ABSTRACT
The religious history of the United States is in many respects a reflection of that of Europe, although it has some distinctive features. There exists now a complete religious liberty, and no favour fa shown to one creed above another, but it has not always been so. Almost every part of the country has had in the past an Established Church, and has passed through the experience of disestablishment. In the beginning each colony had its own Church and each religious party demanded its own parcel of territory for its own religion. The cujus regio principle has never had a more adequate opportunity of self-expression, but by almost general agreement it gave way to the method of universal toleration. The Church of England was fully established with a parochial system in Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas; but disestablishment came as the natural result of the War of Independence in 1776. Congregationalism was established in Massachusetts and the neighbouring colonies, and the Puritans’ dislike of toleration was shown by the hanging of four Quakers in Boston. Inasmuch as New England Puritanism had no ties with the English Government, its establishment was not destroyed by the revolution, but died a lingering death, not being extinct in Massachusetts till 1834. However, an Act for Establishing Religious Freedom had been passed in 1785 under President Jefferson. It provided that henceforth no mem was to be compelled to attend or support any religious body, and that all should be free to maintain any religious view or profession they pleased. This Act was intended by its promoters as something of an attack upon religion, but it has since been universally welcomed by the nation. Nevertheless untrammelled freedom has revealed one undoubted evil in the tendency to split up into sects on the slightest provocation, and the fissiparous character of American sectarianism has become the amazement of the nations.
