due allowance will be made for the aggravating circumstances under which a writer is necessarily placed, who undertakes to defend the Catholic Church from the unscrupulous and wanton assaults, which have been made upon her principles and her members in this country, especially during the last few years. The enemies of our faith can hardly complain, if a portion of their own severity is retorted on them, or if their violent attacks are sometimes made to recoil on their own heads.
In the Introductory Address, written at the suggestion of a distinguished friend, the author undertakes to answer some of the principal charges recently preferred against our Church, by men who, in the hallowed name of liberty, seek to abridge our civil rights in this free republic, and to excite against us a storm of public indignation, if not of open persecution, by a course of reckless misrepresentation. In it, he also takes occasion to refer to many of the Papers contained in this collection, with a view to show how far the subjects therein treated are opportune to the times. It will be seen, that Catholics have no cause to be ashamed either of their religious principles or of their past history; that instead of shrinking from, they court inquiry; and that they have special reason to be proud of the agency of their Catholic ancestors in discovering and colonizing this continent, and in planting thereon, first of all, the banner of the largest civil and religious liberty.
The only motive which prompted the issuing of the present publication has been to do some good, by throwing together, in a permanent form, a considerable number of facts and authorities, gathered from various authentic sources; to which, however, many readers might not have easy access, even if they had the leisure requisite for a satisfactory examination. How far the author has succeeded in carrying out this intention, an impartial and intelligent public will best decide.