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Father Marquette’s Place in American History1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
To Judge from the numerous monuments erected to honor Father Marquette during the past century; the festive demonstrations held at intervals to pay tribute to his name; the prominence accorded him in textbooks and literary productions as discoverer and explorer; the naming for him of localities, social groups and commercial enterprises—to judge from all this, one must conclude that Marquette deserves to rank among the foremost celebrities in American history. Assuredly, no one would think of depriving him pf this place in our annals if it tallied with the testimony which the available records of the past supply. But does it?
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1949
Footnotes
1
This essay embodies the substance of several unpublished ones, written in the summer of 1937, in connection with the Marquette Tercentenary. For reasons that need not be aired, they were not given to the public at the time, and since then they have been gathering dust in the writer’s files.
References
1 This essay embodies the substance of several unpublished ones, written in the summer of 1937, in connection with the Marquette Tercentenary. For reasons that need not be aired, they were not given to the public at the time, and since then they have been gathering dust in the writer’s files.
2 See Repplier, Agnes, Père Marquette: Priest, Pioneer, and Adventurer (New York, 1929), 278–285 Google Scholar; SisterArth, Mary Colombiere S.N.D., “Marquette Memorials,” Mid-America (Chicago, 111.), II (1931), 4 (April), 291–303 Google Scholar; Garraghan, Gilbert J. S.J., Marquette: Ardent Missioner, Daring Explorer, pamphlet, (New York, 1937), 40–44.Google Scholar
3 Garraghan in his pamphlet Marquette takes the missionary’s fame to be “international even in range” (42).
4 Repplier, op. cit., 261.
5 See my essay “The ‘Real Author’ of the Récit” in THE AMERICAS (Washington, D. C), IV (1948), 4 (April), 474–500.
6 Garraghan, Marquette, pamphlet, 44.
7 Delanglez, Jean S.J., “The ‘Récit des Voyages et des Découvertes du Père Jacques Marquette,’” Mid-America (Chicago); XVII (1946), 3 and 4 (July and October), 173–194 and 211–258; Francis Borgia Steck, O.F.M., “The ‘Real Author’ of the Récit” in THE AMERICAS (as above, note 5).Google Scholar
8 Garraghan, Marquette, pamphlet, 1.
9 Mt. 5:19.
10 “The Catholic Historian and Hispanic American History,” an essay of the present writer, read by him at the luncheon conference on Hispanic American history during the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, December 28, 1939, Washington, D. C.
11 “… the simple truth presenting, nor distorting, nor inventing,” Elegías de Varones Ilustres de Indias (Madrid, 1847).
12 “The Motto.”
13 Particularly in connection with the Tercentenary, Marquette , 1937, ten years after the appearance of The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673 (Washington, D. C., 1927).Google Scholar
14 Garraghan, Marquette, pamphlet, 3.
15 Garraghan, , “Some Hitherto Unpublished Marquettiana,” Mid-America (Chicago). VII (1936), 1 (January), 15: also Marquette, pamphlet, 3.Google Scholar
16 Idem., Mid-America, 16; Marquette, pamphlet, 4.
17 Idem., Mid-America, 17; Marquette, pamphlet, 4–5.
18 Idem., Mid-America, 18; Marquette, pamphlet, 6.
19 Marquette, pamphlet, 7.—My essay, “Marquette’s Place in American History,” was already in the editorial office of THE AMERICAS when my attention was called to an article by Rev. Joseph Carlton Short, entitled “Jacques Marquette, S.J., Catechist” and published in La Revue de l’Université Laval (Quebec, Canada), Vol. Ill, No. 5, January, 1949. On the basis of previously established facts, in the light of certain Marquette Documents uncovered by Rev. Gilbert J. Garraghan in European archives and published by him in 1935 and 1936, and on the fact that no official record of Marquette’s ordination to the priesthood has ever been cited, Fr. Short concludes in his article that Marquette was not a priest, but a lay brother, in the Jesuit Order. So far, three articles rejecting Fr. Short’s conclusion had been published; viz., (1) Raphael Hamilton, S.J., “Father Jacques Marquette, S.J., Priest” in La Revue de l’Université Laval, Vol. Ill, No. 7, pp. 640–642; (2) Paul Desjardins, S.J., “Jacques Marquette, S.J., était-il prêtre?”, Ibidem, pp. 634–639; (3) Jerome V. Jacobsen, S.J., “Attempted Mayhem on Pere Marquette” in Mid-America (Chicago, 111.), Vol. 20 (New Series), No. 2, pp. 109–115.
