red hat was to be bestowed, and part of
whose mission in the Eternal City was to urge adherence
to the judgment condemning the Knights, which Gibbons
had set himself to challenge.
In Rome Gibbons organized his campaign with the
skill of a master of statecraft. With the active help
of Archbishop Ireland, Bishop Keane and Monsignor
O'Connell, he used argument and pressure in turn upon
every member of the Congregation of the Holy Office to
produce a change of view. In the face of what seemed
like a stone wall of opposition, all his aggressiveness was
aroused. One of the chief obstacles that stood in his
way was the attitude of the Commissary of the Holy
Office, with whom he had a heated interview, declaring

DEFENSE OF ORGANIZED LABOR 333
that he would hold him responsible for the loss of souls
in America if the Knights were condemned. At the end
of the interview, that important official promised to con
sider the question anew.
Only those hostile to the Knights had been previously
heard at Rome. Opinion, fixed and deliberate, had to be
assailed in its powerful citadel. Gibbons declared to
those upon whom he exerted his influence that if the con
demnation were allowed to stand it would be ruinous to
the financial support of the Church in the United States;
that it would turn into doubt and hostility the attitude
of the people toward the Holy See, and would lessen the
contributions of Peter's Pence.
Through all the tension of the struggle he was sus
tained by the influence of Manning. He wrote to the
English Cardinal March 14, 1887 :
"Your esteemed and valued favor is received, in which
your Eminence is graciously pleased to assent to the views
submitted to the Propaganda regarding . . . the Knights
of Labor. I cannot sufficiently express to you how much
I felt strengthened in my position by being able to refer
... to your utterances on the claims of the working man
to our sympathy, and how I am cheered beyond measure
in receiving from your own pen an endorsement of my
sentiments and those of my American colleagues now
in Rome. God grant that the Church of America may
escape the dire calamity of a condemnation which would
be disastrous to the future of religion among us!
"I shall be exceedingly grateful to your Eminence if
you can send me a copy of the lecture on 'The Dignity
and Rights of Labor.' We are indebted more than you
are aware to the influence of your name in discussing these
social questions and in influencing the public mind. We

334 LIFE OF CARDINAL GD3BONS
joyfully adopt your Eminence into the ranks of our
Knighthood;7 you have nobly won your spurs!" 8
Manning lost no opportunity of urging assent at Rome
to the stand taken by Gibbons. He used the effective
argument that trade unions had originated in the Col
legia of Rome, saying : "In the Church of Santa Maria
dell' Orto every chapel belongs to and is maintained by
some college or universitas of various trades."
' A form of expression which Cardinal Gibbons used several times in
his correspondence with Cardinal Manning regarding the Knights of
Labor question.
"Leslie, Henry Edward Manning, His Life and Labours, pp. 361-362.

CHAPTER XIX
A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME
Cardinal Gibbons' personal campaign in Rome in be
half of the Knights of Labor was greatly reenforced by
formal appeals directed to the authorities of the Church.
Under date of February 20, 1887, he addressed to Car
dinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Propaganda, for presenta
tion to the Holy Office, a report on the whole subject
which was one of the strongest documents he ever wrote.
It was marked not only by broad statesmanship, search
ing logic and enlightened foresight, but by a frankness
in setting forth the dangers which he believed to be in
volved in condemnation of the Knights that was little
short of audacious.
He declared that any attempt to crush by ecclesiastical
condemnation a body of men in which was massed a
strength of more than 500,000 voters in America would
be considered by the people of the country as "not less
ridiculous than rash." It would involve the risk of a
waning of the esteem which the Church had won among
Americans, and of "forfeiting the peace and prosperity
which form so admirable a contrast with her condition in
some so-called Catholic countries." He warned that
"angry utterances have not been wanting of late, and it
is well that we should act prudently."
335

<

336 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
On the question of the effectiveness of condemnation,
if pronounced, he urged:
"It is well to recognize that in our age and in our coun
try obedience cannot be blind; we would greatly deceive
ourselves if we expect it. . . . Our Catholic workingmen
sincerely believe that they are seeking justice and seeking
it by legitimate means. Condemnation would be con
sidered both false and unjust and therefore not binding.
. . . They love the Church, and they wish to save their
souls; but they must also earn their living, and labor is
now so organized that without belonging to the organiza
tion it is almost impossible to earn one's living."
His vision extended to forecasting the decline of the
Knights of Labor as an important body of workingmen,
which actually came to pass; this was one of the most
moving arguments which he used. The organization, he
declared, was "unstable and transient;" but the social
agitation would continue and to strike at one of the
forms which it took "would be to commence a war with-'
out system and without end." 1
"Hence," he added, "to speak with the most profound
respect, but also with the frankness which duty requires
of me, it seems to me that prudence suggests, and that
even the dignity of the Church demands, that we should
not offer to America an ecclesiastical protection for which
1 While there were 500,000 members of the Knights of Labor and
125,000 members of the American Federation of Labor at that time, the
aggregate of these_ two was, as Cardinal Gibbons believed, insignificant
when compared with the proportions which the movement would attain.
The Knights, as he predicted, subsequently declined fast as an organi
zation; but he lived to see the membership of the American Federation
reach more than 4,000,000 in 1920. In addition to this, the membership
of the railroad brotherhoods, not directly affiliated with the Federation,
was 435,000 ia the same year.

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 337
she does not ask, and of which she believes she has no
need." With the adroitness which he knew well how to use
when occasion warranted it, Gibbons gave the Holy Office
an opening for reversing itself by pointing out differ
ences in the general conditions of the United States and
Canada. He wrote:
"We would consider it an impertinence on our part
to meddle with the ecclesiastical affairs of another coun
try which has a Hierarchy of its own, and with whose
social conditions we do not pretend to be acquainted.
We believe, however, that the circumstances of a
people almost entirely Catholic, as in lower Canada,
must be very different from those of a mixed population
like ours."
The text of this letter,2 which has formed one of the
great charters of the labor movement throughout the
world, was:
"To His Eminence Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the
Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda:
"Your Eminence :
"In submitting to the Holy See the conclusions which,
after several months of attentive observation and reflec
tion, seem to me to sum up the truth concerning the
association of the Knights of Labor, I feel profoundly
convinced of the vast importance of the consequences
attaching to this question, which is but a link in the
great chain of the social problems of our day, and
especially of our country.
"In treating this question I have been very careful to
"A copy of the letter in French is in the Cathedral archives, Balti
more. The English translation here given is the one which was pub
lished in the Moniteur de Rome, then an official organ of the Vatican.

338 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
follow as my constant guide the spirit of the encyclical
letters, in which our Holy Father Leo XIII has so admir
ably set forth the dangers of our times and their reme
dies, as well as the principles by which we are to recog
nize associations condemned by the Holy See. Such was
also the guide of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore
in its teachings concerning the principles to be followed
and the dangers to be shunned by the faithful either in the
choice or in the establishment of those various forms of
association toward which the spirit of our popular insti
tutions so strongly impels them. And, considering the
^ evil consequences that might result from a mistake in the
treatment of organizations which often count their mem
bers by thousands and hundreds of thousands, the council
wisely ordained that, when an association is spread over
several dioceses, not even the Bishop of one of these dio
ceses shall condemn it, but shall refer the case to a stand
ing committee consisting of all the Archbishops of the
United States ; and even these are not authorized to con
demn, unless their sentence be unanimous; and in case
they fail to agree unanimously, then only the supreme
tribunal of the Holy See can impose a condemnation; all
this in order to avoid error and confusion of discipline.
"This committee of Archbishops held a meeting
towards the end of last October, at which the association
of the Knights of Labor was specially considered. To
this we were not impelled by the request of any of our
Bishops, for none of them had asked it; and I must add
that among all the Bishops we know of but two or three
who desire the condemnation. But our reason was the
importance attached to the question by the Holy See
itself, and this led us to examine it with all possible care.
After our deliberations, the result of which has already
been communicated to the Sacred Congregation of the
Propaganda, only two out of the twelve Archbishops
voted for condemnation; and their reasons were power-

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 339
less to convince the others of either the justice or the
prudence of such a condemnation.
"In the following considerations I wish to state in de
tail the reasons which determined the vote of the great
majority of the committee — reasons whose truth and
force seem to me all the more evident after this lapse of
time; nor will I fail to do justice to the arguments ad
vanced on the other side :
"l. In the first place, though there may be found in
the constitution, laws and official declarations of the
Knights of Labor things that we would not approve, still,
we have failed to find in them those elements so clearly
pointed out by the Holy See, which would class them
among condemned associations :
"(a) In their form of initiation there is no oath.
"(b) The obligation to secrecy by which they keep
the knowledge of their business from enemies or strangers
is not such as to hinder Catholics from manifesting every
thing to competent ecclesiastical authority, even outside
of confession. This has been positively declared to us by
their chief officers.
"(c) They make no promise of blind obedience. The
object and laws of the association are distinctly declared,
and the obligation of obedience does not go beyond them.
"(d) They not only profess no hostility against re
ligion or the Church, but their declarations are quite to
the contrary. The Third Plenary Council commands that
condemnation shall not be passed on any association with
out the previous hearing of its officers or representatives.
Now, their president, when sending me a copy of their
constitution, declared that he is a devoted Catholic ; that
he practises his religion faithfully and receives the sacra
ments regularly; that he belongs to no Masonic society
or other association condemned by the Church; that he
knows nothing in the organization of the Knights of
Labor contrary to the laws of the Church; that, with filial

340 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
submission, he begs the pastors of the Church to examine
their constitution and laws, and to point out anything
they may find objectionable, promising to see to its cor
rection. Assuredly, there is in all this no hostility to the
authority of the Church, but, on the contrary, a disposi
tion in every way praiseworthy. After their convention,
held last year in Richmond, he and several of the princi
pal members, devout Catholics, made similar declarations
concerning the action of that convention, the documents
of which we expect to receive shortly.
"(e) Nor do we find in this organization any hos
tility to the authority and laws of our country. Not only
does nothing of the kind appear in their constitution and
laws, but the heads of our civil government treat with
respect the cause which such associations represent. The
President of the United States told me personally, a few
weeks ago, that he then had under consideration a pro
posed law for the amelioration of certain social griev
ances, and that he had had a long conversation on these
topics with Mr. Powderly, the president of the Knights
of Labor. The Congress of the United States, in com
pliance with the views presented by President Cleveland
in his annual message, is at present engaged in framing
measures for the improvement of the condition of the
laboring classes, in whose complaints they acknowledge
that there is a great deal of truth. And our political
parties, far from considering them the enemies of the
country, vie with each other in championing the evident
rights of the workingmen, who seek not to resist or over
throw the laws, but only to obtain just legislation by con
stitutional and legitimate means.
"These considerations, which show that in these asso
ciations those elements are not to be found which the
Holy See has condemned, lead us to study, in the second
place, the evils which the association contends against and
the nature of the conflict.

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 341
"2. That there exist among us, as in all other coun
tries of the world, grave and threatening social evils, pub
lic injustices which call for strong resistance and legal
remedy, is a fact which no one dares to deny — a fact al
ready acknowledged by the Congress and the President
of the United States. Without entering into the sad de
tails of these evils, whose full discussion is not necessary,
I will only mention that monoplies, on the part of both
individuals and of corporations, have everywhere called
forth not only the complaints of our working classes, but
also the opposition of our public men and legislators ; that
the efforts of monopolists, not always without success, to
control legislation to their own profit, cause serious appre
hensions among the disinterested friends of liberty; that
the heartless avarice which, through greed of gain, piti
lessly grinds not only the men, but even the women and
children in various employments, makes it clear to all
who love humanity and justice that it is not only the right
of the laboring classes to protect themselves, but the duty
of the whole people to aid them in finding a remedy
against the dangers with which both civilization and
social order are menaced by avarice, oppression and
corruption. "It would be vain to dispute either the existence of the
evils, or the right of legitimate resistance, or the necessity
of a remedy. At most, a doubt might be raised about the
legitimacy of the form of resistance and of the remedy
employed by the Knights of Labor. This, then, is the
next point to be examined.
"3. It can hardly be doubted that, for the attainment
of any public end, association — the organization of all
interested — is the most efficacious means — a means alto
gether natural and just. This is so evident, and besides,
so conformable to the genius of our country, of our essen
tially popular social conditions, that it is unnecessary to
insist upon it. It is almost the only means to public at-

342 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tention, to give force to the most legitimate resistance, to
add weight to the most just demands.
"Now, there already exists an organization which pre
sents innumerable attractions and advantages, but with
which our Catholic workingmen, filially obedient to the
Holy See, refuse to unite themselves; this is the Masonic
Order, which exists everywhere in our country and which,
as Mr. Powderly has expressly pointed out to us, unites
employers and employed in a brotherhood very advan
tageous to the latter, but which numbers in its ranks
hardly a single Catholic. Nobly renouncing advantages
which the Church and conscience forbid, our workingmen
join associations in no way in conflict with religion, seek
ing nothing but mutual protection and help, and the legit
imate assertion of their rights. Must they here also find
themselves threatened with condemnation, hindered from
their only means of self-defense ?
"4. Let us now consider the objections made against
this sort of organization:
"(a) It is objected that in such organization, Catho
lics are mixed with Protestants, to the peril of their faith.
Naturally, yes; they are mixed with Protestants at their
work; for, in a mixed people like ours, the separation of
religious creeds in civil affairs is an impossibility. But
to suppose that the faith of our Catholics suffers thereby
is not to know the Catholic working men of America, who
are not like the working men of so many European coun
tries — misguided children, estranged from their Mother,
the Church, and regarding her with suspicion and dread
— but intelligent, well-instructed, and devoted Catholics,
ready to give their blood, if necessary, as they continually
give their hard-earned means, for her support and protec
tion. And, in fact, it is not here a question of Catholics
mixed with Protestants, but rather that Protestants are
admitted to share in the advantages of an association,
many of whose members and officers are Catholics; and,

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 343
in a country like ours, their exclusion would be simply
impossible.
"(b) But it is asked, instead of such an organization,
could there not be confraternities, in which the working
men would be united under the direction of the clergy
and the influence of religion? I answer frankly that I
do not consider this either possible or necessary in our
country. I sincerely admire the efforts of this sort which
are made in countries where the working people are led
astray by the enemies of religion; but thanks be to God,
that is not our condition. We find that in our country
the presence and direct influence of the clergy would not
be advisable where our citizens, without distinction of
religious belief, come together in regard to their industrial
interests alone. Short of that, we have abundant means
for making our working people faithful Catholics; and
simple good sense advises us not to go to extremes.
"(c) Again, it is objected that, in such organizations,
Catholics are exposed to the evil influences of the most
dangerous associates, even of atheists, communists and
anarchists. That is true; but it is one of those trials of
faith which our brave American Catholics are accustomed
to meet almost daily, and which they know how to face
with good sense and firmness. The press of our country
tells us, and the president of the Knights of Labor has
related to us, how these violent, aggressive elements have
endeavored to control the association, or to inject poison
into its principles; but they also inform us with what de
termination these machinators have been repulsed and
beaten. "The presence among our citizens of those dangerous
social elements which have mostly come from certain
countries of Europe, is assuredly for us an occasion of
great regret and of vigilant precautions; it is a fact, how
ever, which we have to accept, but which the close union
between the Church and her children which exists in our

344 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
country renders comparatively free from danger. In
truth, the only thing from which we would fear serious
danger would be a cooling of this relationship between the
Church and her children; and I know nothing that would
be more likely to occasion it than imprudent condemna
tions. "(d) A specially weighty charge is drawn from the
outbursts of violence, even to bloodshed, which have ac
companied several of the strikes inaugurated by labor
organizations. Concerning this, three things are to be
remarked — first, strikes are not an invention of the
Knights of Labor, but a means almost everywhere and
always resorted to by the working classes to protect them
selves against what they consider injustice, and in asser
tion of what they believe to be their just rights; secondly,
in such a struggle of the poor and indignant multitudes
against hard and obstinate monopoly, outbursts of anger
are almost as inevitable as they are greatly to be re
gretted; thirdly, the laws and the chief authorities of the
Knights of Labor, far from encouraging violence or the
occasions of it, exercise a powerful influence to hinder it,
and to retain strikes within the limits of good order and
of legitimate action.
"A careful examination of the acts of violence accom
panying the struggle between capital and labor last year
leaves us convinced that it would be unjust to attribute
them to the association of the Knights of Labor; for this
association was but one among the numerous labor or
ganizations that took part in the strikes, and their chief
officers used every possible effort, as disinterested wit
nesses testify, to appease the anger of the multitudes, and
to hinder the excesses, which therefore, in my judgment,
could not justly be attributed to them. Doubtless, among
the Knights of Labor, as among the thousands of other
working men, there are to be found passionate or even
wicked men who have committed inexcusable deeds of

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 345
violence, and have instigated their associates to the same ;
but to attribute this to the association would, it seems
to me, be as unreasonable as to attribute to the Church
the follies or the crimes of her children against which
she strives and protests.
"I repeat that, in such a struggle of the great masses
of the people against the mail-clad power which, as it is
acknowledged, often refuses them the simple rights of
humanity and justice, it is vain to expect that every error
and every act of violence can be avoided; and to dream
that this struggle can be hindered, or that we can deter
the multitudes from organizing, which is their only hope
of success, would be to ignore the nature and forces of
human society in times like ours. Christian prudence evi
dently counsels us to hold the hearts of the multitudes by
the bonds of love, in order to control their actions by the
principles of faith, justice and charity; to acknowledge
frankly what is true and just in their cause, in order to
deter them from what is false and criminal, and thus to
turn into a legitimate, peaceable and beneficent contest
what might easily, by a course of repulsive severity, be
come for the masses of our people a dread volcanic foree
like unto that which society fears and the Church deplores
in Europe.
"Upon this point I insist strongly, because, from an
intimate acquaintance with the social conditions of our
country, I am profoundly convinced that here we are
touching upon a subject which not only concerns the
rights of the working classes, who ought to be especially
dear to the Church which our Lord sent forth to preach
His Gospel to the poor, but with which are intimately
bound up the fundamental interests of the Church and of
human society for the future. This is a point which I
desire, in a few additional words, to develop more clearly.
"5. Whoever meditates upon the ways in which Di
vine Providence is guiding mankind in our days can not

346 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
fail to remark how important is the part which the power
of the people takes in shaping the events of the present,
and which it is evidently destined to take in molding the
destinies of the future. We behold, with profound re
gret, the efforts of the prince of darkness to make this
power dangerous to the social weal by withdrawing the
masses of the people from the influence of religion, and
impelling them towards the ruinous paths of license and.
anarchy. Hitherto our country has presented a spectacle
of a most consolingly different character — that of a pop
ular power regulated by love of good order, respect for
religion, by obedience to the authority of the laws ; not a
democracy of license and violence, but that true democ
racy which aims at the general prosperity through the
means of sound principles and good social order.
"In order to preserve so desirable a state of things it
is absolutely necessary that religion should continue to
possess the affections and thus rule the conduct of the
multitudes. As Cardinal Manning has well written, 'a
new task is before us. The Church has no longer to deal
with Parliaments and princes, but with the masses and
with the people. Whether we will or no, this is our
work; we need a new spirit and a new law of life.' To
lose influence over the people would be to lose the future
altogether; and it is by the heart, far more than by the
understanding, that we must hold and guide this immense
power, so mighty either for good or for evil.
"Among all the glorious titles which the Church's his
tory has deserved for her there is not one which at present
gives her so great influence as that of 'Friend of the Peo
ple.' Assuredly, in our democratic country, it is this title
which wins for the Catholic Church not only the enthusi
astic devotedness of the millions of her children, but also
the respect and admiration of all our citizens, whatever
be their religious belief. It is the power of this title
which renders persecution almost an impossibility, and,

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 347
which draws towards our Holy Church the great heart of
the American people.
"And since it is acknowledged by all that the great
questions of the future are not those of war, of commerce
or of finance, but the social questions — the questions
which concern the improvement of the condition of the
great popular masses, and especially of the working peo
ple — it is evidently of supreme importance that .the
Church should always be found on the side of humanity,
— of justice towards the multitudes who compose the
body of the human family. As the same Cardinal Man
ning has wisely written, T know I am treading on a very
difficult subject, but I feel confident of this, that we must
face it, and that we must face it calmly, justly, and with
a willingness to put labor and the profits of labor second
— the moral state and domestic life of the whole working
population first. I will not venture to draw up such an
act of Parliament further than to lay down this principle.
. . . These things (the present condition of the poor in
England) can not go on; these things ought not to go on.
The accumulation of wealth in the land, the piling up of
wealth like mountains, in the possession of classes or
individuals, can not go on. No Commonwealth can rest
on such foundations.' 3
"In our country, above all, this social amelioration is
the inevitable programme of the future, and the position
which the Church should hold towards it is surely obvious.
She can certainly not favor the extremes to which the
poor multitudes are naturally inclined ; but, I repeat, she
must withhold them from these extremes by the bonds of
affection, by the maternal desire which she will manifest
for the concession of all that is just and reasonable in
their demands, and by the maternal blessing which she
will bestow upon every legitimate means for improving
the condition of the people.
'Miscellanies, Vol. II, p. 8i.

348 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"6. Now let us consider for a moment the conse
quences which would inevitably follow from a contrary
course — from a course of want of sympathy for the work
ing class, of suspicion for their aims, of ready condemna
tion for their methods.
"(a) First, there would be the evident danger of the
Church's losing, in popular estimation, her right to be
considered the friend of the people. The logic of the
popular heart goes swiftly to its conclusions, and this con
clusion would be most pernicious both for the people and
for the Church. To lose the heart of the people would
be a misfortune for which the friendship of the few rich
and powerful would be no compensation.
"(b) There would be a great danger of rendering hos
tile to the Church the political power of our country,
which has openly taken sides with the millions who are
demanding justice and the improvement of their condi
tion. The accusation of being un-American — that is to
say, alien to our national spirit — is the most powerful
weapon which the enemies of the Church can employ
against her. It was this cry which aroused the Know
Nothing persecution thirty years ago, and the same would
be used again if the opportunity offered. To appreciate
the gravity of this danger it is well to remark that not
only are the rights of the working classes loudly pro
claimed by each of our two great political parties, but it
is not improbable that, in our approaching national elec
tions, there will be a candidate for the office of President
of the United States as the special representative of the
popular complaints and demands.
"Now, to seek to crush by an ecclesiastical condemna
tion an organization which represents more than 500,000
votes, and which has already so respectable and so uni
versally recognized a place in the political arena, would,
to speak frankly, be considered by the American people
as not less ridiculous than rash. To alienate from our-

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 349
selves the friendship of the people would be to run great
risk of losing the respect which the Church has won in
the estimation of the American nation, and of forfeiting
the peace and prosperity which form so admirable a con
trast with her condition in some so-called Catholic coun
tries. Angry utterances have not been wanting of late,
and it is well that we should act prudently.
"(c) A third danger — and the one which most keenly
touches our hearts — is the risk of losing the love of the
children of the Church, and of pushing them into an atti
tude of resistance against their Mother. The world pre
sents no more beautiful spectacle than that of their filial
devotion and obedience; but it is well to recognize that,
in our age and in our country, obedience can not be blind.
We would greatly deceive ourselves if we expected it.
Our Catholic working men sincerely believe that they are
only seeking justice; and seeking it by legitimate means.
A condemnation would be considered both false and un
just, and, therefore, not binding. We might preach to
them submission and confidence in the Church's judg
ment; but these good dispositions could hardly go so far.
They love the Church, and they wish to save their souls;
but they must also earn their living, and labor is now
so organized that without belonging to the organization,
it is almost impossible to earn one's living.
"Behold, then, the consequences to be feared. Thou
sands of the Church's most devoted children, whose affec
tion is her greatest comfort, and whose free offerings are
her chief support, would consider themselves repulsed by
their Mother and would live without practising their re
ligion. Catholics who have hitherto shunned the secret
societies would be sorely tempted to join their ranks.
The Holy See, which has constantly received from the
Catholics of America proofs of almost unparalleled de
votedness, would be considered not as a paternal author
ity, but as a harsh and unjust power. Surely these are

350 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
consequences which wisdom and prudence counsel us to
avoid. "7. But, besides the dangers that would result from
such a condemnation, and the impracticability of putting
it into effect, it is also very important that we should care
fully consider another reason against condemnation, aris
ing from the unstable and transient character of the or
ganization in question. It is frequently remarked by the
press and by attentive observers that this special form of
association has in it so little permanence that, in its pres
ent shape, it is not likely to last many years. Whence it
follows that it is not necessary, even if it were just and
prudent, to level the sole condemnations of the Church
against so evanescent an object. The social agitation it
self will, indeed, last as long as there are social evils to
be remedied ; but the forms of organization meant for the
attainment of this end are naturally provisional and
short-lived. They are also very numerous, for I have
already remarked that the Knights of Labor is only one
among many labor organizations.
"To strike, then, at one of these forms, would be to
commence a war without system and without end; it
would be to exhaust the forces of the Church in chasing
a crowd of changing and uncertain spectres. The
American people behold with perfect composure and con
fidence the progress of our social contest, and have not
the least fear of not being able to protect themselves
against any excesses or dangers that may occasionally
arise. Hence, to speak with the most profound respect,
but also with the frankness which duty requires of me,
it seems to me that prudence suggests, and that even the
dignity of the Church demands, that we should not offer
to America an ecclesiastical protection for which she does
not ask, and of which she believes she has no need.
"8. In all this discussion, I have not at all spoken of
Canada, nor of the condemnation concerning the Knights

A MEMORABLE LETTER TO ROME 351
of Labor in Canada ; for we would consider it an imperti
nence on our part to meddle with the ecclesiastical affairs
of another country which has a Hierarchy of its own, and
with whose social conditions we do not pretend to be
acquainted. We believe, however, that the circumstances
of a people almost entirely Catholic, as in lower Canada,
must be very different from those of a mixed population
like ours; moreover, that the documents submitted to the
Holy Office are not the present constitution of the organ
ization in our country, and that we, therefore, ask nothing
involving an inconsistency on the part of the Holy See,
which passed sentence 'localiter et juxta exposita.'
"It is of the United States that we speak, and we trust
that we are not presumptuous in believing that we are
competent to judge about the state of things in our own
country. Now, as I have already indicated, out of the
seventy-five Archbishops and Bishops of the United
States, there are about five who desire the condemnation
of the Knights of Labor, such as they are in our own
country; so that our Hierarchy are almost unanimous in
protesting against such a condemnation. Such a fact
ought to have great weight in deciding the question. If
there are difficulties in the case, it seems to me that the
prudence and experience of our Bishops and the wise
rules of the Third Plenary Council ought to suffice for
their solution.
"Finally, to sum up all, it seems to me that the Holy
See could not decide to condemn an association under
the following circumstances :
"l. When the condemnation does not seem to be
justified either by the letter or the spirit of its constitu
tion, its laws and the declaration of its chiefs.
"2. When the condemnation does not seem neces
sary, in view of the transient form of the organization
and the social condition of the United States.
"3. When it does not seem to be prudent, because of

352 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the reality of the grievances complained of by the work
ing classes, and their acknowledgment by the American
people. "4. When it would be dangerous for the reputation
of the Church in our democratic country, and might even
lead to persecution.
"5. When it would probably be inefficacious, owing
to the general conviction that it would be unjust.
"6. When it would be destructive instead of bene
ficial in its effects, impelling the children of the Church
to disobey their Mother, and even to enter condemned
societies, which they have thus far shunned.
"7. When it would turn into suspicion and hostility
the singular devotedness of our Catholic people towards
the Holy See.
"8. When it would be regarded as a cruel blow to
the authority of Bishops in the United States, who, it
is well known, protest against such a condemnation.
"Now, I hope that the considerations here presented
have sufficiently shown that such would be the effect of
condemnation of the Knights of Labor in the United
States. "Therefore, I leave the decision of the case, with
fullest confidence, to the wisdom and prudence of your
Eminence and the Holy See.
"J. Card. Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore.
"Rome, February 20, 1887."

CHAPTER XX
,¦>
VICTORY FOR THE KNIGHTS OF IABOR
Pleas such as Cardinal Gibbons made in behalf of
the Knights of Labor could not fail to exert a powerful
influence. As the tide swayed, Bishop Keane wrote from
Rome to Cardinal Manning:
"You will see how the utterances which have forever
secured to your Eminence the noble title of 'friend of
the people' have done our Cardinal good service in his
defense of the rights of the working millions. He had
an interview this morning on this subject with the chief
officials of the Holy Office, with most gratifying results.
It was easy to see that in his words they felt the weight
of the whole Hierarchy, the whole clergy, and the whole
people of America, and that his sentiments had already
produced among them an evident change of front. A
few weeks ago the drift was towards condemnation, re
gardless of the widespread, disastrous consequences that
would inevitably have ensued. Today the keynote was
that the convictions of the Bishops of America are the
safest guide of the Holy Office in its action on American
affairs, and that they will let well enough alone." x
In another letter to the Cardinal of Westminster, April
23, Keane told thus of some of the discouragements which
he had been facing:
'Letter of February 28, 1887, quoted by Leslie.
353

354 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Mgr. Jacobini was in favor of its [the appeal's]
publication in the Moniteur, which I feel sure Car
dinal Simeoni would not have authorized. He is the
embodiment of timid and suspicious conservatism. I
explained to him how an advocacy of popular rights was
no friendliness to Socialism, and that our aim was —
recognizing the inevitable tendency to democracy — not
to leave it to be ruled by the devil, but to hold it in the
ways of God. He took it all with his gentle smile, which
always seems to me half consent and half fear. He has
a mortal dread of newspapers. We can expect from him
only the toleration of our ideas. Cardinal Simeoni, and
probably others with him, linked together the labor move
ment in America and the Home Rule movement in Ire
land; and the dire colors in which poor Ireland is now
being painted cast a glare of suspicion upon us, too. The
times are certainly critical, but we know we are advanc
ing truth and justice." 2
Although Gibbons' letter to the Propaganda had not
been intended for the public eye, a newspaper corre
spondent contrived to get possession of a copy and it
was published in America and Europe. The Cardinal
was surprised one day to receive cable messages of con
gratulation from home, and in a short time he learned
that the argument which he had framed for the Curia
alone was a theme of discussion throughout the civilized
world. The case was won after weary months of struggle. Not
only did Rome decide not to forbid the organization of
the Knights in the United States, but the ban was lifted
in Canada. The opposition subsided, and there was a
chorus of acclamation for the American Cardinal who,
'Leslie, p. 363.

VICTORY FOR THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR 355
only a short time before, had been regarded with doubt
and suspicion as an upholder of the forces of social up
heaval. The decision was hailed as emphasizing the
Church's championship of the poor. Said the Moniteur
de Rome:
"His Eminence's document has been widely com
mented upon by the newspapers throughout the United
States. They have unanimously recognized in it not
only a great benefit conferred upon the millions of work
ingmen who compose the great mass of people in America
and in every other country, but also a victory for the
Catholic Church, which in showing herself the friend
of the people naturally secures their affections. ... As
a matter of course a few journals — organs of the monopo
lies — have uttered their protest; but their voice is
scarcely being heard amid the general applause."
England echoed the commendation. Cardinal Man
ning wrote :
"I have read with great assent Cardinal Gibbons'
document in relation to the Knights of Labor. The Holy
See will, I am sure, be convinced by his exposition of the
state of the new world. I hope it will open a new field
of thought and action. . . . The Church is the mother,
friend and protector of the people. As the Lord walked
among them, so His Church lives among them." 3
Bishop Keane, in a burst of gratitude, wrote to Man
ning: "The clear, strong, wise words of your Eminence's let
ters will be a bulwark to the truth and a rebuke to mis
chief-makers. The impression produced here seems to
be excellent. Nay, our victory is already won. Cardinal
"Taylor, The Cardinal Democrat, p. 180.

356 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Taschereau has gone home with directions from the Holy
Office to grant absolution to all the thousands of poor
fellows who have been cut off from the Sacraments by
the condemnation in Canada, and there does not seem to
be any danger now of a condemnation in America. Deo
gratias!" 4
The acuteness of the labor question at the time
was intense, and there was no doubt that a large body
of conservatives throughout the world had felt a shock.
Puck, the comic weekly, went so far as to depict the
Cardinal as imparting a blessing with uplifted hands to
a body of riotous working people pursuing a non-union
man. The tumult was at length stilled, and the adjust
ment of labor and capital proceeded in America, for the
most part, on natural and orderly lines.
No one rejoiced more than Leo XIII that Gibbons had
again proved himself to be a true spokesman of the west
ern democracy, in which the Pontiff beheld the greatest
hope for the Church's development of her spiritual mis
sion. Throughout the remainder of his Pontificate, he
retained vividly the views of the labor question which
Gibbons had helped to impress upon him, rejoicing at
the opportunity to put the Church in touch with the times
on this problem of vast and fundamental importance to
the spread of religion among the working people of
America and Europe.
His mature thought on the subject was embodied in
the encyclical on "The Condition of Labor," 5 which he
addressed to the Catholic world a few years later. In
"Letter of March 22, 1887, quoted by Leslie, pp. 362-363.
'Encyclical Letter, Rerum.Novarum, May 15, 1891.

VICTORY FOR THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR 357
words whose power reinforced from the highest ecclesi
astical source the vigorous utterances of Cardinal Gib
bons, he conceded and set forth the wrongs under which
labor was suffering. "Some remedy must be found
quickly," he declared, "for the misery and wretchedness
present so heavily and unjustly at this moment on the
vast majority of the working classes." Since the decline
of the ancient workingmen's guilds, it had come to pass
that "workingmen had been surrendered, all isolated and
helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers, and to
great unchecked competition," so that "a small number
of very rich men had been able to lay upon the teeming
masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than
slavery itself."
Leo warmly defended the dignity of labor, as Gibbons
had done before him. He dwelt upon the Christian in
terdependence of both capital and labor, and argued that
no perfect solution of this question would ever be found
without the assistance of religion. ,
Dealing with the rise of Socialism, which was then
beginning to carry local elections in Europe, and threat
ened to gain control of several governments by alliances
with wings of other political parties, he declared that
it was preying upon the poor man's envy of the rich, and
was endeavoring to destroy private property. The work
ingmen, he held, would be among the first to suffer if
the proposals of the Socialists were carried out, for they
were clearly futile for all practical purposes. More than
that, he found them emphatically unjust, because they
would rob the lawful possessor, bring the State into a

358 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
sphere not properly its own, and cause complete con
fusion in the community.
The desire of the Church, Leo emphasized, was that
the poor should rise above poverty and wretchedness.
She was not so occupied with the spiritual concerns of
her children as to neglect their material interests. Chris
tian morality was the key to the situation; if practised
by employer and employee, it would always find expres
sion in the attitude of the State toward social questions.
It was not enough to say that the State must maintain
even-handed justice among individuals; special consid
eration was due to the poor, as the weaker members of
every community. There was a moral obligation resting
upon employers to pay fair wages, and the employment
of children in factories and similar injustices must be re
sisted to the utmost.
The Pope gave his fullest assent to the primary view
laid down by Cardinal Gibbons in his defense of the
Knights of Labor. Both employers and employees, he
held, had the right to combine, and it was not only to
be tolerated but highly important that workingmen
should multiply their associations. He declared that im
perative necessity had brought about lawful combinations
for the betterment of labor. As far as was practical, he
desired these organizations to be founded on the prin
ciples of religion.
The Pope extended throughout the Christian world
the policy which Gibbons was following in America, by
instructing the Bishops to take into their purview the
condition of labor in their dioceses, and, without inter
fering with the State, to aid the workingmen in every

VICTORY FOR THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR 359
lawful way to promote their own just interests without
recourse to violence or revolutionary doctrines.6
Gibbons had a deep personal sympathy for the eleva
tion of labor as a general policy in both Church and
State. In a sermon he thus expressed the view on that
subject which he continuously held:
"Never did the Redeemer of mankind confer a greater
temporal blessing on humanity than by ennobling and
sanctifying manual labor, and by rescuing it from the
degradation which had been attached to it. Christ comes
into the world not surrounded by the pomp and splendor
of imperial majesty, but he appears as the son of an
artisan. 'Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?'
the people said of him. He has thrown a halo around
the workshop, and has lightened the workman's tools by
assuming the trade of an artisan.
"If the professions of a soldier, of a jurist, and of a
prelate are dignified by the examples of a Washington,
a Taney, and a Carroll, how much more is the calling of
a mechanic ennobled by Christ? A conflict of labor and
capital is as unreasonable as would be a contention be
tween the head and the hands." 7
It is difficult with the passage of years to conceive the
risk which Gibbons and Manning took in basing their
stand regarding labor upon a forecast of the future,
which, accurate, even prophetic, as it was, involved the
human hazard. They were immensely relieved when the
rapid progress of events vindicated their judgment.
Manning wrote to Gibbons March 31, 1890:
"We little thought when we were writing about the
Knights of Labour in Rome, a few years ago, that every
"Archives of the Baltimore Cathedral.
* Sermon in the Baltimore Cathedral, April, 1902,

360 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
word would be so soon published to the world by an
Emperor and a Pope. This is surely the new world over
shadowing the old, and the Church walking like its mas
ter among the people of Christendom. Were we
prophets?" 8
Archbishop Ireland, valiant champion of labor to the
end of the struggle, learned of this letter and wrote to
Gibbons :
"The words are cheering and to you who staked your
name on the outcome of the problem, then rather ob
scure, they must have been very gratifying. You were
a prophet! The people are the power, and the Church
must be with the people. I wish all our Bishops under
stood this truth !" 9
The battle in behalf of the Knights left no scars upon
Gibbons but many memories. Years afterward he said:
"Ah, what a struggle it was on both sides of the water !
I had so many difficulties that I wonder I got through
with them. Bishops are so hard to persuade ! They have
fixed and positive opinions and I can scarcely imagine
a class of men less easy to deal with on a subject of that
kind. "And here I am, at the end of all those struggles, in
the midst of a profound calm! But the storm lasted a
long time. I was called an advanced progressive and I
had to stand my ground. Puck used to caricature me.
I remember well one cartoon in which Cardinal Manning
and I were represented as seated on opposite sides of the
Holy Father (Leo XIII). The Pope's expression, as
drawn, was that of a fox. He was 'looking suspiciously
at us and saying, as I remember it : T must watch these
two artful dodgers !' "
"Leslie, pp. 365-366.
"Leslie, p. 366.

