States by the duties of patriotism. These men do not act
from an exclusive consideration of the promises of a future
life ; eternity is only one motive of their devotion to the
cause ; and if you converse with these missionaries of Chris
tian civilisation, you will be surprised to find how much value
they set upon the goods of this world, and that you meet with
a politician where you expected to find a priest. They will
tell you that " all the American republics are collectively
involved with each other ; if the republics of the west were
to fall into anarchy, or to be mastered by a despot, the repub
lican institutions which now flourish upon the shores of the
Atlantic ocean would be in great peril. It is therefore our
interest that the new states should be religious, in order to
maintain our liberties."
Such are the opinions of the Americans ; and if any hold
that the religious spirit which I admire is the very thing most
amiss in America, and that the only element wanting to the
freedom and happiness of the human race is to believe in
some blind cosmogony, or to assert with Cabanis the secre
tion of thought by the brain, I can only reply, that those who
hold this language have never been in America, and that they
have never seen a religious or a free nation. When they
return from their expedition, we shall hear what they have to
say.
There are persons in France who look upon republican
institutions as a temporary means of power, of wealth and
distinction ; men who are the condottieri of liberty, and who
fight for their own advantage, whatever be the colors they
wear : it is not to these that I address myself. But there are
312 CAUSES TENDING TO MAINTAIN
others who look forward to the republican form of govern-
ment as a tranquil and lasting state, toward which modern
society is daily impelled by the ideas and manners of the
time, and who sincerely desire to prepare men to be free.
When these men attack religious opinions, they obey the dic
tates of their passions to the prejudice of their interests.
Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Re
ligion is much more necessary in the republic which they set
forth in glowing colors, than in the monarchy which they
attack ; and it is more needed in democratic republics than
in any others. How is it possible that society should escape
destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion
as the political tie is relaxed ? and what can be done with a
people which is its own master, if it be not submissive to the
Divinity ?
PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH RENDER RELIGION POWERFUL IN
AMERICA.
Care taken by the Americans to separate the Church from the State.
The Laws, public Opinion, and even the Exertions of the Clergy
concur to promote this end. Influence of Religion upon the Mind,
in the United States, attributable to this Cause. Reason of this.
What is the natural State of Men with regard to Religion at the
present time. What are the peculiar and incidental Causes which
prevent Men, in certain Countries, from arriving at this State.
THE philosophers of the eighteenth century explained the
gradual decay of religious faith in a very simple manner.
Religious zeal, said they, must necessarily fail, the more gen
erally liberty is established and knowledge diffused. Unfor
tunately, facts are by no means in accordance with their the
ory. There are certain populations in Europe wh.ose unbe
lief is only equalled by their ignorance and their debase
ment, while in America one of the freest and most enlightened
nations in the world fulfils all the outward duties of religion
with fervor.
Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect
of the country was the first thing that struck my attention ;
and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the
great political consequences resulting from this state of things,
to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost al
ways seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pur
suing courses diametrically opposed to each other ; but in
'
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. 313
America I found that they were intimately united, and that
they reigned in common over the same country. My desire
to discover the causes of this phenomenon increased from
day to day. In order to satisfy it, I questioned the members
of all the different sects ; and I more especially sought the
society of the clergy, who are the depositaries of the different
persuasions, and who are more especially interested in their
duration. As a member of the Roman catholic church I was
more particularly brought into contact with several of its
priests, with whom I became intimately acquainted. To each
of these men I expressed my astonishment and I explained
my doubts : I found that they differed upon matters of detail
alone ; and that they mainly attributed the peaceable do
minion of religion in their country, to the separation of church
and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in
America, I did not meet with a single individual, of the clergy
or of the laity, who was not of the same opinion upon this
point.
This led me to examine more attentively than I had hith
erto done, the station which the American clergy occupy in
political society. I learned with surprise that they fill no
public appointments ;* not one of them is to be met with in
the administration, and they are not even represented in the
legislative assemblies. In several states^ the law excludes
them from political life ; public opinion in all. And when I
came to inquire into the prevailing spirit of the clergy, I found
that most of its members seemed to retire of their own ac
cord from the exercise of power, and that they made it the
pride of their profession to abstain from politics.
I heard them inveigh against ambition and deceit, under
whatever political opinions these vices might chance to lurk ;
but I learned from their discourses that men are not guilty in
the eye of God for any opinions concerning political govern
ment, which they may profess with sincerity, any more than
* Unless this term be applied to the functions which many of them
fill in the schools. Almost all education is intrusted to the clergy.
f See the constitution of New York, art. 7, 4 :
" And whereas, the ministers of the gospel are, by their profession,
dedicated to the service of God and the care of souls, and ought not to
be diverted from the great duties of their functions ; therefore no min
ister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall, at
any time hereafter, under any pretence or description whatever, be
eligible to, or capable of holding any civil or military office or place
within this state."
