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

Chapter 5: ‘‘In All Countries Such Distinctions Are Odious: In None More So Than This’’: Political Equality in the Early Republic

c ha pt er 5 ‘‘In All Countries Such Distinctions Are Odious: In None More So Than This’’ Political Equality in the Early Republic The 1800 elections did not mean an end to the tensions between the triumphant Republicans and their potential Catholic allies. Dennis Driscol, a former Catholic priest from Ireland, was a United Irishman who fought against British rule in the 1790s. By late 1800, he was living in New York City, where he was editor of a deist newspaper, The Temple of Reason. In the first issue of the paper, Driscol welcomed ‘‘the great number of Irish emigrants lately arrived in this country . . . those victims of tyranny and oppression [that] shun the bear-like hugs of John Bull.’’ More of an Atlantic than a nationalist Republican, Driscol was an immigrant and did not define republicanism as something limited to the United States. His opposition to the British monarchy and to the Federalist party in the United States would have appealed to many Irish Catholic immigrants in New York. Driscol’s undisguised hostility toward Catholicism, however, complicated his attempts to draw Irish immigrants further into the ascendant Republican coalition. The Temple of Reason taunted Catholics by invoking Jesus’ exhortation to one of His apostles, on which the Catholic Church in part bases its claim to be the original Christian church: ‘‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’’ The paper 109 110 Citizens or Papists? also contended that the Catholic Church had less to fear from the proverbial ‘‘gates of hell’’ than ‘‘from the pillars of truth.’’ It also ran a mocking, satirical history of the papacy, entitled ‘‘of the progress of Christian superstition and idolatry under the auspices of the popes of Rome.’’ Driscol encouraged Catholics who had come to republican America to reject clerical authority (as he himself had done) so as to ‘‘cure our fellow-citizens of this destructive evil.’’ After three months in New York, Driscol and the Temple of Reason removed to Philadelphia. The former priest’s open contempt for his former church, however, illustrated that any developing political bond between Catholics and New York Republicans was susceptible to being undermined by the tensions inherent between them.1 cat holi cs, f eder alis m, an d r ep ubli can fac tion alis m After the success of the united front that Aaron Burr cobbled together for the 1800 elections, Republicans in New York soon fell to division and bickering. The three primary blocs in the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century—those associated with the Clintons, Aaron Burr, and the Livingston family—were, as one historian has put it, ‘‘three factions in search of a following.’’ By 1803, the main division among Republicans was between supporters of the Clinton family and those led by Aaron Burr; the former had allied with the Livingstons in opposition to Burr and his ‘‘little band.’’ Some of the rivalry was about patronage; there was also lingering resentment from the presidential election of 1800, in which Thomas Jefferson had ultimately prevailed over Aaron Burr in the House of Representatives. The Clintonian, or Atlantic Republicans, had favored Thomas Jefferson for the presidency. James Cheetham, a radical exile from Manchester, England, an ally of the Clintons, and editor of the American Citizen, charged that Aaron Burr had been dishonorable in seeking to dislodge Jefferson from the top of the Republican ticket ‘‘In All Countries Such Distinctions Are Odious: In None More So Than This’’ 111 in 1800 after the two had unexpectedly received the same number of votes in the Electoral College. The competitive politics of New York in the early republic, with its intense factionalism among the Republicans , and the sharp rivalry between Republicans and Federalists, created opportunities for outsiders such as Catholics. American politics , at least in New York, had not yet settled into a clearly defined, two-party system; it possessed a flexibility to address the needs of groups on the margins of public life. The fragmentation of the Republicans after 1800 redounded to the benefit of Catholics. The Federalists had pushed immigrants and Catholics away; nationalist Republicans had successfully sought their votes as part of their larger strategy of besting the Federalists in New York City. The latter, however , were not prepared to fight for political equality for Catholics.2 In the context of...