It is manifest, therefore, that while the population of a large proportion of the Atlantic States, and of parts of the older ones in the West, is hardly dense enough to render the support of Gospel ordinances easy, the difficulty of effecting this is immensely increased in many quarters, but especially in the West, by the inhabitants being much more widely scattered. I shall show in another place how this difficulty is, in a good measure, at least, overcome; here it is enough that I point to its existence. tionably much exceed an average of 500,000 per annum, unless checked by some great calamity, of which there is no prospect. Now to provide churches and pastors for such an increase as this is no very easy matter, yet it must either be done, or, sooner or later, the great bulk of the nation, as some have predicted, will sink into heathenism. How far this is likely, judging from what has been done and is now doing, we shall see in another place. Here I simply state the magnitude of the diffi Personal experience alone can give any one a correct idea of the difficulties attend-culty. ing the planting and supporting of church- Finally, the constant emigration from the es and pastors in that vast frontier coun- old states to the new, and even from the try in the West, where the population, older to the newer settlements in the lattreading on the heels of the Indians, is, ter, is a great obstacle to the progress of year after year, advancing into the forests. religion in all places from which a part of A few scattered families, at wide intervals, the population is thus withdrawn. It occaare engaged in cutting down the huge sionally happens in one or other of the Attrees, and clearing what at first are but .lantic States, that a church is almost broken little patches of ground. In a year or two up by the departure, for the Western the number is doubled. In five or six States, of families on whom it mainly deyears the country begins to have the ap- pended for support. Most commonly, pearance of being inhabited by civilized however, this emigration is so gradual, that men. But years more must roll away be- the church has time to recruit itself from fore the population will be dense enough other families, who arrive and take the to support churches at convenient distan- place of those who have gone away. Thus, ces from each other, and to have ministers unless where a church loses persons of of the Gospel to preach in them every Sab- great influence, the loss is soon repaired. bath. Yet this work must be done, and it | In the cities of the East, and their suburban is doing to an extent which will surprise quarters especially, from the population many into whose hands this book may fall. being of so floating a character, this evil But if the thinness of the population be is felt quite as much as in the country. an obstacle, how great must be that of its rapid increase in the aggregate? I say in the aggregate, for it is manifest that its increase in the thinly-settled districts must so far be an advantage. But with this increase diffusing itself into new settlements, we have a double difficulty to contend with the increase itself demanding a great augmentation of churches and ministers, and its continued dispersion rendering it difficult to build the one and support the other, even were a sufficiency of pastors to be found. This difficulty would be quite appalling, if long contemplated apart from the vast efforts made to meet and overcome it. The population of the United States was, in 1790, 3,929,827; in 1800, 5,305,925; in 1810, 7,239,814; in 1820, 9,638,131; in 1830, 12,866,920; and in 1840, 17,068,666.* The reader may calculate for himself the average annual increase during each of the five decades which have elapsed since 1790. But it is not so easy to ascertain the precise yearly increase. From 1830 to 1840 it was 4,201,746, being at the average rate of 420,174 souls per annum. During the decade from 1840 to 1850, it will unques * Including seamen in the government service, not included in the enumerations commonly published. Hence the difference between the statements in the text and those the reader may meet with elsewhere. But the difference is only 6100. But it must not be forgotten, that what. is an evil in the East, by withdrawing valuable support from the churches there, proves a great blessing to the West, by transferring thither Christian families, to originate and support new churches in that quarter. CHAPTER XV. