Washington speaks up for Catholics [View all]

Saturday
Posted Mar 11, 2017 at 3:00 PM
By Patrick T. Conley

Rhode Islanders are, or should be, familiar with George Washington's famed letter of August 21, 1790 to the Friends of Touro Synagogue in Newport and that public missive's ringing declaration "to bigotry no sanction to persecution no assistance."

It is lesser known that Washington was repeating and reaffirming a phrase formulated by Moses Seixas in an earlier letter of Aug. 17, given to the new chief executive by the Jewish congregation in Newport during Washington's triumphal visit after Rhode Island belatedly joined the Union.

Lesser known still (in predominantly Catholic Rhode Island) is Washington's letter of hope to America's tiny Catholic minority, written 227 years ago Sunday, on March 12, 1790, five months prior to the new president's delayed visit to recalcitrant Rhode Island.

In the aftermath of Washington's unanimous selection by the Electoral College, America's first Roman Catholic bishop, John Carroll of Baltimore, joined with his brother Daniel, a constitutional convention delegate and Maryland's first congressman; his cousin Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence; Thomas Fitzsimmons of Philadelphia, another signer; and Galway-born Dominick Lynch, a prominent merchant-philanthropist and the founder of Rome, N.Y., to send a letter of congratulation to America's new chief executive.

http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/20170311/patrick-t-conley-washington-speaks-up-for-catholics