“All the bishops are preparing to hurl their thunders against you, and your people, on account of your heroic resistance to the tyranny of the bishop of Chicago.
“I have told them the truth, but they don’t want to know it. My lord Bourget told me positively, that you must be forced, at any cost, to yield to the authority of your bishop; and he has threatened to excommunicate me, if I tell the people what I know of the shameful conduct of Desaulnier. If I were alone I would not mind his excommunication, and would speak the truth, but such a sentence against me would kill my poor old mother. I hope you will not find fault with me, if I remain absolutely mute. I pray you to consider this letter confidential. You know very well the trouble you would put me into, by its publication.”
The French Canadians of Chicago saw, at once, that their bishop, strengthened by the support of Desaulnier, would be more than ever, obstinate in his determination to crush them. They thought that the best way to force him to do them justice, was to publish a manifesto of their grievances against him, and make a public appeal to all the Bishops of the United States and even to the Pope.
On the 22nd of January, 1857, The Chicago Tribune was requested by them to publish the following document:
At a public meeting of the French and Canadian Catholics of Chicago held in the hall of Mr. Bodicar, on the 22nd of January, 1857, Mr. Rofinot being called to preside, and Mr. Franchere,[[G]] acting as a Secretary, the following addresses and resolutions, being read, have been unanimously approved:
[G]. These two gentlemen are still living in Chicago, 1886.
“Editors of the Tribune:—Will you allow a thousand voices from the dead to speak to the public, through your valuable paper.
“Everybody in Chicago knows, that a few years ago, there was a flourishing congregation of French people coming from France and Canada in this city. They had their priest, their church, their religious meeting. All that is now dispersed and destroyed. The present Bishop of Chicago has breathed his deadly breath upon us. Instead of coming to us as a father, he came as a savage enemy: instead of helping us as a friend, he has put us down as a revengeful foe. He has done the very contrary to which was commanded him by the gospel. ‘The bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flash he shall not extinguish.’ Instead of guiding us with the cross of the meek Jesus, he has ruled over us with an iron rod.