forth the attitude of his Church upon the question: "The old proverb says sunt bona mixta malis, and that is the case today in Missouri. Upon emerging from the war and at the beginning of the return of peace we find ourselves in fresh trouble and in a state of cruel uncertainty. This is the way of it. The radical party has installed itself, per fas et nefas, at the head of the state government. The new constitution, which has been adopted by a slender majority and which is publicly denounced as fraudulent, requires the clergy of all denominations, all professors of seminaries and colleges and all school teachers of either sex (including nuns) to take the following oath: `that they have at no time in the past uttered a word nor sympathized in any manner in favor of the Rebellion,' etc. Preaching and performing the marriage ceremony are expressly forbidden to the clergy by this law.
" The priests are generally agreed that, on principle, such an oath cannot be taken, because our authority does not emanate from the state and we cannot, without compromising the ecclesiastical estate, consent to take it. No Catholic priest in Missouri will take it; the Protestant ministers have generally done so. The penalty for those who refuse to take this abominable ex post facto oath is a fine of $500 and imprisonment. The governor has announced in a speech ` that he has had the state prison enlarged and that the law shall be executed. If this cruel law is really enforced, our churches will have to be closed and our schools and colleges will be ruined."
Father De Smet naturally had little love for a political party capable of a faux pas like that and he looked with deep dread upon the prospect of Grant's election in 1868. He felt that the great general shared the Protestant antagonism to his Church, and that he could not withstand the more radical element in his party who would use his great authority among the people to further their extreme measures. When the election came and Grant uttered his famous manifesto, " Let us have peace," it lifted a heavy