THE DEATH OF A THEORY 5 There is but one rule for a Catholic wherever he is, and that is, to do his

duty there as a citizen" (John Hughes, www.thecatholicthing.org). In virtually all academic institutions the American Civil War is presented as a moral war in which the north had the righteous side by trying to do away with slavery. The truth of the matter is that the north merely used the issue of slavery as a cover up for their envy of the souths economic strengths. As a good Catholic, when one studies the Civil War one must realize three important things: the north was not fighting a political war but rather an economic war; Catholic sentiments should more naturally side with the south because of their traditions; and the states were not committing treason by seceding. The southern states were merely doing what their forefathers had done a short time back in the American War of Independence against England. As a Catholic in the Civil War, an informed conscience would have to lead one to join the south, though many Catholics, Irish ones in particular, joined the army of their resident state regardless of the facts. The Civil War . . . when one thinks of this great American tragedy, it is impossible to avoid the issue of slavery and how it rent apart the north and the south. However, slavery was not the true reason behind the Civil War. General Grant himself said that if the war was about slavery that hewould turn in his sword and fight for the other side" (Grant, catholicknight.blogspot.com). The actual cause of the war was the economic discrepancies between the two regions. Economically, the north was very industrialized, believing that, " (a) factory is an establishment where several workmen are collected together for the purpose of obtaining greater and cheaper conveniences for labor" (Carroll D. Wright, The Factory System). The south disagreed with this position, being more agriculturally based. In this the beliefs of the south coincided with the views

THE DEATH OF A THEORY 5 of the Catholic church who in later years released such encyclicals as Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno, two documents that recognized industrialism as a natural occurrence but denouncing the evils of it. The fact was that slavery was gradually disappearing in the south even before the Civil War. "On the eve of the Civil War only one white family in four owned any slaves at all" due to the fact that many families had only about 100 acres of land and in order for slavery to be profitable at least 1,000 to 2,000 acres were required (text, pg. 361). The north claimed that slavery was the main focus of the war while the true reason was that they wanted to settle economic differences in their favor. At the onset of the Civil War, the Confederate States of America immediately began to search for allies outside the confines of North America. They met with suspicion and distrust in all the major powers save one, the Catholic pontificate. The pope at the time, Pope Pius IX, did not go so far as to formally extend recognition to the C.S.A. but in essence he did recognize them by officially meeting with a Confederate delegate as well as referring to Jefferson Davis as the , "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America" (Pope Pius IX, catholicknight.blogspot.com). There were several reasons that the pope was willing to extend his friendship to the confederate states. The south was very much Christian in the traditional sense, and thus opposed to modernism. Because the south was opposed to modernism, an anti-Catholic mindset that had incited the pope to write the Syllabus of Errors in order to condemn it, the pope saw them as a potential ally in this moral battle and thus offered them his friendship. Also, the south was built upon good family values in the hierarchal tradition, a tradition that the church very much supports. Another reason was that the south wanted to peacefully secede from

THE DEATH OF A THEORY 5 the union; they were not aggressively seeking bloodshed. "If a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled" (Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address). When a well educated Catholic recognized these facts with an informed conscience, he would have easily agreed with Pope Pius IX and sided with the confederates. "It is the right of the people to alter or abolish them (governments) at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established" ( Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address). Many historians cite the perceived fact that it was illegal for the south to secede as solid grounds for the norths aggression in the Civil War. To put the issue into a little historical context, technically that mentality would make the American Revolution against England illegal as well; the defining difference between these two conflicts being that the colonists just happened to win whereas the confederacy was defeated and thus are treated poorly in memory. The reality is that it was not illegal to secede from the union based on the American Constitution. Many federal judges at the time upheld that secession was quite legal. Lincoln himself said at one point in his career that, "any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better" (Lincoln, www.lewrockwell.com). Though he later repudiated this statement because it no longer served him politically, this quote provides a good sense as to what the feelings of the time really were in regards to seceding. No good Catholic should have been deterred from joining the south by the false belief that it was against basic American principles.

THE DEATH OF A THEORY 5 It is amazing how history can so easily rewrite itself according to the winning side of the strife. The American Civil War is no exception. Today, when one studies almost any American History textbook, one will read about the immorality and the greed of the south as well as the purity and righteousness of the north. Most of these texts are not grounded in fact and many try to narrate almost the opposite of the true story. A deep academic search should easily prove to an student exactly what Pope Pius IX saw in the confederacy: the legitimate and legal secession of a Christian group of people who were perfectly justified in their actions. Any informed Catholic scholar should be able to reach this conclusion and be in support of the south. The ideas that the south rebelled for were wholesome, and after the defeat of the south much of the moral character of the U.S. began to deteriorate. In the words of a onetime president, "(i)f the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory" (Jefferson Davis, brainyquote.com).