American-papal relations from 1848 to 1867

This researcher considers why the United States established formal diplomatic relations with the Papal States in 1848 and why the U.S. discontinued the funding for the U.S. legation to the Vatican in 1867. The paper includes: an overview of United States-Papal relations and American anti-Catholicism prior to Pius IX's accession to the throne of Peter, the changing American attitudes toward Pius IX and the Papal States in the wake of the 1848-1849 revolution in Rome, reasons for the continued increase in anti-Catholicism and anti-Papal feeling prior to the Civil War, a portrait of U.S.-Papal relations during the Civil War, and the causes of the U.S. decision to suspend official diplomatic ties with the Vatican. The investigator concludes that the Democratic Party's desire to attract the Catholic vote in politically key states and American euphoria over the early misperception that Pius IX was a liberal with republican, Italian nationalist sympathies motivated Congress' decision to open official relations with Rome. America's suspension of official relations was motivated partially by the desire of the U.S. to ingratiate itself with the new Kingdom of Italy and the wish by Radical Republican Congressmen to chastise Secretary of State William H. Seward and the Johnson administration. The dominant reason, however, was the resurfacing of long-standing anti-Catholicism after the U.S. Civil War.