Citizens or Papists?: The Politics of Anti-Catholicism in New York, 1685-1821

Chapter 3: ‘No Foreign Ecclesiastical Authority’’: Catholics and Republican Citizenship

c ha pt er 3 ‘‘No Foreign Ecclesiastical Authority’’ Catholics and Republican Citizenship Despite their sudden gain of religious liberty, New York Catholics remained concerned about their status as citizens of the new republic. Soon after the Americans reclaimed Manhattan from the departed British forces after their long occupation in late 1783, the ‘‘Roman Catholic Inhabitants of the City of New York’’ sent a petition to Congress. They were apparently troubled that the clause in the New York Constitution of 1777 might well discourage Catholics from migrating to the state by requiring that anyone seeking naturalization take an oath of allegiance, thereby renouncing all foreign religious authority. Congress responded that it had no jurisdiction over the matter and referred the petitioners back to the New York government . The Catholics who sent that petition to their national government were a small and obscure religious minority in New York during the 1780s. The first Catholic priest to arrive in New York City following the war, Father Charles Whelan, identified about two hundred people as comprising the congregation, although Father John Carroll of Maryland, the de facto leader of the Catholic Church in the United States, estimated the number of Catholics in New York to be ‘‘at least fifteen hundred’’ in 1785.1 54 ‘‘No Foreign Ecclesiastical Authority’’ 55 st. pete r’s i n the 1780 s: eu rope an ben evol ence , fed eral ist l eade rshi p New York Catholics did have at least one important asset as they began their efforts to establish a church of their own in the nation’s capital. They were able to draw on the legacy of the United States’s alliance with Catholic France and Spain in recruiting Father Charles Whelan to New York. He had served as a chaplain to the French navy during the Revolutionary War, ministering to thousands of Spanish and French prisoners, as well as to a few American Catholics. In the years immediately following the revolution, Catholics worshiped at the residences of Don Diego de Gardoqui, the Spanish ambassador to the United States, and Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur, a French diplomatic consul. They also gathered for Mass in the home of Jose Ruiz Silva, a wealthy merchant who had immigrated from Portugal.2 New York Catholics sought aid from secular authorities as they began to build their church. They negotiated with the city government through an intermediary, Crevecoeur, who was not a Catholic. Father Whelan described the French diplomat, however, as ‘‘a very staunch friend of the Church’’ who ‘‘helps our cause as much as possible.’’ Crevecoeur introduced Father Whelan to the revolutionary hero Marquis de Lafayette, who himself previously had interceded on behalf of Catholics with Governor Clinton and the mayor of New York City. A group of twenty-two Catholic men, acting ‘‘in the name of all our brothers of this city,’’ told Crevecoeur that they ‘‘were encouraged by the happy tolerance accorded by the new constitution of this State and the privilege of professing publicly our religion here.’’ They asked the French diplomat to obtain on their behalf from the city government a ‘‘suitable site on which we can construct a church.’’ Crevecoeur brought their request to the New York City Common Council. In the tone of a supplicant, he pleaded on behalf of a minority, painfully aware that its religious liberty had only recently been granted, expressed the hope that this freedom 56 Citizens or Papists? would be permanent, and looked for tangible aid from the government in order to exercise that right. Crevecouer sought to bolster the Catholics’ case by claiming that the ‘‘Christian and tolerant spirit’’ of the New York Constitution ‘‘has inspired them [Catholics] with the most lively gratitude,’’ and expressed the hope that the constitution ‘‘has become a new tie which shall attach them for ever, as well as their descendants, to the prosperity of this State, of which they have the happiness to be citizens.’’ Despite these entreaties, Catholics did not receive much cooperation from their municipal government. They asked permission of the New York City Common Council, once again through Crevecouer, to use the Exchange, a large public meeting place, for Mass. This request was denied, as the council claimed that the Exchange, which had been damaged during the war, was unsafe. The rejection, however, spurred Catholics toward completing their own church. They finally secured some critical aid from New York’s Trinity...