"From the beginning of our civil war, there has been, not a secret, but a public alliance, between the Pope of
Rome and Jeff Davis, and that alliance has followed the common laws of this world affairs. The greater has led
the smaller, the stronger has guided the weaker. The Pope and his Jesuits have advised, supported, and directed
Jeff Davis on the land, from the first gun shot at Fort Sumter, by the rabid Roman Catholic Beauregard. They are
helping him on the sea by guiding and supporting the other rabid Roman Catholic pirate, Semmes, on the ocean.
And they will help the rebellion when firing their last gun to shed the blood of the last soldier of Liberty, who
will fall in this fratricidal war. In my interview with Bishop Hughes, I told him, 'that every stranger who had
sworn allegiance to our government by becoming a United States citizen, as himself, was liable to be shot or
hung as a perjured traitor and an armed spy, as the sentence of the court-martial may direct. And he will be so
shot and hanged accordingly, as there will be no exchange of such prisoners'. After I had put this flea in the ears
of the Romish bishop, I requested him to go and report my words to the Pope. Seeing the dangerous position of
his bishops and priests when siding with the rebels, my hope was that he would advise them, for their own
interests, to become loyal and true to their allegiance and help us through the remaining part of the war. But he
result has been the very contrary. The Pope has thrown away the mask, and shown himself the public partisan
and the protector of the rebellion, by taking Jeff Davis by the hand, and impudently recognizing the Southern
States as a legitimate government. Now, I have the proof in hand that that very Bishop Hughes, whom I had sent
to Rome that he might induce the Pope to urge the Roman Catholics of the North at least, to be true to their oath
of allegiance, and whom I thanked publicly, when, under the impression that he had acted honestly, according to
the promise he had given me, is the very man who advised the Pope to recognize the legitimacy of the Southern
Republic, and put the whole weight of his tiara in the balance against us in favour of our enemies! Such is the
perfidy of those Jesuits. Two cankers are biting the very entrails of the United States today: the Romish and the
Mormon priests. Both are equally at work to form a people of the most abject, ignorant and fanatical slaves, who
will recognize no other authority but their supreme pontiffs. Both are aiming at the destruction of our schools, to
raise themselves upon our ruins. Both shelter themselves under our grand and holy principles of liberty of
conscience, to destroy that very liberty of conscience, and bind the world before their heavy and ignominious
yoke. The Mormon and the Jesuit priests are equally the uncompromising enemies of our constitution and our
laws; but the more dangerous of the two is the Jesuits the Romish priest, for he knows better now to conceal his
hatred under the mask of friendship and public good: he is better trained to commit the most cruel and diabolical
deeds for the glory of God. "Till lately, I was in favour of the unlimited liberty of conscience as our constitution
gives it to the Roman Catholics. But now, it seems to me that, sooner or later, the people will be forced to put a
restriction to that clause towards the Papists. Is it not an act of folly to give absolute liberty of conscience to a set
of men who are publicly sworn to cut our throats the very day they have their opportunity for doing it? It is right
to give the privilege of citizenship to men who are the sworn and public enemies of our constitution, our laws,
our liberties, and our lives?
"The very moment that Popery assumed the right of life and death on a citizen of France, Spain, Germany,
England, or the United States, it assumed to be the power, the government of France, Spain, England, Germany,
and the United States. Those States then committed a suicidal act by allowing Popery to put a foot on their
territory with the privilege of citizenship. The power of life and death is the supreme power, and two supreme
powers cannot exist on the same territory without anarchy, riots, bloodshed, and civil wars without end. When
Popery will give up the power of life and death which it proclaims on its own divine power, in all its theological
books and canon laws, then, and then alone, it can be tolerated and can receive the privileges of citizenship in a
free country.
"Is it not an absurdity to give to a man a thing which he is sworn to hate, curse, and destroy? And does not the
Church of Rome hate, curse, and destroy liberty of conscience whenever she can do it safely? I am for liberty of
conscience in its noblest, broadest, highest sense. But I cannot give liberty of conscience to the Pope and to his
followers, the Papists, so long as they tell me, through all their councils, theologians, and canon laws, that their
conscience orders them to burn my wife, strangle my children, and cut my throat when they find their
opportunity! This does not seem to be understood by the people today. But sooner or later, the light of common
sense will make it clear to every one that no liberty of conscience can be granted to men who are sworn to obey a
Pope, who pretends to have the right to put to death those who differ from him religion.
"You are not the first to warn me against the dangers of assassination. My ambassadors in Italy, France, and
England, as well as Professor Morse, have many times warned me against the plots of the murderers which they
have detected in those different countries. But I see no other safeguard against those murderers but to be always
ready to die, as Christ advises it. As we must all die sooner or later, it makes very little difference to me whether
I die from a dagger plunged through the heart or from an inflammation of the lungs. Let me tell you that I have
lately read a passage in the Old Testament which has made a profound, and, I hope, a salutary impression on me.
Here is that passage."
The President took his Bible, opened it at the third chapter of Deuteronomy, and read from the 22nd to the 28th
verse:-
"Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God He shall fight for you. And I besought the Lord at that time,
saying, O Lord God, Thou hast begun to shew Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy mighty hand; for what God is
there, in heaven or in earth, that can do according to Thy works, and according to Thy might! I pray Thee, let me
go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord was
wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee: speak no
more unto Me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward,
and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan."