In the third of these articles, Fr. Jacobsen concludes with the announcement that “word has come to Father Delanglez from the Roman archives that the official record of Marquette’s ordination, overlooked by Father Garraghan, is being sent in photostat. The information is that Marquette was made a priest on March 7, 1666, at Toul” (p. 115).
If this Roman document, which Garraghan “overlooked,” is authentic, then, of course, the question of Marquette’s priesthood is settled and, judging from the sound scholarship so apparent in his article, I venture to say that Fr. Short will, on the score of this official record, abandon his cpnclusion. In that case, too, it will no longer be necessary for us merely to surmise with Garraghan that Marquette was “raised to the priesthood some time in the first half of 1666” (Fr. Short’s article, reprint, p. 6). What appears very strange, however, and calls for an explanation, is the fact that this highly important document was “overlooked” not only by Father Garraghan, as Father Jacobsen states Hoc. cit., p. 115), but also by at least four other distinguished Jesuit historians in Europe, namely, Felix Martin, Camille de Rochemonteix, Alfred Hamy and Arthur E. Jones. The authenticity of this official record of Marquette’s ordination to the priesthood is all-important, and until this authenticity is fully and firmly established, it will remain seriously and extremely doubtful whether Marquette was a priest. By reason of the other props that support it, the theory of Fr. Short deserves the same scholarly appraisal and study that went into its construction.
May I add that to settle the question of Marquette’s ordination a second document is needed. It is now certain that he devoted only about seven months to the study of moral theology and no time at all to the study of the other sacred sciences, notably dogmatic theology. Regularly, therefore, a dispensation was necessary for his ordination. Was such a dispensation granted? If so, by whom? Is there a record of the dispensation? Can its authenticity be firmly and fully established?
20 The letter with translation was published by Garraghan, Mid-America, loc. cit., 19–21.
21 Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Thwaites edition, 73 vols. (Cleveland, 1896–1901), LIV, 171; LVI, 13, 141; LVIII, 25ff; LX, 163. Henceforth cited as /. R.
22 See Steck, The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1613, 250–251, 315. On the flyleaf is a note in Allouez’s hand, reading “Fait par le P. Cl. Allouez pour le P. Marquette.”
23 J. R., LIV, 169–195.
24 J. R., LVII, 249–263.
25 J. R., LVI, 117.
26 J. R., LVI, 115–117. The writer has a photostat of this precious document which is preserved in the archives of St. Mary’s College, Montreal, Canada. He placed reproductions of this and allied manuscripts in various libraries of the country for favors extended to him by their officials. This explains why the photostats are in the Ayer Collection at Newberry in Chicago.
27 J. R., LIX, 211.
28 See Garraghan, Mid-Ameriea, loc. cit., 21.
29 J. R., LIV, 187.
30 J. R., LI, 47, 53. See also Steck, The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 109–110.
31 J. R., LIV, 189–191. After 1687 Eusebio Kino, S.J., was active as missionary in Pimeria Alta (Southern Arizona). What he wrote in 1710 is interesting here: “At the same time, after having entered to Moqui [Northeastern Arizona] and New Mexico, to the northeast and the east, it will be possible to have communication with New France, and with the new conquests, conversions and missions which at present they are making with their glorious and apostolic journeys from east to west.” See Bolton, Herbert Eugene (Ed.), Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706 (New York, 1925), 454.Google Scholar
32 Delanglez, loc. cit., No. 3, 185–190. See also my essay, “The ‘Real Author’ of the Récit;’ loc. cit., 485–486.
33 J. R., LIX, 191–201.
34 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 59.
