CHAPTER VII.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION.
Turbulent foreigners -The boasted liberty and tolerance of America - Anarchy has arrived - Mobs and violence - Predicts annexation of Cuba, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada-Contrasts material and moral condition- The Know-nothings - The Church and party politics - Test Oath in bad odor-Supreme Court decision-Inequality of taxation.
St. Xavier College, Cincinnati, Aug. 2, 1854.
Dear FRANCIS:'
HAVE just received your good letter, etc.
I am at present accompanying the Father Provincial in his visits to our establishments in Ohio and Kentucky. I shall be back in St. Louis about the loth of this month. The heat has been excessive in Cincinnati for the last month. A very large number of people have died from sunstroke, twelve yesterday. For my part I suffer greatly, and find no solace save in the bathtub.
There is much excitement everywhere in the United States against our holy religion, and as fast as the radicals and reds arrive from Europe the excitement increases. Several churches have been set on fire already and there is open talk of murder and pillage. Every day the papers tell of attacks on Catholics, especially on the Irish. It is certain that a priest cannot appear on the streets in Cincinnati without being insulted by renegade Germans, Swiss and
Italians. These gentlemen are in their element in the States. As soon as they are able and can gather the force, a system of persecution unknown as yet in America will be established.
1 From the French 114511