140 RELIGION AND POLITICS. [CHAP. X. 



that such ideas of austerity and asceticism were not consistent 

 with the spirit of the Anglican Church. This he admitted, but 

 pleaded the absolute necessity of extreme strictness to enable them 

 to efface the stigma transmitted to them from colonial times ; for 

 in the Southern states, particularly in Virginia, the patronage of 

 the mother country, in filling up livings, was for a century scan 

 dalously abused, and so many young men of profligate and im 

 moral habits were sent out, as to create a strong prejudice against 

 the Established Church of England in the minds of the more 

 zealous and sincere religionists. 



On one of my voyages home from America, an officer of rank 

 in the British army lamented that the governor of one of our col 

 onies had lately appointed as Attorney-General one who was an 

 atheist. T told him I knew the lawyer in question to be a zeal 

 ous Baptist. &quot; Yes,&quot; he replied, &quot; Baptist, Atheist, or something 

 of that sort.&quot; I have no doubt that if this gallant colonel should 

 visit New England, his estimate of the proportion of Nothinga 

 rians in the population would be very liberal. 



Traveling as I did in 18456, through a large part of the 

 Union, immediately after the close of the protracted contest for 

 the Presidency, when the votes in favor of Mr. Clay and Mr. 

 Polk had been nearly balanced, I was surprised to find in the 

 north, south, and west, how few of the Americans with whom I 

 conversed as traveling companions, could tell me to what denom 

 ination of Christians these two gentlemen belonged. I at length 

 ascertained that one of them was an Episcopalian, and the other 

 a Presbyterian. This ignorance could by no means be set down 

 to indifFerentism. Had one of the candidates been a man of im 

 moral character, it would have materially affected his chance of 

 success, or probably if he had been suspected of indifference about 

 religion, and not a few of the politicians whom I questioned were 

 strongly imbued with sectarian feelings ; but it was clear that in 

 the choice of a first magistrate their minds had been wholly oc 

 cupied with other considerations, and the separation of religion 

 and politics, though far from being as complete as might be 

 wished, is certainly one of the healthy features of the working of 

 the American institutions 