CHAPTER XXI
HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN
While yet the struggle for the vindication of the
rights of organized labor rocked the forces of opinion in
Rome, Gibbons had turned to accept combat on another
issue which he felt involved a correlative right — that of
free discussion of economic evils. He threw himself into
this new effort with redoubled zeal when the cause of
the Knights had been won and the Church had become
firmly intrenched in the high ground that had been
gained; for in his eyes there rose a danger that part of
the fruits of the victory would be snatched away.
The challenge which Gibbons thus saw was in the
proposed condemnation of Henry George's book, Prog
ress and Poverty, which in certain circles of labor had
been hailed as the creed of a new order that would lift
burdens centuries old. This exposition of the theory
of the single tax on land values was launched in a time
of economic experiment when panaceas were eagerly
sought, and it projected its author into a sudden glare
of popularity. He became the hope of the unemployed,
the underpaid and the striker. Among the hundreds of
thousands of workers in New York City his vogue was.
at the maximum, and in 1886 he was nominated as the
labor candidate for mayor, receiving 68,000 votes.
George drew no small share of support outside the
361

362 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ranks of labor from men whose altruism he stirred power
fully and two of the most prominent priests of New York
became his avowed and eager champions. These were
the Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn, pastor of St. Stephen's
Church, the "largest Catholic parish in this diocese," as
the diocesan head, Archbishop Corrigan, wrote in 1886;
and the Rev. Dr. Richard L. Burtsell, pastor of the
Church of the Epiphany. The talented and ardent Mc
Glynn became one of the founders and the president of
the Anti-Poverty Society, formed for the purpose of
championing George's views in a skeptical world. His
militancy in the cause gave rise to the belief in some
minds that the Catholic Church indorsed the new eco
nomic program.
In the ferment of conflicting ideas, an appeal was
made to Archbishop Corrigan to declare his position. His
response was an unhesitating condemnation of George's
book and a rebuke to McGlynn and Burtsell. Supporters
of George, in their consternation, retorted by raising
doubts as to whether Corrigan spoke for Rome. The
Archbishop, spurred to adopt a course even more vigor
ous, carried his case promptly to the Congregation of the
Index, demanding that Progress and Poverty be put upon
the forbidden list.
When Gibbons learned of this step he took the ground,
with firmness equal to that of his colleague of New York,
that condemnation of the book would be a grave mistake
and an injury to the prestige of the Church as the friend
of the struggling poor. Strained relations with Corrigan
developed, and Gibbons deplored them; but personal con-

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 363
siderations could not move him from his stand on the
question of the principle involved.
Gibbons and Corrigan were of different types and stood
as the champions of diverse tendencies of opinion in the
Church in America. The Baltimore Cardinal was the
acknowledged leader of the prelates of liberal view who
were in an overwhelming majority, while Corrigan spoke
for those who were called conservatives. Corrigan played
his role unwillingly. His personal tastes were for scholar
ship and retirement from the world, and he would have
been glad to escape his weighty task as the head of the
metropolitan diocese. Soon after his elevation, he wrote :
"How immense is the responsibility and how heavy is
the burden!" His piety and humility seemed like a sur
vival from Apostolic times. Combined with his high
degree of intellectual ability and natural force of char
acter were a deep sensitiveness which ill-fitted him for
the storms that swept his diocese during the period of his
ecclesiastical rule, and he showed a rare gentleness in the
ordinary relations of life.
Standing out among these elements in his personality
was an almost leonine courage which impelled him to
resist to the last extremity anything that he considered
to be an encroachment upon the domain of true teaching.
To his mind George's book was a denial of the rights of
property asserted by the Church; to Gibbons' mind — and
the Cardinal was subsequently sustained by the highest
ecclesiastical authority — it was not. Men holding such
pronounced convictions upon a subject of that kind were
bound to clash, and it was not in either of them to give

364 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ground until the final word had been spoken with
authority. Corrigan felt that as the head of the diocese in which
George lived, and in which Progress and Poverty had
attracted the greatest number of followers, his own view
of the book should be regarded as of especial weight,
both by his brethren of the American Hierarchy and by
the authorities in Rome. Gibbons insisted that the con
siderations involved were far too broad and general to
be decided either by an individual prelate or from the
viewpoint of one diocese. In the spring of 1887, while
in Rome, he made a formal appeal against condemnation
in a letter to Cardinal Simeoni. He wrote :
"I have already had the honor of presenting my views
on social questions which agitate America, and especially
in relation to the Knights of Labor. But lately another
form of social discussion has developed attaching to the
doctrines of Henry George, an American author identi
fied with the working classes. Since my arrival in Rome
I have heard discussed the question whether those works
should find a place in the Index. After meditation upon
the subject, I think it my duty to submit to your Emi
nence the reasons which demonstrated to me why a formal
condemnation of Henry George's works would be in
opportune and useless."
Gibbons then began the argument by setting forth
that George was not the originator of his theory concern
ing the ownership and control of land. In Progress and
Poverty, he maintained, George cited the precise teach
ings of Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill. He
quoted from an article in the Contemporary Review of
November, 1886, the statement that George was only

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 365
following those celebrated authors. The Cardinal pro
ceeded :
"It seems to me that the world would adjudge it a
little singular if the Holy See should attack the work of
an humble American workingman instead of his master.
... If any one thinks it is the duty of the Holy See to
pronounce judgment upon Messrs. Spencer and Mill, it
might be prudent, before such adjudication, to take the
opinions of Cardinals Manning and Newman as to the
policy of such action."
He differentiated between a work by Steccannella,
published by the Propaganda Press in 1882, and George's
writings, continuing:
"Any one who reads the latter observes that the author
does not teach nor wish to teach the abolition of all
private property and placing it under State care. Mr.
George, on the contrary, maintains that individual prop
erty is absolute over all the fruits of a man's energy and
industry. It is only as to the possession of land that he
wishes to limit individual property by an extension of the
supremum dominium of government. One can perceive,
therefore, that practically the controversy presents itself
to the American public as a simple question touching the
power of government over the individual ownership of
land. "Regarding this power, I wish to note here that who
ever has studied the relation of the State to the owner
ship of land, as the subject is treated by Steccannella and
other Catholic writers, or as it is regulated by laws on
taxation and the support of the poor in many countries
— and especially in England — cannot fail to compre
hend that this is a very complicated question, governed
by differing circumstances of time and place and never
fit to be resolved by a peremptory sentence.

366 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"The whole question is before the American public as
a political problem and in an arena so practical it will
soon find solution. Mr. George himself recognizes that
only legislative power can accomplish his disposition of
these affairs. It seems certain, however, that never will
a Congress or a legislature be found which will vote so
profound a change in social relations, nor a President
who will approve it in a country like the United States,
which is not one for doctrinaires and visionaries. No.
speculative theory can become dangerous or survive long
after any practical application of it has been rejected.
If let alone, it will in all certainty die of itself.
"Some events having an intimate connection with this
very question have created a very profound impression
in the United States. It appears evident, then, that even
if it were advisable to condemn the doctrines, the present
time could not properly be chosen for that purpose. I
feel certain, moreover, that a condemnation of the works
of Mr. George might give them a popular importance
and arouse a curiosity that would sell them by thousands
of copies and immensely spread the influences which the
condemnation would seek to restrain.
"The American people, I repeat, are so practical that
among them all bizarre ideas and visionary suggestions
so soon find a tomb that it appears to me that prudence
should suggest that we let the absurdities die a natural
death and that we should not incur the risk of giving to
these a vital importance and an artificial force by the
intervention of the Church tribunals. "J. Card. Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore."
Cardinal Manning was a member of the Congregation
of the Index, and Gibbons wrote to him protesting
urgently against condemnation of George's book. George
had made a trip to England, in which country his eco-

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 367
nomic theories had also attained some vogue, and while
there he attempted to enlist Manning's support. In a
personal interview, he explained his views at length.
Manning understood George not to deny the right of
property, but to be aiming rather at a mitigation of evils
resulting from an exaggerated application of that right.
The English Cardinal was pleased by the "quiet earnest
ness" with which George spoke, and the "calmness of
his whole bearing" ; but he did not accept, either in that
conversation or subsequently, George's program as a
general remedy for social evils.1
Gibbons did not believe, any more than Manning, that
George's plan was a practical remedy, and he dissented
from a number of the principles laid down in Progress
and Poverty, although he did not deny that the book
contained some economic truths, and that it represented
honest aspiration for the betterment of the working
classes. Taking the same general ground as in the con
troversy regarding the Knights of Labor, he held that}
condemnation of the book by the Church would be an
unwise step, as interfering where interference was un
necessary. Working actively in Rome against condemna
tion, he was able at length to satisfy himself that the
action proposed by Archbishop Corrigan had been pre
vented for the time being.
Corrigan, still undismayed, continued his pressure for
condemnation, and by the end of another year appeared
to have made such substantial progress that Gibbons took;
up the fight again. Gibbons decided that the time had
come to marshal the sentiment of the American Hierarchy
"Leslie, pp. 353-354.

368 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to the utmost extent in his power against the threatened
act, in order to convince Rome that the question affected
the general attitude of the Church in regard to the labor
movement in the United States and that it ought to be
settled finally. His journal shows these entries written
in the spring of 1888:
"March 20. Wrote to Dr. O'Connell deprecating the
threatened condemnation of Henry George's Progress
and Poverty by the Congregation of the Index. I also
requested the Archbishop of Boston, and a few other, (
prelates, to write to Rome in the same interest. ...
"April 14. Wrote to Archbishop Feehan and Bishop
Gilmour in reference to the threatened condemnation of
George's Progress and Poverty; and also on the 16th
to Bishop O'Connor, and on the 2 1st to Archbishop Heiss
and Bishop Kain. They have written to Rome; also
Archbishop Riordan.
"May 3. I wrote to the Holy Father enclosing the
letter to Dr. O'Connell, deprecating the threatened con
demnation of Henry George's Progress and Poverty."
In a letter to his close friend, Archbishop Gross, of
Oregon, he wrote :
"Last year while in Rome, having learned that the
Congregation of the Index contemplated putting Henry
George's Progress and Poverty on the Index, I wrote a
letter to Cardinal Simeoni deprecating such a condemna
tion as calculated to do much more harm than good.
... It would be made use of as a weapon against us by
the enemies of the Church, who would charge her with
being afraid of free discussion, the friend of the rich, the
enemy of the poor, etc. Surely we have ample difficul
ties forced upon us without courting or inviting new ones.
"Thousands of books against faith and morals are

/ /

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 369
annually published in the country. To single out George
for condemnation would look like vindictiveness. And
while land robbers are stealing thousands of acres with
impunity, to see a harmless theorist condemned by the
Church for views which could never enter into the domain
of actual life would not fail to excite unfavorable com
ment, especially among the poor and simple masses." 2
While the controversy was at this stage, Gibbons' dif
ferences from Archbishop Corrigan were emphasized by
the publication without the Cardinal's knowledge of the
letter opposing condemnation which he had sent to the
Propaganda a year before; but the disclosure also had
the effect of enlisting the approval of a large body of
American public opinion, as shown by the following
letter from Gibbons to Mgr. O'Connell :
"Baltimore, March 19, 1888.
"Dear Dr. O'Connell:
"The surreptitious publication of the letter which I
had the honor to address to the Propaganda in reference,
to the condemnation of Henry George's 'Progress and
Poverty' has produced one good result. It has enlisted
the warm approval of the American press, which has
commented upon it, and has conclusively shown that the
condemnation of the book would not only have done no
good, but would have been the occasion of much injury
to the head of the Church in this country. Time has
confirmed the impressions I formed in Rome on this sub
ject, and fulfilled the predictions I ventured to make.
... If the American episcopate were consulted on this
matter, with very few exceptions, they would write de
ploring the condemnation. "Yours in Christ,
"James Cardinal Gibbons."
'Letter to Archbishop Gross, April 16, 1888.

370 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Gibbons again turned to Manning's assistance as essen
tial in thwarting the new effort to obtain condemnation.
He wrote to the English Cardinal on March 23, 1888:
"Private and Confidential. s While I was in Rome in
the spring of '87, I felt it my duty to urge the Congre
gation of the Index not to condemn Henry George's
'Progress and Poverty.' I addressed the letter to Cardi
nal Simeoni, and my impression is that I .sent your Emi
nence a copy of the letter at the time. I have been in-,
formed confidentially, within the last few days, that,
yielding to pressure from a certain quarter in this coun
try, the Congregation was inclined to put the book on
the Index notwithstanding my earnest deprecating letter
of last year, whose force is perhaps weakened for want
of insistence.
"The reasons I presented then for withholding a con
demnation are stronger today, and my anticipations have
been verified regarding the effect of Mr. George's book
on the public mind. I would deplore an official con
demnation of the book for the following reasons, among
others: (1) The book is now almost forgotten, and to
put it on the Index would revive it in the popular mind,
would arouse a morbid interest in the work, and would
tend to increase its circulation. (2) The author himself
has ceased to be a prominent leader in politics, he excites
little or no attention, and whatever influence he has po
litically he promises to exert in favor of the reelection
of President Cleveland. (3) The condemnation of this
book would awaken sympathy for him. He would be
regarded as a martyr to Catholic intolerance by many
Protestants. (4) It would afford to the bigots, (always
anxious to find a weak spot in our armor) an occasion to
'The injunction of secrecy regarding Cardinal Gibbons' letter to
Cardinal Manning, considered necessary at the time, was removed by
the subsequent progress of events.

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 371
denounce the Church as an enemy of free discussion.
(5) The errors in the book have been amply refuted by
able theologians.
"I write to beg your Eminence to help us in preventing
a condemnation, especially as you belong to the Congre
gation of the Index. It is important not to reveal any
knowledge of the threatened condemnation. The letter
might be based on the recent surreptitious publication of
my letter in the New York Herald, and the favourable
comments on it, as far as I have seen, on the part of the
secular press. My belief is that with very few, not a
half dozen, exceptions, the episcopate of this country
would deplore a condemnation. Your Eminence's
knightly help to me last year prompts me to call on you
again." 4
Manning lost no time in giving the desired assurance
that he would continue to stand firmly against condemna
tion and that Gibbons need have no fears on that subject.
Gibbons' second rally of his forces carried the day tri
umphantly and all thought of imposing the ban was
dropped at Rome.
Corrigan's feeling that his own judgment regarding
George's book had not received the proportionate impor
tance that was due him as the head of the archdiocese
of New York was deepened by the developments in the
case of Dr. McGlynn. While he and Gibbons had
differed squarely on the question of condemnation of the
book, each clearly understood the other's position on that
question; but in the public commotion over McGlynn a
mass of misunderstanding arose and Corrigan, through

'Leslie, pp. [64-65;

372 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
no fault of his own, formed a total misconception of Gib
bons' attitude. This condition dragged along for several
years before the facts became plain to the Archbishop of
New York. By that time his whole life had been sad
dened by the storms of his career at the head of the
diocese during a turbulent period, and he implored Rome
to permit him to put down the burden which he felt was
too heavy for him to bear.
In Henry George's mayoralty campaign in New York,
McGlynn was his most influential supporter. Corrigan
forbade McGlynn to attend a public meeting in behalf
of George, but he refused to heed the command and was
suspended from his pastorate for ten days. As he con
tinued to be refractory he was removed from the pastorate
and ordered to proceed to Rome to make his submission,
but he pleaded ill-health and raised other complications,
finally incurring the sentence of excommunication. Dr.
Burtsell, the backer and counselor of McGlynn, also re
fused to budge from his position, and was deprived of
his pastorate.
From the bottom of his heart Gibbons deplored the
conduct of these two men. In his view they were indis
creet and obstreperous, and their resistance to their
ecclesiastical superior tended to cloud the main question
at issue before it could be decided by the highest Church
authority. He set forth his stand in the following letter
to Archbishop Elder : "Florence, April 20, 1887.
"My dear Archbishop:
"Yesterday, on arriving here, I received a copy of the
cablegram you sent to Dr. O'Connell. I wrote to Dr.

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 373
O'Connell requesting him to say to Mgr. Jacobini that
as far as I was advised it might be well to make another
effort to get McGlynn to Rome, and that Archbishop
Williams, who will soon arrive, might be asked to use
his good offices in this matter. Should McGlynn fail to
obey this summons, it would be for the Holy See to
determine whether and to what extent he should be
punished for contumacy, and even whether he may not
be already regarded as contumacious.
"Soon after arriving in Rome on February 16, at the
direction of the Holy Father, and Cardinal Simeoni also
requesting, I wrote a letter to Dr. Burtsell strongly ad
vising Dr. McGlynn to come to Rome. I had hoped
that he would obey and thus save himself from the ter
rible consequences involved in his disobedience and the
Archbishop from constant annoyance and irritation.
After a long time, an answer came excusing him on the
ground of ill-health, coupled with the desire to have his
faculties restored before departing.
"To my regret and even amazement, I saw from the
papers that Dr. McGlynn' s friends began to regard me
as a defender of him, and, as I believed that my letter
could be the only ground for this impression, I desisted
from writing again. I never wrote a second letter to
New York, and paid no attention to one or two com
munications from his friends.
"I may add that I hardly know Dr. McGlynn by
sight, and never corresponded with him.
"As no suggestions came to me from the Archbishop
or any of our prelates, I was at a loss to know what to
do and hesitated to take any step on my own responsi
bility. These public utterances of Dr. McGlynn will
do no good either to himself or to religion. I hope, with
God's grace, that the storm will soon spend itself. . . .
"Believe me, your devoted friend in Christ,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."

374 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS "April 21.
"I desire to add a word or two to what I said yesterday.
Should the Holy See deem it advisable to give a sum
mons to Dr. McGlynn to appear in Rome, I think the
summons should be accompanied by a command to him
to deliver no more utterances. These speeches of his are
calculated to inflame his audiences, who, I am sorry to
see, sometimes use language disrespectful to the Arch
bishop. Could not some one be found in America who
would advise him to desist from making public speeches?
. . . You might communicate these views to his Grace
of New York."
Dr. Burtsell seems to have come to the belief that by
continuous appeals he would be able to win some sort
of support from Gibbons. While the Cardinal was in
New York in May, 1890, Burtsell called on him and
implored his intercession. The Cardinal told him firmly
that "under no circumstances will I interfere in the
controversy." Burtsell was not easily rebuffed. Several days later,
after Gibbons had returned to Baltimore, he received
from Burtsell a bundle of documents with a note en
closed, saying that Burtsell had written to Cardinal
Simeoni soliciting him to ask Cardinal Gibbons' views on
the pending question before deciding it. Without even
unfolding the documents, Cardinal Gibbons returned
them to the priest with this letter : "June 10, 1890.
"My dear Dr. Burtsell :
"I hope you will appreciate my motives when I beg
to say, as I said to you in New York when you called
on me, that I feel it my duty not to interfere in any

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 375
way with your case. I send you back at once the docu
ments which you forwarded to me, and which have just
arrived. "Faithfully yours in Christ,
"James Cardinal Gibbons."
Archbishop Corrigan learned of BurtselFs letter to
Rome in which Gibbons' name had been used without
learning also of the Cardinal's refusal to interfere. He
accepted the belief that Gibbons was, to some extent, at
least, an upholder of McGlynn. Gibbons, pained by the
turn which affairs were taking, wrote him a letter of ex
planation, saying: "This partial information was in
deed well calculated to make you feel aggrieved." B
A short time afterward he addressed the Archbishop
again in a personal vein, endeavoring to remove the
thought of friction. He wrote :
"Baltimore, November 14, 1890.
"My dear Archbishop :
". . . It is a sore affliction to me that an unwarranted
use of my name continues to be made in connection with
the trials through which you have passed and which I
hope are at an end. Only a few days ago, I received the
enclosed prospectus of a book from the publishers. The
same day I called on a prominent law firm directing them
to order the publishers to withdraw my name from the
book. ... Of course the book is a catchpenny.
"I will try, if possible, to avoid a legal prosecution,
which might advertise the book.
"Faithfully yours in Christ,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."
'Letter to Archbishop Corrigan, October 30, 1890.

376 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
But with regard to the question of condemning Prog
ress and Poverty, he wrote to Corrigan frankly declar
ing his own right to take any position that seemed to
him to be in the interest of religion, saying:
"I regard the subject as neither local nor personal,
but one affecting the general interests of the Church in
this country. While having no sympathy for George
or his doctrines, I deprecate a public condemnation as
calculated, in my judgment, to do harm to religion. . . .
"I sincerely regret that my action in this matter did
not accord with your judgment, but I assure you that
it was prompted solely by a conscientious sense of
duty. . . ."
Corrigan's sensitive nature received a further shock
when Archbishop Satolli, soon after his arrival in the
United States as Apostolic Delegate, held a hearing on
the McGlynn case. Satolli in 1892 relieved the priest
of the sentence of excommunication, and McGlynn
obeyed the summons to Rome. Two years later he was
appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church, Newburgh, New
York, and remained there until his death in 1901. The
faculties of Burtsell were also restored, and he was ap
pointed to a pastorate in Rondout, New York. He-was
honored with the title of monsignor less than a month
before he died in 1912.
Satolli's intervention caused a personal breach between
himself and Corrigan which greatly distressed Leo XIII
when he heard of it. He entrusted to Gibbons a most
delicate task in view of Gibbons' previous relations with
Corrigan in the same controversy — that of effecting a
reconciliation between the Apostolic Delegate and the

HENRY GEORGE AND DR. McGLYNN 377
Archbishop of New York. The almost unequaled tact
of Gibbons proved to be sufficient, and his journal
records that he was able to write to the Pope that the
desired reconciliation had been effected.
{ The differences between Gibbons and Corrigan were
differences of method. Corrigan felt that the rising labor
movement must be closely watched and carefully guided
by the Church; so did Gibbons. But Corrigan was dis
posed to resort to interdicts as corrective measures, while
Gibbons' program was to exercise a broad toleration dur
ing the period of struggle and debate which was in
separable from the evolutionary process that was going
on. Gibbons believed that many temporary wanderings
in the wilderness by labor theorists would prove harmless
in the end, and that enlightened public opinion was the
best corrective for them. He wished the Church to in
terpose with rebuke only if urgent necessity should make
that duty plainj
Even outside the labor movement he did not cease to
urge that the Church should be slow to condemn organi
zations in the United States. He wrote to Archbishop
Elder: "Baltimore, March 28, 1889.
"Most Rev. Dear Archbishop:
"In reply to your question, should the Odd Fellows
and Knights of Pythias be tolerated by the Church in this
country, I beg to make the following observations:
"I think we should be very slow in condemning socie
ties, especially in our age and country where the tendency
is so strong toward organization, and the intentions of
the members are harmless and even praiseworthy. Exper
ience, I believe, has shown that little good and often evil

378 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
consequences result from the censures of the Church. We
lose a hold on the masses; they regard us as unsym
pathetic and hostile, and they shrink from us. The so
cieties have again and again been condemned in Italy,
and yet that country is honeycombed with secret societies.
"It is better for us to win their confidence and then
we can succeed in eliminating what is bad or suspicious
from their constitutions.
"As a practical conclusion, I am in favor of tolerating
ad interim the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias,
with the proviso that the members express themselves
ready to abide by any future action of the Church. Mean
while a commission of prelates might be appointed to
examine the question of the constitution of these socie
ties. . . . "Faithfully yours in Christ,
"James Cardinal Gibbons."
His journal contains this entry indicating the same
attitude at a later period:
"May 18, 1905. I sent to the Cardinal Prefect the
unanimous opinion of the Archbishops deprecating the
condemnation of three societies, respectively called 'The
Knights of the Maccabees,' 'The Modern Woodmen' and
'The Improved Order of Red Men.' "

CHAPTER XXII
A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME
Cardinal Gibbons' winter campaign in 1887 in Rome
ended in brilliant success and a breakdown of his health.
He had laid the foundations of his main plans so firmly
that they would not be shaken. In the outcome he felt
no sense of elation; neither had he been greatly de
pressed or disconcerted by the many setbacks which he
had received in the long and almost fierce struggle. Early
in life he had developed the practise of accepting success
and failure with a degree of equanimity impossible to
most men. Sustained by a comprehensive faith in an
overruling Providence, he was content not to test any im
mediate result by a limited standard of judgment; he be
lieved that in the larger and longer view everything
would turn out to be for the best. Neither did he accept
partial effects as finalities.
This may be called his personal philosophy. In a
sermon at the Baltimore Cathedral, he said :
"I do not know of any truth of revelation more tran
quillizing and more consoling to the human heart than
the doctrine of God's special providence over us. If I
may disclose my own inward thought, I will avow that
it has ever been to me the most reassuring of all Christian
teachings, and one that has been a sustaining force to
me amid the vicissitudes of a long life. How comforting
379

380 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
is the reflection that you are not a waif, aimlessly drift
ing down the stream of life, but that your little bark is
unceasingly under the guidance of the Divine pilot; that
amid the storms and tempests which are around you
there is a voice nearby that commands the winds and
the waves; that, though the assassin's dagger is raised to
strike, there is close to you an invisible hand that arrests
the dagger. How cheering is the consideration that no
matter how dark and lowering the clouds of sorrow that
envelop you, the eternal Sun of Justice in his own good
time, and in a moment most suitable to your needs, will
dispel those clouds!"
Gibbons was never disposed to pause in a moment when
much seemed gained, and be satisfied with what had been
accomplished. Sustained by courage and hope, he was
always conceiving new undertakings.
Such a man, in the long train of events, is an irre
sistible champion of a cause, judged by human standards;
in the reverse view, he is an irresistible antagonist. Gib
bons, while audacious when the moment for audacity
came, possessed the rare gift of being able to wait. His
aims and judgments were based on long processes of,
years. His wish was to do nothing that would not stand
the test of time.
But his physique, which had so often verged on frailty,
gave way in the Spring of 1887. The care of his health
which he had been accustomed to take had been discarded
in part in Rome when events seemed to close up his path
way. A man of the most robust frame could scarcely
have gone through what he endured without collapsing.
Fortunately, if his body seemed weak, his mind was a
stranger to fatigue; and his nerves were cool and steady

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 381
as steel. In a combat in the council chamber to convince
men whose temperaments and currents of thought were
the antitheses of his own, his mind rebounded as if under
the effect of a powerful stimulus and his poise was per
fect. The only fatigue which he felt was the effect of
prolonged standing, or of direct physical exertion in some
other form, or of lack of nutrition from the old stomach
trouble from which he was never free.
Now the time came when the body would not respond
to the driving force of his mind. He must rest and relax.
But he was fortunately able to do this at all times with
out any interruption in the rapid functioning of his
brain, which he seemed powerless and even markedly
disinclined to slow up. He wrote to Archbishop Elder
when the struggle in the Eternal City was ended:
"My health is impaired by my confinement and con
stant employment, and the nervous tension in Rome. I
felt the responsibility of my position and worked hard." x
A leisurely and reposeful trip homeward was his solu
tion of his own problem of physical recuperation. Pro
ceeding by easy stages to Paris, he was the guest there
of the Sulpicians, who had founded in Baltimore the first
seminary for the training of American priests and thus
laid the foundation for a thoroughly American priest
hood. In the calm and secluded life of the fathers of
that order, his exceptional recuperative power asserted
itself. Another stop was made at the University of
Louvain, where many of his brethren in the American
Hierarchy had pursued their studies owing to the lack
1 Letter to Archbishop Elder, April 20, 1887.

382 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of a university in their own country, which was now
to be established for them by a decree of the Third
Plenary Council.
In May he was the guest in London of Cardinal Man
ning, whose general views of the larger external aims
to be pursued by the Church were more in accord with
his own than those of any other member of her inner
Council except Leo himself. Chatting in Manning's
study, the workshop of a marvelous mind, he found the
floor piled high with books and strewn with papers in
seeming disorder. While these two eminent champions
of human rights could always agree, yet in their personal.
traits they were opposites in many respects, and it is
doubtful if they could ever have been intimate compan
ions. The English Cardinal often spoke, even in ordinary
conversation, with a precision of logic that was almost re
sistless, and his conclusions, as Gibbons afterward re
marked, seemed to strike with the force of a battle-ax.
For this compressed and formal habit of thought, the
easy graces and ready versatility of Gibbons, together
with that appealing personal touch which he imparted
to all of his relations with others, were an admirable
foil. Manning, who had already congratulated him in writ
ing on the victory on the Knights of Labor question,
echoed the sympathy expressed in the letter. They found
common ground in the belief that the time had come
when the dynasty of the masses and not of the classes
was ruling and ought to rule; that public opinion was
the dominating force of the enlightened world, and that
in the atmosphere of political and industrial freedom the

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 383
great results of the future were to be worked out. They
talked of the dignity and rights of labor; agreed that
social betterment must come from the bottom, rather
than from the top ; and that the Church must be in touch
with the spirit of the age and always choose the role of
the friend of the helpless, the champion of the poor.
The struggles through which these two men passed drew
them together by a mighty bond, and each was an in
spiration to the other.
Manning entertained Gibbons at dinner with a com
pany which included Canon Benoit, rector of the Mill
Hill College, near London, where the Josephite Fathers
trained students for missionary work among the negroes.
Their methods appealed greatly to the American Cardi
nal, who, becoming absorbed in the possibilities of ex
tending those methods to his own country, spent part
of two days at Mill Hill. He observed the work of the
college carefully, and made an address to the students,
expressing great gratification at what was being done
there. Gibbons, as a result of his years of work in the South
ern states, had better opportunities for understanding
the colored race in America than the Josephite Fathers;
but his main idea of what ought to be done for that race
was the same. While always regretting that the slavery
question, or any other question, should be worked out
by an appeal to arms, he felt and frequently expressed
a deep and benevolent sympathy for the negro in the
position of contiguity with the whites. Like almost all
Americans, he was glad to see slavery abolished perma
nently; but he had been alarmed by the thrusting of the

384 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ballot into the hands of millions of negroes untrained
to comprehend its meaning. He was far from being
ready to adopt political panaceas for the ills that afflicted
them, and it seemed to him that the best practical step
was to diffuse among them the gentle and uplifting in
fluence of Christianity, training the character as a ground
work, and building upon this as much of the superstruc
ture of education as it might be found possible to add
with benefit. The whole problem appeared to him, in
its aspects at that time, to be social rather than political.
The first duty at hand, he believed, was the training of
the negro to habits of industry and thrift, to understand
the relations of family and of duty as a member of the
community, however humble.
At no time had he shared the expectations of those
who had believed the negro capable of developing in a
few years what the white race had obtained by centuries
of sacrifice, toil and evolution; but, since the negroes
were here, and since as far as men of his generation could
foresee, they would remain in the United States indefi
nitely, they must be considered as a people to whom the
ministrations of religion were even more necessary than
to the whites. He did not know how far it would be
wise to extend the plan of training negro priests to work
among their own kind; but he felt that the especial char
acter of the negroes' needs required a priesthood particu
larly prepared for supplying them.
The fathers of Mill Hill welcomed with joy the sup
port of their often discouraging work by so powerful a
prelate as the only American Cardinal. He completed
plans with them for its extension to America, and soon

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 385
after his return these bore fruit in the opening of
Epiphany Apostolic College in Baltimore. That institu
tion of the Josephites, founded as an offshoot of Mill
Hill, has since been the nucleus of an important influ
ence. Gibbons, now thoroughly restored to as much physical
vigor as he had possessed before his conflicts in Rome,
returned to America early in June. A committee from
Baltimore which wished to extend felicitations to him
without the loss of a moment gave him a warm welcome
at the steamship pier. He tarried a few days in New
York, where he celebrated Pontifical Mass in St. Pat
rick's Cathedral, and was greeted by a host of visitors;
and then proceeded on June 7 to Baltimore, where com
mittees were in a fever of final preparation for a public
reception to the prelate whom they now considered, with
out distinction of creed, as their foremost civic ornament.
When his train arrived at the station in Baltimore,
the streets were thronged as if to acclaim a popular hero,
and such in truth he was. The mayor of the city, James
Hodges, headed a delegation which extended the munici
pal welcome. In an address to the new Cardinal, he
said: "Your gradual rise from the ranks of the people to
scholarship, usefulness and popularity, and then to emi
nence, and now to preeminence, although achieved within
the ecclesiastical division of life, is so thoroughly an
American experience that every self-made man and others
who admire meritorious advancement must regard your
promotion as well earned and well deserved. Those of
your fellow townsmen whose religious faith is in har-

386 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
mony with your own, and who are justly proud of the
successful administration of this ancient See for nearly
one hundred years, are doubtless gratified to know that
you are so worthy a successor of the eight illustrious
Primates, from Carroll to Bayley, who preceded you as
Archbishops of Baltimore. They are also gratified to
know that you are qualified by learning, good works and
religious zeal to be a member of the Sacred College of
Rome. "Few American citizens during their visits to Europe
have been welcomed with more sincere cordiality, on
made more agreeable impressions on the people they
met than you have; and as this effect was produced by
the exercise of a rare congenial intelligence, Christian
piety, moral worth and gentleness of manner and speech,
it is reasonable to surmise that it will be lasting."
An address in behalf of a delegation of the Catholic
laity was made by Charles J. Bonaparte, a grand nephew
of Napoleon I and a resident of Baltimore.
As the Cardinal gazed out upon the throng of his neigh
bors assembled to hear a response from him to the wel
come which they had joined in extending with so much
fervency, the depth and strength of his personal ties,
always marked, were evident in the spirit of the gather
ing. Scores of men were present with whom he had been
accustomed to exchange friendly hand clasps in the multi
tude of relations of life at home in which he customarily
engaged. There was more on the part of his neighbors
than a desire to extend a public compliment to one of
their fellow citizens who had risen to high place; the
predominant feeling was one of real affection, perhaps in

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 387
a greater sense personal affection than in the case of any
other American who filled a role such as his.
In his response he struck the neighborly note at the
outset, expressing his gratitude for "this splendid ovation
'and this great outpouring of the clergy and people of
Baltimore, who have come to bid me welcome on my
return to the city which I love so well." On several
previous occasions upon returning from Rome, he re
minded his hearers, he had declined to be the subject of
public demonstrations; but he added:
"There are times and circumstances — and the present
one is one of them — when the individual is sunk in his
representative capacity and personal preference should
yield to the wishes of others. I thank you most cordially,
Mr. Bonaparte, for the beautiful and chaste address you
have delivered in the name of the Catholics of Balti
more, and I have to thank you also, honorable Mayor,
for your excellent remarks, which I appreciate more as
you stand before me as the highest representative of the
city, and speak for the entire community, without refer
ence to religion or nationality. I beg to assure you both,
and the citizens of Baltimore, that the beautiful senti
ments of kindness and fraternity you have so well ex
pressed are most heartily reciprocated on my part. . . .
Your kindness will bind me still more closely, if that
is possible, to my fellow citizens and this city where I
was born, where Providence has cast my lot, and where
I hope to die."
Now came a long procession of the kind characteristic
of America, where public parades are more common than
anywhere else in the world. It took the form of a popu
lar escort to the Cardinal, who proceeded to the archiepis-

388 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
copal residence surrounded by a guard of honor composed
of members of Catholic societies. As he passed through
the streets, bowing and smiling, the overflowing crowds
raised their hats in respectful salute.
Arriving home, the parade was dismissed and the
Cardinal entered the Cathedral, where the clergy had
prepared a greeting to testify their especial love for him
who was indeed their pastor in a personal as well as an
ecclesiastical sense. After prayer, Monsignor McColgan
made an address in behalf of the priests of the diocese,
which showed that they were inspired by their superior's
view of their proper service to their country as well as
to the cause of religion. The speaker said:
"You have exposed to the view of the European
nations the blessings which civil and religious liberty
bestow on the citizens of America, where the rights of
all are guaranteed, and where political and social honors
are open to all, where freedom reigns for all without
license, and authority is recognized and maintained with
out despotism. Your patriotic love for your native coun
try has obtained for you a national character. Your
memory, like that of the illustrious Carroll, first Arch
bishop of Baltimore, will be treasured and enshrined in
the hearts of your people."
The Cardinal reciprocated the warmth of these ex
pressions by replying in an address in which he said :
"While fully appreciating the courtesies which have
been paid me in foreign lands, I value, immeasurably
more than all, the words of greeting which have fallen
from your lips. For what would a father care for all the
honors that might be lavished upon him abroad, were

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 389
he not revered and loved by his own children and in his
own household?"
On the Sunday following, at the services in the,
Cathedral, the Cardinal spoke in detail of his European
trip.2 Fresh from contact with Leo XIII, he naturally
thought first of that Pontiff who had inspired and up
held him in the supreme trials through which he had
passed. He felt that he must tell of Leo's especial inter
est in the western democracy, once expressed in the words
"America — that is the future." The Cardinal said :
"Though he [the Pope] is deprived of his temporal
possessions, it can be safely said that today he exercises
more power over the civilized world than any king or
potentate ; and, although he has no military force to back
him, his words are more conducive to peace than the ac
tions of all the standing armies of Europe. In his case
it can be truly said that his voice is mightier than the
sword. "He enjoys the love of two hundred and fifty millions
of Catholics, scattered throughout the length and breadth
of the world ; and he has the respect and esteem of our
separated brethren, who have not failed to recognize his
many personal virtues, his benevolent character, and his
broad, statesmanlike views. He has a special regard for
this republic of ours and the citizens of the United States,
which was amply demonstrated during my sojourn in
Rome. At the time there was a large number of Ameri
cans in the city, all of whom very naturally wished to see
the Holy Father. I mentioned the fact to him at the first
opportunity, and in reply he said he would, indeed, be
much pleased to see them. When the visitors were after
ward presented, they were charmed by his presence and
'Catholic Mirror, June 18, 1887.

390 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
went away favorably impressed with all that he had said
and strengthened with God's benediction upon them.
"Another illustration of his love for Americans was
shown on Easter Tuesday, when all the Cardinals then
in Rome paid their respects to his Holiness. He took
that occasion to speak again of his great love for this
country." Seeing not the slightest conflict between allegiance to
Church and allegiance to country, the Cardinal alluded
to a sight which he had recently witnessed in the parade
held in his honor — the flags of the United States and of
the Papacy carried by marching Americans: "I always
wish to see those two flags lovingly entwined," he said,
"for no one can be faithful to God without being faithful
to his country. Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's and to God the things that are God's."
Such a discourse must necessarily include some refer
ence to the struggle for the rights of labor which had
caused so large a part of his solicitude and efforts in
Rome. Without hesitation he expressed his clear faith
that the American people would be equal to the responsi
bility thrust upon them by this problem, and added:
"Whatever may be the grievances of the laboring
classes here, I believe our men are better paid, better
clothed, better housed and have fairer prospects than
those of any other nation I have visited. ... As we all
have a share in the blessings of the republic, so should
we all take an active and loyal part in upholding the Com
monwealth, which gives liberty without license and wields
authority without despotism.
"The man who would endeavor to undermine the laws
and institutions of this country deserves the fate of those

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 391
who laid profane hands on the Ark of the Lord. There
are some misguided men in our country — thank God, they
are very few — who are appropriately called anarchists
and nihilists. They are so infatuated, not to say un
grateful to their country, that, like Samson, they would
fain pull down the constitutional temple which shelters
them, even though they should perish in the ruins. May
Almighty God, by whom rulers reign and lawgivers de
cree just things, preserve our country for the peace and
prosperity of our generation and for the happiness of
countless peoples yet unborn !"
The patriotic celebrations which are always numerous
in America had hitherto been seldom marked by the pres
ence of a Catholic prelate. There was a practise of be
ginning some of these observances with an invocation, but
up to that time Protestant ministers had been called upon
almost exclusively to perform that service. In many
cases there had been no disposition to show discourtesy
toward, or neglect of, the Catholic Church ; but there had
been a gulf of misunderstanding which had prevented
the invitations from being extended to any others than
non-Catholics. Now this gulf was becoming dry land, to be passed
over as the children of Israel passed over the rift in the
Red Sea. There was a Catholic prelate — and he occu
pied the highest position of his Church in America —
whom no one would suspect of unwillingness to discharge
any public or semi-public duty which he might be solicited
to perform.
Thus when preparations were being made to celebrate
in 1887 the centennial of the American Constitution, an
invitation was given to Cardinal Gibbons to offer the

392 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
closing prayer on September 17, the anniversary of the
signing. The invitation was extended by Hampton L.
Carson in behalf of those who organized the centennial
exercises. The Cardinal replied:
"Baltimore, August 23, 1887.
"H. L. Carson, Esq., Secretary,
"Philadelphia."Respected Dear Sir: —
"I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favor informing
me that I am invited to make the closing prayer on the
1 7th day of September next, and to invoke a benediction.
"I gratefully accept the invitation, and shall cheer
fully comply with the request of the committee by per
forming the sacred duty assigned to me.
"I heartily rejoice in common with my fellow citizens
in the forthcoming celebration. The Constitution of the
United States is worthy of being written in letters of
gold. It is a charter by which the liberties of sixty mil
lion people are secured, and by which under Providence
the temporal happiness of countless millions yet unborn
is to be perpetuated.
"lam, "Yours very sincerely in Christ,
"James Cardinal Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore."
There seemed always to be a prayer for his country in
Gibbons' heart struggling to find utterance. For this occa
sion he framed a petition of a kind which he often used at
future public ceremonies of national import and in which
the patriotic appeal far exceeded in fervor that which
was usually to be found in the rather formal prayers
which most clergymen offered at such times. It was
based upon one written by Archbishop Carroll, which

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 393
Gibbons had modified to suit the occasion and was as
follows :
"We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom and justice,
through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are
enacted and judgment decreed, to assist with Thy holy
spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these
United States, that his administration may be conducted
in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people
over whom he presides, by encouraging due respect for
virtue and religion, by a faithful execution of the laws
in justice and mercy, and by restraining vice and immo
rality. "Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the delib
erations of Congress and shine forth in all their proceed
ings and laws framed for our rule and government, so
that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the pro
motion of national happiness, the increase of industry,
sobriety and useful knowledge, and may perpetuate to us
the blessings of equal liberty.
"We pray Thee for all judges, magistrates and other
officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare,
that they may be enabled by Thy powerful protection to
discharge the duties of their respective stations with
honesty and ability.
"We pray Thee especially for the judges of our Su
preme Court, that they may interpret the laws with even-
handed justice. May they ever be the faithful guardians
of the temple of the constitution, whose construction and
solemn dedication to our country's liberties we commem
orate today. May they stand as watchful and incor
ruptible sentinels at the portals of this temple, shielding
it from profanation and hostile invasion.
"May this glorious charter of our civil rights be deeply
imprinted on the hearts and memories of our people.
May it foster in them a spirit of patriotism ; may it weld

394 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
together and assimilate in national brotherhood the
diverse races that come to seek a home amongst us. May
the reverence paid to it conduce to the promotion of social
stability and order, and may it hold the aegis of its pro
tection over us and generations yet unborn, so that the
temporal blessings which we enjoy may be perpetuated.
"Grant, O Lord, that our republic, unexampled in the
history of the world in material prosperity and growth of
population, may be also, under Thy over-ruling provi
dence, a model to all nations in upholding liberty with
out license, and in wielding authority without despotism.
"Finally, we recommend to Thy unbounded mercy all
our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout the United
States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and
sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law, that
they may be preserved in union and in that peace which
the world can not give, and after enjoying the blessings
of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
"Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy
name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth,
as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread, and
forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. Amen."
At the conclusion of the prayer the Cardinal invoked
a benediction in the following words:
"May the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, descend upon our beloved country and upon
all her people, and abide with them forever. Amen."
President Cleveland, his cabinet and a host of dis
tinguished men were present at the exercises. Many of
these the Cardinal knew personally, and others were eager
to meet the churchman who had done so much for his

A TRIUMPHAL RETURN HOME 395
country at home and abroad. His red robe, an unfamiliar
sight in America, invested his presence among the crowds
with a novel interest; and when they found that it cov
ered a man a§_typjcally American as any, alert, active,
patriotic to the core, sharing keenly their enthusiasm for
the institutions of the country, he became, next to the
President, the principal figure in the celebration.

