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Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll Family [Ecumenical]
CatholicEducation.org ^ | March 2001 | CHARLES CARROLL CARTER

Posted on 07/04/2012 10:04:01 PM PDT by Salvation

Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll Family

CHARLES CARROLL CARTER

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin. Nearly every schoolchild recognizes them as the Founding Fathers. But there were a great many more Founding Fathers, even if their names are not so familiar as the above. Several of those lesser-known men who played key roles in the creation of the United States of America were Catholics.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin. Nearly every schoolchild recognizes them as the Founding Fathers — signers of the Declaration of Independence, framers of the Constitution, heroes of the Revolutionary War.

There were a great many more Founding Fathers, however, even if their names are not so familiar as the above. Several of those lesser-known men who played key roles in the creation of the United States of America were Catholics. Chief among them were three members of the Carroll family of Maryland: Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence; his cousin Daniel Carroll; and Daniel Carroll's brother John Carroll, who became America's first Catholic bishop.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832) was the most illustrious and best-known of the Carrolls. He was the only signer whose property — Carrollton — was mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. Carrollton was the 10,000-acre estate in Frederick County, Maryland, that Charles Carroll's father had given him on his return to America from his education in Europe.

At the time he signed the Declaration, it was against the law for a Catholic to hold public office or to vote. Although Maryland was founded by and for Catholics in 1634, in 1649 and, later, in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution placed severe restrictions on Catholics in England, the laws were changed in Maryland, and Catholicism was repressed.

Catholics could no longer hold office, exercise the franchise, educate their children in their faith, or worship in public. With the Declaration of Independence, all this bias and restriction ended. Charles Carroll first became known in colonial politics through his defense of freedom of conscience and his belief that the power to govern derived from the consent of the governed. He was a staunch supporter of Washington, and when the war was going badly at Valley Forge, he was instrumental in persuading the Revolution's Board of War not to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates. Carroll supported the war with his own private funds; he was widely regarded as the wealthiest of all the colonists, with the most to lose were the fight for independence to fail. Carroll was greatly acclaimed in later life, and he outlived all the other signers of the Declaration.

Daniel Carroll of Rock Creek (1730-1796) was a member of the Continental Congress (1781-1783), and a signer of the Articles of Confederation. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and one of only two Catholic signers of the United States Constitution. (The other Catholic signer was Thomas Fitzsimons of Pennsylvania.) At the Constitutional Convention, Daniel Carroll played an essential role in formulating the limitation of the powers of the federal government. He was the author of the presumption — enshrined in the Constitution — that powers not specifically delegated to the federal government were reserved to the states or to the people.

Daniel Carroll later became a member of the first United States Congress (1789-1791). He was also a member of the first Senate of Maryland, where he served up to the time of his death. He was appointed by Washington as one of the first three commissioners of the new federal city that is now known as the District of Columbia. In today's terminology, he would have been considered the mayor of Washington, D.C.

John Carroll (1735-1815), Daniel Carroll's younger brother, was educated in Europe, joined the Jesuit order, and was ordained a priest. He founded a private school for boys and named it after the town where it was located, Georgetown, a port on the Potomac River that later became part of Washington, D.C. He went on to be elected — by all the Catholic priests in America — to become America's first Catholic bishop. He later became archbishop of Baltimore. In any procession of American bishops, the archbishop of Baltimore always goes last in recognition of its role as America's oldest diocese. In 1789, John Carroll founded the college in Georgetown that later became known as Georgetown University.

During a period when the Revolutionary War was going badly, Washington asked John Carroll to join a mission to Canada to seek the support of the French for the colonies. Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton were the others on the four-man mission. While it failed, it established a relationship with the French, much influenced by the Catholic faith they held in common with the Carrolls. It bore fruit years later at Yorktown, where the largely Catholic-financed French fleet cut off supplies to British general Charles Cornwallis, and Washington was able to force Cornwallis to surrender and bring the war to an end.

John Carroll was an intimate of Washington. He wrote a prayer at the time of Washington's inauguration asking God's blessing on the president, Congress, and government of the United States — a prayer still very much in use today. Out of gratitude for John Carroll's support during the war, Washington gave a modified version of the seal of the United States to the institution that is now Georgetown University, and that seal is still in use.

Despite their enormous contributions to the American founding, the three Carrolls somehow fell below the radar screen of recognition as full-fledged founding fathers. Perhaps that was because they were Catholics in a country and a culture that for many years was overwhelmingly Protestant.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Charles Carroll Carter. "Catholic Founding Fathers — The Carroll Family." Crisis 19, no. 3 (March 2001): 32-33.

This article is reprinted with permission from the Morley Institute, a non-profit education organization. To subscribe to Crisis magazine call 1-800-852-9962.

THE AUTHOR

Charles Carroll Carter is on the board of trustees of the Charles Carroll House of Annapolis, Maryland, the birthplace of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He is a direct descendant of Daniel Carroll of Rock Creek.



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: america; catholic; religiousfreedom
A little late, but that's how the busy person sometimes operates!
1 posted on 07/04/2012 10:04:10 PM PDT by Salvation
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To: Salvation

Great post-Thanks


2 posted on 07/04/2012 10:07:10 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: nickcarraway; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; ArrogantBustard; Catholicguy; RobbyS; marshmallow; ...

Catholic history in America Ping!


