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Slavery Views of A Northern Prelate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Rena Mazyck Andrews
Affiliation:
Chicago, Illinois

Extract

Among the Catholic clergy of the North before the Civil War, we may look to John Hughes, Irish archbishop of New York, for the frankest exposition of slavery views. Intellectually honest and fearlessly impulsive in the expression of opinion, he was known for his forceful personality and for the leadership he had won by his militant championship of unpopular causes.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1934

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References

1 Guilday, Peter, History of the Councils of Baltimore (New York, 1932) 169Google Scholar; Murphy, Robert J., “The Catholic Church in the United States during the Civil War Period,” American Catholic Historical Society Records, 39: 293, 295, 298Google Scholar. Cited hereafter as Records, A. C. H. S.; Shea, J. D. G., History of the Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1892), IV, 384, 385.Google Scholar

2 A. C. H. S. Records, 39: 296. See also the Pastoral Letter of the Provincial Council of Connecticut, 1861, which states, “… while many of the sects have divided into hostile parties on an exciting issue, the Catholic Church has carefully preserved her unity of spirit in the bond of peace.” Ibid.

3 Seventeen years before, the imminence of schism in the Methodist church had brought forth the anxious query: “If Protestantism is to go on splitting up into fragments in this way, how can we hope to battle successfully against the formidable power of Romanisin and other antagonist influences! ” The New York Christian Advocate, 08 7, 1844.

4 “Notes on ‘The War and Catholics’.” Undated manuscript in the Hughes Papers at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, N. Y.

5 Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Dr. Brownson had opposed the abolitionists, but now he considered immediate emancipation as essential to the success of the Northern armies. The constantly shifting opinions of “Weathercock Brownson” (N. Y. Herald, 10 8, 1861) had subjected him to the charge of being a “Proteus in politics” as well as an “acrobat in religion.” The Metropolitan Record, 01 18, 1862.

6 Published in Paris in 1861. Crowned by the French Academy.

7 Brownson's Quarterly Review, New York series, 1856–1863.

8 “The Abolition Views of Brownson Overthrown, ” Reprinted from The Metropolitan Record in The Catholic Mirror, Baltimore. 10 12, 1861.Google Scholar

9 R. J. Murphy, “Catholic Church … during the Civil War Period,” 303, op. cit.

10 This Encyclical appears in full over the signature, “A Catholic,” in the New York Tribune, 10 12, 1861.Google Scholar

11 “Notes on Slavery,” n. d., Hughes MS.

15 Ibid. Answering the charge of the abolitionists that the spiritual condition of the black man was neglected, he goes on to say of the church, “She does not exclude either the master or the slave from the reception of the sacraments, and in these very countries [the Southern States] it would not be uncommon to see the servant and the master kneeling side by side and receiving the holy communion.” Ibid.

16 “The Abolition Views of Brownson Overthrown,” loc. cit.

21 Ibid. Contrasting the treatment accorded the negro in the North and South, Hughes makes the astounding statement: “If Heaven had permitted me to have been born in Africa or in America as the son of an African slave, I should sooner remain in Southern bondage than avail myself of the opportunity of Northern freedom. In the South I should know my place”.“Notes on Slavery”, Hughes MB.

22 Works of John England (Meesmer edition, Cleveland, 1908) V, 201205.Google Scholar

23 Cf.Dew's, particularly “Review of the Debates of the Virginia Legislature of 1832,” in The Pro-Slavery Argument (Charleston, 1832).Google Scholar

24 “Abolition Views of Brownson Overthrown”, loc. cit. In the same spirit Bp. Lynch had said, “Catholics … smile at this attempt to ‘reform’ the teachings of our Savior,’ Letter to Abp. Hughes, Charleston, S. C., 08 4, 1861, United States Catholic Miscellany, I, XXXVIII, 67.

25 “Abolition Views … Overthrown,” loc. cit.

26 Brownson, , Quarterly Review, 01, 1862.Google Scholar

27 “Abolition Views … Overthrown,” loc. cit.

28 Ibid. According to Hassard, “in the excitement and haste of composition, he ‘aid more than he meant, and much that he afterward regretted.” Life of Hughes, op. cit., 435.

29 “Abolition Views … Overthrown,” loc. cit.

31 “Except in the right of selling and dispersing families,” he considered that the immorality of the situation was “not peculiar to the South,” as the “degraded condition of thousands of females in our own large cities in the free States furnishes a hint.” Ibid.

