John F. Quinn, Ph.D.
John F. Quinn, Ph.D.
Professor | History
John F. Quinn, Professor of History, joined the faculty at Salve Regina University in 1992, and leads courses in Modern European History, with a specialty in Irish history. Other courses include France since the Revolution, Hitler and the Holocaust, Modern England, and U.S. history: The American Immigrant Experience. Dr. Quinn received his A.B. from Georgetown University, magna cum laude, and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on Irish and Irish American attitudes towards alcohol and to slavery in the nineteenth century. A revised version of his dissertation was published as Father Mathew’s Crusade: Temperance in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and Irish America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), and his articles have appeared in the New England Quarterly, American Catholic Studies, History Ireland, Rhode Island History and Newport History.
Featured Spring 2021
“We Were All Prejudiced More or Less against Him”
The American Bishops’ Response to Father Mathew’s Temperance Tour, 1849–1851
John F. Quinn
Abstract: This article examines Father Theobald Mathew’s American tour of 1849-1851. The prospect of a visit from Ireland’s famed “Apostle of Temperance” drew an excited response from Whig politicians and abolitionist leaders, two groups not usually linked with Irish Americans. However, both groups genuinely admired Mathew for his campaign against alcohol and hoped that by tying themselves to him that they would be able to draw Irish Americans into their ranks. Far less enthusiastic were the nation’s Catholic bishops, who were wary of the priest because of his associations with Protestants and abolitionists. After some initial hesitation, Mathew chose to stay close to the bishops and far from the abolitionists. By so doing, he was able to gain the hierarchy’s support for what would prove to be an extraordinarily successful temperance mission. At the same time, Mathew’s unwillingness to address slavery sorely disappointed abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison.
CMOS Citation
Quinn, John F. “'We Were All Prejudiced More or Less against Him': The American Bishops’ Response to Father Mathew’s Temperance Tour, 1849–1851.” The Catholic Historical Review 106, no. 3 (Summer 2020): 421-452.
Access
McKillop Library EBSCOhost Database: DOI 10.1353/cat.2020.0049