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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
11
CATHOLICS IN GEORGIA
THOMAS F. WALSH, JR.
While the Big Four Walshes in the North and West
are adding lustre to that honorable name, another
Walsh, a Georgian, is doing his duty to make it even
more noteworthy in the South. He is Thomas F.
Walsh, Jr., of Savannah.
Mr. Walsh was born at Beaufort, S. C., August
22, 1879. He was educated in the public grammar
and high school of Beaufort and at the University
of South Carolina, Columbia. On December 20,
1901, he was admitted to practice before the Georgia
Bar, later becoming a member of the law firm of
Anderson, Gann, Cann & Walsh. Later he withdrew
from that partnership, to form the new firm of Mc-
Intire, Walsh & Bernstein.
He was married on October 3, 1904, to Miss Mary
LaPrince Jager, in St. Mary’s Church, Charleston,
S. C. Three children have blessed this union, Mary
Elizabeth, Margaret N., and Thomas F. Walsh, III.
Mrs. Walsh is now serving her second term as presi
dent of the Catholic Women’s Club, of Savannah.
Mr. Walsh was the third president of the Cath
olic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, and is still one
of the most active members of the organization. He
is State Deputy of the Knights of Columbus of Geor
gia, Past Grand Knight of the Savannah Council of
the Knights, and deeply interested in all the affairs
of Knighthood, attending the national conventions
annually.
He is quite as prominent in civic affairs as he is
in religious and fraternal circles. During the World
War he served as head of the Local Draft Board No.
2 of Savannah, which had the reputation of sending
more men into service than any other Board in
Georgia.
Mr. Walsh has been Assistant United States Dis
trict Attorney, president of the Savannah Bar Asso
ciation, and Associate District Counsel for the Sea
board Air Line Railway.
Those who know Mr. Walsh best describe him as
a man whose ability is exceeded only by his aversion
to the limelight, a man of decision, a deep thinker,
a student with a surprising store of information on
diverse subjects, a staunch believer in the future of
Georgia, and a loyal son of the Church.
CARDINAL GIBBONS ON THE CONSTITUTION
An article on the Constitution of the United States,
written by His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, in a re
cent issue of the Baltimore Catholic Review, declares
the Constitution a safeguard of religious liberty, and
calls on all Americans to uphold the principles of the
Constitution. The article, which inspired some favor
able comment in the secular press of Georgia, is re
produced here:
“As the years go by I am more than ever con
vinced that the Constitution of the United States is
the greatest instrument of government that ever issued
from the hand of man. Drawn up in the infancy of
our Republic, and amid the fears and suspicions and
oppositions of many patriotic men, it has weathered
the storm periods of American public life, and has
proved elastic enough to withstand every strain put
upon it by party spirit, Western development, world
wide immigration, wars, little and great, far-reaching
social and economic changes, inventions and discov
eries, the growth of individual wealth and the vagaries
of endless reformers.
“That within the short space of 1 00 years we have
grown to be a great nation, so much so that today the
United States is rightly regarded as the first among
the nations of the earth is due to the Constitution, the
palladium of our liberties and the landmark of our
march of progress.
“When George Washington secured its final adop
tion, largely out of respect for his judgment and as a
tribute of confidence in him, he made all mankind
his debtor forever, for the Constitution has proved
the bulwark of every right and every fair promise
that the American Revolution stood for. With the
Constitution came the solidarity and the union which
has marked our progress up to now; without it we
would have remained thirteen independent colonies,
with the passions and prejudices peculiar to each.
For all times to come may it remain the instrument
safeguarding our national life and insuring us the
liberties and freedom which it guarantees.
Palladium of Religious Liberty.
“For the first time in the history of mankind re
ligious liberty was here secured to all men as a right
under federal protection.
“That was indeed a big thing, a mighty thing for a
man to do, to write into the fundamentals of a gov
ernment enactments that would stem the tide of pop
ular and traditional prejudices. But that the Consti
tution of the United States did, so that not only was
religious intolerance branded as something un-Ameri
can, but future American citizens came to our shores,
full hearted, and well disposed and the whole world
was made a debtor to the wise founders of this charter
of human rights and human interests.
“Had this wise provision been left out of the Con
stitution who could have foreseen the evils confront
ing us!
“No one knows better than myself what a line of
demarcation and separation religion can cut in this
country from ocean to ocean, and no one has been
more eager and earnest in his effort to keep down and
repress religious distinction.
“I fear no enemy from without. The enemy I fear
is he who, forgetting human nature and the history
of Europe, would raise the question of another’s re
ligious belief, and introduce strife and discord into
the life of our country. So deep and strong are re
ligious feelings that any fostering of religious differ
ences can have but one effect, to destroy what a hun
dred years of trial and test has proved to be the great
est blessing enjoyed by man here below.
Religious Beliefs Protected.
“Fortunately our common law protects every
American in his religious belief, as protects him in
his civil rights so that whatever offenses may be
occasionally committed here in this respect, are local
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