article throw some light on the services of the illustrious clergyman to
the American cause and also show why he was elevated to the primacy of
the Catholic Church in America. Subsequent to the Revolution, when full
freedom dawned on the former Colonies, the Catholics in the several
states, and they were most numerous in Maryland, desired no connection
with England, religiously, because English Catholics were at that time
proscribed persons and without political rights or standing before the
law, although it is true that active persecution had ceased. Yet still
although freemen the American Catholics were under the jurisdiction of
the English Bishops, or Vicars Apostolic, and it was this connection
that it was desired to sever, so that the Americans could have absolute
independence religious as well as political. Father Carroll was one of
the six priests who met on June 27, 1783, in Baltimore and held a
conference at which the necessity of being independent of England was
considered. At this conference were present Father John Ashton, the
ex-Jesuit priest, who may be fitly styled the Nestor of the Catholic
priesthood of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Rev. Leonard Neale,
afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore. On October 11, 1784, Father Carroll
took part in a second conference, at which a plan of Government for the
Catholic Church in the United States was drawn up, which included
nineteen rules for the Government of the Clergy, was also adopted and a
chapter of body corporate was formed, of which Father Ashton was chosen
procurator general and he was given charge of all the church property in
the Union. The chapter at a subsequent meeting at Whitemarsh, Prince
Georges County, resolved to found Georgetown College, Father Ashton
being named as one of the first board of directors. Father Carroll was
made vicar general in 1786; in 1788 in company with Father Ashton and
Rev. Robert Molyneux, afterwards vicar general, drew up a petition
asking that the American Catholic Church be given greater liberty by
being put under the charge of a bishop directly responsible to the
Congregation of the Propaganda, which at that time was understood to be
dominated by French influence. This petition was successful, and Father
Carroll was unanimously nominated for the proposed prelacy.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, at that time residing at Passy near Paris, as the
American Ambassador to the Court of France, who was aware of Father
Carroll’s charming manner, learning and ability, was able to use his
personal friendship to assist in having the distinguished divine
elevated to the episcopacy. But at first Father Carroll had no idea of
aspiring to be bishop, and in fact the petition which was sent to a
friend of his in Rome to be brought before the Pope asked that the Rev.
John Lewis be appointed for the United States, with power to confer
confirmation and to do temporarily other duties pertaining to the office
of bishop. But, it is said that through the French minister to the
United States a plan had been started to place a French bishop over the
church in this country and Dr. Benjamin Franklin, ignorant of the
position of the Catholics of the United States and of their wishes, was
induced at first to lend his aid to the plan; but Father Carroll’s name
was mentioned and he immediately recommended him to the Authorities at
Rome. The Vatican was impressed with the recommendations of Dr.
Franklin, whose fame was then as universal as that of Washington and who
was the idol of the Courts of the Continent; thus a Protestant Quaker
became a potent power in naming the first Primate of the Catholic Church
in the United States. On June 7, 1784, Pope Pius VII., ratified the
appointment of Father Carroll as prefect apostolic and the nuncio at
Paris calling on Dr. Franklin to acquaint him with the appointment
notified him that Father Carroll would be probably made a bishop.
Accepting the office in 1785, Father Carroll began his visitation and
made a call for more priests. At this time his salary, 210 pounds
sterling, was paid by the Chapter, the organization formed in 1784,
which was composed solely of ex-Jesuit Fathers. A few years only were
necessary to show the propaganda as well as all others interested in the
growth of the Catholic church in America, the necessity for the
appointment of a bishop for the new country, one who would be endowed
with full powers of consecration and authority. So a petition to that
effect was again forwarded to Rome signed by Father Carroll and the
Reverends Robert Molyneux and John Ashton. This petition was sent
through the Spanish minister, with whom Father Carroll had talked in
reference to the subject, during a visitation to New York. Through his
energetic course and his knowledge of the needs and hardships of the
American mission as shown in his “Address to the Roman Catholics of the
United States,” published in 1784, in reply to a paper of the Rev.