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM THAT the coexistence in one country of two such different races as the Caucasian and the African, standing to each other in the relation of masters and slaves, should retard the progress of true religion there, it requires but little knowledge of human nature to believe. Slavery has been a curse in all past time, and by no possibility can it be otherwise. It fosters a proud, arrogant, and unfeeling spirit in the master, and naturally leads to servility and meanness, to deceitfulness and dishonesty, in the slave. Either way it is disastrous to true religion. But I have no intention to speak here of the nature of slavery, its past history, present condition, or future prospects in I might mention, that the reluctance of slaves to worship in the same congregation with their masters is unfavourable to the interests of true piety. That there is such a reluctance, every one knows who has had much to do with the institution of slavery. It often shows itself in the hesitation of slaves to come to the family altar, even in families which are known to treat them with kindness. the United States. My object is simply to society extremely unfavourable to the proshow how it operates as one of the great-viding of a sufficient number of churches est obstacles to the promotion of religion; | and pastors for the spiritual wants of all and, as such, militates against the success classes-rich and poor, slaves and free. of the voluntary system there. Slavery, This holds especially in the case of large indeed, may easily be shown to be pecu- landed estates, with many hundred slaves liarly an obstacle to that system. in the possession of a small number of rich proprietors. In such circumstances, a church capable of containing one or two hundred persons might, perhaps, accommodate all the masters and their families within the compass of a very large parish, whereas an immense edifice would be required for the accommodation of all their slaves. Now, where this is the state of things, there is danger that the landowners, being few in number, may grudge the expense of maintaining a church and pastor at all, however well able to do so; or that, with horses and carriages at their command, all the rich within one vast district will join in having public worship at some central point, where few, comparatively, of the slaves and labouring white population will find it possible to attend. Where even a few of the rich proprietors are religious men, there is no difficulty in having the Gospel brought, not only to their own doors, but also to those of their slaves and other dependants. But where they are indifferent, or opposed to religion, then not only does the Gospel not reach them, but if it reaches their slaves, it must be with great difficulty, and often very irregularly. For, be it remembered, that a slave population is generally too poor to contribute anything worth mentioning for the support of the Gospel. Blessed be God, there is a way, as I shall show hereafter, by which some of the evils here spoken of may be mitigated; and that is by the system of itinerant preaching employed in the United States, so extensively, and so usefully, by the Methodists. This fact is easily accounted for. Human nature, however degraded, and whether wearing a black or a white skin, has still some remains of pride, or, rather, some consciousness of what is due to itself, and it is not wonderful that it avoids as much as possible. coming into contact with persons, however worthy and kind they may be, to whom it feels itself placed in ignoble subjection. Therefore it is that the negro of our Southern States prefers going to a church composed of people of his own colour, and where no whites appear. Slaves, also, sometimes prefer places of worship where greater latitude is allowed for noisy excitement, to whatever denomination of Christians they may belong, than would be tolerated in the religious assemblies of white people. I am not aware that I have exaggerated, as some may think, the repugnance of the slaves to join in religious worship with their masters. One thing is certain: that, whether from such repugnance, or some other cause, the slaves like better to meet by themselves, wherever allowed to do so. That the separation of the two classes thus occasioned is injurious to the spiritual interests of both, must be evident from a moment's consideration. So long as slavery exists in the world, the Gospel enjoins their appropriate duties upon both masters and slaves, and they should be made to hear of those duties in each other's presence. This should be done kindly, but also faithfully. And no Christian master can excuse himself from doing the duty which he owes to his slave, in relation to his spiritual and immortal interests, by saying that he permits him to go he hardly knows whither, and to be taught those things which concern his highest happiness by he knows not whom. Where, indeed, the master himself is wholly indifferent to the subject of religion, as, alas! is too often the case, it is well that the slave is allowed and disposed to seek religious instruction anywhere. But one of the greatest evils of slavery, as respects the maintenance of Christian institutions, is, that it creates a state of Contemplating these difficulties, we shall come to the conclusion that if, in any part of the United States, the support of the Gospel by taxation enforced by law is better adapted to the circumstances of the people than the voluntary plan, it is in the seaboard counties of Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Still, it will be found that even there the voluntary system has not been wholly inefficient, but that, through the ministry either of fixed or itinerant preachers of righteousness, it has carried the Gospel to the inhabitants of all classes, to