By the time word of Americanism had made its way to Rome, Americanism was said to stand for the following propositions:
1)  that Catholics are not to heed the clergy; 2) that Catholics are not to submit to divine revelation, but are to arrive at truth only by natural means; 3) that monks and nuns should leave their cloisters and do something practical with their lives; 4) that religious vows should be abolished; and 5) that Catholics should live in a conciliatory fashion with non-Catholics.
No one was able to point to any actual document in which these so-called Americanist views had been professed.
Nonetheless, Rome became convinced by alarmists that the American Church was on the verge of anarchy.  Pope Leo XIII, wrote a stern letter to Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore, instructing him to repudiate Americanism.  Gibbons wrote back in rebuttal, stating that no Catholic in America believed the supposed doctrines underlying Americanism.