Charles H. Wharton and in his report to Cardinal Antonelli, prefect of
the Propaganda, in 1785, Father Carroll had demonstrated the wisdom of
his having been chosen prefect apostolic. Cardinal Antonelli replied to
the petition on July 12, 1788, and communicated to the signers authority
from the Pope to call a meeting of the American Clergy and nominate a
candidate for bishop and select a See. Accordingly they called a synod
or conference at Whitemarsh, Md., and by a vote of 24 to 2 selected
Father Carroll as the candidate for bishop and Baltimore was unanimously
selected as the place of the See. Father Carroll wrote in reply to a
communication from his fellow clergymen, notifying him of what they had
done, that “he was by that event deprived of all expectation of rest and
pleasure henceforward” and filled “with terror with respect to
eternity.” The nomination was approved on September 14, 1780, by the
Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation and Pius VI. issued on November 6th
following the bill erecting the See of Baltimore and appointing Rev.
John Carroll bishop. Father Carroll accepted the appointment and sailed
at once for England to be consecrated.
Father Carroll was the recipient of numerous courtesies while in
England, but soon hurried back to organize and develop his See. He
returned to America early in October, landing at Baltimore on December
7th. He was received at Light Street dock by the Catholic laity and
escorted to a palace which had been provided for him at the corner of
Charles and Saratoga Streets. On the following Sunday old “St. Peter’s
church,” which was selected as a pro-Cathedral, was crowded with
citizens of all denominations, to hear the new bishop speak. He made an
impressive address, in which he said: “In this, my new station, if my
life be not one continued instrument of instruction and example of
virtue to the people committed to my charge, it will become in the sight
of God a life not only useless but even pernicious.” Shortly after his
accession, Bishop Carroll received the Rev. Charles Nagot and several
other Sulpitian Fathers, who had been sent to Baltimore by the Superior
General of the Order at Paris, Father Emery, at the request of Father
Carroll, to establish a seminary for the education of young men for the
priesthood.
Father Emery had laid before Bishop Carroll in England shortly after his
consecration a plan for the establishment of a seminary in Baltimore. To
this plan Father Carroll had given his approval. Five seminarians
accompanied the Sulpitians to this Country. It is told that on the same
ship there was a young Frenchman who was then misled by Voltaire’s
infidel teachings, but who later became converted to the doctrines of
Christianity and consecrated his brilliant imagination and fascinating
style to the service of religion and became the author of “The Genius of
Christianity.” He was the illustrious Count de Chateaubriand. Acting
under Bishop Carroll’s advice, Father Nagot and his companions rented a
house in West Baltimore located on the present Paca Street, near
Franklin, known as “The One Mile Tavern,” and there they opened on
October 3, 1791, the now famous institution, St. Mary’s Seminary. This
institution may be indeed styled the mother of the American Catholic
priesthood. Probably more Irish-American young men have been educated
within its walls than of any other nationality.
A letter to General Washington congratulating him on his open advocacy
of religion and morals and upon the many notable honors that had been
paid him, was presented to the great tribune by Bishop Carroll, Thomas
Fitzsimmons and Thomas Lynch in 1792, on behalf of the Catholic clergy
and laity of Baltimore. This letter contained many lofty sentiments,
among them the following: “You encourage respect for religion. There is
prospect of a nationality peculiarly Democratic, because while our
country preserves independent politics and policies we shall have a
well-founded title to claim from her justice, equal rights of
citizenship, as well as the price of our blood spilt under your eyes, as
of our warm exertions for her defence under your auspicious
conduct—rights indeed the more dear by the remembrance of former
hardships. While we pray for the preservation of these rights we expect
the full justice of them, from the justice of those states which still
restrict them.” It will be observed that the gentlemen who signed this
letter were all of Irish connection, judging from their names, which are
distinctively Gaelic. At this time the Federal Constitution was being
discussed and the American Catholics had good reason to fear that the
persecution and intolerance as well as the deprivation of political
rights which had prevailed in regard to them in Colonial days, might be
favored and legally declared in the provisions of that instrument. For
there were those in and out of the State of Maryland who despite what
Catholics and Dissenters had done in the battlefield for the achievement
of American liberty and despite the aid of Catholic France which made
the securement of that liberty possible were disposed to establish a
State religion and to deny religious liberty at least to their
fellowmen, excluding Catholics from all political rights, although there
had been many Catholics in the Continental armies battling for the
political rights of New Jersey and kindred “blue law” states. But these
patriotic Catholics did not throw down their arms because of these
abominable enactments, for their patriotism was too intense to be
weakened by impulses of resentment. Therefore the American Catholic was
none too sure of his status in this Country and it is even a fact that
efforts were made before the Maryland Legislature to have an established
church; in other words, a state religion in Maryland, and that the
Anglican or Episcopalian church should retain the same relation to the
State of Maryland as it had to the colony of Maryland. But a vigorous
agitation led by Bishop Carroll on behalf of the Catholics and Rev. Dr.
