A VISION OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 



THE determined stand of a handful of patriot farmers 

 at Lexington on that memorable dawn of April 19, 

 1775? was the starting point of the history of a free 

 nation. It was the dawn preceding the rising sun of our 

 liberty which shines now so splendidly in the zenith, and 

 whose rays have illumined the uttermost parts of the earth. 

 The Knights of Columbus have rightly taken the perpetua- 

 tion of the name of the discoverer of the New World, and 

 have rightly chosen to commemorate not only the discoverer 

 of America, but the great patriots who unfolded to their fel- 

 low-countrymen the liberty of a people. The Order stands not 

 only for these things, but attests by its numbers what Catho- 

 lics have come to mean in the civic and political life of the 

 United States. It was long before prejudice and unreasoning 

 opposition to us died out, and in some communities it is still 

 felt, although in a diminishing degree. But, gradually, as 

 the heavy mists fade out before the glowing rays of the 

 rising sun, each age-long relic of prejudice and hatred dis- 

 solves into nothingness, and the American citizen who pro- 

 fesses the Catholic faith at last becomes the peer of his fellow- 

 man. 



This was not all accomplished suddenly or without toil and 

 struggle. It was not due merely to native recognition of the 

 fellow-man of a different creed ; it was due to the persistent 

 influx of a Catholic people, who, 'mid stress and struggle, — 

 like Columbus in the stormy seas on his westward way to ' 

 discover America — kept true to the direction pointed by the 

 compass, their Faith, and who by their earnestness and their 

 single-heartedness won for themselves a place among their 

 fellow-citizens. It marks a triumph in American citizenship ; 

 not only as to the amelioration of public manners upon th' 

 part of those who differ from us, but a winning of the esteem 

 and appreciation of our fellow-citizens upon our part — a dem- 



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