Kaufmann, Dr., Pointe Coupee, Louisiana, to Archbishop Anthony Blanc, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1859 August 7

Kaufmann says that it was he who sent a request for the recall of Father Francis Mittelbronn and the reinstallation of Father H Thirion, and gives his reasons for so doing. He feels he has the right, as a baptized Catholic, married to a Catholic, and wishing to raise his five children as Catholics. The reasons they find Tirion preferred as priest, he is more dignified, more capable, has more of the evangelical spirit, is infinitely better as man and as priest, and Kaufmann has a great personal liking for him as well. The unhappiness and injustice ranged against him does not keep Kaufmann from forgetting and pardoning him for the wrongs Tirion did against him, partly at the instigation of Mittelbronn. By expressing these thoughts, Kaufmann only shares the opinion of more parshioners. They have refrained for some time from reiterating their request that Blanc send Tirion, they have awaited him since after Easter according to promises made to him and to others. Father C Maenhaut ? has told many people that Blanc will send Tirion back. When Kaufmann wrote the summer before asking for Tirion to baptize his son, whom he later sent to the city for baptism, he had not made any allusion to the high and mighty Mittelbronn, although he had decided to ignore him as a priest despite his character. Mittelbronn had accused Kaufmann of hatching a plot against him, naming Kaufmann as the author of articles in the local paper, and the instigator of papers sent to Blanc. This is false, and the proof is that the papers Kaufmann sent Blanc were signed. Regarding Mittelbronn as a priest: he acts as an ingrate to Kaufmann, who has never done him anything but good; incited Kaufmann unjustly toward Mr. Cooley, which resulted in difficulty with Mr. Cooley the younger, and he carries tales between them; he is brutal to the ill; more so towards Tirion, his benefactor, whom he has betrayed, calumnied, and sold out; and he has disowned his own brother Joseph, treating him like a kind of bug. All these things, in addition to Mittlebronn's character itself — brusque, greedy, of bad faith towards Tirion — see Mr. Auguste Provosty and Mr. Beatty. Kaufmann may be held responsible to prove everything he has said. :: VI-2-b A.L.S. French and English 4pp. 8vo.