Allison for the Presbyterians effectually prevented such a proposition
from being made a law. On February 22, 1800, Dr. Carroll delivered a
memorable sermon in his Cathedral on the life and character of the
illustrious Washington, who had died on the December 14 preceding.
CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON.
As an Irish-American, Charles Carroll of Carrollton easily stands first
among all of his race in the history of the past of this Republic, at
least so far as the State of Maryland is concerned, in character, in
patriotism, in self-sacrifice and in services, if not in abilities. He
was born at Annapolis on September 30, 1737, and was the son of Charles
and Elizabeth Brooke Carroll and grandson of Charles Carroll of Kings
County, Ireland. At eight years of age he was sent by his parents to
France, where he received his education, remaining six years at the
Jesuit College at St. Omers, six years at the Jesuit College, Rheims,
two years at the College of St. Louis le Grand, Paris, and one year at
Bruges, Belgium, to study civil law; returning again to college at
Paris. Mr. Carroll went to London, in 1757, and commenced to study law
in the Middle Temple, where he took his degree in 1764, and returned to
Maryland, equipped with all of the attributes and capacities of a
trained scholar and lawyer. Yet with it all as a Catholic, he had no
political rights in the Colony, where he was born and where by right of
inheritance he was the wealthiest man in the realm.
Mr. Carroll, however, had no need to earn his living in the Courts and
first rose to fame through his memorable controversy with Daniel Dulany,
in which he took the popular side, although politically without personal
status, and posed as the foremost champion of freedom. In this contest
Mr. Carroll proved an able controversialist and it was generally
conceded the victor. His superb education had equipped him with every
advantage; he was the inferior of no man in the Colony. The effect of
his bold assertions and declarations against the Proprietary Governor
was electric on the people and made them the more apt for revolution.
Mr. Carroll wrote under the nom de plume of “First Citizen” and it was
not until the controversy was at an end that his identity became known.
His popularity became intense throughout the Province. It was but
natural that when the clamors of revolution became potent among the
people that he should become a candidate for public favor and honors. In
December, 1774, he was selected as one of the Commissioners of
Observation for Anne Arundel County and also on the Committee of Safety
of the Province. He was elected to represent Anne Arundel County in
Maryland Convention on December 7, 1775, and in February, 1776, was
appointed by the Continental Congress a commissioner with Benjamin
Franklin, Samuel Chase and Rev. John Carroll to visit Canada and
endeavor to kindle the fires of revolt in that Country. Congress then
took up the discussion of a Declaration of Independence from England,
and on June 28, 1776, the Maryland Convention in session at Annapolis
resolved that the Congressional Deputies from the State be empowered and
authorized to concur with the United Colonies or a majority thereof in
declaring all of the Colonies “Free and Independent.” On July 4, 1776,
Messrs. Charles Carroll, Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, William Paca,
Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone and William Alexander were elected delegates
to Congress then in session at Philadelphia. Mr. Carroll took his seat
on July 18th, having just returned from Canada. It is related that on
August 2 an engrossed copy of the famous Declaration of Independence was
placed on the desk of the Secretary of Congress for the signature of the
members. Mr. John Hancock, the President of the body, in a conversation
with Mr. Carroll, asked him if he would sign the document. “Most
willingly,” said Mr. Carroll, who then took up a pen and signed his
name—“Charles Carroll of Carrollton.” He affixed the name of his manor
of Carrollton in order to be distinguished from his eminent relative,
Charles Carroll, Barrister, and not, as is generally supposed, to show
his defiance of England and of the consequence which might accrue in
case the Revolution would be crushed by Great Britain, which would be,
at least, the confiscation of his estates and his own reduction to
poverty, if not execution as a traitor. His act is generally interpreted
to have been caused by such an impulse alone, but chivalry as well as
the fine sense of honor, which then governed men and women, was
evidently his motive in doing so. He was then the richest man in the
Colonies and his action simply meant also that if Great Britain won, he
was prepared to sacrifice more than any man in the Colonies at the time.
