hardly be done without
annexation. Maximilian cannot divest the church of her temporal
possessions and place Protestants and Catholics on the same footing,
without offending the present church party and deeply injuring
religion, and that too without winning the confidence of the republican
party. In all Spanish and Portuguese America the relations between the
church and state are abnormal, and exceedingly hurtful to both.
Religion is in a wretched condition, and politics in a worse condition
still. There is no effectual remedy for either but in religious
freedom, now impracticable, and to be rendered practicable by no
European intervention, for that subjects religion to the state, the
very source of the evils that now exist, instead of emancipating it
from the state, and leaving it to act according to its own constitution
and laws, as under the American system.

But the American people need not trouble themselves about their
exterior expansion. That will come of itself as fast as desirable.
Let them devote their attention to their internal destiny, to the
realization of their mission within, and they will gradually see the
Whole continent coming under their system, forming one grand nation, a
really catholic nation, great, glorious, and free.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The American Republic: Its
Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny, by A. O. Brownson

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