Chapter 49: 1859-1860
Towards the close scholastic year
1858-9 George H. Miles, 43 received
appointment as professor of English
Literature at the College.
Bishop Carrell, '27, of Covington,
presided at the Commencement, at which
there were eight graduates. "The
Catholic standpoint and the bold and
manly tone, which is always a
distinguishing mark in :he addresses
there, we should rejoice to see
prevail in every Catholic College,"
pleased the editor of the Mirror. The
Recitation of Miles' Inkerman by Harry
Northrop, of Charleston, brought out
the strength and beauty of Prof.
Miles' poem, but the most generally
admired discourse was that on The Uses
of Beauty, by Michael Augustine
Corrigan, the future Archbishop of New
York, who also carried off the honors
of the graduating class. The other
honor men were Harry P. Northrop,
future Bishop of Charleston; Francis
Gignoux, Robert Mannion, Matthew
Magennis, John Maguire and Orlando
Richards.
Bishop Carrell, sending a student,
James Smith, of Maysville, Ky., '63,
writes, September 3, 1859:
"I am willing to make a formal
surrender of him to you for nine or
ten years; vou can train him to be
truly useful to your College, and
the longer he stays at the old
Mountain, the better will he be
prepared for the missions of this
diocese. [Smith was ordained in '66
and died in February, 1908.] If I
were a millionaire I would finish
your church, endow your
professorships and make the old
Mountain tower above every other . .
." [The writer had been a devoted
member of the Jesuit Order.]
The beautiful new church was a
building in chiseled brown-stone,
brought from a distance and rather
expensive. In this connection Dr.
McCaffrey's character may be further
learned from the following:
Rev. David B. Walker, S. J.,
wrote the chronicler, October 16,
1906: "I am particularly pleased
with the information that mountain
stone is to be used in the new
Seminary. When the new chapel or
rather Church was proposed in my
time, I went one night after
supper-recreation to make my
customary call as First Prefect, on
the president, and found sitting in
his room Fathers John and William
McCloskey, Elder and McMurdie. As
soon as I entered he said to me, 'I
want to ask you a question to which
I require a categorical answer. If
you had the building of the chapel
in your hands what kind of stone
would you use?' I answered at once,
'Mountain stone, such as the College
is built of!' ' There,' said they
all, 'Every one is against you!' But
he had his way for a' that. I have
always considered it providential
that same church or chapel was never
completed. The privacy of the
college would be very much
interfered with if that became the
parish church. My dear old Father in
God, Abp. Purcell, wrote a strong
letter to Abp. Kenrick in favor of
the Mountain. . . . The Mountain was
strong then in her Bishop sons."
Ex-President Jamison died this
year, 1859, aged fifty-eight. His name
is associated with the English version
of Gaume's Catechism of Perseverance.
At the Provincial Council of New
York, held in same month, December,
1859, Abp. Hughes, '26, presiding, a
pastoral letter was issued which the
Pope had printed at Rome in Italian as
well as in English, something quite
extraordinary if not unheard of, and a
second edition of the Italian version
was demanded. It concerned the
political condition of the Pope.
On December 5th, Father John
Quinlan, '50, Rector of Mt. St. Mary's
of the West, was consecrated Bishop of
Mobile, and on December, 18th, Father
Win. G. McCloskey, '40, was notified
by Abp. Kenrick of his appointment to
the Rectorship of the new American
College at Rome.
On December 8, 1859, the American
College in Rome was opened, though its
first president had not yet arrived.
The first vice-president was also a
Mountaineer, Francis Silas Chatard,
'53, who succeeded Dr. McCloskey (made
Bishop of Louisville in 1868) and
retained the office till 1878, when he
in turn became Bishop of Yincennes.
Thus the College was for its first
twenty yeare under the care of
Mountaineers. In addition to this, of
the first twelve students (Edward
McGlynn never reckoned as of the new
college, being a prefect sent from the
Propaganda in his last year's
Theology), six came from the Mountain,
which may thus claim the American
College of Rome as another of her
daughters. These Mountain students
were Michael A. Cotrigan, Reuben
Parsons, Claudian Northrop, William
Poole, Robert Seton, William
Merriwether. Counting the first
president and the first
vice-president, there are eight
Mountaineers out of the fourteen.
Northrop died the beloved pastor of
St. Mary's, Charleston; Parsons
fulfilled the promise of his youth and
did great service to the Church by his
historical works; Seton became a
titular archbishop in course; of
Merriwether this history will tell
further on; Poole is a New York
pastor; Conigan became Archbishop of
New York. At the proper place we shall
devote more space to his character and
career.
In December, 1859, Father John Koch
took charge of the new church at
Thurmont. He and Father John Byrne
gave a week's mission there, and had
fifty communions. In November, 1860,
Father John, Vice-president, took
charge.
The reporter for the Catholic
Mirror ventures "the opinion that the
class of 1859 will form an era in the
history of Mt. St. Mary's as being the
best to date in the religion, the
morality, the talents and the
acquirements of the men composing it."
The reader may judge for himself,
here are the names: Michael Corrigan,
N. J.; John G. Devereux, La,; William
Marmion, Va.; Charles Luken, Equador;
Andrew Quigley, Iowa; James Wale, La.;
Thomas McGovern, Pa.; Patrick Heunessy,
N. Y.; William Byrne, Boston, Mass.
The first died Abp. of New York, the
second was a bank president, the third
became a physician, the sixth was a
priest, the seventh died Bishop of
Harrisburg, the eighth died a pastor
in Jersey City, the last became
Vicar-general of Boston and was the
twelfth president of the College. Of
the fourth and fifth we have no data.
