"It Is The Right,"
Says The Constitution, "As Well As The Duty Of All Men In Society
Publicly And At
Stated seasons to worship the supreme Being, the
Great Creator and Preserver of the universe." And then it goes on
To say that every man may do so in what form he pleases; but
further down it declares that "every denomination of Christians,
demeaning themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the
commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law."
But what about those who are not Christians? In New Hampshire it
is exactly the same. It is enacted that "every individual has a
natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the
dictates of his own conscience and reason." And that "every
denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves quietly and as
good citizens of the State, shall be equally under the protection
of the law." From all which it is, I think, manifest that the men
who framed these documents, desirous above all things of cutting
themselves and their people loose from every kind of trammel, still
felt the necessity of enforcing religion - of making it, to a
certain extent, a matter of State duty. In the first constitution
of North Carolina it is enjoined "that no person who shall deny the
being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, shall be
capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit." But
this was altered in the year 1836, and the words "Christian
religion" were substituted for "Protestant religion."
In New England the Congregationalists are, I think, the dominant
sect. In Massachusetts, and I believe in the other New England
States, a man is presumed to be a Congregationalist if he do not
declare himself to be anything else; as with us the Church of
England counts all who do not specially have themselves counted
elsewhere. The Congregationalist, as far as I can learn, is very
near to a Presbyterian. In New England I think the Unitarians
would rank next in number; but a Unitarian in America is not the
same as a Unitarian with us. Here, if I understand the nature of
his creed, a Unitarian does not recognize the divinity of our
Saviour. In America he does do so, but throws over the doctrine of
the Trinity. The Protestant Episcopalians muster strong in all the
great cities, and I fancy that they would be regarded as taking the
lead of the other religious denominations in New York. Their
tendency is to high-church doctrines. I wish they had not found it
necessary to alter the forms of our prayer-book in so many little
matters, as to which there was no national expediency for such
changes. But it was probably thought necessary that a new people
should show their independence in all things. The Roman Catholics
have a very strong party - as a matter of course - seeing how great
has been the emigration from Ireland; but here, as in Ireland - and
as indeed is the case all the world over - the Roman Catholics are
the hewers of wood and drawers of water. The Germans, who have
latterly flocked into the States in such swarms that they have
almost Germanized certain States, have, of course, their own
churches. In every town there are places of worship for Baptists,
Presbyterians, Methodists, Anabaptists, and every denomination of
Christianity; and the meeting-houses prepared for these sects are
not, as with us, hideous buildings, contrived to inspire disgust by
the enormity of their ugliness, nor are they called Salem,
Ebenezer, and Sion, nor do the ministers within them look in any
way like the Deputy-Shepherd. The churches belonging to those
sects are often handsome. This is especially the case in New York,
and the pastors are not unfrequently among the best educated and
most agreeable men whom the traveler will meet. They are for the
most part well paid, and are enabled by their outward position to
hold that place in the world's ranks which should always belong to
a clergyman. I have not been able to obtain information from which
I can state with anything like correctness what may be the average
income of ministers of the Gospel in the Northern States; but that
it is much higher than the average income of our parish clergymen,
admits, I think, of no doubt. The stipends of clergymen in the
American towns are higher than those paid in the country. The
opposite to this, I think, as a rule, is the case with us.
I have said that religion in the States is rowdy. By that I mean
to imply that it seems to me to be divested of that reverential
order and strictness of rule which, according to our ideas, should
be attached to matters of religion. One hardly knows where the
affairs of this world end, or where those of the next begin. When
the holy men were had in at the lecture, were they doing stage-work
or church-work? On hearing sermons, one is often driven to ask
one's self whether the discourse from the pulpit be in its nature
political or religious. I heard an Episcopalian Protestant
clergyman talk of the scoffing nations of Europe, because at that
moment he was angry with England and France about Slidell and
Mason. I have heard a chapter of the Bible read in Congress at the
desire of a member, and very badly read. After which the chapter
itself and the reading of it became a subject of debate, partly
jocose and partly acrimonious. It is a common thing for a
clergyman to change his profession and follow any other pursuit. I
know two or three gentlemen who were once in that line of life, but
have since gone into other trades. There is, I think, an
unexpressed determination on the part of the people to abandon all
reverence, and to regard religion from an altogether worldly point
of view. They are willing to have religion, as they are willing to
have laws; but they choose to make it for themselves.
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