tions. As the Lutherans had eleven ministers in 1748, and forty churches three years after, the former could hardly have exceeded twenty-five, and the latter sixty, at the commencement of the Revolution— ry for worship (Kirchenagende), published in 1786.‡ The German Reformed churches were not more numerous. The Dutch Reformed churches had thirty ministers and eighty-two congregations in 1784. In 1776, the Associate Church had thirteen ministers, and perhaps twenty churches. The Moravians had probably twelve min ardour manifested in these melancholy cir-, ed at about 250 at most; the churches at cumstances is indescribable. If a hundred about 300.* In 1788, the Presbyterians had men are required, many more immediately exactly 177 ministers, and 417 congregaoffer, and are dissatisfied when they are not accepted. I know of no similar case in history. Neighbourhoods, concerning which it would have been expected that years would be requisite to induce them voluntarily to take up arms, became strong-judging by the statistics of the directoly inclined for war as soon as the battle of Lexington was known. Quakers and Mennonists take part in the military exercises, and in great numbers renounce their former religious principles. The hoarse din of war is hourly heard in our streets. The present disturbances inflict no small injury on religion. Everybody is constantly on the alert, anxious, like the ancient Athe-isters and six or eight churches. The Newnians, to hear the news, and, amid the mass of news, the hearts of men are, alas! closed against the good word of God. The Lord is chastising the people, but they do not feel it. Those who appear to be distant from danger are unconcerned; and those whom calamity has overtaken are enraged, and meditating vengeance. In the American army there are many clergymen, who serve both as chaplains and as officers. I myself know two, one of whom is a colonel, and the other a captain. The whole coun-ty-six in number when the war of the try is in perfect enthusiasm for liberty. The whole population, from New-England to Georgia, is of one mind, and determined to risk life and all things in defence of liberty. The few who think differently are not permitted to utter their sentiments. In Philadelphia the English and German students are formed into military companies, wear uniforms, and are exercised like regular troops. Would to God that men would become as zealous and unanimous in asserting their spiritual liberty as they are in vindicating their political freedom." England Congregationalists could not, at the commencement of the Revolution, have had above 700 churches and 575 pastors. The Baptists, in 1784, had 424 ministers, and 471 churches or congregations. The Methodists, at the time of the Revolution, did not exist as a body distinct from the Established Episcopal Church, and had no ordained ministers. As for the Roman Catholics, according to Bishop England's estimate, their priests did not exceed twen Revolution commenced, but their congregations were at least twice as numerous. T These statements, though far from precise, are from the best sources, and suffice to give a tolerably correct view of the numbers of the clergy and churches at the commencement of the national existence of the country, and for the first ten years after the breaking out of hostilities with England. From the best estimate I can make, it seems very certain that in 1775 the total number of ministers of the Gospel in the United States did not exceed 1441, nor the congregations 1940. Indeed, I am convinced that this is rather too large an estimate.' ** The population of the thirteen ments. "History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States," by Dr. Hodge, part ii., p. 504. It required some time for the churches to recover from the demoralizing effects of a war which had drawn the whole nation into its circle, and lasted for eight long years. But the times immediately follow* The number of the clergy and churches in the ing the Revolution wére, as I have remark- Episcopal Church, given in the text, has been estied, far from being favourable to the re-mated from various historical sketches and docususcitation of true religion, and to the restoration of the churches, even to the condition, unsatisfactory as it was, in which they stood previously to the contest. Through God's blessing, however, they not only shared in the returning tranquillity of the country, but from that time to this, with some short periods of interruption, have steadily grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength. It is not easy to ascertain what was the exact number of ministers and churches in the United States when these became severed from England, but the following estimate cannot be very wide of the truth. The Episcopal clergymen may be reckon in Dr. Schmucker's "Retrospect of Lutheranism the United States. Church in another part of this work. See the Historical sketch of the Reformed Dutch View of the Baptist churches in America, given in the "American Quarterly Register," vols. xiii. and xiv. ¶ Letter from Bishop England, of Charleston, to the Central Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, at Lyons, published in the " Annales de la Propagation de la Foi," for the month of May, 1838, vol. x. is ** The most exact approximation which I make as follows: Episcopalians colonies at that epoch did not exceed I apprehend, in Europe, with respect to the 3,500,000, of whom about 500,000 were slaves. If we assume the number of ministers to have been 1441, and the population 3,500,000 in 1775, then we have one minister of the Gospel, on an average, for every 2429 souls, which, I apprehend, is not far from the exact truth. dissolution of the union of Church and State in the United States. First, many seem to think that it was a natural and inevitable result of the separation of the colonies from the mother-country, and of the independent position which they had assumed. But that union connected the established churches of America, not with At that epoch there was no bishop in the mother-country, but with the colonial either the Protestant Episcopal or Roman governments; so that, when the colonies Catholic Church. There were at that time became states, the alliance that had subnine colleges and two medical schools, but sisted between them and certain churchno schools of law or