Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-17
ST PATRICK AND WASHINGTON.


 The Father of His Country Numbered | Catholics Among His Best Friends. To Editor of the DEMOCRAT:
 observe with pleasure that the city | officials and others have been invited to l the banquet to be given on St Patrlck's | day in the honor of the saint whose con quest of Ireland was in the name of Christ, won without blood, and without l the making of widows and orphans, and | whose memory will be kept green in gratful christian hearts when the monu- | ments to Alexander the great, Peter the | great. Frederick the great, to Napoleon | and Wellington shall have crumbled into | dust.
 It is not necessary for one to be Catholic to be disposed to assist in honor ing the name of a saint who in so few years wrought so much in a good cause. We ought to be cosmopolitan, rather than provincial, and surely St Patrick deserves to be classed as among the for mer rather than the latter. The world claims him as one of it's most successful heroes, whose after life ard death did not cast a shadow on this great achieve ments.
 But what has Washington to do with St Patrick's day? Much in fact and much by deduction. At the time of the breaking out of the revolution, Catho- lie priest was only permit. ed to reside in four of the colonies, while in none Of them, even in Maryland, could Catho- lie school exist. The first English governor of New York, Dongan, was a Catholic and proclaimed religious liberty, but his successor overruled his action, just as in Maryland, the Protest ants, when they gained the ascendency: : enacted penal laws to take the place of religious equs lity to which it was conse- I Po1ti nd nists. John Carroll, destined for the priesthood, was sent to France to be edu- cated, and returned in time to be of the greatest service to Washington person ally till his death. His cousin, Charles Carroll, was likewise educated abroad and returned to serve the colonies. His signature to the Declaration of Indepen- dence attracts attention because he added .'of Carrollton" that there might
 be no question which Charles Carroll
 was 10 be hung if the colonies failed il, their struggle for Independence. These cousins accompanied Benjamin Frank
 lin to Canada on a mission to secure their cooperation, mission which would have succeeded through the in
 f1uence of the Catholic Carols on the Catholics of Canada, if the latter hao not heard of John Jays declaration. against toleration of them in the colo nies, which Mrs Shepard has sought tt
 
 initiate.
 Notwithstanding all the penal laws against Catholics, and John Jay was but , fair representative of the public senti ment of that day, the Catholic senti ment in the colonies was in their behalf { Washington chose as an aid -de-camp or his personal staff, a merchant of Alex
 andria who was an ardent Catholic. anC they were intimate friends until deatl separated them. Through the influenc.
 of the Carols, educated in Catholi, , France, that country sent its troops anC ships to our relief and without them il
 is a fair question. could the colonies have
 succerded The first mass said in Hart
 ford was by the French chaplain wher f the troops were en route to the bait le ot
 Saratoga where Burgoyne's defeat sen , new hope into the hearts of the despond t ing colonists.
 While there were but few priests ir l the colonies. there were many Catholic l laymen and these were quick to respond
 to the call for troops. They were SC & numerous in the army that in 1776 an( S again in 17SO Washington gave officia
 orders for the observance of St Patrick
 day, and it was observed. From tha 2 |, time penal laws began to disappear lik, , the dew of the morning. and when tho . war was over. Franklin. then minister tt E France, recommended John Carroll tt be made bishop, and to his patriotic :. record as much as to his ability is he in debted for having been chosen the frs Catholic bishop in the United States When Washington was elected president
 Bishop Carroll in behalf of the Catholics
 presented him with an address of con
 graduation, and his response gave prop
 CT credit to the Catholics for their Joy , alty.
 The deduction" from Washington X example, after the lapse of a century, il - that any Protestant with an impartia ' mlnd should rise to his lavel and appre , ciate the loyalty of those who rejoice il a Sheridan whom they followed. with : zeal equal to their devotion to the patron f saint of Ireland, which never deserted 5 the faith he gave them, even whe , through poverty and England's curse : they had to seek shelter on this soi P consecrated to liberty and religion b, p Irish blood.
 . c. COLLARD ADAMS.