the bitter hostility which had lasted for four | ments on the part of the people. Thus centuries seemed to become extinct in the the cause of liberty gained ground both fifteenth, when the wars between the Hous- among the nobility and the commonalty. es of York and Lancaster ranged the two With the progress of the Reformation, races promiscuously on each side, yet tra- the strife between the two races became ces of their distinct existence are to be exasperated; the nobility and gentry defound at this day, in the language, in the siring little more than the abatement or customs, and in the institutions of England. rejection of the papal usurpation; the SaxAlthough the monarch no longer employs on race, led by men whose hearts were the ancient formula, as it occurs in royal more deeply interested in the subject, deordinances and proclamations for four hun- siring to see the Church rid of error and dred years after the Conquest, such as superstition of every form. From the disHenry V., Henry VII. of that name since cussion of the rights of conscience, the the conquest,' yet to this day a Norman latter went on to examine the nature and phraseology is sometimes employed by the foundations of civil government, and being monarch, as, for instance, le roy le veult; le met with violent opposition, they proceedroy s'advisera'; le roy mercie ses loyaux sued to lengths they never dreamed of when jets. To this day the nobility of England, they first set out. In the fearful struggle though recruited from time to time from the that followed, both the National Church rich, the talented, and the ambitious com- and the monarchy were for a time commoners of Saxon blood, remains essential-pletely overthrown. ly Norman in spirit and in character. The It was just as this grand opposition of same may be said of the gentry, or propri- sentiment was drawing on to a direct coletors of landed estates; whereas the great lision, and when men's minds were enbulk of the remaining population is of An- grossed with the important questions that glo-Saxon origin.‡ In Wales, and in Ire-it pressed upon them, that the two cololand, the races of the conquerors and the conquered appear still more distinct, and in the latter mutual antipathy is far from having ceased. In Scotland, there is comparatively little Norman blood, the Normans never having conquered that country.§ nies destined to exercise a predominant influence in America left the British shore. The first of the two in point of date sought the coasts of Southern, the second sailed to those of Northern Virginia, as the whole Atlantic slope was then called. The one settled on James River, in the present To the resistance of the Anglo-Saxon state of Virginia, and became, in a sense, race in England to the domination of the the ruling colony of the South; the other Norman aristocracy that kingdom was ul-established itself in New-England, there timately indebted for the free institutions it now enjoys. The oppressions of the nobility and of the crown were checked by the cities and boroughs, in which the Anglo-Saxon commons became more and more concentrated, with the advance of civilization and population. The nobles themselves, on occasions when they, too, had to contend for their rights and privileges against the sovereign, gave a help- If not purely Norman in blood, the Southing hand to the people; and in later times ern colony was entirely Norman in spirit; especially, after the people had established whereas the Northern was Anglo-Saxon the power of their Commons, or third es- in character and in the institutions which tate, on an immovable foundation, aided it took to the New World. Both loved the sovereign against alleged encroach-freedom and free institutions, but they dif * Henry VIII. was the last monarch who used this formula in his proclamations, and styled himself Henry, Eighth of the name since the Conquest. "The king wills;" "the king will take counsel;" "the king thanks his loyal subjects." Even in our day, the language of the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester holds true in no inconsiderable degree in regard to the population of England: "The folk of Normandie In fact, there is not a little Norman blood in Scotland; but what of it is to be found in the aristocracy came by intermarriages, or by Normans who recommended themselves by their talents and courage to the favour of the Scottish monarchs, not by conquest. to become the mother of the six Northern States. Both, however, have long since made their influence to be felt far beyond the coasts of the Atlantic, and are continuing to extend it towards the Pacific, in parallel and cleary-defined lines; and both retain to this day the characteristic features that marked their founders when they left their native land. fered as to the extent to which the people should enjoy them. The one had sprung from the ranks of those in England who pleaded for the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the nobility; the other, from the great party that was contending for popular rights. The one originated with the friends of the Church as left by Queen Elizabeth; the other, with those who desired to see it purified from what they deemed the corruptions of antiquity, and shorn of the exorbitant pretensions of its hierarchy. The one, composed of a company of gentlemen, attended by a few mechanics or labourers, contemplated an extensive traffic with the natives; the oth CHAPTER X. CORRECT VIEW OF THE SPIRIT AND CHARACTER OF THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. less affected than the political, by colonists from Holland, France, and other parts of the Continent of Europe, as well as from Scotland and Ireland. er, composed, with a few exceptions, of | them; and the people of the United States substantial farmers of moderate means and enjoy little more liberty at present than industrious artisans, contemplated the cul- what the fathers of the Revolution maintivation of the ground, and the establish-tained that they ought to have enjoyed ment of a state of society in which they under the British Constitution and crown. might serve God according to his Word. The one had no popular government for some years after its foundation; the other was self-organized and