Boston, New York, and Philadelphia the greater clergy had come to regret
the former tendency to denounce slavery, and they were inclined to
preach the doctrine that Providence had established slavery and that it
should be left to Providence to remove it in due time. Only in the rural
districts of the East, where the old New England spirit still
flourished, was slavery declared to be "the awful curse." And here it
was that the old sectional hatred was strongest. The churches and the
clergy with all their influence had thus given up the problem of
slavery, and their counsel and advice were to maintain the Union and to
put down all sectional conflict. Nationalism with the South dominant was
the meaning of this; nor do the election returns of 1852 and 1856 make a
different showing.

Where religious influences were so potent, it was natural that the
clergy should exert themselves for the education of the young. Yale
College was a "school of the prophets" which sent out to the West the
young preachers and teachers so much needed if Congregationalism was to
hold its own in that region. Princeton was Presbyterian headquarters for
both West and South, and few institutions have ever exerted a greater
civilizing force in a new nation than that school of sternest theology.
Dr. Charles Hodge was there a tower of orthodox and conservative
strength which could be seen from afar. In numerous other institutions
the Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Friends, and Campbellites
trained their ministers and urged upon all the importance of education.
At the University of Virginia there were chaplains maintained by the
different denominations for the religious instruction of the students.
The Methodists of Michigan regularly appointed a professor to the state
university for the same purpose. Other state universities, like those of
Indiana and North Carolina, were brought under practical denominational
control through the zealous activity of Presbyterian presidents.

The education of the little children was, however, too much for the most
zealous of religious organizations. Jefferson had set in motion
influences which had greatly strengthened the cause of popular education
in the South and West. But nowhere did the States prepare fully for the
work. In the Northwest the public school lands were wasted by
thoughtless or venal politicians, and in the older South the label,
"school for the children of the poor," went far to defeat all eff