Part 2. The Struggle of Roman Catholicism for Freedom to Exist and the Significance of the Results It Gained for Its Further Development (Cont.) (2)

In a similar manner Protestantism dealt with Catholicism in other colonies. According to Massachusetts legislation, as was already mentioned above, Jesuits were expelled from the colony, and in case of their return were subjected to hanging. In Virginia, “Papists” were deprived of the legal capacity to be witnesses in any case, could not have firearms, and could not keep horses worth more than five pounds sterling.[1] But their fate in Maryland was particularly remarkable. This colony was settled almost exclusively by Catholics, under the protection of the Catholic Lord Baltimore, to whom the royal charter granted the possession of this land. Lord Baltimore, himself converted to Catholicism as a result of the horrors of persecution he suffered in England, made it his first duty in his colony to proclaim freedom of religious conscience, and with his own hand wrote a charter granting freedom of conscience to all Christians and assuring the right to vote in making laws to all free men.[2] “Roman Catholics,” says the Protestant historian, “oppressed by the laws of England, could with confidence find peaceful refuge in the quiet harbor of the Chesapeake, and there also Protestants were sheltered from Protestant intolerance.”[3] “A Puritan expelled from Anglican Virginia, and a peaceful Quaker whose ears had been cut off in Puritan New England, found shelter among the liberal and warmhearted Catholics of Maryland,” adds the Catholic historian.[4] But such religious tolerance of Catholics amid the general dominance of the spirit of intolerance caused them many troubles. Soon the Protestant population gained a majority in the colony, and with it quickly appeared the hostility of the Protestants toward the Catholics. In 1644 the Protestant population, led by an ambitious seeker of adventure, raised a revolt against the Catholics, so that Catholic missionaries and the ruler of the colony himself were forced to flee, and only two years later was order restored with the help of military force.[5] Recognizing the impossibility of maintaining the struggle against the Protestants by force, the Catholics sought to protect themselves legally from Protestant violence, and chiefly at their insistence, the general assembly in 1649 enacted the “Act of Toleration,” which granted full freedom of conscience to all “professing faith in Jesus Christ.”[6] But this act could reconcile the warring parties only for a short time. The execution of King Charles in England led to the rise of Cromwell, and in him Puritanism felt power in its hands. This event was instantly echoed in America, and the Puritans of Maryland again raised a revolt against the Catholics. In 1654 they assembled, excluded Catholics from it; repealed the “Act of Toleration” and enacted their own act, which affirmed freedom of conscience on the condition that the freedom did not extend to “Popery, Prelacy, or licentiousness of opinion,” by which was understood Catholicism.[7] Through the efforts of Lord Baltimore, the Catholics for a time maintained their rights, but then one after another the provisions finally deprived them of freedom of conscience. In 1692 the assembly proclaimed the Anglican Church as established in the colony of Maryland and imposed taxes on citizens of all faiths, including Catholics, for the maintenance of Protestant clergy. In 1704 a new law, called the “Act for the prevention of the growth of Popery in the Province,” prohibited bishops and pastors from saying Mass, performing services, or converting non-believers; forbade Catholics to teach and gave the right to a Catholic child who converted to Protestantism to demand from his Catholic parents the portion of property belonging to him, as if they were not living. Mass was allowed to them only in private homes. In 1706 an act gave freedom to Quakers to practice their worship, so that “in a colony founded by Catholics, Catholics were the sole victims of the intolerance of the dominant party.”[8] “In the years that followed, by a series of successive laws, they were deprived of electoral rights unless they solemnly renounced their faith. The executive power often arbitrarily issued decrees to “take children from the baleful influence of Catholic parents,” and the assembly voted that Papists pay double the tax collected from Protestants. The hostility to Catholics finally grew to the point that they were even forbidden to appear in certain parts of cities.”[9]

Such was the legal status of Catholics until the Revolution itself in all colonies except only Pennsylvania, where peaceful Quakers lived easily with Catholics. To what extent Protestantism was intolerant toward Catholics can be seen from the fact that the Protestants could not remain indifferent to the freedom of Catholics even beyond the borders of their own colonies. After France ceded Canada to the English government, a Parliamentary act of 1774, after several years of military emergency, restored to the Catholic population inhabiting that province the rights they had enjoyed under French rule: authorized them to sit in the provincial council, restored the operation of French laws in civil matters, secured to Catholic clergy the ownership of its property and complete freedom in religious matters.[10] Indignation arose among Protestants at the granting of such broad rights to Catholics, and the Massachusetts colony presented a protest to the Congress of 1774, in which it said: “that the late Act of Parliament, establishing the Roman Catholic Religion and the French Laws in that vast Country (Canada), is extremely dangerous to the Protestant Religion and the civil Rights and Liberties of all America; and therefore, as Men and Protestant Christians, we are necessarily obliged to take all proper Measures for our Security.”[11] Congress, having considered “the Rights and Grievances of these Colonies,” came to the conclusion: “that the following Acts of Parliament are impositions and violations of the Rights of the Colonists, namely: the Act establishing the Roman Catholic Religion in the Province of Quebec (Canada), abolishing the equitable System of the English Laws, and erecting a Tyranny there to the great Danger (from the too great Dissimilarity of Religion, Laws and Government) to the neighboring British Colonies, with the Assistance of Blood and Treasure of which that Country was conquered from France… Such grievous Acts and Measures Americans cannot submit to.”[12] In the address to the British people of the same year Congress says: “We cannot forbear to express our Astonishment, that a British Parliament should ever consent to establish in that Country a Religion, that has deluged your Island in Blood, and dispersed Impiety, Bigotry, Persecution and Murder throughout every part of the World.”[13] Such expressions of religious intolerance toward Catholics were uttered from the lips of representatives of the colonies on the eve of a great event—the declaration of independence, which had as its result a law of complete freedom of conscience in religious matters to all religions without distinction. Clarification of the question of how such a sharp reversal could happen acquires primary importance for understanding the character of the constitutional paragraph concerning religion and the causes that led to its appearance.

