My Dear Mr. Brassard:—I have just received your letter of the 9th inst., but no! I will not call it a letter, it will be better named a bitter tear, and a sad wail of a heart as good as it is noble and generous.
You have been a witness how the people and missionary of St. Anne have been betrayed by Mr. Desaulnier. You were at my side, as my friend and father, when this traitor said to me, as well as to my brethren: “Sign this act of submission to the bishop of Chicago; this act alone is enough to make him withdraw the sentence which fills your Canadian friends with anxiety. If the bishop does not give you the place you want, and if he does not withdraw the excommunication after having been presented with this act, I will tell him:
“It is neither the pastor, nor the people of St. Anne who wish a schism, they have done that which religion and honor commanded, to prove it; it is you who wish it.”
Your tears were mingled with mine, and the incense of your prayer ascended with those of my brethren, when on the 26th of November, Mr. Desaulnier said to the people of St. Anne:
“You cannot be blamed for what you have done since the beginning of your difficulties with your bishop.”
You were a witness that our first condition to the signing of the act which you and Mr. Desaulnier presented to us, was that you should be the pastor of St. Anne, and that I should remain with you as long as you would find it to the interest of my colony. You know that he gave me his word of honor, in the presence of all the people, that if the bishop would not give us peace after the signing of the act, he (Mr. Desaulnier) would go with us to St. Louis, and even to Rome, to plead my cause, and show the iniquity and unbearable tyranny of the bishop of Chicago. Did he not assure us that, in case the bishop should refuse to accept the act of submission, we had signed, your mission to St. Anne was finished, and that you both would return to Canada, after your voyage to St. Louis? Is it not true that when in Chicago, in reply to our question: “What news?” Mr. Desaulnier said:
“You have only to take your bags and both return to Canada at once.”
Mr. Desaulnier denies all those facts, with an impudence of which he alone is capable. You are my only witness before our Canada, which wishes and has a right to know the truth in this matter.
I took you as my witness, and you replied in many of your letters, that you could not say the truth without compromising yourself.
Is not this an acknowledgment that we, priests of Jesus Christ, are groaning under the weight of the most frightful tyranny? and that we are in the power of men who threaten our honor and life, if we dare speak the truth in favor of an oppressed brother? And this is the system that proclaims itself as the divine and ineffable news which the Messiah brought to the world! And this abominable oppression, this system of deceit, is the religion which the Son of the God of truth, justice and mercy, has established to save the world? This is the foundation-stone of the church of Christ!!! No! You do not believe that, my dear Mr. Brassard. Neither do I. I never did, and never will believe it.