have no birth-right kings and nobles; and that is equality. They may also decree that they will have no Church and State; that is, that religion shall not be incorporated into the body politic; that it shall not have authority in legislation and government, or be entitled to wear a political livery.

But they cannot decree against the political influence of religion, so as to bar it, any more than against the winds of heaven, that they shall not blow. They could only effect this by extinguishing religion altogether. Every religionist is a member of the body politic, in a democratic state, and is as much entitled to make politics of his religion, as any other citizen is to make politics of anything else in which he takes an interest; and he will as certainly carry the political influence of his religion into every department of society and of the State, as that he is a man. And all this may go on, and does go on, in America, without giving alarm to its democracy. Nay, American democracy itself is especially addicted to this influence; and one of its largest parts is composed of it. There is more democracy in the American religious world, than in the State, and it is more radical. It is, indeed, the nursery of democracy, where men, women, and children, of all ages and conditions, in the most prevalent sects, are on a level, and entitled to an equal voice, and the religious democracy is so much the more potent and irresistible, as its logic is its

faith, its own convictions, and cannot, therefore, be reasoned with.*

We see, therefore, that society in America began with political action of religion; and though the form thereof has been modified by time and circumstance, it has never failed to develop a political power.

Religion in America," says De Tocqueville, "must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country. The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.. Religious zeal is perpetually stimulated in the United States by the duties of patriotism."

The object of this chapter, among other incidental suggestions, has mainly been to show, what we conceive to be a fact, that, notwithstanding great pains were taken, in constructing the American political fabric, to separate religion from the State, it has yet worked its way into a very eminent political position, and is wielding a great political influ

ence.

Query Is this the natural result of divorcing religion from the State, in a free country, that it should set up an independent Commonwealth, an empire of its own?

*Note K.

CHAPTER VII.

AMERICAN ABOLITIONISM IN A FALSE POSITION.

THE cause of Abolition in England, in behalf of the slaves of her West Indian colonies, was never in a false position. First, it acted on a power, viz. the government at home, which had the political right to liberate the slaves. Next, as this right vested in that power, the Abolitionists had only to persevere, till their influence should force the government to comply with their demand. And so it was effected. Moreover, the remote geographical relations of slavery to the seat of empire, where alone the question of Abolition could be decided, were highly favourable to the object.

If the same amount of slavery had been in the British Isles, and the greater part of the United Kingdom had been interested in maintaining it, it is easy to suppose that the agitation of the question of Abolition might have rent the State asunder. Or suppose, that slavery had existed in Ireland and Scotland before the union of the three kingdoms, as was the fact in the Southern States of America, before the Government of the United States was

formed, and that these portions of the empire were united on terms to protect and defend it; suppose, moreover, that the slave-holding parts of the kingdom still continued attached to the system, while the other part, that is, England, desired its abolition; the agitation of the question might then become very hazardous. Or suppose, that England were the slave-holding party, and her soil covered with three millions of the African race in a like condition with the American slaves, to be let loose upon society at once with all the privileges of freemen; and all the existing relations and modes of society, so long established by such a state of things, to be broken up ;-the case would then be altered, and high political considerations would come in for their share of influence.

But, as the case was, British slavery in the West Indies was remote from the great home of the empire; the Colonies were but little specks of British jurisdiction, insulated and far removed from all other parts; the curse of slavery had already reduced society in these Colonies to a deplorable state, bordering on dissolution; the property connected with it depending upon it for its value, and itself, as property, had depreciated to the ruin of its holders, and mostly passed into other hands at the reduced value; so that the slaves could be bought up by the government at a fair and comparatively small consideration. The consequences of abolition might, indeed, be inconvenient for a while, or even

for a long time; the freed-man might refuse to work; the indolence of his nature might be stronger than the motives to exertion; there might be insubordinations and serious troubles; the planters might be driven from their homes, and compelled to vacate the islands; it might cost the government more to take care of them than they would be worth; and they might at last be abandoned, like St. Domingo, to the sole empire of the blacks;-but still there was a loud call for the experiment; a call from heaven; a call from the rights of long-suffering humanity; a call from the enlightened conscience of the British nation; and a call from all the circumstances of the case, political, social, and from whatever consideration might be brought under review. The British government was able—at least willing, and, therefore, able-to indemnify all parties; they were able to execute the project with safety to all; to establish the most salutary mode, to supervise its operation, to sustain an armed force and police adapted to the exigencies of the progressive change; to consummate the plan; and finally, if that should be necessary, to cover the retreat of the white population, and indemnify their losses. If the government should choose to maintain a permanent empire over the islands, it could be done. Every consideration of interest, of policy, of humanity, of religion, and of public conscience, pleaded for the measure. The government was not endangered at home, but the tranquillity of the do

;