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The Philadelphia Nativist Riots

The Philadelphia nativist riots (also known as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots, the Bible Riots and the Native American Riots) are a series of riots that take place on May 6—8 and July 6—7, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the adjacent districts of Kensington and Southwark. The riots are a result of rising anti-Catholic sentiment at the growing population of Irish Catholic immigrants.

On July 3, Father John Patrick Dunn of the Church of St. Philip Neri in the Southwark District is warned that the church might be attacked during an upcoming parade held by the Native American Party. The Native American Party, a nativist political party, plans to hold a large parade the next day on Independence Day.

To prepare for violence, the church applies for an arsenal that a volunteer company could use in case the church is attacked. Pennsylvania Governor David R. Porter authorizes the formation of a company and the procurement of twenty-five muskets from the Frankford Arsenal. Major General Robert Patterson, commander of the Pennsylvania militia, puts the troops on alert in case of violence.

Five of the muskets placed in St. Philip Neri’s Church are discovered to be defective and are sent back to the Frankford Arsenal to be repaired. No violence occurs before or during the parade, but on July 5, a nativist mob numbering in the thousands gathers at the church after some observe five defective muskets being returned to the church. They then demand that the sheriff remove the weapons, while Father Dunn and volunteers rally to protect the church. Sheriff Morton McMichael and two aldermen search the church and remove twelve muskets. After leaving the church, the sheriff urges the crowd to disperse and leaves a volunteer posse to guard the church. The mob remains, and a man injured in the May riots makes a speech to the crowd, calling for a second search of the church. The sheriff, an alderman, and seventeen nativists enter the church and find three armed men, fifty-three muskets, ten pistols, a keg of gunpowder and ammunition. To avoid inciting the mob, the sheriff decides not to remove the armaments, and the search party stays in the church. Just after midnight, July 6, Major General Patterson orders a company of city guards to clear the streets. After the crowd disperses, the arms found within the church are removed.

By midday, the crowds return around St. Philip Neri’s Church. General George Cadwalader orders the crowds to disperse, but they do not. By the evening, the sheriff arrives with a 150-strong posse. Throughout the evening, the military presence grows, and three cannons are stationed on the streets. The soldiers clear the streets near the church, despite being pelted with rocks by the mob. Responding to the rock throwers, General Cadwalader orders a cannon to be fired at the crowd on Third Street. Former U.S. Congressman Charles Naylor begs the general not to fire. He and several others are arrested and held within the church. By the morning of July 7, most of the soldiers have left, but the crowds, led by an alderman and the sheriff, return and demand that the remaining guard release Naylor. Everyone except Naylor is released. The crowds grow, and a cannon is brought from a nearby wharf and used to threaten the church. After further negotiations, Naylor is released and carried home to cheers on people’s shoulders.

After Naylor is brought home, the mob attacks the church, damaging a wall with the cannon. A second cannon is brought from the wharfs and fired at the church, after which the mob pelts the building with rocks and break in through a side door. The soldiers fire on the men breaking into the church, who promptly retreat. After retreating, the nativists negotiate with the guard, who agrees to withdraw, allowing the nativists to guard the church. The crowd pelts the soldiers with rocks and some soldiers fire back, which only incites the mob further. The mob forces its way into the church, causing extensive damage to the interior. After about an hour, a group of twenty men organizes themselves to guard St. Philip Neri’s, and the mob leaves the church.

By the evening, a large number of soldiers arrive with orders to clear the streets, only to be stoned in the process. After a captain is attacked, the order is given to fire on the mob, which results in seven fatalities and nine injuries. Not long after, people with muskets and cannons arrive and fierce fighting breaks out between the soldiers and the mob. The fighting lasts for several hours, with the soldiers being fired upon from alleyways and the windows of nearby buildings. The soldiers bring in two cannons of their own and fire on the mob. The mob returns fire using their own cannons, armed with items such as nails, chains, knives and broken bottles. In an attempt to capture the mob’s cannons, soldiers charge one cannon’s position, only to be knocked off their horses by a rope tied across the street. The cannons are all eventually captured, and by early morning on July 8, the fighting has ended.

At least fifteen people, including rioters and soldiers, are killed in the riot, and at least fifty people are injured. Under Governor Porter’s orders, state troops continue to arrive in the city in the days afterward, but no further violence takes place. An estimated 5,000 militia are used to stop violence. Troops begin to withdraw from the city on July 10, and the church takes over responsibility from the district of Southwark of protecting the church on July 11. As with the May riots, a grand jury blames the Irish Catholics for the riots but supports the military’s response to the violence.

The riots gain national attention and condemnation. The riots are used as an issue in the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democratic Party condemning the growing Native American Party and the Whig Party, which the Democrats accuse of involvement in the nativist movement. In Philadelphia, the Native American Party ends up making a strong showing in the city’s October election.

On July 11, 1844, Philadelphia passes an ordinance that gives the city a battalion of artillery, a regiment of infantry, and at least one full troop of cavalry to preserve peace within the city when necessary. The difficulty of quelling the riots and other crime leads the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass an 1845 act that requires Philadelphia, the township of Moyamensing and the unincorporated districts of Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, and Penn to maintain a police force of one man per 150 taxable inhabitants. In 1850, another act is passed that establishes that the Philadelphia police force will police the city and seven surrounding districts. The inability to maintain order effectively in Philadelphia’s suburbs is an important argument for the consolidation of the city in 1854.

