It was at this time that the Catholics of America first arose in their strength, and bequeathed to their descendants a record worthy of their veneration and an example meriting their imitation.

Indeed, what can be more worthy our veneration than the memory of those men whose courage was derived from Him who came to give not peace but the sword! What more worthy of our imitation than the example of our forefathers, who proved themselves while undisturb ed, simple as doves, but who, when brought to cope with the intellectual intrigues of a nation mad with success, proved themselves gifted in the highest degree with the wisdom of the serpent.

It would not become us, as an American, to say who were the first to rush foremost in the van, but as a Catholic we look with pride and pleasure to the glorious account of the heroes in that immortal struggle who professed the Catholic faith.

We look on this history with pride; for not a line of that glorious record, not a name on the roll of honor, not even one among the Catholic heroes of that day quailed in a moment of emergency, or was dazzled by the lustre of gold.

With pride do we look back to the history of '76, for while we were struggling for the liberties which we now possess, dropping all metaphor, Catholics took the "lion's part."

In every degree and rank we find them models of courage and patience. There were Catholics among the officers who anxiously planned the battles, and Catholics among the soldiers who bravely fought them.

The noble Catholic names that have been inscribed on the pages of our history have ever been objects of reverence and love. La

the two Carrolls are names that shall never fade from the hearts of Americans until the country they sought to save shall have vanished in oblivion. It is to such men as those that Catholics point when suspicion or slander is created concerning Catholic loyalty, and the doubt passes away as the mist from the sun. These are the bright stars of history that sparkle through long ages, guiding us on in the just fulfilment of our duties, and cheering us in our sorrows and trials by their example.

Let us not imagine, however, that individuals alone among Catholics so cheerfully assisted a struggling people.

Catholic governments watched the struggling people with interest and concern, and sooner than behold their cause perish beneath the power of a tyrant, they forsook the appearance of indifferent neutrals, and with joyful hearts stretched forth their mighty arm in the cause of suffering humanity.

Catholic Poland sent her generals and Catholic France her armies to fight our battles, and Catholic Ireland sent her hopes and her prayers for the encouragement of a downtrodden sister. They infused a new vigor and a new life into the journeys of the weary veterans, and elicited vigorous hopes from the heart of every American

hopes which were destined never again to waver or to perish.

So it has been from the foundation of the Catholic Church. Catholic nations have ever supported the cause of the suffering and oppressed; through all the ages that mark her career and augment the grandeur of her glories she has ever been the enemy of tyranny in every form, and the protector of the persecuted in every clime.

And now the long years that have watched the growth of that country, a country which has been sanc

tified by the blood and hallowed by the graves of patriots, have circled into a century.

It is, you will admit, a difficult task to compress within the limits of an essay or an oration, the virtues and the achievements of even one of those heroes whose names are not dimmed, and the fires of whose genius still burn brightly after the revolutions of almost a hundred years.

What then must be the difficulty experienced when we are requested to speak of the Centennial, in which we are called upon to celebrate the hundredth birthday of that charter of our liberties for the consummation of which our forefathers fought and died. What a great obligation rests upon the Catholics of America in regard to this grand celebration! What a splendid opportunity for displaying the uses in which they have employed that precious gem of liberty so dearly purchased!

How their labor and their industry shall stand forth as monuments to faithful and grateful descendants. The grand temples which they have erected to the honor and glory of God shall tell plainer than words that they have not been idle in the great cause of religion, to secure the liberty of which they consented to leave fatherland, in whose councils they could have no share, and to take their abode in a country into whose open arms they threw, not only their accumulated sorrows of the past, but also their magnificent aspirations for the future. In return for this welcome, the rich products of the soil and the precious metals of the earth shall now exhibit their energy and labor.

It is frequently asserted that these people lack the spirit of enterprise so necessary in a country like ours, but their perseverance is felt and their worth acknowledged in every branch of industry; they are found

in every station, whether in the highest profession or the lowest labor; whether in plodding through the complicated mazes of difficult sciences, or in the deepest mines drawing the ores from their gloomy depths. Who is there so selfish that shall deny their importance, or so bigoted as to deny their proficiency?

