United, Yet Divided: An Analysis of Bishops Martin John Spalding and John Baptist Purcell during the Civil War Era

The paper explores the views of American Catholic bishops during the Civil War period. As a whole, the Catholic Church proclaimed peace and public neutrality during the war. Yet despite urging of the Vatican for clergy to remain uninvolved in American politics, many bishops and other clergymen developed specific Union or Confederate sympathies, thereby creating divisions within the American Catholic Church. Such an example of divergent sympathies can be found through a comparison of Bishop Martin John Spalding of Louisville, Kentucky, and Archbishop John Baptist Purcell of Cincinnati, Ohio. The bishops' letters, journals, and diocesan publications illustrate the rift within the American Catholic Church of the time period. The case studies of Spalding and Purcell serve as clear examples of opposing sympathies. Spalding's conservative, Southern roots evolved into a pro-slavery, anti-Lincoln view, while Purcell's immigrant, urban background inspired him to promote an abolitionist, pro-Union agenda.