Fifty Years in the Church of Rome

by Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy

But who is that Father Lapierre who takes such a tender, I dare say a paternal care of Surratt? It is not less a personage than the canon of Bishop Bourget, of Montreal. He is the confidential man of the bishop. He lives with the bishop, eats at his table, assists him with his counsel, and has to receive his advice in every step of life. According to the laws of Rome, the canons are to the bishop what the arms are to the body.

Now, I ask: Is it not evident that the bishops and the priests of Washington have trusted this murderer to the tender care of the bishops and priests of Montreal, that they might conceal, feed and protect him for nearly six months, under the very shadow of the bishop’s palace? Would they have done that if they were not his accomplices? Why did they so continually remain with him, day and night, if they were not in fear that he might compromise them by an indiscreet word? Why do we see those priests (I ought to say, those two ambassadors and appointed representatives of the Pope) alone in the carriage, which takes that great culprit from his house of concealment to the steamer? Why do they keep him there, under lock, till they transfer him, under a disguised name, to the oceanic steamer, the “Peruvian,” the 15th of July, 1865? Why such tender sympathies for that stranger? Why go through such trouble and expense for that young American, among the bishops and priests of Canada? There is only one answer. He was one of their tools, one of their selected men to strike the great Republic of Equality and Liberty to the heart. For more than six months before the murder, the priests had lodged, eaten, conversed, slept with him under the same roof in Washington. They had trained him to his deed of blood, by promising him protection on earth, and a crown of glory in heaven, if he would only be true to their designs to the end. And he had been true to the end.

Now the great crime is accomplished! Lincoln is murdered! Jeff Davis, the dear son of the Pope, is avenged! The great republic has been struck to the heart! The soldiers of Liberty all over the world are weeping over the dead form of the one who had led them to victory; a cry of desolation goes from earth to heaven.

It seems as if we heard the death-knell of the cause of freedom, equality and fraternity among men. It was many centuries since the implacable enemies of the rights and liberties of men had struck such a giant foe: their joy was as great as their victory complete.

But do you see that man fleeing from Washington toward the north? He has the mark of Cain on his forehead, his hands are reddened with blood, he is pale and trembling, for he knows it; a whole outraged nation is after him for her just vengeance; he hears the thundering voice of God: “Where is thy brother?” Where will he find a refuge? Where, outside of hell, will he meet friends to shelter and save him from the just vengeance of God and men?

Oh! He has sure refuge in the arms of that church which, for more than a thousand years, is crying: “Death to all heretics! death to all the soldiers of Liberty!” He has devoted friends among the very men who, after having prepared the massacre of Admiral Coligny and his 75,000 Protestant countrymen, rang the bells of Rome to express their joy when they heard that, at last, the King of France had slaughtered them all.

But where will those bishops and priests of Canada send John Surratt, when they find it impossible to conceal him any longer from the thousands of detectives of the United States, who are ransacking Canada to find out his retreat? Who will conceal, feed, lodge and protect him after the priests of Canada pressed his hand for the last time, on board of the “Peruvian,” the 15th of September, 1865.

Who can have any doubt about that? Who can suppose that any one but the Pope himself and his Jesuits will protect the murderer of Abraham Lincoln in Europe?

If you want to see him, after he has crossed the ocean, go to Vitry, at the door of Rome, and there, you will find him enrolled under the banners of the Pope, in the 9th company of his Zouaves, under the false name of Watson (Trial of John Surratt, vol. i., p. 492). Of course, the Pope was forced to withdraw his protection over him, after the government of the United States had found him there, and he was brought back to Washington to be tried.

But on his arrival as a prisoner in the United States, his Jesuit father confessor whispered in his ear: “Fear not, you will not be condemned! Through the influence of a high Roman Catholic lady, two or three of the jurymen will be Roman Catholics, and you will be safe.”