CHAPTER XXIII
THE VISION OF THE WEST
Gibbons' imagination had been stirred by tales of the
West, which he had not been able to visit in his earlier
years. Indeed, the West was to most Americans in 1887
an unknown land, invested in their minds with a mysteri
ous and fanciful character. Railroads had only recently
begun to radiate widely from the main arteries that
linked the Atlantic and the Pacific, and. the stream of
settlers, long congested by the necessity of slow travel in
"prairie schooners," was now bursting like a flood through
a suddenly opened dam. Thousands of cowboys still
roamed on the cattle ranges. Many parts of the Rocky
Mountain region, and the States to the west of it, were so
remote from centers of civil government that the rude
judicial processes of the mining camp continued to be
practised there. But these conditions were not to prevail
long. Ambitious towns, and even cities, already stood
where but a few years before the howl of the coyote
had pierced an otherwise silent wilderness.
The material transformation of the West fascinated
Gibbons, but the mainspring of his interest was in carry
ing the Cross wherever the settler's pack mule penetrated.
He had become familiar with the former religious com
plexities which hindered the full progress of the Church
in that region, through the insistent demand of the
396

THE VISION OF THE WEST 397
Bishops that unified regulations adapted to their part of
the country should be framed by the Third Plenary
Council. Now that the Council had done its work, the
Church was able to expand with equal facility among the
settlers from the American East who were thronging to
the States of the West, among the peoples of Mexican
stock, still numerous in the lands inhabited by their an
cestors in the southwestern territories that had been in
corporated in the United States through the fortunes of
war; and among the Germans, Italians, Poles and Scan
dinavians who were pouring in large numbers into Ne
braska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas and
other States along the courses of the Mississippi and the
Missouri. The progress of Gibbons was a triumph, for Americans
are exceptionally quick to recognize a national champion
and to elevate him to the position of a popular hero.
Tidings of what he had done in Rome and since his return
seemed to have spread even to remote hamlets. A mighty
wave of appreciation swept over the Western land.
The opportunity which he had seized for his trip was
an invitation to confer the pallium at Portland, Oregon,
upon Archbishop Gross, his long-time friend, "born
nearly in the same street," as he said, and the brother of
that faithful priest, the Rev. Mark S. Gross, with whom
he had shared privations and labors in North Carolina.
Leaving Baltimore late in September, he went to Chicago,
where he was the guest of Archbishop Feehan; then to
Milwaukee, a center of German born Catholics, where he
was entertained by Archbishop Heiss.
The city of St. Paul, the seat of Archbishop Ireland,

398 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
his ardent champion and coworker in struggles both in
Rome and in this country, was in a bustle of preparations
to receive him. A public reception was given in his honor
there on September 20, and a banquet was held at which
the Archbishop spoke in eulogy of the distinguished guest.
The tone of all the speeches was one of acclamation of
the new Cardinal as an American citizen and as a prince
of the Church. Judge William L. Kelly, speaking for
the laity, dwelt upon the recent participation of Gibbons
in the Constitutional Centennial celebration, saying:
"But yesterday, at the invitation of your fellow-citi
zens, irrespective of religious faith or political association,
you, priest, Archbishop, Cardinal, raised your hand above
the assembled multitudes and, in the name of your sacred
office, invoked the blessing of Almighty God upon the
Constitution of these United States. In that particular,
illustrious sir, your voice, it seems to me, was not merely
that of the priest, but of the prophet of God as well. . . .
The old lines that have long kept us apart from our
brethren without the fold are, thank God, well nigh
obliterated here. On all great questions, social and politi
cal, we stand in St. Paul side by side. We are staunch
in our religious faith, and they in theirs, and the honesty
of neither is questioned; and no one has done more to
bring about that cordial catholic condition of things than
the man who sits at your side. To name him is to do him
honor — John Ireland."
The Cardinal aroused the crowd by one of those happy
sentences which he knew well when and how to use. He
exclaimed :
"You were pleased to mention my pride in being an
American citizen. It is the proudest earthly title I pos
sess."

THE VISION OF THE WEST 399
He could not forbear to refer to the gifted and coura
geous comrade who had stood with him in the supreme
stress of some of the principal battles which he had
fought — battles in which the material welfare of men
was sought as well as their spiritual welfare. Of Arch
bishop Ireland he said:
"For many years, I have been closely watching Arch
bishop Ireland's career. It was my pleasure to be asso
ciated with him at the last Plenary Council of Baltimore.
For three weeks I studied him, and the more I studied
him, the more I admired and loved him. Archbishop
Ireland came to you as a Providential messenger sent to
you by Almighty God. He has done untold good through
the temporal blessings which he has helped to bestow
upon society."
In the same address he spoke publicly for the first
time of a movement then much agitated to incorporate
the name of God in the national Constitution. Many
clergymen had joined in this agitation. Gibbons said:
"For my part I have not desired to see that venerable
name used in this respect, so long as it remains inscribed
on the tablets of the hearts of the people and the rulers
of the nation. I would rather speak with the living cap
tain than with the figure on the prow of the ship."
Proceeding to Montana, then but scantily peopled, he
was the guest of Bishop Brondel at Helena, which greeted
him with a popular outpouring. By this time he had
caught some of the buoyancy of the western spirit and in
responding to the welcome he predicted that marked ma
terial development would come to that State. Again he
emphasized his sense of honor in being an American, say-

400 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ing that it was as great a title as the citizenship of which
the ancient Romans were accustomed to boast. His
travels abroad, he said, had enhanced his love for his own
country, and he felt a faith in its destiny which had
upheld him in the trials through which he had passed.
Reaching Portland early the next month, he officiated 1
at the investiture of Archbishop Gross, which was at
tended by all the prelates of the Northwest, who felt a
special compliment to their part of the country in the
presence of the Cardinal. The citizens of Portland gave
him a public reception the next day at which H. E.
McGlynn, in an address, took occasion to recall his vic
tory for labor, saying:
"As long as men are compelled to labor; as long as they
feel called upon to unite for their own protection; as
long as the Divine mandate remains true, 'in the sweat
of thy face shall thou eat bread,' so long shall the name
of Cardinal Gibbons be venerated among men."
The earnestness of the speaker reflected the acuteness
of the labor question at that time on the Pacific coast,
where, in new soil, the seed of agitation took root more
deeply and more quickly than in the cities and towns
along the Atlantic seaboard. There had been some vio
lence, and there was danger of more violence in the
movement there. The Cardinal seized the opportunity
in his response to plead for peaceful adjustments between
capital and labor.
One of the compliments which touched him most in the
course of his trip was paid to him at Fort Vancouver,
where General John Gibbon, the commander, enter-
1 On Sunday, October 9.

THE VISION OF THE WEST 401
tained him. When he arrived there by boat, Lieutenant
Anderson, who commanded a squad of soldiers sent by
the commander to meet him, said:
"Your Eminence, it was customary in ancient times
when a prince of the realm traveled for the governors of
cities to release some prisoners in honor of his visit. As
you are a Prince of the Church, I intend to release some
men confined here."
He then summoned six private soldiers from the prison
in the fort, and said to them:
"Soldiers, consider yourselves free in honor of Cardinal
Gibbons." The circumstance that his visit was an instrument of
mercy to these men pleased Gibbons far more than the
official honors which were extended to him.
Everywhere he was received as an eminent citizen, no
less than as a leader of the Church. One welcoming
speech after another rang in his ears, and no man was
readier than he to respond in the vein which was habitual
to him on such occasions. In San Francisco Archbishop
Riordan was particularly cordial and entertained him
most hospitably for several days. Los Angeles, where
the Catholic population was also large, swelled with the
importance of the occasion, and Lieutenant-Governor
Stephen M. White, afterward United States Senator,
made an address to him there in behalf of the people.
Returning by way of New Orleans, that city, where
he had spent part of his youth and where his family still
resided, hailed him as its own. In behalf of the Catholics
there, a gold chain and ring and a diamond cross. were
presented to him at a public reception. An address of

402 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
welcome was made by Edward Douglas White, afterward
Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
The Cardinal returned from his transcontinental tour
with new vigor and inspiration. He had absorbed deep
and lasting impressions. They supplemented an ideal
which he had formed in his study of American history,
which had become and remained throughout his life one
of the favored and fascinating subjects of his extensive
reading. With a glow of hope, before he had seen the
West for himself, he had traced in the pages of books
the adventures of the Catholic missionaries who had pene
trated that region centuries in advance of the tide of set
tlers, and carried the Cross along great and unknown
rivers and across steep and pathless mountains. Was
not the Catholic Church at home in a country watered
by the Mississippi, which De Soto had discovered and
named in honor of the Holy Ghost ; which Marquette and
Joliet, trusting themselves to an Indian canoe, had ex
plored for thousands of miles and dedicated to the Im
maculate Conception; which Hennepin had ascended to
the falls which he had named in honor of St. Anthony
of Padua? Was she not at home in the new States
erected from the immense region which Coronado had
penetrated with his adventurous Spaniards, carrying the
Cross and celebrating the Mass on prairie and desert and
by the sides of rivers which flowed into the still greater
"Father of Waters?"
Many of these pioneers had given up their lives
that Christianity might illumine the dark vastness
of the Western World. Might not their example of
lofty sacrifice now inspire the Catholics of a later cen-

THE VISION OF THE WEST 403
tury to follow with eagerness where the way had been
shown? The same Church which had gone in advance of
the settlers of the West must now advance again as they
advanced. This was the hope that had sprung to life in Gibbons
before he had started toward the Pacific; it had taken on
new strength and fervor as he progressed through the
stern climate of the Northwest and backward through
the hot breezes of the States near the Mexican border.
He knew that some day thousands of men would dwell
where one then cultivated a township farm or ranged his
cattle over half a county. Cities would grow where
hamlets had stood; and men with a mission to the whole
nation would arise from among the sons of these pioneers,
who as yet toiled only at the foundations of a new devel
opment of life which the imagination could not fore
cast. Gibbons had observed that in the whole region
won from Mexico the Catholic Church retained the strong
affections of the people. Germans, Irishmen, Italians,
Poles and peoples of other European countries who had
been children of the Church in the lands of their birth
were helping to make the prairies bloom with their in-.
dustry, and mine and factory rang with the sound of their
labor. One of the most profound impressions which he re
ceived on the trip was that the Church must try to train
these diverse national elements that were taking new root
on western soil to build truly American homes which
would replace those they had left in Europe. Within
these homes, he wished the people to have the Constitu
tion of the country in which, whatever their origin, they

404 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
had now cast their lot. He wished them to be, as soon as
possible, homogeneous with their brothers in the forests
of Maine and the cotton fields of Louisiana. If America
were to integrate instead of disintegrate, the men and
women of the new West, in his view, must be one — not
one in individuality, but in those elementary traits of
citizenship which he associated with the American char
acter and the American nation. They must share a com
mon respect with all Americans for the rights of others,
a common submission to the political judgment of the
majority after free and fair elections in which every man
might exercise the right of franchise, a common faith in
the perpetuity of their institutions, in the liberty which
gave every man a chance, a common aspiration for a
greater America that would be an example and a blessing
to the remainder of the world.
He did not close his eyes to the danger, of which there
was no lack of ominous indication, that antagonisms born
of national differences in the countries from which they
had sprung, and of political ideals germinating from
seeds planted abroad, might prevent the consummation
of a unified political destiny for them in their new sur
roundings. He was resolved that, as far as in him lay,
this should not be; and faith in his country upheld him
in the belief that it would not be.
It was not his way to observe a condition like this and
merely deplore the danger of it. Neither did he lull his
own apprehensions with the view that the assimilation of
the foreign elements in America was the work of the
political authorities alone. It seemed to him that it was
also the work of the Church, the shepherd of the largest

THE VISION OF THE WEST 405
group of them, to make them as soon as possible Ameri
cans. He felt that she must cooperate powerfully in
bringing the foreigners who were peopling America in
intimate touch with their new environment as rapidly as
possible; that they must be made to feel that their chll-
dren would look to the men of '76 as the fathers of the
political system under which they lived, a system of free
commonwealths retaining local selfi-government jin a:
large sense, and yet, despite this lack of cohesion in some
things, bound by a unity of national purpose as strong as
in the closely-knit empires that then dominated middle
and eastern Europe.
Gibbons felt that these people were different from
other Americans only in degree, for all who lived here,
except the Indians, were foreigners by descent. They
must not be allowed to believe that the flood tide of di
verse immigration could shake the fabric founded by the
fathers and cemented during generation after generation
by American patriots and statesmen. The Catholic
Church, which had been the spiritual guide of most of
these newcomers, in which they had been baptized and
taught — this Church could perform a great service to the
nation by leading them forward to that community of
language, social custom and political hopes which were
essential to their own welfare, no less than to the welfare
of the other millions who dwelt under the protection of
the same flag.
The contrast had impressed Gibbons in the West be
tween the lavish opportunities offered to the newcomers
for their material prosperity and the cramped economic
conditions of Europe, with which his travels had made

406 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
him familiar; he felt that gratitude for the benefits found
here should be one of the powerful motives in turning
immigrants to complete identification with the land of
their destiny. The thought that some of these men should
take advantage of their presence here to sow discontent
and attempt to decry the institutions into whose shelter
ing arms they had fled was abhorrent to him.
This feeling found expression in an address which he
made a few months after his return from the West 2 at
a convention held at Hot Springs, North Carolina, in the
interest of immigration to the South. Among those who
took prominent parts in that convention were governors
of some of the Southern States, railroad presidents, and
other leading citizens with whom the Cardinal made com
mon cause in their efforts to divert part of the stream of
immigrants to the rich opportunities in the South, which
needed their labor in its struggle upward from the rav
ages of war. In an address at the convention, he said : ¦
"I have lately traveled extensively in various countries'
of the Old World, and very recently in the vast regions
of the North and West of our own country. I have trav
eled in both hemispheres with both eyes wide open, and
as a result of my observations, I have no hesitation in
saying that these United States offer to the industrious
immigrants such advantages as working people cannot
possibly have in the old countries. There are in Europe
vast standing armies, which are a very serious drain on
the moral, material and industrial resources of the coun
tries. On the other hand, in our favored land we have
only a small standing army scattered over parts of the
border. 'April 25, 1888.

THE VISION OF THE WEST 407
"We have no conflicts. We are at peace among our
selves and with all the world. This healthful condition
is not due entirely to the fruitfulness of the soil, but
mainly to the thrift, economy and indomitable energy of
the American people. In the objects of this assembly
you have my heartiest concurrence and my very best
wishes for a full measure of success."

CHAPTER XXIV
REIATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CIEVELAND
For Leo XIII, the friend of America and of America's
Cardinal, the year 1887 was marked by the close of half
a century's labor in the priesthood. None knew so well
as Gibbons what he had done for America; none knew
better what he had done for humanity. The rulers of
European nations, and even the Sultan, were sending to
Rome gifts expressive of their felicitations, not only to
the earthly head of a Church adhered to by 250,000,000
people, but to the man who had been the balance-wheel
of Europe. The desire was strong in Gibbons that
America should not be wanting in recognition of the
anniversary, and Leo had intimated to him that an ex
pression from this country would be welcomed.
One day after his return from his western tour he was
considering how to bring this matter to the attention of
President Cleveland, when his difficulty was happily
solved by the arrival of the following letter in the hand
writing of the President :
"Executive Mansion,
"Washington, November 17, 1887.
His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons:
"My dear Sir — I have thought that you would send to
the Pope your congratulations on the occasion of the
approaching jubilee. 408

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 409
"Remembering with much gratitude and satisfaction
the kind words you brought from the Holy Father upon
your recent return from Rome, I should be very much
pleased if you could, without impropriety on your part,
convey to him my congratulations and felicitations.
"Hoping that you are quite well after your extended
travel, I am "Yours very sincerely, "Grover Cleveland."
The Cardinal who, in the meantime had become a
rather frequent visitor to the White House, responded
promptly by calling upon Mr. Cleveland and thanking
him for the letter. He expressed at the same time his
hope that the President would not be content with a
formal communication, but would send some memento
to the Pontiff indicative of his sentiments. As the cen
tennial of the Constitution had just been commemorated,
he suggested that a copy of the Constitution would be
one of the most appropriate of gifts.
"None can question the fitness of such a present,"
remarked the Cardinal, "for the dissemination of the
principles of our government abroad would be above
criticism." Mr. Cleveland accepted the Cardinal's plan as a happyj
one. The Cardinal said that he would have a copy of the
Constitution bound suitably for the presentation, if the
President would furnish the unbound copy. Mr. Cleve
land would not assent to this, but said with emphasis :
"I shall insist upon having a copy bound in a costly
and beautiful manner, if you will tell me how to do it."
The Cardinal suggested white silk or satin as an ap-

410 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
propriate binding. Mr. Cleveland then inquired as to
the manner of presentation, and the Cardinal suggested
this inscription for the book:
"Presented through Cardinal Gibbons to the Holy
Father, Pope Leo XIII, on the occasion of the golden
jubilee of his Holiness, with the profound regard of
Grover Cleveland, President of the United States."
Mr. Cleveland inquired how much time was left in
which to have the book prepared, and was told that it
would be well to have it ready in about ten days. On
the tenth day afterward there arrived by express at the
archiepiscopal residence in Baltimore a superbly prepared
volume of the Constitution printed in Old English charac
ters on vellum, bound in white and red, and bearing the
presentation inscription from the President to the Pope.
Colonel John T. Morris, of Baltimore, was selected to
carry it to Rome for presentation at the jubilee festivities.
The presentation took place in the throne room of the
Vatican, and was marked by an exchange of cordial sen-j
timents. Archbishop Ryan made an address, and Mgr.
O'Connell read a letter to the Pope from Gibbons con
veying the President's felicitations. Replying, Leo ex
pressed his delight at the gift and added, addressing
Ryan: "As an Archbishop you enjoy in America perfect free
dom. That freedom, we admit, is highly beneficial to
the spread of religion. . . . Toward America I bear a
special love. . . . Your government is free, your future
full of hope. Your President commands my highest ad
miration."

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 411
Leo exhibited the gift in his private apartment, with
the presentation page open that visitors might see. Gib
bons notified the President of the presentation in the fol
lowing letter: "Cardinal's Residence,
"408 N. Charles St.,
"Personal. "Baltimore, January 21, 1888.
"My Dear Mr. President:
"About an hour after mailing my letter to you to-day,
I received a cablegram from Rome informing me that
your valued gift, the copy of the Constitution, was pre
sented with due solemnity to the Holy Father, by a
special committee charged with that pleasing and honor
able duty, and that the Pope received it with marked ex
pressions of satisfaction and gratitude.
"I am very sorry for your sake that the gift has
aroused the bigotry of a few individuals. But for one
expression of dissent it will evoke fifty expressions of
adhesion, and while the bigotry of the few will pass
away, the admiration of the many will be lasting.
"With much esteem,
"Yours sincerely in Christ,
"James Card. Gibbons."
The journal of Gibbons contains this entry of a fur
ther development :
"April 9 [1888]. I called on the President to
show him the letter from the Holy Father acknowledging
the receipt of the President's gift of the copy of the Con
stitution. . . . The President, after hearing the transla
tion of the letter read, was so much pleased with it that
he asked me to give him the original, a favor which I
readily granted."

412 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The letter of the Pope which Mr. Cleveland retained
was addressed to Cardinal Gibbons and charged him with
the duty of conveying his warm thanks to the President.
Leo wrote :
"In fulfilling this duty, we desire that you should
assure the President of our admiration of the Constitu
tion of the United States, not only because it enables in
dustrious and enterprising citizens to attain so high a
degree of prosperity, but also because under its protec
tion your Catholic countrymen have enjoyed a liberty
which has so confessedly promoted the astonishing
growth of their religion in the past and will, we trust,
enable it in the future to be of the highest advantage to
the civil order as well." x
With a deep sense of thankfulness, the Cardinal pre
pared for the celebration of the Papal jubilee January l,
1888, in all the churches of his diocese. His sermon on
that occasion flowed from the depths of his heart. Pic
turing Leo to the great congregation, he pictured also
the standard which he had set for himself. He said:
"Leo XIII is to-day, perhaps, the most popular man in
Europe, if not the world, and this is the secret of his
popularity: He understands the times in which we live;
he appreciates the fact that we are living in the nineteenth
century, and not in the ninth; he understands the wants
of the people, and sympathizes with their legitimate as
pirations, while at the same time he is always the pro
moter and vindicator of law and order and legitimate
government everywhere. He has found the key to the
hearts of the people, and has entered there. Let us hope
and pray that this great luminary, whom the Lord has
1 A copy of the letter is in the Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 413
set over His Church, may long linger above the horizon
to enlighten us by his wisdom and to cheer us by his ex
ample ; and when his course is run and his light on earth
is extinguished, may he shine for all eternity in the
kingdom of our common Father, the source of all light
and the author of all justice.
"The present illustrious Pontiff is a worthy successor
of the Gregories, the Innocents, the Piuses, and of the
long line of Leos that have preceded him. For ten years
he has occupied the chair of Peter, a spectacle to the
world, to angels and to men; and during all that time he
has excited the admiration of the civilized world by his
luminous intellect, his broad statesmanship, his strong
judgment, his keen appreciation of things; by his con
ciliatory disposition, his personal integrity and purity
of life, and by his great benevolence of character."
A warm defender at all times of the mission of the
Papacy to men in the things of material life, as well as in
spiritual things, Gibbons spoke of it as a great conserva
tive force which at turning points in the world's history
had guided events in the direction of civilization. He
proceeded: "But has not the Papacy much to fear from the prog
ress of liberty? Give us liberty, this is all we ask — a fair
field and no favor. The Church is always hampered in
her operations wherever despotism casts its dark shadow.
She always blooms and expands in the genial air of lib
erty. Amid the changes in human institutions the Papacy
is one institution that never changes. It has seen the
birth of every existing government in Europe, and it is
not improbable that it may witness the death of some
of them and chant their requiem. It was fourteen hun
dred years old when Columbus discovered America, and

414 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
our own Government is but of yesterday as compared
with it.
"What means can be employed to overthrow an insti
tution which for nineteen centuries has successfully over
come every opposition waged against it? Is it by the
power of kings and emperors and prime ministers that
the Papacy can be destroyed? They have tried, and
tried in vain, from the days of the Roman Caesars to our
own times. Many persons labor under the false impres
sion that in former times the Church was leagued with
the princes of this world for the purpose of overthrowing
the liberties of the people; that the altars were sustained
by the thrones, and that they would crumble if this pro
tection were withdrawn.
"But can the Church cope with modern inventions and
the great discoveries of the nineteenth century? Rest
assured the Church will not hide her head, like the ostrich
in the sand, at the approach of these modern inventions
and discoveries. For, if Christianity was propagated to
the uttermost bounds of the earth at a time when we had
no other ships but frail canoes, no other compass but the
naked eye, no other roads but eternal snows and virgin
forests and desert wastes, how much more now can we
effect by means of railroads and steamships?
"Yes, we bless you, O men of genius. We bless your
inventions and discoveries, and will press you into the
service of the Gospel, and we will say : 'Lightning and
clouds, bless the Lord; fire and heat, bless the Lord; all
ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise and exalt
Him above all forever.'
"But may not the light of Christianity grow pale and
be utterly extinguished before the intellectual blaze of
the nineteenth century? Have we not much to fear from
the arts and sciences and literature? We have nothing
to fear, but everything to gain, from intellectual devel
opment. The Church has always been the patroness of

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 415
literature and the fostering mother of arts and sci
ences. "At no period of the history of Christianity did the
Popes wield a greater power than from the twelfth to the
sixteenth century. They exercised not only spiritual
power, but also temporal jurisdiction, and had great in
fluence with the civil rulers of those days. Now, at no
period did the human intellect revel in greater freedom in
the pursuit of speculative knowledge of every kind than
in those days. It was emphatically the age of universi
ties. Forty-one universities sprang up during those four
centuries — in France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Italy,
Spain, England and Scotland."
Cleveland was one of the two Presidents with whom
Gibbons formed his strongest ties while they were in
office; the other was Roosevelt. He always appeared
to be drawn to men such as they, whose predominant poli
cies of action, as distinguished from policies of words,
accorded with his own methods. His friendship for
Cleveland and Roosevelt, and indeed for several other
Presidents, continued long after their retirement from
office. He had first met Mr. Cleveland a few days after the
latter's inauguration in 1885, visiting him at the White
House to pay his respects, and remaining half an hour.
The President was charmed with him from the beginning
and urged him to renew his visits from time to time.
Cleveland was a Presbyterian, but, like Gibbons, was
singularly free from prejudice regarding religion. On
not a few occasions he leaned upon Gibbons' advice at
critical periods of his career. Once when the Cardinal
visited him in 1887, he remarked:

416 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Would you care to have me read you my forthcom
ing message on the tariff?"
"I shall be much honored," was the reply.
The President then submitted to the judgment of his
ecclesiastical friend, word by word, the famous message
to Congress which cost him reelection in 1888, but
brought about his overwhelming victory four years later.
Gibbons, in giving the opinion which Cleveland re
quested, commended the frankness and statesmanlike
character of the message, but did not hesitate to forecast
the political complications which would ensue and which
soon burst with a force of public reaction which sent Mr.
Cleveland into retirement from political life for four
years. Gibbons' warm interest in the welfare of the Indians
was shared by Cleveland, and they were in mutual touch
as to the methods of administering the Indian Bureau at
Washington. There was much complaint against the
federal agents who were then, to a large extent, inter
mediaries between the government and the Indians in
their homes and schools. On one occasion the Cardinal
wrote : "Baltimore, December 6, 1887.
"To the President:
"My dear Sir :
"I take the liberty of enclosing a letter received this
morning from Archbishop Gross, of Oregon, in reference
to his Indian grievance. I think the Archbishop and the
Indians will be reasonably satisfied if:
"First: The present agent be transferred from Cof
fey elsewhere, and another substituted in his place. The
new agent could be selected from those names recom-

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 417
mended by the Archbishop, or some other might be ap
pointed in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.
"Second: It would be a great consolation to the poor
Indians if the Sisters were restored as teachers.
"I also avail myself of this occasion by enclosing a
letter from Bishop Wadhams, of Ogdensburg, who recom
mends Rev. J. G. Normandeau for the post of army
chaplain. "I am the more emboldened in presenting these re
quests, as your excellency kindly introduced these sub
jects in our late conversation.
"I am, with great respect, your humble servant in
"James Cardinal Gibbons."
Cleveland refused to appoint any Catholic chaplain to
the army without the recommendation of Gibbons. On
one occasion great pressure was brought to bear on him
to appoint a certain priest who did not enjoy the Car
dinal's confidence. Gibbons was frequently importuned
to recommend the priest, but firmly declined to do so.
Resort was then had to threats, and it was intimated that
if Cleveland and Gibbons did not recede from their atti
tude they would be pictured in the pages of Puck. This
showed a serious mis judgment of the characters of these
two men for, among the other traits which they possessed
in common, both were so constituted that threats would
only make them more fixed in any position which they
assumed on a question of right and wrong. The clergy
man was not appointed.
Mr. Cleveland often referred to his friend as one
of the most sterling types of the American citizen. Upon
meeting persons from Baltimore,' he not infrequently
said:

418 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"From Baltimore? Oh, that is Cardinal Gibbons'
city! There are some men in Baltimore whom I par
ticularly admire, and none more than the Cardinal."
Mr. Cleveland sent to the Cardinal a copy of his last
message to Congress delivered in his first term as Presi
dent. In acknowledging the receipt of it, the Cardinal
wrote : "Baltimore, December 15, 1888.
"My dear Mr. President :
"I beg to thank you for your admirable message, which
you kindly sent me.
"I profit by this occasion to offer you my heartfelt
thanks for the many courtesies you have extended to me
during your administration, now drawing to a close.
"Rest assured that in returning to private life you will
bear with you undiminished the high esteem and regard
I entertained for you in your public career.
"Wishing you every blessing from Divine Providence,
"I am "Yours faithfully in Christ,
"James Cardinal Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore."
Gibbons was fond of saying that one of the best evi
dences which he found of the stability of American insti
tutions was the acquiescence of all in the verdicts of
presidential elections. In November, 1888, he issued a
Thanksgiving circular in which he drew this lesson from
the election held a few weeks before, at which General
Harrison had been chosen to succeed Mr. Cleveland :
"In other lands the times for choosing the rulers of
the nation are often occasions of political convulsion, of
the interruption of all peaceful pursuits, and sometimes

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 419
even of strife and bloodshed. The recent contest be
tween 10,000,000 voters of this Republic, representing.
60,000,000 people, has been settled peaceably and con
stitutionally, without the loss of a single life or even any
interruption of men's ordinary avocations."2
At the one hundredth anniversary of the first Presi
dent's inauguration, April 30, 1889, he issued a pastoral
letter directing the ringing of all church bells for half
an hour, and a special service in every Catholic house of
worship in the diocese of Baltimore. In this letter he
expressed, "profound satisfaction that the citizens of the
United States, without regard to race or creed or previ
ous allegiance to any flag whatsoever" were recognizing
the life and achievements of Washington, "a gift of
Almighty God to his own age and an exemplar to all the
ages to be." The Cardinal was present at the Mass cele
brated in the Baltimore Cathedral in honor of the anni
versary. In and out of the pulpit he was fond of quoting les
sons from the life of Washington. Perhaps next to
Washington, his favorite character in American history
was Franklin, of whose services in the formative period
of the Republic he had a vivid appreciation. He was
always ready to defend his belief that Americans were a
religious people, and one of the instances which he cited
most frequently to prove his point was the counsel of
Franklin to his colleagues in the constitutional conven
tion of 1787, when they seemed to have reached an im
passe in their deliberations, to seek "light from the Father
of Light to illumine our understanding."
2 Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.

420 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
In the early years of Gibbons' Cardinalate, as well as
at rather frequent intervals afterward, the question of
the reunion of Christendom was much discussed in Prot
estant circles. The Rev. Dr. H. K. Carroll, religious
editor of the Independent, a New York weekly, sought
the views of Gibbons on this subject, and he replied in a
vein in which he subsequently answered other inquiries
of the same nature. The letter was :
"Baltimore, October l, 1886.
"Rev. H. K. Carroll,
"The Independent,
"New York.
"Rev. and Dear Sir:
"I have received your letter of the 29th ult., in which
you ask my views as a Catholic upon the movement now
going on in the Anglican Church, having for its object the
'Reunion of Christendom.' . . . Allow me to say that
I cannot conceive any practical plan for the ecclesiastical
union of all who bear the Christian name which does not
recognize :
"1. Some authority living and acting that can defi
nitely say what is or what is not Divine truth, since upon
its revelation the Church must be grounded.
"2. The obligation, strict and essential, of receiving
in its entirety Christian revelation, since Christ's work in
giving a revelation would be, to say the least, useless if
each individual were left free to accept or reject that
revelation or any part of it, as his whim might dictate.
"3. That since Christ left a revelation He must have
left some authorized interpreter of it, otherwise it would
be as a puzzle given to unaided ignorance. . . .
"4. That since the mission of Christ's Church is to
teach all nations, to observe all things whatsoever He
has commanded, there must be some teacher teaching in

RELATIONS WITH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND 421
Christ's name and 'as one having authority' to guide the
people unerringly in the way of truth. In the Roman
Catholic Church of the sixteenth century, when Luther
went out from her, these great requisites of Christian unity
were found, and they are found as well in the Catholic
Church to-day; elsewhere I fail to find them.
"In separation from the See of St. Peter, the center
of Catholic unity, I can see only discord. In all this
broad land there is no one who longs for Christian unity
more than I do, and no one who would labor more ear
nestly to bring it about. . . .
"I remain, "Most sincerely yours in Christ,
"James Card. Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore."

CHAPTER XXV
A CENTURY OF CATHOIIC ADVANCE
Gibbons had received the red hat as the first century
of the Hierarchy's existence in America was drawing to a
close. John Carroll, standing shoulder to shoulder with
Washington, had begun that first century by organizing
the Church in harmony with the political institutions of
the Republic, newly born from a union of sparsely popu
lated colonies fringing the Atlantic seaboard. Gibbons
began the second century by giving reality in a nation
then nearing a population of 100,000,000 to the wise
plans which Carroll had formed. Carroll set the task;
Gibbons accomplished it.
While Carroll had sought to have the Church recog
nized as a pillar of the Republic, distrust of her attitude
toward the State remained. He had sought to have her
spiritual aims understood by the mass of his fellow-coun
trymen, but they continued to be misunderstood. He
had sought to have the freedom of religion, guaranteed
by the Constitution, reflected in complete and equal toler
ance by men of all creeds, but intolerance clung on like
a parasite to a vigorous tree, for the English colonies
parted from king and parliament far more readily than
from their immemorial prejudices. His was a voice in a
wilderness, and the wilderness responded but faintly.
The Church continued for a long time to be a feeble
body here, almost submerged by the overwhelmingly
422

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 423
greater numbers of the non-Catholic population. She
struggled patiently, preserving the inspiration from the
example of Carroll, and gathered strength, but gathered
it slowly at first.
And then came Gibbons. His personality dominated
the beginning of the second century of the Hierarchy's
life as Carroll's had dominated the beginning of the first.
Where Carroll's efforts had failed of the larger fruition,
Gibbons' work succeeded even beyond hopes. The vis
ions of long years, cherished amid the gloom of misun
derstanding, were turned into reality at last. Intolerance,
stricken by the new David, almost perished utterly.
Now the Church was not only a prop of the nation as
before, but Gibbons made the evidence of this so clear
that men without distinction of creed suddenly hailed
recognition of it as if it had been a recent discovery.
Alarmists who had been crying that insidious plots for
foreign domination through ecclesiastical artifice were
being woven subsided into silence as the figure of Gib
bons loomed.
Where the Church had increased by hundreds, she now
grew by millions. The great obstacle to her progress in
America — the obstacle of popular hostility — had been
thrust aside under the brilliant leadership of the new
Cardinal. There had been deep-seated prejudice against
Catholics holding public office. Now they filled many
of the most highly placed offices in the nation, the states,
the cities. The religious freedom established by law was
no longer negatived in part by mass prejudice. The
pathway of Catholic progress was illuminated by joy,
hope and confidence.

424 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Church in America was showing in abundance the
signs of healthy growth. New questions were constantly
coming up and were debated with vigor and spirit by
the strong men who composed her Hierarchy. She was
the antithesis of a stagnant church. The calm of medioc
rity was not upon her. The misconception that she
stifles discussion and enforces an arbitrary regime took
refuge in the shadows. Gibbons wished vitality in deed
and thought and brought it out. Men of strong con
victions received marks of his favor. But when the
voice of final judgment, framed in the detached and
judicial atmosphere of the Curia, went out from Rome,
it was heeded nowhere else with greater readiness than
in the United States.
On this subject he wrote:
"Religious discussions are not an evil in themselves.
On the contrary, they are an evidence of a healthy men
tal activity, a proof of zeal for the cause of truth. But
in order that they may be useful and edifying, the parties
engaged in them should be actuated solely by a love for
truth. They should present their views with calmness
and moderation; they should adhere with conscientious
fidelity to the question under consideration, without en
cumbering it with side issues or irrelevant matter; they
should invariably treat their opponents with courtesy and
benevolence, never ascribing base or sinister motives; and
they should abandon the controversy if they discover that
charity is likely to be offended by it." x
In the same connection he quoted with approval the
following views of Cardinal Newman:
1 The Ambassador of Christ, p. 112.

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 425
"Differences always have been, always will be in the
Church, and Christians would have ceased to have spir
itual and intellectual life if such differences did not exist.
It is part of their militant state. No human power can
hinder it; nor, if it attempted it, could do more than
make a solitude and call it peace. And thus thinking that
man cannot hinder it, however much he try, I have no
great anxiety or trouble. Man cannot, and God will
not. He means such differences to be an exercise of char
ity. Of course I wish as much as possible to agree with
all my friends; but if, in spite of my utmost efforts, they
go beyond me or come short of me, I can't help it and
take it easy." 2
As marking the close of the Hierarchy's first century
in 1889, Gibbons might have been content with a service
in Baltimore to which dignity would have been lent
by the presence of the Bishops of the mother province
and a few prelates from other Sees; but his eyes were
on the future more than the past, and he seized the
opportunity to organize a national celebration of the most
imposing proportions which it was possible for the Church
to display. He conceived the design of passing her in
review before the eyes of the American people, so that
they might see what she had been, what she was and what
she wished to be ; that they might scan her in every aspect
when there would be a full and conspicuous opportunity
to do so. Thus, at one stroke, he might be able to pro
duce the effect of years of striving. He wished to keep
the Church out of seclusion; to bring her before the pub
lic so that there could be no mystery or doubt, real or
imaginary, about her purposes or methods. Misunder-
* Letter to W. G. Ward.