See also the constitutions of North Carolina, art. 31. Virginia.
South Carolina, art. 1, 23. Kentucky, art. 2, 26. Tennessee, art
3, 1. Louisiana, art. 2, 22.
314 CAUSES TENDING TO MAINTAIN
they are for their mistakes in building a house or in drivi r ^
a furrow. I perceived that these ministers of the gospel es
chewed all parties, with the anxiety attendant upon personal
interest. These facts convinced me that what I had been
told was true ; and it then became my object to investigate
their causes, and to inquire how it happened that the real au
thority of religion was increased by a state of things which
diminished its apparent force : these causes did not long es
cape my researches.
The short space of threescore years can never content the
imagination of man ; nor can the imperfect joys of this world
satisfy his heart. Man alone, of all created beings, displays
a natural contempt of existence, and yet a boundless desire
to exist ; he scorns life, but he dreads annihilation. These
different feelings incessantly urge his soul to the contem
plation of a future state, and religion directs his musings
thither. Religion, then, is simply another form of hope ;
and it is no less natural to the human heart than hope itself.
Men cannot abandon their religious faith without a kind of
aberration of intellect, and a sort of violent distortion of their
true natures ; but they are invincibly brought back to more
pious sentiments ; for unbelief is an accident, and faith is the
only permanent state of mankind. If we only consider reli
gious institutions in a purely human point of view, they may
be said to derive an inexhaustible element of strength from
man himself, since they belong to one of the constituent prin
ciples of human nature.
I am aware that at certain times religion may strengthen
this influence, which originates in itself, by the artificial power
of the laws, and by the support of those temporal institutions
which direct society. Religions, intimately united to the gov
ernments of the earth, have been known to exercise a sove
reign authority derived from the twofold source of terror and
of faith ; but when a religion contracts an alliance of this
nature, I do not hesitate to affirm that it commits the same
error, as a man who should sacrifice his future to his present
welfare ; and in obtaining a power to which it has no claim,
it risks that authority which is rightfully its own. When a
religion founds its empire upon the desire of immortality
which lives in every human heart, it may aspire to universal
dominion : but when it connects itself with a government, it
must necessarily adopt maxims which are only applicable to
certain nations. Thus, in forming an alliance with a politi
cal power, religion augments its authority over a few, and
forfeits the hope of reigning over all.
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. 315
As long as a religion rests upon those sentiments which are
the consolation of all affliction, it may attract the affections
of mankind. But if it be mixed up with the bitter passions
of the world, it may be constrained to defend allies whom its
interests, and not the principle of love, have given to it ;
or to repel as antagonists men who are still attached to its
own spirit, however opposed they may be to the powers to
which it is allied. The church cannot share the temporal
power of the state, without being the object of a portion of
that animosity which the latter excites.
The political powers which seem to be most firmly estab-
lished have frequently no better guarantee for their duration,
than the opinions of a generation, the interests of the time, 01
the life of an individual. A law may modify the social con-
dition which seems to be most fixed and determinate ; and
with the social condition everything else must change. The
powers of society are more or less fugitive, like the years
which we spend upon the earth ; they succeed each other
with rapidity like the fleeting cares of life ; and no govern
ment has ever yet been founded upon an invariable disposi
tion of the human heart, or upon an imperishable interest.
As long as religion is sustained by those feelings, propen
sities, and passions, which are found to occur under the same
forms at all the different periods of history, it may defy the
efforts of time ; or at least it can only be destroyed by another
religion. But when religion clings to the interests of the
world, it becomes almost as fragile a thing as the powers of
the earth. It is the only one of them all which can hope : r
immortality ; but if it be connected with their ephemeral au
thority, it shares their fortunes, and may fall with those tran
sient passions which supported them for a day. The alliance
which religion contracts with political powers must needs be
onerous to itself; since it does not require their assistance to
live, and by giving them its assistance it may be exposed to
decay.
The danger which I have just pointed out always exists,
but it is not always equally visible. In some ages govern
ments seem to be imperishable, in others the existence of
society appears to be more precarious than the life of man.
Some constitutions plunge the citizens into a lethargic som
nolence, and others rouse them to feverish excitement. When
government appears to be so strong, and laws so stable, men
do not perceive the dangers which may accrue from a union
of church and state. When governments display so much
inconstancy, the danger is self-evident, but it is no longer
316 CAUSES TENDING- TC MAINTAIN
possible to avoid it ; to be effectual, measures must be taken
to discover its approach.
