THE FAITH OF AMERICANS
THE FAITH OF A MERICANS
Americans toasted the arrival of the new century in 1900 with speeches,
articles, and books declaring a firm faith in the nation’s future. The
pride and determined optimism that had long characterized Ameri-
cans seemed more strident than ever. In only a few decades, after all, much
of the nation’s rural landscape had given way to a welter of factories and
cities, providing jobs and promising a degree of prosperity only dreamed of
in the past. New inventions were improving everyday living. Immigrants were
pouring into the country, and population was booming. The West, free of
Indian resistance, seemed more inviting than ever. Farm income was better
than it had been in years. Educational opportunities were expanding. New
professional organizations were emerging, raising the standards in such vital
fields as medicine and law. The nation was now a world power.
There were loud voices stressing the unhappy features of the departing
era: monopolies, the gap between rich and poor, recurrent recessions and
depressions, wretched factory conditions, urban blight, and political corrup-
tion. Several farseeing observers complained about racial and sexual dis-
crimination and the ravaging of our natural resources. But few thought these
problems permanent. Most Americans seemed eager to express their belief
in progress. As in Thomas Jefferson’s administration, when the nineteenth
century began, they were confident that the future was bright and that they
lived in a nation uniquely blessed by the Creator.
The great majority of Americans assumed they lived in a Christian, Protes-
tant country; the faith was an integral part of everyday life. For example, not
only was Bible reading in the public schools routine, but in 1890 twenty-two
of twenty-four state universities surveyed conducted chapel services, twelve
required attendance, and four mandated church attendance as well. In 1892
United States Supreme Court Justice David Brewer declared, “This is a reli-
gious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent
to the present hour there is a single voice making this affirmation . . . this is
a Christian nation.” Economic abundance, religion, patriotism, and optimism
were intertwined and everywhere in evidence in the United States at the
dawn of the twentieth century.
Americans toasted the arrival of the new century in 1900 with speeches,
articles, and books declaring a firm faith in the nation’s future. The
pride and determined optimism that had long characterized Ameri-
cans seemed more strident than ever. In only a few decades, after all, much
of the nation’s rural landscape had given way to a welter of factories and
cities, providing jobs and promising a degree of prosperity only dreamed of
in the past. New inventions were improving everyday living. Immigrants were
pouring into the country, and population was booming. The West, free of
Indian resistance, seemed more inviting than ever. Farm income was better
than it had been in years. Educational opportunities were expanding. New
professional organizations were emerging, raising the standards in such vital
fields as medicine and law. The nation was now a world power.
There were loud voices stressing the unhappy features of the departing
era: monopolies, the gap between rich and poor, recurrent recessions and
depressions, wretched factory conditions, urban blight, and political corrup-
tion. Several farseeing observers complained about racial and sexual dis-
crimination and the ravaging of our natural resources. But few thought these
problems permanent. Most Americans seemed eager to express their belief
in progress. As in Thomas Jefferson’s administration, when the nineteenth
century began, they were confident that the future was bright and that they
lived in a nation uniquely blessed by the Creator.
The great majority of Americans assumed they lived in a Christian, Protes-
tant country; the faith was an integral part of everyday life. For example, not
only was Bible reading in the public schools routine, but in 1890 twenty-two
of twenty-four state universities surveyed conducted chapel services, twelve
required attendance, and four mandated church attendance as well. In 1892
United States Supreme Court Justice David Brewer declared, “This is a reli-
gious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent
to the present hour there is a single voice making this affirmation . . . this is
a Christian nation.” Economic abundance, religion, patriotism, and optimism
were intertwined and everywhere in evidence in the United States at the
dawn of the twentieth century.