426 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
standing was the foe which he fought with the restless
ardor of a crusader of old.
America had been passing through more than a decade
of centennial celebrations marking her progress as a na-,
tion since the troubled beginnings in 1775 and 1776.,
The people had welcomed each new one as eagerly as if
it had been the first. Gibbons, in his preparations, fol
lowed the customary methods which had appealed so
powerfully to his fellow-countrymen. His executive
capacity was shown in the organization of church and
civic demonstrations which were to last nearly a week,
and were to be in a form which would be certain to draw
the interest of the nation as nothing bearing the name
Catholic had ever drawn it before.
Sensing the temperament of Americans as few men
were able to do, he knew the deep-seated nature of their
general view of the importance of participation by lay
men in the work of churches; and he organized a congress
of the laity as the main event of the week following the
ecclesiastical commemoration at the opening. He had
been looking forward to the dedication of the School of
Sacred Sciences at the Catholic University of America,
the first of the group of buildings for that institution
erected upon the spacious site obtained for it in what was
then an outlying district of Washington. Linking in his
mind the physical foundation of the university with the
centenary, he formed the design of timing the dedica
tion so that it would be one of the principal events of
the general celebration.
In his view, nothing could be more appropriate than
the putting forward at that time of a great Catholic edu-

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 427
cational project in a country which stood as the pioneer
and foremost representative of the principle of widely dif
fused intelligence. It gave him particular satisfaction
that the center of Catholic education in America should
be planted at the center of government, a truly national
institution, working independently of the forces of civil
rule, but strengthening them by diffusing the light which
qualifies free men for the duties of citizenship.
Mindful always of seeking advice, of "having his ear
to the ground," as Americans say, he consulted leaders
of the Hierarchy and of the clergy and laity regarding
the plans that took shape in his mind. From these con
sultations he acquired valuable suggestions which he in
corporated among the details of his project. Having
completed his outline, he proceeded without delay to put
it in execution.
As is the American way in arranging for public cele
brations, an imposing group of committees was soon
working in preparation for the celebration. Each had
its especial field, and the fountain head of inspiration for
all was Gibbons, assisted by the exceptionally competent,
staff which he had then been able to assemble in his own
household. He was entitled to a high place among those
whom Americans later called "efficiency experts." The
faculty of directing and inspiring others to accomplish
big results by organization was personified by him,
though he was averse to working by means of ponderous
and showy processes. He sought results and adapted his
methods to the men with whom he worked. His little
study became for a time like the office of the executive
of a great industrial corporation.

428 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The American press, keen interpreter of the popular
mind, developed a degree of interest which it had shown
in no Catholic event before. Special correspondents were
sent to Baltimore, and the columns of leading journals,,
most of which were controlled by non-Catholics, were
soon spreading the details of the centenary and what it
meant before millions of readers. A degree of intimacy
was established between the Church and the people, in a
broad sense, which had been unknown.
The forces set in motion by Gibbons now seemed to
sweep over the land as in waves. For the first time, non-
Catholic Americans began to realize that John Carroll
was something more than a pious priest whose activities
centered in beads and breviary. Gibbons was interpret
ing Carroll and making the interpretation known to his
fellow-countrymen; he was interpreting the Church at
the same time. He knew as no American churchman of
any creed had known before him how to carry his mes
sage to the multitude. His desire was that the light of
the Church should shine before men.
He hoped that the mass of his fellow-countrymen.
would share his view that Carroll had been a providential
agent for the cause of religion and the cause of the
American Republic. In a sermon on "The Growth of the
Catholic Church in the United States," he said:
"If a prelate of narrow views, a man out of sympathy
and harmony with the genius of the new republic, had
been chosen (as the first American Bishop) the progress
of religion would have been seriously impeded. It is
true, the Constitution has declared that no one should
be molested on account of religion; but a written instru-

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 429
ment would have been a feeble barrier to stem the tide of
popular and traditional prejudice, unless it was vindi
cated and fortified by the patriotic example of the patri
arch of the American Church.
"John Carroll was the man for the occasion. We may
apply here the words spoken of John the Baptist : 'There
was a man sent from God whose name was John. He
came as a witness, to bear witness of the light.' "
In another sermon 3 he said :
"The Catholic religion subsists and expands under all
forms of government, and adapts itself to all times and
places and circumstances; and this it does without any
compromise of principle or any derogation from the su
preme authority of the Church or any shock to the in
dividual conscience. For, while the truths of faith are
eternal and immutable, the discipline of the Church is
changeable, just as man himself is ever the same in his
essential characteristics, while his dress varies according
to the fashion of the times. Archbishop Carroll was thor
oughly conversant with the genius of our political con
stitution and with the spirit of our laws and system of
government. He was therefore admirably fitted for the
delicate task of adjusting the discipline of the Church
to the requirements of our civil constitution."
Pius VI had established the Catholic Hierarchy in the
United States by a brief issued November 6, 1789, giving
to Carroll as the first Bishop of Baltimore a jurisdiction
which extended over all the territory then comprised in
the federal union. Carroll had been one of the most
active patriots in the War of the Revolution. He had
gone to Canada in 1776 with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel
3 On "Reminiscences of the Cathedral of Baltimore."

430 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Chase and his cousin, Charles Carroll of CarroUton, on a
mission to obtain the cooperation of that country with the
colonies to the south which were battling for self-govern
ment. In 1776 American Catholics numbered about 25,-
000, or one in 120 of the whole population; when Car
roll was consecrated, they numbered only 32,000, or one
in 107. His consecration took place in the chapel of
Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire, England, the seat of
Thomas Weld, father of the future Cardinal Weld;
Bishop Walmesley, Vicar-Apostolic of the western dis
trict of England, was the consecrating prelate.4
By 1889 the Catholic population of the United States
had swelled to 9,000,000. From Carroll as a corner
stone the Hierarchy had risen in its first hundred years to
the proportions of 13 Archbishops and 71 Bishops, the
spiritual overseers of 8000 priests, 10,500 churches and
chapels, 27 seminaries for the training of the clergy, 650
colleges and academies for the higher education of youth,
3100 parish schools and 520 hospitals and asylums.
Gibbons wrote to Leo XIII outlining the plans for the
celebration. The Pope encouraged it with lively interest,
replying :
"That great love for country and for religion, which
you and our brethren, the Bishops of the United States,
have so often and so nobly manifested, is again strikingly
illustrated in the letter which you have recently addressed
to us. From it we learn that pastors and people are about
to assemble in Baltimore to celebrate the one hundredth
anniversary of the establishment of the Hierarchy of the
United States. On the same occasion you propose to
4Guilday, The Life and Times of John Carroll, pp. 92 et seq., 356
et seq., 373.

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 431
dedicate the Catholic University, which, with the gen
erous help of the faithful, you have founded in Wash
ington as a happy presage of future greatness for the new
era upon which you are about to enter.
"It is truly worthy of your faith and hope thus grate
fully to recall the blessings bestowed upon your country
by Divine Providence, and at the same time to raise up
in memory of them a monument which will be an honor
to yourselves and a lasting benefit to your fellow-citizens
and to the country at large. We gladly unite with you
in returning thanks to God, the author of all gifts. At
the same time, we cordially congratulate you on the zeal
with which you emulate the example of your glorious
predecessors, faithfully treading in their footsteps, whilst
ever widening the field opened by their apostolic labors.
"Most joyfully have we welcomed the expression which
you and the other Bishops convey to us of your loyalty
and devotion to the Apostolic See. We desire, in return,;
to assure you that, like our predecessors of blessed mem
ory, we, too, bear an especial love toward you, our breth
ren, and the faithful committed to your care, and that we
pray frequently for your prosperity and welfare, gath
ering comfort meanwhile, no less from the readiness of
your people to cooperate in all manner of good works
than from the examples of sacerdotal virtue which are
daily set before them.
"In regard to your wish that some representative from
this city should, in our name, be present at your cele
bration, we readily assent to it, the more willingly be
cause his presence will be an especial mark of our esteem
and benevolence, and of that bond of affection and char
ity which unites pastors and people to the supreme head
of the Church.
"In conclusion, we earnestly pray to God, protector and
guardian of the Catholic cause, that under the excellent
and favored public institutions by which you are able to

432 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
exercise with freedom your sacred ministry, your labors
may redound to the benefit of Church and country; and
as a pledge of our especial affection we lovingly impart
the Apostolic benediction to you, to our venerable breth
ren, the Bishops of the United States, and to the clergy
and faithful committed to your charge." 5
Monsignor O'Connell brought this letter from Rome
to Cardinal Gibbons. He was soon followed by the rep
resentative whom the Pope had promised to send, Fran
cesco di Paola Satolli, Archbishop of Lepanto, an Italian
theologian of deep learning and wonderful eloquence,
who was destined to play a great part in the relations be
tween the Holy See and the Catholics of the United
States. Satolli's first impression was one of amazement
at the proportions of the celebration; and, though he
could speak no English, he soon showed, after the man
ner of Tocqueville and Bryce, a faculty for understand
ing the true spirit of American institutions beyond the
capacity of most men born here.
Cardinal Manning was invited with especial warmth,
and, had he come to Baltimore, would have shared with
his friend, Cardinal Gibbons, the honors of the occasion;
but age had at last interposed its relentless barrier against
that iron will, and he was forced to decline, sending
Bishop Virtue, of Portsmouth, and Monsignor Gadd in
his place.
From Canada came Cardinal Taschereau and six
Bishops; from Mexico, Bishops Gillow and Montez
D'Oca; and Archbishop Croke sent a fervent letter from
the prelates of Ireland.
"Letter of Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons, September 7, 1889.

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 433
For the opening of the celebration in November, every
American prelate was present in the mother Cathedral,
except the aged Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, whose
feeble health prevented him from making the journey
half way across the continent. Besides these, 400 priests,
the same number of seminarians, and several organiza
tions of laymen took part in the procession which pre
ceded the Pontifical High Mass.8
Archbishop Ryan, whose oratorical powers were then
at their best, delivered a sermon which expressed the
dominant spirit of the gathering. His voice vibrated with
the bounding hope of the occasion as he said :
"A wonderful future is before the Church in this coun
try if we are only true to her, to the country and to our
selves. She has demonstrated that she can live and move
and widen without State influence; that the atmosphere
of liberty is most congenial to her constitution and most
conducive to her progress. Let us be cordially American
in our feelings and sentiments, and, above all, let each
individual act in his personal life and character the
spirit of his Catholic faith."
Sketching the trials and struggles of the Church in the
century that had closed, he pointed out that a great
change in popular sentiment toward her had come,
saying: "Catholics and Protestants now associate more freely
and intimately and understand each other better. Intel-
Souvenir Volume, Centennial Celebration and Catholic Congress,
published by William H. Hughes, Detroit, 1889. This book and Reily's
Collections in the Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons, Vol. I, the files
of the Catholic Mirror, and the Baltimore newspapers of that time, are
the authorities for many of the facts cited in this chapter.

434 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ligent Protestants are gradually being dispossessed of the
old notion that Catholics exalt the Blessed Virgin to a
position equal to that of the Son, that priests can forgive
sins according to their own wish, that images may be
adored after the fashion of the pagans, that the Bible
should not be read, and other absurd supposed doctrines
and practices of the Church. Because of this enlighten
ment, and because of the high character of American con
verts in the past — men like Dr. Brownson, Dr. Ives,
Father Hecker and many others — it is possible that some
of the ablest defenders of the Church in this coming cen
tury may be men who are at present in the ranks of her
opponents." Dwelling upon the labors of Carroll in the cause of
religion and country, Archbishop Ryan said :
"Love of country and race is a feeling planted by God
in the human heart, and, when properly directed, becomes
a wall of virtue."
He rejoiced at the bright promise afforded by the un
fettered progress of religion among the people of the
United States, notwithstanding the discordant elements
of which they were, to a large extent, composed. He
said: "The fathers of this republic had to form a constitution
and government for a people of every race, language,
color and nationality, who they foresaw would inhabit
this land. They had to combine a political catholicity
with a political unity, and to hold the most discordant
elements together by the force of law. So, also, before
the establishment of the Catholic Church in this world,
religions were national in their organization, though uni
versal in their fundamental principles, and were adapted
to particular peoples of the same race and language. But

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 435
the Church was destined to embrace within her govern
ment the peoples of every nation under heaven, to com
bine the most diverse elements and firmly to unite them
and hold them for all time; and in no one country of
the world had we to exercise this power so much as here,
for nowhere else were they found together."
At Pontifical Vespers celebrated in the presence of the
massed Hierarchy the towering figure of John Ireland,
Archbishop of St. Paul, appeared in the pulpit. Ryan,
the orator par excellence, was the voice of Gibbons;
Ireland was his right hand among the Archbishops. Ire
land was the Marshal Ney of the new Catholic move
ment, daring sometimes to the extent of what timid men
called rashness, sweeping to his objectives with im
petuous onset. Gibbons leaned upon him as Napoleon
leaned upon Ney, trusting in his splendid powers of
thought and action, his ardent loyalty. In almost all
things Ireland saw as his leader saw.
Yet there were striking points of difference between
these two potent and magnetic personalities. Ireland,
swept along by faith in the causes which he espoused,
sometimes disdained expediency; Gibbons seldom did.
Ireland gave immediate utterance to the flaming word
that leaped into his brain; Gibbons waited until time
and events gave the opportunity to speak that word so
that it would be invested with the greatest force. Ire
land, starting for a conflict, stopped not for armor except
belief in his vision of the right, stopped not even for
weapons except the truth as it was given to him to voice
from the depths of his soul; Gibbons paused to survey
the line of march, to estimate the difficulties, to prepare

436 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
himself for every contingency that might come in the
swaying tide of battle. Ireland was the ideal lieutenant,
with many of the highest gifts of supreme command;
Gibbons was the victorious leader who lacked nothing of
full equipment for the great tasks which he set for him
self and those whom he led.
The differences between these men were differences of
temperament and method only. Their main thoughts
flowed in streams exactly parallel. They were Catholics
to the core, Americans to the core. Their creed was
service to men. The service of religion was the greatest
which they could give, the one service into which all
others blended; but they interpreted religion in a sense
which excluded nothing that would lift a burden from
the backs of men. Their common impulse was not to sit
in the house and bid men to the feast, but to go out into
the highways and byways and compel them to come. As
their Divine Exemplar had healed the sick, so would
they heal the physical and material ills of their brethren;
as He had given sight to the blind, so would they
open the eyes of others to the full rays of brilliant
light. At bottom they had one all-embracing purpose: the
Catholic Church in America must spread religion to the.
widest bounds among the people of the country which
those two ardent patriots loved as Washington loved it.
Their fellow citizens, the country, needed the leaven of
religion to strengthen them and it for the mission of
example and help to other peoples and governments
which they firmly believed was America's mission.
America must be a light for the world. She must first

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 437
practise for herself, then teach to all humanity the prin
ciples of political liberty, equality of human right and
opportunity, unselfish service to and for all; she must
spurn with righteous revulsion ancient methods of inter
national chicanery, of covert or open aggression upon
other nations.
How were these large ends to be sought? They could
not be attained, as Gibbons and Ireland saw the outlook,
by shrinking as Catholics before the doubt and suspicion
which some of their non-Catholic fellow citizens felt
toward the Church; by withdrawing into the deep
shadows where they might escape in part the gaze of
hostility. They were for going into the open, mingling
and striving with the crowd, enduring misunderstanding
as the martyrs had endured that they might allay and
finally destroy it.
As men of religion, they held the full faith of the
Catholic Church without a fraction of modification; as
Americans they were one with their fellow citizens with
out distinction of creed, in simple, natural and whole
hearted brotherhood.
It had been Ryan's part to voice in his strong phrases
the troubled story of the first hundred years of the
Hierarchy, although he could not forbear to relieve the
picture with some of his own ardent forecasting of the
future. For Ireland the task was to break loose from
the moorings and sail his bark boldly upon the unknown
sea of the hundred years that were to come. The
subject of his sermon, "The New Century; Responsi
bilities, Hopes and Duties," bespoke the faith that was
in him. He said :

438 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"The past our fathers wrought; the future will be
wrought by us. The next century in the life of the
Church in America will be what we make it. Our work
is to make America Catholic. If we love America, if
we love the Church, to mention the work suffices. Our
cry shall be 'God wills it,' and our hearts shall leap with
Crusader enthusiasm. . . .
"The Catholic Church will confirm and preserve, as
no human power or human church can, the liberties of
the republic. The importance of the position of America
to the cause of religion cannot well be overestimated. It
is a Providential nation. How youthful, and yet how
great! How bright in glorious promise! . . .
"The movements of the modern world have their
highest tension in the United States. The natural order
is here seen at its best, and here it displays its fullest
symmetry. Here should the Church, unhampered by
the government or by despotic custom, come with the
freedom of the son of Issai, choose its arms, and, march
ing straight for the opposing foe, bring the contest to a
speedy close.
"Of inestimable value to us is the liberty the Church
enjoys under the constitution of the republic. No tyrant
here casts chains around her. No concordat limits her
action or cramps her energies. She is as free as the eagle
upon Alpine hills — free to spread out in unrestricted
flight her pinions, to soar to vast altitudes, to put into
action all her native energies. The law of the land pro
tects her in her rights, and asks in return no sacrifices
for those rights; for her rights are those of American citi
zenship. . . .
"There is needed a thorough sympathy with the coun
try. The Church of America must be, of course, as Catho
lic as in Jerusalem or Rome ; but, so far as her garments
assume color from the local atmosphere, she must be
American. Let no one dare paint her brow with foreign

A CENTURY OF CATHOLIC ADVANCE 439
tint or pin to her mantle foreign linings! There is
danger; she receives large accessions of natives from for
eign countries. God witnesseth it, they are welcome ! I
will not enter upon their personal affections and tastes;
yet, should those be foreign, they shall not encrust upon
the Church.
"Americans have no longings for a church of foreign
aspect. It would acquire no influence over them. In
no manner could it prosper ; exotics have but sickly forms.
I would have Catholics be the first patriots in the land.
"This is an intellectual age ; it worships intellect. All
things are treated by the touchstone of intellect, and the
ruling power, public opinion, is formed by it. The
Church will be judged by the standard of intellect. . . .
"We have a dreadful lesson to learn from certain Euro
pean countries in which, from the weight of tradition,
the Church clings to thrones and classes and loses her
grasp upon the people. Let us not make this mistake.
We have here no princes, no hereditary classes ; still, there
is the danger that there may be in religion a favorite
aristocracy upon which we lavish so much care that none
remains for others.
"What, I ask, of the multitude who peep at us from
gallery and vestibule? What of the thousands and tens
of thousands of nominal Catholics or non-Catholics who
seldom or never open a church door? What of the un
couth and unkempt, I ask, of the cellar and the areaway,
the mendicant and the outcast? It is time to bring back
the primitive Gospel spirit, to go out into the highways
and byways, to preach on housetops and in market places.
. . . Save the masses ! Cease not planning and working
for their salvation. . . .
"Seek out social grievances; lead in movements to heal
them. Speak of vested rights, for this is necessary; but
speak, too, of vested wrongs, and strive by precept, word
and example, by the enactment and enforcement of good

440 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
laws to correct them. Breathe fresh air into the crowded
quarters of the poor.",
Truly the centenary celebration was a feast of joy
and at a formal dinner given in honor of the visiting
prelates at St. Mary's Seminary after the High Mass
felicitations flowed. A cablegram from the Pope ex
pressing his joy at the triumphs of faith which the occa
sion commemorated was read; and Archbishop Satolli,
whose Latin eloquence was then heard for the first time
in America, predicted that Leo or some future Pontiff
would visit this country. Greetings to the Church in
the United States were conveyed by Cardinal Taschereau
for Canada; by the Mexican bishops for their country;
and letters were read from English and Irish prelates.

CHAPTER XXVI
A CALI TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION
It had been Archbishop Ireland who had proposed the
Congress of Laymen in connection with the centennial
celebration of the Hierarchy and Gibbons had adopted
the plan. Such a gathering of representatives of the
Catholic body assembled for purposes embraced in the
distinctive bond of their own faith would have provoked
mob violence at periods not then so long past in the
comparatively brief story of America. Even in Balti
more, attendance upon it would have meant risking life
and limb no further back than thirty years, when the
"Know Nothings" held the city in their bloody grasp
and controlled the State government, proscribing all
who held the Catholic faith from equality of privilege in
civil life. Indeed, when the torrent of intolerance was
below flood tide during some periods in the first century
of the Republic, a national assemblage of Catholic lay
men would have led to an outburst of bitterness, and a
heedless remark on such an occasion might have held back
the progress of religious tolerance for years.
But now men saw the Catholic Church in full and
free outline, where she had seemed before to be hidden
to many. If one asked if there was danger to the country
in that Church, non-Catholics as well as Catholics them
selves were ready to banish dread by pointing to Gibbons.
441

442 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Congress of Laymen might be held at last in the
secure belief that honor instead of antagonism would
be its portion.
Gibbons was not without misgivings that a reckless
word at the congress might sow trouble. There was no
precedent in America to guide it, and great harm might
be done by an immature and unrepresentative expression
of an individual opinion which would be interpreted as
representative by persons disposed to harass the Church.
He was opposed to giving thought to the grievances
of the past when there was so much of satisfaction in
the present and of promise in the future. He never re
membered personal wrongs and he did not wish the
Church or churchmen to remember wrongs. Full and
free forgiveness and obliteration of former misunder
standing in the United States was the basis of his own
program and he hoped that it would be the basis of the
laymen's program. Instead of bewailing what had been
denied or what some might think was even then denied
in part, he wished that the overshadowing feeling might
be of gratitude for that which was freely accorded.
In his far-reaching studies of American history he
had learned, as few men learn, the discriminations which
had been practised against Catholics. This knowledge
had steeled his arm in the struggle to break down those
discriminations. He knew that no Americans had been
more sincerely loyal in forum and on battlefield in the
days of the American Revolution. It was even said then
that "every Catholic was a Whig." Debarred before
that war from holding even a commission in the militia,
a number of them rose speedily to high rank in the army

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 443
led by Washington. Of the members of the Continental
Congress a considerable number were Catholics ; and they
had helped to adopt the Declaration of Independence and
had risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred
honor in maintaining America as an independent nation.1
Catholics had shared with their Protestant brethren,
knowing no discrimination in public life, the burdens of
citizenship in the formative days of the Republic. In
the War of 1812 they had again proved the mettle of
their patriotism. Andrew Jackson, victorious over
Packenham, had been welcomed to New Orleans by the
Catholics of that city, headed by Bishop Dubourg, who
celebrated in the Cathedral a solemn service of thanks
giving for the triumph of American arms. In the "Know
Nothing" times Catholics had conducted themselves with
great moderation and thus had limited the scope of that
outbreak as a disturbance of normal national life. In
the Civil War they had divided in sympathy like their
brethren of other faiths.
Gibbons' affirmative thoughts on the subject of the
treatment of Catholics in America outweighed his nega
tive thoughts, for that was his temperamental predisposi
tion on all subjects. A start must be made, he felt, in
joining the laity on a national scale with the Hierarchy
and the clergy in the new advance of the Church. As
a safeguard for the proceedings of the congress it was
decided that the Bishops should appoint the delegates and
that the program should be submitted to episcopal au
thority beforehand; apart from this, freedom of expres
sion was preserved.
'O'Gorman, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, p. 257.

444 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
John Lee Carroll, a former governor of Maryland and
a great grandson of Charles Carroll of CarroUton, pre
sided over the congress. The range of discussion in
cluded the opportunities of the laity, social questions,
secular and religious education, temperance, Sunday ob
servance, church music, the Catholic press and the inde
pendence of the Holy See.
In the main the atmosphere of the congress was one
of sound ideas and patriotic spirit. A jarring note was
struck, however, by Daniel Dougherty, of Philadelphia,
in a speech deploring the political discrimination against
Catholics in the past, but the sweeping disapproval which
his address received from the mass of his associates in
the gathering showed more effectively than formal words
the healthy tone of the congress. Dougherty's remarks
dealt largely with the colonial persecutions of Catholics,
but he went so far as to declare that there was even yet
a disposition to exclude them from public office. "The
highest honors of the Republic are denied us," he ex
claimed, "by a prejudice which has all the force of a
constitutional enactment." Many of the delegates held.
important offices, national or state, and this in itself was
the most effective answer to the general viewpoint which
Dougherty expressed. He, himself, had been highly
honored by the Democratic party and had been selected
to make the nominating speeches for Hancock in 1880
and Cleveland in 1888 in the national conventions of
that party; surely there had been no great discrimination
in his case. While there had been no Catholic President
of the United States, it was also true that American
political history showed the rejection of no important

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 445
aspirant to that office because he was of the Catholic
faith. Dougherty's depressing echoes of past conditions found
no counterpart in the other proceedings of the congress.
Its general spirit was one of buoyancy and confidence.
Resolutions which were adopted on the closing day em
braced the fruit of its deliberations. They set forth
emphatically that there was no conflict between the
Church and the institutions of the country; denounced
Socialism and Communism, while declaring that "we
equally condemn the greed of capital" ; condemned Mor-
monism, the tendency to divorce and other national evils.
A clause favoring the Sunday closing of saloons was an
outgrowth of an agitation then current for the general
adoption of a "Continental Sunday" in America. The
congress advocated a school system which included a
course of religious training. It held that the absolute
freedom of the Holy See was necessary for the peace
of the Church and the welfare of mankind.
Gibbons felt deep satisfaction in the general aspect
of the developments in the congress. He encouraged the
delegates by an address in which he said of the gathering:
"It will form an admirable school for enlightening
and instructing the members and preparing them for
holding a more elaborate convention at some future day.
This congress, by the mere fact of being called together,
emphasizes and vindicates the important truth that it is
the privilege as well as the duty of our laity to co-operate
with the clergy in discussing those great economic, edu
cational and social questions which affect the interests
and well-being of the Church, the country and society at
large.

446 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"I confess that the desire of my heart for a long time
has been to see the clergy and the laity drawn more
closely together. They have, perhaps, in some respects
been much and too long apart; for, if the clergy are the
divinely constituted channels for instructing the laity in
faith and morals, the clergy, on their part, have much to
learn from the wisdom and discretion, the experience and
worldly sense of the laity.
"And in no other country on the face of the earth
should the clergy and the laity be more united than in
our own. The laity build our churches; they erect our
schools; they voluntarily and generously support our
clergy; the salaries of our clergy are not ceremoniously
handed to them by Government officials on a silver salver,
but come from the warm hands and warm hearts of the
people." A short and vigorous address by Archbishop Ireland
also inspired the delegates.
A torchlight parade in which thirty thousand persons
joined marked the close of the congress. It took the form
chiefly of a tribute to Gibbons, who reviewed it from
the bay window of his residence, the background from
which so many crowds saw him during the years of
his Cardinalate. As the long line wound along pictur
esque Charles Street, the greatest moment for all who
took part in it came when he imparted recognition and
approval to each organization in turn.
The child of Gibbons' age — thus he called the Catholic
University — was born on the fourth day of the celebra
tion, when the University was opened with the dedication
of the School of Sacred Sciences. It had been only a
nebulous hope at the Second Plenary Council of Balti-

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 447
more, but had taken on reality at the Third Council,
where the prelates, heartened by Bishop Spalding's zeal
and Miss Mary Gwendoline Caldwell's gift of $300,000,
had authorized it as a practical undertaking. Now, with
the Pope's blessing and with the prayers of the Church,
the University was ready to begin its mission of instruc
tion. Miss Caldwell's gift had been increased by $50,000
contributed by her sister, Lina; and through the tireless
efforts of Bishop Keane and others the amount had been
gradually swelled to $800,000.
Bishop Keane became the first rector and in coopera
tion with Gibbons gave form and substance to the picture
which he had drawn before tens of thousands throughout
the country to whom he had appealed for the means that
were essential to giving the undertaking a physical be
ginning. He was the ideal advocate of a noble cause —
saintly in life, singularly winning in personality, fervent
in appeal. Swept by zeal for the University as by a
torrent within him, he carried conviction to those who
heard his pleas. The fruit of his labors bore testimony
to their effectiveness in a period when the raising of funds
for universities was far more difficult in America than it
came to be afterward.
There had been much discussion as to the site for the
capstone of the structure of Catholic education in Amer
ica. At length there was general agreement upon Wash
ington as the center of national effort in behalf of the
enlightenment of the nation. It was there that Carroll
had made his own beginnings of a system of higher edu
cation when he founded what has since become known as

448 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Georgetown University, the first Catholic collegiate in
stitution in the United States.2 Carroll would have been
its first president had he not been raised to the episcopate
in 1789, the same year in which he founded the institu
tion. He could not then know that the national capital
was to be established so that its municipal bounds would
embrace the college of which he was the mainspring. In
this, as in many other things, he "builded better than
he knew."
The planting of the seed by Carroll was not forgotten
in the centenary year. A prelude to the main celebration
was the observance on February 20, 21 and 22, 1889, of
the one hundredth anniversary of Carroll's academy. The
two most conspicuous men present were Cardinal Gibbons
and President Cleveland who, following the example of
nearly all his precedessors from Washington down,
visited that widely known Jesuit institution.
The cornerstone of the School of Sacred Sciences for
the new and greater university had been laid May 24,
1888, in the presence of President Cleveland, members
of his Cabinet, Cardinal Gibbons and other distinguished
men. Early the next- year the Pope addressed a brief
to the American Bishops, decreeing that "as the See of
Baltimore is the chief among the Apostolic Sees of the
United States of North America, to the Archbishop of
Baltimore and to his successors we grant the privilege of
discharging the office of supreme moderator or chancellor
of the university."
The massed episcopate was shifted from Baltimore to
Washington for the dedication October 13, 1889, giving
* Guilday, The Life and Times of John Carroll, p. 447 et seq.

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 449
full honor to the ceremony which marked the accomplish
ment of an aim so dear to the Church. Archbishop
Satolli celebrated Mass and Bishop Gilmour, of Cleve
land, preached. He pointed out the fitness of beginning
the University's instruction with the divinity course, for,
from the Catholic point of view "all true education must
begin in God and find its truth and direction in God."
The Bishop vigorously proclaimed the mutual help and
dependence of the civil body and the forces of religion,
saying: "There is a widespread mistake, a rapidly growing
political and social heresy, which assumes and asserts
that the State is all temporal and religion all spiritual.
This is not only a doctrinal heresy; but, if acted upon,
would ruin both spiritual and temporal. No more can
the State exist without religion than the body without
the soul ; and no more can religion exist without the State,
and on earth carry on its work, than can the soul on
earth, without the body, do its work.
"The State, it is true, is for the temporal, but has its
substantial strength in the spiritual; while religion, it
is true, is for the spiritual, but in much must find its
Working strength in the temporal. In this sense it is
a mistake to assume that religion is independent of the
State, or the State independent of religion. As a matter
of fact, religion must depend upon the State in tem
poralities; and, vice versa, the State must depend upon
religion in morals; and both should so act that their con
joint work will be for the temporal and moral welfare
of society."
This did not mean, the Bishop proceeded to show, that
any form of direct or legalized partnership between

450 Life of cardinal gibbons
Church and State was necessary or even desirable. He
said: "In this country we have agreed that religion and the
State shall exist as distinct and separate departments,
each with its separate rights and duties; but this does
not mean that the State is independent of religion or
religion independent of the State."
Bishop Gilmour found particular cause for satisfac
tion in the fact that the University had been "begun
without State or princely aid, but originating in an out
pouring of public thought and founded and provided
for by the gifts of the many rather than by the offerings
of the few." He pointed to this as evidence of "the
widening character of American ideas and the existing
conviction of the public mind that higher studies are
clearly needed."
President Harrison, Vice-President Morton and nearly
all the members of the Cabinet lent their presence to a
banquet in one of the halls of the University which was
held as a mark of the joy which the occasion inspired.
A cablegram from Leo XIII conveying his blessing and
sending congratulations was read; and Archbishop
Satolli's Latin eloquence flowed again in periods that
reflected the majesty of the language as few men in
modern times have been capable of reflecting it. "God
loves America," he said. "It is Leo's feeling that this
is true; and he believes therefore that in America nothing
is impossible." Cardinal Taschereau, speaking for Canada, contrasted
the unfettered progress of the Church in the United

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 451
States with the obstacles which impeded it abroad be
cause of the "intense opposition of the potentates of
Europe." He said :
"In the United States there is full freedom; and there
is great comfort in the universal confidence placed in
Cardinal Gibbons as the glorious representative of the
Church in America. The Pope has always had un
bounded faith in him."
President Harrison received, as the head of the nation,
the acclaim of the gathering, which he acknowledged in a
few words. Secretary of State Blaine spoke at some
length, saying:
"I have come to the banquet, like my colleagues, to
represent the United States not in a political sense, much
less a partisan one, and not in a sense in any way in
conflict with any church or sect or principle of religion.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the United States,
and this is one of our greatest blessings. I have spoken
thus often in Protestant assemblages, and it gives me
pleasure to repeat it to a Catholic audience. . . . Every
college in the United States increases the culture of the
United States. We have the criticism of an English
professor, who admired America as the most intelligent
land in the world and the least cultivated. Universities
will, in time, give us a greater excellence in learning."
When Gibbons arose to speak all eyes turned to him
as the center from which the inspiration of the great
undertaking flowed. As he was accustomed to do on
numerous occasions when he spoke in the presence of
Presidents, he dwelt upon the value of religion as a
stabilizing force in civil life, for that in substance was

452 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
one of the mainsprings of the great efforts which had led
to the founding of the University. He said :
"We have all been more than anxious for the visit of
the President, the Vice-President and members of the
Cabinet, who have honored the University by their pres
ence. They assure us of their sympathy for every cause
to promote the religion and morality of the people in
the United States. Though there is no union of Church
and State, in any sense, the people have always upheld
religion. ... In olden times the Church admonished
obedience to rulers when they were even obnoxious. How
much more can she do so now, when salutary laws are
made to foster the home and better society? A govern
ment is pleasing to God when it is in harmony, and how
good it is when both clergymen and laymen, working in
an individual capacity, bring about harmony."
Vicomte de Montalembert conveyed the felicitations
of the universities of Paris and Lyons on the happy oc
casion. There were many other discourses. After the
banquet the University course was formally opened by
an oration in English by Bishop O'Farrell, of Trenton,
and an address in Latin by Mgr. Schroeder, the new pro
fessor of dogmatic theology. All felt that, under the
impetus which had been given, the University would
take in time a place worthy of the Church and worthy
of America. None could foresee the marvelously rapid
growth for it which was to be unfolded in the passage of
the next two decades.
Gibbons wished the city of Baltimore to be identified
with the welcome to the prelates and the fifth and clos
ing day of the celebration was marked by a reception to
them at the City Hall, given by Mayor Latrobe, his close

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 453
friend and colaborer in public affairs during many terms
of municipal office. Bishops and visiting laymen alike
were welcome guests on that occasion. Men eminent in
the Church obtained a close view of an aspect of Gib
bons' life which inspired not a few of them with thoughts
of what they also might do. These men, shut off in
many cases from direct contact with the world in their
absorption in ecclesiastical life, were amazed to see the
Cardinal apparently on terms of familiar acquaintance
with nearly everybody present, from the Mayor down to
little children who came with their parents. Their sur
prise was almost as great to behold that the crowd with
singular unanimity looked upon him as the foremost citi
zen of the community as well as the foremost churchman,
and appeared to take this view as if by the force of long
habit. Here was a sermon in some respects more power
ful than any to which they had listened in the course
of the week. If an Archbishop were in the community,
of the community and a leader of the community, what
need to fear a lack of common purpose?
The prelates from abroad found a lesson in this which
struck them with singular force. The formality, the
diplomatic restraint between churchmen and public men
in Europe could be lost in the fusing of American life,
and Gibbons showed both the method and the accom
plishment. Delicate forms of ceremony, designed per
haps as much to uphold prerogative as to promote
cordiality, were notably lacking in his relations with the
numerous officers of civil government with whom he was
on familiar terms. Neither he nor they had favors to
ask but both felt the urge of a common aim. They met

454 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
on terms of simple friendship greater in its potency than
documents stamped with official seals or precedent
brought down from medieval days.
' The new century was begun and there was a new spirit
in it. The Church, marshaling her laity as well as her
Bishops, had set her face against Socialism and the other
transplanted political organisms which had threatened
to grow in the virgin soil of America ; had entered a mili
tant conflict against divorce and other social evils; had
spoken with mighty voice for the welfare of religion and
the State, each independent of the other and each helping
the other. The champions who now went forth to begin
aggressively the work of a new century of Catholic effort
carried new vigor and new hope into pulpit and pewj
As the Congress of Laymen met, Our Christian
Heritage, Gibbons' second book, appeared in print. The
delegates found a guide for their own thoughts and labors
both in the Cardinal's vigorous defense of Christianity
and in his declarations on current evils.
There was a local sequel of the celebration, and it
shaped an act of legislation. Gibbons thus participated
for the first time in direct influence of that kind, but, as
always, he was careful to observe the proprieties, and
his course met the approval of the leading people of the
State, regardless of creed. A multiplication of small
liquor saloons operated under cheap licenses was then a
generally recognized evil, and in Maryland, as in other
States, an agitation to limit the number of drinking places
by the enactment of a high license law sprang up. This
movement, although it enlisted the religious forces of
the community, made slow progress because of the

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 455
strength and resources of the interests which sought the
unhampered continuance of the saloon.
The time was opportune for a stroke that would end
the impasse. Archbishop Ireland's temperance crusade
was then nearing the peak of its vigor, and his ardor
was aroused by the situation in Maryland. The zeal
of the Rev. James Nugent, of Liverpool, called "The
Father Mathew of England" on account of his long labors
in the cause of temperance in his own country, who was
a visitor to the Centennial exercises, was also drawn upon.
With the approval of Gibbons, a mass meeting in behalf
of temperance was held in the Baltimore Academy of
Music on the Sunday following the celebration. Some
of the most prominent laymen in Maryland, non-Cath
olic as well as Catholic, gave the encouragement of their
presence to the meeting, which was arranged by the Car
dinal's secretary at that time, the Rev. John T. Whelan,
whose powers were enlisted to the utmost in the effort to
strike a telling blow for temperance.
Gibbons, in a vigorous speech, expressed the particular
reason which had appealed to him in assisting the move
ment. "The blow we strike to-night," he said, "is for the
benefit of the laborer, and as such it must and shall be
successful." The legislature which met soon afterward enacted the
high license law, which would have been impossible with
out the influence of the mass meeting in marshaling public
opinion in an irresistible phalanx.
The Cardinal was not so radical as the Archbishop of
St. Paul in his views on the liquor question, then or at

456 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
any future time, but he was thoroughly committed to
warfare for a reduction of the evils arising from drink.
He was a moderate user of light wines at dinner, in which
he found partial relief from the pangs of chronic indiges
tion. Had he believed the enforcement of prohibition
to be practicable, he would have been the first to ex
emplify total abstinence; but, in his view, a statute
aimed at abolishing the use of liquor would be but a
vain performance. It would lead, he believed, to whole
sale violations of the law, and therefore to a growing
disrespect for the law. Example and judicious restric
tion, it seemed to him, were the best means of contending
with the situation.
He condemned violent and spectacular methods in
the solution of the liquor question as tending to upset
the equilibrium of public judgment on a subject of vital
concern. When Mrs. Carrie Nation, of Kansas, began
a campaign of open destruction of saloon property with
out authority of law, which attracted a considerable
degree of national attention because of its novelty, he
remarked :
"Nothing in my opinion can warrant Mrs. Nation and
her followers in taking the law in their own hands and
wrecking the property of saloon keepers."
His consistent deprecation of the rigid restriction of
personal habits by law was based upon his judgment of
human nature. He was always inclined to allow for
the rebound in such cases, and methods that appeared to
him to be merely theoretical or idealistic, without being
capable of bearing fruit in reality, never appealed to

CALL TO THE LAITY— HIGHER EDUCATION 457
him. Radical social legislation seemed to him to be in
consistent with the basis of government in America. He
believed that the government ought not to attempt to
do too many things, for therein lay the danger of failing
in some of its essential functions.

