nor of their own country
and to the astonishment of the hierarchies of the Old World, that it is
practicable in free governments to raise and sustain by voluntary
contributions alone a body of clergymen, which, for devotedness to their
sacred calling, for purity of life and character, for learning,
intelligence, piety, and that wisdom which cometh from above, is
inferior to none, and superior to most others.

I hope that our learned men have done something for the honor of our
literature abroad. I hope that the courts of justice and members of the
bar of this country have done something to elevate the character of the
profession of the law. I hope that the discussions above (in Congress)
have done something to meliorate the condition of the human race, to
secure and extend the great charter of human rights, and to strengthen
and advance the great principles of human liberty. But I contend that no
literary efforts, no adjudications, no constitutional discussions,
nothing that has been done or said in favor of the great interests of
universal man, has done this country more credit, at home and abroad,
than the establishment of our body of clergymen, their support by
voluntary contributions, and the general excellence of their character
for piety and learning.

The great truth has thus been proclaimed and proved, a truth which I
believe will in time to come shake all the hierarchies of Europe, that
the voluntary support of such a ministry, under free institutions, is a
practicable idea.

And yet every one of these, the Christian ministers of the United
States, is by this devise denied the privileges which are at the same
time open to the vilest of our race; every one is shut out from this, I
had almost said _sanctum_, but I will not profane that word by such a
use of it.

Did a man ever live that had a respect for the Christian religion, and
yet had no regard for _any one_ of its ministers? Did that system of
instruction ever exist, which denounced the whole body of Christian
teachers, and yet called itself a system of Christianity?

The learned counsel on the other side see the weak points of this case.
They are not blind. They have, with the aid of their great learning,
industry, and research, gone back to the time of Constantine, they have
searched the history of the Roman emperors, the Dark Ages, and the
intervening period, down to the settlement of these colonies; they have
explored every nook and corner of reli