, 1863-04-04
Spiritualism in America.

Dlcey discusses the subject of Spiritualisr
as follows:
In America, any man who has no pro
nounced religious opinions probably be
longs to no Church, and therefore sucI
wants as he may have of a spiritual natur
remain unsatisfed. Any new faith, falls
or true, has thus an unappropriated publ
to work upon in America, which it has no
to any extent in Catholic country, and tc
very limited extent in England. 1t il
true that Mr.. Foster, the spiritual medium
whom | was introduced to the other night
informed me that he had found a far more
appreciative and sympathetic public on spir.
ltual questions in England than America
hare' however, as praise of England is al
this moment in American mouth, fear
tpatl cannot conscientiouslv consider the
ucated persons in England have made
greater fools of themselves in the hands OF
mediums of the Foster genius than the cor
responding class in America but, on the
other hand, it is clear that spiritualism has
obtained hold on the popular mind here
which it has not on our side the Atlantic.
What English paper, London or provincial,
would contain advertisements of astrolo-
gers, clarvoyants and mediums Now,
with the exception of some few of the New
York and Boston papers, there is not a
newspaper in America which does not con-
tain astrological advertisements.
There is no town l have been into where
medium or astrologist, chiefly of the fe-
male gender, did not advertise herself in
the local papers. In the West astrology is
peculiarly fourishing. During my travels
in the West | visited several of these me-
diums out of curiosity, in the hope of see
ing some exhibition of skill which might
explain their success. l found most of
them German Jewesses, and many of them
sharp, shrewd women, but in no single in
stance did | see any exhibition of clairvoy-
ance or spirit-rapping remarkable enough
to bear description If any of your read
ers ever consulted the Hermit at Beulah
Spa, or at any suburban gardens, they will
know exactly what was told me by these
spiritual mediums 1t was the old, old
story of dark lady or letter arriving
with money, or any other piece of rigma-
role nonsense. The curious fact was, that
the waiting-rooms of these mediums were
crowded often by well-dressed, educated
persons, chiefly women.
AS far as | can discover, the ordinary
American judgment about spiritualisin is
much the same as our English one. A
certain number of clever, if not sensible
men believe in it heartily. The great ma
jority of Americans consider the whole out
ward manifestations of the creed to be de-
lusions or impostures, and its internal doc
trines to be detrimental to high morality.
Still, with regard TO spiritualism as to ev-
cry other "ism," there is absolute tolera-
ulon, and II president Lincoln cnose TO con-
suit the spirits (as for all know, he may
do on every occasion of his life, no one
would consider it a ground for objecting to
his fitness as President.
have dwelt upon this tolerance of spir-
itualism at length, because l consider it an
important feature in American life Even
the most liberal of ordinary English critics
on America seem TO me to have adopted a
parrot cry about the tyranny of the major
ity in America over the minority, without
ever questioning whether the cry was true
or not. Now, all history shows that there
is no subject on which people are more apt
to tyrannize over a minority than on reli-
gious matters, and any one who knows
America must see that religious feelings
are extremely strong here. The doctrines
of spiritualism are naturally offensive to all
established creeds. Yet there has been no
attempt whatever to tyrannize over the
spiritualist minority. With the exception
of the Mormons, whose case was pecu-
liar one in many respects, there has been
no instance of religious persecution in
America under the rule OF democracy;
and what is more remarkable still deep ma
tional religious convictions have been
proved to be consistent with complete free
dom of opinion on religious questions
There is no such thing as social persecution
or loss in political standing on account of
your religion or want of religion. How far
this is consistent with the theory of the
tyranny of majorities under democracy,
| must question personally.