and most enlightened nations in the
world fulfils all the outward duties of religious 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 always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit
of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in
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 peaceful
dominion 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 hitherto done, the
station which the American clergy occupy in political society. I learned
with surprise that they filled no public appointments; *f 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 *g 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 accord from the
exercise of power, and that they made it the pride of their profession
to abstain from politics.

[Footnote f: Unless this term be applied to the functions which many
of them fill in the schools. Almost all education is entrusted to the
clergy.]

[Footnote g: See the Constitution of New York, art. 7, Section 4:-- "And
whereas the ministers of the gospel are, by th