Download 11. Epilogue: The Colonial Legacy

Papist Devils
Catholics in North American
British Colonies
10. Catholics and the Revolution
© 2016 George E. Blanford Jr.
Type of Colony
at the
Beginning
of the
American
Revolution
Royal—Governor appointed
by the King and laws
modeled on English law
Proprietary—Governor
appointed by the
proprietor and governing
laws approved by the
proprietor
Who Would Revolt?
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis
 When the Second Continental Congress met in May, 1775
one of its tasks was to draw up Articles of Confederation
 Thirteen American colonies sent delegates to the
Congress
 Benjamin Franklin proposed Article XIII which was
an invitation to other British colonies to join the union
 Ireland, the West Indies, Quebec, St. John’s, Nova
Scotia, Bermuda and East and West Florida
 Quebec and Nova Scotia were the most likely candidates
 Why they might be
 Quebec had only been under British rule for 15
years and prior to the Quebec Act, it resented
British rule
 New England migrants had replaced Acadians in
Nova Scotia
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Who Would Revolt?
Quebec
 Even before being sent an invitation to join the revolt, the Continental
Army captured Montreal
 The Quebecois initially accepted the invading Americans, began
selling them arms and formed Canadian regiments for the
Continental Army
 Washington forbade the Army to celebrate ”Pope’s Day” (formerly
Guy Fawke’s day) for fear that it would alienate the Canadians
 Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles and John Carroll were sent
to Quebec in the late winter of 1776 to lobby influential people to persuade
Canada to join the 13 colonies in seeking independence
 Canadians were well aware of the American anti-Catholic sentiment
stirred up by the Quebec Act
 Bishop Briand was convinced that their religious freedom would be
greater with the British
 He denied Mass and the sacraments to American troops
 He celebrated Mass with a Te Deum service when Americans
were forced to retreat in late 1776
 However, getting to know and admire John Carroll softened
Benjamin Franklin’s anti-Catholicism
None of invitees joined the revolt
Samuel Chase (1741-1811)
by John Beale Bordley (1800-1882)
Who Would Revolt?

John Adams (1735 – 1826)
by John Trumbull
Maryland
 Revolt was difficult for all of the colonies, especially Maryland
 John Adam’s could not predict how Maryland would go, but he
realized they would support their final position strenuously
 Catholics played a unique role in supporting revolt
 Maryland was the last colony to join the revolt
 Eastern Shore residents did not support the ruling Patriot party
 During the winter and spring of 1775-76, the colony was almost in
anarchy
 In May 1776, the Maryland convention instructed its delegates to
oppose independence
 Chase and Carroll returned to Maryland from Philadelphia in
mid-June
 Carroll pointed out to the convention that war had begun
 He argued that Maryland must be prepared for the change
in government that independence would bring
 On July 3, the Maryland convention voted to support
independence
 Chase and Carroll arrived back in Philadelphia on July 17, after
the Declaration of Independence had been passed
 They joined with the other delegates in signing it on
August 2
Maryland Catholics and the Patriots’ Cause
 Politics
 The ad hoc provincial government opened up political opportunities for Catholics that
had been denied them for over 80 years
 By 1774, Catholics served in significant numbers on Committees of Observation
and Correspondence in the southern Maryland counties
 Four out of 76 delegates to the provincial convention of 1776 were Catholic
 By 1781, Catholics were 20% of the Maryland Senate in proportion to their
population
 Maryland pursued a policy of institutional conservatism and economic radicalism
 Carroll and Chase enacted a bill that required creditors to accept paper money in
payment
 This was strongly opposed by Carroll’s father
 Inflation resulting from this measure significantly affected the wealth of most
of Maryland’s elite
 This bill was repealed in 1780
 Taxes were increased shifting a greater burden on those with the largest land
holdings
 Carroll saw this as the price to pay to win the war
Maryland Catholics and the Patriots’ Cause
 Military
 Forty percent of eligible Catholics in St. Charles and St. Mary’s Counties enlisted in
county militias or the Continental Army before the introduction of conscription
 St. Mary’s County, with extensive shorelines, was particularly vulnerable to British
raids. Southern Maryland was a major provider of food and supplies to the
Continental Army especially when the war shifted to the southern states
 Catholics dominated the officers’ ranks in county militia regiments
 Maryland Catholics constituted at least a proportionate element of the “Maryland Line”
 The initial unit of 1100 men came primarily from southern Maryland and the
Eastern Shore
 They acted as the rear guard for the retreat from the Battle of Long Island in late
August, 1776 and incurred devastating losses. After the battle of Princeton, 5
months later, they were reduce to a regiment of 60 men
 Clergy
 Many of the ex-Jesuits in America were English by birth and had strong ties to England
 Nevertheless, they eventually took loyalty oaths to the United States and encouraged
their congregations to do the same
 They provided supplies to the army, but no chaplains
Pennsylvania Catholics:
Loyalists, Patriots and Neutrals
 German immigrants
 This strong majority of Catholics primarily remained loyal to Britain or were
neutral
 Primarily rural, they were relatively isolated from politics
 They were also isolated from most of the fighting
 Irish immigrants
 Most were Scotch-Irish and Presbyterian in religion
 They and Catholic Irish were primarily patriots
 Many Irish Catholics became officers including John Barry, “the father of
the American navy”
 Even so, a regiment of Roman Catholic Volunteers was formed to serve the
crown
 Substantial numbers of Catholics from Ireland and Scotland served in the
British Army fighting America
Catholics, Rights and the Revolution
Samuel Cooper (1725 – 1783)
by Justin Winsor
 Anti-Catholicism in America
 At the outset of the American Revolution, anti-Catholicism was a
major motivation for patriots
 The crown was seen as promoting popery
 Fear of popery was used to encourage enlistment in the Army
 Alliance with France changed the American perspective
 Samuel Cooper, a Boston Congregational minister, switched
from being anti-Catholic to advocating tolerance
 Virginia (June, 1776) was the first to pass a bill of rights
including religious freedom and separation of church and state
 Similar bills were passed 3 months later in Pennsylvania and 2
months after that in Maryland.
 Other states began to tolerate Catholicism, but continued to put
restrictions on them especially from holding public office
 By 1779, leaders in all the states began to realize that religious
toleration was a sine qua non for a military victory
 Ironically, anti-Catholicism was virulent in Great Britain itself
European Catholic Volunteers
 Three foreign Catholics made extraordinary contributions to the
American war effort
 Tadeusz Kościuszko
 Commissioned as an engineer by Congress in 1776
 He selected the battle site for the critical Battle of
Saratoga
 He was chief engineer under General Gates in the
Southern theater
 Count Casimir Pulaski
 Commissioned as a brigadier general by Congress in
1777 to lead the American cavalry
 Mortally wounded while attacking Savannah in 1779
 Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
 Commissioned as a major general by Congress in 1777
 Served under Washington from Brandywine in 1777 to
Yorktown in 1781
Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746 – 1817)
by Karl Gottlieb Schweikart
Kazimierz Pułaski (1745 – 1779)
by Jan Styka
Gilbert du Motier
Marquis de Lafayette (1757 – 1834)
by Joseph-Désiré Court
The French and Spanish Alliances

