USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Catholicity in northern Ohio and in the diocese of Cleveland from 1749 to December 31, 1900, Volume I, pt1 > Part 15
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The Bishop then proposed the following as a remedy against the grave injustice done the Irish tenantry :
"To accomplish this you will naturally ask what I propose. Well, then, I propose: First, for the present the tenant shall pay a fair rent, but no more. Second, the landlord shall give the tenant fixity of tenure. Third, the improvements made by the tenant shall be the tenant's. Fourth, in time the landlord shall be forced to sell the land to the tenant, for which the tenant shall pay a fair price. Fifth, Ireland shall have Home Rule, and thus be enabled to develop her own resources, establish manufactures, and open up, in her own way, commerce with the world."
As was to be expected, the lecture intensified the animosity of the Parnell Branch against Bishop Gilmour. But he showed how little he cared for their ill will, by publishing the following card on February 8, two days after his lecture:
P
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A CARD FROM BISHOP GILMOUR.
"Editor Plain Dealer: In your issue of yesterday you say, in speaking of my lecture: 'Bishop Gilmour delivered his lecture by invitation of the Land League.' This is a mistake. Bishop Gilmour did not deliver his lecture 'by invitation of the Land League,' but on the contrary, when asked by the Parnell Branch of the Land League to deliver a lecture before them, he, for many reasons, some of which he stated in his lecture, very distinctly refused to lecture at the invitation of the Parnell Branch of the Land League. Bishop Gilmour lectured at his own invitation. and at no one else's, but invited the delegates of the English speaking congregations (Irish) of the city, to make the necessary arrangements for the lecture, these delegates representing the entire Irish population of the city. Bishop Gilmour does not belong to a 'Branch' of his people, far less to a 'Branch' so utterly reckless and radical as the Parnell Branch of the Land League of Cleveland. When Bishop Gilmour speaks he speaks to and for his whole people. 'Branches' lopped off from the tree soon become rotten timber, and the Parnell 'Branch' of Cleveland is no exception.
"This may appear a small matter, but the intent with which it was said in the Plain Dealer was to continue the effort so maliciously made by the Parnell 'Branch' to place me in a false position, as was the original invitation of this Parnell 'Branch when they invited me to lecture before them, intending as they did that if I refused to lecture before them, as they knew I would. then to raise the cry 'the Bishop is opposed to the Land League,' and if I did lecture then to herald far and wide, 'the Bishop is in favor of 'No Rent.'' When I cut the knot and lectured for and before the whole people, they (Parnell 'Branch') tried to get up a disturbance in the hall, and now one of their leaders slips in the Plain Dealer maliciously the words above, hoping thereby to begin anew the effort of placing me falsely before the public. It is about time that the Parnell 'Branch' of the Land League in Cleveland understand that they in no sense represent anything Catholic.
¡R. GILMOUR, Bishop of Cleveland."
Bishop Gilmour having finally checkmated the Parnell Branch of the Land League, its members adopted other tactics, by organizing a Land League composed of women, hoping and believing that the Bishop would not dare to oppose the latter, because they were women. But they were soon undeceived, for hardly had the Ladies' Land League been formed, when its con-
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demnation by the Bishop was published, by him, in the Catholic Universe, on May 25, 1882, as appears from the following :
"Sunday, May 14th inst., there was formed, in connection with the Parnell Branch of the Land League of Cleveland, a Ladies' Land League. On last Sunday (21st), in the Cathedral, I took occasion to warn the women of Cleveland against joining, or having anything to do with this or any other Ladies' Land League, giving as my reasons 'the impropriety of women becoming politicians or appearing in the indecorous role of noisy agitators,' adding, further, 'that home was woman's sphere; there she was queen, and there God had destined her to wield her influence; that neither by nature nor talents was woman fitted for the political arena; that strife and noise, and newspaper notoriety gravely compromised the modesty and delicacy of woman's character, and that when woman attempted to play the part of man she forgot her sex and her place in society.'
