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.
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