St. Thomas

Question: Who was this Charles Carrol you wrote about last week?
Answer:    Charles Carroll of Carrolton, Maryland, was born in 1737, when we were a British colony. As a practicing Catholic, he was denied the right to participate in government in Maryland, a colony founded by a Catholic. He was educated in a secret school here and then sent to Europe to be educated by the Jesuits in France. Charles returned at the age of 28, the best classically educated man in America, fluent in five languages. He was elected to the Continental Congress, and was a passionate voice for American liberty. His election was largely due to his vast wealth. (He was the richest man in America at the time, despite being doubly taxed for being Catholic.) Charles Carroll was there as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the only Catholic to do so. After independence, he continued in government. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and served on the committee to draft the Bill of Rights. He was a cousin of John Carroll, the first bishop of Baltimore. Charles was a strong proponent of the first amendment separating Church and State, prohibiting government from establishing any religion. This allowed all people to practice faith freely, and no government could establish an official state religion. Carroll went on to serve in the United States Senate. He was the longest lived and last living signer of the Declaration of Independence when he died at the age of 95 in 1832.