To the faithful Irish-American Catholic citizensof the whole Union, and especially to the workingportion of them, on account of their piety,their liberality, their patriotism, and their steadyloyalty to the virtues symbolized by the "Crossand the Shamrock,"—on account of their attachmentto the land of St. Patrick, and to thereligion of her patriot princes and martyrs,—thiswork, written for their encouragement and instruction,is respectfully inscribed by
Their humble servant,
And devoted friend and fellow-citizen,
THE AUTHOR.
September, 1853.
"There are moments when every citizen who feels that he can saysomething promotive of the welfare of his countrymen and of advantage tohis country is authorized to give public utterance to his sentiments,how humble soever he may be."—Letter of Archbishop Hughes on theMadiai, February, 1853.
"There may be, in public opinion, an Inquisition a thousand times moregalling to the soul than the gloomy prison or the weight ofchains."—National Democrat, March, 1853.
1st. The above extracts, from different but respectable sources,comprise the author's chief motives in the publication of the followingwork. It is a well-known fact, that thousands of our fellow-Christians,in all parts of this vast free country, are continually subjected to amost trying ordeal of temptation and persecution on account of theirreligion, and that the wonderful progress of Catholicity and renewedpower of the church only add to the malice, if not to the influence, ofsectarians, in their efforts to make use of this odious persecution ofservant boys and servant girls, of widows and orphans, to build up theirown tottering conventicles, and to circumscribe the giant strides ofwhat they call "the man of sin."
A very intelligent American lawyer lately remarked to the writer ofthis, "that, about twenty-five years ago, the parsons fulminated alltheir eloquence against Satan; but they seem to have formed a leaguewith him now, for all their vengeance is directed against the pope, who,they say, is far more dangerous than Old Harry."
When we know this to be literally true, and find our poor, neglected,and uninstructed brethren in danger accordingly, how can any thing thatcan be said, written, or done, to alleviate their condition, or toremove prejudice from the public mind, be counted a work ofsupererogation?
2d. The corruption of the cheap trash literature, that is now ordinarilysupplied for the amusement and instruction of the American people,—andthat threatens to uproot and annihilate all the notions of virtue andmorals that remain, in spite of sectarianism,—calls for some antidote,some remedy. In every rail