PENSYLVANIA 67 



sures freedom to all religious sects; men of all faiths 

 and many of none, dwell together in harmony and 

 peace. Tolerance, the advantages of which are only 

 now beginning to be felt in several of the kingdoms of 

 Europe, has been for a hundred years the foundation- 

 stone of this flourishing state. Whoever acknowledges 

 a God can be a citizen and has part in all the privileges 

 of citizenship. Whoever is a member of any of the 

 Christian congregations is eligible to petty office, and 

 can be elected also to the Assembly, to the governor- 

 ship, or to the Congress. Inspiration is left out of the 

 account, except among the Quakers who look for 

 everything from that source, and without it a man 

 may be a good citizen and senator of Pensylvania. By 

 such laws as these the Jews enjoy every right of citi- 

 zenry and, provided they own property enough, vote 

 for members of the Assembly. This everywhere op- 

 pressed and burdened nation can here and throughout 

 America follow any civil business, and is restricted in 

 hardly any way. The spirit of tolerance has gone so 

 far that different religious sects have assisted one an- 

 other in the building of houses of worship. At the 

 present time there are in Philadelphia more than thirty 

 such buildings, which if not all equally of a size and 

 comeliness are in every case of a simple and neat con- 

 struction ; costly and artistic decoration is not to be 

 found in them. Of these churches and meeting-houses, 

 the Quakers own five, including their new meeting- 

 house there are three churches, using the English 

 liturgy and ceremonies, which formerly were under 

 the care of the English bishops there are two Scotch 

 Presbyterian churches two German Lutheran, of 

 which the one in Fourth-street is large and handsome 



