into science,
destroys its certainty; one false principle admitted into morals, is
fatal. Now our American nation is departing from the principles which
created their civilization, and upon which their grand Republic is
based. Their civilization is becoming every day more and more material,
and this material civilization, while more and more material, is
becoming less moral; society is becoming less solid, less safe, less
stable; individuals are becoming more anarchical, the intellect more
licentious, the wills of men more stubborn, and this self-will expresses
itself in their actions, so that it is true to say that, by means of
godless education, the principles of Christianity upon which the
American Republic was founded, and by which it has hitherto been
preserved, have been rejected, and are being violated on every side. Our
Republic, therefore is no more progressing, but is going back.

About fifteen years ago a number of leading politicians and statesmen of
America, of highest name and note, met together to consider the
condition of the United States. It was before the war, when there were
already many causes of anxiety. It was said that there was a universal
and growing license of the individual will, and that law and government
were powerless to restrain it; that if the will of the multitude became
licentious, it would seriously threaten the public welfare and liberty
of the country. The conclusion they came to was, that, _unless there
could be found some power which could restrain the individual will_,
this danger would at last _seriously menace the United States_.

Now it is easy to say what that power is. It is the power which created
the Christian society--it is the power which drew the world out of the
darkness of heathenism, abolished slavery, restored woman to her true
dignity--it is the power which established and maintained republican
governments, and that power is the power of Catholicity. Whensoever this
power is weakened or lost, immediately all political society decays.
There will be a bright future for America if this power will be
maintained and preserved.

The Catholic Church is the grandest Republic that was ever established.
But it is a Republic of a supernatural order. It has for its Founder
Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself. He chose St. Peter for its first
President. This grand Republic is divided, as it were, into as many
States as there are dioceses; each diocese has a Bishop--a true