CHAPTER relied, as most of the sectaries did, upon the visible con XVI. verting presence of the Holy Spirit; while both extremes 1802. had a strong bond of sympathy in their common hostility to the established clerical order, by which the Free-thinkers expressed their dislike to all priesthoods, while the sectaries not only indulged the bitterness of theological rivalry, but signified also their confidence that their own worship, being the true one, would be upheld by Divine aid, without need of a legal support, only necessary for a dead and formal religion-one of the head, and not of the heart. son. There was also a still deeper and more permanent bond of sympathy, not consciously perceived by either party. Enthusiasm in religion is, in its ultimate analysis, but a species of free thinking-that form which free thinking takes when developed in minds in which imagination and the feelings predominate over the reaFree-thinkers denounce prevailing opinions, and appeal to first principles, and religious enthusiasts do the same thing. Free-thinkers had united with Luther against the Church of Rome; Free-thinkers had united with the Puritans against the Church of England; Freethinkers had united with the Church of England against the Congregational Church establishments of Massachusetts and Connecticut; and Free-thinkers now, throughout the United States, united with the various enthusiastic sects against any public provision for the clergy. Political enthusiasm, discouraged by the results of the French Revolution, was already dying out, without having produced hardly any modifications of laws or constitutions. In Maryland, indeed, where such a change was necessary to secure the permanent ascendency of the Republican party, the triumphant Democrats brought in and presently carried an amendment of the Constitution abolishing the property qualification of voters. But in CHAPTER XVI. Virginia, in spite of the theoretical democracy of which that state was the fountain-head, all attempts failed to 1802. liberalize a constitution, as to the right of suffrage one of the most exclusive in the Union. We shall see hereafter with how little success the Pennsylvania Democrats attempted to throw off the yoke of the lawyers. But while political enthusiasm was thus expiring, religious enthusiasm ran on for many years a vigorous course; suppressing free thinking on the one hand and legal provision for the clergy on the other, and building up great and powerful religious establishments on the principle of free association and voluntary contributions. Nor did it stop there. Descending, in our day, from the heavens to the earth, and, with the more general diffusion of intelligence, taking on, among the better informed, a more practical shape, it has pushed and is pushing, with all its native energy, many great questions of social reform; and even dashing with fury against the very religious establishments it had formerly built up, whenever it finds in them obstacles to its present career; at times assailing even the fundamental dogmas of all formal religions with a species of artillery infinitely more dangerous than any that Paine or Jefferson ever used. Yet, as all general statements are to be taken with some allowance, so there were to be found among the New England Republicans a certain number of as zealous sticklers for the New England system of religious establishments as any of the Federalists; including even two or three eminent clergymen, the secret of whose politics is to be sought either in very hopeful views of the improvability of human nature, or, if their creed was more orthodox, in an inextinguishable hatred against England, kindled in the Revolution. V.—G G XVI. CHAPTER relied, as most of the sectaries did, upon the visible converting presence of the Holy Spirit; while both extremes 1802. had a strong bond of sympathy in their common hostility to the established clerical order, by which the Free-thinkers expressed their dislike to all priesthoods, while the sectaries not only indulged the bitterness of theological rivalry, but signified also their confidence that their own worship, being the true one, would be upheld by Divine aid, without need of a legal support, only necessary for a dead and formal religion-one of the head, and not of the heart. son. There was also a still deeper and more permanent bond of sympathy, not consciously perceived by either party. Enthusiasm in religion is, in its ultimate analysis, but a species of free thinking-that form which free thinking takes when developed in minds in which imagination and the feelings predominate over the reaFree-thinkers denounce prevailing opinions, and appeal to first principles, and religious enthusiasts do the same thing. Free-thinkers had united with Luther against the Church of Rome; Free-thinkers had united with the Puritans against the Church of England; Freethinkers had united with the Church of England against the Congregational Church establishments of Massachusetts and Connecticut; and Free-thinkers now, throughout the United States, united with the various enthusiastic sects against any public provision for the clergy. Political enthusiasm, discouraged by the results of the French Revolution, was already dying out, without having produced hardly any modifications of laws or constitutions. In Maryland, indeed, where such a change was necessary to secure the permanent ascendency of the Republican party, the triumphant Democrats brought in and presently carried an amendment of the Constitution abolishing the property qualification of voters. But in CHAPTER XVI. Virginia, in spite of the theoretical democracy of which that state was the fountain-head, all attempts failed to 1802. liberalize a constitution, as to the right of suffrage one of the most exclusive in the Union. We shall see hereafter with how little success the Pennsylvania Democrats attempted to throw off the yoke of the lawyers. But while political enthusiasm was thus expiring, religious enthusiasm ran on for many years a vigorous course; suppressing free thinking on the one hand and legal provision for the clergy on the other, and building up great and powerful religious establishments on the principle of free association and voluntary contributions. Nor did it stop there. Descending, in our day, from the heavens to the earth, and, with the more general diffusion of intelligence, taking on, among the better informed, a more practical shape, it has pushed and is pushing, with all its native energy, many great questions of social reform; and even dashing with fury against the very religious establishments it had formerly built up, whenever it finds in them obstacles to its present career; at times assailing even the fundamental dogmas of all formal religions with a species of artillery infinitely more dangerous than any that Paine or Jefferson ever used. Yet, as all general statements are to be taken with some allowance, so there were to be found among the New England Republicans a certain number of as zealous sticklers for the New England system of religious establishments as any of the Federalists; including even two or three eminent clergymen, the secret of whose politics is to be sought either in very hopeful views of the improvability of human nature, or, if their creed was more orthodox, in an inextinguishable hatred against England, kindled in the Revolution.. CHAPTER relied, as most of the sectaries did, upon the visible con XVI. verting presence of the Holy Spirit; while both extremes 1802. had a strong bond of sympathy in their common hostility to the established clerical order, by which the Free-thinkers expressed their dislike to all priesthoods, while the sectaries not only indulged the bitterness of theological rivalry, but signified also their confidence that their own worship, being the true one, would be upheld by Divine aid, without need of a legal support, only necessary for a dead and formal religion—one of the head, and not of the heart. son. There was also a still deeper and more permanent bond of sympathy, not consciously perceived by either party. Enthusiasm in religion is, in its ultimate analysis, but a species of free thinking-that form which free thinking takes when developed in minds in which imagination and the feelings predominate over the reaFree-thinkers denounce prevailing opinions, and appeal to first principles, and religious enthusiasts do the same thing. Free-thinkers had united with Luther against the Church of Rome; Free-thinkers had united with the Puritans against the Church of England; Freethinkers had united with the Church of England against the Congregational Church establishments of Massachusetts and Connecticut; and Free-thinkers now, throughout the United States, united with the various enthusiastic sects against any public provision for the clergy. Political enthusiasm, discouraged by the results of the French Revolution, was already dying out, without having produced hardly any modifications of laws or constitutions. In Maryland, indeed, where such a change was necessary to secure the permanent ascendency of the Republican party, the triumphant Democrats brought in and presently carried an amendment of the Constitution |