ds vanished so completely that the
people forgot there had ever been any. In a few years one of those who
had received him with the greatest distrust, had grown to appreciate him
so highly as to address him as a priest "whose unaffected piety as a
Christian Divine, splendid talents as an effective preacher, extensive
acquirements as an elegant scholar, and dignified, yet amiable, manners
as an accomplished gentleman, have long been the admiration, the
ornament and the model of his devoted flock."

The project for which Bishop Du Bois had summoned his young seminarian
from the Mount was at last carried out in 1841 by the vigorous head and
hand of Bishop Hughes. The diocese of New York had its Seminary and
College at Fordham. It was a remarkable tribute to the merit and ability
of the Rev. John McCloskey, that Bishop Hughes, though the diocese had
been joined by many able and learned priests, still turned to him to
fill the post for which Bishop Du Bois had selected him when but a
seminarian. Yet he was now a parish priest, and the tie between him and
his flock had grown so close that both feared that it might be sundered.

He undertook the organization of the Seminary and College, retaining his
pastoral charge to the consolation of his flock. The result justified
the selection. His power of organization, his knowledge of the wants of
the times, of the duties of teacher and pupil, were thorough. The
institution was soon in successful operation, and the seminarians were
edified by the piety, regularity and unalterable calmness of the
Superior, who was always with them at their morning meditation, and
always with them at exercises of devotion, his perfect order and system
preventing all confusion, foreseeing and providing for all.

After placing the new institutions on a firm basis, he resigned the
presidency to other hands, and resumed his duties at St. Joseph, to the
delight of his flock. It was, however, really because Bishop Hughes
already determined to solicit his elevation to the episcopate, that he
might enjoy his aid as coadjutor in directing the affairs of the
diocese, which were becoming beyond the power of one man to discharge.
In the Fifth Provincial Council, of Baltimore, held in May, 1843, Bishop
Hughes laid his wishes before the assembled Fathers, and the appointment
of Rev. John McCloskey, as coadjutor of New York, was formally solicited
from the Sovereign Pontiff by the Metropolitan of Baltimore and his
s