CHAPTER XXVII
THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE
The pentecostal wave of accessions to the Church
which had set in during the early years of Gibbons in
the Cardinalate was marked by an active renewal of the
proposal in Rome to appoint an Apostolic Delegate to
reside permanently in the United States, in order that
the numerous and often perplexing problems to which
the increase gave rise might receive the fullest attention.
To this step Gibbons had been opposed ever since his
position in the Church had been sufficiently important to
warrant Rome in consulting him on the subject. His
attitude caused the plan to be delayed and finally modi
fied, but he lived to admit that the manner in which the
office was established and conducted by succeeding in
cumbents avoided the dangers which had once stirred his
apprehensions. The question had long been considered in Rome and
was naturally of interest to Leo XIII, who had distin
guished himself as nuncio at Brussels. In 1885 the opin
ions of all the American Archbishops were sought by the
Vatican on the advisability of establishing more direct
relations between it and the government at Washington.
The journal of Gibbons, who had not then been elevated
to the Cardinalate, contains the following entries for
that year : 458

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 459
"Dec. 10. Received from Cardinal Simeoni an auto
graph letter in which his Eminence asked my opinion
about the expediency of the Holy See entering into diplo
matic relations with our government.
"Dec. 29. I answered Cardinal Simeoni's letter re
ceived on the 10th inst., in which I deprecated any com
munication from the Holy Father to the President such
as his Eminence thought might be advisable. I gave
many reasons why such a letter would be very imprudent
and might compromise the Holy Father as well as the
Catholics of America. The only circumstance in which
such a letter might be written would be one of sympathy
or congratulation on the occasion of a public calamity
or a signal blessing to our country."
All the other Archbishops except Ireland, in their re
plies to Rome, expressed the view that the proposed step
would be inadvisable. Ireland was distinctly in favor
of it.
The plan was revived in the winter of 1886-87 when
Gibbons went to Rome to receive the red hat and laid
the foundations for the policies which he was to carry
out. He again showed opposition to it, and once more
the matter was laid aside, as the following extract from
a letter written by him to Archbishop Elder in the fol
lowing Spring shows:
"I hope that the question of the nuncio is buried out
of sight for some time, at least; I trust indefinitely. Still
we must be always on the alert." *
Two years later, when a dispute arose in the arch-,
diocese of Cincinnati, he expressed impatience that priests
"Letter of Cardinal Gibbons to Archbishop Elder, written from Flor
ence, April 20, 1887.

460 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
should continue to besiege Rome with their appeals in
stead of submitting to the decisions of their ecclesiastical
superiors in America. He wrote to Archbishop Elder:
"Baltimore, March 21, 1889.
"Most Rev. dear Friend :
"The numerous complaints sent to Rome by priests
who have real or fancied wrongs are much to be deplored.
I think that their number would be diminished if the
influence of Metropolitans were invoked and exercised
in the early stages of the difficulties in effecting a settle
ment. "I fear very much that the Holy See may use these
appeals as a pretext for sending us a permanent legate
or delegate who would soon become the center of intrigues
and that the dignity and authority of the ordinaries
would be seriously impaired.
"With regard to  , I do not think there is any
danger of the Propaganda examining and deciding this
case over your head. I hope, and believe, if any notice
is taken of his case, that it will be through your Grace
as Metropolitan. Any other course would be at vari
ance with the promises repeatedly made to us at Rome,
that the Holy See would not consider any appeal till it
had been considered by the Metropolitan.
"Yours in Christ, "J. Card. Gibbons."
Cardinal Gibbons' reasons for doubting the wisdom
of appointing an Apostolic Delegate were based upon his
well-known views of the respective functions of Church
and State. It had been so long one of his favorite themes
that the Church prospers most when divorced from po
litical entanglements, that he conceived that the result
of the experiment, in the form in which he then expected

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 461
it to be undertaken, would be at least doubtful. Misin
terpretation, he thought, would be apt to arise; it might
be held in some quarters that the appointment of an
Apostolic Delegate, though his functions might be con
fined to the adjustment of purely ecclesiastical questions,
would be an entering wedge for the opening of full diplo
matic relations between the Vatican and the White
House. He believed that this last was impossible in his time,
and not in accord with the spirit of American institutions.
To his mind it would not help the Church, and he saw
no validity in the argument that it was justified by great
need. The Church had no difficulty with the govern
ment of the United States. Successive administrations in
Washington had not only not been repressive, but had
shown no disposition to interfere with Catholic interests
in any place over which the American flag floated.
Ecclesiastical authorities were generally sustained in their
local property rights before the courts, whose custom it
was in all cases involving procedure within the Catholic
Church to adjust their decisions to the processes of
ecclesiastical law and the Church organization. In the
appointment of chaplains in the army and navy there
was no discrimination, nor indeed was there any in the
miscellaneous operations of the government.
In the few transactions which had required communi
cation between the Vatican and the White House, the
Archbishop of Baltimore had appeared as the representa
tive of the Pope. General questions involving the rela
tions between dioceses or Papal investigations of diffi
culties, financial or otherwise, which sometimes developed

462 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in the jurisdictions of other Archbishops, had been cus
tomarily attended to by the same prelate, who received
from Rome his authority to intervene and forwarded to
Rome his reports of recommendations and action.
While this involved a considerable personal burden,
the weight of which Gibbons had felt more than any of
his predecessors because of the numerous missions given
to him as the result of Leo's confidence in his judgment
and discretion, he had no disposition to escape it and
was willing to bequeath it to his successors. The na
tional capital is within the See of Baltimore and inter
changes with the national government by the head of
that See were therefore convenient and suitable from
every point of view.
Nevertheless, there was a demand among some Ameri
can Bishops and priests that a method should be pro
vided for a more prompt determination of ecclesiastical
questions arising in this country. The United States was
then still under the jurisdiction of the Propaganda, al
ready overcrowded with the tremendous undertaking of
managing Catholic mission movements throughout the
world, and the questions which a Papal representative
might appropriately solve in America were multiplying.
One of these which was becoming acute was the school
question, involving experiments in the direction of co
ordinating parochial schools with the public school sys
tems in various States. More than all else was a multi
tude of problems arising from the so-called question of.
Americanism — the nationalization of the diverse for
eign elements introduced by immigration into the Church
here. Opinion was dividing upon these things with in-

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 463
creasing definiteness of demarcation. The surge of
Catholic growth swept upon the shore the driftwood of
many perplexing issues.
Not only was the Church able to retain within her
fold a host of the immigrants who were arriving from
Catholic countries in Europe, but conversions were numer
ous and dioceses were springing up on every hand. To
be a Catholic was no longer to be an object of suspicion
in an ultra-Protestant neighborhood. Protestants were
inclined to welcome a Catholic church in their vicinity
in the same spirit in which they would welcome one of
a non-Catholic denomination. A militant evangelism
was building new churches where the Mass might be
celebrated in the regions to which the new population
was flocking. With the increased wealth of the country,
it was easier to build churches, parish halls and schools,
and to support the clergy and the religious orders in their
ministrations. It was amazing how the old lines of re
ligious prejudice were melting. Catholic and Protestant
pastors worked together in movements for the moral and
social betterment of the communities to which they
ministered. Archbishop Satolli had fascinated Leo on his return
from the centenary celebration in Baltimore with glow
ing accounts of what he had seen in America. The
strength and freedom of the Church here had made a
powerful impression upon his receptive mind. In Wash
ington he had been cordially received by President Harri
son; and he had become cognizant no less of the vast
possibilities for the advancement of the Church here than
of the material resources of the nation.

464 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
A situation which arose in connection with prepara
tions for the World's Fair, held at Chicago in 1893 to
mark the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of
America, gave the Pope an opportunity to make a test
of the outlook for the appointment of a permanent Apos
tolic Delegate. Gibbons wrote in his journal:
"Sept. 15 [1892]. At the request of the Secretary
of State, Mr. Foster, I conferred with him regarding a
letter to be addressed to the Pope, through Secretary
of State Cardinal Rampolla, asking the Holy Father
for the loan of certain maps, etc., having reference to the
discovery of America, and thanking him for his interest
in the Columbian Exposition, where they will be ex
hibited. The Secretary of State gave me a warm letter
which I am forwarding to Cardinal Rampolla."
Mr. Foster's letter began with a request for the loan
of the relics, of which a considerable collection was de
sired for the approaching commemoration. He wrote:
"I need not assure you that the greatest care will be
taken of them from the moment of their delivery into
the hands of the agent of this Government who may be.
authorized to receive them; or, should his Holiness see
fit to entrust them in the care of a personal representative
who will bring them to the United States, I am au
thorized by the President to assure his Holiness that such
representative shall receive all possible courtesy upon his
arrival and during his sojourn in this country.
"The intimate association of the Holy See with the
Columbian enterprise and its results has so linked the
memory of Rome and her Pontiffs with the vast achieve
ment of Columbus and his competitors in the work of
discovery and colonization, that an exhibit such as by

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 465
the President's direction I have the honor to suggest
could not fail to be among the most noteworthy contribu
tions to this international celebration. By co-operating
to this end, his Holiness will manifest for our country a
regard which will be highly appreciated, not only by the
managers of the exposition, but by the American people
at large.
"His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, with whom I have
conferred on the subject, has very kindly agreed to con
vey this letter to your Eminence." 2
Rampolla replied by acceding fully to Secretary
Foster's wishes and announcing the appointment of
Satolli as the personal representative of the Pontiff at
the Columbian exercises. He wrote:
"His Holiness has learned how great was the gratifica
tion felt by the President of the great Republic at the
prospect of receiving the Columbus records, which will
be sent by the Holy See to the exposition which is to
be held next year at Chicago in honor of the immortal
discoverer of America. The august Pontiff felt certain
that the United States Government would spare no
pains to preserve the various objects that are to be in
trusted to it from any mishap, and he returns his thanks
for the kind offer that has been made for their trans
portation. "In the meantime his Holiness, who has so many rea
sons to entertain special regard for the United States
Government on account of the liberty which is enjoyed
in those States by the Catholic Church, and who justly
admires the enterprise and progress of that country, has
decided to be represented at the public demonstrations
which are to be held there in honor of the Genoese hero
on the fourth centenary of his memorable discovery, by
'Letter of Secretary Foster to Cardinal Rampolla, September 18, 1892.

466 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
a person who is no less distinguished by his personal
qualities than by his grade in the ecclesiastical Hierarchy.
This person is Mgr. Francesco Satolli, Archbishop of
Lepanto, a prelate who is as highly to be esteemed on,
account of his virtues as for his profound scholarship,
of which he has given many evidences in his writings.
"His Holiness does not doubt that this decision of his
will be received with pleasure by the Government, and
feels sure that your Excellency will welcome the prelate
with your accustomed courtesy." 3
Leo now resolved to appoint Satolli as temporary Apos
tolic Delegate to the Church in America, with plenary
power, in order that he might observe how the arrange
ment would operate in that form. He commissioned
the Archbishop in the following November for the new
undertaking, but did not accredit him to the government
of the United States, withholding from him all diplo
matic status. The Delegate's immediate function was
to represent the Pontiff at the public demonstrations of
the World's Fair; beyond this the program was indefi
nite, depending upon the circumstances of his reception
and the relations which might develop between him and
the prelates of America, as well as the civil authorities.
Before leaving Rome as the custodian of the relics,
Satolli conferred at length with the Pope regarding the
ecclesiastical problems with which he was to deal on
this side of the Atlantic; and, full of the spirit and pur
poses as the head of the Church, he sailed for America.
Leo said to him at parting that he looked with flowing
tears on the steadily failing Orient, but his heart and
'Letter of Cardinal Rampolla to Secretary Foster, September 28, 1892.

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 467
soul were filled with great joy in beholding the progress
of liberty in the great Republic of the West.
Satolli had become a warm admirer of Cardinal Gib
bons while on his previous visit to Baltimore, having
observed with especial interest the lines along which
Gibbons' cordial relations with the public authorities
were maintained, and the devoted fidelity with which a
large majority of the American Bishops followed the
Cardinal's leadership. Arriving in America, he proceeded
to Baltimore again, holding his first conferences with
Gibbons, and spending some days at the archiepiscopal
residence, absorbing from the Cardinal views of the
situation which would aid him in the successful trans
action of his mission.
Perhaps it was fortunate that the first Apostolic Dele
gate had not been trained in the diplomatic school of
the Vatican. Although he possessed remarkable breadth
of view and sympathies, he was essentially a theologian
and had no impulse to concern himself with political
questions. A native of the diocese of Perugia, he had
studied in the seminary of that city, which was presided
over at the time or Joachim Pecci, Archbishop of the
diocese, the future Leo XIII. He became a favorite of
Archbishop Pecci, who, after being elevated to the
Pontificate, called Satolli to Rome, in whose atmosphere
he developed the broad powers which the keen judgment
of his superior had discerned that he possessed. He filled
with success important professorships in the College of
the Propaganda and the Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics.
In his early studies he had been fascinated by the
Thomistic philosophy. His commentary on the Summa

468 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of St. Thomas, in five volumes, established clearly the
profundity of his intellect. This and other works of
authorship moved the Pope to bestow upon him a special
brief of commendation. In appearance he suggested the
thinker. Slight and of medium height, his brilliant dark
eyes were capable of great expression. Surmounting them
was a broad and intellectual forehead. Mingling with
the expression of the scholar were strong traces of
strength and self-repression, which indicated that he was
cast in a mold adapted to great affairs.
Satolli executed his mission to the full satisfaction of
the Pope and of a large majority of the American
prelates. The fine tact which he possessed was in abun
dant evidence in his relations with the civil authorities
in the events of the World's Fair, and no question was
permitted to arise that was even in a remote degree
embarrassing to either. Honor was accorded him on all
public occasions, and he reciprocated by developing and
expressing a genuine and discriminating interest in the
institutions of the country. His ties with Gibbons re
mained the closest, and he soon grew to associate him
self with the hopes and aspirations of the Cardinal, with
whom he was much in contact in dealing with the im
portant ecclesiastical questions which required action in
the year of his arrival and the following year.
Encouraged by the harmonious relations thus estab
lished, Leo, in January, 1893, appointed Satolli perma
nent Apostolic Delegate to the Church in America, with
residence in Washington. Thus the question of diplo
matic relations was not raised, but the principle of hav
ing a Papal representative in this country was put in

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 469
operation. As late as the month before the appointment
of Satolli as permanent Apostolic Delegate Gibbons had
gone on record as not wishing to ask for it; but he
promptly acquiesced in the decision and acknowledged
that the plan worked well from the beginning. A memo
randum in his journal shows that he wrote to Leo ex
pressing thanks for the appointment of Satolli.
Satolli won the warm affection of the American
prelates. At a meeting of the Archbishops in Chicago
in 1893, they decided to issue an appeal for funds to
establish a legation in Washington, and this was done
soon afterward.
It was not in the plans of Leo that Satolli or any other
Delegate should remain long in the United States. It
had seemed to him that one of the special advantages
of such an emissary from abroad was that he would
arrive in the country free from local associations which
might affect his judgment on ecclesiastical questions re
quiring a detached point of view. The general form in
which the functions of the Delegate had been framed
seemed to him to have been justified by events. There
had been no encroachment upon the authority of the
Bishops; no encroachment upon the State, nor even any
direct relations with the State. Leo voiced his thoughts
upon this latter question in his letter 4 reviewing his own
Pontificate in which he wrote:
"The Church the usurper of the rights of the State!
The Church invading the political domain! Why, the
Church knows and teaches that her Divine Founder has
commanded us to give to Casar what is Csesar's and to
"Apostolic letter, March 19, 1902.

470 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
God what is God's; and that He has thus sanctioned the
immutable principle of an enduring distinction between
those two powers, which are both sovereign in their re
spective spheres, a distinction which is most pregnant
in its consequences, and eminently conducive to the de
velopment of Christian civilization.
"In its spirit of charity it is a stranger to every hostile
design against the State. It aims only in making these
two powers go side by side for the advancement of the
same object, namely, for man and for human society, but
by different ways and in conformity with the noble plan
which has been assigned for its Divine mission. Would
to God that its action were received without mistrust and
without suspicion." B
Satolli had served three years in America when Gib
bons received a message from Rome announcing the
Pontifical decision to confer the red hat upon the Dele
gate. This was preliminary to the nomination of his
successor. The ceremonies of the elevation took place
January 5, 1896, in the Baltimore Cathedral, when
Archbishop Kain, who had succeeded Kenrick as Arch
bishop of St. Louis, preached. Reviewing in behalf of
the Hierarchy the perplexities which had confronted the
Delegate, and the success with which he had overcome
them, Gibbons made a parting address to Satolli, who,
in responding, spoke from the fulness of his heart, saying:
"It was you who received me at my coming, and who
immediately became my friend and most zealous pro
tector. It was with the aid of your wise counsels and
unfailing encouragement, and the continual assistance of
all the prelates of this great American Hierarchy, that
my labors progressed and were crowned with success."
'Wynne, The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, p. 571.

THE COMING OF THE PAPAL DELEGATE 471
The regret with which Satolli's departure was viewed
was lessened by the tact, judgment and adaptability
which were displayed by his immediate successor, Arch
bishop Sebastiano Martinelli, who, as "Delegate Apos
tolic in the United States of North America," renewed
the ties of confidence and cooperation which had been so,
marked in the case of his predecessor and the Bishops of
the country.

CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN
The Catholic Church in America in the new flush of
vigor and confidence under Gibbons' leadership no longer.
feared to speak her mind on any question that concerned
religion. Issues never publicly pressed before, held in
the background in dread of proscription and hatred, were
brought out into the light of free and open argument.
She knew her rights, claimed them all, asked no favors,
conceded full rights to others. The spirit of Gibbons
was her spirit.
One of these issues was the school question. No one
held more tenaciously than Gibbons to the Catholic con
viction that secular teaching of the young must be accom
panied by religious teaching. As eternity was infinitely
greater than time, so he repeatedly declared that it was
infinitely more important to prepare for the future life
than for the life of this world.
State supervision of schools commended itself to his
judgment if it were properly applied. His idea of a
public school for Catholic children was one under the
supervision of the local examiner, no matter what his
religious faith, subject to regulation in the use of text
books the same as other schools ; in discipline, class work,
sanitary regulation and all other points conforming to
the standard set by the public authorities; the teachers
472

CARDINAL GIBBONS AT THE PEAK OF HIS LABORS
From a photograph taken in 1891, five years after his olevation to the Cardinalate

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 473
to be appointed on certificate, subject to the tests pro
vided for instructors in the public schools. But, apart
from all this, he desired that the teachers of Catholic
children should be Catholics, and that for a portion of
the day, perhaps before or after the regular school hours,
they should instruct the pupils in the principles and prac
tise of religion. In his view it was desirable that the
State should contribute to the support of Catholic schools
only in the proportion to which the parents of the chil
dren in those schools were citizens.
He could see nothing un-American in this. A school
of the kind which he favored was as much of a public
school, in his view, as any other. He felt that this name
should not be preempted for any particular type of school,
particularly one in which religious teaching was either,
non-existent or so scanty as to be negligible.
Holding these views unshakenly, he was nevertheless
not disposed to press the question of a general change
in the existing system of public schools in advance of
popular sentiment. He was persuaded that great harm
would be done not only to the cause of religion in schools,
but to the general cause of religion in the United States,
by forcing a general verdict on the question of a new
State system in the face of powerful opposition.
Gibbons had been keenly interested in schools from
the time he was a young priest. The idea seemed to be
present always in his mind that education was a hand
maid of religion and patriotism; and that it was urgently
necessary to diffuse intelligence as widely as possible
among Americans, in order to prepare them for exercis
ing the duties of citizenship. He had shown this bent

474 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of mind when, as one of his first acts as a young priest,
he established, under disadvantages which would have
deterred a less resolute man, a parochial school at St.
Bridget's Church, Baltimore. In North Carolina he had
been so eager to promote Catholic education in a State
where educational facilities were crippled by the
paralyzing effeGts of the Civil War that he, the Bishop,
had given up part of his time to teach a class in the school
at Wilmington. Under his inspiration in the diocese of
Richmond, the number of schools had been increased
markedly. He carried the same enthusiasm for education to Balti
more when he went there as Archbishop, establishing
many new schools, and strengthening others. His predi
lection for teaching was also indicated by his continuous
activity in the establishment of Sunday schools from the
time when he was secretary to Archbishop Spalding,
when, through his efforts, the first school of that kinc\, at
the Baltimore Cathedral had been founded.
He set forth his views definitely and forcibly in a
pastoral letter on education issued to the clergy and laity
of the archdiocese of Baltimore in 1883.1 As a funda
mental principle he declared that the religious and secu
lar education of children could not be divorced "without
inflicting a fatal wound upon the soul." A high develop
ment of the intellect without a corresponding expansion
of the religious nature, he believed, would often prove
to be a curse instead of a blessing. His idea of religion
was to make it an everyday affair, not something to be
put on like a holiday dress on Sunday. The religious
1 Archives of the Baltimore Cathedral.

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 475
and moral training of the young should be interwoven
with the threads of daily life. At every step, as far
as possible, their feet should be guided in the paths that
would lead to the precious goal of eternal salvation.
Church and Sunday school were not enough for children.
"They should, as far as possible, breathe every day a
healthful religious atmosphere in those (week day)
schools," he wrote, "where not only their minds are en
lightened, but where faith, piety and sound morality
are nourished and invigorated."
He admonished parents to develop the "minds and
hearts" of their children, so that "then they can go forth
into the world gifted with a well-furnished mind and
great confidence in God." He emphasized the need of
secular education for all and advised that the history of
the United States, with the origin and principles of the
government, and the lives of the eminent men who had
helped to found and preserve it, should be an especial
object of study, in order that the children might grow
up "enlightened citizens and devoted patriots." He
added: "But it is not enough for your children to have a
secular education; they must also acquire a religious
training. Indeed, religious knowledge is as far above
human sciences as the soul is above the body; as Heaven
is above earth; as eternity is above time. The little
child who is familiar with his catechism is really more
enlightened on truths that should come home to every
rational mind than the most profound philosophers of
pagan antiquity, or even than many so-called philoso
phers of our own time. He has mastered the great prob
lems of life; he knows his origin, his sublime destiny,

476 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and the means of attaining it — a knowledge which no
human science can impart without the light of revela
tion." While a knowledge of bookkeeping was valuable for
elementary pupils, he proceeded, it was not enough, un
less the child were taught how to balance his accounts
daily between his conscience and his God. "What
profit," he asked, "would it be to understand the diurnal
and annual motions of the earth, if the pupil did not
know and feel that his future home is beyond the stars
in heaven?" While it was important to be acquainted
with the lives of heroes who had founded empires, of
men of genius who had enlightened the world, it was still
more necessary to learn something of the King of Kings,
who created all those kingdoms and by Whom kings
reigned. If the soul were to die with the body, then
secular education would be enough; but it was not wise
to train the young for the comparatively brief time to
be spent in earthly existence and leave them without
training for the infinite future beyond this life.
"Our youth," he wrote, "cherish the hope of becoming
one day citizens of heaven as well as of this land; and,
as they can not be good citizens of this country without
studying and observing its laws, neither can they be
come citizens of heaven, unless they know and practice
the laws of God."
The same privileges and duties which he exhorted in
the case of Catholics he freely conceded to others.
They, as far as they desired, might impart religious in
struction to children of their own faith in connection with
the branches of secular learning. In his mind, the

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 477
supreme danger was the rearing of the young without
the guidance of any church, without moral instruction,
without character building apart from the cultivation of
the mind.
He feared that the children of Catholic parents, if
they did not lose all religion in purely secular schools,
might lose their own distinctive faith. To him this was
a jewel which should be preserved. With all his re
markable liberality, it would have been absurd to say
that he considered "one church as good as another," any
more than a minister of a Protestant faith would have
considered the Catholic faith "as good as" his own. He
considered the Catholic Church to be the divinely ap
pointed agent for the spread of the Gospel on earth, and
the custodian of the deposit of heavenly truth. Acknowl
edging the common brotherhood of all the children of
God, he could, and did, recognize men who differed from
him in religious conviction as truly good and thoroughly
sincere. Even those who were closest to him never heard
him say a word in reproach of any religious denomination
or of its members, individually or collectively. But he
considered that it was desirable to exercise the utmost
efforts without encroaching upon the rights of others to
retain within the fold of his Church all children born of
Catholic parents. Without parochial schools, he saw
danger that the parishes would languish and disintegrate
in the midst of the tendencies of everyday life.
He did not doubt the earnestness of the convictions
of those who believed only in secular education in the
schools. As far as their view extended, he sympathized
with it; but his contention was that their plan did not

478 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
go far enough and embrace religious training also. He
wished the Bible to be read in the public schools, if no
other form of religious instruction could be provided.
In a letter addressed to the President of the Chicago
Women's Educational Union, he wrote:
"The men and women of our day who are educated in
our public schools will, I am sure, be much better them
selves, and will also be able to transmit to their children
an inheritance of truth, virtue and deep morality, if at
school they are brought to a knowledge of Biblical facts
and teachings. A judicious selection of Scripture read
ings; appropriate presentation of the various Scripture
incidents, born of reflection on the passages read and
scenes presented, cannot but contribute, in my opinion,
to the better education of the children in our public
schools, and thus exercise a healthy influence on society
at large, since the principles of morality and religion
will be silently instilled while instruction is imparted in
branches of human knowledge." 2
The hope was strong in him that the problem would
be worked out without excitement or injustice. Speak
ing at the dedication of a building for St. Joseph's School
of the Baltimore Cathedral in September, 1892, he said:
"I trust that the Catholic schools will one day become
in some way connected with the public school system."
He did not attempt to prescribe what that way should
be. The next year, however, a program on the subject
was drawn up by some priests and laymen in Baltimore,
who set on foot a movement to obtain from the public
authorities an appropriation for Catholic schools. A
'Reily, Collections in the Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons, Vol.
Ill, p. 173.

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 479
circular embodying their views was distributed, and
preparations were made to introduce in the Maryland
legislature a bill in conformity with them. The bill
provided that denominational schools be incorporated
by the State; that the trustees of such schools should
have the right of selecting their own teachers; that the
teachers should be required to pass the regular examina
tions as to competency that were provided by the public
authorities; that the schools should be subject to inspec
tion and regulation by those authorities ; that denomina
tional school buildings should be rented to the city or
State at the nominal sum of one dollar a year each, which,
it was urged, would save the State from an expense of
some hundreds of thousands of dollars; and that the
teachers should be paid by the public authorities.
The preamble of the bill declared with emphasis that
its adoption meant no form of Church union with the
State. Its essential meaning was thus expressed:
"As the State is not united to any particular religious
denomination, the State is not expected to teach re
ligion; but it can be supplied by public denominational,
schools." If the support of Cardinal Gibbons to this program
could have been enlisted, it was intended to begin sys
tematic efforts for having the bill adopted by the legisla
ture. But he firmly refused to countenance it, and his
influence was sufficient to stop the movement before the
bill could be introduced. He was persuaded that the time
was not ripe for an annual concession by the legisla
ture of an appropriation for the support of Catholic
schools.

480 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
With the rapid increase in the number of Catholic
schools which marked the spread of the faith among new
millions, it was inevitable that the question should be
come one of the most important in the general perspec
tive of the Church in this country. As such schools
existed in many cases side by side with public schools
of the ordinary type, in which no religious instruction
was required, and in many of which no such instruction
was given, there was bound to be discussion and pro
posal of various forms of fusing the two systems, be
cause of the obvious duplication of cost and effort. From
the beginnings of the public schools in the United States,
Catholics who were taxed for their support and yet who
sent their children from conscientious conviction to the
parochial schools had felt the desire to be rid of the
double burden.
A focus of all the controversy in which the question
became involved developed in an experiment which
Archbishop Ireland undertook at the towns of Faribault
and Stillwater, Minnesota. The centering of the agita
tion there was due probably more to the strong per
sonality of Ireland than to the novelty of his methods.
Thus, when the discussion suddenly became inflamed, the
designation "Faribault Plan" was often bestowed upon
the whole problem.
It seemed to be the fate of Ireland to draw fire wher
ever he went. He was willing to face the assaults of
popular tumult because he believed that in the end right
would prevail, and that the American people would find
a solution of all problems relating to their schools which
would be the best for them.

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 481
When Ireland, not hesitating to strike out boldly,
made an arrangement with the public authorities at
Faribault and Stillwater, exaggerated accounts of its
nature and purposes soon found general currency. Angry
gusts of debate on the wisdom of the plan developed
and impartial consideration of it in the public mind was
for a time impossible. Enemies of the Archbishop made
use of the situation for a twofold purpose : some, to make
it appear that he was compromising Catholic principles
of education by submerging them in his own diocese and
accepting the principle of purely secular schools; others,
that he was making war upon the public schools by in
sidiously attempting to undermine them through the in
troduction of sectarian influences.
Higher still rose the waves of controversy when Arch
bishop Ireland, in an address in July, 1890, at a public
school convention in St. Paul, thus set forth the funda
mentals of his view :
"The secular instruction in our State schools is our
pride and glory, and I regret that there is necessity for
the parish school. The spirit of the parish school, if not
the school itself, is widespread among American Prot
estants and it is made manifest by their determined op
position to the exclusion of Scripture reading and other
devotional exercises from the school-room.
"The State school is non-religious; ignores religion.
There is and there can be no positive religious teachings,
where the principle of non-sectarianism rules. It follows
then that the child will grow up in the belief that religion
is of minor importance, and religious indifference will
be his creed. You say the school teaches morals, but
morals without religious principles do not exist. Secu-

482 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
larists and unbelievers will interpose their rights. Again
there are differences among Christians. Catholics would
not inflict their beliefs upon Protestants, nor should
Protestantism be inflicted upon Catholic children.
"Some compromise becomes necessary. Taxation
without representation is wrong, and while the minority
pays school taxes, its beliefs should be respected. Amer
ica is trying to divorce religion and the school, although
religion pervades our systems and the school was origi
nally religious through and through. As a solution of
the difficulty, I would permeate the regular State school
with the religion of the majority of the land, be it as
Protestant as Protestantism can be, and I would do as
they do in England — pay for the secular instruction given
in denominational schools according to results; that is,
each pupil passing the examination before State officials
and in full accordance with the State program."
Catholic as well as non-Catholic criticism was now
showered upon Archbishop Ireland so copiously that
Rome asked Gibbons to report on the subject. In an ex
change of letters with Ireland, he learned thoroughly
that prelate's views as well as the steps that had been
taken at Faribault and Stillwater. These investigations
and a study of the Archbishop's speech convinced him
that Ireland had done nothing to compromise the
Church's view on schools. He wrote in his journal De
cember 30, 1890:
"I sent the Holy Father a reply to a letter of Novem
ber 24, from the Cardinal Secretary of State (Rampolla)
written in the Pope's name, in which my opinion was
asked about the soundness of Archbishop Ireland's dis
course at the Public School Convention held in St. Paul, '
July 10. My reply covering ten pages of large letter

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 483
paper is a full vindication of the Archbishop. I also sent
a French translation of the Archbishop's address and
wrote a brief letter to Cardinal Rampolla and to Dr.
O'Connell, to whom I enclosed the other letters."
Gibbons wrote to Monsignor O'Connell:
"Baltimore, September 10, 1890.
"Right Rev. dear Friend:
"Archbishop Ireland has been severely handled by
some of the Catholic papers on account of his address on
the school question. I hope it will not hurt him in Rome-
He is really a power here, and has more public influence
than half a dozen of his neighbors. Such a man should
not be under a cloud. . . .
"The Archbishop was writing for his own section of
the country, with which he is better acquainted than any
other prelate could be. He was simply throwing out sug
gestions for effecting some modus vivendi between the
Catholics and the public schools. The most liberal terms
he proposed would secure for the Catholic children at
tending in some places the public schools in large num
bers a Catholic education which is now denied them in
the public schools. . . .
"There is no prelate in the United States who has done
more to elevate and advance the Catholic religion here
than Archbishop Ireland. He is honored and admired
by the whole community. Protestants regard him as a
fearless and uncompromising advocate of the Catholic
faith, and Catholics venerate him as a grand and eloquent
exponent of their religion. They almost idolize him.
The circulation of even a rumor here to the effect that
the Archbishop's course was disproved by the Holy See,
or that he did not enjoy the entire confidence of the
Propaganda, or that he was under a cloud, would do im
mense mischief to religion, would discourage and dampen

484 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the ardent zeal of the Archbishop in evangelizing the
West (as he is doing) ; would elate our enemies, and
sadden the hearts of the great Catholic body.
"The representations against the Archbishop were
doubtless made by parties who are narrow and who do
not understand the country in which they live. . . . Had
he been a dumb dog, no whelp would have barked at him
here. "I am saddened at the thought that such a man should
suffer from irreverent tongues, and I am sure that my
sadness, if the cause were known, would be shared by
nearly the entire episcopate, who are justly proud of
their colleague. "Faithfully yours in Christ,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."
Gibbons called the Archbishops together to consider
the subject when they assembled in St. Louis in 1891
at the celebration of Archbishop Kenrick's episcopal jubi
lee. He presided over the meeting and asked Archbishop
Ireland to explain in detail the plan in regard to a school
settlement which he had put in operation in his diocese.
Ireland faced the inquiry with the utmost frankness. He
told his brother prelates that he was happy to submit his
action to their cognizance, and was ready to retrace his
steps if they thought that he had passed the limits of
right and prudence. He set forth in detail the agree
ment between himself and the school commissioners of
>
Faribault and Stillwater, as follows:
"1. The school buildings remain the property of the
parish. They are leased to the school commissioners
during the school hours only — that is, from 9 a. m. to
3.45 p. m. Outside these hours they are at the sole dis-

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 485
posal of the parish; the pastor and the Sisters who teach
can hold in them such exercises as they deem proper.
The lease is for one year only ; at the end of the year, the
Archbishop may renew the lease or resume the exclusive
control of the buildings.
"2. The teachers must hold diplomas from the State,
and the progress of the pupils is determined, as to the
various branches of profane learning, by parochial ex
aminations held in conformity with official requirements.
The class rooms have been furnished and are kept by the
school commission, and the Sisters receive the same sal
aries as are paid to the ordinary teachers.
"3. During school hours, the Sisters give no religious
instruction; but as they are not only Catholics, but also
members of a religious order, they wear their religious
habits, and do not alter their teachings in any respect.
The schools, although under the control of the State, are,
in respect to instruction, precisely what they were before
the arrangement was made. The Sisters teach the cate
chism after school hours, in such a way that the pupils
notice merely a change from one lesson to another. Be
sides, at 8.30 a. m., that is, before the regular school hour,
the children attend Mass; and on Sundays, the school
buildings are at the exclusive disposition of the parish.
"4. The public schools are scattered in various parts
of Minnesota cities, and children are required to attend
the school in the district wherein they live. Faribault
and Stillwater are excepted from this rule. Catholic
children can attend the schools in question from all parts
of the cities; the Protestant children living in the dis
tricts where our schools are situated may do so, but are
not obliged. The result is that almost all the Catholic
children of the two cities attend these schools, whereas
there are very few Protestants, and the influence is almost
wholly Catholic." 3
'Official report of the meeting of Archbishops to Leo XIII.

486 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The subject was thus clarified, and some of the Arch
bishops who had not studied the question thoroughly were
surprised to find how little basis there had been for the
furious dispute. Several of them explicitly approved
Ireland's course, and not one offered a word of blame.
Archbishop Williams, of Boston, went so far as to say
that he congratulated Ireland on the results obtained;
that his own wish was to submit the schools of his dio
cese to a similar arrangement; and that he hoped to suc
ceed, at least as to some of them.
The subject was generally discussed at the meeting
and the points were brought out that the teachers at Fari
bault and Stillwater received more nearly adequate pay
than the parishes could afford to give ; that Catholics had
no longer to pay the double tax for the public school and
the parochial school; and that the pastor was relieved
of anxiety in obtaining the necessary money to carry on
the schools.
It appeared to be clear to all of the Archbishops that
in placing the two schools under the school boards, which
were only municipal organizations, Ireland did not intend
to invalidate the principle of the parochial school. His
aim was to save two schools which had been perishing,
and to obtain for the large number of Catholic children
in Faribault and Stillwater the religious influences which
had been lacking in the public schools.
As the plan was weighed in council, the Archbishops
were interested to observe that Ireland had not even made
an innovation. Other schools were then operated on
plans almost exactly similar in the dioceses of New York,

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 487
Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Harrisburg, Erie, Peoria,
Milwaukee and Savannah.
"No one," Cardinal Gibbons remarked, "had dreamed
of raising objections and of accusing the priests of those
dioceses of unfaithfulness to their mission and of treason
to the Church; but passions were stirred the instant
Monsignor Ireland acted."
Fully sustained by his brethren of the Hierarchy in
America, and confident of the powerful aid of his friend
and leader, Gibbons, Ireland resolved to carry his case
to Rome, in order that the voice of his enemies might be
hushed completely. Leaving St. Paul in January, 1892,
he prosecuted his mission with signal success in the Eter
nal City, backed by Gibbons, and winning every point
for which he contended.
The entry is found in the Cardinal's journal:
"March 1 [1892]. Wrote to the Pope today com
mending the course of Archbishop Ireland in the Fari
bault school contract, and animadverting on the bitter
ness of his enemies."
At a special congregation of the Propaganda held April
21 of that year the following decision was reached:
"Without derogating from the decrees of the councils
of Baltimore on parochial schools, the arrangement en
tered into by Archbishop Ireland concerning the schools
at Faribault and Stillwater, taking into consideration all
the circumstances, can be tolerated."
The Pope approved this action in an audience held the
same day. In July Cardinal Ledochowski, Prefect of

488 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Propaganda, addressed a letter to Cardinal Gibbons
advising that the American Archbishops at their next
meeting search with care for a means of supplying the
religious needs of Catholic children who, outside the
system of the parochial schools, frequented the public
schools in great numbers.4
Gibbons summoned the Archbishops to meet in New
York November 17, 1892, when Satolli, who had re
cently arrived in this country, was able to speak to them
with authority as Papal Delegate regarding the general
lines for working out a solution of the school question.
Satolli, who, with customary thoroughness, had made a
study of the whole subject, outlined fourteen proposi
tions, all of which were based upon the decrees of the
Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, which in this con
troversy, as in others, triumphantly withstood the tests
of time and circumstance. From these decrees he quoted
the declarations that ample care must be taken to erect
Catholic schools, to enlarge and improve those already
established, and to make them equal to the public schools
in teaching and in discipline. He also cited the refusal
of the Council to condemn persons who sent their children
to the public schools, saying:
"The Catholic Church in general, and especially the
Holy See, far from condemning or treating with indif
ference the public schools, desires rather that, by the
joint action of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, there
should be public schools in every State as the circum
stances of the people require for the cultivation of the
useful arts and the natural sciences; but the Catholic
Church shrinks from those features of public schools
'Archives of the Baltimore Cathedral.

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 489
which are opposed to the truths of Christianity and to
morality; and since in the interest of society itself, these
objectionable features are removable, therefore not only
the Bishops, but the citizens at large, should labor to re
move them in virtue of their own right and in the cause
of morality."
The Archbishop set forth that public schools bore
within themselves approximate danger to faith and
morals, because in them a purely secular education was
given, and also because the teachers were chosen indis
criminately from every sect "and no law prevents them
from working the ruin of youth in tender minds." He
also considered it a serious objection that in many such
schools children of both sexes were brought together for
their lessons in the same room.
Satolli was careful to point out that his warnings were
based entirely upon the necessity of the religious training
of youth, and not upon opposition to a plan under any
specific name. He said :
"If it be clear that in a given locality, owing to the
wise dispositions of public authorities, or to the watchful
prudence of school boards, teachers and parents, the
above dangers to faith and morals disappear, then it is
lawful for Catholic parents to send their children to these
schools to acquire the elements of letters and arts, pro
viding the parents themselves do not neglect their most
serious duty, and the pastors of souls put forth every ef
fort to instruct the children and train them in all that
pertains to Catholic worship and life."
The Papal Delegate, touching on the Faribault plan,
said that he would greatly desire, and that it would be a
most happy arrangement, for the Bishops to agree with

490 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the civil authorities or with the members of school boards
to conduct the schools with mutual attention and due con
sideration for their respective rights. He put stress upon
his admonition that steps be taken to raise the standard
of instruction in Catholic schools, and that normal
schools be established for the preparation of Catholic
teachers.8 Satolli's declaration fully met the views of the Arch
bishops, and they closed their sessions with an expression
of satisfaction with the way in which he had fulfilled his
mission. After the meeting, Leo, watchful lest some pre
text might remain for a renewal of the controversy in an
unexpected quarter, took the additional precaution to
obtain from each of them a private letter fully opening
his mind on the subject. These letters convinced him
that there was still a doubt on the part of some as to
whether the decrees of the Third Plenary Council had
not been abrogated in part by the Delegate's interpreta
tion. The exercise of final authority in the decision of
the controversy seemed to him to be necessary; and he
addressed a letter to Cardinal Gibbons which clarified
every point of doubt that appeared to remain.
The Pope commended Satolli's declarations, saying:
"The principal propositions offered by him were drawn
from the decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Balti
more ; and especially declare that Catholic schools are to
be most sedulously promoted, and that it has been left
to the judgment and conscience of the Ordinary to de
cide according to the circumstances when it is lawful, and
when unlawful to attend the public schools."
The decrees of the Council of Baltimore on the school
' Satolli, Loyalty to Church and State, p. 27 el seq.

