Writes Clyde Wilson:
"In my review of Gangs of New York in reply to Sailer, I mentioned several things. The Old South, before the war, was not anit-Catholic, and the North was. The North was full of anti-Catholic propaganda. Mobs burned convents in Boston and Philadelphia before the war. In Columbia Sherman burned a convent with the attached school and valuable religious art collection. There were several Catholics from the South in Congress before the war, and not only from Louisiana. Mallory, Senator from Florida, was in the Confederate cabinet. Father Abram J. Ryan was the poet laureate of the Confederacy. There were large Catholic concentrations in Louisiana, Mobile, Charleston, and Maryland. Catholic bishops North and South never approved of abolitionism. Bishop England of Charleston was a highly respected figure and addressed the legislature, which was unheard of in the North. Father John Bannon from St. Louis went to see the Holy Father on behalf of the Confederacy and was then sent to Ireland to interfere with Union recruiting. Charles O'Connor, New York Catholic, volunteered as Jeff Davis's counsel. The entire student body of St. Mary's College in Maryland volunteered for the Confederate army. etc etc etc. The Know Nothings had no strength in the South.
"I am at home without my files and getting ready to leave town to speak to the national SCV convention, but a year or two ago I wrote a piece for Chronicles called 'Confederate Rainbow' in which I cited sources. Beware that they changed the Charlestown (Mass.) convent burning to Charleston, making it sound like S.C.
"Since I wrote the Gangs of New York review in reply to Sailer, I have thought of a much better point to make. Sailer condemns the Irish for not being willing to fight for the Union which had welcomed them. Let's see. He is opposed to immigrants. However, immigrants are OK if they kill Southerners---and Southerners mostly have a longer American pedigree than Sailer and ilk."