35 Contemptuously referring to “that clique, who shun the battle field and become self-complacent in their fanaticism, under the imagination that our brave soldiers are fighting their battle without being aware of it,” he suggests as a motto to be inscrihed on the banner of the proposed “Abolition Brigade,” the inspiring words, “‘The Constitution of the United States is a Covenant with Hell’.” Bearing aloft such a proclamation of war aims as they enter “the tented fields, now occupied by our gallant troops, imagination can hardly conceive the reception that would await them.” Ibid.

37 Ibid. Italics author's.

38 Hughes, to Seward, , 10 10, 1861Google Scholar, Hughes MS.

40 New York Tribune, 01 13, 1862.Google Scholar

42 “French Journals Sustain Union Side,” New York Tribune, 01 1, 1862.Google Scholar

43 Augustin Cochin, mayor of Paris, 1853, choice of the Liberal Catholics for deputy, member of the Académie, author, editor.

44 “Abolition Views of Brownson Overthrown,” loc. cit.

47 December 24, 1861.

48 Louis Alloury.

49 Le Journai des Débats, 12 24, 1861.Google Scholar

51 Hassard, 436, n.

52 From the most unfriendly of his biographers came the following tribute to Hughes: “He has the chivalry to be foremost in the conflict, and to scorn proxies.” “The Most Rev. John Hughes, D.D., Archbishop of New York,” Harper's Magazine (06 26, 1858), Vol. II, No. 78.Google Scholar

53 “Lee Evénements du Mois,” Le Correspondant, 01 24, 1862.Google Scholar

55 Riehardson to Hughes, New York, 12 7, 1862. Hughes MS.

59 Richardson, to Hughes, , Office of the American Quarterly Church Review, New York, 37Google Scholar Bibe House, 12 11th, 1862. Hughes MS.

60 Hassard, 435.

61 Hughes to Richardson on the Emancipation Proclamation, n. d., but evidently written between the dates of the first and second letter from Richardson, or between Dec. 7 and 11, 1862.

63 Margaret Hughes had married William Rodrique, grandson of the d'Orlies who came to the United States from Santo Domingo in July, 1793. A. C. H. S. Records, 28:99.

64 Hughes to Richardson, op. cit.

68 In view of the hundreds of arbitrary arrests during the war period, particularlyanlong too outspoken editors, including James A. McMaster of the Freeman's Journal, it behooved even churchmen of high rank to step warily. On McMaster's case see Smith, J. F., Catholic Church in New York, (New York and Boston, 1905), 273Google Scholar; also, “Resuming Publication ”, Freeman's Journal, 04 19, 1862Google Scholar; “Comment of the Press,” Ibid, 05 3, 1862; “Who Most Guilty,” Ibid, 07 25, 1863.

69 R. J. Murphy, op. cit., 282.

70 Lecture on “The Catholic Chapter in the History of the United States,” New York, 1852. Hassard, op. cit., 345.

71 Message of December 1, 1862. Quoted in The Liberator, 12 5, 1862; Richardson, , Messages of the Presidents, 136.Google Scholar

72 Letter of “A Catholic Priest” of Kentucky, dated July 6, 1863. Freeman's Journal, New York, 08 1, 1863.Google Scholar

73 “Abolition Views of Brownson Overthrown,” loc. cit.

74 Pastoral Letter, quoted in Murphy, op. cit., 303.

75 Speech of William Lloyd Garrison at Tremont Temple, 12 2, 1859. The Liberator, 1216, 1859.Google Scholar

76 Issue of January 18, 1862. Hughes was in Paris at the time.

77 In an address of a popular Irish speaker it was declared that “the No-Nothing party which … five or six years ago … committed such gross assaults on the Catholics … existed now in the shape of the abolitionists”. Then followed the prediction: “If they carry out their policy in respect to the Constitution, they would not hesitate to repeat their assaults upon the Church”. Lecture of George Francis Train on 10 28, 1862. Reported in the Boston Catholic Pilot and reprinted in The Liberator, 11 14, 1862.Google Scholar

78 Metropolitan Record, 12 27, 1862.Google Scholar See also American Annual Cyclopaedia (1863), III, 684.Google Scholar

79 Browuson's, Quarterly Review, 19:50.Google Scholar

80 Shea, J. D. G., History of the Catholio Church in the United States, op. cit., IV, 384.Google Scholar

81 See editorial reproaching DrBrownson, for “his identifications with the infidel abolitionists,” in New York Herald, 10 8, 1861.Google Scholar

82 Hughes to Cochin, Paris, 01 28, 1862, Hughes MS.