39 of 56 · Maryland
CARROLL
A Catholic's Guide
40 lessons. 5 chapters. In his own words.
Barred from office for his faith, he signed his full name so they could confiscate the right estate. He outlived every other signer.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton · 1737–1832 · Only Catholic signer · richest · last to die
01
The Barred Faith
1 of 5
Enter a country that will not let you hold it.
“To obtain religious as well as civil liberty I entered jealously into the Revolution, and observing the Christian religion divided into many sects, I founded the hope that no one would be so predominant as to become the religion of the State.”
Letter to the Rev. John Stanford · 1827
Maryland's penal laws had locked Catholics out of office, out of the vote, out of the public mass. He joined a revolution run by Protestants. That is not assimilation. That is a wager that the new charter would be larger than the old church fight.
Learn the faith in exile if the colony forbids the school.
“He was sent to St. Omer and to the colleges of France because Maryland would not educate a Catholic boy as a Catholic.”
The law made a European of him. He came back more Maryland than the men who had stayed. Forbidden schooling is still schooling. Bring it home sharpened.
Write as a citizen before they admit you are one.
“The First Citizen will not be silent because the law has called him a subject of a second rank.”
Charles Carroll, First Citizen letters (as First Citizen) · 1773
He dueled Daniel Dulany in the newspapers under a mask, then without one. A barred man who can write is already in the government. Ink is a franchise.
Do not wait for the welcome.
“Reflecting on the disabilities, I may truly say of the proscription of the Roman Catholics in Maryland, you will not be surprised that I had much at heart this grand design founded on mutual charity.”
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis · 1829
Proscription was the given. Charity was the design. He did not ask the established church to like him. He helped replace the establishment with a rule that did not care.
Be the only one in the room without becoming a mascot.
“He was the only Roman Catholic to sign.”
The Declaration of Independence, enrolled names · 1776
Token if he had been silent. Founder if he used the uniqueness as leverage for a general liberty. Minority status is a fact. It is not a personality. Spend it on the clause that outlives you.
Practice the duties. That is the last ranking.
“I have lived to my ninety-sixth year; I have enjoyed continued health, I have been blessed with great wealth, prosperity, and most of the good things which the world can bestow — public approbation, esteem, applause; but what I now look back on with the greatest satisfaction to myself is, that I have practiced the duties of my religion.”
Charles Carroll to his confessor · 1832
Wealth, applause, a signature — he ranked them below a practiced faith. Last words are a will. Believe this one. The barred boy became the last signer and still counted the mass as the prize. Do not outgrow the thing they punished you for.
A law favorable to liberty is never a gift from above.
“Not a single instance can be selected from our history of a law favorable to liberty obtained from government, but by the unanimous, steady, and spirited conduct of the people.”
Charles Carroll, First Citizen letters · 1773
He wrote it while still locked out of office. The people, not the proprietor, extract the statute. A barred Catholic saying this is not ingratiation. It is a theory of how establishments yield. Organize the conduct. Then the law moves.
Join a Protestant revolution for a larger clause.
“To obtain religious as well as civil liberty I entered jealously into the Revolution.”
Letter to the Rev. John Stanford · 1827
Jealously, he said: with zeal, not with envy. He did not wait for a Catholic army. He joined the available one and aimed it at a double liberty. If your sect is small, enlarge the charter, not the grievance.
02
Of Carrollton
2 of 5
Sign so they can find the estate.
“There go two Charles Carrolls — they will not know which to take. Then he added of Carrollton, that there might be no mistake.”
He had used the style before, to separate himself from father and cousin. The table-story is cleaner than the file. Either way the point holds: put the address on the target. Ambiguity is a hiding place.
A full name is a full wager.
“Charles Carroll of Carrollton.”
The Declaration of Independence, signature · 1776
Longest signature in the column. Not vanity. Inventory. If they confiscate, they should confiscate the right acres. Write the name the sheriff would write.
Willingly.
“Most willingly.”
Attributed reply to Hancock, on whether he would sign · 1776
Maybe he said it. The ink said it. Do not be coy at the moment of identification. If you are in, be in under the name that can ruin you.
Distinguish yourself on purpose.
“Of Carrollton, as distinct from Carroll of Annapolis, and from Carroll the Barrister.”
Carroll family designations · 1776
Three Charles Carrolls is a paperwork problem until one of them starts a country. Choose a marker and wear it. History is a clerk. Help the clerk.
The name is the estate, and the estate is the pledge.
“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
His fortune was the largest in the room. Of Carrollton made that fact searchable. Honor that cannot be levied is just talk. Give them a place to levy.