Here is a little episode throwing a
side-light on student life.
Frederick, May 30, 1859. Rev. J.
McCaffrey, D. D.
Dear Sir: Last night a little
boy, dripping with wet and very much
frightened and distressed, came into
my office; and after some time, I
got from him his story, in whispers
and broken sentences. Poor little
fellow, he seemed so penitent that
he won my sympathies. He gave me his
name as John M. Smith, of New York.
It seems he was afraid of a
whipping, which had been promised
him, and thought it very easy to get
home to his mother at New York; but
the long walk, and the rain and
thunderstorm, and the darkness and
his utter loss what to do in
Frederick until he found out my
house, have so fully shown him how
wrong he was and have so fully
punished him and made him so
penitent, that, I am sure, I may ask
you to pardon him and to remit any
further punishment which he might
have deserved for his childish
folly, had he been older and wiser
than he is. I do not doubt, it has
been a great lesson to him and if
gently used, may make a man of him.
I asked him if he thought it easy
to get to New York. ''Yes, Sir, when
I started." "And do you think so
now?" "Oh I no indeed, sir." And his
eyes filled up ready to cry. "Well,"
said I then, "would you like to go
back to college?" " Indeed 1 would,
sir." He said this so earnestly that
I promised him that I would write to
you and intercede for him. We gave
him some dry clothes, got him some
supper, and gave him a bed.
This morning I have taken a seat
for him in the stage and sent him
back to you with this letter, and
beg you, as he has come to me,
placed himself under my care here,
as he has begged to go back and I
have promised my intercession for
him, feeling justified in doing so
by his demeanor here, that you do me
the favor to accept that
intercession and to consider the
poor boy as sufficiently punished
for his thoughtless expedition. I
may add that no one here will know
of the escapade. Believe me very
sincerely. Your obedient servant,
James McSheeby, '38.
One recalls Pliny's " Letter to one
of his friends," and St. Paul's " to
Philemon." (Alzog's History, I, p.
458.) February 1, 1860, Rev. William
George McCloskey, Professor of Moral
Theology, and Director of the
Seminary, left for Rome, the students
presenting him with a magnificent gold
watch. Rev. John B. Byrne and Rev.
John Koch joined the Faculty.
February 17, 1860, Dr. McCaffrey
writes to David W. Naill, of the
Legislature, proposing a law to forbid
sale of alcoholic liquors to minors
after prohibition by parent or
guardian or their representative to do
so. He says: "There is a law against
selling without license which I have
repeatedly enforced, as I will the
proponed law should it be enacted. If
I could hope for an act forbidding the
sale of liquor within three miles or
even more of our institution, outside
of the corporate limits of Emmitsburg,
I would immediately petition for it,
and many of our best neighbors would
join me. Would to Heaven something
could be done to stop grog-selling in
the country. As to the towns I give
them up."
Washington's Birthday was
celebrated with great spirit, the
Mountain Cadets, sixty parading with
their State rifles. Military drill was
revived in the College twice during
the 80's, but like every other fad
amongst boys soon lapsed, especially
as at this latter period not only was
baseball ("The National Game ") a
craze, but (so-called) Rugby football
be came very popular, and the
"diamond" and the "gridiron" filled
the minds and hearts of most American
collegians. Besides, the State rifles
had become old and disreputable, and
the Governor when asked for new ones,
answered that he had no power to give
them.
There were one hundred and
seventy-three students in 1859-60, not
including seminarians; indeed, the
number and names of these latter are
sometimes omitted from the catalogue.
Seven graduated this year. The honor
men were John Tracy, Thomas A. Reid,
Michael Jenkins, Matthew Magennis,
George O'Hare, Orlando Richards, James
E. Kearney.
Father Thomas O'Neill, who spent
his latter days at the College, and
w'hom Abp. Bayley called "Bishop
O'Neill of Taneytown," used to sing
Mass at Emmitsburg, and Dr.
McCaffrey would drive over after
breakfasting and, regardless of
Father Tom's inward state, preach a
good long sermon. "'Twas easy for
him," said Father Tom, "and he after
his breakfast." Hampton Taylor tells
that the people did not understand
Father Tom's idioms. When a man told
him anything out of the way the
priest would say, "You didn't now
I'' and the party would tell it all
over again.
April 15, 1859. The government of
Peru through William Miles, Consul,
father of the poet, presented us
with 17 volumes of Suarez, received
from the librarian of Lima. Mr.
Miles also sent 4 volumes on
geography, which once belonged to
the Jesuits at Lima.
On the 20th of June, '59, Bishop
(Card.) McCloskey wrote advising
Rev. William G. McCloskey as to how
he could avoid the coadj'utorship of
Savannah. At this time the clergy of
Washington, Catholic, Protestant and
Jew, acted as chaplains to Congress
in turn, alphabetically, and were
paid a large sum for their services.
The diocesan clergy of the Church
went in cassock and surplice, the
Dominicans and Jesuits in their
habits, and all the priests used the
same form of prayer, Archbishop
Carroll's Prayer for the
Authorities. This arrangement by
Congress was perhaps a protest
against Knownothingism, of which
Maryland, alas, was one of the
hot-beds. Baltimore was a spectacle
to the whole country in those
restless days.
The Baltimore Catholic Institute
had lecture-courses at this time,
and Professor Dimitry, of Louisiana,
uncle of Prof. Lagarde, of the
College, lectured before the society
in the same course with George H.
Miles, '43, Dr. Brownson, Gen.
Shields, and others.
Chapter 50 |
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