an extent which, under such adverse circumstances, might seem impracticable. It must be noted, that while such are the difficulties that oppose the maintenance of a Christian ministry in the slaveholding states, there is a special necessity for the preaching of the Gospel there. It is emphatically by the "hearing" of the Word that the slaves can be expected to come to in the mass, they are much superior to the Irish in point of frugality and sobriety. Many of the Germans have of late years brought with them considerable sums of money, and though a good many are Roman Catholics, yet the majority are Protestants. A large proportion of them now come from the kingdoms of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, and from the Duchy of Baden; whereas, in former times, they came chiefly from the eastern and northern parts of Germany. Now, although, no doubt, the mortality among these emigrants from Europe, caused by exposure, anxiety, fatigue, and diseases incident to a strange climate, is far greater than among native Americans, yet the yearly accession of so many people, ignorant in a degree of the nature of our institutions, about half of them unable to speak English, and nearly half of them, also, Roman Catholics, must impose a heavy responsibility, and a great amount of labour upon the churches in order to provide them with the means of grace. Everything possible must be done for the adults among them, but hope can be entertained chiefly for the young. These grow up speaking the language and breathing the spirit of their adopted country, and thus the process of assimilation goes steadily on. In a thousand ways the emigrants who are, as it were, cast upon our shores, are brought into contact with a better religious influence than that to which many of them have been accustomed in the Old World. Every year some of them are gathered into our churches, while, as I have said, their children grow up Americans in their feelings and habits. All this is especially true of the emigrants who, meaning to make the country their home, strive to identify themselves with it. There are others, however, and particularly those who, having come to make their fortunes as merchants and traders, calculate upon returning to Europe, that never become American in feeling and spirit. From such no aid is to be expected in the benevolent efforts made by Christians to promote good objects among us. emigrants from the British islands, but they are chiefly to be found among the lowest class of them. Thus, as I remarked before, while the emigration from Europe to the United States brings us no inconsiderable number of worthy people, it introduces also a large amount of ignorance, poverty, and vice. Besides this, it is difficult to supply with religious institutions, and it takes long to Americanise, if I may use the expression, in feeling, conduct, and language, those multitudes from the Continent of Europe who cannot understand or speak English. Many of the Germans, in particular, in consequence of the impossibility of finding a sufficient number of fit men to preach in German, were at one time sadly destitute of the means of grace in their dispersion over the country. But within the last fifteen years a brighter prospect has opened upon that part of our population, as I shall have to show in its place. I have not charged upon the ordinary emigration to the shores of America the great amount of crime in the United States, which may be traced to the escape thither of criminals from Europe; for these cannot, with propriety, be regarded as constituting a part of that emigration. Nevertheless, it is the case that much of the crime committed in America, from that of the honourable merchant who scruples not to defraud the custom-house, if he can, down to the outrages of the man who disturbs the streets with his riots, is the work of foreigners. It may be said, I am sure, with the strictest truth, that in no country is a foreigner who deserves well treated with more respect and kindness than in America; in no country will he find less difference between the native and the adopted citizen; in no country do men become more readily assimilated in principle and feeling to the great body of the people, or more fully realize the fact that they form a constituent part of the nation. I have now finished the notice which I intended to take of some of the obstacles which the voluntary system has had to enI have been struck with the fact that, counter in the United States. I might mengenerally speaking, our religious societies tion others were it necessary; but I have receive their most steady support from our said enough to show that it is a mistake to Anglo-American citizens. The emigrants suppose that it has had an open field and from the British realm, English, Welsh, an easy course there. I am far from sayScotch, and Irish, rank next in the interesting that if the experiment were to be made they take in our benevolent enterprises, in an old country, where the population is and in readiness to contribute to their sup- established and almost stationary-where port. The Germans rank next, the Swiss it is homogeneous and