The sad circumstances in which we find ourselves do not in the least interfere with our ordinary tranquillity. Each one keeps at his work as if nothing was plotting around us. This tyrannical law of Missouri being ex post facto is unconstitutional and therefore null and contrary to the Constitution of the United States, which prohibits laws of that sort. Meanwhile our churches remain open and we preach
and administer the sacraments as usual. Our college opened on the very day of the promulgation of the law (the fourth
of this month) with an attendance of about Goo pupils. We pray and keep our patience under the wings of the eagle, the emblem of the Constitution of the United States - or rather we repose without uneasiness under the safeguard of the Lord! May his holy will be accomplished in regard to us!
Your devoted uncle, etc.
"All the world seems ready to go to war. In the United States the agitation just at present is very great. There is a gleam of hope that President Johnson may succeed in the peaceable reconstruction of the Southern States; the
elections in November will decide it. Among clear-sighted persons serious fears are felt that the radical party will move heaven and earth to keep itself in power, and that the shock will be terrible and fearful in its results. In Missouri we continue to be in a very critical state. The horrible testoath, which forbids our preaching the gospel without taking it, continues in force. There are constant arrests and imprisonments.
e From letter in French to Terwecoren, August 24, 1866.