New bishoprics continued to be founded in the West and sees were erected at Dubuque in 1837, Chicago and Milwaukee in 1843, Oregon City 1846, Saint Paul and Santa Fe 1850 and San Francisco in 1853. Before the acquisition of California San Francisco had been part of the Mexican diocese of the two Californias erected in 1840. During the decade after 1840 Catholicity increased very rapidly in the United States because of European immigration. The famine in Ireland and political troubles of various kinds in other countries caused a great many immigrants to seek the protection of the United States and the Church had to make pro vision for a very large increase in its member ship. To. deal with the new problem thus created the First Plenary Council of Baltimore assembled in 1852. At this time the Catholic population numbered about 2,000,000; there were 30 episcopal sees including the six archdioceses of Baltimore, New Orleans, New York, Cin cinnati, Saint Louis and Oregon City. In New York and Boston particularly Catholics in creased rapidly in numbers. At the end of the first quarter of the 19th century there were some 15,000 Catholics in the diocese of Boston, about half of whom were in the city, but they were beginning to crowd into all the growing towns of New England, Lowell, Newport, Fall River, Taunton, Providence, Hartford. New York grew even faster. At the end of the first decade of the 19th century Father Kohlman, S. J., found the parish of Saint Peter's in New York city to contain 14,000 Catholics. He pur chased a site for a second church between Broadway and Bowery road, then on the out skirts, and with the coming of a bishop to New York this became the cathedral. Father Kohl man who opened a school and was prominent in the intellectual life of the city was once sum moned as a witness against prisoners accused of thievery and asked to tell what he had heard from them in confession. This he refused to do in a most solemn way in court and the presiding justice, De Witt Clinton, supported him, thus settling for America the question of the status of information obtained in confession as privileged. The second bishop of New York was John Connolly, consecrated in 1814. He was succeeded by John Dubois in 1826. At his arrival he estimated the Catholics in the city at 25,000 and throughout the diocese 150,000. To serve the spiritual needs of this immense num ber New York city had but six priests and there were but four in the rest of the State. Albany, Rochester and Buffalo though each containing hundreds of Catholics had no resident priests. Brooklyn had but one small chapel, a mission from New York, visited occasionally by a priest. Newark, Paterson and New Bruns wick, all of them then in the New York diocese, were only building their small churches. Al most necessarily under such difficult conditions a great many Catholics lost their faith because of lack of opportunities to practise their reli2ion and bring up their children in it. Some of the Western dioceses were of course in even worse straits. Bardstown included besides Kentucky and Tennessee all the country known as the Northwest Territory, embracing what is now the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. There were small scattered Catholic communities of French at Kaskaskia, Kahokia, Prairie du Rocher in Illinois; Vincennes, Ind., along the Raisin River and in Detroit and Mackinaw, Mich., at Sandusky, Ohio, and Green Bay, Wis., though there were only three priests to tend to them all. Bishop Flaget within 10 years was able to report that he had in Kentucky alone 19 churches, 10 priests and 10,000 Catholics.
Some of the pioneer priests were remarkable men. One of these was Father Gabriel Richard, a Sulpician who did so much for Detroit and the neighborhood at the beginning of the 19th century. The Sulpicians, exiled from Paris by the Revolution, were of great help to infant Catholicity in America. They founded Saint Mary's Seminary in Baltimore (1791) which, after a very trying time at first, proved a wonderful nursery of priests for the American Church. In 1831 they founded Saint Charles College for clerical students though it was practically not opened until 1848. Father Richard was assigned to the missions in Illinois about 1795, transferred to Detroit in 1798. He opened a young ladies' academy in 1804 and a seminary for young men the same year. The girls were taught spinning and weaving as well as purely intellectual subjects. With Rev. John
Monteith, pastor of the Protestant church of Detroit as president and Father Richard as vice-president, the °Catholepistemiad or Uni versity of Michigan)) was founded in 1817. In 1821 when the University of Michigan was incorporated Father Richard was made a trus tee. He published the first Catholic paper in this country, The Michigan Essay or Impartial Observer. Before he was able to get the print ing press over the mountains he had a public crier who as a °spoken newspaper° gave the news and certain advertisements at the church door on Sundays. In 1823 he was sent to Washington as territorial delegate, the only in stance of a priest having a seat in Congress. When cholera visited Detroit in 1832 he fell a victim to the disease in his zeal for the sick. Judge Cooley declared °he would have been a man of, mark in almost any community and at any time." One of the greatest of the Catholic prel ates of the United States was John Hughes (1797-1864) who became bishop of New York in 1838 and the first archbishop of that see is 1850. A self-made man who worked his way through Mount Saint Mary's College, Enunitts burg, Md.. as a gardener, he demonstrated a high qualityof intellect in his controversy J with Rev. John Breckenridge which made the American people realize for the first time how strong was the intellectual position of the Catholic Church: He showed his firm char acter during the troublous times of trusteeism in Philadelphia and then was made bishop of New York. He at once took up the correction of abuses that had crept into New York life to the detriment of the Church. It was due to his efforts that the Public School Society, a private corporation which controlled the funds and managed the common schools of New York, was dissolved, to the lasting benefit of popular education. Elishop Hughes then inau gurated a system of parochial schools which has developed into the magnificent Catholic school system of New York. His controversy with "Kirwan' (Rev. Nicholas Murray) in 1850' probably did more than anything else to make Americans understand how utterly one-sided were the commonly accepted views of the Church in this country. The firm stand that Bishop Hughes took in New York prevented the rioting, destruction and bloodshed, which occurred as a consequence of Native Ameri canism in 1844 in Philadelphia, and of Know Nothingism 10 years later, in many parts of the country, from coming to a head in his diocese.
He was well known for his thorough-going devotion to the best interests of his adopted country, and was a personal friend of Presi dent Polk and of many men prominent in the political history of the time. During the Civil War he was appealed to by President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward and was en trusted with a diplomatic mission of an infor mal character to Europe and particularly to France in order to neutralize the growing sen timent in favor of European intervention on the side of the South. In spite of failing health which had compelled him to•ask for a co adjutor he accepted this mission at the personal solicitation of President Lincoln, had an inter view with the Emperor Napoleon in December 1861 and then proceeded to Rome, where, dur ing many months, he met prelates from Euro pean countries and corrected many false im pressions with regard to the war between the States. The government at Washington felt that his visit to Europe had been of great im portance in making the cause of the North bet ter understood and an official intimation of this was conveyed to the Holy See direct from President Lincoln, suggesting that the Arch bishop could only be properly rewarded by Rome, hut his failing health put that out of the question. President Lincoln wrote a let ter commending Archbishop Hughes' patriot ism. The last public function that he under took was a public address delivered shortly before his death to the Catholics of New York with regard to participation in the °draft riots,' which caused so much disturbance to the city and country in July 1363. His address to the crowd had to be made sitting down because of his weakness and his voice could not be heard far, but his published words made it clear be yond all doubt that the Catholic Church com mended to its members their duties as citizens to fight for the conservation of the Union to which they owed so much.