Frederick Marryat – The Complete Collection

Chapter 57

"I have now lived twenty years in South Carolina, and have had much intercourse with her prominent and leading men; not a man among them is ignorant how decidedly in most respects, the south would gain by a severance from the north, and how much more advantageous is this union to the north than to the south. But I am deeply, firmly persuaded that there is not one man in South Carolina that would move one step toward a separation, on account of the superior advantages the north derives from the union. No southern is actuated by these pecuniary feelings; no southern begrudges the north her prosperity. Enjoy your advantages, gentlemen of the north, and much good may they do ye, as they have hitherto. But if these unconstitutional abolition attacks upon us, in utter defiance of the national compact, are to be continued, God forbid this union should last another year.

"I am, sir, your obedient servant,

"Thomas Cooper."

"Many fine looking districts were pointed out to me in Virginia, formerly rich in tobacco and Indian corn, which had been completely exhausted by the production of crops for the maintenance of the slaves. In thickly peopled countries, where the great towns are at hand, the fertility of such soils may be recovered and even improved by manuring, but over the tracts of country I now speak of, no such advantages are within the farmer's reach."-- Captain Hall .

"Many, very many, with whom I met, would willingly have released their slaves, but the law requires that in such cases they should leave the state; and this would mostly be not to improve their condition, but to banish them from their home, and to make them miserable outcasts. What they cannot at present remove, they are anxious to mitigate, and I have never seen kinder attention paid to any domestics than by such persons to their slaves. In defiance of the infamous laws, making it criminal for the slave to be taught to read, and difficult to assemble for an act of worship, they are instructed, and they are assisted to worship God."-- Rev Mr Reid .

"The law declares the children of slaves are to follow the fortunes of the mother. Hence the practice of planters selling and bequeathing their own children."-- Miss Martineau .

The return at present is very great in these western states; the labour of a slave, after all his expenses are paid, producing on an average 300 dollars (65 pounds) per annum to his master.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

REMARKS--RELIGION IN AMERICA.

In theory nothing appears more rational than that every one should worship the Deity according to his own ideas--form his own opinion as to his attributes, and draw his own conclusions as to hereafter. An established Church appears to be a species of coercion, not that you are obliged to believe in, or follow that form of worship, but that, if you do not, you lose your portion of certain advantages attending that form of religion, which has been accepted by the majority and adopted by the government. In religion, to think for yourself wears the semblance of a luxury, and like other luxuries, it is proportionably taxed.

And yet it would appear as if it never were intended that the mass should think for themselves, as everything goes on so quietly when other people think for them, and everything goes so wrong when they do think for themselves: in the first instance where a portion of the people think for the mass, all are of one opinion; whereas in the second, they divide and split into many molecules, that they resemble the globules of water when expanded by heat, and like them are in a state of restlessness and excitement.

That the partiality shown to an established church creates some bitterness of feeling is most true, but being established by law, is it not the partiality shown for the legitimate over the illegitimate? All who choose may enter into its portals, and if the people will remain out of doors of their own accord, ought they to complain that they have no house over their heads. They certainly have a right to remain out of doors if they please, but whether they are justified in complaining afterward is another question. Perhaps the unreasonableness of the demands of the dissenters in our own country will be better brought home to them by my pointing out the effects of the voluntary system in the United States.

In America every one worships the Deity after his own fashion; not only the mode of worship, but even the Deity itself, varies. Some worship God, some Mammon; some admit, some deny, Christ; some deny both God and Christ; some are saved by living prophets only; some go to heaven by water, while some dance their way upwards. Numerous as are the sects, still are the sects much subdivided. Unitarians are not in unity as to the portion of divinity they shall admit to our Saviour; flap-fists, as to the precise quantity of water necessary to salvation; even the Quakers have split into controversy, and the men of peace are at open war in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

The following is the table of the religious denominations of the United States, from the American Almanac of 1838:

TABLE OF THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES

+==================+=========+==========+========+=========+ Ý ÝCongreg- ÝMinisters ÝCommun- ÝPopul- Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Ý Ýations Ý Ýicants Ýation Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝBaptists Ý 6,319Ý 4,239Ý452,000}Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝFreewillers Ý 753Ý 612Ý38,876} Ý4,300,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝSeventh Day Ý 42Ý 46Ý4,503} Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝSix Principle Ý 16Ý 16Ý2,117} Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝRoman Catholics Ý 433Ý 389Ý Ý 800,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝChristians Ý 1,000Ý 800Ý 150,000Ý 300,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝCongregationalistsÝ 1,300Ý 1,150Ý 160,000Ý1,400,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝDutch Reformed Ý 197Ý 192Ý 22,215Ý 450,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝEpiscopalians Ý 850Ý 899Ý Ý 600,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝFriends Ý 500Ý Ý Ý 100,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝGerman Reformed Ý 600Ý 180Ý 30,000Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝJews Ý Ý Ý Ý 15,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝLutherans Ý 750Ý 257Ý 62,226Ý 540,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝMennonites Ý 200Ý Ý 30,000Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝWesleyans Ý Ý 2,764Ý650,103}Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝProtestants Ý Ý 400Ý50,000} Ý2,000,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝMoravians Ý 24Ý 33Ý 5,745Ý 12,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝMormonites Ý Ý Ý 12,000Ý 12,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝN Jerusalem ChurchÝ 27Ý 33Ý Ý 5,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝPresbyterians Ý 2,807Ý 2,225Ý274,084}Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝCumberland Ý 500Ý 450Ý50,000} Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝAssociate Ý 183Ý 87Ý16,000} Ý2,175,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝReformed Ý 40Ý 20Ý3,000} Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝAssociate ReformedÝ 214Ý 116Ý12,000} Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝShakers Ý 15Ý 45Ý 6,000Ý Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝTunkers Ý 40Ý 40Ý 3,000Ý 30,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝUnitarians Ý 200Ý 174Ý Ý 180,000Ý +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ÝUniversalists Ý 653Ý 317Ý Ý 600,000Ý +==================+=========+==========+========+=========+

