John Joseph Hughes (24 June 1797 – 3 January 1864) was Archbishop of New York from 20 December 1842 to 3 January 1864, succeeding John Dubois and preceding John McCloskey. Hughes worked tirelessly to integrate Catholics (especially Catholic immigrants) into American society while ensuring that the Catholic Church's institutions and assets remained under the control of the church hierarchy.
Biography[]
Hughes in 1863
John Joseph Hughes was born in Annaloghan, County Tyrone in 1797 to an Irish Catholic family. Hughes' sister was denied a Catholic burial on religious grounds, and he was nearly attacked by a group of Protestants when he was fifteen. In 1816, his family moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in the United States, and Hughes joined them there a year later. Abbe John Dubois hired him as a gardener, and he would become an ordained priest in 1826 after studying in Philadelphia. In 1837, Pope Gregory XVI appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of New York, and he campaigned on behalf of Irish immigrants, attempting to gain state support for Catholic parochial schools and founding an independent Catholic school system; in 1841, he founded Fordham University in The Bronx. In 1842, he became Archbishop of New York after Dubois' death, and he was known for being a strong defender of the Catholic faith; when nativists began to riot in New York, Hughes placed armed guards at Catholic churches and warned the city officials that he would turn the city into a "second Moscow" (a scorched-earth city) if a single church was to be razed. Hughes would later become known for his opposition to abolitionism due to the cause being championed by Protestant rivals of Catholicism, and he claimed that the Catholic goal was to convert the pagans, the Protestants, and everybody in the world, including the government and the president. Hughes reportedly supported the Whig Winfield Scott at the 1852 presidential election and the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas at the 1860 election. He served as archbishop until his 1864 death.