Beecher, Catharine E., Brooklyn, New York, to Archbishop John Baptist Purcell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1875 September 28

She thanks Purcell for his kind and candid expression of his views in his letter of Sept. 24. They must disagree as to the interpretation of Christ's teachings, she trusting to the ruler of language and common sense and Purcell to an infallible Pope, whose teachings however, can be gauged only by the same ruler of language and common sense. They agree that religion ought to be a part of their school education and there are only three alternatives: 1. That the Protestants yield to the Catholic minority and furnish Bible and all religious instruction; 2. that each sect have its own separate school and so break up their public school system; or 3. that there be a course of religion and moral instruction in which all agree, and supply the deficiencies in Sunday schools or clerical instruction after the day schools have closed. The first two will involve mixing politics and religion and result in engendering hate and evil passion. If the third method be adopted it it will lead to harmony and virtue. She has a friend who has been principal of a public school in this city for 25 years in a quarter where the majority are Catholic, Jew Or Nothingarians. She has all unite in the Lord's Prayer and reads only those parts of the Bible about which there is no difference of opinion, and trains the children to neatness, order, truthfulness, obedience and the Virtues urged in any like book. The consequences are so good that parents and children are all content and it is the most successful school in all respects in the city. She desires Purcell's judgment as to the probable results of the compromise method of the third alternative. The Protestant clergy are alarmed at the movement of the political parties on this question and it seems to her that Purcell has the power to allay the rising tempest. There would be no harm in Purcell's sanctioning the study of a book on religion and morals in which no contrary interpretations are taught. Nothing is so bad for society as the quarrels of professed Christians. She asks Purcell's views on her suggestions. This topic is to be discussed next month in a Clerical Association of Protestant ministers of all denominations. She asks what she shall tell her brother, Dr. Edward Beecher, a member, as to Purcell's final decision on these questions. As Purcell did before writing, she also asks God's guidance. :: II-5-f A.L.S. 4pp. 12mo.