O'Rourke has been a steady reader and subscriber to the Freeman's Journal for 18 years but lately he has lost contact with McMaster. O'Rourke declares his friendship for McMaster in the conflict with Bishop Peter Joseph Baltes . The Bishops realize that this country is not enjoying an age of faith and the little faith that is left should not be weakened by ignorant and senseless tyrannical acts. The Catholics in this country are on an average with any country in the world. In a country such as this, the religious leaders should have special care in their lives that they act so that everyone will respect them. When, However, these leaders prove to be very poor managers they lose much of the respect due to them. It is very well for a Bishop to out off people from the Sacraments but this power should be exercised very carefully or more harm can be done to the faith than Col. Ingersol could do in a year. O'Rourke does not know Bishop Baltes but he has seen similar men in the West. During the Civil War, O'Rourke was agent for a Catholic paper which disagreed with a Bishop and because of this, a neighboring Bishop withdrew his subscription to the paper. The Vicar General of that diocese, however, began to take the paper. This shows that a Catholic can stand up for his rights. In the past 20 years the Freeman's Journal has done more to convince American Catholics and non-Catholics that they can be free men than any paper of Baltes would be able to do. Bishop John Hughes, following the able minds of the Church in this country for 50 years, has labored to show that the Catholic Church is not an enemy of civil liberty, but Baltes, by a stroke of his pen, is undoing what has been done. Many Catholics have nothing but harsh words for Baltes and if other Bishops could hear these opinions, they would seek a way to suppress him. In all of the controversy, McMaster has stood firm and has not stooped to name-calling or any other regrettable means and this is a great example to the Church of the country. Being a convert with extraordinary faith of a convert, McMaster will be surprised at this attitude the people take, but O'Rourke attributes this to his belief that the Bishops of the East are true gentlemen, whereas they are not always so in the West. He knows McMaster will not thank him for many of his harsh words about the Bishop, but they have been written only because he dislikes to see the Freeman's Journal prohibited anywhere. The remarks are not for publication and perhaps the whole letter should be consigned to a waste-basket since O'Rourke would not want his own Bishop to think there was anything personal meant by them. :: I-2-c A.L.S. 12pp. 12mo.