It is true that many of those who have come from the old country have not brought with them their share of the gold which we adore, but they brought better, bright minds, willing hearts, and strong arms, and in every art and science the Catholics shall take their places, if not first, at least among the foremost. And a noble array shall they present-one that shall render honor to the country they have supported and the Church they have espoused.

Not alone in the material prosperity of our country have Catholics procured more than their share of success. Through the teachings of the Church whose dictates they revere, they have aided and are still powerfully aiding, her moral growth. Through the stern voice which denounces secret societyism as the great enemy of republican forms of government, she prevents her sons from becoming secret plotters against a country to whom they have pledged public faith.

On the other hand, she furnishes a substitute for these objectionable societies, and thousands of her sons and daughters avail themselves of the invitation to join them.

Hence all will admit that there is yet a grander memorial to the labor and assiduity of the Catholics of this country. It is not the mere spasmodic effort of sensationalists that shall eventually die away as some assert, but it is the mighty uprising of the Catholics of this country in a noble cause. Founded in the heart of every lover of virtue and morality,

encouraged by the approval of the reverend clergy, sustained by the unanimity of feeling that exists between its members, the temperance societies shall be pointed at as the grand result of Catholicity in this country. Not alone shall they be noticed in our Centennial as the generous donors of a beautiful offering, but as the promoters of all that conduces to the formation of model and virtuous citizens.

Their course has been propitious, not only in consequence of the enthusiasm and devotion of their members, but in the encouragement and support of the Church, which has been manifested on all occasions.

Therefore, while all the magnificent products of manual labor are being expatiated upon in terms of wonder and applause, let not the spiritual labor of the Church, whose only reward is in the faithful adherence of her children to her divine teachings, be passed by unnoticed. For although the results are indeed great that have been accomplished by the industry and energy of the American Republic, in this first century of its existence, yet the Church has effected even greater advancement in the cause of religion. Her conquests have not been limited either by state interference or sectarian bigotry. She has had the broad scope of a free country for the field of her labors, and as the Church is free, she has all the protection she desires in the freedom of the State.

She complains, and justly, of that infidel principle which requires her sons to contribute towards a system of education, which was originally concocted, and is now continued, through the influence of secret societies, for the purpose of destroying the faith in children, and that at our own expense; but she grants America the intelligence. to which it makes so loud a claim, and logically concludes that if this

claim be a just one, it will manifest itself ere long by a just decision of the public school question.

Sects, however remote from each other, unite in their antagonism towards the Church, because they well know that her existence is lasting, while theirs depends solely on the support of something material. Therefore, it is that God is so earnestly desired in the Constitution. But God and his law are in the heart and the desires of every Christian, and while the nation celebrates the first centennial of its existence, the religious freedom of that nation affords the greatest opportunity for the congratulation of every Catholic.

To those Catholics who have sought here the freedom that was denied them in their native land, the Centennial of our independence shall indeed find a joyous welcome in their exiled hearts. Although it shall recall the sorrowful recollections of boyhood days, when they rambled among the shaded woods and over the green fields, the only species of God's creatures that were deprived of peace and freedom.

Here those wanderers have found a refuge and a shelter; here, while enjoying both civil and religious liberty, they may well picture the homes of their fatherland, where their forefathers, if not they themselves, have suffered from oppression's cruel lash. And while they yet cling to the country for which they have suffered, they cannot refrain from loving the one which they have adopted.

Those emigrants who have sought an asylum here are for the most part Catholics. The majority of the thousands of Germans who crowd to our shores, seek the free practice of the Catholic religion in a strange nation with a strange language. Devoid of all the benefits of fortune, but with native resolution and manliness, the Irish seek here freedom of religion.

And who shall dare to question

country speaks it, and the loud crash of our western forests re-echo it in their fall, as in their stead beauteous cities arise.

The Centennial shall exhibit more definitely than has heretofore been acknowledged, the magnitude of the benefits that have accrued through the instrumentality of those emigrants. And while other nations shall not repress their admiration for those Catholics who have sought freedom, their perseverance and energy while here shall have a tendency to palliate the nation towards those who are not yet disenthralled from a tyrannical government. This shall be one of the numerous benefits resulting from the connection of the Catholics with the Centennial.

Moreover Catholics shall behold the great power which they possess as a body; they shall more thoroughly understand the effects which their labors have accomplished; the Centennial shall draw them together, uniting them in the bonds of brotherhood, and shall make them feel that they are framing the groundwork of the destiny which awaits our great Republic.