In this list many varieties of sects are blended into one. For instance, the Baptists, who are divided; also the Friends, who have been separated into Orthodox and Hicksite, the Camelites, etcetera, etcetera. But it is not worth while to enter into a detail of the numerous minor sects, or we might add Deists, Atheists, etcetera.--for even no religion is a species of creed . It must be observed, that, according to this table, out of the whole population of the United States, there are only 1,983,905, (with the exception of the Catholics, who are Communicants,) that is, who have openly professed any creed; the numbers put down as the population of the different creeds are wholly suppositions. How can it be otherwise, when people have not professed? It is computed, that in the census of 1840 the population of the States will have increased to 18,000,000, so that it may be said that only one ninth portion have professed and openly avowed themselves Christians.

Religion may, as to its consequences, be considered under two heads: as it affects the future welfare of the individual when he is summoned to the presence of the Deity, and as it affects society in general, by acting upon the moral character of the community. Now, admitting the right of every individual to decide whether he will follow the usual beaten track, or select for himself a by-path for his journey upward, it must be acknowledged that the results of this free-will are, in a moral point of view, as far as society is concerned, any thing but satisfactory.

It would appear as if the majority were much too frail and weak to go alone upon their heavenly journey; as if they required the support, the assistance, the encouragement, the leaning upon others who are journeying with them, to enable them successfully to gain the goal. The effects of an established church are to cement the mass, cement society and communities, and increase the force of those natural ties by which families and relations are bound together. There is an attraction of cohesion in an uniform religious worship, acting favourably upon the morals of the mass, and binding still more closely those already united. Now, the voluntary system in America has produced the very opposite effects; it has broken one of the strongest links between man and man, for each goeth his own way: as a nation, there is no national feeling to be acted upon; in society, there is something wanting, and you ask yourself what is it? and in families it often creates disunion: I know one among many others, who, instead of going together to the same house of prayer, disperse as soon as they are out of the door: one daughter to an Unitarian chapel, another to a Baptist, the parents to the Episcopal, the sons, any where, or no where. But worse effects are produced than even these: where any one is allowed to have his own peculiar way of thinking, his own peculiar creed, there neither is a watch, nor a right to watch over each other; there is no mutual communication, no encouragement, no parental control; and the consequence is, that by the majority, especially the young, religion becomes wholly and utterly disregarded.

Another great evil, arising from the peculiarity of the voluntary system is, that in any of the principal sects the power has been wrested from the clergy and assumed by the laity, who exercise an inquisition most injurious to the cause of religion: and to such an excess of tyranny is this power exercised, that it depends upon the laity , and not upon the clergy , whether any individual shall or shall not be admitted as a communicant at the table of our Lord.

Miss Martineau may well inquire, "How does the existing state of religion accord with the promise of its birth? In a country which professes to every man the pursuit of happiness in his own way, what is the state of his liberty in the most private and individual of all concerns?"

Referring to religious instruction, Mr Carey in his work attempts to prove the great superiority of religious instruction and church accommodation in America, as compared with those matters in this country. He draws his conclusions from the number of churches built and provided for the population in each. Like most others of his conclusions, they are drawn from false premises: he might just as well argue upon the number of horses in each country, from the number of horse-ponds he might happen to count in each. In the first place, the size of the churches must be considered, and their ability to accommodate the population; and on this point, the question is greatly in favour of England; for, with the exception of the cities and large towns, the churches scattered about the hamlets and large towns are small even to ridicule, built of clap-boards, and so light that, if on wheels, two pair of English post-horses would trot them away, to meet the minister.

Mr Carey also finds fault with the sites of our churches as being unfortunate in consequence of the change of population. There is some truth in this remark: but our churches being built of brick and stone cannot be so easily removed; and it happens that the sites of the majority of the American churches are equally unfortunate, not as in our case, from the population having left them, but from the population not having come to them. You may pass in one day a dozen towns having not above twenty or thirty private houses, although you will invariably find in each an hotel, a bank, and churches of two or three denominations, built as a speculation, either by those who hold the ground lots or by those who have settled there, and as an inducement to others to come and settle. The churches, as Mr Carey states, exist, but the congregations have not arrived; while you may, at other times, pass over many miles without finding a place of worship for the spare population. I have no hesitation in asserting, not only that our 12,000 churches and cathedrals will hold a larger number of people than the 20,000 stated by Mr Carey to be erected in America, but that as many people, (taking into consideration the difference of the population,) go to our 12,000, as to the 20,000 in the United States.