The alliance that the United States entered with France in February, 1778 was the turning point in the war
 France had covertly supported America with money, supplies and arms from the outset
 The alliance allowed direct military support as well
 Loyalists were vigorously opposed to allying with a regime that was strongly anti-Protestant
 Benedict Arnold used the alliance as part of his justification for treason
 Most Americans saw this alliance and a later one with Spain as essential for winning the war
 The advantages of the alliance were slowly borne out over the next 4 years
 The French navy gradually gained control of West Indian waters to the detriment of British
trade; Spain seized control of Florida from the British
 The French West Indies became America’s chief trading partner
 French Canadian clergy reversed their opposition to the American rebellion and aided George
Rogers Clark to gain control of what would become the Northwest Territories
 Nearly 7,000 French troops, including 1,400 Irish in the French army, joined with American
soldiers. 100 French army chaplains quadrupled Catholic clergy in America
 The French navy made it possible to pin down and to force the principal British army to surrender on
October 19, 1781 at Yorktown effectively ending the war
 A month after Yorktown an event unthinkable a few years before occurred in Philadelphia. A
Mass of thanksgiving was held in St. Mary Church attended by members of the Continental
Congress, the Pennsylvania Assembly, the French Ambassador and other government officials
Papist Devils
Catholics in North American
British Colonies
11. Epilogue: The Colonial Legacy
© 2016 George E. Blanford Jr.
Religious Freedom
in the United States
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Under the Articles of Confederation of 1777, each former colony became a “state.”
 The ensuing chaos of interstate commerce demanded a stronger central government
 A Constitutional Convention was called and began meeting on May 25, 1787
The United States Constitution was approved, signed and sent to the states for ratification on September
17, 1787
 It did not contain a Bill of Rights and its ratification was made under the promise that Congress
would amend the Constitution to include a Bill of Rights
 On September 13, 1788, the Continental Congress ruled that having been ratified by 11 states, it
became law. North Carolina and Rhode Island ratified the Constitution later
The First Congress met in 1789
 It passed 12 amendments to the Constitution on September 25, 1789
 Amendments 3 through 12 were ratified into law on December 15, 1791 and are known collectively as
the United States Bill of Rights
The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
 Note that at that time the fear was of a government established religion that excluded other religions
 Supreme Court rulings on the First Amendment interpret the intent of Congress that no one may be
coerced to any religious beliefs that do not accord with the conscience of the individual
Who Was in Charge of Catholics in the United States?
 The Jesuit Provincial of the English Province had effectively been in charge before the
suppression of the Jesuits because all the priests in America were Jesuits
 The Vicar Apostolic of London was nominally in charge of the American church
 American Independence broke ties with him
 John Carroll prodded John Lewis, the last Jesuit superior of the Maryland mission, to
call a meeting of the 23 priests in America to consider Carroll’s plan for organizing the
American church
 Carroll was fully in support of separation of church and state
 America had not had close episcopal governance for a century and a half
 Six elected representative priests met on a former Jesuit manor in Maryland
 They organized themselves into a republican body to administer the church
 They divided Pennsylvania and Maryland into districts to elect members
to the Select Body of the Clergy
 They would use the profits from the former Jesuit manors and farms to
support the church
 They requested that the Holy See grant someone faculties to administer
Confirmation, but they did not want a bishop
Who Was in Charge of Catholics in the United States?

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
The exponential growth of the church in the other states quickly made it
evident that the church did not own enough plantations to support itself
 Congregational support, which originated in Pennsylvania, would
become commonplace in Catholic churches
American law, the tradition of congregational-centered Protestant
denominations and Catholic enlightened ideology tended to foster a laytrustee system of church governance
 One of the earliest breakdowns in this system occurred in New York
when a parish tried to remove its pastor
 The revealed authoritative vacuum precipitated the move to create an
episcopal-based hierarchy
In 1788, the Select Body petitioned Rome to appoint a bishop
 They requested that they elect their first bishop
 Rome, recognizing the unique aspects of America, granted their
request
 They elected John Carroll in 1789
 Carroll selected Baltimore as the first episcopal see in America
because it was centrally located for the American Catholic
population at that time
Most Rev. John Carroll (1735-1815)
by Gilbert Stuart
Growth of the American Church
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In 1789, Carroll formed an academy for boys in Georgetown, MD to spur vocations to the priesthood. This is now
Georgetown University
In 1790, two American Carmelite nuns who headed two English convents in Belgium were persuaded to come to
Port Tobacco, MD to institute the first convent of religious women in the United States
 Carroll tried to persuade them to leave their cloister to establish a Catholic school for girls, but they refused
 In 1799, Poor Clares formed an academy for girls next to the academy for boys in Georgetown
In 1790, Carroll formed St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore taught by French Sulpician priests
 Just as France had become a haven for English Catholics after the Reformation, America became a haven for
French Catholics, especially clergy, escaping the French Revolution
 French priests and religious played a disproportionately large role in the American church over the
next 50 years
In 1802, 6 former Jesuits asked Carroll to let them join the Russian Jesuits
 Catherine the Great had not honored the papal brief of suppression because she valued Jesuit schools in
Byelorussia too much
 Carroll initially did not act, but when they acquired more support from other priests and seminarians, he
approved the reestablishment of the Jesuits in America in 1805
 In 1806, the Jesuits established a novitiate in Georgetown
 Worldwide suppression of the Jesuits ended in 1814
In 1808, Baltimore was elevated to an archdiocese; the dioceses of Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Bardstown,
KY were erected
In 1808, the Dominicans wanted to begin in the U.S. and sent a Marylander, Edward Fenwick, to open a priory
 Carroll sent him to Kentucky to open the first Dominican priory
In 1812, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton founded the Sisters of Charity in Emmetsburg, MD
The Maryland Diaspora

Stephen Badin (1768 – 1853)
“Apostle to Kentucky”
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
The westward growth of the Church began with the migration of Maryland
Catholics
 Southern Maryland was overpopulated
 Overproduction of tobacco depleted the fertility of Maryland land
 40 Catholic families met in Charles Co. and agreed to migrate to a
restricted region in central Kentucky so that they would be large enough
in number to have a priest sent to them
 It became a ritual each spring for a group of Catholics to migrate to central
Kentucky from ~1785 to ~1815
 It is estimated that ¼ to ⅓ of the Maryland Catholic population migrated
between 1790 – 1810
 Most of those who migrated were small farmers with few slaves; the
Catholic gentry remained in Maryland
The first priest ordained in America, Stephen Badin, was sent to Kentucky in
1793
 He made a census of 972 Catholic families in 1807
 Three orders of religious sisters formed in Kentucky: the Sisters of
Charity of Nazareth (1812), the Sisters of Loretto (1812) and the
Dominicans (1822)
Maryland Catholics also migrated to Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana
Retrospective
 The institutional presence of the Catholic Church was geographically
limited during the colonial period
 Most likely, Catholics in Maryland and Pennsylvania were a minority
of all Catholics who immigrated to America
 The majority of Catholic immigrants found themselves isolated from the
institutional church
 Most of these Catholics faced endemic discrimination
 Intermarriage with Protestants encouraged conversion to
Protestantism
 It is estimated that ~45,000 Irish Catholics converted to Protestantism
during the colonial period
 This would be about 12% of the total Irish population in 1790
 Many of them, especially in the South, changed their names to
have more English or Scotch sounding names
Resurgent Memories
 The American Revolution softened the attitudes of most Protestants
toward Catholics
 The early atmosphere of religious tolerance in America inclined
Catholics to forget how they were alienated during the colonial period
 By the second quarter of the 19th century anti-Catholic sentiments had
reawakened
 Catholic immigration far exceeded the proportion of Protestant
immigration (~40% of the total) relative to the proportion of the
indigenous population
 There was also a new evangelical awakening among Protestants
 Anti-Catholicism became especially violent with the formation of the
Populist, Nativist or Know Nothing Party
 It would take the patriotic participation of Catholics in the Civil War
to quell this wave of anti-Catholicism