But who can anticipate the results? Who can measure the extent of the benefits? Future ages shall attest them.

It has been whispered that the Centennial will be a failure, and there are some who are so wavering as to give credence to such a rumor. When a great people have undertaken a great project, and are determined to attain its accomplishment, success must as surely follow their efforts as the day must follow the night.

Even should failure with its blighting influence meet the Centennial celebration, it will not be any fault of Catholicity, nor shall our native State be counted among the criminally negligent. Were failure possible, it would arise from

are ignorant of the benefits which they now enjoy, and which were so largely earned for them by the Catholics of '76. A portion of the blame must also rest on the heads of those Washington sages who, not content with the disgrace attached to the snail-like pace of the Washington monument, would likewise prevent a proper celebration of that first Centennial of the country saved by Washington, aided by his Catholic soldiers.

But however great the success, let the Catholics not be unmindful of their part in the grand scene. Let each gladly perform his share of the labor, and each shall receive his ample recompense in the applause of nations. And while the busy tumult of succeeding years shall be winding away in their ceaseless course, and while the projectors of this grand undertaking, and the men who have labored for its success, shall have passed away from the scene of their triumph, future generations shall honor and revere their memory. For its effects shall be lasting, and the Catholics of America shall be enabled, through its agency, to leave a spotless record of their labors in the field of industry to an admiring posterity. While it shall tell how faithfully they upheld the honor of the nation, it shall show at the same time how nobly they advanced the interests of the Church.

And when the wild forests of our Far West shall have been cleared away, and civilization shall have reared its polished homes beside every brook and streamlet; when the waters that rush along shall turn the miller's wheel, and every prairie shall yield its abundant crop to the toiling farmer, then shall every Catholic, as he enjoys the benefits that have accrued from the labors of our first century, honor the name and bless the memory of the Catholics and the Centennial.

DEAR SIR: You are convinced that Jesus Christ established the Church, which he also designated the "Kingdom of God on earth," and consequently that it is characterized by unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostolicity. It is obvious that the institution named by nonCatholics, the Roman Catholic Church, is the only one claiming, possessing, and realizing this divine origin and constitution. This fact should terminate your inquiries in a fulfilment of the duty of "hearing the Church," and thus escape being classed with "heathens and publicans." But, alas! you are still swayed by the delusive theories that project ecclesiastical phantoms, and mendaciously assume the titles of the ONE CHURCH of Christ. In these latter days, especially, the hordes of Protestantism, from Lutheranism to Mormonism, interlard their ecclesiastical jargon with the terms, "Church," "Catholic," "Evangelical," "Apostolic," in pretending to be something else than of the earth earthy. Now, dear sir, I have already given to you from Sacred Scripture alone the testimonies that show what the Church is; I will lay before you the testimonies which show undeniably what Protestantism is, and particularly the Elizabethan denomination (falsely called Episcopalian), about which you are most interested. Protestants only shall state the case, and they will now inform you truthfully and impartially about Protestantism and the so-called Reformation.

LONDON ENCYCLOPEDIA." The

Emperor Charles V called a Diet at Spires, in 1529, to request aid from the German princes against the Turks, and to devise the most effectual means for allaying the religious disputes which then raged, in consequence of Luther's opposition to the established religion. The Emperor being at Barcelona, at the meeting of this Diet his brother. Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, was appointed to preside. In this Diet it was decreed by Ferdinand and other princes that, in countries which had embraced the new religion, it should be lawful to continue in it till the meeting of a council; but that no Roman Catholic should be allowed to turn Lutheran, and that the Reformers should deliver nothing in their sermons contrary to the received doctrines of the Church. This decree was considered as iniquitous and intolerable by the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse and other members of the Diet. . . . Against this decree six Lutheran princes, with the deputies of thirteen imperial towns, formally and solemnly protested, and declared that they appealed to a general council; hence the name of Protestants, which, from this period, has been given to the followers of Luther. Nor is it confined to them; for it soon after included the Calvinists, and has now for a long time been applied indiscriminately to all the sects and denominations, in whatever country they may be found, which have separated from the Church of Rome." (L. Encyclopædia, Art. Prot.)

As the Protestants originated at