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 491
question, the Pope set forth, were to be faithfully ob
served so far as they contained a general rule of action.
Every endeavor must be made to multiply the Catholic
schools and to raise their standards and equipment; but
the public schools were not to be entirely condemned,
since cases might occur, as the Council itself had foreseen,
in which it was permissible to attend them. The Pope
continued :
"Wherefore, we confidently hope (and your devoted
ness to us and to the Apostolic See increases our confi
dence) that, having put away every cause of error and
all anxiety, you will work together, with hearts united
and with perfect charity, for the wider and wider spread
of the Kingdom of God in your immense country. But,
while industriously laboring for the glory of God and
the salvation of the souls entrusted to your care, strive
also to promote the welfare of your fellow-citizens and
to prove the earnestness of your love for your country, so
that they who are entrusted with the administration of
the government may clearly recognize how strong an in
fluence for the support of public order and for the ad
vancement of public prosperity is to be found in the
Catholic Church.
"And as to yourself, beloved son, we know for certain
that you will not only communicate to our other vener
able brethren in the United States this our mind, which
it hath seemed good to us to make known to you, but that
you will also strive with all your power that, the con
troversy being not only calmed, but totally ended, as is
so greatly to be desired, the minds which have been ex
cited by it may peacefully be united in mutual good
will." 6
"Letter of Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons May 31, 1893 (Cathedral
Archives, Baltimore).

492 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The controversy was thus closed. The Bishops were
convinced that the opportunity before them was to in
crease the number of parochial schools and to improve
their equipment. New energies toward that end were put
forth in every diocese; the attacks which had centered
upon Archbishop Ireland and his experiments in Minne
sota subsided. Satolli, the warm friend of Gibbons and
of Ireland, lost no opportunity of defending the motives
and prudence of both.
Gibbons wrote to Archbishop Corrigan:
"Baltimore, May 18, 1892.
"My dear Archbishop :
"My attention was called to a dispatch from Baltimore
dated May 1st and published on the 14th in the New
York Sun, stating that while I refused to be interviewed,
I differed with your Grace in my interpretation of the
Roman decision regarding the Faribault case. The truth
is that, while I candidly believe that the decision sus
tains Archbishop Ireland, I refused to be interviewed at
all on the subject. . . .
"Whatever difference may have existed among us, we
are all, I am sure, animated by the purest motives of zeal
for the education of our youth. May the Lord grant us
peace and mutual love now that the matter is settled.
"Faithfully yours in Christ,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."
The one instance in the United States in which the
public authorities had sanctioned contract arrangements
with religious bodies for instruction was in regard to the
Indian schools. Gibbons had been a zealous champion
of this plan, and when an assault upon it was begun about
the time when the discussion over the Faribault ques-

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 493
tion was most acute, he girded himself for defense. When
President Grant, deciding that it was "better to Chris
tianize than to kill" inaugurated his "peace policy"
toward the Indians,7 the Catholic Church and Protestant
denominations were urged to maintain schools on the
reservations, the teachers and other employees, though in
effect appointed by the various religious bodies, being put
on the government payroll. Later the practise was
adopted of making formal contracts with church organ
izations conducting schools for the tuition and support
of Indian pupils who could be induced to attend them.
Under this program the government appropriations to
Catholic Indian mission schools reached a maximum of
$397,756 in 1892. The schools multiplied greatly with
the strong support of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Mis
sions, which had been originated in 1874 Dy Gibbons'
predecessor, Bayley. The heirs of Francis A. Drexel, of
Philadelphia, gave largely from their wealth to the cause,
and one of them, Mother M. Katherine Drexel, conse
crated her life to the welfare of the Indians and negroes,
founding for their especial benefit the missionary congre
gation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.8
In the arousing of hostile public sentiment regarding
religious teaching of the Indians in government schools,
strong pressure was exerted on Congress by the "Ameri
can Protective Association" to abolish all aid to sectarian
schools. That organization was able at one time to com
mand considerable political influence, which had its effect
'Coolidge, Ulysses S. Grant, pp. 404-05.
'"Our Catholic Indian Missions," a paper read before the Catholic
Missionary Congress in Chicago, November 16, 1898, by the Rev.
William H. Ketcham, director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Mis
sions.

494 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
at Washington. Congress began in 1895 to curtail the
appropriations for the contract schools, and two years
later 9 declared it to be the settled policy of the govern
ment "to make hereafter no appropriation whatever for
education in any sectarian school." In 1900 it made what
it termed the "final appropriation" for this purpose. The
Catholic Bureau, thus deprived of the largest part of the
funds which had sustained it, was unwilling to abandon
its promising work among the Indians. It continued to
support schools for them by means of funds obtained
largely through Lenten collections in churches, and the
generosity of Mother Drexel.
Gibbons felt that a serious injustice had been done to
the Indians, and determined not to accept defeat in the
plans of the Church for their welfare. The Bureau of
Catholic Indian Missions was incorporated in 1894, and
two years later he was elected its president, which office
he continued long to hold. So strongly did he feel on
the question that, reluctant though he was to participate
in a direct appeal for legislation, he addressed a petition
to Congress December 5, 1898, in behalf of himself and
the other Archbishops of the United States, urging that
the contract school question be reopened, and that an
inquiry regarding the whole subject of Indian education
should be made by Congress. An impartial investigation,
he held, would show the benefits of Catholic Indian edu
cation so clearly that the political clouds which had ob
scured the merits of the question would be removed. The
system of religious teaching, he declared, was an essential
element in the solution of the Indian problem — a system
"Act of June 7, 1897.

SCHOOL QUESTION— THE FARIBAULT PLAN 495
which could not be called sectarian, and yet actually put
the spirit of Christianity into the work of the government
and enabled it to use that indispensable factor in the en
deavor to elevate the Indians. He set forth an outline
of the work which the Church had undertaken for them,
the obstacles which it had encountered, and the impor
tant successes which had been won, adding:
"Certainly we are justified in saying that the well-
informed on the subject cannot escape the conclusion that
the mission school is better adapted to the civilization of
the Indian than any other. In the mission school are
engaged men and women set apart for its special work;
men and women who, through noble inspiration, have
chosen this field in which to do lifework in the cause of
humanity and to the glory of God. They are selected
for the work by the several denominations employing
them, not only because of their scholastic attainments,
but also because their devotion to the Christian religion
has been evidenced by the purity of their lives."
Even though the congressional appropriations were
withdrawn, Gibbons took the view that appropriations
for the contract schools could still be made out of the
tribal funds of the Indians, which were their own prop
erty and not public money of the United States. Presi
dent Roosevelt accepted this solution after obtaining
from the Attorney General an opinion that it was legally
sound. He sanctioned new contracts in cases where the
Indians expressed the wish by petition to have a por
tion of their funds so used.
The storm of opposition sprang up anew, and a demand
was made upon Congress for legislation prohibiting the
use of tribal funds for the support of any religious

496 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
school. By this time, however, the influence of the "A.
P. A." had waned, and Congress refused to be swayed
by the pressure which the remnant of that organization
put forth.
The course of President Roosevelt was fully sustained
by a decision of the United States Supreme Court.10 Con
gress went further and ordered a resumption of the dis
tribution of rations to the children in mission schools,
which had been withheld by the Indian office for five
years. Thus the Bureau of Indian Missions, with the
active support of Gibbons, was enabled to make a new
start, and to prosecute once more with vigor a work
which had seemed at one time to be doomed to extinction.
Among Americans of his time no one showed greater
solicitude for justice and benevolence toward the In
dians than Gibbons, nor devoted more consistent and
effective efforts in that direction. His unflagging inter
est in the subject was a stimulus to all those in the Church
who were engaged in missionary work among the tribes.
It seemed to him to be unworthy of America, after the
Indians had parted from their old religious creed, to leave
them adrift without any creed. Religion, even more than
education, he felt, was necessary to enable them to work
out a peaceful destiny in the country which their ances
tors had owned. He conceded to all denominations equal
rights in the field of missionary labor; but the thought
was abhorrent to him that the light of Christianity might
be shut off from the school rooms in which the young
Indians received from the white race the instruction
which guided them on the threshold of life.
"May 1 8, 1908.

CHAPTER XXIX
THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM
Unwearied with the combats which had marked his
first few stormy years as Cardinal, the champion of the
Catholic Church in America and the champion of America
in the Catholic Church now faced his greatest battle. It
called for all his resources of skill, all the determination
and courage which were so strong in him when aroused.
After years of strife, he won a sweeping victory, over
throwing the well-planned and powerfully supported ef
fort to introduce foreign influences in the Church here
which developed to wide proportions from the Cahensly
agitation. This victory was achieved at a time when na
tionalist influences from abroad, which enlisted strong
support from foreign elements in this country, were gath
ering impetus that might have paralyzed the arm of
America in the World War which was to come had they
not been checked.
Had the bold and clear reach of Gibbons' vision been
unproven except for this, the proof would have been
enough. In less than two decades the nation was racked
with alarm lest jarring elements introduced by immigra
tion should cripple her when she was called to the con
flict in which civilization was engulfed; that she was
not thus thwarted in her national destiny was due, in
great part, to influences which Gibbons had set in mo-
97

498 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tion long before, and which produced the effect that he
had foreseen with inspiration nothing short of prophetic.
The issue came to be known as Americanism when the
conflict was at its height in the years 1890-93. Its origin
was in the "Cahensly question," so called from Peter
Cahensly, a German, the secretary of the Archangel Ra
phael Society for the protection of German emigrants.
In its beginnings that society had as its purpose only the
laudable one of promoting the spiritual welfare of set
tlers in foreign countries; but fears quickly arose when
it broadened its scope, as Pan-German influences took
possession of it, to include the preservation of the na
tionality and language of those who emigrated from
Europe. Its larger policies and efforts soon came to re
flect the militant Teutonic spirit which was then begin
ning to sweep like a great gust through the German and
Austrian empires and out into the United States, Brazil,
Argentina and every other country where Germans went
from native town or farm to begin life anew, or to ex
pand the vast trade that streamed from German factories.
Germans were pouring at the rate of 400,000 a year into
the Americas, Africa and even Asia.
The world, which learned at the cost of the greatest
war men ever fought the meaning and power of Pan-
Germanism, was oblivious of or indifferent to its potency
in 1890. Beneath its professed object of spreading and
consolidating everywhere Teutonic ideals of character.
and culture, most observers discerned but dimly the com
mercial ends that were sought by its leaders and gave
scarcely a thought to the political ends. Least of all was
there serious disquietude in the United States, whose

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 499
people cherished a serene reliance upon their powers of
national assimilation, believing that the tide of immigra
tion, high as it was, would soon be lost in the placid
waters of American unity.
Though Germans were the originators of the Cahensly
movement, its daring captains seized the opportunity to
promote their ends by alliances with Italians, Poles,
Frenchmen and other elements in the national groups
that were flocking to America. These efforts, misunder
stood in their full bearing outside of Germany, were by
no means lacking in substantial success. In Italy the
Marchese Volpi Landi championed the cause, and in
France strong support in leadership was obtained from
Abbe Villeneuve.
Organizations of German immigrants or their immedi
ate descendants were then thickly scattered throughout
the cities and towns of the United States, and were mul
tiplying as new hundreds of thousands from their father
land swept in each year with the flow of immigration.
They gave strong support to the religious and charitable
objects which the Cahenslyites set forth as the chief
causes of their solicitude.
The Catholic Church was now the spiritual mother of
by far the greater number of the newcomers from con
tinental Europe. There had been an abatement in the
Lutheran exodus from Prussia, and most of the Germans
who were arriving were from the Rhineland, Bavaria,
Wiirttemberg and other portions of the Empire of the
Kaiser in which the Catholic Church was strongest nu
merically. Cahenslyism, founded in close alliance with
Church influences in Germany, had recruited active and

500 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
widespread support from clergy in that country, the mass
of whom were moved by the appeal to their natural sym
pathies in behalf of persons facing the hazards of life in
distant countries, and were unaware of the sinister prop
aganda of international politics which was masked be
neath the cloak of disinterested help.
The need of exceptional means to provide spiritual
care for the immigrants had been fully realized by the
Church in America, and the Third Plenary Council of
Baltimore had made provisions for it which had been
carried out with vigilance. As soon as immigrants ar
rived they were sought out by priests in the parishes
where they happened to go and who spoke their own
languages. They were quickly absorbed in existing
parishes, or new ones were erected, where, during the early
period of their residence in America, they might receive
the ministrations of the Church in their own tongues and
send their children to schools where the common speech
would be that with which they were familiar.
As they showed a disposition to align themselves with
other parishes in which the language used was English,
and as their improvement in material means caused them
to change to different homes, many of them lost identifi
cation with purely foreign groupings. In some dioceses
where the number of priests and parishioners of foreign
birth was unusually large, however, little or no inclina
tion was shown to divert the immigrants to English
speaking parishes; in certain jurisdictions, indeed, the
disposition was to preserve their national alignments and
distinctions of language as long as possible. There being
no rigid rule to follow in regard to this, the result was

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 501
that when immigration approached the rate of 1,000,000
a year many hundreds of new parishes sprang up in the
United States in which the language used in church was
German, Polish, Italian or some other than English.
Emboldened by success, the Cahenslyites at an inter
national congress held at Lucerne in December, 1890,
decided to address a memorial to the Holy See appealing
in behalf of their cause. The memorial began by em
phasizing one of their much favored arguments, that the
losses which the Church had sustained in the United
States amounted to more than 10,000,000, caused by
immigrants and their descendants falling away from the
faith, notwithstanding the fact that Gibbons and other
American prelates rejected this statement as a gross
exaggeration. As a remedy, the society proposed the
systematic formation of immigrants into separate par
ishes, congregations or missions according to nationality
and that the direction of these parishes should be con
fided to priests of the same nationalities. "In this wise,"
the memorial set forth, "the sweetest and most cherished
relations of the fatherland would be constantly brought
to the emigrants, who would love the Church all the
more for procuring for them these benefits."
In parts of the country where immigrants of different
nationalities had settled in numbers too limited to form
a separate parish for each group, the memorial asked that
priests should be appointed for the care of groups who
would use in their ministrations the distinctive tongues
to which the parishioners had been accustomed. One of
the most urgent recommendations was that ample provi
sion be made that in parochial schools the instruction he

502 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
given in the native languages of the parents. The or
ganization of Catholic societies founded upon nationality
was advised. There were already many such.
The main demand of those in America, as well as in
Europe, who led the Cahensly movement, was that
Bishops be appointed by nationalities according to popu
lation; if, for instance, the Germans formed one sixth
of the Catholic population, it was desired that one sixth
of the Bishops should be chosen from those who spoke
the German language and would use it in the transaction
of their official duties. The memorial summed up the
matter in this wise:
"It would be most desirable that, as often as might be
judged feasible, the Catholics of every nationality should
have in the episcopate of the country to which they have
emigrated some Bishops of their own race. It seems that
such an organization of the Church would be perfect.
Every different nationality of emigrants would be rep
resented, and their respective interests and needs pro
tected or cared for at the meeting of the Bishops in
council." In conclusion, the memorial besought special protec
tion for the seminaries and other schools that had been
instituted in Europe for the education of missionaries to
work among the emigrants. Special favor for the Arch
angel Raphael Society was invoked, and the Pope was
urged to appoint a Cardinal Protector as a guardian for
it.1 This was followed by another memorial presented by
1Reily, Collections in the Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons, Vol.
Ill, Part 3, pp. 7-9.

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 503
the Archangel Raphael Society to Leo XIII in June,
1891, setting forth the demands of the Cahensly element
with even more vigor and with considerable amplifica
tion of argument. It was declared that "the current
which is carrying away to America populations of dif
ferent nationalities is already formidable; in the future
it is likely to become irresistible." Statistics were pre
sented purportng to show that 439,400 Catholics had left
Europe for the American continent in the year 1889,
and that of these 178,900 had gone to the United States.
With a touch of exaggeration not unusual in various
processes of estimating elements of foreign nationality in
America, it was declared that calculations based upon
authoritative statistics showed that Catholic immigrants
and their children ought to constitute in the country a
population of 26,000,000, though the number of Catho
lics in the United States did not then much exceed 10,-
000,000. "Catholicity, therefore," the memorial set
forth, "has sustained up to the present date a loss of
16,000,000 in the great American republic."
Causes for the desertion of their faith by Catholics
were thus enumerated : Lack of adequate protection for
the immigrants during their voyages and on their arrival
in the United States; insufficiency of priests and par
ishes of their own nationalities; pecuniary sacrifices —
"often exorbitant" — that were exacted of the faithful;
the public schools; insufficiency of Catholic societies
based upon nationality and language, and lack of repre
sentation for different nationalities of immigrants in the.
episcopate. The novel view was set forth that immi
grants who forgot their native languages also forgot their

504 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
religion. Regarding the all-important question of
Bishops, the memorial declared:
"Bishops who are strangers to the spirit, character,
habits and customs of other nations cannot in the re
quired measure, despite their virtues, knowledge and zeal,
appreciate and effectually attend to the wants of these
nations. Again, the harmony and concord between the
different nationalities are affected. If the episcopate be
handed over almost exclusively to one nationality to the
detriment of others, a feeling of uneasiness, of general
discontent is created among these last — a feeling which
assumes the proportion of disastrous international rival
ries. It is desired that concord and harmony should
reign among the different nations that go to make up
the Church in the United States. Nothing is more de
sirable; nothing more essential. The only way to attain
this end is to give to every one of these nations Bishops
of their own, who will represent their respective nations
in the episcopal body, just as those nations are repre
sented among the parochial clergy and among the faith
ful." 2
As early as 1884, before Gibbons had been elevated to
the cardinalate, the subject of Church care for the immi
grants arriving in this country had been much discussed
at Rome. This is indicated by an entry in his journal as
follows: "April 4 [1884]. I wrote to Cardinal Simeoni, in
reply to his letter asking what was the best means to be
employed in bettering the moral and material condition
of emigrants coming to this country. Many emigrants,
especially French and Italian, suffer from ignorance of
'Reily, Vol. Ill, Part 3, pp. 9-13.

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 505
our language, but they have always the means of im
proving their condition if they are industrious. Their
spiritual wants are now better provided for than for
merly, owing to increase of churches and priests. I will
refer his letter to the Council" [The Third Plenary
Council of Baltimore].
In the swelling volume of their public agitation, as
well as in their pleas to Rome, the Cahenslyites were
careful to base their main arguments upon the need of
special spiritual care for immigrants, which no one in the
Church was disposed to deny. But the only way to jus
tify their general program, which reached far beyond
that, was to justify the rending of America into different
language groups, such as existed in the Austrian empire
as then constituted.
One of the main concerns of each group, if the Cahen
sly basis of representation in the Hierarchy were adopted,
would inevitably be to preserve a tireless vigilance that
would assure the selection of a number of Bishops ade
quate to the supposed strength of each element. Thus
the primary question when a Bishop was to be appointed
would be his language and perhaps the vehemence with
which he stood for all the varied and perhaps conflicting
aspirations of his national group, i. e., with which he
stood in the way of the Americanization of foreigners.
This would lead to popular agitation over the selection
of Bishops, a thing which Rome had never countenanced
and could not be induced to countenance.
Gibbons believed that in the episcopate nationalist
Bishops, if appointed, would tend to form groups which
would of necessity be more or less antagonistic to the

506 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
American Bishops. This would produce endless discord
and arrest the growth of the Church.
In its wider aspects he regarded the whole movement as
an open conflict with the general plan of American assim
ilation of foreigners. He had a deep conviction, which
he freely expressed, that America could settle her own
internal problems as they arose, including the problem of
constitutional evolution, if her national destiny were not
diverted from the path on which she had set out. The
danger of the introduction of foreign influences from
the unprecedented flow of immigrants who arrived in
the last two decades of the nineteenth century, and up to
the time of the World War, he regarded as one of most
ominous potentiality as a possible cause of such diversion.
No other nation had ever assimilated such a mass,
and he was well aware that in the past the tendency of
such movements, even on a scale less imposing in num
bers, had been to submerge the people into which the
new waves swept.
None deplored more than he the introduction, so far
as it had already gone, of 'foreign nationalism into
American politics, and he was resolved that no influence
of his own should be wanting to resist that tendency.
Class voting of any kind seemed to him to be the nega
tion of everything American. He considered that the
national safety was directly dependent upon the citizen
casting his ballot swayed by regard for the greatest good
to the greatest number, and ignoring class interests ; even
more, that the citizen must be ready at times to sacrifice
his personal interests for the general benefit and, above
all, for principle.

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 507
A broad nationalist at heart, he wished loyalty to
America to be the same in Oregon and in Florida —
wherever the flag floated. He knew that the peoples
crowding in from abroad were bringing different political
ideas, some of them grotesque, others full of harm, born
of class hate or of shallow and impractical theories. The
tenacious possession of these jarring and destructive
views, proceeding from lack of experience or imperfect
experience in democratic government by peoples of con
tinental Europe, appeared to him to contain possibilities
of evil, of which the American people should be espe
cially watchful.
He was determined that the Church in this country
should continue homogeneous, like the nation. If the
discord of rival nationalist aims were definitely intro
duced, his work would go down in wreck. He was firmly
convinced that nationalist groups in the Church would
tend to become political elements. Factions would en
tangle her in whatever direction she might turn. The
defeated side in a contest over a bishopric for a foreign
constituency would be resentful and might resort to re
prisals, perhaps by combination with a different group.
The American Bishops would thus be beset with pleas and
harassed by pressure to align themselves with one group
or another, and complications all but insoluble might
ensue. One of the stanchest convictions to which he adhered
throughout his life was that homogeneity in America was
a fundamental need in the absence of a repressive gov
ernment which might maintain unity by force. A demo
cratic regime could not be permanent when racked by

508 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ceaseless discord proceeding from causes other than dif
ferences of view upon legitimate subjects of legislation
and general policy. No one welcomed immigrants here
more warmly than he did, and he went on record in a
letter which was presented to Congress against excluding
aliens who were not able to read and write. He wel
comed, however, only those who were willing to become
Americans. Those who cherished a secret hope or aim of
upsetting the government, or crowding it out of its natu
ral line of evolution, were out of place here.
A long-time student of the Constitution and of the
debates which had marked its birth in 1787, Gibbons held
a deep conviction that it was based upon the soundest of
views and upon matured political experience. On one
occasion, he said that if he had the privilege of modify
ing the Constitution he would not expunge or alter a
single word of it.3 Realizing that there had been periods
when it had undergone severe tests, and even when large
numbers of his fellow-countrymen had been disposed to
doubt the permanency of its value, he felt that it had
been conceived with great insight into the future, and that
the stability of the country was bound up with its contin
ued existence, unchanged in essentials. That the bless
ings which it had brought — greater blessings, to his mind,
than had flowed from any other political instrument of
modern times — should be lost or even imperiled by a
sudden wave of immigration was an abhorrent thought to
him. American liberty was the offset to the confusion of
political ideas which the immigrants were bringing, no
'Sermon at the Catholic University, January, 1897.

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 509
less marked than the confusion of their tongues. They
must receive an opportunity to understand America be
fore they passed sweeping judgment upon the merits or
demerits of its system of government. Many evils which
they had resented abroad did not exist here, but having
been accustomed to them in their former homes, compre
hension broke upon them slowly that the same evils were
absent in the new country to which they had come.
Gibbons regarded conditions in many parts of Europe
at that time as distinctly unstable, or possessing the seeds
of instability. He would resist the transplanting of such
seeds to these shores. His faith was unshaken that
America, for all the looseness of government which Euro
pean critics saw exemplified here, could withstand a shock
which would rend almost any nation of Europe. The
State system he regarded as providential, although well
aware that it was based upon historical causes which ante
dated the Revolution, and that it was incorporated into
the Constitution from the impact of political necessity.
He expressed the view that the States were like the com
partments of a ship, assuring safety in storms; for even
though one or more of them might become impaired, the
ship would not sink.
Knowing well the purposes of Leo XIII, he felt as
sured from the beginning that Rome would countenance
no assault, open or covert, upon the system of govern
ment in America. Leo had not only recognized the lib
erality of the political institutions here, but had wel
comed the great benefits which the Catholic Church de
rived from them. True, like other doctors of the Church
holding the ancient faith, he did not teach that the status

510 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of the Church here was the .most desirable for every coun
try, and in his encyclical 'letter on "Catholicity in the
United States," declared that it would be "very errone
ous" to draw the conclusion that "it would be universally
lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in
America, dissevered and divorced. . . . She would bring
forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she
enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the
public authority." 4 This was far from saying that he
had any aim to disturb the system in existence here, for
throughout his Pontificate he gave no sign of such an aim.
It would have crushed Gibbons if, while the Church
was advancing so fast in America, she had been diverted
into side paths from her journey on the main road. Har
mony was essential to her, and never more so than at that
period; Cahenslyism meant a direct assault on that har
mony. The constant rivalries which it invited would
beget new ones. Never were.Bishops in this country more
harmonious than during the long period of Gibbons' car
dinalate. The great majority of them not only upheld
his policies, but followed his lead with an enthusiasm
comparable to that with which the marshals of the first
French empire followed their chief.
The political authorities of the United States were
full of misgivings over the progress of the Cahensly agi
tation, and Gibbons was distressed to observe that they
saw a disconcerting problem for the State which origi
nated with the Church. To his mind, the problem was
in its essence substantially the same for both. If some
permanent force were to be set up that would arrest the
4 Wynne, The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, pp. 323-324.

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 511
assimilation of the immigrants who were then arriving
in such great numbers, every political party would be at
the mercy of such elements, as well as the government of
the Church. If she, as the one influence whose weight was
decisive with the largest group of them, cooperated in
their Americanization, they would be Americanized; if
she did not, the prospect would be dark indeed.
All the patriotic professions of Gibbons, Ireland, Ryan,
Williams and other leaders of the Hierarchy in those
days were being weighed in the balance. They could not
submit to being convicted of impotency in deeds when
their words were put to the test. Their backs were to the
wall. They must fight for Church and country as they
had fought before. They could not contemplate an
America that would be a suzerain of warring clans, in
flamed by jealousies that would tend to disrupt the
Church government, as well as the civil government. The
peace and unity of one were the peace and unity of the
other. What the Cahenslyites would sow, they would
reap. The Church could not hope to gather figs from
thistles. Gibbons greatly deprecated the traces of direct nation
alist enmities which crept into the controversy. He
wished the debate to proceed along the lines of affirma
tive argument, rather than negative; he wished it to be
constructive, and deplored that at times it tended to
become destructive. As he never spoke in reproach of
non-Catholics, least of all did he wish to speak in re
proach of elements within the Church.
It was only natural that some of his lieutenants were
not able to exemplify at all times the exceptional breadth

512 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of their leader's charity. Charges and counter-charges
were made and answered and the recriminations were a
foretaste of what Cahenslyism might bring. A multi
tude of animosities awoke which Gibbons had wished to
remain in perpetual somnolence.
Leaders on both sides were soon conducting rival cam
paigns in Rome. As the stronghold of Cahenslyism was
in Europe, that cause naturally had a larger continuous
representation at the seat of the Church's government
than its pronounced foes. Its defenders included men of
ability, skill and diplomatic tact, who left no method
untried in the pursuit of the object for which thev had
resolutely set out.
Their nationalist aims were kept in the background as
far as they could do so. It seems clear that these aims
were not known at first by the Cardinals in Rome whom
they tried to win over to their side; certainly not by most
of the European priests whom they persuaded to lend
help to them. Only the World War disclosed these influ
ences fully, but Gibbons' acts and words left no doubt
that he saw them in advance.
The question arises, in view of the unmasking of inter
national intrigue in the World War, was not the Cahen
sly movement craftily fomented by the German secret
propaganda service? It was easy to defend in 1890 by
appealing to general sympathy for immigrants. Many
persons of German birth had no idea that it served politi
cal ends, or even that it could be made to do so. The
American government and people passed decisive judg
ment in the great war that the persistence of nationalist
groupings disturbed the unity of the United States by

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 513
leading to the formation of opinion on American ques
tions from the background of European predilections or
antipathies. It was not true that the mass of Germans or of any
other foreign nationality in America was included in the
Cahensly movement. Many of these were distinctly op
posed to it, wishing to cast their lot unreservedly with
the country of their adoption; it is probably true that
most of them were wholly indifferent to the subject,
though many of their leaders were active, and in not a
few cases aggressive in the cause.
The press in Germany became aroused on the issue,
whether or not from government inspiration is unknown.
A correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung interviewed
Gibbons in Baltimore, and to him the American prelate
spoke firmly and clearly, saying:
"Some people in America and elsewhere seem not to
understand that the Americans are striving for develop
ing into one great nationality; just as Germany has de
veloped into one national union by a struggle of many
years' duration, so we are striving in the States for a
certain homegeneity whose outward expression consists
in the possession of one common language, the English.
This explains the propaganda for one language, the Eng
lish tongue, in the Catholic Church of North America.
"There is no thought of violating the love of the old
fatherland — a sacred feeling. The Germans in America
are handicapped; without the knowledge of English, they
are socially at a disadvantage ; only in agricultural cen
ters the German is preserved pure. The Germans are
shining examples of industry, energy, love of home, con
servatism, and attachment to their religion. They are
beginning to comprehend that it is impossible to stem the

514 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
course of natural evolution. For some time I have been
in possession of petitions from German clergymen de
siring the introduction of the English language.
"The transition from German to English will neces
sarily be gradual, and in accordance with the wishes and
needs of the people concerned. What Germany herself
does in this respect to solidify her union by a common
language, no German will think wrong when applied in
advancing the homogeneity of the people of the United
States."

Gibbons was moved the more profoundly in regard to
Cahenslyism because he knew the real thought in the
minds of many non-Catholic Americans that impeded the
progress of the Church more than any other thought. As
this thought found voice from those who held it, or re
mained unspoken and dormant, it was that the purposes
of the Church were anti-American or at best inter
national; and that some of these purposes were political.
He had thrown himself without reserve into a battle of
years to dispel this impression, which he rejected from
the depths of his soul as a cruel error. If he could not
stifle it, if he could not prove it false, he felt that he
would be remiss in his duty to God and country. The
greatest advances which he had made had been against
ithis powerful salient in the fortress of opposition.
His was never a passive character. Motion, progress,
accomplishment were the breath of life to him. If he
could not stand still, least of all would or could he go
backward. To have color lent to the view that foreign
influences were active in the Church, except in the uni
versal sense of a world-wide unity of faith, would have

THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICANISM 515
broken his highest hopes, and this appeared to him to be
the real result toward which Cahenslyism was heedlessly
rushing. Masked under the appealing guise of solicitude
for the religious needs of immigrants set down suddenly
among strangers to begin life anew, he saw the frowning
face of foreign nationalism, convulsed with mad designs
against his beloved America.
No opinion that he held was more firmly implanted
than that there could be no divided allegiance in this
country; the Catholic was either an American or a for
eigner. If an American, he must be an American in
every sense and cast his lot without reserve among the
people who were his fellow-citizens. Apart from the
public policy of this, apart from the broadminded wis
dom which inspired it, it comported with Gibbons' own
aspirations as a man and as a citizen.
In general perspective, he regarded the institutions of
his country as the best in the world. With sorrow he
saw them sometimes perverted to base uses ; and when the
occasion presented itself, he never failed to raise his voice
against abuses that crept into the body politic, whether
the cause which he espoused happened to be popular or
unpopular. He knew the dangers of democratic govern
ment; but he also knew the perils of less liberal systems.
In the atmosphere of political freedom he found the best
final solution for all merely material questions which
affected mankind. He maintained that the duty of the
Catholic, which was nothing more or less than the duty
of any other citizen, was to identify himself without
thought of religious discrimination with all that con
cerned the best that was in American institutions, setting

516 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
his face firmly against corruption, the evils of partisan
politics, economic wrong and social disorder.
Foreigners who came to these shores he welcomed as
Catholics, if they happened to be such; but, at all events,
as Americans of the future ; men of the same origin either
directly or remotely as others who had helped to populate
the country; men who would in time share in the respon
sibilities, the burdens, the rewards of citizenship, and
become as thorough upholders of the American idea as
were those whose ancestors had come earlier from the
Old World to seek better opportunities in the new. In
the spiritual and moral natures of Catholics, as developed
by the ministrations of the Church, he saw fruitful soil
for the flower of unselfish patriotism.

CHAPTER XXX
FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE
Exaggeration clouded the real extent of the support
which Cahenslyism received in America; but even allow
ing for this, it was undoubtedly large. The most active
spokesman of the American Cahenslyites in Rome in the
early stages of the struggle was the Rev. P. M. Abbelen,
Vicar-General of the diocese of Milwaukee, who sub
mitted to the Propaganda, as early as 1886, a pamphlet
in which he presented their case. Abbelen went to Rome
fortified with a letter of general commendation from
Cardinal Gibbons, who did not know that a part of his
mission was to appeal in behalf of retaining the nation
alities of immigrant Catholics in America.
Gibbons was soon awake to the truth. His mind
grasped not only the full force of what was being at
tempted at the time, but the immensely greater bearings
which it might have upon the future of the Church in
this country and upon the country itself.
The Germans would have been elated to obtain his
assistance in behalf of Cahenslyism. Throughout their
agitation most of them spoke of him with respect and
even filial affection, because his conduct in the diocese
of Baltimore had been such as to remove any ground for
charges of discrimination on account of nationality. The
517

518 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
largest congregation in the city * was German, presided
over by Redemptorist Fathers who conducted their minis
trations in that language. There were admirable church
facilities for all German immigrants who arrived in the
diocese to be instructed in their own tongue at first.
Poles, Bohemians and other nationalities were similarly
provided for. The Cardinal frequently visited these
churches and cooperated with the pastors in the care of
their flocks. The religious and material welfare of the
immigrants had been a subject close to his heart, but he
felt that this welfare was dependent in large part upon
their being Americanized as soon as was reasonably ex
pedient. When Abbelen presented his plea in Rome, Archbishop
Ireland and Bishop Keane were there, having gone to
discuss with the Congregation of the Propaganda plans
for the establishment of the Catholic University of
America; and they availed themselves of the opportunity
to make a vigorous reply. They repudiated the view
that there was any question between German and Irish
Catholics, insisting that the only question that could be
considered was that "between the English language,
which is the language of the United States, and the Ger
man language, which immigrants have brought to the
United States." There was not even a sign, they stoutly
maintained, of a conflict of peoples in America. No Irish
parishes existed, and no efforts had been made to estab
lish them, notwithstanding the fact that the Irish con
stituted such a large element in the Church; for they
readily assimilated with the rest of the population. Pro-
*St. Michael's.

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 519
ceeding with their argument, these two prelates showed
that there were many diverse nationalities in America in
addition to the Germans, and that it was particularly es
sential for that reason to preserve the unity of Church
government. They pronounced as reprehensible a com
plaint which had been made at a meeting of Bohemian
societies a short time before that up to that time there
had been no Bohemian in the American episcopate.
Regarding the Germans, they showed that the people
of that nationality were not by any means a unit in sup
port of the Cahensly point of view. There existed, how
ever, "what we may call the active party, whose objects
seem to be to preserve intact the German spirit among
immigrants and their descendants, and to prevent them
from changing their language for the English language
and to give a preponderating position to German influ
ence in the Church in America." This was the party for
which Abbelen spoke, and they denied that he possessed
in any way a general representative character. The proj
ect of establishing a permanent Germany in America, in
their view, was approved only by a comparatively small
proportion of the immigrants, the great majority of whom
desired complete and early identification with the insti
tutions and language of their adopted country.
Ireland and Keane freely conceded that the immigrants
should have facilities for themselves and for their chil
dren to practise their religion at first in the languages
most familiar to them. To this end, they showed that
the American Bishops had been multiplying churches for
the benefit of different nationalities, yet it was the ten
dency of the immigrants to get away from such churches

520 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
as soon as possible and identify themselves with the
overwhelming mass of the people. German children who
were instructed in their native language in the school
spoke English by preference when they entered the recre
ation yard. The churches established for foreigners, and
in which foreign languages were spoken from the pulpit
and in the confessional, were constantly losing by de
partures to English speaking parishes, though gaining
naturally from the new arrivals from Europe.
In mixed parishes where there were large numbers of
Germans, presided over by German priests, hundreds of
children forsook the parochial school because the Eng
lish language was not used. Other children were in dan
ger of being alienated from the Church because of their
inability to obtain instruction in the catechism in English,
which would prepare them in this manner for the transi
tion from one language to the other. Ireland and Keane
also remarked significantly:
"With a German Church in America there is no oppor
tunity for the conversion of American Protestants. This
is a vital question for religion."
They summed up their argument in words which be
spoke the mind of Gibbons, saying:
"The Church will never be strong in America; she will
never be sure of keeping within her fold the descendants
of immigrants, Irish as well as others, until she has gained
a decided ascendency among the Americans themselves.
Thank God, the time seems favorable for their conver
sion; prejudices are disappearing; there is a distinct
movement toward the Church. To accelerate it, the
Church naturally must, as far as it can be done without
danger to other interests, be presented in a form attrac-

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 521
tive to Americans. The great objection which they
have until now urged against her — an objection which
at certain periods of their history they entertained so
strongly as even to raise persecution — is that the Catholic
Church is composed of foreigners; that she exists in
America as a foreign institution, and that she is, conse
quently, a menace to the existence of the nation."
While Abbelen was in Rome, he managed to stir the
controversy to such a point that a meeting of some of
the American Archbishops was called to counteract what
he was doing. Gibbons wrote in his journal:
"Dec. 16 [1886]. A meeting of the Archbishops of
Boston, Philadelphia, New York and myself was held
in Philadelphia to consider certain statements made by
the German episcopate in this country, through their
agent, Father Abbelen, now in Rome, in which they wrote
that the Germans are not fairly treated, and that due
attention is not paid to the spiritual wants of the German
faithful. All the statements are refuted in a letter to
Cardinal Simeoni, which was written by Archbishop Cor
rigan, as Secretary, and mailed by the morrow's steamer.
I cabled (an account of) our meeting to Bishops Keane
and Ireland in Rome."
One of the favorite arguments of the Cahenslyites was
that Bishops of Irish birth or extraction in America were
not sufficiently solicitous for the care of immigrants from
continental Europe. Gibbons took occasion in 1889 to
combat this view. His journal for that year contains
the following entry:
"April 10. Wrote to Cardinal Simeoni in relation to
a charge that the German people were sometimes neg
lected by Irish bishops in this country. ... I stated

522 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
that the charge was untrue, as far as my information
extended." He expressed his feelings strongly in a letter written
from a sick room to Archbishop Elder June 3, 1891, as
follows :
"I regard your meeting (the consul tors of the Arch
diocese of Cincinnati) as exceedingly important as being
the first that will take place since the revelation of the
Americo-European conspiracy, which has inflicted so
deep an insult on the episcopate and the Catholics of the
United States, and seems to regard the Sees of America
as fit to be filled by the first greedy ecclesiastical adven
turer that comes to our country. An American Bishop,
in view of the important position which he has as a prop
erty holder and as a citizen, should be a man possessed of
a deep love not only for his Church, but also for this
country, and a thorough acquaintance and sympathy with
our political institutions."
As the agitation waxed stronger and echoes of it began
to resound throughout the world, Gibbons determined
that the whole weight of the American Hierarchy should
be thrown into the scale. After having written to Leo
XIII fully setting forth his own views on Cahenslyism,
he called a meeting of the Archbishops in Philadelphia,
who accepted his stand as their own, and framed a strong
protest which was sent to the Propaganda. They urged
three basic principles:
First, that there should exist among all the parishes
of the United States, without distinction of nationality,
a perfect equality, and that each should be independent
of the other.