theology. es was not necessarily affected. These The changes that took place in the gen-churches, in fact, remained, as before, part eral and local government of the thirteen original colonies, on their achieving their independence, have been already noticed. Religion, as well as every other interest, shared in the change of relations that ensued. Henceforth it was with Congress and the State Legislatures, or, rather, with the National and State Governments, that the churches had to do, so far as they had any political relations to sustain at all. and parcel of the states, and upon these they continued to be as dependant as ever. They never had any ties with England, beyond falling incidentally, as did the colonies themselves, under the operation of English laws. Again, many imagine that the union of Church and State in America was dissolved by an act of Congress; that is, by an act of the General Government. But this It will be my object in this book to point was not the case. An article of the Conout the changes that took place in the re-stitution, it is true, restrains Congress from lations of the churches to the civil power, and to show their actual position with regard to it at the present moment. This I will try to do with all the brevity consistent with a lucid treatment of the subject. We have now to see by what means that union of Church and State, which connected the Congregational Church in the North and the Episcopal Church in the Middle and South, with the civil government, was dissolved; what were the results of that dissolution; and what the position in which the churches now stand to the civil power, whether as represented by the General Government or the individual States. CHAPTER II. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH establishing any particular religion; but this restriction is not in the original draught of the Constitution; it forms one of certain amendments adopted soon after, and runs as follows: "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That is to say, the General Government shall not make any law for the support of any particular church, or of all the churches. But neither this, nor any other article in the Constitution of the United States, prohibits individual states from making such laws. The Constitution simply declares what shall be the powers of the General Government, leaving to the State governments such powers as it does not give to the General Government. This, in refer-. ence to the subject in hand, is manifest from the fact that "the establishment of religion," as we shall presently see, survived for many years, in some states, their adhesion to the Constitution of the United States. Lastly, many persons in Europe seem MORE than one erroneous idea prevails, of Church and State was annihilated at to be under the impression that the union the Revolution, or, at all events, ceased. upon the organization of the State governments being completed. This, however, was not so in all cases. The connexion between the civil power in all the states in which Episcopacy had been established in the colonial period was dissolved, very soon after the Revolution, by acts of their respective Legislatures. But the Congregational Church in New-England continued to be united with the State, and to be supported by it, long after the Revolution. Indeed, it was not until 1833 that the last tie that bound the Church to the State in articles were opposed, or (which was more Massachusetts was severed. CHAPTER III. DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND THE first State that dissolved its connexion with the Church was Virginia, a circumstance that seems surprising at first sight, inasmuch as its early colonists were all sincere friends of its established Episcopal Church, and for a long period were joined by few persons of different sentiments. Indeed, for more than a century dissent was scarcely, if at all, allowed to exist within the commonwealth, even in the most secret manner. common) not mentioned at all; so that, Prior to 1740, there was only one Presbyterian congregation, it is believed, in Eastern Virginia, though the Scotch and Irish emigrants from Pennsylvania must have introduced several into the Valley.† There were also a few Quaker societies, some small German congregations, and a considerable number of Baptist churches, which, though small and scattered, embraced, perhaps, a larger number of persons, upon the whole, than all the other dissenting bodies put together. It was about this time that a Mr. Samuel Morris, a layman, who had been brought to the knowledge of salvation by the reading of the Scriptures, and by the perusal of Flavel's works, and Luther on the Galatians, began to invite his neighbours, who, like himself, had been living in great ignorance of the Gospel, to come to his house on the Sabbath, and hear him read his favourite authors. Such were the crowds that attended, that a house had soon to be. built of size sufficient to contain them. To Flavel and Luther there was added a volume of Whitfield's sermons, as furnishing. spiritual food for these hungry souls. They were visited in 1743 by the Rev. Mr. Robinson, a Presbyterian sent from New-Jersey on a missionary tour to the South. His preaching was greatly blessed to "the Readers." He taught them to conduct their worship in the Presbyterian way, and was followed by other ministers of the same denomination. Though they were often fined for not attending the services of the Established Church, these simplehearted and excellent people continued their meetings. In 1747, the Rev. Mr. Davies, mentioned above, was sent to them by the Presbytery of Newcastle, in Dela66 parsons,' as ware; and, with the exception of some months spent on a visit to England, he laboured among them until 1759, when he was chosen President of the College of Two causes, however, concurred in producing an alteration of these feelings towards the Established Church. First, many whose attachment to it had been owing to their birth, education, and early prepossessions, became disgusted with the irreligious lives of many of the clergy, and the greediness with which, notwithstanding that most of their time was spent in foxhunting and other sports, in company with the most dissolute of their parishioners, they were ready to contend for the last pound of tobacco allowed them as their legal