"For having dared to utter these sentiments and to warn the Catholic women of Cleveland against the unwomanly brawling of female politicians, the 'presidentess' of this Ladies' Land League informs her last Sunday afternoon audience, composed of noisy men and inexperienced unmarried women, 'that they did not want any Scotch dictation;' 'that love of country had nothing to do with religion,' and 'that rites and ceremonies never fed a country.' In addition to this one of the men said: 'I am tired of this continual talk about priests and bishops in connection with Irish affairs.' * *
"This Ladies' Land League is formed by, and in connection with the Parnell Branch of the Land League, and within one week after its formation the public is informed that 'these ladies are going to give a picnic,' though it is not stated what is to be done with the money hoped to be made.
"Now there is much in connection with the men, who manage and inspire this Parnell Land League of Cleveland, to excite distrust in the purity of their motives in encouraging and urging, and 'coaxing ladies'-as their 'presidentess' expressed it-to form this Ladies' Land League. The history of these gentlemen for the last ten years renders their motives doubtful, and the direction of the moneys some of them have heretofore controlled is not calculated to inspire confidence.
"The same men who govern and lead, and inspire this Parnell Branch of the Land League in Cleveland are well known as organizers. There is little known to wily politicians with which they are not acquainted. One day they are the prominent figure, the next, another is pushed forward. It is one movement today.
* P. # 2
L
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ST. JOSEPH'S SCHOOLS, TIFFIN.
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another tomorrow. Society follows society in quick succession, but they are always officers, treasurers, leaders, talkers, speech- makers, at the head of committees, bringing in resolutions, running hobbies, and daily dogmatizing on the duties of priests and bishops, on the formation of governments, and on the profoundest questions of political economy. Under the plea of patriotism they cry down every one who doubts or questions their unsound and insane theories. *
"Ten years ago the organizers of this Parnell Land League were the leaders and managers of the Irish Literary Association, at that time including a large number of excellent men. Soon after my arrival in Cleveland I discovered 'that there was a society within a society' in this literary association and that the literary part of the association was but a cloak for a secret oathbound society. I touched them with the word 'Catholic' and the Asso- ciation melted away. Then these gentlemen managed to get the funds of the Association voted for the organization of a military company of which some of them became officers. In time this company in shame was disarmed and disbanded by order of the Governor. Then these same leaders became busy in the cause of the skirmishers, raising money, organizing picnics, etc. Where this Skirmishing Fund has gone to no one knoweth. They had a picnic last summer, and months after balances of the funds were unaccounted for, and now by 'coaxing' a few silly young women to form what they are pleased to call a Branch of the Parnell Land League, they have arranged to have under the name and gauzy disguise of a 'Ladies' Land League' another picnic, hoping to shield themselves behind a breastwork of petticoats. * *
"I plead for woman, I plead for female modesty and Catholic female delicacy. Let me not plead in vain. If you will assail me, do so, but save my flock. Save the women of my flock the disgrace of a society of female politicians.
"Few of the members of this Parnell Branch of the Land League are practical Catholics. Most of them hold and teach heresy against Catholic teaching on the subject of authority, church and State property, and government. There is not one of the whole organization master of the smaller catechism, yet they one and all dogmatize on authority, the relation of the Church to State, the rights of property, the rights of government, etc., with a flippancy and confidence that would abash a St. Thomas or a St. Augustine.
"No, gentlemen, either you are Catholics or you are not. If you are Catholics you must take from the Church, not the Church from you. If you are not Catholics, say so, and then we will cease discussing you or your acts. But if you are Catholics
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and will seek your following among Catholics, you can not and will not be permitted to dictate to both bishop and priests. The bishop is the guardian of faith in his diocese, and the present Bishop of Cleveland insists, as long as you pretend to be Catholic, that you shall, in matters of faith and morals, take from him, not he from you, nor will he allow you, unrebuked, to further destroy, under the plea of patriotism, the faith of the people entrusted to his care, nor will he further allow you to teach, unrebuked, doctrines subversive of the principles of honesty; nor will he permit you, unrebuked, to tamper with female modesty, and by your sham pretense of patriotism. turn our Catholic women into brawling politicians. You must take your place either as Catholics or heretics; if Catholics, you must live subject to your faith; if heretics, then subject to the choice you make. But you cannot sit on the fence and jump down on God's side when it suits you and then jump on the devil's side when it suits you. As you choose you must abide, but you shall not further be permitted, unrebuked, to poison by your false doctrines and un-Catholic conduct the minds of our Catholics, or assail the modesty of our Catholic women by turning them, for your selfish ends, into noisy politicians or news- paper pests.