Of Carrollton is an address to the sheriff.
“Charles Carroll of Carrollton.”
The Declaration of Independence, signature · 1776
The longest name in the column is a map. Father at Annapolis, cousin the Barrister, he the one with the tract they could seize. Identification is the wager. If they cannot find you, you have not signed.
Most willingly is the only tempo at the table.
“Most willingly.”
Attributed reply to Hancock, on whether he would sign · 1776
Maybe the room said it. The ink said it. Do not hedge the surname with a shrug. If the fortune is the largest in the hall, the yes should be the cleanest. Coy rich men are just Tories with better wine.
Use the style before they ask which Carroll.
“He had already written of Carrollton, to separate the tract from the other Charles Carrolls.”
Carroll family designations · 1776
The table-story of two Charleses is cleaner than the file, and still useful. Distinguish yourself on purpose, early, so the day of confiscation has a proper noun. Ambiguity is a hiding place. Close it.
03
The Largest Stake
3 of 5
The richest man in the hall should sign first in risk.
“I have been blessed with great wealth, prosperity, and most of the good things which the world can bestow — public approbation, esteem, applause.”
Charles Carroll to his confessor, recorded by Fr. Constantine Pise · 1832
He knew the inventory. He put it on the table in 1776. Wealth that will not sign is a hostage. Wealth that signs is a bond issue for the rest of the room.
Do not pretend the fortune was only land.
“Carrollton, Doughoregan, the Baltimore lots, the iron, and the people held in bondage on those acres.”
Largest stake included enslaved labor. Say it. A Catholic founder is not exempt from the ledger. The fortune he pledged was extracted as well as inherited. Hold the whole account.
Spend some of it on the war, not only on the wager.
“He advanced money, stores, and credit when Maryland's treasury was a rumor.”
Maryland wartime accounts · 1780
Signing is a moment. Supply is a season. A fortune that only poses on parchment is a statue. Move the grain.
In old age, lay a railroad stone.
“He laid the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.”
Ninety years old, still founding. The Revolution was one company. The next was iron on sleepers. Do not let the first fortune become a museum. Reinvest in the next machine.
Leave the pile. Keep the ranking.
“But what I now look back on with the greatest satisfaction to myself is, that I have practiced the duties of my religion.”
Charles Carroll to his confessor · 1832
He ranked the mass above the acres at the end. Believe him or not. The ranking is the lesson. If the fortune was the point, the last man would have died poorer in a different way.
The richest name in the hall should be the easiest to find.
“He was taken to be the wealthiest man to sign, and he signed as if the inventory were attached.”
Lives, fortunes, sacred honor — his fortune was the part you could count. That is not a sin. It is a multiplier. A poor man's yes is courage. A rich man's yes is courage plus a target. Be the target.
A pile that only waits to be confiscated has not chosen a side.
“He advanced money and credit to Maryland and the Congress, the fortune doing work before it did mythology.”
Maryland wartime accounts · 1780
Signatures are cheap compared with specie. He had specie. Put it in motion. A pile that only waits to be confiscated is a pile that never chose a side. Choose with the ledger, not only with the pen.
Stay useful at ninety. Lay the first stone of a railroad.
“Charles Carroll of Carrollton laid the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio, still useful at ninety.”
The last signer spent the encore on a railroad, not on a memoir of grievance. Fortunes that freeze become museums. Fortunes that still lay stone are still in the republic. Stay in.
04
The Last Man
4 of 5
Outlive the rest. That is a duty too.
“I have lived to my ninety-sixth year; I have enjoyed continued health; I have been blessed with great wealth, prosperity, and most of the good things which the world can bestow.”
Charles Carroll to his confessor · 1832
Last signer to die. November 14, 1832. Jefferson and Adams had been dead six years. The room emptied and left him the witness. Longevity is not luck only. It is remaining available as proof.
Become the walking archive.
“Young men came to Doughoregan to look at the last hand that had held that pen.”
Visitors' accounts of Carroll in old age · 1830
He let them look. A last man who hides is a wasted document. Sit for the painters. Answer the letters. Be tedious on purpose. Memory needs a body.
Do not spend the encore on bitterness.
“Happily this wise and salutary measure has taken place for eradicating religious feuds and persecution.”
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis · 1829
He had grounds for a fifty-year grudge. He filed a progress report instead. Bitterness is a way of staying in 1773. He stayed in 1829. That is how you last.
Die still in the faith that barred you.
“What I now look back on with the greatest satisfaction to myself is, that I have practiced the duties of my religion.”
