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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... Lot 72 in what was then called Threlkeld's Addition to Georgetown . At the time there were no less than five such " additions " beyond the original limits of Georgetown . They had become necessary because of the town's rapid growth ...
... Lot 72. At approximately 60 by 120 feet , the lot might prove small for the use intended . That was some cause for ... lots in western Georgetown sold for anywhere from £ 20 to £ 50 , Mary- land currency , or approximately $ 35 to $ 53 ...
... Lot 72 is the exact site where the first Trinity Church was built and where it stands now as the parish center of today's Holy Trinity Church . Of the lot's donor , John Threlkeld , a Protestant , we know almost every- thing except ...
... lots " to wit : one for building on , a church for the use of the Church of England , one of a Calvinist church ... Lot 72 , as every Catholic reader must know , has gone down in history as " the architect of the American Catholic church ...
... time of the deed to Lot 72 , therefore , Carroll was deeply engaged in building the foundation of a uniquely American church . The Whitemarsh 9 10 meetings that would eventually produce a " Constitution of A Chapel for Worship.
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 |