self-governed before it disembarked upon the shores that were to be the scene of its future prosperi- How TO OBTAIN A ty. Finally, the religion of the one, though doubtless sincere, and, so far as it went, beneficial in its influence, was a religion THUS, too, if we would have a thorough that clung to forms, and to an imposing knowledge of the spirit and character of ritual; the religion of the other was at the the Religion of the United States, we must farthest possible remove from the Church study the history of religion in England of Rome, both in form and spirit, and pro- first, and then in those other countries fessed to be guided by the Scriptures alone. whose religious institutions must have conSuch was American colonization in its siderably influenced those of America, in grand origin. But widely different has consequence of the numerous emigrants been the subsequent histories of those from them that have settled there. InEnglish colonies from that of England her- deed, it is very certain that the religious self. The former carried out to their le-institutions of America have been hardly gitimate extent the great principles of civil and religious liberty, which they had learned in England, in the school of oppression and of long and fierce discussion. The latter, after rushing on for a time in the same career, carried those principles to such a length as to subvert the government, and plunge the country into all the horrors of revolution and misrule, ending, at last, in the despotism of a military chief. The former went on gradually improving the forms of popular government which they had originally adopted, in the face of all the efforts of the crown of England to destroy them. The latter provoked, by the wildest excesses, a revulsion, from which, even after the lapse of two centuries, she is still suffering. The former, although never were there subjects more loyal to a crown, or a people more sincerely attached to their fatherland, were compelled, as they believed, by the unkind and almost unnatural course pursued by that fatherland, to sever the bonds that bound them to it, and to establish an independent government of their own. The latter has had to fight the battles of liberty over and over again, and has not even yet obtained for the people all the rights which are considered, in America, their proper inheritance from the hand of their Cre ator. Men of speculative habits may indulge many plausible a priori reasonings on the kind of religion likely to find favour with a people of Democratic feelings and institutions, but their conclusions will probably be found very much at variance with facts. M. de Tocqueville presents a striking instance of this in the first few chapters of his second work on Democracy in America.' A purely abstract argument, or, rather, a mere fanciful conjecture, might, in this case, interest by its ingenuity, and even be believed as true, in the absence of facts. But when he proceeds to establish an hypothesis by an appeal to facts, it is hard to say whether he is oftener right or wrong. Take one or two paragraphs. "In the United States," says he, "the majority undertakes to furnish individuals * Both of M. de Tocqueville's works, entitled "Democracy in America," unquestionably possess great merit; the earlier publication, however, is much suthat he puts his theory uniformly before his facts, inperior to the later. But the author's great fault is, stead of deducing, according to the principles of the Baconian philosophy, his theory from his facts. The consequence of this fatal mistake is, that, having advanced a theory, and shown by argument its plausibility, he immediately goes to work to support it by I speak not here of the form of govern- facts, and, in doing so, often distorts them sadly. ment. The founders of the American col- For the object for which he wrote, that of arresting onies, and their descendants for several the progress of Democracy in Europe, by reading generations, were monarchists, as they book, his works certainly correspond to his purpose. lectures from American Democracy as from a textwould doubtless have been to this day, But, however able they may be, it is absurd to say had they not been compelled, while strug- that his volumes give a just view of American instigling against injustice and oppression, to tutions on all points. On many subjects he has said dissolve their political connexion with the some excellent things; and, indeed, no other foreignmother-country. In all essential points, er has come so near to comprehending the spirit of our institutions. But no man ever will, no man ever colonial freedom differed not from that can, understand them perfectly, unless he has imbiwhich an independent existence has given | bed their spirit, as it were, with his mother's milk. Nor is this distinguished author nearer the truth when, giving way to the same speculative tendency, he asserts that “ the human mind in Democratic countries must tend to pantheism."* But enough: all that I have wished to show in referring to M. de Tocqueville's work, in many respects an admirable one, is, that the religious phenomena of the United States are not to be explained by reasonings a priori, however plausible and ingenious. with a multitude of ready-made opinions, | Such has never been the character of Protand thus to relieve them of the necessity estantism, rightly so called, in any age. of forming their own. There are many theories in philosophy, morals, and politics, which every one there adopts without examination, upon the faith of public opinion; and, upon a closer inspection, it will be found that religion itself reigns there much less as a doctrine of revelation than as a commonly-admitted opinion." Now, Democratic as America may be, it would be impossible to find a country in which the last assertion in the above paragraph is less true, for nowhere do people demand reasons for everything more frequently or more universally; nowhere are the preachers of the Gospel more called upon to set forth, in all their variety and force, the arguments by which the Divine revelation of Christianity is established. Again, he says, "In the United States the Christian sects are infinitely various, and incessantly undergoing modifications: but Christianity itself is an established and irresistible fact, which no one undertakes either to attack or to defend." No: we must go back to the times when, and the influences under which, the religious character of the first colonists from England was formed, and then trace their effects upon the institutions that were established by those colonists in the New World. It is interesting to investigate the history of Christianity in England from the earliest ages; its propagation by missionaries from Asia Minor; its reception by the Celtic races; the resistance made by the British Christians, in common with Again: "The Americans, having ad- those of Ireland and France, to the claims mitted without examination the main dog- of Rome; the conquest of England by the mas of the Christian religion, are obliged, Saxons, and the advantage taken of that in like manner, to receive a great num-event, by Rome, to subdue the native ber of truths flowing from and having relation to it."+ Christians, whom it accused of heresy; the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Now hardly any assertions concerning Christianity, and their subsequent dissatishis country could surprise a well-inform-faction with the Romish hierarchy; the ed American more than those contained in these paragraphs, nor could M. de Tocqueville have made them, had he not been carried away by certain theories with respect to the influence of Democratic institutions upon religion. M. de Tocqueville does not forget that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society, but he does forget for the moment what sort of religion it was; that it was not a religion that repels investigation, or that would have men receive anything as Truth, where such momentous concerns are involved, upon mere trust in public opinion. "Aux Etats-Unis, la majorité se charge de fournir aux individus une foule d'opinions toutes faites, et les soulage ainsi de l'obligation de s'en former qui leur soient propres. Il y a un grand nombre de théories en matière de philosophie, de morale, ou de politique que chacun y adopte ainsi sans examen, sur la foi du public; et si l'on regarde de très-près on verra que la religion elle même y règne bien moins comme doctrine révélée que comme opinion_commune."--Démocratie en Amérique, Seconde Partie, tome i., chapitre ii. "Aux Etats-Unis, les sectes chrétiennes varient à l'infini et se modifient sans cesse; mais le ble qu'on n'entreprend point d'attaquer ni de défen Christianisme lui-même est un fait établi et irrésisti dre." "Les Américains, ayant admis sans examen les principaux dogmes de la religion chrétienne, sont obligés de recevoir de la même manière un grand nombre de vérités qui en découlent et qui y tiennent." -Démocratie en Amérique, Seconde Partie, tome i., chapitre i. Norman Conquest, and the efforts of the popes to take advantage of that also, in seeking to establish a complete ascendency over the British and Irish Christians; the witnesses to the Truth raised up by God from the ancient Anglo-Saxon churches; the influence of Wicliffe and other opponents of Rome; and, finally, the dawn of the Reformation. That event, there can be no doubt, was connected, in the providence of God, with the long-continued and faithful resistance of the ancient churches of England to Error. Some remains of Truth had doubtless lain concealed, like unextinguished embers beneath the ashes, but the clearing away of the accumulated rubbish of ages, and the contact of God's Word, sufficed to revive and make it spread anew throughout the nation. don their country, rather than submit to a tyranny that threatened to enslave their immortal minds, and made them seek in the New World the freedom of conscience that was denied to them in the Old. They have been justly accused, indeed, of not immediately carrying out their principles to their legitimate results, and of being intolerant to each other. Still, be it remembered to their honour, that both in theory and in practice, they were in these respects far in advance of all their contemporaries; still more, that their descendants have maintained this advanced position; so that the people of the United States of America now enjoy liberty of conscience to an extent unknown in any other country. Persecution led the Puritan colonists to examine the great subject of human rights, the nature and just extent of civil government, and the boundaries at which obedience ceases to be a duty. What Sir James Mackintosh has said of John Bunyan might be applied to them: "The severities to which he had been subjected had led him to revolve in his own mind the principles of religious freedom, until he had acquired the ability of baffling, in the conflict of argument, the most acute and learned among his persecutors." The clear convictions of their own minds on this subject they transmitted to their posterity, nor was the inheritance neglected or forgotten. The political institutions of the Puritan colonies of New-England are to be traced to their religion, not their religion to their political institutions, and this remark applies to other colonies also. Now, if the reader would know what the religious character of those Puritans was, let him peruse the following eloquent eulogy upon them, from a source which will not be suspected of partiality to their religion, whatever opinions may be attributed to it in relation to their political principles. "The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging in general terms an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with Him face to face. Hence originated their contempt of earthly distinctions. The difference between the greatest and meanest of manC kind seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognised no title to superiority but His favour; and, confident of that, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems, crowns of glory which should never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language; nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious. ánd terrible importance belonged; on whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest; who had been destined, before the heavens and the earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. Events, which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been