His cousin, Charles Carroll, Barrister, was almost as rich as he was,
however, and either would have been a rich prize to the British if the
Revolution had failed. “There goes a few millions,” said one of the
delegates who stood around and who had seen Mr. Carroll sign the
Declaration, thus showing that all agreed at the time that Carroll’s
action was regarded as extraordinary. It was a truth that no single
signer of the greatest Charter of Human Rights ever written risked as
much intrinsically as Mr. Carroll. He was a member of the Board of War,
and served in Congress until November 10, 1776, with marked ability;
being succeeded by his namesake, Barrister Carroll. In December, 1776,
he was a member of the first Maryland Senate and in 1777 he was returned
to Congress and in 1781 was re-elected to the Maryland Senate. In 1788
he was elected one of the first United States Senators from Maryland,
and in 1789 and 1806 was elected and reëlected to the Senate of
Maryland. He was also appointed in 1797 one of the Commissioners from
Maryland to settle the boundary line dispute between Maryland and
Virginia. Mr. Carroll continued a member of the Maryland Senate until
1824, when he retired from public life. In April, 1827, he was elected a
director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and on July 4, 1828,
he laid the corner stone of the railroad at Mount Clare, Baltimore.
While in Baltimore he resided at the mansion located at the corner of
Lombard and Front Streets, which was also the home of his son-in-law,
Richard Caton, and his famous granddaughters, the beautiful Misses
Caton, called “The Three Graces.” On November 30, 1832, Mr. Carroll died
in Baltimore, full of years and of honors, having been for many years
the last of the signers of the famous Declaration. Physically he was of
slight build and below the middle size, his face being strongly
featured, his eyes quick, inquisitive, piercing and therefore thoroughly
Gaelic; his countenance was noble, and while in action and general
bearing replete with energy. His manners were graceful and easy, as
became a man of gentle breeding and education, and his expressions
elegant, refined and usually considerate, even in conversation with his
servants.
In June, 1768, he married Miss Mary Darnell, daughter of Henry Darnell,
Jr., and had three children by the union, Charles Carroll, who married
in 1799, Harriett Chew, daughter of the Hon. Benjamin Chew of
Pennsylvania and sister of the famous “Peggy” Chew of “Mischeanza” fame
and wife of Gen. John Eager Howard; Elizabeth Carroll, who married
Richard Caton, and Catherine Carroll, who married Robert Goodloe Harper.
Charles Carroll, eldest son of Charles and Harriett Chew Carroll,
married Mary Higgs Lee and was the father of Hon. John Lee Carroll, late
Governor of Maryland. Mr. Carroll, in his declining years, particularly,
was one of the best known and beloved of Baltimoreans. He attended high
mass at the Cathedral regularly every Sunday and dined frequently with
the Archbishops of Baltimore, particularly with Dr. Whitefield, with
whom he was intimate. The Archepiscopal residence was then located on
North Charles Street, on a portion of the site of the former Young Men’s
Christian Association Building, at Charles and Saratoga Streets. On one
occasion, it is related that Mr. Carroll was introduced to a number of
the altar boys, on whose heads he placed his hands as they passed by
where he stood and exclaimed: “God bless you, my boys. Love God and obey
your superiors. Honor and defend your Country’s flag, venerate your
parents and obey the authorities of the civil Government.”
[Illustration:
DR. BRYAN DEFORREST SHEEDY,
Of New York City.
A Member of the Society.
]
Mr. Carroll at the time of his death was 95 years of age, his frame
being bent, although his voice was strong, his walk firm and quick and
his eyes and face benevolent in expression. He dressed after the fashion
of his day, his apparel including a dark waistcoat and knee breeches,
black silk hose, low cut shoes and silver buckles. He attended many
functions, even just before his death, and was particularly in request
at patriotic gatherings. One of the last public events in which he took
part was that of a great dinner given to him by the great Irish merchant
William Patterson, at the latter’s country residence, “Cold Stream,”
near the City. The dinner was held July 4, 1831, the 54th anniversary of
the adoption of the Declaration to bring together the remnant of the
Revolutionary heroes, then living in Baltimore. The occasion was made
notable in every possible way, numerous invitations having been sent out
by the hospitable host, who was himself a hero of the great struggle for
human freedom. Everything set before the guests except the wines and
brandies was produced on Mr. Patterson’s estate and the dinner was, as
tradition states, a feast worthy of the distinguished company which
attended it. The reception to Mr. Carroll was a most cordial one. He
drove out to Cold Stream, as was the fashion of the time, in his own
carriage, with his own colored coachman on the box, and was escorted to
the shady grove, wherein the dinner was spread by Mr. Patterson and
several crippled veterans of the Revolution. There he was greeted by the
assembly with uncovered heads and was given a rousing chorus of cheers.
