POLITICS AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS IN ARCHBISHOP JOHN PURCELL‘S OHIO JAMES A. GUTOWSKI Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy Borromeo College of Ohio May, 1980 Master of Arts in Theology Washington Theological Union May, 1987 Master of Arts in History American University May, 1992 submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN URBAN EDUCATION at the CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY May, 2009 This dissertation has been approved for The Office of Doctoral Studies, College of Education and the College of Graduate Studies by ______________________________________________________________________ James C. Carl, Chairperson 04/06/2009 Curriculum & Foundations ______________________________________________________________________ David Adams, Methodologist 04/06/2009 Curriculum & Foundations ______________________________________________________________________ Carl F. Rak, Member 04/06/2009 Counseling, Administration, Supervision, and Adult Learning ______________________________________________________________________ Robert S. Shelton, Member 04/06/2009 History ______________________________________________________________________ Mark Tebeau, Member 04/06/2009 History ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work contained herein is not mine alone. It is comprised of all those things that have carried me to this point: the love and encouragement of my family, the guidance of my teachers and mentors, and the support of those professionals who maintain our treasuries of knowledge. I would especially like to thank: my mother, Josephine, who gave me life and nurtured my love for history from an early age. my wife, Candy, who makes my life complete and who kept me working on the dissertation when I would have preferred to do almost anything else. my sister, Judy, whose love and support have sustained me through five decades. Stephanie and Nick, whose generous hearts have made us a family. Dr. Jim Carl, my dissertation director, whose guidance and friendship have been indispensable throughout the writing process. the members of my dissertation committee. Dr. David Adams, Dr. Carl Rak, Dr. Robert Shelton and Dr. Mark Tebeau, for their advice and support. Christine Krosel, Director of Archival Research for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, for her steady help and hospitality during my many visits for research. Lynn Hammond, Library Manager at Gilmour Academy, for her remarkable ability in accessing resources that I had thought were beyond my reach. Nan Card, Curator of Manuscripts at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, for her help in collecting primary sources about the 1875 Ohio gubernatorial campaign. All of you have played a crucial role in making this life-long dream of mine a reality and for that I will be eternally grateful. POLITICS AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS IN ARCHBISHOP JOHN PURCELL‘S OHIO JAMES A. GUTOWSKI ABSTRACT This study chronicles the contentious relationship between advocates of public schools and those promoting Catholic education in Ohio during the career of Archbishop John Purcell of Cincinnati. Using information culled from qualitative research into primary resources such as personal correspondence, published proceedings and newspaper articles of the time, this monograph reconstructs a history of philosophical and political conflict accompanying the parallel development of two burgeoning school systems. The years from 1833 to 1883 saw the development of an equilibrium between the two systems that helped to define Thomas Jefferson‘s concept of the ―wall of separation‖ between church and state. Public schools did not have to share tax-generated funding with parochial schools which, in turn, were irrefutably protected from taxation themselves. Furthermore, the history of competing school systems exhibits the paradox of religious liberty in America and uncovers an evolution in the nature of opposition to Catholicism in the United States. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………. v LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………. vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………. 1 II. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE CATHOLIC/COMMON SCHOOL CONTROVERSIES IN 19TH CENTURY UNITED STATES…… 5 III. CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE: EDUCATION, NATIVISM AND CATHOLIC MILITANCY IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA………………. 34 IV. EDUCATION, JOHN PURCELL AND OHIO BEFORE THE WAR…… 64 V. THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF OHIO IN 1870……………………….. 98 VI. BIBLES, BALLOTS AND BILLS: A TRYPTYCH OF CONTROVERSY…134 VII. CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………. 184 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………….. 194 APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………… 204 A. U.S. Census: Ohio in 1870………………………………………………… 205 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. The American River Ganges…………………………………………………………..… 119 2. Better Try an Anti-Catholic Worm……………………………………………………… 122 3. Tilden’s Wolf at the Door……………………………………………………………….. 124 4. Harpers’ portrayal of the Catholic-Democratic Alliance……………………………… 162 5. Thomas Nast‘s portrayal of ―The (foreign) Governor of Ohio‖……………………... 163 6. Thomas Nast celebrates the Democratic defeat in Ohio……………………………. 168 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In a small way the task of any historian is essentially to play God - to make order from chaos or, more accurately, to find order in where none is immediately apparent. The history of education in the United States, with its intimate connection to the development of American culture, offers a worthy (if daunting) stage for anyone who wishes to play God in this way. Any study of history necessarily requires lenses which serve both to focus and to limit the scope of that study to some size that is manageable for both writer and reader. This dissertation will use four such lenses, all of which appear in the title: politics, parochial schools, John Purcell, and Ohio. Ohio in the 19th century provides an excellent framework within which to study the parallel development of public and parochial school education. Its heritage as the Western Reserve of Connecticut made the state a natural gateway to the Midwest for the innovations of Horace Mann et al. that were developing in New England. The Buckeye State also became the destination for many of the immigrants who expanded the ranks of the Catholic Church in the United States and became a source of grave concern for many native-born citizens. Finally, as evidenced by the election of a string of native sons to the White House, 1 Ohio became an important proving ground after the Civil War for issues of national importance. Archbishop John Purcell led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cincinnati for almost fifty years. In the span of those decades he witnessed the transformation of a frontier outpost into a major American city. The length of his tenure allowed Purcell to participate directly in two fairly distinct epochs of American history which are separated by the War Between the States. He inherited a diocese of sixteen parishes and four schools and supervised its growth into three separates dioceses with 462 parishes and 244 schools at the time of his death. Throughout his career he was an active and persistent advocate of education as a means of passing on the Catholic faith and inculcating healthy American values. In some ways, John Purcell represented the best hope for a spirit of cooperation to develop between Catholic authorities and advocates of free public education in the United States. Unfortunately, those hopes died quickly, to be replaced by the fortress mentality that typified most of the bishops of his generation. The development of parochial schools in Ohio is fairly paradigmatic of the evolution of Catholic schools across the United States. Though the machinations of Archbishop John Hughes in New York and the school-related violence in Charlestown and Philadelphia tend to garner more attention from historians, the Ohio story is actually more typical of the rest of the nation. From their meager beginnings on the American frontier, parochial schools in the Buckeye State multiplied as the Catholic population grew. Under the leadership of Archbishop Purcell (and later Bishop Richard Gilmour of Cleveland), Catholic pastors in the state were assiduous in establishing parochial schools wherever possible. Both prelates actively directed Catholic parents to enroll their children in parochial schools wherever possible. Also, during the 19th century, the parochial schools of Ohio reflected the ethnic 2 diversity of Catholicism itself in the state though they also served as a means for students to assimilate themselves into American culture. Politics is part of education because people are so much a part of education. Within the context of this dissertation the term ―politics‖ is used to refer to the normal process of human interaction that leads to the development of policy as well as to the more formal process that affects actual legislation. Both types play an active and important role in shaping the parallel development of public and parochial education in the State of Ohio. This dissertation consists of six chapters which, it is hoped, will provide an orderly and logical explanation of the historical significance to be found in the evolution of parochial schools during the career of Archbishop John Purcell. The first chapter sets the stage for a more specific discussion by laying out the larger historic issues that provided the subtext for the various discussions and controversies that eventually played out in 19th century Ohio. The second chapter fulfills a similar purpose but in a more specific vein. It details the more spectacular examples of parochial