A basis of adjustment will, I am confident, be ultimately worked out, which will be fair and just to all denominations. But in the meantime the private schools where both secular and religious training are given to children, including the Catholic parochial schools, must continue to be erected, equipped and supported wholly by the members of the various denominations. There are now numerous Protestant private schools where the Protestant faith is being taught; and what is true of the Catholic parochial schools is also true of the Protestant schools. We are all so accustomed to the blessings of absolute religious liberty that we really find it difficult to imagine that any other condition could ever have been tolerated in the free air of America, and we are very apt to overlook or minimize the value of the most precious privilege we enjoy. Yet, it is only a few generations since religious intolerance prevailed in the United States and Catholics were mercilessly and barbarously persecuted. The first constitution of the state of New York in 1777 discriminated against Catholics by permitting only Protestants to become citizens of the state, and this was done notwithstanding the fact that the Continental Congress had three years before entreated the states to bury religious intolerance forever in oblivion. At one time in the colony of New York Catholic priests were hunted as criminals, were condemned to perpetual imprisonment if apprehended, and were to suffer the death penalty if they broke prison and were retaken. Catholics could not hold civil or military positions, and could not even worship God according to their faith without becoming criminals and liable to imprisonment. The only period of full religious tolerance and liberty in our colonial history was for a short time during the term of Governor Dongan, who was a Roman Catholic. All this intolerance has happily passed away never to return, and religious liberty is now firmly established. I recall the past only in order to impress upon your minds that we should treasure this blessing and be ever grateful to the generation of Americans, overwhelmingly Protestant, which gave us religious freedom and in doing so went far toward atoning for the past persecution of Catholics.