Patriotic speeches and songs were given during the dinner, which lasted
far into the evening and was enjoyed thoroughly by Mr. Carroll.
The great tribune was eminently social in his nature and many stories
are existent which illustrate this trait. One of these relates to the
famous collation given by Lloyd Dulany at his private residence at
Annapolis, now part of the City Hotel, a few days after the burning of
the Peggy Stewart, at which function Mr. Carroll was one of the guests.
At this collation there was used a punch bowl which had been brought
over from England in the Peggy Stewart, and Mr. Dulany explained how he
had come into the possession of the article, which had been sent to him
as a present. The Captain, he stated, said to him that the bowl was not
a part of the cargo of the Peggy Stewart, as it was not on the manifest.
The Captain had placed the bowl in his cabin with his private property
and had delivered it in person to him. To this observation Mr. Carroll
is said to have smilingly observed: “We accept your explanation,
provided the bowl is always used to draw the same kind of tea.” As is
well known, the Peggy Stewart was destroyed because she had a cargo
aboard of the obnoxious stamp burdened tea, but the bowl was full no
doubt of that superior kind of punch which the Marylanders of that day
so well knew how to brew. This bowl stood for years on the counter of
the City Hotel at Annapolis, and thousands of Marylanders have drank the
same kind of “tea” out of it since the time when Mr. Carroll made his
famous expression. This function, it may be well observed, was held in
the abode of an Irish American Lloyd Dulany, who was a connection of the
celebrated Daniel Dulany. Mr. Carroll was also connected in a way with
the famous episode of the burning of the Peggy Stewart at Annapolis and
the destruction of her cargo of tea by men disguised as Indians. It was
he who interceded with the mob at Annapolis in behalf of the owner of
the Peggy, Mr. Anthony Stewart, and he harangued the crowd from the
steps of Mr. Stewart’s residence and thus prevailed on them not to do
violence to the merchant, whose pro-English proclivities were well
known. He was the one to suggest that Mr. Stewart himself would destroy
the vessel, and its offensive cargo of “tea,” a suggestion which the mob
accepted with delight, and which no doubt saved Stewart’s residence from
destruction. Mr. Carroll accompanied the frightened and shaking
merchant, as a protector, on that eventful day, when he went down to
Windmill Point, where the Peggy lay, and himself applied the torch to
the brig and her cargo.
Mr. Carroll in those days lived in Annapolis and maintained the life of
a wealthy Maryland gentleman. He dwelt in a spacious mansion on what was
known as the “Spa,” in the ancient City, a quarter which was then the
fashionable one at the State Capitol, and had been the same during the
Colonial Government and was known far and wide throughout the Colonies,
as the most elegant locality in Annapolis, then termed “The Athens of
America.” His terraced garden sloped down to the brink of the lovely
“Spa” and was held in by a pavilion with sandstone walls and ornamented
by a pavilion where the owner and his guests could sit on a warm
afternoon and enjoy the cool breezes from the water. It was here that he
wrote his famous “First Citizen” letters attacking the proclamation of
Governor Eden (Colonial), imposing an extra tax on the people by
increasing official fees and by raising the special assessments on the
clergy from 30 to 40 pounds of tobacco per annum. Mr. Carroll, as has
been stated, took up the popular side and defended the people, being
antagonized by Mr. Daniel Dulany, whose nom de plume was “Antillon.” In
a reply as to whom the “First Citizen” was, Mr. Carroll wrote: “Who is
the citizen? A man, in the prosperity of his country, a friend to
liberty, a settled enemy to lawless prerogatives.” It was in this
controversy that Mr. Dulany threw the taunt to Mr. Carroll that he was a
disfranchised English citizen and could not vote. All of which was true,
for, while he could not vote, he was at that time the richest man in the
Colonies and worth at least two million pounds.
CHARLES CARROLL, BARRISTER.