The First Catholic Speaker of the House Who Bridged the Divide Between Protestant and Catholic Americans

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To shop now, go to NFLshop.com. And we continue with our American stories. Our next story comes to us from Jeff Bloodworth, who's a professor of American history at Gannon University. He's also a fellow at the Jack Miller Center, a partner of ours here on our American stories.

Let's take a listen. John McCormick was the most American speaker of the house in US history. But the roots of this Americanness are not what he claimed them to be. The supposed son of Irish immigrants rose to national prominence alongside John Kennedy. In 1961, JFK was inaugurated as the nation's first Catholic president.

Later that year, McCormick became the first ever Catholic speaker of the house. Proof positive of immigrant America's rise to the mainstream, McCormick ironically had reinvented his immigrant story. In this, he could not be more American. America is the land of reinvention.

Ben Franklin, who is often called the first American, established the template. Born in Boston, he escaped indentured servitude as a teen by fleeing to Philadelphia. In that city, he reinvented his roots and in the process, made himself into a founding father. McCormick followed a similar path. He reinvented his immigrant story to become speaker of the house.

In that office, he presided over the most prodigious legislative session in American history and remade the nation's immigration policy. John McCormick claimed to be the eldest son of Irish immigrants, who dropped out of grammar school when his father died to be the family's breadwinner. In reality, his dad, Joe McCormick, was neither Irish nor dead. Joe McCormick was a Protestant Scotsman who hailed from Canada before settling in Boston.

The Nobies, as they were called, were despised in Irish Catholic Boston. And far from dead, Joe McCormick had instead abandoned his family. Added to this, the speaker was not his eldest son. To succeed in Irish Catholic Boston politics, young McCormick had reinvented his family history. His living Scottish, Novie father became a dead Irish immigrant. His live Irish mother, who was born in Boston to Irish immigrants, was now born in the old country.

His three older siblings, who were very much alive, were said to have died in infancy. The eldest son of Irish immigrants who supported a widow mother was a biography more befitting an ambitious politician. McCormick came from humble roots. Once his father left, he did drop out of high school to work and support his mother and younger siblings.

That much was true. Tall, gaunt, and reserved, he lacked the shamrock style made famous by colorful Boston politicians. Tellingly, in Congress, he befriended powerful southern congressional barons of Scotch-Irish descent. The Scotch-Irish were Protestant Scots who had immigrated to Ireland in the 17th century before coming to America in the 18th century.

The Scotch-Irish, as they were dubbed, largely settled in Appalachia and the South. Not coincidentally, McCormick, the reinvented Irish Catholic with a Scottish father, shared much in cultural style with these men. In Congress, McCormick was a bridge who built relationships and alliances across religious and regional lines, but the reinvented Irish politician nevertheless carried an urban Catholic grudge his entire political life. In the 1920s, rural Protestant America struck against Catholic urban immigrants via prohibition and immigration restrictions. Most everyone knows about prohibition, but forgotten to history was the 1924 National Origins Act. This legislation was the source of McCormick's grudge. The 1920 census revealed that urbanites outnumbered rural Americans for the very first time in U.S. history. Massive overseas immigration to cities had shifted to the United States and the United States immigration to cities had shifted power to urbanites from rural Americans. In reaction, Congress passed the 1924 National Origins Act.

The law, in effect, froze immigration, especially for Catholics and Jews coming from Southern and Eastern Europe. Elected to Congress in 1928, McCormick devoted his very first House speech to denouncing the law. He may have invented his Irish immigrant story, but the Congressman was a devout Catholic who loathed the anti-Catholicism and rural bias in the law. His career helped soothe these tensions. In 1940, he became majority leader alongside Texas speaker Sam Rayburn. For 21 years, the duo ruled over House Democrats, but their alliance was more than just a partnership between the two men. They established what was called the Austin-Boston alliance. In this, a congressman from Texas and Massachusetts held either the Democratic speaker or majority leader post for nearly a half century.

This cemented a political alliance between the Catholic and Jewish urban North and the rural Protestant South. McCormick was one half of the Democrats' political spine for more than his purported Irishness. A devout Catholic who never drank alcohol, he valued loyalty, remembered everything, and kept everyone's secrets.

There was never a hint of scandal in his political life. He and his wife Harriet Joyce were renowned for being one of Washington's most devoted couples. Unlike other congressional leaders who worked late and then hit the cocktail circuit, McCormick dined with his wife every night of their 51-year marriage.

Modest, thrifty, and upright, he was regarded as the moral compass of the House. In 1961, the legendary Sam Rayburn died. Elevated to the speaker's office, the 71-year-old McCormick became the first-ever Catholic speaker of the House. Along with JFK and Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield, in 1962 America's three highest-ranking officials were all Catholic. This was yet another sign of immigrant America's rise. After JFK's assassination, Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide victory gave speaker McCormick an historic opportunity.

And the speaker did not disappoint. In 1965, he passed 93% of all White House-submitted bills. And that session, alongside Franklin Roosevelt's first Congress, is recognized as the most productive in American history. But no single piece of legislation pleased McCormick more than the 1965 Immigration Act. Equipped with big majorities, passage of the bill was never in doubt. The only real roadblock was Cleveland Congressman Michael Feehan.

He chaired the House Subcommittee on Immigration, and he opposed reform. The administration had pushed a bill that gave skilled immigrants priority. But Feehan made family unification primary. In other words, those migrants seeking entry into the U.S. with an American citizen as a family member were given priority. Feehan believed this would keep American demography unchanged.

Ironically, Feehan's stipulation resulted in the exact opposite of his intentions. By the 1960s, European immigration to the U.S. had ebbed. But migration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America surged. It was these migrants who used Feehan's family unification policy. The results are clear. In 1965, 84% of the U.S. population consisted of non-Hispanic whites.

In 2015, that number fell to 62%. Today, this demographic change has made immigration into a hot-button political issue yet again. John McCormick would recognize today's debates. But Speaker McCormick's career shows that immigration is a solvable issue. We have survived these debates before and reached a consensus. So we can do so again. We did so in 1965 because Speaker McCormick, with his reinvented background, had built alliances beyond ethnic, religious, and regional boundaries.

The Austin-Boston alliance had bridged the rural, urban, and Catholic-Protestant divide. America is a land of reinvention. We American people we Americans are almost always in the process of reinvention and becoming something new. But in doing so, we stay true to our roots. Americans like Ben Franklin and John McCormick know that where you are from is not as important as where you are going. And no finer sentiment has been expressed on our show. We Americans are almost always in the process of becoming something new.

Where you are from is not nearly as important as where you're going. A terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Jeff Bloodworth for bringing us the story of Speaker John W. McCormick. And what a story indeed it was. And a special thanks to the Jack Miller Center.

He's a fellow there, Professor Bloodworth. And the Jack Miller Center is a nationwide network of scholars and teachers dedicated to educating the next generation about America's founding principles and history. And does this all sound familiar?

Immigration debates, the divide between rural America and the city? Well, it's still here folks. And that's why we love telling these stories. The story of Speaker John W. McCormick here on Our American Stories.

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