The Roman Catholic faith was the established religion of the province. American immigrants were examined by the commandants as to their faith, but by the use of a pious fiction on the part of the examiners, and the provision in the ordinances already quoted, large toleration actually existed.
The mode of examination gave great latitude for Protestants to come in. A few general and rather equivocal questions were asked, which persons of almost any Christian sect could consistently answer; such as, “Do you believe in Almighty God?--In the Holy Trinity?--In the true, apostolical church?--In Jesus Christ our Saviour?--In the holy evangelists? etc. An affirmative answer being given to these and other questions of a general character, “_Un bon Catholique_,” (a good Catholic) closed the ceremony.
Many Baptists, Methodists, and other Protestant families, settled in the province, and remained undisturbed in their religious principles. Much the largest proportion of American Protestants came into the country after 1794. They held no religious meetings publicly, and had no minister of the gospel among them. There were about fifty persons who had been members of Protestant churches in the United States, in the districts of St. Louis and St. Charles, at the period of Mr. Clark’s first visit, besides as many more in the districts of St. Genevieve, and Cape Girardeau.
The Catholic priests of Upper Louisiana received from the Spanish treasury a stipend rating from $350 to $400 a year, besides the perquisites for mass, confessions, marriages, and funerals. No tithes were levied in Louisiana, and hence Protestants and free-thinkers felt no burdens in pecuniary demands from the priesthood. There were three curates, one vicar, and a few missionary priests who resided in the upper province. The rite of marriage must be performed by a Catholic priest; and it is probable the administration of baptism, or the Lord’s supper, by a Protestant, would have sent him to prison, but no minister made the attempt.
The American settlers in general were peaceable, industrious, moral and well disposed persons, who, from various motives, had crossed the “Great River;” some from love of adventure--some from that spirit of restlessness that animates a numerous class of Americans--but a larger number went with the expectation of obtaining grants of land, for the trifling expense of surveying and recording the plat. We have been personally acquainted with many of these emigrants, conversed with them freely, knew their character well, and have heard so many of them declare their expectation that in due time the country would be annexed to the United States, that we have no doubt such an impression did exist largely. Yet they projected no _filibustering_ enterprise; no schemes of a revolution; nor were there amongst them any sanguine spirits at work to excite such feelings.