Colonial Sentiments on Protestantism
The Congress of the American colonies met in New York in 1765, and on October 19 of that year proclaimed their first "Declaration of Rights." In the opening paragraphs of that declaration the colonists expressed themselves as "inviolably attached to the present happy establishment of the Protestant succession." On October 14, 1774, the Congress of the American colonies, being in session in Philadelphia, announced their second "Declaration of Rights," in which they complain of an act of the mother country "establishing the Roman Catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English Laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law, and government) of the neighboring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France." The foregoing very conclusively gives the sentiments of the colonists relative to Protestantism and Catholicism. There are some who are making the claim that this country was established by the Catholics. It would be well for all such to keep in mind these reliable statements from the colonists themselves.