10 Things You Should Know About the American Founding

Catholic World Report ^ | July 4, 2014 | Bradley J. Birzer

[NYer]

Bradley J. Birzer is Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and Professor of History at Hillsdale College. He is the author of intellectual biographies of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Christopher Dawson, J.R.R. Tolkien, and (forthcoming) Russell Kirk.

[NYer]

Catholic ping!

[Jack Hydrazine]

“In 1776, numerous individuals, families, committees, congregations, localities, and states had already proclaimed their independence, and almost no remaining imperial structure could continue to operate with any legitimacy in what would very soon become 13 states.”

How long before America becomes that in relation to the District of Criminals?

[cripplecreek]

The restrictions on Catholic immigration to the USA were lifted 1790 I believe.

[TexasGator]

They forgot to mention the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I thought Maryland was the Catholic colony?

[Publius]

Another worthy ping on the 4th of July. Also an Edmund Burke ping.

[abclily]

Can U.S. citizens declare their independence from Obama?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Give it a try!

[Tired of Taxes]

So did I. A son and I were just reading about Maryland in U.S. History. Apparently it started as a refuge for Catholics but didn’t stay that way.

[ansel12]

Catholic immigration didn’t really get kicked off until the mid 1840s, by 1850 they were about 5% of the population.

[shove_it]

Can U.S. citizens declare their independence from Obama?

Apparently not seeing as he was elected and reelected according to those who counted the votes.

[Salvation]

**Hoping not to offend republican sensibilities, the Vatican contacted Franklin through two agents. Franklin said the man for the job was Jacky, and the Vatican consequently appointed John Carroll as the first archbishop in the United States.**

I had no idea of this little tidbit of information.

[Salvation]

It became that later. But not at first.

[Salvation]

10 Things You Should Know About the American Founding

America’s First Mass [Ecumenical]
George Washington’s Return from Service to Mount Vernon, Christmas Eve, 1783
Remember, Remember (George Washington and Guy Fawkes Day)
A Tea Party Thomist: Charles Carroll
America’s Catholic Colony [Ecumenical]
The Catholic Church in the United States of America [Ecumenical]
Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll Family [Ecumenical]
Charles Carroll, founding father and "an exemplar of Catholic and republican virtue" [Ecumenical]
CITIZEN JOURNALISM: Founding Catholic [Father]
"How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" ( Book Review )

[iowamark]

Maryland was founded as a refuge for English Catholics. (Catholicism was illegal in Britain from the Reformation to the 19th century.) The Puritans eventually took over Maryland and made Catholicism illegal there.

[NYer]

The restrictions on Catholic immigration to the USA were lifted 1790 I believe.

Over the past 2 years, I have been researching my family on ancestry.com, using nothing more than "oral history". Of particular interest are my maternal great, great grandparents who immigrated from Europe, as Catholics. His family was killed in the Siege of Paris (1870-71). Born in 1856, my great great grandfather was found by French sailors clinging to the body of his mother and taken on board their ship. As they traveled, they saw to his education in various locales. By the time he reached adulthood, according to the oral record, he spoke 7 languages and could read Sanskrit. I am a polyglot and attribute this gift to him. Once returned to France, he set sail for Ireland and served as a translator in the Irish Royal Courts. While in Ireland, he met and married. Bride and groom then immigrated to New York.

Working from that history, I had only census records to trace what happened once they arrived. The records indicate they took up residence in New York City's infamous "Hell's Kitchen"; essentially, a ghetto for Irish Catholic immigrants. Despite the linguistic abilities, the only position my French great great grandfather could land was as a painter and, later, a meat packer. It was no mean feat to find them on the 1900 census but I eventually discovered them under a strange spelling of the family name. Initially perplexed, I vocalized the name and began to laugh. It was the family name spoken with an Irish brogue. Not surprisingly, my Irish great great grandmother was illiterate and the census taker recorded the name phonetically.

The point of this comment is to point out the prejudice against Catholics that persisted even as late as the turn of the 20th century.

On this Fourth of July, I look back at those who came before me, their struggles and persistence in establishing a new life in America. Through their sacrifices, I now have a fairly comfortable and stable life. Would that more Americans would explore their ancestry to better appreciate their present lifestyle.

One of the best films I have ever seen on the topic of Irish immigrants is Far and Away, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Cruise and Kidman play Irish immigrants seeking their fortune in 1890s America, eventually taking part in the Land Run of 1893. While it does not focus on religion, it definitely provides some insight into the struggle of Irish immigrants at that time.

[jdege]

The vast majority was not of “Anglo-Saxon-Celtic descent”. There was a huge amount of immigration from Germany in the second half of the 17th century, as pepole fled the wars and the economic collapse engendered by the wars. Pennsylvania had a german majority, and many colonies had signicant German minorities.

There may have been more colonist of English descent than German, in 1776, but it was by no means overwhelming.

[tomkat]

.. but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent,
and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take ..

.. shall not be infringed

Kinda like that, I reckon.

[Inyo-Mono]

Bump!