University of Virginia Library

My Dear Mr. Chiniquy:—The Rev. Mr. Courjeault is just returned
from Bourbonnais, where he ought never to have gone back. He has told
me of his complete failure and ignominious exit. I bitterly regret having
allowed him to go there again. But he had so persuaded me that his
criminal conduct with his servant girl was ignored by the people, that I had
yielded to his request.

I feel that this new attempt, on his part, to impose himself on that
honest people, has added to the enormity of his first scandal. I advise him
now to go back to France, where he can more easily conceal his shame than
in America. But one of the darkest features of that disgusting affair is that
I am obliged to pay the $500 which the girl asked, in order to prevent Mr.
Courjeault from being dragged before the civil tribunal and sent to jail.

The malice of that priest against you has received its just reward. But
my fear is that you have another implacable enemy here in Mr. Lebel,
whose power to do evil is greater than Mr. Courjeault's.

Before you began your great work of directing the flood of Roman
Catholic emigration towards this country, to secure it to our holy church,
he was in favor of that glorious scheme, but his jealousy against you has
suddenly changed his mind.

He has, lately, addressed a letter to the Canadian press, every word of
which is an unmitigated falsehood. Of course, the Bishop of Montreal,
who is more than ever opposed to our colonization plan, has published that
lying letter in his journal; more than that, he has reproduced the testimony
of a perjured man, who swears that many of the people of Illinois are bitten
and killed by the rattlesnakes, and those who escape are taxed six cents for
each pane of glass of their windows.

Will you be discouraged by this opposition? I hope not. This opposition
is the greatest evidence we could have that our scheme is from God,
and that He will support you. I am tempted to interdict Mr. Lebel, and
send him back to Canada, for writing things which he so well knows to be
false. The want of a French-speaking priest for your countrymen of Chicago
is the only thing which has prevented me from withdrawing his faculties.

But I have warned him that if he writes any more against the truth,
I will punish him as he deserves.

For you, my dear sir, I will address to you the very words which God
Himself addressed to His servant, Joshua: "Be strong, and of good courage;
for unto this people shalt thou divide, for an inheritance, the land which I
swear unto their fathers to give them" (Joshua 1: 6).

I agree with what you wrote me in your last letter, that the charge I
have given you of Bourbonnais, pro tempore, will seriously interfere with
your other numberless duties towards your dear emigrants. But there is no
help; the only thing I can promise, is to relieve you as soon as possible. I
have no other priest to whom I can trust the interesting mission of Bourbonnais.
For Father Huick is too old and infirm for such a work. It is
evidently the will of God that you should extend your labors over the first
limits you had fixed. Be faithful to the end, and the Lord will be with you,
and support you throughout all your labors and tribulations.