In proportion as a nation assumes a democratic condition
of society, and as communities display democratic propensi
ties, it becomes more and more dangerous to connect religion
with political institutions ; for the time is coming when au
thority will be bandied from hand to hand, when political
theories will succeed each other, and when men, laws and
constitutions, will disappear or be modified from day to day,
and this not for a season only, but unceasingly. Agitation
and mutability are inherent in the nature of democratic re
publics, just as stagnation and inertness are the law of abso
lute monarchies.
If the Americans, who change the head of the government
once in four years, who elect new legislators every two years,
and renew the provincial officers every twelvemonth ; if the
Americans, who have abandoned the political world to the
attempts of innovators, had not placed religion beyond their
reach, where could it abide in the ebb and flow of human
opinions ? where would that respect which belongs to it be
paid, amid the struggles of faction ? and what would become
of its immortality in the midst of perpetual decay ? The
American clergy were the first to perceive this truth, and to
act in conformity with it. They saw that they must renounce
their religious influence, if they were to strive for political
power ; and they chose to give up the support of the state,
rather than to share in its vicissitudes.
In America, religion is perhaps less powerful than it has
been at certain periods in the .history of certain peoples ; but
its influence is more lasting. It restricts itself to its own re
sources, but of those none can deprive it : its circle is limited
to certain principles, but those principles are entirely its own,
and under its undisputed control.
On every side in Europe we hear voices complaining of
the absence of religious faith, and inquiring the means of
restoring to religion some remnant of its pristine authority.
It seems to me that we must first attentively consider what
ought to be the natural state of men with regard to religion,
at the present time ; and when we know what we have to
hope and to fear, we may discern the end to which our efforts
ought to be directed.
The two great dangers which threaten the existence of re
ligions are schism and indifference. In ages of fervent
devotion, men sometimes abandon their religion, but they only
shake it off in order to adopt another. Their faith changes
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. 317
the objects to which it is directed, but it suffers no decline.
The old religion, then, excites enthusiastic attachment or bit
ter enmity in either party ; some leave it with anger, others
cling to it with increased devotedness, and although persua
sions differ, irreligion is unknown. Such, however, is not
the case when a religious belief is secretly undermined by
doctrines which may be termed negative, since they deny the
cruth of one religion without affirming that of any other.
Prodigious revolutions then take place in the human mind,
without the apparent co-operation of the passions of man, and
almost without his knowledge. Men lose the object of their
fondest hopes, as if through forgetfulness. They are carried
away by an imperceptible current which they have not the
courage to stem, but which they follow with regret, since it
bears them from a faith they love, to a scepticism that plunges
them into despair.
In ages which answer to this description, men desert their
religious opinions from lukewarmness rather than from dis
like ; they do not reject them, but the sentiments by which
they were once fostered disappear. But if the unbeliever
does not admit religion to be true, he still considers it useful.
Regarding religious institutions in a human point of view, he
acknowledges their influence upon manners and legislation.
He admits that they may serve to make men live in peace
with one another and to prepare them gently for the hour of
death. He regrets the faith which he has lost ; and as he is
deprived of a treasure which he has learned to estimate at its
full value, he scruples to take it from those who still pos
sess it.
On the other hand, those who continue to believe, are not
afraid openly to avow their faith. They look upon those who
do not share their persuasion as more worthy of pity than of
opposition ; and they are aware, that to acquire the esteem
of the unbelieving, they are not obliged to follow their
example. They are hostile to no one in the world ; and as
they do not consider the society in which they live as an
arena in which religion is bound to face its thousand deadly
foes, they love their contemporaries, while they condemn
their weaknesses, and lament their errors.
As those who do notbelieve, conceal their incredulity ; and
as those who believe, display their faith, public opinion pro
nounces itself in favor of religion : love, support, and honor,
are bestowed upon it, and it is only by searching the human
soul, that we can detect the wounds which it has received.
The mass of mankind, who are never without the feeling of
318 CAUSES TENDING TO MAINTAIN
religion, do not perceive anything at variance with the esta-
Wished faith. The instinctive desire of a future life brings
the. crowd about the altar, and opens the hearts of men io the
precepts and consolations of religion.
But this picture is not applicable to us ; for there are men
among us who have ceased to believe in Christianity, withou*
adopting any other religion ; others who are in the perplexi
ties of doubt, and who already affect not to believe ; and
others, again, who are afraid to avow that Christian faith
which they still cherish in secret.
Amid these lukewarm partisans and ardent antagonists, a
small number of believers exist, who are ready to brave all
obstacles, and to scorn all dangers in defence of their faith.