indigenous-there next, and the French last. There is most would not be other obstacles to encounter, infidelity among the French, yet it prevails greater, perhaps, than those to be found also, to a considerable degree, among the among us, and in some respects peculiar Swiss and Germans, among the better-in- to America. I only wish these difficulformed classes of whom it is, alas! too oft-ties not to be lost sight of as we advance en to be found. There is no want of infi- in this work, and that they should be apdelity and indifference to religion among preciated at their just value when we come to speak of subjects upon which they bear. Such are some of the topics which I thought it of consequence to treat beforehand, that the reader might be prepared for a better comprehension of the grand subject of this work. Upon the direct consideration of that subject we are now ready to enter. CHAPTER I. BOOK I I. THE COLONIAL ERA. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY NISTS.-FOUNDERS OF NEW-ENGLAND. I HAVE already remarked, that if we would understand the civil and political institutions of the United States of America, we must trace them from their earliest origin in Anglo-Saxon times, through their various developments in succeeding ages, until they reached their present condition in our own days. tion of the art of printing by an obscure COLO-facilities for the diffusion of knowledge German, two years later, gave immense among all classes of people. The discovery of America by a Genoese adventurer, towards the close of the same century (A.D. 1492), produced a revolution in the commerce of the world. A poor monk in Germany, preaching (A.D. 1517) against indulgences, emancipated whole nations from the domination of Rome. And the fortuitous arrival of a young French lawyer who had embraced the Faith of the Reformation at an inconsiderable city in Switzerland, situated on the banks of the Rhone, followed by his settling there, and organizing its ecclesiastical and civil institutions, was connected, in the mysterious providence of Him who knows the end from the beginning, and who employs all events to advance His mighty purposes, with the establishment of free institutions in England, their diffusion in America, and their triumph in other lands. In like manner, if we would thoroughly understand the religious condition and economy of the United States, we must begin with an attentive survey of the character of the early colonists, and of the causes which brought them to America. Besides, as has been well observed,* a striking analogy may be traced between natural bodies and bodies politic. Both retain in manhood and old age more or less of the characteristic traits of their infancy and youth. All nations bear some marks of their origin, the circumstances amid which they were born, and which favoured their early development, and left an impression that stamps their whole future existence. We begin our inquiry, therefore, into the religious history and condition of the United States, by portraying, as briefly as possible, the religious character of the first colonists, who may be regarded as the founders of that commonwealth. In doing this, we shall follow neither the chronological nor the geographical order, but shall first speak of the colonists of New-England; next, of those of the South; and, finally, of those of the Middle States. This gives us the advantage at once of grouping and of contrast. How wonderful are the events that sometimes flow from causes apparently the most inadequate, and even insignificant! The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, seemed to be only one of the ordinary events of war, and yet it led to the revival of letters among the higher classes of society throughout Europe. The inven * See M. de Tocqueville, " Démocratie en Amérique," Première Partie, tome i., chap. i. Also Lang's "Religion and Education in America," chap. i., page 11. The way had long been preparing for the Reformation in England by the opinions avowed by Wicliffe and his followers, and by the resistance of the government to the claims and encroachments of the ecclesiastical authorities. The light, too, which had begun to appear in Germany, cast its rays across the North Sea, and men were ere long to be found in Britain secretly cherishing the doctrines maintained by Luther. At length an energetic, but corrupt and tyrannical prince, after having been rewarded for writing against Luther, by receiving from the pope the title of "Defender of the Faith," thought fit to revenge the refusal of a divorce from his first wife by abolishing the papal supremacy in his kingdom, and transferring the headship of the Church, as well as of the State, to himself. But Henry VIII. desired to have no reformation either in the doctrines or the worship of the Church; and in his last years he revoked the general permission which he had granted for the reading of the Scriptures, being all that he had ever done in favour of the Reformation among the nobles and merchants. A tyrant at once people, and confined that privilege to the in spiritual and temporal matters, he punished every deviation from the ancient |