salary. Such, indeed, was the character of those clergymen, that any one who makes himself minutely acquainted with their doings, must feel amazed that the church which they dishonoured should have retained its hold upon the respect of the Virginian colonists as long as it did. What attachment to it remained, must be ascribed to its having at all times had some faithful and excellent ministers who mourned over these scandals, and by their personal worth redeemed in some measure the body to which they belonged from the infamy brought upon it by their reprobate fellow-clergymen, or they were oftener called. These exceptions, however, did not prevent multitudes from abandoning the Church of their fathers, around which their earliest and tenderest associations still clustered.. "Had the doctrines of the Gospel," says one who became an honoured instrument of much good in Virginia, and probably the most eloquent preacher of his day in America, "been solemnly and faithfully preached in the Established Church, I am persuaded there would have been but few Dissenters in these parts of Virginia; for their first objections were not against the peculiar rites and ceremonies of that Church, much less against her excellent articles, but against the general strain of the doctrines delivered from the pulpit, in which those The Rev. Samuel Davies, in his "Narrative on the State of Religion among Dissenters in Virginia." The "Valley of Virginia" is a fine district of country which lies west of the first ridge of the Alothers which lie still farther to the west. It reaches leghany Mountains, and between that ridge and quite across the state, from northeast to southwest, and is considered the best part of it for fertility of soil. It is a part of the same valley which extends across Maryland into Pennsylvania. In the latter state it is called Cumberland Valley. A counterpart to these worthy inquirers after divine knowledge is found at the present day in the northern parts of Sweden and in Norway, where groups of persons meet on the Sabbath after church spiritual nourishment, to read the Bible and other service, which in too many cases furnishes but poor good books. New-Jersey. He succeeded in building up | Synod of New-York and Philadelphia, the seven churches, and from that time Pres- highest ecclesiastical body among the Presbyterianism made very considerable prog-byterians of America at that time, addressress in Eastern Virginia; so that, when ed to their churches a very judicious and the war of the Revolution began, the Pres- patriotic letter, which, while it displayed a bytery of Hanover in that colony was a firm spirit of loyalty towards the governnumerous body, and comprehended some ment of England, evidently and naturally very able and eloquent ministers. The sympathized with the contest then begun— Scotch and Irish Presbyterians were at the a contest which it was thought could not same time increasing in the western part be abandoned without the sacrifice of their of the province. The Baptist congrega- dearest rights. Few persons supposed at tions increased even more rapidly. Still, that time that the struggle was to end in a it was not always easy to avoid suffering separation from the mother-country. But from the interference of the civil authori- when, in the following year, the Congress ties. The Act of, Toleration, passed in issued its Declaration of Independence, the England on the 28th of June, 1687, extended whole face of matters was changed, and unquestionably to the colonies, yet not a ministers of the Gospel had to make their few obstacles continued to be thrown in the election-whether they would recognise way of dissenters, almost down to the open- and obey the act of the Congress, or still ing scenes of the Revolutionary drama. adhere to the sovereignty of England. Then it was that the first body of clergy of any denomination in America that openly recognised that act, and thereby identified themselves with the cause of freedom and independence, was the comparatively numerous and very influential Presbytery of Hanover in Virginia. At its first meeting after the appearance of the Declaration, that body addressed the Virginia House of Assembly in a memorial, recommending the separation of Church and State, and the leaving of the support of the Gospel to the voluntary efforts of its friends. The memorial runs as follows: When the Revolution came at last, the Baptists and Presbyterians were, almost to a man, in its favour; and many of these, but especially of the former, whose preachers had suffered by far the most from the civil authorities in the earlier part of the century, at the instigation, as they believed, whether justly or unjustly, of the clergy of the Established Church, were not a little influenced in the course they then adopted by the hope of seeing the success of the Revolution lead to the overthrow of an establishment which they regarded with feelings of repugnance, and even of hostility. In these circumstances, it was to be expected that before the Revolution had made much progress, an assault would be made on the Established Church; such an assault was made, and not without success. As the history of this matter is not a little interesting, and almost quite unknown in Europe, I may enter upon it at some length. A very general impression prevails in England, and perhaps elsewhere, that the entire separation of Church and State in America was the work of Mr. Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who took a distinguished part in the struggle, and who, upon being charged with drawing up the Declaration of Independence, executed the task so much to the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. Now none of Mr. Jefferson's admirers will consider it slanderous to assert that he was a very bitter enemy to Christianity, and we may even assume that he wished to see not only the Episcopal Church separated from the State in Virginia, but the utter overthrow of everything in the shape of a church throughout the country. Still, it was not Jefferson that induced the State of Virginia to pass the Act of Separation. That must be ascribed to the petitions and other efforts of the Presbyterians and Baptists. No sooner was war declared than the "To the Honourable the General Assembly of Virginia. The memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover humbly represents : That your memorialists are governed by the same sentiments which have inspired the United States of America, and are determined that nothing in our power and influence shall be wanting to give success to their common cause. We would also represent that dissenters from the Church of England in this country have ever been desirous to conduct themselves as peaceable members of the civil government, for which reason they have hitherto submitted to various ecclesiastical burdens and restrictions that are inconsistent with equal liberty. But now, when the many and grievous oppressions of our mother-coun try have laid this Continent under the necessity of casting off the yoke of tyranny, and of forming independent governments upon equitable and liberal foundations, we flatter ourselves that we shall be freed from all the encumbrances which a spirit of. domination, prejudice, or bigotry has interwoven with most other political systems. This we are the more strongly encouraged to expect by the Declaration of Rights, so universally applauded for that dignity, firmness, and precision with which it delineates and asserts the privileges of society, and the prerogatives of human nature; and which we embrace as the Magna Charta of our commonwealth, that sequently, the progress of arts, sciences, can never be violated without endangering and manufactures.. Witness the rapid the grand superstructure it was designed growth and improvement of the Northern to sustain. Therefore, we rely upon this provinces compared with this. No one Declaration, as well as the justice of our can deny that the more early settlement, honourable Legislature, to secure us the and the many superior advantages of our free exercise of religion according to the country, would have invited multitudes of dictates of our consciences; and we should artificers, mechanics, and other useful fall short in our duty to ourselves, and the members of society, to fix their habitation many and numerous congregations under among us, who have either remained in our care, were we, upon this occasion, to their place of nativity, or preferred worse neglect laying before you a statement of civil governments, and a more barren soil, the religious grievances under which we where they might enjoy the rights of conhave hitherto laboured, that they may no science more fully than they had a proslonger be continued in our present form of pect of doing in this. From which we ingovernment. fer that Virginia might have now been the capital of America, and a match for the British arms, without depending on others for the necessaries of war, had it not been prevented by her religious establishment. "It is well known that in the frontier counties, which are justly supposed to contain a fifth part of the inhabitants of Virginia, the dissenters have borne the heavy burdens of purchasing glebes, building "Neither can it be made to appear that churches, and supporting the established the Gospel needs any such civil aid. We clergy, where there are very few Episco- rather conceive that, when our blessed palians, either to assist in bearing the ex- Saviour declares his kingdom is not of this pense, or to reap the advantage; and that world, he renounces all dependance upon throughout the other parts of the country state power; and as his weapons are spirthere are also many thousands of zealous itual, and were only designed to have infriends and defenders of our State, who, fluence on the judgment and heart of man, besides the invidious and disadvantageous we are persuaded that if mankind were restrictions to which they have been sub-left in the quiet possession of their inalienjected, annually pay large taxes to support an Establishment from which their consciences and principles oblige them to dissent; all which are confessedly so many violations of their natural rights, and, in their consequences, a restraint upon freedom of inquiry and private judgment. "In this enlightened age, and in a land where all of every denomination are united in the most strenuous efforts to be free, we hope and expect that our representatives will cheerfully concur in removing every species of religious as well as civil bondage. Certain it is, that every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of religion; and there is no argument in favour of establishing the Christian religion but may be pleaded, with equal propriety, for establishing the tenets of Mohammed by those who believe the Alcoran; or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith, without erecting a claim to infallibility, which would lead us back to the Church of Rome. "We beg leave farther to represent, that religious establishments are highly injurious to the temporal interests of any community. Without insisting upon the ambition and the arbitrary practices of those who are favoured by government, or the intriguing, seditious spirit which is commonly excited by this, as well as by every other kind of oppression, such establishments greatly retard population, and, con able religious privileges, Christianity, as in the days of the Apostles, would continue to prevail and flourish in the greatest purity by its own native excellence, and under the all-disposing providence of God. "We would also humbly represent, that the only proper objects of civil government are the happiness and protection of men in the present state of existence; the security of the life, liberty, and property of the citizens, and to restrain the vicious and encourage the virtuous by wholesome laws, equally extending to every individual; but that the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the universal Judge. "Therefore, we ask no ecclesiastical establishments for ourselves; neither can we approve of them when granted to others. This, indeed, would be giving exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges to one set of men, without any special public services, to the common reproach and injury of every other denomination. And, for the reasons recited, we are induced earnestly to entreat that all laws now in force in this commonwealth, which countenance religious domination, may be speedily repealed; that all, of every religious sect, may be protected in the full exercise of their several modes of worship; exempted from all taxes for the support of any Church whatsoever, farther than what may be agreeable to their own |