At Peace with All Their Neighbors: Catholics and Catholicism in the National Capital, 1787-1860In 1790, two events marked important points in the development of two young American institutions—Congress decided that the new nation's seat of government would be on the banks of the Potomac, and John Carroll of Maryland was consecrated as America's first Catholic bishop. This coincidence of events signalled the unexpectedly important role that Maryland's Catholics, many of them by then fifth- and sixth-generation Americans, were to play in the growth and early government of the national capital. In this book, William W. Warner explores how Maryland's Catholics drew upon their long-standing traditions—advocacy of separation of church and state, a sense of civic duty, and a determination "to live at peace with all their neighbors," in Bishop Carroll's phrase—to take a leading role in the early government, financing, and building of the new capital. Beginning with brief histories of the area's first Catholic churches and the establishment of Georgetown College, At Peace with All Their Neighbors explains the many reasons behind the Protestant majority's acceptance of Catholicism in the national capital in an age often marked by religious intolerance. Shortly after the capital moved from Philadelphia in 1800, Catholics held the principal positions in the city government and were also major landowners, property investors, and bankers. In the decade before the 1844 riots over religious education erupted in Philadelphia, the municipal government of Georgetown gave public funds for a Catholic school and Congress granted land in Washington for a Catholic orphanage. The book closes with a remarkable account of how the Washington community, Protestants and Catholics alike, withstood the concentrated efforts of the virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic American nativists and the Know-Nothing Party in the last two decades before the Civil War. This chronicle of Washington's Catholic community and its major contributions to the growth of the nations's capital will be of value for everyone interested in the history of Washington, D.C., Catholic history, and the history of religious toleration in America. |
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... Francis Neale , S.J. , first pastor of Trinity Church St. Patrick's Church , Washington 103 Rev. William Matthews , second pastor of St. Patrick's Church 105 Mary Barry , by Gilbert Stuart , 1803-1805 108 Ann Barry , by Gilbert Stuart ...
... Francis Neale , Leonard Brooke , John Mat- tingly and Joseph Semmes , Marylanders all , who were then studying or teaching at the Jesuit academy at Liege . All too often , however , many of Car- roll's first choices were retained for ...
... Francis Neale will be a favorable opportu- nity , " although not as the college's president . For the latter office Carroll fi- nally had to settle for Robert Plunkett , an English - born missionary not long in the United States , only ...
... Francis Neale was the youngest of these . Preceding him were William Chandler Neale , who remained with the Jesuits returning to England after 1794 ; Leonard Neale , later president of Georgetown College and second archbishop of ...
... Francis Neale arrived January 13 , 1792 ... one year's salary proceeding this day at £ 35 . " So read the notes in the fly leaves and balance columns of Georgetown College's earliest account book . Neale's arrival coincided with the ...
Contents
3 | |
15 | |
33 | |
For Nation and Town | 55 |
The Church | 79 |
A Church So Crowded | 81 |
St Patricks St Peters St Marys and More | 100 |
The Nations Capital | 121 |
Daniel Carroll of Duddington | 166 |
The Passing Storm | 189 |
Time of Wonder Time of Trial | 191 |
A Final Test | 213 |
Acknowledgments | 231 |
Abbreviations | 233 |
Notes | 234 |
Bibliography | 289 |