American people,’ he continued, ’are much engrossed in worldly things and in the pursuit of wealth, and these are not favorable to religion; it is not I who say so, but our Lord in the Gospel.’  ‘The United States, your Holiness,’ I replied, ’is in its youth, and, like a young father of a family occupied in furnishing his house, while this is going on he must be busy; but the American people do not make money to hoard it, nor are they miserly.’  ’No, no,’ he replied; ’they are willing to give when they possess riches.  The bishops tell me they are generous in aiding the building of churches.  You see,’ he added, ’I know the bright side as well as the dark side of the Americans; but in the United States there exists a too unrestricted freedom, all the refugees and revolutionists gather there and are in full liberty.’  ’True, most Holy Father; but this has a good side.  Many of them, seeing in the United States that the Church is self-subsisting and not necessarily connected with what they call despotism, begin to regard it as a Divine institution and return to her fold.’  ‘Yes,’ he said, ’the Church is as much at home in a republic as in a monarchy or aristocracy.  But then, again, you have the abolitionists and their opponents, who get each other by the hair.’  ’There is also the Catholic faith, Holy Father, which if once known would act on these parties like oil upon troubled waters, and our best-informed statesmen are becoming more and more convinced that Catholicity is necessary to sustain our institutions, and enable our young country to realize her great destiny.  And allow me to add, most Holy Father, that it would be an enterprise worthy of your glorious pontificate to set on foot the measures necessary for the beginning of the conversion of America.’

“On retiring he gave me his blessing, and repeated in a loud voice as I kneeled, ‘Bravo!  Bravo!’”

“Pius IX.,” said Father Hecker afterwards, “was a man of the largest head, of still larger heart, moved more by his impulses than by his judgment; but his impulses were great, noble, all-embracing.”

It will not be out of place here to look more closely into Father Hecker’s conscience and study his motives.  One might ask why he did not simply submit to the infliction visited upon him by his superior in the order, and humbly withdraw from notice till God should find a way to vindicate him.  But his case was not a personal one.  He was in Rome representing a body of priests and a public cause, and every principle of duty and honor required an appeal to higher authority.  Nor was vindication the chief end in view, but rather freedom to follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit in accordance with Catholic traditions and wholly subject to the laws and usages of the Church.  Beyond securing exactly this he had no object whatever.  On February 19, 1858, he thus wrote to his brother George: