CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, The. Recent historical developments as to the Norsemen on the Amer ican Continent show that there was a bishop in Greenland and missions on the mainland before the end of the Middle Ages. Whether any of these were in territory now the United States is not sure, but the traditions of Norumbee (q.v.) favor it. The first definite date in United States Catholic is that of the celebration of •mass on Manhattan Island for the expedition of Verazzano, who led French ships here in 1524. The Spanish settlement (1565) of Saint Augustine, Fla., was the first Catholic foundation in the country. The French settlement of Louisiana led to a dis tinct development of Catholicity in that region in the 17th century. The Indian missionaries, who in the same century came down from Canada into what is now Maine, New York, Michigan and Illinois, represented further de velopments of . early Catholicity here. The Spanish missionaries on the Pacific Coast in the 18th century showed how much could be accomplished by such efforts among the Indians when unhampered by the exploitation of the whites. As the result of the Franciscan mis sions the Californian Indians, some of the lowest in the country, were in the course of a single generation lifted to a comparatively high level of civilization, living peacefully in their mission towns, occupying themselves with agri culture and domestic manufactures, but above all developing what amounted almost to genius in the arts and crafts and leaving monuments of architecture that are standing witnesses, now fortunately being carefully preserved, of the success of their Christian teachers to bring out all that was best in Indian nature.
As a rule, in the 13 original colonies, Catholics were proscribed. Even in Maryland, founded by a Catholic and whose proprietor, Lord Baltimore, had at its foundation pro claimed for the first time in history the practice of religious freedom, proscriptive laws were passed after a time and Catholics were deprived of most of the rights of citizens. In New York under King James II a Catholic governor of the colony, Thomas Dongan, granted a charter (1683) far more liberal than that enjoyed by any American colony up to that time, above all securing for everyone absolute freedom of worship; but after the fall of the Stuarts, Catholics in New York came under rather severe laws once more, so that as late as the middle of the 18th century John Ury, convicted of being a Catholic priest, though he was not, was put to death.
Pennsylvania was the only one of the colonies that tolerated freedom of worship for Catholics before the Revolution, for even Mary land, founded by Catholics on the principle of religious tolerance, had so turned against that original liberal policy that when there was question of building a Catholic church in Phila delphia the project was for a time put off until there was a definite settlement of the dispute then pending, as to whether the land on which Philadelphia was built belonged to Maryland or Pennsylvania.
In spite of this intolerance of the colonists a great many of the Catholics fought bravely for the colonies in the Revolution, so that Washington particularly came to respect them thoroughly. Some, like General Moylan, be came dose friends, while the ardent patriotism of men like Commodore Barry heartened the Father of his Country at some of the darkest hours of the Revolution. Catholic toleration in Pennsylvania had its manifest good effect, a large proportion of the famous fighting Penn sylvania Line,—athe Line of Ireland,* as Gen eral Lee called it,— were Catholics. When Guy Fawkes' Day was to be celebrated in Boston with the burning of an effigy of the Pope, Washington wrote a letter, still extant, suggest ing how unsuitable was such a celebration when Catholics were taking their parts whole heart edly with the colonists. One of the important signers of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll, a Catholic, who, when someone remarked that there were so many Carrolls that the British would not know exactly which one it was, designated himself beyond all doubt by adding of Carrollton' Even John Jay's bigotry, though it alienated Canada, did not lessen the patriotism of Catholics in the col onies. The alliance with His Most Catholic
Majesty of France did much to break down intolerance toward Catholics and the further alliance with Catholic Spain helped the same good cause. Members of Congress from all over the country came to be on terms of in timacy with the French and Spanish Ministers who had Catholic chaplains with them and formal religious celebrations of successes in the Revolution were held in Saint Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, and attended by many prominent in the government of the country. All this helped to break down bigotry. The Chevalier de la Luzerne, the French Minister, who pledged his private fortune to the help of the colonists, was a further important factor in the lessening of prejudice. He won the respect and friend ship particularly of New England members of the Continental Congress and became a close personal friend of Governor Trumbull of Con necticut, the *Brother Jonathan,* whose name became the popular symbol of our people until replaced by *Uncle Sam.* Benedict Arnold's treason plot proposed besides the surrender of West Point a scheme to capture the French Minister on one of his visits to Connecticut. Among the excuses alleged by Arnold in ex tenuation of his treason was that the Quebec Act had granted freedom of worship to Cath olics in Canada and the toleration of Cathol icity which he saw growing in the Colonies endangered the Protestant religion. It has sometimes been said that the securing of tolera tion in this country was more of an accident than a definite purpose. Anglican and Puritan could not trust each other, so Catholics slipped in under the general religious liberty which had to he voted. As a matter of fact it seems clear now that the first amendment to the constitu tion, guaranteeing religious liberty, was not a little due to Washington's influence and was carried because he wanted to safeguard the rights of the Catholics, whom he had learned to value highly for their heroic efforts for the country during the Revolution. In spite of this amendment, however, the laws of many States continued to bar Catholic citizens from their rights. Pennsylvania and Delaware were the only States whose laws did not need expung ing in order to secure to Catholics the right to'vote and be voted for. In 1784 Rhode Island removed from its constitution the clause dis qualifying Roman Catholics from office. This was before the adoption of the Federal CoiAti tution, but other States were slow to follow this example. In 1806 New York did so, but Massachusetts waited until 1821, Virginia until 1830, North Carolina until 1836, New Jersey did not remove all disqualifications from Roman Catholics until 1844, while in 1876, fully 100 years after the adoption of the First Amend ment to the Federal Constitution, New Hamp shire still retained disqualifying laws, only re pealed the following year. Shortly after the Revolution the Church was organized inde pendently of all foreign influence with John Carroll, a relative of the signer, as Prefect Apostolic, appointed 26 Nov. 1784. Until the Revolution the Catholics in the colonies had been under the jurisdiction of Bishop Chal loner, the Vicar Apostolic of London. His successor refused to exercise any jurisdiction. It was proposed at first that the Church should be under French ecclesiastical jurisdiction and Franklin as our Minister to France favored this for a time, but was brought to realize the danger there would be in such foreign influ ence. Rev. Dr. John Carroll's appointment fol lowed his recognition of this.