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ARCHBISHOP IRELAND, U.S.A.
AS STATESMAN AND THEOLOGIAN
SUPPORTS
I. Revolt Against Tyranny.
II. Government by Republic.
"Were John Ireland not Archbishop of St. Paul he would be President of America."—Roosevelt.
These Extracts are taken from a discourse delivered at the Third Council of Baltimore by Dr. John Ireland, late Archbishop of St. Paul, 10th November, 1884. The principles herein contained are a full vindication by America's foremost Statesman and Theologian of the Irish Republic proclaimed by Padraigh Pearse and the Men of Easter Week, 1916, and ratified by Plebiscite of the Irish people December 28th, 1918. Before God the Irish Republic lives to-day. Before the nations it will live ere long. With Dr. Ireland millions of Americans salute the Irish Republic and say Esto Perpetua.
Long may you live.
REY. EDMOND O'SHEA,
Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.
AUTHORITY SACRED ONLY WHEN PEOPLE APPOINT.
Authority is from God, and civil governments rule by Divine right. But observe in what way, according to Catholic principles, civil governments are constituted. God does not appoint for a people a particular form of government, as He did, for instance, in the case of the Church; nor does He select the particular men who are to wield authority. All this is committed to the people. They select the ruler and make choice of the form of government. God invests the people's candidates with sovereignty, subject to the conditions and limitations with which the people circumscribe it. There are no kings or rulers by Divine right in the sense that specified men or families are directly called by God to reign, or that specified governments are authorised by Him. RULERS GOVERN BY THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE AND DERIVE THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED IN THE SENSE THAT THE CONSENT, THE CHOICE OF THE GOVERNED, IS THE CONDITION UPON WHICH HEAVEN CONVEYS AUTHORITY.
THE PEOPLE DECIDE THE WAY AUTHORITY IS EXERCISED.
The principle of the intervention of the people in the selection of their government is the primary condition of civil liberty. The people decide for themselves in what manner sovereignty shall be exercised over them; they are a party to the contract with their rulers. They decree whether the full sovereignty shall be confided to one person or individual among several; whether a ruler shall hold office for a number of years or for his lifetime; whether his sovereignty shall come to an end with himself or be transmitted to his heirs. There is an absolute Monarch or a King with Lords and Commons, or a President with Senators and Representatives, as the nation is pleased to elect. "There is no prohibition to nations, the rules of justice being otherwise observed," says Leo XIII., "to choose for themselves that sort of government which benefits their temper or accords with the traditions and customs of their race." Republic, Monarchy, Empire—all forms of government fare alike before the Church; in all of them the authority is Divine, and toward all of them obedience within the limits of their commission is obligatory.
THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE IS THE OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT.
Civil power in the hands of rulers is a trust, the aim of which is the public good, the use of which must be directed by reason. The good pleasure of the sovereign does not make law. THE STATE IS NOT FOR THE RULER, BUT THE RULER IS FOR THE STATE. In the intent of the trust the ruler becomes the servant of the people, and when he does not serve them, but rather consults his own ambition, he is a tyrant, and his laws are "injustices" and "outrages." Equally despotic is the ruler who violates the conditions upon which he was chosen
by the people as their superior; he is bound as much as they by the fundamental laws, written or traditional, by the charter or constitution of the nation. Authority deserves obedience only when "deriving its power from the Eternal Law of God." Otherwise the nimbus of divine majesty vanishes from the ruler's brow; the human alone remains; AND THE HUMAN DEMANDING TO REIGN IS DESPOTISM, AND OBEDIENCE TO IT IS SLAVERY.
REVOLUTION COUNSELLED WHEN GOVERNMENT EXISTS WITHOUT CONSENT OF GOVERNED.
The zeal of Catholic theologians for liberty goes farther than calling the edicts of despotism "injustices" and "outrages," and asserting that they do not bind in conscience. A revolution, the subversion of authority, the Church holds, and rightly, to be a fearful occurrence. Society quakes from its deepest foundations from the shock; with difficulty will it afterwards recover its equipoise; and yet, when despotism lowers its heavy hand over a people, and representation, counsel and entreaty fail to stay it, the nation, rather than let liberty die for evermore, may rise up with all its might, and, in a supreme effort for life, hurl against despotism the thunders of war. This right belongs not to an individual nor to a few; the people only may say when the time for insurrection has come. "In extreme circumstances," says Balmes, "non-resistance is not a dogmatical prescription. The Church has never taught such a doctrine; if anyone will mention that she has, let him bring forward a decision of a Council or of a Sovereign Pontiff to that effect. St. Thomas of Aquin, Cardinal Bellarmine, Suarez, and other eminent theologians were well versed in the dogmas of the Church; and yet, if you consult their works, so far from finding this doctrine in them, you will find the opposite one."
THE REPUBLIC BEST GUARANTEES PEOPLE'S RULE.
The relations of political to civil liberty I take to be as those of means to an end. I call political liberty the diffusion of State sovereignty among the people and the intervention, as direct as it may be made, of the people in the affairs of the government. THE REPUBLIC IS THE SPECIAL EMBODIMENT OF POLITICAL LIBERTY. The presumption is that the people will guard with greater care their civil liberty—the free, untrammelled enjoyment of their rights—by giving their personal attention to the government rather than by resigning the sovereignty into the hands of one ruler. Republic of America, receive from me the tribute of my love and of my loyalty. With my whole soul I do thee homage. I pray from my heart that thy glory be never dimmed—Esto Perpetua. Thou bearest in thy hands the hopes of the human race. Thy mission from God is to show to nations that men are capable of highest civil and political liberty. Be thou ever free and prosperous. Through thee may liberty triumph over the earth from the rising to the setting sun!—Esto Perpetua.
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