Of those establishments required by the public welfare which the Government alone is competent to provide, the following are the principal:

An army to repel foreign invasions, or to suppress domestic insurrection.

Fortifications are also required in places accessible to ships in particular situations in the interior. Repositories of arms and ammunition, and manufactories of cannon and other implements of war, are also important, as well as schools of instruction for engineers and other officers. A navy, too, consisting of ships, steamers, gun-boats, etc., should be provided, as a most efficient means of national defence, together with a large supply of seasoned timber, and of manufactured iron, adapted to naval structures; provision for diplomatic intercourse with foreign nations, by means of ambassadors, ministers, and consuls; also officers and offices for the collection and safe keeping of the revenue, whether by impost, excise, or the survey and sales of public lands; for coining money at the mint, for the payment of pensions to those who have been disabled or superannuated in the public service, and for the management of the post-office.

Of this description are jails and penitentiaries for the safe-keeping and punishment of criminals. The latter are thought greatly to tend to prevent crimes, by affording ready means of graduating punishments to offences, and by making them more certain - it being found that when the smaller offences, as well as the great, were made capital, both courts and juries were often astute in acquitting those who had been guilty of the less heinous felonies.

There are other important establishments, which are furnished wholly by the State governments, or in some cases partly by them, with the co-operation of individuals; among the most important are those of religion.

In most countries, religion is established by the authority of the state. Its creed and mode of worship are prescribed, and the support of its ministers is provided for by law. But in the United States, every one's religious faith and worship are left to his own conscience. He may make contribution to any sect, little or much, or he may refuse it altogether.

This liberality seems to be clearly sanctioned by the principles of justice. Of the various kinds of religious faith which prevail in the world, it seems clear that at least ninety-nine in a hundred belong to the one in which they have been educated; and we may confidently pronounce a man or woman to be a Catholic or Protestant, an Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist, according to the persuasion of their parents, or those by whom they were brought up; and in the hundredth case (of exception to the rule), the deviation may be traced to the influence of some ascendant mind, or that of some eloquent tract; so that the new tenets thus acquired have been the result of accident or chance, for which the holder seems to be as little responsible as for a disease caused by the changes of the atmosphere.

The same liberal course is recommended by policy. It has been found that wherever there has been a rule of faith prescribed by law, there will be many dissentients, whom the supporters of the national creed will be disposed to proscribe and perhaps persecute; and, though the power of the law may not be pushed to that extreme, there will be between the favored sect and the rest perpetual jealousy and discord, very hostile to that charity which all good religions inculcate. No wars have been so bitter and implacable as those which have grown out of religious controversy; and this abuse of power is so natural, that those who have at one time been the victims of persecution, have, on the attainment of power, become persecutors themselves.

Several theoretical objections have been made to the footing on which religion is placed in the United States. It was first supposed that where there was no legal restraint on religious controversy, it would be more frequent and violent. But experience has shown that, where all sects enjoy equal freedom and privileges, there will be harmony, or at least no disturbance of the public peace.

It being found that the first objection had been completely falsified, it was then urged that religious zeal, not having here the stimulants and support which prevail in other countries, would gradually languish and die. But this prediction has been equally contradicted by experience. The emulation among the different sects for popular favor and success, has been found sufficient to produce as much fervor in this country as in any other. The entire dependence of every minister on his congregation for his worldly support, as well as for his efficiency, has an obvious influence on his zeal, his diligence, and outward deportment; and the people exercise their acknowledged power of censorship earnestly and unremittingly. There is no country where the ministers of religion are more moral, more attentive to the decorums of life, or exercise more practical charity - none in which they allow themselves less latitude of personal indulgence.

In the third place, it was presumed that the clergy would not be sufficiently provided for when they were wholly dependent on voluntary contribution. But it is found that the number of churches and of persons composing their congregations is as great here as it is in most countries of Europe; and, although no ministers here receive as large salaries as are received there by the higher dignitaries of the church, most of them obtain more liberal remuneration than the great body of the European clergy. A moderate but competent salary is more favorable to true and heartfelt piety than either an overgrown income, so likely to nourish ambition, vanity, and self-indulgence, or a very small one, in which the pressure of want may engross the thoughts and cares of the minister.

Lastly, it has been supposed that the entire dependence of every religious minister on the contributions of his congregation would beget in him a time-serving spirit, and check that free animadversion on immorality and vice which is one of his highest duties as well as most important services. But here, again, experience lends its refutation. It is found that there is no way in which a preacher can so well recommend himself to his flock as by an earnest and uncompromising denunciation of moral delinquency and vice, provided it be not personal; and no one could take umbrage at censures of this general character without bringing himself into discredit.

It seems not improbable that the entire freedom of religion is favorable to the multiplication of sects. Whenever the ambition of being the founder of a sect, the desire of celebrity, or the mere love of novelty prompts a minister to promulgate new doctrines, or to recommend new forms of worship, he has much to encourage him in his purpose in the unrestrained freedom which prevails here in all matters of conscience; and if he has eloquence as well as zeal, he sometimes becomes the founder of a sect which bears his name.

A question has sometimes arisen whether, when the doctrines or practice of a religious sect are directly opposed to the admitted policy of the country, or to the national habits and manners, these irregularities were not amenable to the laws. This is a question of great delicacy, and is always likely to offend that sense of religious freedom which the fundamental laws of the State secure to every man. The case of the Mormons, in the territory of Utah, whose religion permits, and even enjoins, polygamy, has especially suggested this question to the American people; and the general Government may be soon called upon to act on it.

The polygamy thus sanctioned and practised by them is not only abhorrent to the manners of the people in all the States, but it is punished by them as a high crime. Although it may be deemed incompatible with the rights of popular sovereignty, as well as of religious freedom, to attempt to put down this practice by force, or by penalties, yet the other States may be well justified in refusing to admit into their confederacy a community which openly justifies, under the authority of religion, a practice which they consider so repugnant to morality, purity of manners, and social happiness. Not to concede this, would be to make the Mormons not merely the equals, but the superiors of other States, in extending to them the same toleration for their crimes as their rights. The power of granting to a community admission into the Union implies the right of rejection whenever such considerations as the national liberty, the national morality, or happiness require it.