ABSTRACT
Between the first federal census in 1790 and 1850, however, over a million Catholic immigrants arrived in the United States from Europe. The immigrants, by the weight of their numbers and the strength of their cultural background, came to offer some hope that the United States might one day become a majority Catholic country. Like Alsatian Anthony Kohlmann, Brother Joseph Mobberly was convinced that the Church would have to remain in constant contact with Catholic immigrants if there was to be any chance of saving their faith from Protestant and exaggeratedly republican influences. Mobberly saw much potential for the devout Catholic immigrant to temper egalitarian sentiment in the United States–this would be the perfect means to fight the “unbridled licentiousness” that had so frightened Jefferson. The Jesuit farms would be better off with enterprising immigrant tenant laborers than with apathetic slaves, and the lethargy of the slaves clearly made them morally incapable of governing themselves.
