SOURCE: "From Maria Monk to Paul Blanshard: A Century of Protestant Anti-Catholicism," in Uncivil Religion: Interreligious Hostility in America, edited by Robert N. Bellah and Frederick E. Greenspahn, The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1987, pp. 43-71.

In the following excerpt, Welter summarizes some of the enduring themes of the nativist crusade of nineteenth-century America, and illustrates some of its institutional arguments by focusing on the popular anti-Catholic tract Awful Disclosures, by Maria Monk

American historians are willing to spare few of our cherished illusions. George Washington's cherry tree and Thomas Jefferson's family life have vanished with our lost passenger pigeons. It is, therefore, not surprising that our boast to be a nation dedicated to religious freedom has also been refuted.

When the Statue of Liberty, symbol of a safe harbor for tempest-tossed souls, was completed in 1886, its symbolic lamp was dimmed by the prior publication of Josiah Strong's Our Country...