Is July the worst month for business?

[Razgovory]

Americans are more daring then the British.  They re willing to do things other people wouldn't attempt.  Though it's entirely possible that Quebec (and with it the rest of Canada), might have just become an independent nation if they sided with the American colonists.

No, I don't think so.  An attempt by Quebec to leave the Union would have resulted in conquest and the mass slaughter of the French Catholics.

They were invited into the Union, but if they didn't join it, the US probably wouldn't have forced the issue, though France might try to pick it up again.  Still a Free French Canada in the 1780's is an interesting idea.

[viper37]

Catholicism in America is mostly due to the massive arrival of Irish immigrants.

WRONG

Wikipedia disagrees:

The number of Catholics has grown during the country's history, at first slowly in the early 19th century through some immigration and through the acquisition of territories (formerly possessions of France, Spain, and Mexico) with predominately Catholic populations. In the mid-19th century, a rapid influx of Irish and German immigrants made Catholicism the largest religion in the United States.

[CountDeMoney]

People who use Wiki as reference material need to floss their teeth with my ass hair.

[Razgovory]

Catholicism in America is mostly due to the massive arrival of Irish immigrants.

WRONG

Wikipedia disagrees:

The number of Catholics has grown during the country's history, at first slowly in the early 19th century through some immigration and through the acquisition of territories (formerly possessions of France, Spain, and Mexico) with predominately Catholic populations. In the mid-19th century, a rapid influx of Irish and German immigrants made Catholicism the largest religion in the United States.

Good for it.  Still you didn't mention the Germans or the Italians.  Coincidentally I have German, Irish and Italian heritage.  There were quite a few people who did convert to Catholicism in the US.  It's amazing how quickly Catholicism spread in the US.  Even in times of persecutions and harassment there were many leaders who were Catholic or raised Catholic.  During the Civil War Sheridan, Rosecrans and Beauregard were Catholic, and Sherman was a lapsed Catholic.  These were the days when the Orange Men still marched in New York.  I imagine that a sizable percentage of the Union army was Catholic.  Probably at least 25%.  Compare this to the U.K., the other major anglophone country in the world.  Catholics only had gotten civil rights fairly recently, and number of Catholics in high position as pretty low.  Not to mention that little famine thingy that had recently happened.

[Neil]

Yeah, but the Civil War was in the middle of a huge spike in Irish immigration that started during the Famine.  Nothing you said in any way refutes the claim that the Irish were the driving force behind Catholicism in the early US.  Italian imigration wasn't really that important until after unification, and the Germans were full of Protestants that had fled Germany following the failure of the 1848 rebellions.

[dps]

OTOH, a lot of Irish immigrants were actually part of the Scotch-Irish Protestant minority, and a lot of Irish Catholics converted to Protestantism once they got to the States.  And there was already a fairly sizable Catholic minority here before the spike in Irish immigration.

It's a complicated question.  One of the difficulties is that there are no official statistics for religious affiliation in the US, and the unofficial stats I've seen I don't much trust.

[CountDeMoney]

And there was already a fairly sizable Catholic minority here before the spike in Irish immigration.

This.  There weren't any Irishmen in St. Augustine.

[viper37]

This.  There weren't any Irishmen in St. Augustine.

How many Catholics were there in 1819-1820?

[CountDeMoney]

This.  There weren't any Irishmen in St. Augustine.

How many Catholics were there in 1819-1820?

Enough.

[viper37]

This.  There weren't any Irishmen in St. Augustine.

How many Catholics were there in 1819-1820?

Enough.

Well, there were Seminoles (not Catholics), there were American settlers from neighbouring Southern States (not Catholics), and a few Spanish here&there, and many of them probably chose to return to Spain or move to Mexico after Florida was transferred to the US.

[garbon]

I don't really understand what is being debated.

[viper37]

I don't really understand what is being debated.

I'm not debating, I'm just trying to see if CdM will quit without having the last insult word.

[dps]

there were American settlers from neighbouring Southern States (not Catholics)

If they were there legally, they were at least nominally Catholic.  Though it's likely that many weren't there legally.