Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1850

pg 140                              Chapter IX. Year 1850

                          1.  Expedition to California. Its Motives

                  For a long time pecuniary embarrassments of the establishment 
             had caused the administration an interminable series of bitterness 
             and misery.  The ravages of fire at first seemed destined to crown 
             all the rest.  Reflection begot the hope that God, who had thus 
             far done everything at Notre Dame du Lac, would not permit his 
             work to perish, but would rather make this new trial serve for the 
             accomplishment of his merciful designs.
                  An extraordinary event almost compelled the members of the 
             chapter to take a step in whose success none of them would have 
             placed any confidence, had it not been, in their unanimous 
             opinion, justified before God by two powerful motives, namely:  
             that of preventing a terrible scandal which might ruin the work; 
             2. that of trying a means of paying arrears of indebtedness--and 
             in the eyes of the public [justified] by the consequences of a 
             fire which were to be repaired.
                  On these ground the expedition to California was decided