Burlington Free Press

MR. VAN BUREN'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE POPE

Mr. Cicognani, the American Consul at Rome wrote a letter to Mr Van Buren, dated May 1st, 1836, in which he informs him of his official visit to the Pope. "His holiness received me." says Mr Cicognani, in the most benign manner, and expressed the most favorable sentiments for the government as well as for the nation of the United States of America."

Department of State,
Washington, 20th July, 1836.

Felix Cicognani, Consul of the United States at Rome.

Sir : Your letter of the 11th April, and the 1st of May, the first anticipating the favorable sentiments of his Holiness the Pope, towards the Government of the United States, and the last confirming your anticipations, have been received in this department and submitted to the President, by whom I am directed to convey to his Holiness thro' the same channel, an assurance of satisfaction which he derives from this communication of the frank and liberal opinions entertained by the Apostolic See towards the government and the people, and of the policy which you likewise state his holiness has adopted, and which is so worthy of the head of a Christian Church, assiduously to cultivate in his intercourse with foreign nations, the relations of amity and goodwill, sedulously to abstain from all interference with each other, except with the benign views of effecting reconciliations between them.

You will accordingly seek an early opportunity to make known to the Pope, in the terms and manner best suited to the occasion, the light in which the President views the communication referred to; and likewise you will assure him that the President reciprocates, to their fullest extent and spirit, the friendly and liberal sentiments entertained by his holiness towards the government and people of the United States, by those which he entertains towards the Apostolic See and the people of the Church: and it is the President's wish that you should offer his congratulations to the Holy Father upon his recent succession to the Tiara, not from any hereditary claim on his part, but from the preponderating influence which a just estimate of his talents and virtue had upon the enlightened councils by which that high distinction was conferred, and which afford the best pledge that his pontificate will be a wise and beneficial one.

You will take care likewise to assure his holiness, in reference to the parental solicitude which he expresses in behalf of the Roman Catholics in the United States, that all our citizens professing religion, stand upon the same elevated ground, which citizens of all other religious denominations occupy in regard to the right of conscience, that of perfect liberty, contra distinguished from toleration, that they are free, in common with their fellow citizens of all other sects, and practice the worship best adapted to their reason or prejudices, and that there exists a perfect unanimity of faith in the United States among religionists of all professions, as to the wisdom and policy of that cardinal feature of all our constitutions and forms of government those of the United States and separate states of the Union, by which this inestimable right is fully recognized, and the enjoyment of it inviolably secured.

I have given directions for the transmission to you of the acts of Congress which you request, by the earliest convenient opportunity.