“I am sorry that Prof. Morse had to leave Rome before he could know more about the secret plans of the Jesuits against the liberties and the very existence of this country. But do you know that I want you to take his place and continue that investigation? My plan is to attach you to my ambassador of France, as one of the secretaries. In that honorable position, you would go from Paris to Rome, where you might find, through the directions of Mr. Morse, an opportunity of reuniting the broken threads of his researches. ‘It takes a Greek to fight a Greek.’ As you have been twenty-five years a priest of Rome, I do not know any man in the United States so well acquainted as you are with the tricks of the Jesuits, and on the devotedness of whom I could better rely. And, when once on the staff of my ambassador, even as one of the secretaries, might you not soon yourself become the ambassador? I am in need of Christian men in every department of the public service, but more in those high positions. What do you think of that?”
“My dear President,” I answered, “I feel overwhelmed by your kindness. Surely nothing could be more pleasant to me than to grant your request. The honor you want to confer upon me is much above my merit; but my conscience tells me that I cannot give up the preaching of the Gospel to my poor French-Canadian countrymen, who are still in the errors of Popery. For I am about the only one who, by the Providence of God, has any real influence over them. I am, surely, the only one the bishops and priests seem to fear in that work. The many attempts they have made to take away my life are a proof of it. Besides that, though I consider the present President of the United States much above the Emperors of France, Russia, and Austria, much above the greatest kings of the world, I feel that I am the servant, the ambassador of One who is as much above even the good and great President of the United States, as the heavens are above the earth. I appeal to your own Christian and honorable feelings to know if I can forsake the one for the other.”
The President became very solemn, and replied:
“You are right! you are right! There is nothing so great under heaven, as to be the ambassador of Christ.”
But, then, coming back to himself, with one of his fine jokes, which he had always ready, he added:
“Yes! yes! You are the ambassador of a greater Prince than I am; but he does not pay you with as good cash as I would do.”
He then added: “I am exceedingly pleased to see you. However, I am so pressed, just now, by most important affairs, that you must excuse me if I ask you to give your place to one of my generals who is, there, waiting for me. Please come again, to-morrow, at ten o’clock, I have a very important question to ask you, on a matter which has been constantly before my mind, these last few weeks.”
The next day, I was there, at the appointed hour, with my noble friend, who said:
“I could not give you more than ten minutes, yesterday, but I will give you twenty, to-day; I want your views about a thing which is exceedingly puzzling to me, and you are the only one to whom I like to speak on that subject. A great number of Democratic papers have been sent to me, lately, evidently written by Roman Catholics, publishing that I was born a Roman Catholic, and baptized by a priest. They call me a renegade, an apostate, on account of that; and they heap upon my head mountains of abuse. At first, I laughed at that, for it is a lie. Thanks be to God, I have never been a Roman Catholic. No priest of Rome has ever laid his hand on my head. But the persistency of the Romish press to present this falsehood to their readers as a gospel truth, must have a meaning. Please tell me, as briefly as possible, what you think about that.”