Letters to the Editor
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‘Romney’s Final Speech?’
Nicholas Wapshott’s assertion that anti-Catholic sentiments in American politics derived from the “earliest protestant settlers who had escaped Catholic persecution in Europe” is not true in the main, although it may be true of certain groups, like the Huegenots, who constitute a small percentage of early settlers [OpEd, “Romney’s Final Speech?” December 5, 2007]. The great majority of early settlers, after all, were not coming from Catholic countries.
Most of the settlers were either Anglicans or dissenters from the established Anglican church in England, Wales and Scotland, including the Puritans, Congregationalists, Methodists, and, especially in Maryland, Roman Catholics themselves. The upsurge of violent anti-Catholic sentiment in our country’s political life was primarily a 19th century phenomenon, where Nativist and Know-Nothing groups found it expedient to run campaigns singling out the large Irish, Italian and German immigrations as causes for alarm and restrictive policies. The Blaine amendments still found in many states restricting educational choice are an unhappy residue of these prejudices.
Sincerely,
JAMES MacGUIRE
New York, N.Y.
‘Make English Official’
Kenneth Blackwell’s op-ed, “Make English Official” is asking for trouble [December 5, 2007]. Our Constitution is written in English. So are our laws. Congressional debate is in English. English, for all intents and purposes, is our official language. It is practically the official language of the whole world.
If such as law is enacted, a few years later there will be a movement to make a second language official, and then a third, ad infinitum.
GEORGE JOCHNOWITZ
Professor Emeritus
College of Staten Island, CUNY
New York, N.Y.
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