VIII

The population of the thirteen colonies that later formed the Confederation of the United States, before the beginning of the war for independence, was overwhelmingly Protestant. The Catholic population constituted a negligible drop among them, numbering only about 25,000, and lived chiefly in Maryland. Thanks to its weakness, it, as has been said above, was constantly the victim of persecution and harassment from Protestants, who at the same time continued to fight among themselves over differences of religious doctrine. The enmity arising from religious differences was so inveterate and intense that it could not be ended by mere recognition of the inalienable rights of man to freedom of religious conscience, since on the contrary the consciousness of the dominant majority denied these rights. It could end only through a general convulsive movement that would change the entire social and political structure of the country, which had nourished the spirit of intolerance. Such a movement arrived with the beginning of the struggle for independence. When the colonies in their relations with the metropolis saw the inevitable approach of a crisis that demanded from them extraordinary exertion of all their moral and physical strength, the very order of things forcibly called them to unity and solidarity in order to successfully endure the struggle against a common enemy. Religious enmity between Protestantism and Catholicism was especially fierce in Maryland, the chief colony of Catholics, and it was in this very colony that the rights of religious conscience were destined to receive legal recognition for the first time.

Already in the beginning of 1774 the relations of the colonies to England reached such a state of tension that a crisis seemed inevitable. The discontent of the colonists developed and grew into irreconcilable hatred of the metropolis and awaited only a pretext to open hostile action. The crisis was dangerous, and for its successful passage, the united cooperation of all members was necessary. The people assembled at conventions where they jointly discussed their situation, and at a convention in Maryland the following appeal to the people was drawn up: “Whereas our Opposition to the settled Plan of the British Government to reduce America to absolute Slavery, may be greatly strengthened and supported by the most firm and close Union of all Classes and Orders of People in this Province, we think it our indispensable Duty to recommend, that all former Animosities and partial Disputes, with all private Quarrels of every Kind, cease from henceforth and be forever buried in Oblivion; and we earnestly request and beseech every Man, by his Duty to God, his Country, and Posterity, to unite heartily and firmly with us for the Defense of our Common Rights and Privileges.”[14] This was the first sound heralding the general freedom of religious conscience, which later became the fundamental law of the country, but its origin more clearly shows where the chief cause lay that produced this law. It lay in the political circumstances that required the general union of the settlers of different faiths to struggle against England. The subsequent history presents striking proof of this.

Congress of 1774 in its address to the British people, as we have seen, armed itself with terrible indignation against the Parliamentary act that gave the Catholics of Canada freedom of religious conscience. Circumstances then rapidly changed, a rupture with the metropolis occurred. On May 10, 1775, another Congress assembled. Blood had already been spilled and it was clear that the sword would decide the matter. Congress sought means and allies for the struggle. All colonies united for it. Canada remained apart. Congress now found it very important to draw her to its side as an ally, and it sharply turned its front. It began to court Canada, and by means of a series of appeals to the Canadian people asked it to unite with the other colonies, declaring that “the Fate of the Protestant and Catholic Colonies must be strictly united” in this affair, and assuring it of complete inviolability and security of his religious rights. In the instructions given by Congress to its ambassadors for negotiations with the Canadians on November 8, 1775, it was said, among other things: “And you may and are hereby empowered to declare, that we consider the rights of Conscience as sacred, and shall never attempt to restrain them in the free Exercise of their Religion.”[15] Such appeals were made to Canada twice in 1775, but without success. The following year Congress attempted a third time to appeal to Canada with the same request, and in instructions to its ambassadors from May 20, 1776, again instructed: “You must declare, that we consider the rights of Conscience as sacred, and can solemnly assure the whole People that we do, in behalf of America, declare, that we will grant to them the free and undisturbed exercise of their Religion; and to their Clergy all their property now held or possessed by them for the purposes of Religion, and of their maintenance; that the free Exercise and Enjoyment of Religious Profession and Worship, shall be allowed to all Mankind within said Province, who are peaceable and loyal; and that the Management and Disposal of the temporalities of this Religion shall be left entirely in the Hands of the good People of the said Province, and such as they shall appoint for that purpose; under such Restrictions, however, as may be necessary for the Security of the State, with the further Assurance, that that Congress will apply to the Crown for Confirmation of the full Rights and Privileges of the Catholic Religion, and the Security of all its Rights and Property; and also that such Provision shall be made in the new Government, as may best conduce to the Establishment of a permanent and lasting Harmony between British Rulers and their Subjects; and also, on Condition that all other Denominations of Christian[s] shall be equally favoured in the Enjoyment of Civil, Religious and political Rights, and shall be exempted from any Tax for the Support of any Religion.”[16] Considering these assurances insufficiently convincing, the predominantly Protestant Congress even invited a Jesuit, Father John Carroll, as an ambassador, hoping that he could better influence the Catholic clergy of Canada.[17] But this embassy also failed. Canada viewed these assurances with suspicion, considering them forced by political circumstances, and too vividly remembered the indignant protests of the same Congress against the law by which Parliament had granted Canadian Catholics freedom of religious conscience. In this distrust of Catholic Canada toward the Protestant colonies lay the chief reason why it remained apart from the general movement toward independence and thus did not enter the Confederation of the United States. A historian contemporary with the struggle for independence assures us that the Canadian masses were inclined in favor of union with the other colonies, but “the legal Privileges which the Roman Catholic Clergy possessed induced them to oppose the Change, as they were apprehensive of losing them by a closer Connection with their Protestant Neighbours.”[18]