3 posted on 07/04/2012 10:07:41 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

Beautiful post. I’m going to send it to my Pastor who wrote a most disturbing letter to the parish lauding JFK, John Roberts and JOE BIDEN as examples of Catholics who had played great roles in our country. I’ve been seething ever since Sunday over that.


4 posted on 07/04/2012 10:18:16 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Steelfish

**At the time he signed the Declaration, it was against the law for a Catholic to hold public office or to vote. Although Maryland was founded by and for Catholics in 1634, in 1649 and, later, in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution placed severe restrictions on Catholics in England, the laws were changed in Maryland, and Catholicism was repressed.**

Even in the earliest days of America, Catholics were discrimunated against.

Hasn’t changed much, has it?


5 posted on 07/04/2012 10:19:43 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation; Sirius Lee; lilycicero; MaryLou1; glock rocks; JPG; Monkey Face; RIghtwardHo; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.


6 posted on 07/04/2012 10:21:04 PM PDT by narses
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To: All
Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll Family [Ecumenical]
Charles Carroll, founding father and "an exemplar of Catholic and republican virtue" [Ecumenical]

7 posted on 07/04/2012 10:31:28 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: Happy Rain; Religion Moderator
This is a Ecumenical thread.

Please follow the Guidelines of the Religion Moderator when posting on this thread.

9 posted on 07/05/2012 9:07:03 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

So accusing America of wholesale religeous bigotry is a dissent proof assumption because it’s “ecumenical?”

Perhaps you should either stick to God or our nation and then declare your blatant hypocrisy to the other.


10 posted on 07/05/2012 9:28:17 AM PDT by Happy Rain ("With one appallingly stupid ruling SCCJ Roberts converted tax lawyers into defense attorneys.")
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To: Happy Rain
This Religion Forum thread is labeled "ecumenical" meaning no antagonism is allowed.

More leeway is granted for the article than the reply posts. For instance, the article may contain verses from the Bible which would be antagonistic to Freepers who are Jewish - but the reply posts must not be antagonistic.

Click here for more guidelines to the Religion Forum.

11 posted on 07/05/2012 9:34:33 AM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Religion Moderator
Ok, if those are the rules—I will eschew “antagonism” on “ecumenical” threads though I doubt their actual worth if they demand such “protections;)”
12 posted on 07/05/2012 9:41:50 AM PDT by Happy Rain ("With one appallingly stupid ruling SCCJ Roberts converted tax lawyers into defense attorneys.")
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To: Salvation
Thank you for posting this article by the estimable Charles Carroll Carter. With your permission I raise a pet project of mine, and post the following picture: This is the gravesite of the Carroll Family at the Historic Church of St. John the Evangelist, Forest Glen, MD, including the grave of Eleanor (1704 - 1796), mother of Daniel Carroll of Rock Creek and Archbishop John Carroll, subjects of the above article. The Gravesite and the Memorial Carroll Chapel Replica were severely damaged by a fallen tree some while ago. The Chapel has been restored and is now open to the public. It remains for us at St. John's to appropriately restore and beautify the Gravesite and nearby grounds, integrating it with the historical exhibition. To make that feasible, we hope to accumulate small donations that can be dedicated to the project. We have the support of the Knights of Columbus Father Rosensteel Council #2169, long-time sponsors of the Chapel. Any reader of this thread interested in supporting the project is welcome to contact me, either by FReepmail or by email at dpredmond@comcast.net, for further information.
13 posted on 07/05/2012 11:03:35 AM PDT by GopherIt
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To: GopherIt

You are doing a wonderful thing there. God bless you all.


14 posted on 07/05/2012 5:39:15 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation
CATHOLIC ALMANAC

Wednesday, November 6

Liturgical Color: Green

On this day in 1789, Pope Pius VI
appointed the missionary priest, Fr.
John Carroll, as the first bishop of the
United States. He became bishop and
later archbishop of the diocese of
Baltimore.

15 posted on 11/06/2013 11:15:08 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

No, it hasn’t changed much.

Yet, when Catholicism’s rigors were the most strenuous, the most dogmatic, both the Church and America were far more powerful and righteous than either is today. Bishop Carroll may have had a point back in the days of the American Revolution about making the READINGS (he never advocated for an entirely English Mass) available to the illiterate; but the change from Latin to English of the entire Mass at a time when the overwhelming majority of the populace could read and could afford or avail themselves of free missals was both unnecessary and frivolous enough to cause decades of accidental as well as deliberate mistranslation, not to mention deviation from the Eucharistic, the primary, rite of the Mass.

Two pieces struck me as funny—one in the-more-things- change-the-more-they-remain-the-same category: a Jesuit calling for “election” rather than papal appointment of bishops; and the other as just pure irony: St. Ignatius established the Jebbies to defend and support the pope and his primacy, yet no order in the world has done more to erode that particular Church-tenet than the Jesuits.

And another piece seemed . . . just odd: Of course Maryland housed many Catholics, but so did Georgia. Many, probably most, were Irish Catholics (like Gone with the Wind’s O’Hara ancestors) and part of penal colonies or working as indentured servants before the Revolution.

Lastly, even as a Carroll descendant, I’m not surprised Bishop Carroll never made it to beatification. Patriot maybe, saint no.


16 posted on 07/05/2014 12:52:07 AM PDT by Mach9
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