They have done violence to human weakness, in order to
rise superior to public opinion. Excited by the effort they
have made, they scarcely know where to stop ; and as they
know that the first use which the French made of independ
ence, was to attack religion, they look upon their contempo
raries with dread, and they recoil in alarm from the liberty
which their fellow-citizens are seeking to obtain. As unbe
lief appears to them to be a novelty, they comprise all that is
new in one indiscriminate animosity. They are at war with
their age and country, and they look upon every opinion
which is put forth there as the necessary enemy of the faith.
Such is not the natural state of men with regard to religion
at the present day ; and some extraordinary or incidental
cause must be at work in France, to prevent the human mind
from following its original propensities, and to drive it beyond
the limits at which it ought naturally to stop.
I am intimately convinced that this extraordinary and inci
dental cause is the close connexion of politics and religion.
The unbelievers of Europe attack the Christians as their po
litical opponents, rather than as their religious adversaries;
they hate the Christian religion as the opinion of a party,
much more than as an error of belief; and they reject the
clergy less because they are the representatives of the Divin
ity, than because they are the allies of authority.
In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the
powers of the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it
is, as it were, buried under their ruins. The living body of
religion has been bound down to the dead corpse of superan
nuated polity ; cut the bonds which restrain it, and that which
is alive will rise once more. I know not what could restore
the Christian church of Europe to the energy of its earlier
days ; that power belongs to God alone ; but it may be the
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. 319
effect of human policy to leave the faith in all the full exer
cise of the strength which it still retains.
HOW THE INSTRUCTION, THE HABITS, AND THE PRACTICAL EX
PERIENCE OF THE AMERICANS PROMOTE THE SUCCESS OF
THEIR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS.
What is to be understood by the instruction of the American People.
The human Mind is more superficially instructed in the United States
than in Europe. No one completely uninstructed. Reason of this
Rapidity with which Opinions are diffused even in the uncultivated
States of the West. Practical Experience more serviceable to the
Americans than Book-learning.
I HAVE but little to add to what I have already said, concern
ing the influence which the instruction and the habits of the
Americans exercise upon the maintenance of their political
institutions.
America has hitherto produced very few writers of distinc
tion ; it possesses no great historians, and not a single eminent
poet. The inhabitants of that country look upon what are
properly styled literary pursuits with a kind of disapproba
tion ; and there are towns of very second rate importance in
Europe, in which more literary works are annually publish
ed, than in the twenty-four states of the Union put together.
The spirit of the Americans is averse to general ideas ; and
it does not seek theoretical discoveries. Neither politics nor
manufactures direct them to these occupations ; and although
new laws are perpetually enacted in the United States, no
great writers have hitherto inquired into the principles of their
legislation. The Americans have lawyers and commenta
tors, but no jurists ; and they furnish examples rather than
lessons to the world. The same observation applies to the
mechanical arts. In America, the inventions of Europe are
adopted with sagacity; they are perfected, and adapted with
admirable skill to the wants of the country. Manufactures
exist, but the science of manufacture is not cultivated ; and
they have good workmen, but very few inventors. Fulton
was obliged to proffer his services to foreign nations for a long
time before he was able to devote them to his own country.
[The remark that in America " there are very good workmen but
very few inventors," will excite surprise in this country. The invent
ive character of Fulton he seems to admit, but would apparently de
prive us of the credit of his name, by the remark that he was obliged
to proffer his services to foreign nations for a long time. He might
320 CAUSES TENDING TO MAINTAIN
have added, that those proffers were disregarded and neglect
ed, and that it was finally in his own country that he found the aid
necessary to put in execution his great project. If there be
patronage extended by the citizens of the United States to any one
thing in preference to another, it is to- the results of inventive genius.
Surely Franklin, Rittenhouse, and Perkins, have been heard of by our
author ; and he must have heard something of that wonderful inven
tion, the cotton-gin of Whitney, and of the machines for making cards
to comb wool. The original machines of Fulton for the application of
steam have been constantly improving, so that there is scarcely a ves
tige of them remaining. But to sum up the whole in one word, can it
be possible that our author did not visit the patent office at Washing
ton ? Whatever may be said of the utility of nine-tenths of the in
ventions of which the descriptions and models are there deposited, no
one who has ever seen that depository, or who has read a description
of its contents, can doubt that they furnish the most incontestible evi
dence of extraordinary inventive genius a genius that has excited the
astonishment of other European travellers. American Editor.'}
The observer who is desirous of forming an opinion on the
state of instruction among the Anglo-Americans, must con
sider the same object from two different points of view. If
he only singles out the learned, he will be astonished to find
how rare they are ; but if he counts the ignorant, the Ame
rican people will appear to be the most enlightened commu
nity in the world. The whole population, as I observed in
another place, is situated between these two extremes.
In New England, every citizen receives the elementary
notions of human knowledge ; he is moreover taught the doc
trines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his
country, and the leading features of its constitution. In the
states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is extremely rare