this
would be putting the cart before the horse. Let them do this, and
present their plan to me, and if I find it good, it shall have my
consent.' . . . The bishop has also seen and won over to our favor
Monsignor Talbot, who said to him: 'The only way now of settling the
difficulties is to give the American Fathers the liberty to form a
new company for the American missions.' In addition, the bishop wrote
a strong document in favor of our missions and of us, and presented
it to Cardinal Barnabo, which will be handed in to the Congregation
of Bishops and Regulars, who have our affairs in hand. . . . If this
good bishop should come in your way, whether by writing or otherwise,
you cannot be too grateful for what he has done for us. After
Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop Bedini we owe more to him than to any
one else.

"Wind and tide are now in our favor, and my plan is to keep quiet and
stick close to the rudder to see that the ship keeps right."

On his way home from Rome Bishop Connolly wrote the following letter
to Father Hecker, dated at Marseilles, January 20, 1858:

"From the deep interest I feel in your concerns you will pardon my
curiosity in wishing to have the earliest intelligence of your fate
in the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. I could wish I were near
you all the time, and have nothing else to attend to; but you have
got One more powerful than I at your right hand. Fix your hopes in
Him and you will not be confounded. After having done everything on
your part that unsleeping energy as well as prudence could suggest,
you must take the issue, however unpalatable it may be, as the
undoubted expression of God's will, and act (as I am sure you will
act) accordingly. . . . You must keep steadily in view the glorious
principle for which you came to Rome, and which I am convinced is for
the greater glory of God and the greater good of religion in America.
If you can start as a religious body with the approbation of Rome,
this would be the holiest and most auspicious consummation. . . . Be
guided at every step by the holy and enlightened men whose sympathies
you have won and in whose hands you will be always safe: Cardinal
Barnabo _in primis,_ and after him Monsignor Bedini and Doctors Kirby
and Smith. United with them at every step, failure is impossible--you
must and you will succeed. . . . I am sure that you know and feel
this as well as I do (for we have been, marvellously of the same way
of thinking