RETURN FROM PITTSBURG 335 



society of Christians, through special protection or 

 favor on the part of the state, to be preferred before 

 the rest, there would thus be sown abroad the seeds of 

 envy, emulation, disorder, bitterness, and finally, per- 

 haps, of murder and war. No religion conduces really 

 to evil ; but what is here and there laid to the charge 

 of this or that religion is to be ascribed either to the 

 oppression which in one country it was exposed to, or 

 the presumptuous pride with which in another it sought 

 to control. No religion being privileged, and the fol- 

 lowers of teachings the most diverse being held, 

 (through common rights merely civil), to good order 

 and the observance of the laws, the result will be that 

 the spirit of persecution, oppression, and hate will be 

 unknown. America has already experienced the woful 

 consequences of neglecting such maxims. The Presby- 

 terians of New England, having withdrawn from 

 Europe for the sake of freedom in religious matters, 

 were shortly thereafter observed to be so far deceived 

 by jealousy and the desire to dominate as to show quite 

 as much intolerance of the peaceable Quakers as that 

 against which they had striven in England and by 

 reason of which they had come away from their father- 

 land. In Maryland and Virginia, so long as the British 

 form of government gave the Episcopal Church pref- 

 erance, support, and a revenue, there were very similar 

 if not such violent manifestations. Numerous as the 

 divers sects in America are, the new states have not- 

 withstanding the weightiest reasons for granting them 



CJ ^J * * tJ 



due freedom. For a great many years there have been 

 no instances, among the most opposite of them, of 

 dissensions and strife ; none having to control the 

 others, nor desiring to control, they were all at peace. 



