In this first editorial statement of Boston’s renamed Catholic newspaper, George Pepper announced a new direction. No longer focused exclusively on “religious information,” the paper would be “interesting and varied.” It would occupy “a wide … field of miscellaneous literature” and provide “a rich harvest of intellectual entertainment.” Promising to defend his “dear native land and .  .  .  sacred religion” from “ignorance, illiberality, and prejudice,” Pepper insisted that he would use “the polished weapon of decorous argument and decent expostulation.” Determined to feature “original matter,” including poetry and criticism in this effort, Pepper turned to literature to make the case for the excellence of Catholic culture in general and the equality of the Irish in particular. Readers paying attention when this first issue under the new name appeared would surely have noticed the change in the masthead logo. What had from the start of the paper been a militant biblical quotation (“IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO IS AGAINST US?”) was replaced with this peaceful and breezy language: “HAPPY HOMES—AND ALTARS FREE, WITH THE MOUNTAIN NYMPH—SWEET LIBERTY!”

 

 Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society