ordained on his account. For his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will, by the pen of the evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had been rescued by no common Deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God." CHAPTER XI. He A BRIEF NOTICE OF THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. SOME knowledge of the civil and political structure of the government is almost indispensable to a correct investigation of the religious economy of the United States; for although there is no longer a union there between Church and State, still the interests of religion come into contact, in many ways, with the political organizations of the General and State Governments. The Government of the United States must appear extremely complicated to a * Edinburgh Review, vol. xlii., 339. foreigner accustomed to the unity that distinguishes most monarchical polities, and complicated it is in fact. We will endeavour to describe its leading features as briefly as possible. The whole country, then, is subject to what is called the National or General Government, composed of three branches: I. The Executive; II. The Legislative; III. The Judicial. hold circuit courts in different parts of the country. The whole country is divided, also, into districts, each having a judge appointed by the President, for the decision of causes that fall within the cognizance of the United States' courts, and from whose decisions an appeal lies to the Supreme Court. That court decides how far the laws passed by the National Congress, or by the legislatures of the different states, are consistent with the Constitution; also, all questions between individual states, or between the United States and an individual state, and questions arising between a foreigner and either the United States or any one state. The executive power is lodged in one man, the President; who is appointed for four years, by electors chosen for that purpose, each state being allowed as many as it has members of Congress. These are chosen differently in different states, but generally by districts, each district choosing one elector, and that for the sole purpose of electing the President and Vice-eration, the jurisdiction of each being conPresident. The latter presides over the Senate, but his office is almost nominal: should the President die, the Vice-President immediately steps into his place. The government of the states individually, closely resembles that of the Confed fined, of course, to its own territory. Each has its own governor and its own Legislature; the latter, in all cases but one,* consists of a Senate and House of Representatives, besides a supreme law court, with subordinate district and county courts. The Legislature of each state embraces a vast variety of subjects, falling within the compass of its own internal interests. The different states vary materially on several points, such as the term during which the The President appoints the secretaries of state, or ministers of the various departments of the administration, such as the treasury, navy, war office, &c., and, directly or indirectly, he appoints to all offices in the National or General Government; in the case of the more important ones, however, only with the consent and appro-governor holds office, and the extent of his bation of the Senate. * power; the terms for which the senators. The legislation of the National Govern- and representatives are elected, and for ment is committed to the Congress, and which the judges are appointed; the salathat has two branches, the Senate and theries of those functionaries, and so forth. House of Representatives. The Senate is composed of two persons from each state in the Union, chosen by the legislatures of the states respectively, and for the period of six years. The House of Representatives is chosen by the people of the states, generally by districts, and for the period of two years. Their number is, from time to time, determined by law. The House of Representatives represents the people; the Senate represents the states. No act of Congress has the force of law without the President's signature, unless when two thirds of each House has voted in favour of an act which he refuses to sign. All matters falling within the legislative jurisdiction of the Congress are specified in the Constitution of the United States: such as are not specifically mentioned there, are reserved for the legislation of the individual states. The judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court, consisting at present of nine judges, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate. They can be removed only by impeachment before the Senate, and hold a yearly winter session at Washington, the capital of the United States. When not thus united there, they With the exception of South Corolina and Louisiana, in which the territorial divisions are called districts, all the states are subdivided into counties, having courts of justice attached to each, and officers, likewise, for a great many local objects, such as maintaining the roads, providing for the poor, &c., &c. These counties are subdivided into what are called townships, averaging six or eight miles square, in NewEngland, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania; and most of the states in the Valley of the Mississippi; in Delaware they are called Hundreds, and in Louisiana Parishes, while in Maryland, Virginia,† the two Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the counties form the smallest territorial divisions. In the Territories, the subdivision into townships has been adopted. These townships form important political and civil districts and corporations; the inhabitants meet once a year, or oftener, for local purposes, and for the appointment of local officers and committees. these primary assemblies the people acquire habits of transacting public business, which are of the greatest importance in fit At * Vermont has but one House in its Legislature. + In the eastern part of Virginia, and a great part of Maryland, the parochial subdivisions that existed previous to the Revolution are still retained for many local purposes, and are even recognised by the law. |