It was said in 1859 that the church owned one-third of the real and personal property of the republic. The reform laws of that year nationalized its property, abolished its numerous orders and institutions and deprived it of state support and of all participation in political affairs.
These disputes, involving as they did the question of the relative powers of Congress and the states, tended to turn the Democratic-Republicans, who were becoming nationalized, back again toward their old state sovereignty principles - to prepare the way for the Jacksonian-Democratic Party.
Tithes, many hereditary privileges and all monopolies were abolished; every convent was closed and its property nationalized; the Jesuits, who had returned after the death of Pombal, were again expelled; the charter of 1826 was restored.
This determined at once the nature of the Kansas struggle and its outcome; and after the South had played and lost in Kansas, " the war for the Union caught up and nationalized the verdict of the Territorial broil."
Many English and French steamers have been purchased abroad and nationalized.
