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 | | From: | stephen voss | | Subject: | Re: Is the United States a nation? | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 01:40:12 -0500 |
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>>communicate with anyone outside their _specific_ immigrant group, and
>>thus they for the most part _do_ learn English). We were _never_ a
>>nation in the "religious" sense: by the American Revolution we
>
> already
>
>>contained Catholic and dissident Protestant minorities.
>
>
> Considering that the good burghers of Boston rioted because the Quebec
> Act of 1774 gave substantial political and civil rights to the
> Catholics of Québec, I think that you overestimate late-18th century
> American tolerance.
Actually the reason for the rioting regarding the quebec act had little
to do with rights for catholics as much as it had to do with land
disputes between the american colonists and indians in quebec whom were
granted land in the act that the american colonists believed belonged
to them.
>
>>[deletia]
>>
>>Being white, or of English descent, or of Protestant religious faith,
>>has nothing to do with being American, and has had nothing to do with
>>being American since the founding. In 1787 there were already large
>>black, German, and Catholic minorities in the United States of
>
> America.
>
> Germans might have been considered Americans, perhaps, although
> Franklin was rather concerned. The evidence that Catholics and
> especially blacks were considered Americans--as citizens, at least, not
> subjects--is rather thin.
Charles Carroll a catholic from Maryland was one of the signers of the
declaration of independence. There was discriminaton against catholics
(immigrant catholics in particular) well into the 20th century but there
is not much evidence that they were denied the vote in any systematic
manner.
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