In the name of God, I again ask you not to force me to leave my colony before I prove my innocence, and the iniquity of Spink, to the honest people of Urbana.
But, if you are deaf to my prayers, and if nothing can deter you from your resolution, I do not wish to be in the unenviable position of an interdicted priest among my countrymen. Send me, by return mail, my letters of mission for the new places you intend trusting to my care. The sooner I get there, the better for me and my people. I am ready! When on the road of exile, I will pray the God of Abraham to give me the fortitude and the faith he gave to Isaac, when laying his head on the altar, he willingly presented his throat to the sword. I will pray my Saviour, bearing His heavy cross to the top of Calvary, to direct and help my steps towards the land of exile you have prepared for your
Devoted Priest,
C. CHINIQUY.
This letter was not yet mailed when we heard that the drunkard priests around us were publishing that the bishop had interdicted me, and they had received orders from him to take charge of the colony of St. Anne. I immediately called a meeting of the whole people and told them: “The bishop has not interdicted me as the neighboring priests publish; he has only threatened to do so, if I do not leave this place for Kahokia, by the 15th of next month. But though he has not interdicted me, it may be that he does to-day falsely publish that he has done it. We can expect anything from the destroyer of the fine congregation of the French Canadians of Chicago. He wants to destroy me and you as he has destroyed them. But before he immolates us, I hope that, with the help of God, we will fight as Christian soldiers, for our life, and we will use all the means which the laws of our church, the Holy Word of God, and the glorious Constitution of the United States allow us to employ against our merciless tyrant.
“I ask you, as a favor, to send a deputation of four members of our colony in whom you place the most implicit confidence, to carry this letter to the bishop. But before delivering it, they will put to him the following questions, the answers of which, they will write down with great care in his presence, and deliver them to us faithfully. It is evident that we are now entering into a momentous struggle. We must act with prudence and firmness. Messrs. J. B. Lemoine, Leon Mailloux, Francis Bechard and B. Allaire, having been unanimously chosen for that important mission, we gave them the following questions to put to the bishop:
1st. “Have you interdicted Mr. Chiniquy?
2nd. “Why have you interdicted him? Is Mr. Chiniquy guilty of any crime to deserve to be interdicted? Have those crimes been proved against him in a canonical way?
3rd. “Why do you take Mr. Chiniquy away from us?
[Our deputies came back from Chicago with the following report and answers, which they swore to, some time after before the Kankakee court.]