vent and zealous in the support and belief of
their doctrines. Nevertheless they constitute the most republican and
the most democratic class of citizens which exists in the United States;
and although this fact may surprise the observer at first, the causes by
which it is occasioned may easily be discovered upon reflection.

[Footnote d: [It is difficult to ascertain with accuracy the amount of
the Roman Catholic population of the United States, but in 1868 an able
writer in the "Edinburgh Review" (vol. cxxvii. p. 521) affirmed that the
whole Catholic population of the United States was then about 4,000,000,
divided into 43 dioceses, with 3,795 churches, under the care of 45
bishops and 2,317 clergymen. But this rapid increase is mainly supported
by immigration from the Catholic countries of Europe.]]

I think that the Catholic religion has erroneously been looked upon as
the natural enemy of democracy. Amongst the various sects of Christians,
Catholicism seems to me, on the contrary, to be one of those which are
most favorable to the equality of conditions. In the Catholic Church,
the religious community is composed of only two elements, the priest and
the people. The priest alone rises above the rank of his flock, and all
below him are equal.

On doctrinal points the Catholic faith places all human capacities upon
the same level; it subjects the wise and ignorant, the man of genius and
the vulgar crowd, to the details of the same creed; it imposes the same
observances upon the rich and needy, it inflicts the same austerities
upon the strong and the weak, it listens to no compromise with mortal
man, but, reducing all the human race to the same standard, it confounds
all the distinctions of society at the foot of the same altar, even as
they are confounded in the sight of God. If Catholicism predisposes
the faithful to obedience, it certainly does not prepare them for
inequality; but the contrary may be said of Protestantism, which
generally tends to make men independent, more than to render them equal.

Catholicism is like an absolute monarchy; if the sovereign be removed,
all the other classes of society are more equal than they are in
republics. It has not unfrequently occurred that the Catholic priest
has left the service of the altar to mix with the governing powers of
society, and to take his place amongst the civil gradations of men. This
religious influence has sometimes been used to secure the interests
of