Notes and Remarks [excerpt]

     The tragic manner of President McKinley’s death would silence criticism even if the lamented statesman were far less beloved than he actually was. Catholics, therefore, will read with melancholy satisfaction these words of a prelate who is never maudlin and never hysterical—the Most Rev. Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia:

     That he was fair to those who differed from his religious convictions, I am persuaded. I know on the best authority that, as Governor of Ohio, he was kind, almost partial, to the Catholics of that State when it was unpopular to be such. I had occasion to visit him in the interests of the Catholic Indians, and I am satisfied that whatever concessions were made were made through his influence; and full justice would have been done to them could he have followed the impulses of his heart, which public men can not always do.

     The Archbishop also took occasion to utter some wholesome thoughts on [438][439] the condition of our country. We should like to reprint his address in full, but a sample must suffice. “Because this is a land of liberty and there are fewer restraining influences from without,” he said, “we need more from within. I am alarmed for the future of this republic if disregard and contempt for religious doctrines should increase. No nation has ever continued to live without religion and its restraints. Uncivilized nations are conquered from without, but civilized nations from within, by the force of their own passions.”