After the President had read these words with great solemnity, he added: "My dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell
you that I have read these strange and beautiful verses several times these last five or six weeks. The more I read
them, the more it seems to me that God has written them for me as well as for Moses. Has He not taken me from
my poor log cabin by the hand, as He did of Moses in the reeds of the Nile, to put me at the head of the greatest
and the most blessed of modern nations, just as He put that prophet at the head of the most blessed nation of
ancient times? Has not God granted me a privilege which was not granted to any living man, when I broke the
fetters of 4,000,000 of men and made them free? Has not our God given me the most glorious victories over our
enemies? Are not the armies of the Confederacy so reduced to a handful of men when compared to what they
were two years ago, that the day is fast approaching when they will have to surrender?
"Now, I see the end of this terrible conflict, with the same joy of Moses, when, at the end of his trying forty
years in the wilderness; and I pray my God to grant me to see the days of peace, and untold prosperity, which
will follow this cruel war, as Moses asked God to see the other side of Jordan and enter the Promised Land. But
do you know that I hear in my soul, as the voice of God, giving me the rebuke which was given to Moses?
"Yes! every time that my soul goes to God to ask the favour of seeing the other side of Jordan, and eating the
fruits of that peace, after which I am longing with such an unspeakable desire, do you know that there is a still,
but solemn voice, which tells me that I will see those things, only from a long distance, and that I will be among
the dead, when the nation which God granted me to lead through those awful trials, will cross the Jordan, and
dwell in that Land of Promise, where peace, industry, happiness, and liberty, will make every one happy; and
why so? Because He has already given me favours which He never gave, I dare say, to any man, in these latter
days.
"Why did God Almighty refuse to Moses the favour of crossing the Jordan, and entering the Promised Land? It
was on account of his own nations's sins! That law of divine retribution and justice, by which one must suffer for
another, is surely a terrible mystery. But it is a fact which no man who has any intelligence and knowledge can
deny. Moses, who knew that law, though he probably did not understand it better than we do, calmly says to his
people, 'God was wroth with me for your sakes.'
"But though we do not understand that mysterious and terrible law, we find it written in letters of tears and blood
wherever we go. We do not read a single page of history, without finding undeniable traces of its existence.
"Where is the mother who has not shed tears and suffered real tortures, for her children's sake?
"Who is the good king, the worthy emperor, the gifted chieftain, who have not suffered unspeakable mental
agonies, or even death, for their people's sake?
"Is not our Christian religion the highest expression of the wisdom, mercy, and love of God! But what is
Christianity if not the very incarnation of that eternal law of divine justice in our humanity?
"When I look on Moses, alone, silently dying on the Mount Pisgah, I see that law, in one of its most sublime
human manifestations, and I am filled with admiration and awe.
"But when I consider that law of justice, and expiation in the death of the Just, the divine Son of Mary, on the
mountain of Calvary, I remain mute in my adoration. The spectacle of that crucified one which is before my
eyes, is more than sublime, it is divine! Moses died for his people's sake, but Christ died for the whole world's
sake! Both died to fulfill the same eternal law of the divine justice, though in a different measure.
"Now would it not be the greatest of honours and privileges bestowed upon me, if God, in His infinite love,
mercy and wisdom, would put me between His faithful servant, Moses, and His eternal Son, Jesus, that I might
die as they did, for my nation's sake!
"My God alone knows what I have already suffered for my dear country's sake. But my fear is that the justice of
God is not yet paid. When I look upon the rivers of tears and blood drawn by the lashes of the merciless masters
from the veins of the very heart of those millions of defenseless slaves, these two hundred years. When I
remember the agonies, the cries, the unspeakable tortures of those unfortunate people, at which I have, to some
extent, connived with so many others, a part of my life, I feel that we are still far from the complete expiation.
For the judgments of God are true and righteous.
"It seems to me that the Lord wants, today, as He wanted in the days of Moses, another victim a victim which he
has himself chosen, anointed and prepared for the sacrifice, by raising it above the rest of His people. I cannot
conceal from you that my impression is that I am that victim. So many plots have already been made against my
life, that it is a real miracle that they have all failed, when we consider that the great majority of them were in the
hands of skillful Roman Catholic murderers, evidently trained by Jesuits. But can we expect that God will make
a perpetual miracle to save my life? I believe not. The Jesuits are so expert in those deeds of blood, that Henry
IV. said that it was impossible to escape them, and he became their victim, though he did all that could be done
to protect himself. My escape from their hands, since the letter of the Pope to Jeff Davis has sharpened a million
of daggers to pierce my breast, would be more than a miracle.
"But just as the Lord heard no murmur from the lips of Moses when He told him that he had to die, before
crossing the Jordan, for the sins of his people; so I hope and pray that He will hear no murmur from me when I
fall for my nations's sake.
"The only two favours I ask of the Lord are, first, that I may die for the sacred cause in which I am engaged, and
when I am the standard bearer of the rights and liberties of my country.
"The second favour I ask of God is, that my dear son, Robert, when I am gone, will be one of those who lift us
that flag of Liberty which will cover my tomb, and carry it with honour and fidelity, to the end of his life, as his
father did, surrounded by the millions who will be called with him to fight and die for the defense and honour of
our country."
Never had I heard such sublime words: Never had I seen a human face so solemn and so prophet-like as the face of the President, when uttering these things. Every sentence had come to me as a hymn from heaven, reverberated by the echoes of the mountains of Pisgah and Calvary. I was beside myself. Bathed in tears, I tried to say something, but I could not utter a word.
I knew the hour to leave had come, I asked from the President permission to fall on my knees, and pray with him that his life might be spared: and he knelt with me. But I prayed more with my tears and sobs, than with my words.
Then I pressed his hand on my lips and bathed it with my tears, and with a heart filled with an unspeakable desolation, I bade him Adieu! It was for the last time!
For the hour was fast approaching when he was to fall by the hands of a Jesuit assassin, for his nation's sake.
— Charles Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, Chick Publications, pp. 302, 303.
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Chapter 4
"Sic siemper tyrannus"????