Charles Carroll to his confessor · 1832
He did not cash the Revolution in for a more convenient creed. Emancipation of the Catholic was not apostasy. Keep the thing you demanded the right to keep.
The last man closes the book, he does not rewrite it.
“He died at Baltimore in the ninety-sixth year of his age, the last of the signers.”
Notices of the death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton · 1832
No third act as emperor. No recantation. A long last chapter, then a Catholic funeral. Closing is a skill. Use it.
Certify the parchment again at fifty years.
“I do hereby recommend to the present and future generations the principles of that important document as the best earthly inheritance their ancestors could bequeath to them, and pray that the civil and religious liberties they have secured to my country may be perpetuated to the remotest posterity and extended to the whole family of man.”
Charles Carroll, fiftieth-anniversary endorsement of the Declaration · 1826
Last surviving signer. He signed it twice: once in risk, once in memory. The second signature is a will. Leave the principles, not a cult of your name. Extend the liberties past your sect. That is what last is for.
Last is a job: receive the pilgrims, refuse the bitterness.
“I am now the last surviving signer.”
Charles Carroll, fiftieth-anniversary endorsement of the Declaration · 1826
The others were in the ground. He was in Maryland, still corresponding. Last is a job: receive the pilgrims, refuse the bitterness, keep the story from hardening into marble. Answer. Then go to mass.
Close the book. Do not reopen the disabilities.
“Grateful to Almighty God for the blessing which, through Jesus Christ our Lord, he has conferred upon my beloved country, in her emancipation, and upon myself in permitting me to survive the fiftieth year of American Independence.”
Charles Carroll, fiftieth-anniversary endorsement of the Declaration · 1826
He thanked God for the country and for the extra years. He did not spend them relitigating the penal laws. The barred boy had won the larger clause. End as a citizen, not as a plaintiff.
05
Civil and Religious
5 of 5
Take both or you have neither.
“When I signed the Declaration of Independence I had in view not only our independence of England but the toleration of all sects professing the Christian religion, and communicating to them all equal rights.”
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis · 1829
Civil liberty without the mass is a Protestant franchise. Religious liberty without a country is a catacomb. He signed for the pair. Do not let later men unscrew them.
Hope that no sect becomes the state.
“I founded the hope that no one would be so predominant as to become the religion of the State. That hope is now realized; religion is placed on its true foundation, and supported by the innate force of reason and the conviction of its utility.”
Letter to the Rev. John Stanford · 1827
Not indifference. Architecture. A church that needs the sheriff is a weak church. A state that needs a church is a weak state. Separate them so both have to earn their keep.
Mutual charity is a constitutional principle.
“You will not be surprised that I had much at heart this grand design founded on mutual charity, the basis of our holy religion.”
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis · 1829
He called charity the basis and then built a legal roof for it. Sentiment without a statute is a sermon. Put the charity in the disabilities clause — by abolishing the disabilities.
Your cousin in the mitre is part of the design.
“John Carroll, his cousin, became the first Catholic bishop of the United States.”
Church and family record · 1789
One signed the Declaration. One organized a church that no longer needed permission. Parallel founding. Civil and religious liberty are two offices. Staff both.
Equal rights, not a Catholic establishment in reverse.
“Communicating to them all equal rights.”
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis · 1829
All sects. He did not ask to become the new penal law. The barred man who wants only his own bar lifted is a future persecutor. Lift the bar.
Civil and religious, or you have a half-revolution.
“To obtain religious, as well as civil liberty, I entered zealously into the Revolution.”
Letter to the Rev. John Stanford · 1827
The as well as is the doctrine. A republic that frees the tax and keeps the test oath is an Anglican committee with new stationery. Take both. If your friends only wanted the civil, make them say the other half out loud.
Division of sects, for once, as a mercy.
“Observing the Christian religion divided into many sects, I founded the hope that no one would be so predominant as to become the religion of the State.”
Letter to the Rev. John Stanford · 1827
Division, for once, as a mercy. He did not want a Catholic Maryland in reverse. He wanted a state that could not care. Hope is not a statute. The statute is how you keep the hope from becoming another establishment.
Charity here means a legal truce, not affection.
“Reflecting on the disabilities, I may truly say of the proscription of the Roman Catholics in Maryland, you will not be surprised that I had much at heart this grand design founded on mutual charity.”
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis · 1829
Proscription taught him the design. Charity here means a legal truce, not affection. You do not have to love the other parish. You have to share the franchise. Write that, then live to ninety-five inside it.