FR. GILMOUR, Bishop of Cleveland."
As was expected by Bishop Gilmour, his denunciation of the Ladies' Land League aroused a storm of indignation among its few members and its many abettors and sympathizers. He was virulently attacked in public meetings, in the newspapers, editorially and by "cards," signed and anonymous. But fair- minded people, who did not permit passion to sway or warp their judgment, approved in public and private the Bishop's letter. Meanwhile, however, the bitter feeling now aroused against him increased, but it did not make him the less courageous in holding the unpopular stand he felt himself in conscience obliged to take, as a shepherd of his flock, part of which had now "strayed to pastures strange and new." In an official letter, published on June 1, 1882, he followed up the condemnation of the Ladies' Land League, by excommunicating the members thereof. He prefaced the excommunication by the following self-explanatory statement :
OFFICIAL.
"In answer to my grave and severe criticism of last week on the formation of a Ladies' Branch of the Parnell Land League of Cleveland, the 'Presidentess' thereof last Sunday afternoon informs
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her audience and the public that they must 'away with such dictation' as their Bishop gave them when he told them 'the noisy political arena was no place for woman.'
"In the same hall, and by one of the men who are pushing forward these silly women, it was said at the same meeting, 'if they were to be ruled by Scotch, or Italian or English priests we had better shut down on the whole lot.'
"So long as this Parnell Branch of the Land League confined itself to the simple discussion of the Irish question, I passed them in comparative silence, as I am strongly in sympathy with the cause of Ireland, and have ever spoken in clear terms upon the question both in Cleveland and elsewhere, when time and place presented an opportunity. No man has ever spoken stronger words than I on the wrongs of Ireland, as seen in my late lecture on the Land League. I resented, and today resent, the imputation and the charge so industriously made by the men of this Parnell Branch of the Land League, that because I refuse to advocate the no-rent policy so lately in vogue that therefore I am the enemy of Ireland. I reject such charge as simply untrue. So long.as this Land League Society had confined itself to a male membership, they and I would have probably had but a difference of opinion as to the means to help the cause of Ireland. They had their views. I had mine, and we were free to differ, and as men to act it out as men. But when they bring women into the political arena, and will attempt to unsex the women of my flock; to make them brawling politicians; and under the plea of patriotism attempt to destroy female modesty and so bring shame on every Catholic woman of Cleveland, then it is time to speak, and to speak in words that will end dispute. When the question is squarely raised on choosing between female modesty and pretended patriotism then I place myself on the side of female modesty; and when it comes to defending the female modesty of my flock as against the brazen unwomanliness of female politicians, I accept the gauge and will see that no Catholic woman within my diocese shall turn herself into a brawling politician. If there are women of this kind. and if there are women in Cleveland who will turn themselves into brawling politicians, then they shall not be Catholic women, and if heretofore they have so called themselves, then the public shall know they are so no longer. No woman within the diocese of Cleveland shall at the same time be a Catholic and a brawling politician. The Catholic woman must live within the modesty of the home; she must be the ornament of the family circle, and her womanly delicacy and gentle nature shall not be tainted with the noisy brawl of the virago. Woman must be woman; women shall not be permitted to unsex themselves and at the same time,
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within the limits of the diocese of Cleveland, remain members of the Catholic Church."
The excommunication of the Ladies' Land League is worded as follows :
"Now therefore, I, Richard Gilmour, by the grace of God and the appointment of the Apostolic See, Bishop of Cleveland, hereby and by these presents, excommunicate and declare excom- municated, ipso facto, and within the limits of the Diocese of Cleve- land, cut off from the communion of the Catholic Church, any woman now a member of the Parnell Branch Ladies' Land League of Cleveland who shall attend any meeting of said Ladies' Land League, in what is known as the Parnell Hall, Cleveland, or in any other hall, whether such meeting be held next Sunday afternoon, or hereafter at any other time or place. I further declare excom- municated, ipso facto, and within the limits of the Diocese of Cleveland, cut off from the communion of the Catholic Church, any woman or women, who shall, after the publication of this, join said mentioned Ladies' Land League.
