His opponents called him ""Dagger John"" with mixed derision and awe. His enemies, and there were many of them, used uglier words. His allies approached him with careful deference, his subordinates with trepidation. He was, in real life, the Most Reverend John Hughes, Archbishop of New York, a one-time day laborer and foreman of slaves who became a preacher and pamphleteer and a political force to be reckoned with. No demure ecclesiastic, Hughes was...