VENERABLE BROTHER, HEALTH AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION:
Among the various and most oppressive cares which weigh on us in
these turbulent and perilous times, we are greatly afflicted by the
truly lamentable state in which the Christian people of the United
States of America are placed by the destructive civil war broken out
among them.
For, venerable brother, we can not but be overwhelmed with the
deepest sorrow while we recapitulate with paternal feelings the
slaughter, ruin, destruction, devastation, and the other innumerable
and ever-to-be deplored calamities by which the people themselves are
most miserably harassed and dilacerated. Hence, we have not ceased
to offer up, in the humility of our hearts, our most fervent prayers
to God, that He would deliver them from so many and so great evils.
And we are fully assured that you also, venerable brother, prity
and implore, without ceasing, the Lord of Mercies to grant solid
peace and prosperity to that country. But since we, by virtue of the
office of our apostolic ministry, embrace, with the deepest senti-
ments of charity, all the nations of the Christian world, and, though
unworthy, administer here on earth the vice-regent work of Him who
is the author of peace and the lover of charity, we can not refrain
from inculcating again and again on the minds of the people them-
selves, and their chief rulers, mutual charity and peace.
Wherefore we write you this letter, in which we urge you, venerable
brother, with all the force and earnestness of our mind, to exhort,
with your eminent piety and episcopal zeal, your clergy and faithful
to offer up their prayers, and also apply all your study and exertion,
with the people and their chief rulers, to restore forthwith the desired
tranquillity and peace by which the happiness of both the Christian
and the civil republic is principally maintained, wherefore, omit
nothing you can undertake and accomplish by your wisdom, author-
ity, and exertions, as far as compatible with the nature of the holy
ministry, to conciliate the minds of the combatants, pacify, reconcile,
and bring back the desired tranquillity and peace, by all those means
that are most conducive to the best interests of the people.
Take every pains, besides, to cause the people and their chief rulers
seriously to reflect on the grievous evils with which they are afflicted,
and which are the result of civil war, the direct and most destructive
and dismal of all the evils that could befall a people or nation.
Neither omit to admonish and exhort the people and their supreme
rulers, even in our name, that with conciliated minds they would
embrace peace and love each other with uninterrupted charity. For we are confident that they would comply with our paternal admoni-
tions and hearken unto our words the more willingly as of them-
selves they plainly and clearly understand that we are influeiiced by
no political reason, no earthly considerations, but impelled solely by
paternal charity to exhort them to charity and peace. And study
with your surpassing wisdom to persuade all that true prosperity
even in this life is sought for in vain out of the true religion of
Christ and its salutary doctrines.
We have no hesitation•, venerable brother, but that calling to your
aid the services and assistance even of your associate bishops, you
would abundantly satisfy these our wishes and by your wise and
prudent efforts bring a matter of such moment to a happy termi-
nation.
We wish you, moreover, to be informed that we write in a similar
manner this very day to our venerable Brother John Mary, arch-
bishop of New Orleans, that, counseling and conferring with you,
he would direct all his thoughts and care most earnestly to accom-
plish the same object.
May God, rich in mercy, grant that these our most ardent desires
be accomplished and as soon as possible our heart may exult in the
Lord over peace restored to that people.
In fine, it is most pleasing to us to avail ourselves of this oppor-
tunity to again testify the special esteem in which we hold you. Of
which, also, receive a most assured pledge, the apostolic benediction,
which, coming from the inmost recesses of our heart, we most lov-
ingly bestow on you, venerable brother, and the flock committed to
your charoe.
Dated Rome, at St. Peter’s, October 18, 1862, in the seventeenth
year of our pontificate.
POPE Prus IX.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Richmond, September 23, 1863.
Most Venerable Chief of the Holy See and Sovereign Pontiff of the
Roman Catholic Church.
The letters which your Holiness addressed to the venerable chiefs
of the Catholic clergy in New Orleans and New York have been brought to my attention, and I have read with emotion the terms in which you are pleased to express the deep sorrow with which you
regard the slaughter, ruin, and devastation consequent on the war
now waged by the Government of the United States against the
States and people over which I have been chosen to preside, and in
which you direct them, and the clergy under their authority, to ex-
hort the people and the rulers to the exercise of mutual charity and
the love of peace. I as deeply sensible of the Christian charity and
sympathy with which your Holiness has twice appealed to the vener-
able clergy of your church, urging them to use and apply all study
and exertion for the restoration of peace and tranquillity.
I therefore deem it my duty to offer to your Holiness in my own
name and in that of the people of the Confederate States the expres-
sion of our sincere and cordial appreciation of the Christian charity
and love by which your Holiness is actuated, and to assure you that
this people at whose hearthstones the enemy is now pressing with
threats of dire oppression and merciless carnage are now and ever
have been earnestly desirous that this wicked war shall cease; that
we have offered at the footstool of Our Father who is in heaven
prayers inspired by the same feelings which animated your Holiness;
that we desire no evil to our enemies, nor do we covet any of their
possessions; but are only struggling to the end that they shall cease
to devastate our land and inflict useless and cruel slaughter upon
our people; and that we be permitted to live at peace with all mankind
under our own laws and institutions, which protect every man in
the enjoyment not only of his temporal rights but of the freedom of
worshiping God according to his own faith.
I therefore pray your Holiness to accept from me and from the
people of these Confederate States this assurance of our sincere
thanks for your effort to aid the cause of peace, and of our earnest
wishes that your life may be prolonged and that God may have you
in His holy keeping.
JEFFERSON DAVIS,
President of the Confederate States of North America.