John Joseph Hughes (June 24, 1797 – January 3, 1864) was an Irish-born Catholic prelate who served as bishop (and later archbishop) of New York from 1842 until his death. In 1841, he founded St. John's College, which would later become Fordham University.
A native of Ireland, Hughes was born and raised in Augher in the south of County Tyrone. He emigrated to the United States in 1817, and became a priest in 1826 and a bishop in 1838. A figure of national prominence, he exercised great moral and social influence, and presided over a period of explosive growth for Catholicism in New York. He was regarded as "the best known, if not exactly the best loved, Catholic bishop in the country." He became known as "Dagger John", both for his following the Catholic practice wherein a bishop precedes his signature with a cross, as well as for his aggressive personality. His sister Angela Hughes was a nun and oversaw the opening of 15 schools and convents in New York.
Early life
Hughes was born in the hamlet of Annaloghan, near Augher, in County Tyrone, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. He was the third of seven children of Patrick and Margaret ( McKenna) Hughes who were from Errigal Truagh, County Monaghan. In reference to the anti-Catholic penal laws of Ireland, he later observed that, prior to his baptism, he had lived the first five days of his life on terms of "social and civil equality with the most favored subjects of the British Empire." He made several unsuccessful applications to Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he was eventually hired by its Rector, the Abbé John Dubois, S.S., as a gardener.
At that time, the president of Mount St. Mary's was the brilliant Simon Bruté, who also lectured on Sacred Scripture and taught Theology and Moral Philosophy. (Bruté would later become the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana.) Hughes would on numerous occasions consult with his former teacher for advice long after he had left Emmitsburg.
Trusteeism
One challenge Hughes took on upon arriving in New York was the dispute between the trustees of various parishes in the city, who held the control of these institutions. This practice was known as trusteeism, and the bishop challenged both the practicality and the legitimacy of it. Hughes drew upon his experience with this situation in Philadelphia and was able to get a referendum passed by the Catholics of the city in 1841 supporting the authority of the bishop. He turned inward: he founded an independent Catholic school system in the city. His new system included the first Catholic college in the Northeast, St. John's College, now Fordham University. By 1870 19 percent of the city's children were attending Catholic schools.
Bishop of New York
Hughes was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the diocese the following year, due to Dubois' failing health. As coadjutor, he automatically succeeded Dubois upon the bishop's death on December 20, 1842. City leaders took him at his word, and the anti-Catholic faction was not allowed to conduct its rally.
Hughes founded the Ultramontane newspaper the New York Freeman to express his ideas.
Hughes held a "strong commitment to the cause of Irish freedom" but also felt that immigrants, particularly his fellow Irish immigrants, "should demonstrate their unswerving loyalty to their adopted land."
In an address in March 1852, Hughes lionized what he referred to as the "spirit of the constitution," In the same address, Hughes also expressed sentiments of religious toleration, stating that "we are indebted" to the "liberality of Protestantism," in light of the fact that the framers of the Constitution "were almost, if not altogether, exclusively Protestants." He averred that the strong leadership of Washington and the variety of opposing Protestant views were likely more influential to the framers' stance on religious freedom than was Protestantism itself. in the Northern states were often worse than that of those held in bondage in the South. He believed the Abolitionist movement veered towards ideological excess. In 1842 Hughes had cautioned his flock against signing Daniel O'Connell's abolitionist petition ("An Address of the People of Ireland to their Countrymen and Countrywomen in America") which he regarded as unnecessarily provocative.
Against what he saw as the Protestant republican agenda promoted by the Young Irelander exile John Mitchel and his journal the Citizen, Hughes, nonetheless, took a stand on the issue. Mitchel had been uncompromising in defense of slavery, denying it was a crime "or even a peccadillo to hold slaves, to buy slaves, to keep slaves to their work by flogging or other needful correction." He himself might wish for "a good plantation well-stocked with healthy negroes in Alabama." At Mitchel saw it, Hughes copied the abolition press "to cast an Alabama plantation" in his "teeth."
Death
thumb|right|Archbishop Hughes, prepared for burial
Hughes served as archbishop until his death in 1864. He was originally buried in the old St. Patrick's Cathedral, but his remains were exhumed in 1882 and reinterred in the crypt under the altar of the new St. Patrick's Cathedral which he had undertaken to build.
According to his later successor, Patrick Cardinal Hayes, named archbishop of New York in 1919, Archbishop Hughes was severe of manner, and kindly of heart, but was not aggressive until assailed. The building currently houses Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business on its Rose Hill campus. A street near Fordham University is named in his honor (Hughes Avenue). In addition, each year, Fordham recognizes a graduating senior who has demonstrated achievement in the study of philosophy with an award named in honor of Hughes.
To the dismay of many in New York's Protestant upper class, Hughes foresaw the uptown expansion of the city and began construction of the current St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Street, laying its cornerstone on August 15, 1858. It was not completed until after his death. At the time, due to its remote location in a still-rural part of Manhattan, the new cathedral was initially dubbed "Hughes' Folly" by the press for many years.