35 Ibid., 295–296.
36 Ibid., 260.
37 Marquette, pamphlet, 44.
38 J. R., LXXII and LXXIII (Index volumes), passim.
39 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 86, 149, 159, 171; also Delanglez, “Marquette’s Autograph Map of the Mississippi River,” Mid-America, XVI (1945), 1 (January), 30–53.
40 See the photostat reproductions of the map in The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1613, nos. 29 and 30.
41 J. R., LVll, 318.
42 J. R., LIV, 117.
43 J. R., LIV, 237.
44 Garraghan, Marquette, pamphlet, 45.
45 See Kellogg, Louise Phelps, The French Régime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1925), 166–167.Google Scholar
46 J. R., LIV, 169–195.
47 J. R., LVII, 149–163.
48 Marquette, pamphlet, 16.
49 Ibid., 44.
50 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, Chap. II; also Garraghan, , Marquette, pamphlet, 16–19.Google Scholar
51 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 232–233.
52 Namely, in his letter to Bishop. Laval and his reports to Governor Frontenac.
53 This was my hypothesis in 1927 (The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 306–310), and twenty years later, in 1946, it was conceded to be the correct solution (Delanglez, Mid-America, July and October, 1946, 183–185, 212–256).
54 J. R., LIV, 169–195, passim.
55 J. R., LVI, 115–117.
56 J. R., LVH, 249–263, passim.
57 Op. cit., 166, 192.
58 J. R., LIX, 185–211.
59 Marquette, pamphlet, 44.
60 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 247–248.
61 Marquette, pamphlet, 44.
62 Ibid.
63 New York, July 14, 1928, 335.
64 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 266–268.
65 J. R., LIX, 294.
66 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 193–197.
67 See Père Marquette—Oration of Hon. Wm. F. Vilas, pamphlet No. 27, published by The Truth Society, Chicago, 111., January, 1904. This pamphlet, which is now rather scarce and of which the writer has a copy, contains the speech which Senator Vilas of Wisconsin delivered in the Senate of the United States on April 29, 1896, when presenting to Congress the statue of Marquette that now adorns Statuary Hall in Washington, D. C.
68 J. R., LIX, 199–201.
69 The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 191.
70 Marquette, pamphlet, 43.
71 75th Congress, 1st Session—H.J.Res. 359—In the Senate of the United States, May 13 (calendar day, May 19), 1937.
72 Marquette, pamphlet, 41.
73 Strange that in this pamphlet the Thwaites edition of the Jesuit Relations, though listed among the “Readings,” is not referred to in the footnotes. Instead, the author cites and quotes from J. G. Shea’s Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley (Albany [should be Redfield], 1852). It was the second edition (1903) of this work that appeared in Albany. Again, though Repplier’s Père Marquette (New York, 1929) is listed among the “Readings,” Garraghan forgot to list my reply to Repplier’s unsound statements and groundless charges in this volume. My reply appeared in the now-defunct Fortnightly Review (St. Louis, Mo.), issues of February 15, March 1, and March 15, 1929. Neither does Garraghan tell his readers where they can find my reply to his own essay in Thought (New York), IV, 1929, 32–71, which is duly listed in his pamphlet. For my reply the reader must again consult The Fortnightly Review, 1929, issues of November and December, and 1930, issue of January. The writer mentions all this because it is possible that those who have the pamphlet of Garraghan might like to learn also the other side of the question.
74 Marquette, pamphlet, Section IV, passim.
75 Ibid., 30.
76 Ibid., 30–31.
77 See my essay “What Became of Jolliet’s Journal” in THE AMERICAS, V, 2 (October), 1948, 172–199, passim.
78 See The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, 288–291.