A letter addressed by Leo XIII to Cardinal James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, on opinions then circulating under the name of Americanism. Writing with evident affection for the Church in the United States, the Pope distinguishes carefully between the qualities and institutions of the American people, to which he takes no exception, and a set of ideas he cannot approve: that the Church should soften or pass over parts of her doctrine to make it easier for those outside to accept, that the guidance of a spiritual director is less necessary now that the Holy Spirit pours out his gifts more abundantly, that the natural virtues and the so-called active virtues are to be preferred to the supernatural and the passive ones, and that the religious vows are ill-suited to the age. Leo XIII answers each point from the deposit of faith, and asks that if Americanism means anything other than the legitimate character of a people, it should not be so called.