# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1864_S311
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

News of Church History.    311

against the proceedings of Brigadier General Tuttle. The bishop communicated the whole matter to the President of the United States and submitted the subject to him for his consideration, whereas, on the other side, Brigadier General Tuttle admits "'that in this matter he acts entirely on his own responsibility and altogether without any order whatsoever from any authority higher than his own.'" About that time Tuttle was removed from his command at Natchez and Colonel Farrar appointed in his place. After the latter, too, had been recalled from his post at Natchez, Brigadier General McBrayman took over the command in that city, and this man issued, almost immediately after assuming his office, the well-known Special Order No. 11. In accordance with this Special Order No. 11, the bishop was removed from Natchez on July 26 and banished to the little town of Videlia, where he remained about two weeks, after which time, by Special Order No. 31, all further proceedings against the bishop were suspended. Bishop Elder of Natchez has already returned from his banishment to the seat of his diocese and has resumed the discharge of his official functions. The conflict between him and General Brayman has thus, as we expected no otherwise, ended in a defeat for the latter, and the bishop has in the end carried off the victory, as appears from the content of the following order of the day of August 12:

Headquarters U.S. Forces, Natchez, Miss., August 12, 1864. The military authority having for the present been vindicated, that part of Order No. 11 which directed the Rev. William Henry Elder of Natchez to remain within the military lines at Vidalia (La.) is suspended, and he may return to his place of residence and to his professional duties, until the action of the War Department shall be known. And whereas all prayers to the Supreme Being that do not come from an honest heart must be offensive to God and are contrary to sound morals, Special Order No. 31 of June 18, 1864, which prescribed that prayer be made for the President and the Union, is hereby suspended until further orders, and it is left free to all persons performing divine service to give free rein to their hatred of the government and the Union and their sympathy for the rebellion by omitting that prayer, if and so far as it pleases them to do so. By order of Brigadier General McBrayman. J. H. Odlin, A.A.G.

One sees that the general is putting not a good but a very sour face on the matter, and even permits himself to become sarcastic toward his superiors, who had ordered him to withdraw the measures against the bishop. It is probably the influence of the Secretary of State, who has always sought to keep on good terms with the Catholic clergy, to whom the above order is to be attributed. In a letter from the bishop to Colonel Farrar, then commandant of Natchez, the former expresses himself, among other things, as follows: "The order sent to me by the military command of Natchez, however, implies the right, should it deem it necessary, to require of us, as representatives of the Catholic Church, the composition and introduction of entirely new prayers, which must be suited to particular times and circumstances and must contain a certain definite expression of sentiment toward the supreme executive officer of the United States. This circumstance then, of course, implies in turn something else, namely the right and authority of any military commander to determine what times and what circumstances and conditions are precisely necessary for introducing and ordaining new and suitable prayers in the Church, and what spirit must pervade our prayers. The consequence of this would necessarily be that not only the Church, but even our prayers, would be placed under the direct control and supervision of some civil or military authority. The right of the competent ecclesiastical authority would thereby be curtailed, and its decisions made subject to those of the military authorities. You find yourselves, at this very moment, in the position of actually and in fact putting such a controlling right into practice against the Church. I, as bishop, have told you that we use certain prayers, and I, as bishop, believe that these prayers are suited to the times and express a friendly disposition toward our government, so that