The Southern Press

Father Mathew left our shores on
Saturday last in the Pacific - his mission of philanthropy
having been performed most fully and
faithfully. Were the emissaries from the old
world all kindred in character and in purpose
with this genuine philanthropist, relations of the
most kind and cordial character could not fail
to be established between the citizens of the
two great countries boasting the same mother
tongue.
But if England has sent us a croaking raven
in the person of Thompson, Ireland has sent a
dove in the person of Father Mathew, who
will not fail to bear back his olive branch.
We extract these, his parting words, from the
New York Herald. They are characteristic of
this good and great man :
Father Mathew's Farewell Address.
To the Citizens of the United States.
Dearly Beloved Friends: -
My mission amongst you closes to-day. I
cannot take my final departure from the shores
of your great and prosperous country, without
publicly recording my deep and grateful appre-
ciation of the generous sympathy, the delicate at-
tention, and the unremitting kindness which I
have experienced in every section of this vast
Union. The noble reception which you have
spontaneously tendered to a stranger, known
merely as an humble missionary in the cause of
moral reform, proves the devotion of your peo-
ple to the interests of humanity, however feebly
championed, and has endeared America and her
people to me by a thousand ties too sacred for
utterance. Though the renewed attacks of a
painful and insidious malady, have rendered it
impossible that I could (without imminent dan-
ger to my life,) make those public exertions
which were never spared by me in the days of
my health and of my vigor, I yet thank heaven,
have been instrumental in adding to the ranks of
temperance over 600,000 disciples in America.
I have been much cheered during the past week,
by the receipt of letters from all parts of the
States, bearing unimpeachable testimony to the
strict fidelity with which this voluntary obliga-
tion is observed. I need scarcely add, that virtue,
and the duties which religion inculcates, together
with peace, plenty, domestic comfort, health,
and happiness, have everywhere followed in its
train.
I cannot omit this opportunity of bearing my
grateful testimony to the generous and valuable
co-operation which I have received, in the prose-
cution of my mission, from the public press of
America. Whatever may be the party or sec-
tional differences that separate those influential
expositors of public opinion, all recognized in
the simple principle which I enunciated, a com-
mon ground of paternal union; and acting in
that Christian spirit, have, with scarcely an ex-
ception, ever freely tendered their valuable sup-
port and advocacy to the cause of temperance -
emphatically the cause of virtue, patriotism, and
morality. If the affectionate sympathy and
kindness of the American people have at all
times been generously extended to me during
my tour, how much more intense has this noble
feeling become as the period approached for my
departure? How can I find language to thank
the generous, the high-souled, the noble Henry
Clay, my disinterested advocate - my dearly cher-
ished friend? How can I express the measure
of my obligation to the benevolent Wm. Cor-
coran, of Washington? to the public-spirited
and philanthropic Henry Grinnell? to your mer-
chant princes, E. K. Collins and Robert Kermitt?
to the amiable and gifted archbishop of New
York, whose delicate and unremitting attention
will never be forgotten by his honored guest?
to the host of kind friends in this city, in Phila-
delphia, Boston, Albany, New Orleans, St. Louis,
Cincinnati, and through the Union, who have
responded to Mr. Clay's appeal, and in their fare-
well present have furnished a memorial of grati-
tude and generosity too highly appreciated by
the object of their sympathy and solicitude -- too
deeply engraven on his heart to be acknowledged
in the hackneyed phrases sanctioned by conven-
tional usage.
There are emotions of gratitude too intense
for language to convey; were it otherwise, gladly
would I attempt to give expression to my
profound thanks to my gifted and amiable coun-
trywoman, Miss Catharine Hays. Never will I
forget the sympathy felt by that noble-minded
lady, or the spontaneous generosity (so charac-
teristic of her Irish heart) which prompted her
recent grateful and substantial compliment.
Never will this noble act be forgotten by Father
Mathew, and when his earthly pilgrimage is over,
when his stewardship ceases, and he is called to
a state of future existence, where even the en-
venomed shaft of the slanderer cannot reach,
long may her honored name be pronounced with
gratitude and respect by the sons and daughters
of that beauteous isle she loves so well. To
my own beloved countrymen I most affection-
ately tender a few words of parting advice. You
have, my dearly beloved friends, relinquished the
land of your birth, endeared to you by a thousand
fond reminiscences, to seek on these distant
shores that remuneration for industry and toil
too often denied you at home. You are pre-
sented here with a boundless field of profitable
employment, and every inducement held out to
persevering industry. You are received and
welcomed into the great American family with
feelings of sympathy, kindness, and friendship.
After a few years you become citizens of this
great republic, whose vast territorial extent
abounds in all the materials of mineral, agricul-
ture, and commercial wealth; the avenues to
honor and fame are liberally thrown open to you
and to your children, and no impediment (save
of your own creation) exists to prevent you at-
taining the highest social and civic distinction.
and will you any longer permit those glorious
opportunities to pass unimproved, or, rather, will
you not, by studying self-respect, and acquiring
habits suited to your new position, aspire to re-
flect honor alike on the land of your birth and
of your adoption? I implore you, as I would
with my dying breath, to discard forever those
foolish divisions - those insensate quarrels -
those factious broils (too often, alas, the fruits
of intemperance) in which your country is dis-
graced, the peace and order of society violated.
and the laws of heaven trampled on and outraged.
Oh, how painful is the contrast between the
feelings which generate those foolish local ani-
mosities amongst the common inhabitants of a
country, the entire area of which would but
form an inconsiderable section of some of the
larger States of this Union, and that broad and
comprehensive spirit of patriotism which makes
every inhabitant of this mighty republic - from
the Atlantic to the Pacific - from Maine to
California - glory in the title of an American
citizen.
Friends and fellow-countrymen - I now bid
you a reluctant, a final farewell. A few hours
more will separate me from the hospitable shores
of America forever. I carry with me, to "the
poor old country," feelings of respect and at-
tachment for its people, that neither time nor
distance can obliterate. Citizens of the United
States -- I fervently pray that the Almighty Dis-
poser of human events, in whose hands are the
destinies of nations, may continue those bless-
ings and favors which you have so long enjoyed -
that your progress in every private and public
virtue may keep pace with your unexampled
prosperity - that you and your children's chil-
dren may be ever true to the great destiny that
awaits you, and to the spirit of those institutions
under the fostering care of which you have so
rapidly progressed. May your country still ex-
extend the hand of succor to the helpless exile, af-
ford an asylum to the persecuted, and a home to
the oppressed - and thus inseparably connect
her future destiny with the interests of universal
humanity.
Citizens of the United States, and beloved
countrymen - again adieu! May heaven pour
its choicest blessings on your favored land, is
the farewell prayer of
Your devoted and affectionate friend.
THEOBALD MATHEW.