After the riots, Bishop Kenrick ends his efforts to influence the public education system and begins encouraging the creation of Catholic schools, with 17 being founded by 1860. The friars of the Church of St. Augustine sue the city of Philadelphia for not providing the church with adequate protection, claiming $80,000 in damages. The city argues that the friars cannot claim their civil rights were violated, as the Order of Saint Augustine is a foreign organization under the Pope. Furthermore, the city argues that the friars took a vow of poverty and cannot be property owners. The Augustinians end up proving the Order is incorporated in 1804 and is awarded $45,000. The church is rebuilt in 1848.

(Pictured: “Riot in Philadelphia,” lithograph by H. Bucholzer, 1844, Library of Congress)


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Death of James Warren Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin

James Warren Doyle, Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, who uses the signature “JKL”, an acronym from “James Kildare and Leighlin,” dies on June 15, 1834. He is active in the Anti-Tithe movement and a campaigner for Catholic emancipation until it is attained in 1829. He is also an educator, church organiser and the builder of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow.

Doyle is born close to New Ross, County Wexford in 1786, the posthumous son of a respectable Catholic farmer. His mother, Anne Warren, of Quaker extraction, is living in poverty at the time of his birth. At the age of eleven he witnesses the horrors of the Battle of New Ross between the United Irishmen and British Crown forces supplemented by the militia and yeomanry.

Doyle receives his early education at Clonleigh, at Rathconrogue at the school of a Mr. Grace, and later at the Augustinian College, New Ross under the care of an Augustinian monk, Rev. John Crane.

Doyle joins the Augustinian friars in 1805 at Grantstown, County Wexford, and then studies for his doctorate at Coimbra in Portugal (1806–08). His studies are disturbed by the Peninsular War, during which he serves as a sentry in Coimbra. Later, he accompanies the British Army with Arthur Wellesley‘s forces to Lisbon as an interpreter.

Following Doyle’s return to Ireland, he is ordained to the priesthood on October 1, 1809, at Enniscorthy. He teaches logic at the Augustinian College, New Ross. In 1813, he is appointed to a professorship at St. Patrick’s, Carlow College, holding the Chair of Rhetoric and in 1814, the Professorship of Theology.

Michael Corcoran, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, dies on February 22, 1819. Doyle is a popular choice of the clergy and bishops of the Archdiocese of Dublin and is chosen by the Holy See as Corcoran’s successor. He is formally named in August 1819 and is duly consecrated in Carlow Parish Church on November 14. During his fifteen-year tenure as Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, he earns respect nationwide for his polemics in furtherance of the Catholic position in both Irish and British society, and in supporting the work of the Catholic Association. His books on pastoral, political, educational and inter-denominational matters provide a rich source of material for social and religious historians. He is a close ally of Daniel O’Connell in the political campaign for Catholic emancipation which is finally passed in 1829 by the Wellington government.

In 1830, the new tithe-proctor of Graigue, a parish of 4,779 Catholics and 63 Protestants, decides to break with the tradition of Doyle’s predecessor and to enforce seizure orders for the collection of arrears of Tithes. Tithes provide financial support of the established Anglican Church of Ireland. Some of the recalcitrant Catholics habitually transfer ownership of their livestock to Doyle in order to avoid seizure at the town fair. The new proctor requests their priest’s cooperation in handing over the assets. Doyle refuses, and the proctor, aided by the Royal Irish Constabulary, seize some of the livestock. A mass riot breaks out at the fair and there is several casualties. A civil disobedience campaign follows, peppered with sporadic violence mostly at county fairs over the seizure of livestock. A period of instability that becomes known as the Tithe War follows.

Doyle is a leader of nonviolent resistance to the Tithe, devoting himself both to strengthening the nonviolent resistance and to discouraging like paramilitary secret societies who have taken to using violence to drive out tithe-collectors and to intimidate collaborators. He says, “I maintain the right which [Irish Catholics] have of withholding, in a manner consistent with the law and their duty as subjects, the payment of tithe in kind or in money until it is extorted from them by the operation of the law.”

Given Doyle’s prior experience in education, his major contribution is arguably in helping the establishment of National Schools across Ireland from 1831, the initiative of Edward Smith-Stanley, Chief Secretary for Ireland, which are initially started with a UK government grant of £30,000. The proposed system is ahead of state provision for education in England or Scotland at that time. This Model School prototype is, in some respects, experimental. His involvement is a sign of his practicality and foresight.

Doyle makes statements on other issues: the theological status of ‘non-Catholic’ Christians, freedom to convert to Protestantism, mixed marriages and, as already mentioned, on the union of Catholics and Anglicans. On this last issue he is asked to resign by Rome and is eventually allowed to continue after agreeing not to speak on the issue again.

The construction of Carlow Cathedral of the Assumption crowns Doyle’s career, being started in 1828 and finished at the end of November 1833. He falls ill for a number of months before dying on June 15, 1834. He is buried in his new cathedral. A sculpture, by John Hogan, in memorial to Doyle is finished in 1839.

Several biographies are written on Doyle before 1900 and his influence on the later Irish Catholic bishops in the period 1834-1900 is considerable. He had proved that negotiations with government could be beneficial to his church, his congregation, and its finances.