I ANSWERED:
Gentlemen:—I thank you for the honor you do me by your address.
But allow me to tell you, that the more I look upon the incalculable good
resulting from the Temperance Reform I have established, nearly from one
end of Canada to the other, the more I would deceive myself, were I to
attribute to myself the whole merit of that blessed work.
If our God has chosen me, his so feeble servant, as the instrument of
his infinite mercies towards our dear country; it is because he wanted us to
understand that He alone could make the marvellous change we see everywhere,
and that we shall give all the glory to Him.
It is more to the fervent prayers, and to the good examples of our venerable
bishops and curates, than to my feeble efforts, that we owe the triumph
of temperance in Canada; and it is my firm conviction that that holy
cause will lose nothing by my absence.
Our merciful God has called me to another field. I have heard his
voice. Though it is a great sacrifice for me to leave my own beloved country,
I must go to work in the midst of a new people, in the distant lands of
Illinois.
From many parts of Europe and Canada, multitudes are rushing towards
the western territories of the United States, to secure to their families,
the incalculable treasures which the good providence of God has scattered
over those broad prairies.
Those emigrants are in need of priests. They are like those little ones
of whom God speaks in his Word, who wanted bread and had nobody to
give them any: "I have heard their cries, I have seen their wants." And
in spite of the great sacrifice I am called upon to make, I must bless the
Good Master, who calls me to work in that vineyard, planted by his own
hands, in those distant lands.
If anything can diminish the sadness of my feelings, when I bid adieu
to my countrymen, it is the assurance given me by the noble people of
Longueuil, that I have in Canada many friends whose fervent prayers will
constantly ascend to the throne of grace, to bring the benedictions of heaven
upon me, wherever I go.
