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Show KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. . i Chair of American History. (For Intermountain Catholic.) A student in one of our great universities uni-versities insinuates in a college exercise exer-cise that the revolutionary soldiers who offered to desert from the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania line were Irish Catholics. Even in the mind of the author this suspicion has not yet acquired the dignity of an assertion. In time, however, how-ever, it will come to be regarded as a sufficient basis for an unqualified statement. As a reply to this sneaking semblance of an argument it would be w-ell for Catholics of Irish descent to erect some permanent memorial at Savannah or Yorktown to the regiments regi-ments of Dillon and Walsh, whose services were referred to in a previous communication. 4 To write history by labeling heroic deeds as "Catholic" or "Protestant," is very childish, but a work commenced upon this principle should be consistent. consist-ent. The author should employ his unique device throughout. He should state that, except the Zweibrucken, a gallant German regiment, Rocham-beau's Rocham-beau's fine army was almost entirely Catholic. His principles should also compel him to state that the armada which made possible the victory at Yorktown was manned by 19,000 sea-, men, mostly Catholics. 4 It is well known that, regardless of race. Catholics were friendly to America in her gallant struggle for independence. At the Spaniard, now a parish among the nations, every fellow-may fellow-may fling a stone. In the summer of 1770. however, his friendship was not disdained. George Rogers Clarke constantly con-stantly referred to his neighbors across the Mississippi as "our friends the Spanyards." It is true that for her own welfare Spain was not so generous gener-ous as she might have been. She was, however, a useful friend. Before entering en-tering into the war she permitted both men and supplies to pass up the Mississippi, Mis-sissippi, and when she actually engaged in the contest she gave employment in the Mexican gulf to the armies and fleets of England. The timely loan from Havana was not unappreciated by Washington and Rochambeau, and was not unconnected with the march to Yorktown. When the commissioners met in Paris to arrange the terms of peace, there were discrepant views as to the division of territory. America, however, how-ever, occupied the splendid domain northwest of the Ohio. The share of Catholics in winning the northwest has never been told. Nevertheless, it would make an interesting chapter. The services of Father Gibault and Francis Vigo, indeed, have been frequent- commended, but one seldom finds even so much as a small paragraph para-graph concerning the services of the two Catholic companies in Clarke's small army of five. The men who followed fol-lowed Captain Charleville and Captain Cap-tain McCarthy from Kasaskia and Gahckia endured with Clarke's heroic Virginians the terrible exposure in the march to Vincennes. 4 The part taken by Catholic individuals indi-viduals and Catholic nations in the American Revolution, however, is but a single phase of a subject of considerable con-siderable importance and extent. That is, the relation of the Catholic citizen to the federal state. The Knights of Columbus by establishing in the Catholic university a department of American history have enabled a number num-ber of students to begin their researches re-searches in this ample field. Several pens are already engaged uoon this subject, and from time to time monographs mono-graphs will appear. CHARLES H. M 'CART II Y. |