"Female modesty must be maintained let the cost be what it may. No Catholic woman shall be permitted to forget her womanhood; or if she does, she shall within the diocese of Cleve- land cease to be in communion with the Catholic Church.
"We hereby direct that next Sunday, 4th inst., this letter shall be read at all Masses in all the English speaking churches of the city of Cleveland, and we also direct pastors to warn the women of their respective congregations against joining the above Ladies' Land League, or in any manner countenancing any movement which will tend to taint or lessen among us Catholic female modesty.
"Given under my hand and seal at my episcopal residence, Cleveland, this first day of June, 1882.
(Signed) +R. GILMOUR, Bishop of Cleveland."
Amid all the consequent storm of abuse the Bishop remained serene, feeling confident that in time his plea for womanly modesty would be heard and approved by the faithful of his flock and by the public at large-as it was!
THE COWLES CASE.
For many years the Cleveland Leader had the distinction of being the most rabid anti-Catholic paper published in the United States. Its editor, Edwin Cowles, hardly permitted a day to pass in which he did not pen an item or editorial full of virus against the
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IN THE DIOCESE OF CLEVELAND.
Catholic Church, pope, bishops, or priests. It became a mania with him, so much so that Charles A. Dana, the brilliant and learned editor of the New York Sun, named him the "Papaphobic editor," and "Hebetudinous crank" of the Leader, both of which expressive titles were re-echoed by many newspapers and clung to Edwin Cowles till his death. No matter how absurd or false his anti-Catholic diatribes, or how often refuted, he repeated them unblushingly. Bishop Gilmour took up the cudgels against him on many occasions, and in his characteristic, blunt, plain language castigated him severely, and without mercy. Edwin Cowles in consequence allowed no opportunity to pass, in taking sides against Bishop Gilmour, criticising such acts of his administration as had reached the public, distorting them out of all semblance to truth, and imputing motives to them that had never entered the Bishop's mind. Among the many acts thus criticised was the Bishop's condemnation of the Ladies' Land League. For this Edwin Cowles charged Bishop Gilmour with being an oppressor of conscience, and offered to the Bishop the use of the Leader columns for a refutation of that charge, if refute it he would or could. The Bishop at once accepted the offer by writing a letter to the Leader in which he said that it ill became its editor, Edwin Cowles, to charge him (the Bishop) with being an "oppres- sor of conscience," when abundant proof was in his possession to prove that the editor himself had enacted that role towards his own daughter, who, as was then well known, had become a Catholic. The letter was refused publication in the Leader, and the manuscript though called for was not returned; besides, the messenger who called for it was violently put out of the Leader's office. The result of this encounter was that Edwin Cowles was arrested for assault and battery, and fined. On the following day (June 16, 1882) the letter, intended for the Leader, and reproduced by the Bishop from memory, was published in the Press. The following passages are taken from the Bishop's letter, above mentioned, and need no comment :
Editor Press :
For some three weeks the Leader has indulged in a serial attack upon the Catholic church in general and myself in particular, in which much has been said of tyranny on the one
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hand and liberty on the other. I have been represented as a "tyrant" because of my late action toward the "Ladies' Branch of the Parnell Land League," city. In the Leader's issue of Tuesday my action is spoken of as "overbearing and tyrannical," and I am accused of issuing "threats of damning souls for all eternity," and my "arrogance and tyranny" are given as cause "for the breaking down of Catholicity." Catholics are spoken of as "bound in chains and meekly submitting their necks to the yoke of their ecclesiastical enslavers." I am also reminded, "This is the age of free thought and emancipation from all tyranny, whether civil or ecclesiastical." I am also told that "I am living under a government republican in character, and the reign of the slave driver is over."