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 523
Second, that it was not necessary that any privilege
should be accorded to any nationality in the administra
tion of dioceses and parishes.
Third, that it was the plain duty of every Bishop to do
his utmost that all the faithful, of all languages, who
might be in his diocese be taken care of with the same
charity. Leo never showed any sympathy toward Cahenslyism,
and the appeal of the American episcopate moved him to
condemn it unequivocally. On July 4, 1891, he ad
dressed to Gibbons, through Cardinal Rampolla, a letter
announcing the views of the Apostolic See on the ques
tion. He declared that the existing laws for the selection
of Bishops were to be observed without modification, and
that no toleration could be accorded to practises which
had arisen in opposition to those laws. Gibbons thus
recorded in his journal the receipt of the Papal verdict,
and also commendation of his stand by President Har
rison: "July 11 [1891].. Received from Cardinal Ram
polla, Secretary of State, a letter in which the Holy Fa
ther announces his determination not to grant the peti
tion of Herr Cahensly that national Bishops be appointed
for the United States. I sent copies of the letter to all
the Archbishops.
"While at Cape May, I had an interesting conversa
tion with President Harrison, in which he thanked me for
my denunciation of the Cahensly memorial. He said he
had watched the subject with deep interest, and that he
had sometimes thought of writing to me, but hesitated
lest he might be interfering with church matters."
Harrison met Gibbons while enjoying a walk at that

524 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
summer resort, where the President found relief from his
exacting duties. He invited the Cardinal into his cot
tage, and there they talked at length about the Cahensly
controversy. The President showed a rather broad com
prehension of questions affecting the Church in the
United States. The attempt to introduce the factor of
nationality in selections for the episcopate appeared to
him to have great potency for harm, and he expressed
his unbounded satisfaction that the movement had been
checked through the influence of the prelate who spoke,
for America in all things relating to the Church.
Gibbons described this meeting in the following letter
to Monsignor O'Connell :
"Cape May, New Jersey, July 12, 1891.
"Right Rev. dear Friend:
"Yesterday, while taking a walk with Rev. Dr. Mag
nien, I accidentally met the President of the United
States, who happened to be walking toward me going to
his cottage.
"He greeted me most cordially, and invited me to walk
with him. We went together for some time chatting
pleasantly, till we approached his cottage. When I was
in the act of saying 'Good-bye' to him and continuing my
walk, he kindly asked me to accompany him to his cot
tage. I cheerfully complied, of course.
"After discoursing for some time on various things, Mr.
Harrison, without any suggestion on my part, introduced
the subject of the Cahensly memorials, and the agitation
which they were causing in the United States. He then
remarked to me:
" 'I have followed the question with profound interest,
and I regard it as a subject of deep importance to our
country at large, one in which the American people are

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 525
much concerned. I have also conversed on the subject
with Mr. Tracy, a member of my cabinet. Foreign and
unauthorized interference with American affairs cannot
be viewed with indifference.'
"The President then continued:
" 'I was very much pleased with the opinion which you
expressed publicly in the matter. I had thought several
times of writing to you, and offering you my congratula
tions on the remarks that you made, but I refrained from
doing so lest I should be interfering with church matters.
But I am glad to have the opportunity of expressing my
satisfaction at the words you have spoken and of opening
my mind. This is no longer a missionary country like
others which need missionaries from abroad. It has an
authorized Hierarchy and well-established congregations.
Of all men, the Bishops of the Church should be in full
harmony with the political institutions and sentiments of
the country.'
"The President concluded by saying that I had his
authority to make any use I thought proper of his re
marks. "I told the President I was happy to inform him that
on this very day I had a letter from his Eminence, Car
dinal Rampolla, written by direction of the Holy Father,
in which the Cardinal informed me that the Pope had re
jected the Cahensly petition regarding the appointment of
foreign Bishops. The President seemed to be much
pleased in receiving this information. . . .
"Believe me,
"Your faithful friend in Christ,
"J. Card. Gibbons."
While Gibbons had felt throughout that the mass of
enlightened opinion in America, including the opinion
of men in public life, regardless of creed, had been in
accordance with his own as to Cahenslyism, motives of

526 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
propriety had hitherto forbidden him to transmit to Rome
direct evidences of that condition. Leo had long before
become accustomed to accept the views of Gibbons on
such subjects as authoritative and unquestionable, and
the actual presentation to the Pope of expressions of
judgment outside the Church was not necessary; but here
Gibbons saw an opportunity to confound the purposes of
those who had been resisting his policies which was not
to be overlooked.
In expressing his satisfaction that the President
thought as he did upon Cahenslyism, he therefore sug
gested that as Harrison had contemplated writing a let
ter on the subject, it might not be too late then to do so.
The President replied that while he feared to "burn his
fingers" by meddling in ecclesiastical questions, he had
no objection to the Cardinal stating his views in a letter
to the authorities in Rome. Gibbons transmitted to Ram
polla a full account of the conversation, and received a
reply expressive of the satisfaction which it had caused
at the Vatican.
Cahenslyism was only checked; it was not yet ready to
accept the defeat and utter rout which were to overtake
it later. Some of its captains clung to the hope that an
other way to accomplish its ends would be found than by
obtaining sanction for the selection of nationalist Bishops.
So far as the movement was confined to churchmen, the
Pope's verdict was, of course, final. The fact that the
agitation did not cease lent strong color to the belief that
some of its most powerful sources were secret ones allied
with political influences in Germany, whose designs were

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 527
not limited or even affected by any decision given by a
purely religious tribunal.
Fortified by the formally promulgated decision of Leo,
Gibbons resolved to rebuke the agitation in one of its
strongholds in America. The pallium was to be con
ferred upon Archbishop Katzer of Milwaukee in St.
John's Cathedral, that city, on August 20, 1891. He
framed his address for that occasion so that none might
mistake its meaning in or out of the diocese in which he
spoke. The ceremony was marked by the presence of
more than seven hundred prelates and priests, embracing,
as was to be expected in Milwaukee, every nationality
represented among the American people.
Gibbons began his address by speaking of the "streams
of immigrants" which had flowed into Wisconsin, and
of the solicitude of the Church for their welfare. He
continued :
"We have only to contemplate the scene before us to
day to be convinced that the Catholic Church of America
is a family derived from many nations. It reminds us of
the heterogeneous multitude that assembled on the day
of Pentecost, and who all heard, each one in his own
tongue, the wonderful works of God proclaimed by the
Apostles. "Not so varied was the audience that listened to the
Apostles on Pentecost Day as are the congregations that
arrive at our shores and kneel together at our altars.
Many come to us from England, Ireland, Scotland, Ger
many, Austria, Hungary, France, Italy, Poland, Bohe
mia, Belgium and Holland, and commingle together in
prayer with the great American Catholic body, that holds
out to them the right hand of fellowship. Differing in

528 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
language, in habits and tastes, they are united in the
bonds of a common religion, having one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and in us all. But, thanks to God, the
Catholic Church of America is united not only by the
bond of the common faith, but what is more precious, it
is united also by the bond of Christian brotherhood."
Gibbons then spoke of the harmony that existed among
the Hierarchy, as had been exhibited at the Third Plen
ary Council and at the centennial celebration of the See
of Baltimore in 1889. This was a background for the
message which he had come to deliver, the message that
the unity of the Church in this country was not to be
broken by rivalries based upon nationalism. In his clear,
vibrant voice, then in the full of its vigor, he thus spoke
the overpowering thought that was in him:
"Woe to him, my brethren, who would destroy or
impair this blessed harmony that reigns among us ! Woe
to him who would sow tares of discord in the fair fields
of the Church in America ! Woe to him who would breed
dissension among the leaders of Israel by introducing a
spirit of nationalism into the camps of the Lord ! Bro
thers we are, whatever may be our nationality, and bro
thers we shall remain. We will prove to our countrymen
that the ties formed by grace and faith are stronger than
flesh and blood. God and our country ! — this our watch
word. Loyalty to God's Church and to our country! —
this our religious and political faith.
"Let us unite hand in hand in laboring for the Church
of our fathers. The more we extend the influence of the
Christian religion, the more we will contribute to the
stability of our political and social fabric. . . .
"Next to love for God, should be our love for our
country. The author of our being has stamped in the

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 529
human breast a love for one's country, and therefore
patriotism is a sentiment commended by Almighty God
Himself. If the inhabitant of the Arctic regions clings
to his country though living amid perpetual ice and snow,
how much more should we be attached to this land of
ours so bountifully favored by heaven? If the Apostles
inculcated respect for their rulers and obedience to the
laws of the Roman Empire, though these laws were often
framed for the purpose of crushing and exterminating
the primitive Christians, how much more devoted should
we be to our civil government which protects us in our
persons and property, without interfering with our rights
and liberties, and with what alacrity we should observe
the laws of our country, which were framed solely with
the view of promoting our peace and happiness !
"The Catholic community in the United States has
been conspicuous for its loyalty in the century that has
passed away; and we, I am sure, will emulate the patriot
ism of our fathers in the faith.
"Let us glory in the title of American citizen. We
owe our allegiance to one country, and that country is
America. We must be in harmony with our political in
stitutions. It matters not whether this is the land of our
birth or the land of our adoption. It is the land of our
destiny. . . .
"When our brethren across the Atlantic resolve to
come to our shores, may they be animated by the senti
ments of Ruth, when she determined to join her hus
band's kindred in the land of Israel, and may they say to
you as she said to their relations: 'Whither thou hast-
gone, I also shall go — where thou dwellest, I also shall
dwell; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God. The land that shall receive thee dying, in the same
will I die, and there will I be buried."
Gibbons well knew what it meant to deliver a sermon

530 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
like that in Milwaukee at the time. Speaking of it
twenty-two years later, he said :
"It was one of the most audacious things I ever did,
but it had to be done. When I finished they were aghast,
but I think the lesson had its effect. It was a question
upon which there could be no compromise or hesitation."
The anxiety which he had shown so long that a largely
increased number of priests in this country should be of
American birth was now redoubled. While the Cahensly
debate was at white heat, he made an address at the cen
tennial celebration of St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore,
in October, 1891, in which he used these significant
words :
"We can never, indeed, be sufficiently grateful for the
apostolic labors of the clergy who have come to us from
Europe in the past century. Without them, tens of
thousands would have died of spiritual starvation. But
if the Church is to take deep roots in the country and to
flourish, it must be sustained by men racy of the soil, edu
cated at home, breathing the spirit of the country, grow
ing with its growth, and in harmony with its civil and
political institutions."
The Cahenslyites were unwilling to desist from their
marshaling of nationalist units in exercising pressure as
new Bishops were selected by the process prescribed by
the Third Plenary Council. After their persistence had
been in evidence for nearly a year beyond the time of
Leo's declaration, Cardinal Ledochowski, Prefect of the
Propaganda, was so disturbed by it that he addressed a
vigorous letter to Gibbons, urging that a stop be put to
the entire agitation. He wrote:

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 531
"You are certainly well aware that on the occasion of
vacancies in episcopal sees in the United States divers
commotions very often arise among both clergy and peo
ple, which the event shows are growing more serious and
frequent as time goes on. The effects which usually re
sult in such cases are neither trivial nor hidden, nor are
they of such a nature that this Sacred Congregation can
pass them over in silence. For we have now and again
seen clergy and people active beyond their legitimate
rights in the nominations of candidates for the episcopal
office; contentions are diffused and are fomented through
the press; public and private meetings are held on the
subject, in which each faction extols its own candidate,
while it disparages those of its opponents. But what par
ticularly fosters these contentions is the violent zeal with
which each faction endeavors to secure Bishops of its
own nationality, as if private utility and not the Church's
interest were the end to be looked to in the selection of a
suitable pastor.
"Moreover, while the Apostolic See has the interest of
the Church alone in view in appointing Bishops for the
Christian flock in the world at large, it is more especially
influenced by this consideration in naming Bishops for
the United States of America, where immigrants from
the different nations of Europe, by adopting that country
as their own, are blended together in one people, and
form consequently but one nation. Since, therefore, the
manner of electing Bishops in the Church of the United
States, accurately and wisely defined, is laid down in the
decrees of its National Councils, and particularly in those
of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, strenuous
efforts should be made to do away with all action that
is contrary to it. For these decrees, which are above all
in harmony with the requirements of time and place, and
which have been enacted by the unanimous voice of the
Bishops and confirmed by the authority of the Apostolic

532 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
See, are not such as can in any wise be set aside in favor
of private individuals without serious injury to discipline.
"I consider it my duty to communicate these matters
to you, so that this evil may be opposed at its birth, be
fore it has grown strong with time. It is desirable, there
fore, that in every diocese both clergy and people be
warned, in the first place, of the deplorable results which
result from contests of this kind; that they not only rend
asunder the bond of harmony which should exist among
souls and relax the vigor of ecclesiastical discipline, but
become a stumbling-block and scandal to non-Catholics
as well. Furthermore, let the Bishops, in the name of
the Sacred Congregation, publicly make it known that
whatever is done beyond the prescriptions of the Councils
will be of no avail, since the Apostolic See esteems noth
ing of greater importance than to uphold the vigor of
the ecclesiastical law which is at once the defense of
order and the bulwark of peace." 2
The charges of Catholic losses through allowing immi
grants to stray from the faith were renewed from time
to time in Rome. Gibbons wrote in his journal :
"Nov. 19 [1892]. The Archbishops assembled in
New York forwarded to the Holy Father a letter repudi
ating the misstatements of Herr Cahensly regarding the
defection from the faith of so many millions in times
past." The Cahenslyites aimed some of their sharpest arrows
at Bishop Keane, who had stood with Cardinal Gibbons
and Archbishop Ireland in the group of their most for
midable opponents. They dared not antagonize Gibbons
openly, and centered their fire on his lieutenants. Ireland
"Letter of Cardinal Ledochowski to Cardinal Gibbons, May 18, 1892.

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 533
met successfully the shock of their most violent assaults,
but Keane proved to be more vulnerable.
In the faculty of the Catholic University there de
veloped a comparatively small but resourceful and active
group of men who antagonized the rector, at first covertly
and then openly. The most conspicuous of them was
Mgr. Schroeder, a German who occupied the chair of
dogmatic theology. This group declared that in sup
porting Ireland on the school question, Keane was de
parting from Catholic truth as to education. Naturally,
such contentions tended to compromise him as the head
of the principal educational institution of the Church
in the United States.
The sequel was that in September, 1896, the Vatican
notified Gibbons that a new rector of the university
would be appointed, as it was not considered wise to
depart from the custom that the heads of Catholic edu
cational institutions should not hold their posts in per
petuity. The foes of Americanism in the Church hailed
this as a triumph which was a partial offset to their rout
on the two main issues — the school question and that of
nationalist Bishops.
The decision of Rome was coupled with the an
nouncement that Keane would be elevated to the rank
of Archbishop and the choice was offered to him of re
maining in the United States, in which case a See would
be provided for him, or if he desired to go to Rome a
field of labor would be found for him there. He decided
to proceed to Rome, where honors were bestowed upon
him and he was able to speak for himself in a manner
which reversed the tide of opinion there as to some con-

534 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ditions at the university under his leadership. He was
finally elevated to the archbishopric of Dubuque and re
turned to the United States to take up the active ad
ministration of that See.
The Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, then president of the.
Catholic Summer School at Plattsburg, New York, was
selected as the new rector. At the installation of Dr.
Conaty as rector in January, 1897, Cardinal Gibbons
made the principal address, and took the opportunity to
express his ever warm affection for Bishop Keane. The
Cardinal declared that Keane was justly entitled to be
called the second founder of the university, recalling that
when he was appointed rector even the land for the
institution had not been bought. With emotion he told
how the Bishop had traversed the length and breadth of
the land, arousing Catholics everywhere by his eloquent
pleas which resulted in obtaining the large sum of money
needed for establishing the university.
The Cardinal laid down as the watchword of the uni
versity "Revelation and Science, Religion and Patri
otism, God and our Country." He contrasted the condi
tions at the institution, with which the government never
thought of interfering, and where the only obstacle to
further development was a lack of funds, with condi
tions which he had observed in the course of his Euro
pean trips. The American Constitution was admirably
adapted to the growth and expansion of the Catholic
religion, and the Catholic religion was admirably
adapted to the genius of the Constitution.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Conaty emphasized that
the university was Catholic, that it was for the Church

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 535
in America, and was American in the fullest sense, having
as the circle of its beneficiaries the American Catholic
people. After his return from Rome, Keane delivered an ad
dress at the investiture of Dr. Conaty as a domestic
prelate of the Pope, saying:
"This is the Catholic University of America. It is
truly, intensely Catholic and absolutely American. Its
American character has been approved by the Holy
Father and he desires that it shall always continue so.
I may assure you that no body of men will be allowed
to disturb this university in its most useful purpose —
that of fostering true Catholicity and missionary Ameri
canism." The revival of intolerance of which Gibbons had given
solemn warning came to pass. The attempt to eject for
eign questions into the Church in America produced the
natural result of stirring popular prejudice, too ready
at all times to thrust itself into questions concerning re
ligion. As usual, the mass of these forces of discord be
came merged in one compact organization, the so-called
"American Protective Association," abbreviated in popu
lar parlance to "A. P. A." It was a comparatively weak
revival of the "Know Nothing" movement and, unlike its
abhorrent predecessor, spilled no blood, but aimed blindly
at any Catholic target which presented itself.
Its fomenters professed to find particular cause for
disquietude in the fact that Cardinal Gibbons had been
present by invitation of Speaker Crisp in the House of
Representatives at Washington, when the final vote on
the Wilson tariff bill was taken while Mr. Cleveland

536 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
was President; and the bold declarations of Archbishop
Ireland on political questions furnished abundant
texts for their fiery discourses. In particular, the ap
pointment of Satolli as Apostolic Delegate moved them
to proclaim that the nation was being imperiled.3 As in
the "Know Nothing" movement, there were constant and
vociferous declarations that the great wave of immigra
tion was a menace to American institutions, and agents
of the association used this argument freely as a means
of influencing elections. While the movement never
attained sufficient influence to stamp it as more than
sporadic, it served to call attention to the danger of de
parting from the straight path in the consideration of
questions affecting American nationality.
When the Presidential election of 1892 took place, the
new anti-Catholic agitation was near its pinnacle. In the
campaign which preceded that election, a favorite theme
brought forward by the "A. P. A.," and persons outside
of it whose thoughts ran in lines parallel to it was Mr.
Cleveland's friendship for Cardinal Gibbons. William
Black, of Chelsea, Massachusetts, drew from Mr. Cleve
land a characteristic declaration on that subject by writ
ing to him in regard to the following extract from a re
port of a speech in the British-American:
"When Cleveland became President he had a wire run
from the White House to the Cardinal's palace, and
placed a Roman Catholic at the head of every division of
the 15,000 employees in the public departments, and per
mitted nuns, without authority and against the printed
instructions hung up in every public building in Wash-
" Desmond, The A. P. A. Movement, p. 15.

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 537
ington, to go twice each month through them and com
mand every clerk to contribute to the support of the
Roman Catholic Church," etc.
Mr. Cleveland made this reply :
"Gray Gables,
"Buzzard's Bay, Mass., "July 11, 1892.
"William Black, Esq.:
"Dear Sir:
"I am almost ashamed to yield to your request
to deny a statement so silly and absurd on its face
as the one you send me. However, as this is the second
application I have received on the same subject, I think
it best to end the matter so far as it is possible to do so
by branding the statement in all its details as unquali
fiedly and absolutely false.
"I know Cardinal Gibbons and know him to be a good
citizen and first-rate American, and that his kindness of
heart and toleration are in striking contrast to the fierce
intolerance and vicious malignity which disgrace some
who claim to be Protestants. I know a number of mem
bers of the Catholic Church who were employed in the
public service during my administration, and I suppose
there were many so employed.
"I should be ashamed of my Presbyterianism if these
declarations gave ground for offense.
"Yours very truly,
"Grover Cleveland."
Another organization which sprang up about this time,
and whose objects reflected some of the opinions put for
ward by the American Protective Association, was the
"National League for the Protection of American Insti
tutions." It was formed at Saratoga Springs, New Yorkt

538 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in August, 1889, and included in the membership of its
board of managers a number of men prominent in New
York City and State. Its first president was John Jay,
who was succeeded by William H. Parsons.* The prin
cipal object which it sought was an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States prohibiting the use of
money raised by taxation in aid of any church or religious
society, or any institution under "sectarian or ecclesiasti
cal control." While this part of its plan never progressed
further than the stage of agitation, the influence of the
league was strongly exercised in bringing about the aboli
tion of government appropriations for Catholic Indian
schools, and in causing the insertion of clauses in some
State constitutions in conformity with its principles.
As the American Protective Association's operations
were conducted for the most part in secret, the effects of
its ferment were sometimes difficult to trace to any
source. Catholics felt that an unseen danger constantly
menaced their equal rights as Americans. As the move
ment continued, a demand developed that organization
should offset organization in resisting the anti-Catholic
warfare. This took shape in January, 1896, when the
American Catholic League was organized for the pur
pose of combating the "A. P. A."
Promoters of this society knew that it could not be
effective without the backing of Gibbons, and made ef
forts to obtain his endorsement. This drew from him a
direct expression of his views in the following statement
issued from his household :
"The Cardinal wishes to be understood as in no way
'King, Facing the Twentieth Century, p. 520 et seq.

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 539
approving any secret organization, political or non-politi
cal, within the Church or without. He believes that it is
the duty of all to regard, in electing to office, the best
men, irrespective of their religious convictions ; and that
no man should be debarred from offices of public trust or
private confidence because of his religious professions."
The American Protective Association was particularly
aggressive in the presidential campaign of 1896. Its ac
tivities took the form of fighting by its peculiar methods
the nomination and support of Catholics for any office
by any party. So open and threatening was the move
ment that Gibbons felt it imperative to write a letter in
which he further set forth his attitude as follows :
"It is the duty of the leaders of political parties to
express themselves without any equivocation on the prin
ciples of religious freedom which underlie our Constitu
tion. Catholics are devoted to both the great political
parties of the country, and each individual is left entirely
to his own conscience. We are proud to say that in the
United States the great Catholic Church has never used
or perverted its acknowledged power by seeking to make
politics subservient to its own advancement. Moreover,
it is our proud boast that we have never interfered with
the civil or political rights of any who may have differed
from us in religion.
"We demand the same rights for ourselves and nothing
more, and will be content with nothing less. Not only
is it the duty of all parties distinctly to set their faces
against the false and un-American principles thrust for
ward of late ; but, much as I would regret the entire iden
tification of any religious body, as such, with any particu
lar party, I am convinced that the members of any re
ligious body whose rights, civil and religious, are attacked,

540 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
will naturally and unanimously espouse the cause of the
party which has the courage to avow openly the prin
ciples of civil and religious liberty according to the Con
stitution. Patience is a virtue, but is not the only virtue;
when pushed too far, it may degenerate into pusilla
nimity." Cahenslyism was, perhaps, the most serious danger
which has ever threatened the progress of the Catholic
Church in this country. The most powerful force in
checking it was undoubtedly Cardinal Gibbons, with the
active assistance of his devoted friends and gifted co
workers, such as Archbishop Ireland, Bishop Keane and
Mgr. O'Connell. If the United States is a unit, unbroken
by divergencies and jealousies of race and language, the
country owes a debt to him more than to any other single
force for arresting the progress of a propaganda perhaps
more ominous to the future of the nation than was the
anti-slavery agitation in its beginnings. A Gibbons with
the will, the power, the fertility of resource, the clear
vision of the future, the tact and firmness, the rare traits
of statesmanship which he showed in extinguishing the
flame of Cahenslyism might have nullified the violent
forces unloosed in the conflict over slavery, and brought
about a solution of the problem with the same substantial
results, but without the interposition of a tremendous
and fratricidal war.
Seventeen years before America entered the World
War his mind grasped the danger of dissension, per
haps even of disruption, from foreign elements, that were
rising like a great cloud unseen or unheeded by many, and
overspreading the country. Tardy statesmen could esti-

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 541
mate its potentiality as he did only when it was too late
to prepare to meet it. In 1890 the number of foreign
born white inhabitants in the United States was 9,121,-
867; in 1910, four years before Europe's war deluge put
a sudden stop to emigration, the number was 13,345,-
545-5 There had been a further increase of some hun
dreds of thousands by 1917, when America became en
gulfed in the war. The measure of Gibbons' work in
arresting the danger from this source is found not alone
in what might be termed the negative effect upon the
largest group of the mass of approximately 4,500,000
persons who represented the accretion of the foreign born
here between 1890 and 1910 and among whom the Cath
olic Church, largely through what he did, became in effect
an active agent for Americanization — the most powerful
agent which could have reached into their lives and helped
to mold them. It must be measured also by the positive
effect which would have been produced by the active
consolidation of these foreign born units that would have
taken place under the program of Cahenslyism, if that
program had not been defeated. Beyond that, there was
a great reduction of the effort to retain in compact groups
the diverse national units formed here before 1890 among
the foreigners then in the country.
With the artificial check of Cahenslyism removed from
the natural process of the assimilation of this mass, hun
dreds of thousands who would have misunderstood and
perhaps turned against America in 1917 learned to under
stand her, to love her, to fight for her with an ardor and
courage second to none. Of course, no effort could have
5 United States census figures.

542 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
brought complete loyalty and unity; as it was, the degree
of hostility to America, of seeing her with European eyes,
of holding to the tie abroad more strongly than the tie in
this country, was so great that some of the most optimis
tic have doubted that America could have entered the war
as a unit in 1914, or perhaps even in 1915 or 1916. The
ominousness of the actual threat against the nation's life
that was faced is an indication of what its proportions
might have been had not the victory over Cahenslyism
been achieved.
Gibbons clearly saw that if there should be a divided
America from foreign influence there would be many to
lay the blame at the door of the Catholic Church, no mat
ter what the cause; if the cause had proceeded from the
concrete and deliberate policy proposed by the Cahensly
ites, there would be many more to accuse her. This he
knew would have arrested her progress, perhaps for years,
and might have led under stress of popular feeling to ex
cesses beside which those of previous unfortunate periods
might have seemed insignificant. He felt that she must
not only be free of foreign influence, but that the mass
of his fellow countrymen must be made to know that she
was free of it. To allow the progress of religion to be
set back in that manner would have meant that the count
less efforts and sacrifices of a multitude of Bishops and
priests in years of work would have been debarred from
producing the fruit which they ought to yield. He could
not be affected by the clamor for national Bishops when
such thoughts as these surged in his mind.
He felt that the foreigners here had all to gain and
nothing to lose by falling in unreservedly with the na-

FALL OF THE CAHENSLY CAUSE 543
tional destiny of America. Realizing the historical and
ethnic origins of the clashes of nationalist groups in Eu
rope, he believed that one of the greatest blessings which
could come to the immigrants was deliverance from such
clashes. Above all, he was as firmly persuaded as a man
could be of anything, that the Church's destiny here and
the nation's destiny were one. The confusion of one
would be the confusion of the other; the welfare and
stability of one were the welfare and stability of the
other.

CHAPTER XXXI
INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER
Cahenslyism was, in effect, a misunderstanding of
America by Europe. A new form of this misunderstand
ing arose in a controversy that sprang up over the publica
tion of the Life of Father Hecker, a biography by the
Rev. Walter Elliott, of the Paulist order, of his gifted
leader. This controversy was continued so long, pro
ceeding from one extreme to another, that Leo XIII was
called upon to check it. Such misconceptions were per
haps inevitable, in view of the sudden expansion of the
Church here, and because she was taking a role far greater
in the world wide perspective of Catholicism than before.
The differences, deplored as they were while in prog
ress, served to clear the air and bring about a greater
degree of harmony than before they arose.
The Church in this respect reflected the general evolu
tion of the American nation. As America became the fore
most nation of the world in numbers, wealth and general
resources, so the Church here became one of the foremost
units of the faith that had its seat in the Chair of Peter.
Ecclesiastical misunderstandings with Europe had their
counterpart in political misunderstandings with Europe.
Both appeared to be inevitable. In each case the obscure
and inaccurate views were not held, for the most part,
among leaders, but among those less informed. Leo
544

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 545
understood America, as did many of the chief statesmen
of Europe. In fact, it seems that he had a deeper and truer
international understanding than any secular statesman
or ruler of his time; but, in the popular mind on both
sides of the Atlantic, there was a lack of mutual compre
hension that found expression among those who could
not see from the higher vantage points. This found vent,
in a characteristic way, in the animated debate over the
Life of Father Hecker.
While Hecker was living the life of which Elliott
wrote, no one questioned the orthodoxy of his churchman-
ship, his exemplary piety or the wonderful results of his
preaching. No American priest stood higher in the es
teem of Rome; none higher in the affection and admira
tion of his brethren in his own country. No one raised a
voice to deny that he was doing a great and necessary
work for the Church by bringing her in more intimate
touch with the American people. He had been, as we
have seen, a member of the group of Redemptorists who
had been instrumental in turning the thoughts of Gib
bons, when a youth in New Orleans, to the mission of the
priesthood, and Gibbons, strong as always in personal ties
and gratitude, remembered this vividly. These two men
continued to feel a deep interest in each other. Hecker
had visited Gibbons in Richmond when the latter was
a young Bishop, and none felt a deeper sense of personal
delight in the honors which were showered upon him
as Cardinal.
Hecker died in 1888, when his order was firmly estab
lished as the leading American agency for the conversion
of Protestants, and for the evangelization of the people

546 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
already in the fold of the Church. Its preachers traveled
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, stirring up the flames of
religious ardor, proclaiming everywhere, as Gibbons pro
claimed, loyalty to God and loyalty to country.
The individuality of each nation, Hecker taught,
should be used as the instrument by which the people
might be brought to God. He held that it was not with
out the will of God that this individuality had been de
veloped; why, then, not take advantage of it? In Amer
ica the people had worked out a political system which
had brought them liberty and power, making the country
a refuge for the oppressed and the unfortunate. This, he
felt, had been due to the blessing of God, working in
secular affairs through the freedom and independent char
acter of Americans. Their characteristic qualities could
be utilized in a special manner by the Church to bring
people within her fold. He desired the cultivation of
the natural and active virtues as being more in accord
ance with the age than the passive ones.
He also took the ground that since the Vatican Council
had formally defined the doctrine of Papal infallibility
and had fixed the constitution of the Church in final form,
the time had come for a wide development of individual
action within the limits thus laid down. Hecker always
insisted upon "absolute and unswerving loyalty to the
authority of the Church, wherever and however expressed,
as God's authority upon earth and for all time" ; but he
believed at the same time that men as the children of
God must receive the direct inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.1 He held that the Holy Spirit acts directly upon
'Sedgwick. Life of Father Hecker, p. 97 et seq.

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 547
the inner life of man, and in that light is his superior and
director. That its guidance may become more and more
immediate in the interior life and the soul's obedience
more and more instinctive, was the object, in his opinion,
of the whole external order of the Church, including the
sacramental system. He taught that the sum of spiritual
life consisted in yielding to the movements of the spirit
of God in the soul. He saw no conflict between the ex
ternal authority of the Church as a guide of the soul and
the direct action of the Holy Spirit without human inter
vention. Hecker wrote:
"The action of the Holy Spirit embodied visibly in
the authority of the Church, and the action of the Holy
Spirit dealing invisibly in the soul, form one inseparable
synthesis; and he who has not a clear conception of this
twofold action of the Holy Spirit is in danger of running
into one or the other, and sometimes into both of these
extremes, either of which is destructive of the end of the
Church. The Holy Spirit in the external authority of
the Church acts as the infallible interpreter and criterion
of Divine revelation. The Holy Spirit in the soul acts
as the Divine life-giver and sanctifier."
The practical unanimity with which Hecker's real
views were accepted by American Catholics was indi
cated by the fact that Elliott's biography of him was is
sued with special indorsement by two members of the
Hierarchy who represented, perhaps, the widest variation
in the schools of thought within that body. Archbishop
Corrigan, who leaned to conservatism, gave his imprima
tur and Archbishop Ireland, spokesman of liberal views,
wrote a eulogistic introduction for the book, in which
he said :

548 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Father Hecker was the typical American priest; his
were the gifts of mind and heart that can do great work
for God and for souls in America at the present time.
. . . There must be added the practical intelligence and
the pliability of will to understand one's surroundings,
the ground upon which he is to deploy his forces and to
adapt himself to circumstances and opportunities as Prov
idence appoints. ... It is as clear to me as noonday
light that countries and peoples have each their peculiar
needs and aspirations, as they have their peculiar environ
ments, and that, if we would enter into souls and control
them, we must deal with them according to their condi
tions. "The ideal line of conduct for the priest in Assyria
will be out of all measure in Mexico or Minnesota, and I
doubt not that one doing fairly Well in Minnesota would
by similar methods set things sadly astray in Leinster or
Bavaria. The Saviour prescribed timeliness in pastoral
caring. The master of a house, He said, 'bringeth forth
out of his treasury new things and old,' as there is demand
for one kind or the other.
"The circumstances of Catholics have been peculiar in
the United States, and we have unavoidably suffered on
this account. Catholics in largest numbers were Euro
peans, and so were their priests, many of whom — by no
means all — remained in heart and mind and mode of ac
tion as alien to America as if they had never been re
moved from the Shannon, the Loire or the Rhine. No
one need remind me that immigration has brought us
inestimable blessings, or that without it the Church in
America would be of small stature. The remembrance
of a precious fact is not put aside, if I recall an accidental
evil attaching to it.
"Priests foreign in disposition and work were not
fitted to make favorable impressions upon the non-Cath
olic American population, and the American-bom chil-

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 549
dren of Catholic immigrants were likely to escape their
action. And, lest I be misunderstood, I assert all this is
as true of priests coming from Ireland as from any other
foreign country. Even priests of American ancestry, min
istering to immigrants, not infrequently fell into the lines
of those around them, and did but little to make the
Church in America throb with American life.
"Not so Isaac Thomas Hecker. Whether consciously
or unconsciously, I do not know, and it matters not, he
looked on America as the fairest conquest for Divine
truth, and he girded himself with arms shaped and tem
pered to the American pattern. I think it may be said
that the American current, so plain for the last quarter
of a century in the flow of Catholic affairs, is largely, at
least, to be traced back to Father Hecker and his early
coworkers. It used to be said of them in reproach that
they were the 'Yankee' Catholic Church; the reproach
was their praise.
"We shall always distinguish Isaac Thomas Hecker
as the ornament, the flower of our American priesthood —
the type that we wish to see reproduced among us in
widest proportions. Ameliorations may be sought for in
details, and the more of them the better for religion; but
the great lines of Father Hecker's personality we should
guard with jealous love in the formation of the future
priestly characters of America."
As Elliott's interpretation of Hecker became dissemi
nated in Europe, Cardinal Gibbons expressed his deep
satisfaction in the following letter to the author :
"Baltimore, April 14, 1898.
"My dear Father Elliott:
"It gives me great satisfaction to declare my opinion
of Father Hecker and to have it made known. Father
Hecker was undoubtedly an instrument of Providence

550 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
for the diffusion of the Catholic faith in our country.
He did a great deal of good in bringing non-Catholics
nearer to us, in lessening prejudice and in gaining the
ear of the public for our religion, without counting the
multitude of those who owe their conversion directly or
indirectly to him.
"His mind was that of a child in submission to the
Holy Church. It was a Catholic mind in the fullest
meaning of the word. His life was adorned by every
fruit of personal piety. He was animated by truly
apostolic zeal for the salvation of souls — a zeal which
was always bold but at the same time prudent, so as
to attract Protestants without the smallest sacrifice of
orthodoxy. "Divine Providence gave him the help of a com
munity of men inspired by as lofty motives as his own.
The Paulists are continuing the work to which he de
voted his life, the conversion of souls to the Catholic
faith, and, by the grace of God, they have had marvelous
success. The special services they have held in their
church in New York City have given proof of this suc
cess by the very large number of sinners who have been
brought to repentance and of Protestants who have
been converted, instructed and baptized. They have,
moreover, conducted services and meetings for non-
Catholics all over the United States.
"These congregations are frequently composed ex
clusively of Protestants. They have, further, greatly
extended Father Hecker's organization for the distribu
tion of Catholic literature. The Paulists have shown
themselves equal to great apostolic enterprises. They
have always displayed unreserved respect and obedience
to the ecclesiastical authorities.
"I learn with pleasure that Father Hecker's career is
becoming more and more appreciated in Europe since
his life and writings have been made known there.

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 551
"Wishing you the holy joys of the Easter season,
I am "Yours most faithfully,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."
Had the telling of the story of Hecker's life been left
to his own coworkers, who understood him, or at least
to his own fellow-countrymen, there would have been no
trouble; but in 1897 an anonymous translation into
French of Elliott's book was made, which was compressed
and not exact, and therefore, in the minds of many, did
not convey with accuracy the spirit of the English ver
sion. The preface of the translation was written by
Abbe Klein, a professor in the Catholic Institute of
Paris, whose mind, so far from harboring thought of
criticism, was expressed in ardent admiration for Hecker.
Mutterings of objection began to be heard from the
conservative party among French Catholics and they
gathered momentum. In the same year, Monsignor D.
J. O'Connell, in an address before a Catholic scientific
congress at Fribourg, outlined what were beginning to be
known as American ideas in the Church, and expressed
his earnest approval of them.
The debate was intensified when L' Abbe Maignen, of
the Congregation of St. Vincent de Paul, wrote a com
mentary upon Elliott's book, and a vigorous reply to some
of Hecker's ideas as Maignen interpreted them. Maig
nen entitled his own book Le Pere Hecker; est-il un
Saint? and afterward issued an English version of it with
some changes entitled Father Hecker; Is He a Saint?
Cardinal Richard, Archbishop of Paris, to whom jurisdic
tion in this case properly belonged, refused his imprima-

552 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tur for the work. Abbe Maignen then applied to Father
Lepidi, a Dominican monk, master of the sacred palace in
Rome, who gave the imprimatur of the Vatican, and thus
brought the subject directly to attention in Rome.
Like a fire which gathers fury from unknown and
powerful sources, spreading with a rapidity which dis
mays those who would arrest its progress, the discussion
was soon agitating Europe to an extraordinary degree.
Among Americans it attracted little attention at first, for
they saw no cause for it, and believed that it would soon
decline. But it aroused their apprehensions as one argu
ment after another based upon a false view of what
Hecker taught, based indeed upon a misapprehension of
his entire work, rolled forth in speech and pamphlet
abroad. Starting from an incorrect premise, one contro
versialist would build a chain of reasoning, carrying the
inaccuracy further. Some one else would take up the
complication where he left it off, and aggravate it by a
new display of logic, finally entangling the whole subject
in hopeless confusion.
American Catholics did not hesitate to admit that, if
the foreign interpreters of Hecker correctly stated the
subject, there would be room for doubt as to whether it
was desirable to accept his views; but they urged with
vehemence that it was a false Hecker who was being
debated, and not the real missionary whose saintly life
and consecrated labors had reaped a harvest of souls
such as few men had reaped.
Only the Pope could speak with final authority. Leo
set himself to the task and on January 22, 1899, ad
dressed to Cardinal Gibbons a long letter which had the

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 553
effect of closing the discussion.2 He began by saying
that the publication of the life of Father Hecker "espe
cially as interpreted and translated into a foreign lan
guage" had excited controversy because of the opinions
which it had voiced concerning the ways of leading a
Christian life. Some of these opinions, as expressed in
the foreign translations and interpretations, he con
demned; but he expressly assented to the primary pro
posal of Hecker when he declared that the "rule of life
laid down for Catholics is not of such a nature that it
cannot accommodate itself to the exigencies of various
times and places." He also declared that the Church
had never neglected to accommodate herself to the char
acter and genius of the nations. This, in the view of
Americans, embraced all of real importance that Hecker
had maintained.
There seems to have been no doubt that the Pontiff saw
in the aspect which Heckerism took before the eyes of
Europe a real danger to Catholic truth, whose correction
he deemed necessary. His letter, therefore, was a warn
ing against current evils, rather than against the teach
ings of Hecker. The following passages give the essen
tials of the Papal decision:
"The underlying principles of these new opinions is
that, in order more easily to attract those who differ from
her, the Church should shape her teachings more in accord
with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient
severity and make some concessions to new opinions.
Many think that these concessions should be made not
only in regard to ways of living, but even in regard to
doctrines which belong to the deposit of the faith. They
2 Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.

