tion whose history he believes to be marked by bloodshed,
crime and fraud.

Had I been educated as they were, and surrounded by an atmosphere hostile
to the Church, perhaps I should be unfortunate enough to be breathing
vengeance against her today, instead of consecrating my life to her
defence.

It is not of their hostility that I complain, but because the judgment
they have formed of her is based upon the reckless assertions of her
enemies, and not upon those of impartial witnesses.

Suppose that I wanted to obtain a correct estimate of the Southern people,
would it be fair in me to select, as my only sources of information,
certain Northern and Eastern periodicals which, during our Civil War, were
bitterly opposed to the race and institutions of the South? Those papers
have represented you as men who always appeal to the sword and pistol,
instead of the law, to vindicate your private grievances. They heaped
accusations against you which I will not here repeat. Instead of taking
these publications as the basis of my information, it was my duty to come
among you; to live with you; to read your life by studying your public and
private character. This I have done, and I here cheerfully bear witness to
your many excellent traits of mind and heart.

Now I ask you to give to the Catholic Church the same measure of fairness
which you reasonably demand of me when judging of Southern character. Ask
not her enemies what she is, for they are blinded by passion; ask not her
ungrateful, renegade children, for you never heard a son speaking well of
the mother whom he had abandoned and despised.

Study her history in the pages of truth. Examine her creed. Read her
authorized catechisms and doctrinal books. You will find them everywhere
on the shelves of booksellers, in the libraries of her clergy, on the
tables of Catholic families.

There is no Freemasonry in the Catholic Church; she has no secrets to keep
back. She has not one set of doctrines for Bishops and Priests, and
another for the laity. She has not one creed for the initiated and another
for outsiders. Everything in the Catholic Church is open and above board.
She has the same doctrines for all--for the Pope and the peasant.

Should not I be better qualified to present to you the Church's creed than
the unfriendly witnesses whom I have mentioned?

I have imbibed her doctrine with my mother's milk. I have made her history
and theology the study of my life. What moti