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The Catholic Democracy of America, 55
cessions, the united empire royalists taunted the Puritans
that, just as Popery was recognized in Canada, it was now as
much established in their States as any other religion. On
the other hand, the British government hoped to draw some of
the Catholics in the revolted colonies into the military service
of the king. It was accordingly proposed to raise a regiment of
Roman Catholic volunteers. The attempt was not very successful,
and the " Black-lists " of Tory loyalists in Maryland
and Pennsylvania are said to contain remarkably few Catholic
names. The clergy showed unswerving fidelity to the revolution,
the German priests, as well as those who were born
in America, and even the small number of British birth who
might easily have left the country by entering the English
lines, clung to the cause of the colonists. Indeed, the United
States owed the possession of the Far West in great measure
to the good offices of a Catholic priest. The vast territory
north-west of the Ohio, which was known as the Illinois
country, was by the Quebec Act part of Canada. England
had never recognized, nor did the Continental Congress
recognize, the claims of any of the States to it, and it was
reduced to the authority of the republic chiefly by the influence
of Father Gibault, who had worked among the Indians for
a dozen years, and who, strange to say, was a French Canadian
by birth.
By this time the first official recognition of the Catholic
Church had been made by the American government. In
July 1779 the French envoy, M. Gerard, issued an invitation
to the president and members of the Continental Congress
sitting at Philadelphia, as follows : " Monsieur, vous êtes prié
de la part du ministre plénipotentiaire de France, d'assister
au Te Deum qu'il fera chanter dimanche 4 de ce mois à midi
dans la chapelle catholique neuve pour célébrer l'anniversaire
de l'Indépendance des Etats-Unis de l'Amérique." Two
years later the same minister invited Congress, the Supreme
Executive Council, and the Assembly of Pennsylvania to