And even in these United States, let people say what they please, has not the Irish race held the first place in planting the cross throughout the length and breadth of the land?
In this, and wherever else I speak of the Irish race, I do not, of course, confine myself to those born in Ireland. The work which a race is called to do is to be done by those who now live, and by their children and their children's children, wherever they happen to be born. Indeed, it would be a contradiction in terms to consider the father and son, wherever born, as belonging to different races. Be it for weal or for woe, be it unto honour or unto shame, the fathers cannot disown the children nor the children the fathers. If it depended on feeling or wishes, I, for one, would be very glad to dissolve connection with any one who insists that he owes nothing to the race that gave him a father or a mother. I would readily leave such a one to his proud claim of owning no paternity but the land on which he vegetates, and I only regret that he will scarcely bring to it much credit or advantage. He who is unwilling to acknowledge the father that begot him, or the mother that gave him suck, is not a prize worth contending for. But whatever we or he may wish, whatever be the results to us or to him, he is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. What God has united, neither he nor we can put asunder.
It is not that we should form separate classes or castes, or that we claim other rights or privileges, or have other duties than those of other races; but the one to which each man belongs has been fixed by the Almighty Provider in the very act of giving him being, and he who would fain conceal, or disown, or be ashamed of his race—that is, of the order of Providence to which he owes his existence—could succeed in nothing else but in proving himself unworthy the esteem of men of any race.
I know and gratefully acknowledge the important services rendered to Catholicity in the United States by persons of other races. There was, first of all, the Maryland colony, with whose noble history that of few, if any, of the other colonies can compare. By their justice and humanity in treating with the native tribes, by similar justice and fair dealing with other colonists, of every religion and every race, by their domestic virtues and patriotic course, the men of that colony deserved and received a high place in the esteem of their countrymen and of the world.
But their number is small, too small—indeed. Would that they were more. Were they all put together they would not form one average diocese of the forty-six now existing in this country.
God has sent us many illustrious men from France, and Belgium, and Italy, who have occupied the foremost ranks in the ministry, whose heroic virtues and zealous works are even now as beacon lights to all who labour for God's glory. But as to the people from these countries, they are not many more than those from the Maryland stock. Germany has sent many of her hardy sons to labour with the steadfastness of their countrymen in building up the walls of the sanctuary. These are, indeed, a most important element, and are destined to become more and more important every day. They may yet exercise a greater influence on the destiny of the Church in this country than the Irish race. But so far, I think, no one will claim that they can be compared with it in numbers, or as to the results hitherto obtained. Of the converts in this country we may say the same thing as of those in England.
Giving all, therefore, what belongs to them—for there is not, nor should there be here, any room for jealousy—I think it will be admitted that it is above all others to the sons of Ireland and to their children that the spread of Catholicity is due in this land. No matter who ministered at the altar (though there, too, the sons of Ireland have had their share), in the body of the church you will find that, in the majority of places, they constitute the bulk, and in many the whole of the congregation. Their hard earned dollars were foremost in supplying means to buy the lot and raise the building from which the Catholic faith [pg 077] is announced. The priest, no matter what his own nationality, was nowhere more confident of finding help and support than among the Irish emigrants or their children. Wherever a railway, or a canal, or a hive of industry invited their sturdy labour, the cross soon sprang up to bear witness to their generosity and their faith.
Even the old Maryland colony, though consisting chiefly of English Catholics, seeking here a freedom of conscience denied them at home, had its Irish element, and that not the least noble in deeds nor the least conspicuous in virtue.
When at the period of the Revolution the noblest men of this land stood together, shoulder to shoulder, and issued that Declaration of Independence to which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honours, it was a Catholic of the Irish race who affixed his signature for Maryland. In doing this he pledged an honour as pure, and a life as precious as any of the rest, but he staked a fortune equal to, if not greater than, that of all the others put together. When he signed his name, one standing by said, “There go some millions”. Another remarked, “There are many Carrolls; he will not be known”. He overheard the remark, and to avoid all misconception, wrote down in full, “Charles Carroll, of Carrollton”.
Yet this noble scion of the Irish race, for so many years the pride and the ornament of his native state, while fulfilling all the duties of an illustrious citizen, was not ashamed of the race from which he sprang. Instead of selecting amongst French villes or English parks or towns a name for his princely estate, he stamped on it a title with the good old Celtic ring. He called it after a property of one of his Irish ancestors, Doughoregan Manor, thereby telling his posterity and his countrymen that if they feel any pride in his name, they must associate him with a race which so many affect to despise.