CHAPTER XVII: Principal Causes Maintaining The Democratic Republic--Part III.
Principal Causes Which Render Religion Powerful In America Care taken by the Americans to separate the Church from the State--The laws, public opinion, and even the exertions of the clergy concur to promote this end--Influence of religion upon the mind in the United States attributable to this cause--Reason of this--What is the natural state of men with regard to religion at the present time--What are the peculiar and incidental causes which prevent men, in certain countries, from arriving at this state.
The philosophers of the eighteenth century explained the gradual decay of religious faith in a very simple manner.

Religious zeal, said they, must necessarily fail, the more generally liberty is established and knowledge diffused.

Unfortunately, facts are by no means in accordance with their theory.

There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equalled by their ignorance and their debasement, whilst in America one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world fulfils all the outward duties of religious fervor.
Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed.

In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country.