For long years the Leader has set itself up as the champion of free thought and religious liberty; the right of each to the free practice of his or her religion and the tyranny and crime of any one to coerce or in any way to interfere with the religion of another. The Catholic religion was held up to scorn, myself constantly assailed as a "tyrant," who would crush out free thought and free conscience, if I only could; and I was triumphantly told "this was an age of free thought and emancipation from all tyranny, whether civil or ecclesiastical."
Now in the face of all this loud championship of free thought, and the right of each individual to the free exercise of his or her religion it is surely not too much to ask that the editor of the Leader, Mr. Edwin Cowles, should practice what he so loudly champions. Whether he does or does not let the following plain tale unfold.
It is a matter of public notoriety that three years ago the daughter of Mr. Edwin Cowles became a Catholic, but it is but little known what she has had to suffer for her act. From the loud championship of "free thought" and "freedom in religion," made by her father, Mr. Cowles, one would hardly expect him to inter- fere, or place a barrier to the religious convictions of any one, far less one so dear and near to him as his own daughter. Yet what are the facts in the case? Scarcely had Mr. Cowles heard of his daughter's conversion to the Catholic religion than, frantic with rage, he rushed to Rome, "and, though in the depth of winter, insisted upon her joining him in London, where for months every engine he could bring to bear on her was used to force her to abandon her faith." He failed. In time his daughter returned to Cleveland, and from her father's house, on Saturday evening, sent to me a lady friend, asking me "to dispense her from hearing Mass for the following two or three Sundays," giving as the reason : "She (Miss Cowles) would not be permitted to attend Mass in
ST. MARY'S SCHOOL, CONNEAUT.
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IN THE DIOCESE OF CLEVELAND.
Cleveland." In answer I sent a letter through this lady friend, saying I had no power to grant such dispensation. On hearing this Miss Cowles, in the dark of the evening, left her father's house and went out to the country, and next day (Sunday) heard Mass in a neighboring country church. She did the same the two succeeding Sundays, though her father's house is within 100 yards of the cathedral. Further, "she was not permitted to see her pastor;" "nor permitted any liberty in the practice of her religion," and much more of like import which time and circumstances can unfold, and all of which I am fully able to establish, both by letters and affidavits, if Mr. Cowles will only ask for them, or attempt to deny these facts.
For so loud a champion of religious freedom and individual rights, the above would seem incredible, were the facts and evidence not incontrovertible. That his daughter had a right to change her religion, is beyond doubt ; that she did so unbiased and in the maturity of her judgment, and at her own free choice, is undeniable; that she wished to practice the Catholic religion, and from her father's house attend the church of her choice, the above shows; that she was forbidden to do so the above clearly proves; that the cause of her inability to do so was her father, Mr. Edwin Cowles, is not of doubt, as the evidence and letters in my hands prove. And all this by a man who is never done advocating the freedom of conscience, and the right of man or woman to the free choice and exercise of his or her religion. So long as this right was abstract, or was exercised against the Catholic Church all was well, and no word was too strong for its defense; but when the matter was brought to his own home, and his own flesh and blood sought to do what he had so often asserted as a right which it was tyranny to estop, the result is as above. Perhaps not in the whole range of religious persecution is there, considering the teachings of the man, conduct more inconsistent, oppression of conscience more brutal, or an exercise of paternal power more tyrannical than the above shows. Yet this fierce oppressor of conscience, this tyrant of the helpless dependence of his own child, has the hypo- critical insolence to charge me with "arrogance and tyranny," calling me "a hurler of anathemas," and "a curser for time and eternity," at the same time proclaiming himself the defender of religious liberty, and the undying champion of the rights of con- science-the inalienable right of every man and woman to worship God according to the dictates of his or her conscience, and with proudest boast proclaiming that "this was the age of free thought and emancipation from all tyranny, whether civil or ecclesiastical." Whether Mr. Edwin Cowles' daughter has been permitted the free exercise of the religion of her choice, let the above say; and
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whether Mr. Edwin Cowles permits to others what he so loudly demands for himself, the public will be able, before we are done with this case, pretty well to judge.
If Mr. Cowles has the least doubt of the truth of the quotations as above, or of the authenticity of the letters in my hands, proving far more than I have above intimated, I will place the originals in the hands of the county clerk for the inspection of Mr. Cowles and the public:
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