554 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
contend that it would be opportune, in order to gain those
who differ from us, to omit certain points of her teach
ing which are of lesser importance, and so to tone down
the meaning which the Church has always attached to
them. It does not need many words, beloved son, to
prove the falsity of these ideas if the nature and origin
of the doctrines which the Church proposes are recalled
to mind. . . .
"Let it be far from any one's mind to suppress for any
reason any doctrine that has been handed down. Such
a policy would tend rather to separate Catholics from the
Church than to bring in those who differ. There is
nothing closer to our heart than to have those who are
separated from the fold of Christ return to her, but in
no other way than the way pointed out by Christ.
"The rule of life laid down for Catholics is not of such
a nature that it can not accommodate itself to the exi
gencies of various times and places. The Church has,
guided by her Divine Master, a kind and merciful spirit,
for which reason from the very beginning she has been
what St. Paul said of himself : 'I became all things to all
men that I might save all.'
"History proves clearly that the Apostolic See, to
which has been entrusted the mission not only of teach
ing, but of governing the whole Church, has continued 'in
one and the same doctrine, one and the same sense, and
one and the same judgment.'
"But in regard to ways of living, she has been accus
tomed so to moderate her discipline that, the Divine prin
ciple of morals being kept intact, she has never neglected
to accommodate herself to the character and genius of
the nations which she embraces.
"Who can doubt that she will act in the same spirit
again if the salvation of souls requires it? In this mat
ter the Church must be the judge, not private men, who
are often deceived by the appearance of right. In this,

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 555
all who wish to escape the blame of our predecessor, Pius
VI, must concur. He condemned as injurious to the
Church and the Spirit of God who guides her, the doc
trine contained in proposition Ixxviii of the Synod of
Pistoia, 'that the discipline made and approved by the
Church should be submitted to examination,' as if the
Church could frame a code of laws useless or heavier than
human liberty can bear.
"It is alleged that now, the Vatican decree concerning
the infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff
having been proclaimed, nothing further on that score
can give any solicitude, and accordingly, since that has
been safeguarded and put beyond question, a wider and
freer field both for thought and action lies open to each
one. But such reasoning is evidently faulty, since if we
are to come to any conclusion from the infallible teach
ing authority of the Church, it should rather be that no
one should wish to depart from it, and, moreover, that
the minds of all being leavened and directed thereby,
greater security from private error would be enjoyed by
all. And further, those who avail themselves of such a
way of reasoning seem to depart seriously from the over
ruling wisdom of the Most High — which wisdom, since
it was pleased to set forth by most solemn decision the
authority and supreme teaching rights of this Apostolic
See — willed that decision precisely in order to safeguard
the minds of the Church's children from the dangers of
these present times.
"These dangers, viz., the confounding of license with
liberty, the passion for discussing and pouring contempt
upon any possible subject, the assumed right to hold what
ever opinions one pleases upon any subject and to set
them forth in print to the world, have so wrapped minds
in darkness that there is now a greater need of the
Church's teaching office than ever before, lest people be
come unmindful both of conscience and of duty.

556 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"We, indeed, have no thought of rejecting everything
that modern industry and study have produced; so far
from it, we welcome to the patrimony of truth and
to an everwidening scope of public well-being whatsoever
helps toward the progress of learning and virtue. Yet all
this, to be of any solid benefit, nay, to have a real exist
ence and growth, can only be on the condition of recog
nizing the wisdom and authority of the Church. . . .
"Nor can we leave out of consideration the truth that
those who are striving after perfection, since by that fact
they walk in no beaten or well-known path, are the most
liable to stray, and hence have greater need than others
of a teacher and guide. Such guidance has ever obtained
in the Church; it has been the universal teaching of those
who throughout the ages have been eminent for wisdom
and sanctity — and hence to reject it would be to commit
one's self to a belief at once rash and dangerous. . . .
"This overesteem of natural virtue finds a method of
expression in assuming to divide all virtues into active
and passive, and it is alleged that whereas passive vir
tues found better place in past times, our age is to be
characterized by the active. That such a division and
distinction can not be maintained is patent — for there
is not, nor can there be, merely passive virtue. 'Virtue,'
says St. Thomas Aquinas, 'designates the perfection of
some faculty, but the end of such faculty is an act, and
an act of virtue is naught else than the good use of free
will,' acting, that is to say, under the grace of God if the
act be one of supernatural virtue. . . .
"From the foregoing it is manifest, beloved son, that
we are not able to give approval to those views which, in
their collective sense, are called by some 'Americanism.'
But if by this name are to be understood certain endow
ments of mind which belong to the American people, just
as other characteristics belong to various other nations;
and if, moreover, by it is designated your political condi-

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 557
tions and the laws and customs by which you are gov
erned, there is no reason to take exception to the name.
But if this is to be so understood that the doctrines which
have been adverted to above are not only indicated, but
exalted, there can be no manner of doubt that our ven
erable brethren, the Bishops of America, would be the
first to repudiate and condemn them as being most in
jurious to themselves and to their country. For it would
give rise to the suspicion that there are among you some
who conceive, and would have, the Church in America
to be different from what it is in the rest of the world.
"But the true Church is one, as by unity of doctrine, so
by unity of /government, and she is Catholic also. Since
God has placed the center and foundation of unity in the
chair of Blessed Peter, she is rightly called the Roman
Church, for 'where Peter is, there is the Church.' Where
fore, if anybody wishes to be considered a real Catholic,
he ought to be able to say from his heart the self -same
words which Jerome addressed to Pope Damasus: 'I,
acknowledging no other leader than Christ, am bound
in fellowship with your Holiness; that is, with the Chair
of Peter. I know that the Church was built upon him as
its rock, and that whosoever gathereth not with you scat-
tereth.' "
As the letter was sifted and its real meaning was seen
clearly, it came to be accepted that while Leo had di
rected his admonitions at real evils they were not such
as were characteristic of America ; that they were merely
abnormal views born and nurtured abroad, and that in
correcting them the Pope had performed a necessary serv
ice. This was the view of Cardinal Gibbons, as chown
by the following entry in his journal:
"March 17 [1899]. I sent the Holy Father a reply
to his letter received February 17th on the subject of

558 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Americanism. After thanking his Holiness for dispelling
the cloud of misunderstanding, I assured him that the
false conceptions of Americanism emanating from Eu
rope have no existence among the prelates, priests and
Catholic laity of our country."

While Gibbons was shocked that this "cloud of mis
understanding" had arisen, he found cause for especial
satisfaction in its early disappearance. Americanism in
its real meaning stood as it did before. The expression of
Leo was accepted as an enlightened view of modern con
ditions, based upon thorough obedience to the doctrine
and discipline of the Church.
Archbishop Ireland, champion of Father Hecker, wrote
to the Pope emphasizing the fact that he had never, for
a single instant, opened his soul to such extravagances as
had been massed abroad under the hallowed name of the
Paulist leader. A wrong had been done to the whole
episcopate of the United States, he held, by the discus
sion, under the term "Americanism," of such errors as
the Pontiff had condemned. He wrote :
"Today light has come; misunderstandings cease.
Today we are in a condition to define the fault which
some have wished to cover with the name of Americanism,
and define the truth, which alone Americans call Ameri
canism. . . . Seeing the astonishing confusion of ideas
and the virulent controversies stirred up, especially in
France, about the book, The Life of Father Hecker, the
extent of which can be measured by the Apostolic letter,
I can no longer be blind to the fact that it was a neces
sity for the chief pastor to raise his voice to enlighten
and pacify men's minds."

INTERPRETATIONS OF FATHER HECKER 559
The Paulist Fathers sent a letter to Rome fully em
bracing the doctrines of Leo, from which they have never
thought of departing. They had felt as a deep wound in
flicted upon themselves the extravagances which had
marked the polemics in Europe that centered around
Hecker's name.
The Church in America wavered not as a result of en
countering this storm. Her mission was not to be
hampered by violent extremes of opinion. Guided and
inspired by the far-sighted Cardinal who led her hosts in
their onward march, her numbers multiplied with in
creasing rapidity; new dioceses sprang up; churches,
chapels and schools were built on a scale of increase which
but a decade or two before would have seemed impossible
anywhere in the world. Her vitality was the vitality of
the people; thus she proved the word of Gibbons.

CHAPTER XXXII
COLUMBIAN FETES— PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
By the time of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago,
which marked the four hundredth year since the dis
covery of America, Gibbons had come to be regarded
more than any other American in non-political life as a
necessary participant in national undertakings of a
patriotic and humanitarian character, as well as in a
multitude of lesser ones. He was besieged with invita
tions and responded to so many of them by extending his
cooperation, that it seemed as if he were seriously over
taxing himself by these versatile labors. Letters from
him were read on many platforms by the supporters of
movements of civic advance, material utility and public
benevolence; and he bestowed them upon all alike, re
gardless of creed, when causes in their broader aspects,
appealed to him.
In nearly all of these cases the use of his name was
regarded by Catholics, Protestants, Jews, whomsoever it
might be in the mass of elements in the country's popu
lation, as the most conspicuous and powerful in its help
to their purposes, save only that of the President. Every
word on such subjects that he wrote — and in the aggre
gate these words would fill volumes — was printed by
newspapers, much of it transmitted over the crowded
wires of the press associations, for the only reason opera-
560

COLUMBIAN FETES 561
tive in producing such a result — the public desired it.
There was, indeed, a Gibbons vogue, a form of popular
predilection for hearing, reading and heeding his views,
for which the newspapers did not try to account, but
merely accepted it as a fact of which they ought to be
aware. His words not only had more weight in the country
at large than any other man's, except the President's,
but in not a few cases more than any other man's without
exception, because they were not associated at any time
with political expediency or party divisions. The mass
of Americans had formed the deliberate conclusion, of
which there were abundant evidences, that he spoke
sanely, calmly, unselfishly, frankly, courageously. They
accepted his utterances, no matter on what subject, as
embodying these characteristics, and welcomed them for
their refreshing contrast to what they were accustomed to
hear from evanescent leaders in political life.
Wherever the words were heard in the voice of him
whose mind shaped them — for Gibbons was ready to
appear in public when time and circumstances permitted,
as well as to have his endorsements or other comments
read in his absence — the effect was heightened. His per
sonal magnetism was undoubtedly one of the foremost
factors in his popularity. In any gathering he seemed
to be the chief, and the crowd, as by a psychic impulse,
turned to him from the moment of his entrance. The
slender, appealing figure, the benevolent but keen and
alert face, the active and springy step, the ever-present
dignity combined with social grace, ease and simple di
rectness of manner, won men's hearts. His appearance

562 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
fitted perfectly with the character of his thoughts and
the character of the man. He was instantaneously re
sponsive to any situation, quick to accept an idea, to turn
a phrase, to fall in with the spirit of an occasion, to drive
home an argument, to disarm opposition by the force of
his personality as much as by the force of his thoughts
and words. He had the power of convincing others
without antagonizing them. The spirit of the man shone
out through him as if he had been transparent.
He was now in the prime of his powers, which in his
case were almost uniformly at the maximum between the
ages of fifty and sixty-five years. Though still appearing
to be physically frail and hampered constantly by his old
trouble of poor digestion, which starved his body
of a part of the sustenance that its intense activity
required, he had learned to disregard his physical condi
tion in the pursuit of the great objects which engrossed
him. He seemed not to stop and think whether he was
strong enough to undertake a new labor or not. Even
when feeling sick or depressed, he would take physical
risks which in the case of an ordinary person would have
meant the imminent danger of collapse.
Those who knew him best knew that he was unafraid
of collapse; that he was willing to be wounded, griev
ously wounded, even mortally stricken at his post of
duty, but that nothing could induce him to turn back.
Members of his household and solicitous persons among
the cloud of his friends in civil life begged him not to
work so hard. He listened with a smile, completely heed
less of their advice.
His immense power of quick recuperation seldom failed

COLUMBIAN FETES 563
him. Sometimes when his vital forces were obviously at
a low ebb after a heavy strain, and his pallor seemed
almost unearthly, he would retire, usually after dinner,
for a brief period of rest and seclusion, and emerge with
the red blood surging over his countenance and beating
through his veins with fiery energy. To most persons
who observed him at close range, he was a physical
enigma who excited their constant wonder, but his phy
sician knew that he was organically as sound as an ath
lete, and that the appearances of frailty and fatigue were
chiefly due to the chronic but not irreparable drawback
of sluggish functioning by the stomach.
Above all he was sustained by a bubbling zest and
interest that animated him like a draught of a powerful
tonic. He was keen for work, keen for social diversion,
keen for physical exercise and for everything that came
up in the course of his varied life. His intense concen
tration, one of the most useful powers which he pos
sessed, was in evidence in everything to which he turned
his thought or his hand. He preached from his pulpit in
the Baltimore Cathedral, attended to his exceptionally
voluminous correspondence, waged campaigns within
and without the Church for causes which he had at heart,
romped in his study with altar boys after vespers, and
told stories to friends who dropped in to chat with him,
all with a vigor, naturalness and interest that seemed
unfailing. His mind responded to every call; only his
body was refractory, and he would not permit it to im
pede him.
It was inevitable that he should be an important fig
ure in the events of the World's Fair year, marked as it

564 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
was by one of those periodical outbursts of national feel
ing which American ebullience seems to demand. We
have already seen that he was the medium through which
the Washington government obtained the loan of the
treasured Columbian relics of the Vatican for the Fair,
and how this led to the appointment of Archbishop Sa
tolli as their custodian and also as Papal Delegate to the
Church in America. For the ceremonies that marked the
dedication of the Fair at Chicago, which were conceived
on a scale that involved participation by a group of the
leading men of the nation, he was invited to offer prayer.
He performed the same office at the celebration of Mary
land Day there. At a Congress of Catholic Laymen held
in connection with the Fair, he made an address and con
veyed the Papal benediction. In the Parliament of Re
ligions, which was one of the most important of the
many conventions that were held at Chicago in that
year, he was one of the leading participants.
The Catholic world was naturally moved by the com
memorative display, for Columbus had professed reli
gious motives as his inspiration for the voyage that
opened the western continent to communication with the
older civilizations. It could not be forgotten that
Isabella the Catholic had been the patron of the dis
coverer, and that her heart opened to his appeals when
he had almost despaired from the rebuffs which he had
received at the hands of other sovereigns. In the sym
pathetic atmosphere of the convent of La Rabida he had
matured his great project.
There was no doubt that while economic causes had
given birth to the general movement which led to the dis-

COLUMBIAN FETES 565
covery of hitherto unknown lands in that wonderful age
of exploration, zeal for the propagation of the Christian
religion played a great part in the immediate inspiration
of those who accomplished the largest results; nor could
it be forgotten that had Columbus sailed westward as he
desired, instead of yielding to the advice of Pinzon and
following the flight of birds, he would have touched the
mainland of Florida on his first voyage, and all of North
America might have been Catholic, instead of predomi
nantly Protestant.1
Leo XIII spoke for the Catholic world in a letter upon
Columbus which he issued on July 16, 1892, to the Arch
bishops and Bishops of Spain, Italy and the two Amer
icas, in which he took this view:
"It is indubitable that the Catholic faith was the
strongest motive for the inception and prosecution of the
design; so that for this reason also the whole human
race owes not a little to the Church. . . . We say not
that he was unmoved by perfectly honorable aspirations
after knowledge, and deserving well of human society;
nor did he despise glory, which is a most engrossing idea
to great souls, nor did he altogether scorn a hope of ad
vantages to himself; but to him, far before all these
human considerations, was the consideration of his
ancient faith, which without question dowered him with
strength of mind and will and often strengthened him
and consoled him in the midst of the greatest difficulties.
This view and aim is known to have possessed his mind
above all; namely 'to open the way to the gospel over
new lands and seas.' "
The Pontiff proceeded to declare that Columbus dis
covered America at a time when a great storm was about
1 Justin Winsor, Christopher Columbus, p. 206.

566 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to break over the Church "and that it seemed he was de
signed by a special plan of God to compensate her for
the injury which she was destined to suffer in Europe."
He ordered that on October 12, 1892, or the following
Sunday, the Mass of the Holy Trinity should be cele
brated in all the Cathedrals throughout Spain, Italy and
the two Americas.
Gibbons followed this with a pastoral letter to the
clergy and laity of the archdiocese of Baltimore, in which
he exhorted gratitude for the spiritual and material bene
fits that had followed the voyages of Columbus. Amer
ica, he said, was the congenial home of liberty, "and the
truest democracy allied with stable government." He
held that peace and happiness, as far, perhaps, as they
are attainable on earth, resulted from these favored con
ditions, saying :
"Climate, soil, vegetation and mineral products, found
in almost endless variety and profusion, conspire to make
our country the most desirable in the world. Nor can we
forget to note, with a love for our religion as strong and
as true as that for our country, the magnificent expansion
God has given to the Church, and how sturdily and fruit
fully this flower of Christian faith has grown untram-
meled under the benign influences of our republican in
stitutions." 2
Gibbons had called a meeting in Baltimore a month
before that time to arrange a local celebration. Under
his guidance the plans rapidly took shape. On October
12, the Italians of the city unveiled a monument to Co
lumbus, at which the Cardinal made an address. He
'Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.

COLUMBIAN FETES 567
emphasized that Americans were above all indebted to
two men, Columbus and Washington, and accepted the
Pope's view in declaring that the great mariner had been
inspired by the lofty ambition of carrying the light of
the Gospel to unknown lands.
On the following Sunday, splendid services were held
in the Cathedral, at which the Cardinal pontificated.
Archbishops Satolli and Ireland lent their presence to the
occasion. Catholic laity and pupils of the parochial
schools to the number of 30,000 took part in a procession
through the streets on the 21st, when the celebration was
general throughout the United States, in accordance with
a proclamation of the President designating as a national
holiday that day — the real anniversary, in accordance
with the correction of the Julian calendar by Gregory
XIII. Gibbons' prayer at the dedication of the Fair on the
21st was, as usual with him on such occasions, inspired
by lofty patriotism as well as deep piety. The following
are extracts from it:
"Not only for this earthly inheritance do we thank
Thee, but still more for the precious boon of constitu
tional freedom which we possess; for even this favored
land of ours would be to us a dry and barren waste, if it
were not moistened by the dew of liberty. We humbly
implore Thee to continue to bless our country and her
cherished institutions; and we solemnly promise today,
in this vast assembly and in the name of our fellow-citi
zens, to exert all our energies in preserving this legacy un
impaired and in transmitting it as a priceless heirloom to
succeeding generations. . . .
"Grant, O Lord, that this pacific reunion of the

568 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
world's representatives may be instrumental in binding
together in closer ties of friendship and brotherly love all
the empires and commonwealths of the globe. May it
help to break down the wall of dissension and jealousy
that divides race from race, nation from nation, and peo
ple from people, by proclaiming the sublime lesson of
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Christ.
. . . Arise, O God, in Thy might and hasten the day
when the reign of the Prince of Peace will be firmly es
tablished on the earth, when the spirit of the Gospel will
so far sway the minds and hearts of rulers that the crash
of war will be silenced forever by the cheerful hum of
industry, when standing armies will surrender to per
manent courts of arbitration, when contests will be car
ried on in the cabinet instead of on the battlefield, and
decided by the pen instead of the sword."
There was much discussion concerning the question of
opening the Fair on Sundays, and on this subject Gibbons
took a pronounced stand. In a letter in November, 1892,
he wrote :
"The Sunday closing of this spectacle would be very
unfortunate for thousands of our countrymen, who would
be tempted to spend the day in dissipation. In their
name, I would favor the opening of the Fair Sunday
afternoon to evening, with the provision that all the ma
chinery should be stopped and all mechanical and labor
ing work that will not be urgent and necessary, cease."
The course which he advocated and of which Catholics
were generally in favor was adopted. Gibbons took the
view that Sunday was not only a time for rest and re
ligious observance, but also for innocent recreation. He
held that Catholics, having performed the religious
duties required of them in the morning, were free to

COLUMBIAN FETES 569
spend the day in such relaxation as was becoming to Sun
day; in particular, he was desirous that the Fair should
be opened during a part of that day in order that the
workingmen of Chicago and its vicinity might have a
good opportunity to see it. He was, of course, wholly
lacking in sympathy with the spirit of the old Puritan
Sabbath, and he regarded the observance of the day in
America, outside of a few large cities, as being eminently
satisfactory at that time.
A new indication of his tolerance of view was found in
the attitude which he took regarding participation by
Catholics in the Parliament of Religions. When that
project was considered at a meeting of the Archbishops
in New York in the autumn of 1892, some objections
were made; but the Cardinal took a pronounced stand in
favor of participation and in the end the prelates decided
to accept the invitation.
He could see no merit in the suggestion that the part
which Catholics would take in the convention would in
volve any recognition or approval of the numerous sects
within and without the circle of Christianity that were
to be represented there. Recalling that St. Paul had
preached before the Areopagus, he said that he hoped to
reach in the Parliament of Religions a peculiar audience,
with which it would be difficult to get in touch again.
The Church, he declared, was too often presented to the
world in apparel that made her repulsive to the people.
His aim was to discard these garments and, as he re
marked, "let all see the Church in her true beauty — a
beauty sure to endear her to all lovers of the truth; the
more the Church is known, the better she is liked."

570 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Anglicans, under the inspiration of Archbishop
Benson, declined to take part in the parliament. How
far Gibbons differed from their view was indicated fur
ther by his letter accepting the personal invitation to the
gathering which was sent to him. He wrote :
"I deem the movement you are engaged in promoting
worthy of all encouragement and praise. ... I rejoice
to learn that the project for a religious congress has al
ready won the sympathies and enlisted the active co
operation of those in the front rank of human thought and
progress, even in other lands than ours. If conducted
with moderation and good-will, such a congress may re
sult, by the blessing of Divine Providence, in benefits
more far-reaching than the most sanguine could dare to
hope for."
The name of Gibbons was among the first on the list
of speakers, closely followed by that of Ameer Ali, a
Mussulman of Calcutta. Archbishop Feehan, of Chi
cago, was on a committee of which a Presbyterian minis
ter was chairman. In the speeches welcoming the par
liament to the city, Feehan spoke in behalf of the Catho
lic Church.
Gibbons suffered a serious attack of illness as the time
for the convention was at hand, but he would not give up
his intention to join in the sessions. In a preliminary
address to the gathering, he said :
"If I were to consult the interest of my health, I
should be in bed; but as I was anxious to say a word in
response to the kind speeches that have been offered, I
can not fail to present myself, at least, to show my inter
est in the great undertaking. I would be wanting in my

COLUMBIAN FETES 571
duty as a minister of the Catholic Church if I did not say
it is our desire to present the claims of the Church to the
observation, and, if possible, to the acceptance of every
right-minded man who will listen to us; but we appeal
only to the tribunal of conscience and of intellect.
"I feel that in possessing the faith, I possess treasures
compared with which all the treasures of this world are
but dross; instead of keeping these treasures in my cof
fers, I would like to share them with others, especially,
as I am none the poorer in making others richer. But,
though we do not agree in matters of faith, there is one
platform on which we all stand united; it is the platform
of charity, of humanity, of benevolence. . . . We know
that the Good Samaritan rendered assistance to his
strange brother, who was of a different name, a different
religion, a strange nationality, and with a wide difference
in social life. That is the model we all should follow.
. . . Let no man say, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' That
was the language of Cain. I say to you here today, no
matter what may be your faith, that you are and ought
to be your brother's keeper."
His illness having become more severe, he was un
able to deliver the main address which he had prepared
for the parliament, and it was read by Bishop Keane.
The subject was "The Needs of Humanity Supplied by
the Catholic Church." At the outset he made a general
defense of Christianity, addressed to Mohammedans,
Brahmins, and other sects assembled from the corners of
the earth. If he were not drawn to the Church, he said,
by her unity of faith, which bound together in a common
worship 250,000,000 souls, by her sublime moral code,
by her world-wide Catholicity, and "by that unbroken
chain of succession which connects her indissolubly with

572 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Apostolic times" still more forcibly would he be drawn
by her wonderful system of organized benevolence for
the elevation and comfort of suffering humanity.
Gibbons proceeded to state some points in that sys
tem. He showed that the Church had purified society at
its fountain head, the marriage bond, that she had pro
claimed the sanctity of human life as soon as the body
is animated by the vital spark; that she had established
asylums for invalids, orphans, the aged, the sick; that
she labored not only to assuage the physical distempers of
humanity, but also to reclaim the victims of moral dis
ease; that she had been the unvarying friend and advo
cate of the slave, and that she had ennobled manual labor.
He made it plain that he did not hold that activity
in these fields was restricted to Catholics, saying :
"I will not deny, on the contrary, I am happy to avow,
that the various Christian bodies outside the Catholic
Church have been and are today zealous promoters of
most of these works of Christian benevolence which I
have enumerated. . . . But will not our separated breth
ren have the candor to acknowledge that we had first
possession of the field; that these beneficent movements
have been inaugurated by us; and that the other Chris
tian communities in their noble efforts for the moral and
social regeneration of mankind have been stimulated in
no small measure by the example and emulation of the
ancient Church?"
He concluded with an expression of the doctrine that
there is no way by which men approach nearer to God
than by contributing to the welfare of their fellow-men.
Gibbons did not at any time waver in the hope that

COLUMBIAN FETES 573
good results would flow from the Parliament of Re
ligions. His journal contains this entry:
"Oct. 26 [1893]. Sent Cardinal Rampolla a long
statement regarding the work of the Parliament of Re
ligions in Chicago, and the hopes entertained of its re
sults." The Columbian Catholic Congress "at Chicago was a
continuation of the gathering of laymen instituted in
Baltimore at the time of the centennial of the Hierarchy.
The Cardinal made the address with which the Congress
was opened, advising moderation in the discussions, and
presenting a letter from the Pope bestowing the Apostolic
blessing upon the laity there assembled.
As the foremost citizen of Maryland, he was naturally
invited to take a prominent part in the observance of
Maryland Day at the Fair, where each of the American
States held a celebration of its own. He offered the
opening prayer and pronounced the benediction, giving
thanks for the blessing of religious liberty which had been
brought to St. Mary's by Catholics and which had since
spread over all the United States.
The relics of Columbus were returned to Rome on the
United States Cruiser Detroit, after the close of the Fair.
Leo, in receiving them, expressed satisfaction that he had
been able to contribute to the success of the great Ameri
can celebration. He also announced that he was prepar
ing an encyclical to the American Bishops, conveying his
sentiments of especial affection for their country. This
letter, issued January 6, 1895,3 pointed out what the mis-
* Encyclical Longinque Oceani,

574 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
sionaries of the Church had done in opening the American
continent to civilization, and added :
"Precisely at the epoch when the American colonies,
having with Catholic aid achieved liberty and independ
ence, coalesced into a constitutional republic, the ecclesi
astical Hierarchy was happily established amongst you;
and at the very time when the popular suffrage placed
the great Washington at the helm of the Republic, the
first Bishop was set by Apostolic authority over the
American Church. The well-known friendship and inti
mate intercourse which subsisted between these two
men seems to be an evidence that the United States
ought to be conjoined in concord and amity with the
Catholic Church."
Leo expressed his great satisfaction with the spirit of
the Church in America in the last part of the century
then about to close. He dwelt upon the "happy begin
ning" which had been made in establishing the Catholic
University at Washington under the chancellorship of
Gibbons, and upon the development of the Church which
had flowed from the foundations laid by the decrees of
the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. There was no
desire, he declared, to restrict the American Bishops
through the establishment of the Apostolic Delegation in
Washington. He wrote:
"But how unjust and cruel would be the suspicion,
should it anywhere exist, that the powers conferred upon
the Legate are an obstacle to the authority of the Bishops !
Sacred to us (more than to any other) are the rights of
those 'whom the Holy Ghost has placed as Bishops to
rule the Church of God.' That these rights should remain
intact in every nation in every part of the globe, we both

COLUMBIAN FETES 575
desire and ought to desire, the more so since the dignity
of the individual Bishop is by nature so interwoven with
the dignity of the Pontiff that any measure which benefits
the one necessarily protects the other."
He foresaw a further period of growth for the Church,
saying: "All intelligent men are agreed, and we ourselves have
intimated it with pleasure, that America seems destined
for greater things. Now, it is our wish that the Catholic
Church should not only share in but help to bring about
this prospective greatness. We deem it right and proper
that she should, by availing herself of the opportunities
daily presented to her, keep equal step with the republic
in the march of improvement, at the same time striving
to the utmost by her virtue and her institutions to aid
in the rapid growth of the States."
The Pope expressed his zeal for winning Protestants
in America to the Catholic faith, urging that Catholics
"with mildness and charity draw them to us, using every
means of persuasion to induce them to examine closely
every part of the Catholic doctrine and to free themselves
from preconceived notions." He urged that the Catholic
laity by exhibiting conspicuously in their lives the Chris
tian virtues could aid powerfully in this.
A sequel to the Parliament of Religions was a renewed
and active discussion of the subject of Christian unity.
Men of different creeds bestowed their earnest attention
upon it. Impetus was given to the movement for reunit
ing those branches of American Protestantism which had
been separated by differences of opinion growing out of
the slavery question in the Civil War. In particular, ef-

576 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
forts were made to restore the organic bonds which had
formerly held together the numerous branches of Meth
odism and of Presbyterianism in America.
A Methodist pastor at Taunton, Massachusetts, ad
dressed several letters on this subject to Gibbons, to which
he replied.4 The Cardinal agreed that aspirations for the
reunion of Christendom were worthy of all praise, but
proceeded to show that such reunion would be only frag
mentary if the Catholic Church were excluded. Without
a solid scriptural basis, no reunion would be possible, and
he held that this was to be found only in the recognition
of the successor of Peter as the visible head of the Church.
Where, he asked, could the head for which some of the
churches of the world were looking be found with the
standard of authority that would suffice except the
Bishop of Rome? Terms of union were easier of solution
than was commonly supposed. In his view the Catholic
Church held to all the positive doctrines of the Protes
tant churches, and the acknowledgment of the Pope's
supremacy would make the way clear for accepting her
other doctrines. Gibbons pointed out, as he often did in
such communications, that many doctrines were ascribed
to the Church which she repudiated and that Protestants
were nearer to her than some of them imagined.
Sermons on Christian reunion were delivered from
many pulpits in America as the movement gathered force
and Gibbons preached on the subject at the Baltimore
Cathedral, November 4, 1894. He said that gladly
would he give his life to bring about that consummation,
for which he recognized there was a yearning desire, par-
* Letter of Cardinal Gibbons to the Rev. Geo. W. King, July 28, 1894.

COLUMBIAN FETES 577
ticularly in the English speaking world; but he saw no
hope for a reunion except within the fold of the Catholic
Church, adding:
"On faith and morals there can be no compromise;
what Christ has left us must remain unchangeable. We
can not improve on the work of Christ; but the Church
can modify her discipline to suit the circumstances of the
times. I would affectionately say to all who desire to
share in the inestimable blessings of this reunion, that
you surrender nothing worth possessing — not your liberty
or independence, or moral freedom. The only restraint
placed upon you is the restraint of the Gospel. In com
ing back to the Church, you are not entering a strange
place, but are returning to your Father's house. The
furniture may seem odd to you, but it is just the same as
your fathers left three hundred and fifty years ago."
Leo summoned Gibbons to Rome in the autumn of
1894 for his first visit to that city since 1887, when he
had received the red hat. He sailed in the following
Spring, reaching Rome May 31. It was a triumphant
return, for he bore the abundant sheaves of a harvest of
seven years in which the toil had been great, the outlook
often dismaying, and storms had been endured which
had threatened to blight all. Never for a moment dur
ing those years had Leo doubted the sure touch of the
master reaper in America; but the extent of the yield had
been beyond the most sanguine expectations of both him
self and Gibbons. Leo's policy had been vindicated in
the world at large and Gibbons' policy had been vindi
cated in America. The appeal to the hearts of men was
bearing fruit, though the appeal to rulers and govern-

578 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ments, enforced by conditions then passing, had often
been barren.
The Pope plainly showed his joy in the greeting that
he gave to the American Cardinal. It was as if he were
welcoming his other self. Though Gibbons spent more
than a month in Rome and, believing his mission at length
ended, went to pay a parting visit to Leo, the Pontiff
commanded him to defer his departure, so that they
might continue their consultations.
Gibbons warmly praised the work of Satolli, whose
faithful friend and defender he had been from the time
when the Delegate arrived on the experimental mission.
This gave great comfort to Leo, for Gibbons, the fore
most opponent of the appointment of an Apostolic Dele
gate in the United States, had been the foremost upholder
of the Delegate when appointed. There had been a blend
ing of views on the subject. Leo had arranged Satolli's
mission so that Gibbons' main objections had been met.
Gibbons recognized this with that full generosity which
he so often showed and which could not fail to be in
evidence in his relations with the Pontiff whom he loved
and revered with all his powerful natural impulse of
personal attachment, as well as with the affection which
was due to the head of the Church.
Cardinal Ledochowski, Prefect of the Propaganda, re
flected the attitude of the Pope in the attentions which
he showered upon Gibbons. It was Ledochowski through
whose hands had passed the official papers of Gibbons,
in which the astute Papal bureau chief had been able to
trace the surprising development of the Catholic religion
and its influence in America. He had seen in these re-

COLUMBIAN FETES 579
ports one step after another recorded in which complica
tions had been smoothed out, discords healed, finances put
on a stable basis, dioceses originated or developed. The
clergy had increased greatly in numbers and even more
in individual standards. Misunderstandings in the pub
lic mind had been prevented, or had been removed after
they arose.
Above all, Gibbons in his reports to the Vatican had
interpreted the progress of events in America as no man
had interpreted them for Rome before, concealing
nothing, seeing clearly and fully, describing legislation
and public men with accuracy and keen perception, an
alyzing movements, tendencies and events that affected
the progress of religion. Rome was seeing America
through Gibbons' eyes, the eyes of one who was ready
to applaud or condemn no less in relation to movements
within the Church than within the State and always with
a deep devotion to the interests of both.
America was now understood at Rome; all doubt on
that subject had been removed. Cardinals from Euro
pean countries who had looked askance at some conditions
in the United States, as other Europeans of light and
leading did in their day, were able to perceive clearly
what had been obscure to them. The word of Gibbons
was powerful at the seat of the Church.
Leo, like Gibbons, was deeply interested in the Catho
lic University at Washington. They discussed intimate
details of the progress which had been made so far in that
work, which heartened both of them as an augury of
greater things to come. Gibbons presented to the Pontiff
a program for the philosophical department which it was

580 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
hoped soon to inaugurate at the university. He also
asked for a Pontifical brief in behalf of a Eucharistic
Congress similar to those previously held in Europe, which
it was proposed to convoke in America. On June 29 the
Pontiff addressed a brief to him, bestowing hearty ap
proval upon the plans for the university and entering with
zeal into the project for the Eucharistic Congress.
He found Leo, who was then eighty-five years old,
emaciated, the pallor almost of death upon him intensified
by his white cassock and zucchetto. His body was bent
but his eye was bright and penetrating, his voice strong,
his intellect amazingly clear. One thing which particu
larly astonished Gibbons was Leo's continued power of
physical endurance, which enabled him to hold audiences
for several consecutive hours with Cardinals and foreign
representatives, as well as with private individuals,
changing with ease and elasticity of mind from one sub
ject to another. His memory was extraordinarily keen,
and he was able to recall even small details of questions
which had arisen in the United States, especially the
archdiocese of Baltimore, regarding which he was at all
times particularly solicitous.
While Gibbons was in Rome he consented without hes
itation to act as intermediary for some American Protes
tant ministers in a communication to the Vatican. These
ministers had associated themselves with a movement
begun by Methodists in Chicago in 1894 to obtain a
modification of laws regarding public worship and mar
riage in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. They decided to
appeal directly to the Pope to secure for Protestants in

COLUMBIAN FETES 581
those countries "the same liberty of conscience that is
enjoyed by Roman Catholic citizens in this country."
A letter was sent to Gibbons in Rome asking for his
cooperation, and he promptly took up the matter with
Cardinal Rampolla, the Secretary of State. In a reply
to the chairman of the Chicago Methodist committee 5
he incorporated a communication to himself from Ram
polla, setting forth that the complaint had reference to
a state of things "solely dependent upon the civil laws in
force in the republics of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia,"
adding: "Nevertheless, as your Eminence has been pleased to
communicate to me the said letter, I have written to the
Apostolic Delegate in the above-named republics to
obtain precise information concerning the laws which
affect the condition of the Protestants there, as regards
both the exercise of their religion and the celebration of
marriage." The Secretary of State gave the assurance that he
would "call the attention of the Holy See to the infor
mation which the aforesaid Delegate would send."
When these inquiries had been completed, Rampolla
wrote to Gibbons, setting forth their result as follows:
"The Protestants in Peru, far from being restricted in
the free exercise of their worship, are rather accorded a
larger degree of toleration than is compatible with a
strict construction of the political constitution of that
country. This is evidenced by the fact that in Peru, es
pecially in the cities of Lima and Callao, there are sev-
5 Letter of Cardinal Gibbons to the Rev. John Lee, of Chicago, June
14, 1895.

582 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
eral Anglican and Methodist chapels where weekly meet
ings are held. As to the solemnization of marriages, the
Delegate informs me that, while the constitution of Peru
recognizes no other form than that prescribed by the
Council of Trent, Protestants do, as a matter of fact, wed
with religious ceremony in the presence of their ministers,
and civilly before the consuls and ambassadors of their
respective countries. The same condition of things rela
tive to marriage exists in Bolivia and Ecuador, where the
exercise of religious worship is regulated by special con
stitutional enactments, with which the Holy See cannot
interfere." 6
Gibbons returned to Baltimore in August, where one
of the city's public welcomes awaited him. There was,
as usual, a great crowd at the railroad station which es
corted him to his residence. A reception was given in his
honor by the Catholic Club, at which stress was laid upon
the continuance of his efforts to break down the impres
sion that the Church was in any way alien to American
institutions. Edgar H. Gans, a distinguished lawyer of
the city, delivered the address of welcome, saying:
"Not many years ago the view was prevalent that the
Catholic Church was of foreign growth, was not adapted
to modern American life, and indeed that its teachings
were hostile to our free institutions. This prejudice be
came powerful and widespread. It would not yield to
the ordinary weapons of logic and reason. There was
needed a living illustration of its absurdity. That illus
tration was found in your Eminence. In you the Ameri
can people see the highest spiritual authority absolutely
consistent with the civic allegiance of the patriotic citi
zen." "Letter of November 30, 1895.

COLUMBIAN FETES 583
With that deep simplicity which always possessed him,
and which was in special evidence upon occasions when
he was powerfully moved, Gibbons spoke in an informal,
neighborly way of his delight in returning to his home
city. "Would that I could deserve one half the praise show
ered upon me," he exclaimed. "I often ask the good Lord
what I have done that I should receive so much praise." 7
As was usual after his European trips, he preached soon
afterward at the Cathedral upon his impressions. He
spoke of the sadness with which he had observed the
civil authorities of France, and some other Catholic na
tions of Europe, drifting away from religious ties. There
were other contrasts with America upon which he re
marked, one of which was in regard to the burdensome
taxation of Europe, from which his fellow-countrymen
were spared. He found that the agricultural populations
there were not flocking to the cities in such an endless
stream as in America. While he declared that he would
by no means discourage ambition, he regarded discontent
with an honorable, though humble, station in life, as a
serious fault of many of his fellow-countrymen.
The Eucharistic Congress for which he had received
the Pontifical approval was held in Washington in Oc
tober of the same year. In that month also the new
course of philosophy at the Catholic University was in
stituted with the dedication of McMahon Hall, erected
at a cost of $400,000 by the gift of the Rev. James M.
McMahon, an aged priest of the diocese of New York.
Gibbons made an address at the dedication exhorting the
''Catholic Mirror, August 31, 1895.

584 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
laity, no less than the clergy, to lend their support to
the university in the steady development which he con
sidered to be inseparable from its healthful activity as
the fountain of Catholic education in the United States.)

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