A BIT OF HISTORY. The following, published in the Indianapolis "News" of February 1, 1893, gives, in condensed form, the history of the struggle for religious liberty which resulted in the establishment of the government of the United States upon the principle of religious freedom, or that of the separation of church and state: “On June 12, 1776, a convention of the Colonial House of Burgesses, of Virginia, adopted a declaration of rights, composed of sixteen sections, every one of which, in substance, afterward found a place in the Declaration of Independence, and in the national Constitution. This was followed July 4 by the Declaration of IndependThe strug ence, written by Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia. The Declaration of gle for reliIndependence had no sooner been published abroad than the Presby-gious liberty in brief. tery of Hanover, in Virginia, at its first meeting, openly took its stand in the recognition of the new and independent nation, and addressed to the Virginia House of Assembly a memorial for the separation of the church and state. The Presbytery of Hanover was immediately joined by the Baptists and the Quakers, who sent up petitions to the same purpose. The Episcopalian Church was the established church of Virginia, and had been ever since the planting of the colony. The Episcopalians and the Methodists sent up counter memorials, pleading for a continuance of the system of established religion. Two members of the Assembly, Messrs. Pendelton and Nicolas, championed the establishment, and Jefferson, as ever, espoused the cause of liberty and right. After nearly two months of what Jefferson pronounced the severest contest in which he ever engaged, the cause of freedom prevailed, and December 6, 1776, the conflict. Assembly passed a law repealing all colonial laws and penalties prejudicial to dissenters, releasing them from any further compulsory contributions to the Episcopal Church, and discontinuing the State support of the Episcopal clergy after January 1, 1777. A motion was made to levy a general tax for the support of all denominations, but it was postponed till a future Assembly. To the next Assembly petitions were sent strongly pleading for the general assessment. But the Presbytery of Hanover, still supported by the Baptists and Quakers, was again on hand with a memorial, in which it referred to the points previously presented. In 1779 they defeated the bill, but at the first Assembly after the close of the war, in 1784, it was brought up again, this time with Patrick Henry as its leading advocate. It was entitled 'A Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion.' James Madison stood with Jefferson. As the bill was about to pass, these two succeeded in carrying a motion to postpone it till the next session, but in the meantime, to have it printed and generally circulated. As soon as this had been accomplished, Madison wrote, also for general circulation and signature, a A severe Final victory in 1785. memorial and remonstrance to be presented to the next Assembly, in opposition to the bill. This remonstrance was so generally signed that the bill for a general assessment was not only defeated, but in its place there was passed December 26, 1785, An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom,' written by Thomas Jefferson. "Now, during this very time, plans were being laid for the formation of a federal government for the American Union, to take the place of the helpless confederation of States, and it is not too much to say that to James Madison, more than to any other single person, The principles wrought except, perhaps, George Washington, is due the credit of bringing it out in Virall to a happy issue. These contests in Virginia, by which had been ginia engrafted into severed the illicit and corrupting connection between the church and the National Constitution. the state, had awakened the public mind, and prepared the way for the formation of a Constitution which would pledge the nation to a complete separation from all connection with religion in any way. Accordingly the Constitution, as originally proposed by the convention, declared on this point that 'No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.'" Struggle for religious liberty a part of national history. An opportune time for the struggle. Importance of the issue. A nation worth while. The struggle for religious liberty fought out in Virginia during the time of the Revolutionary War, and brought to so successful an issue, with the ultimate result of placing the stamp of religious liberty upon the national government itself, is as much a part of the history of the United States as is that of the war itself, and should be in every history of the United States. The struggle with Great Britain for civil liberty afforded an opportune time for the struggle for religious liberty. The friends and supporters of the religious establishment in Virginia desired civil liberty, or independence from the political yoke of a foreign power. To secure this, they needed the aid of the dissenters whom they had persecuted and oppressed under their religious establishment. The dissenters, conscious of the situation, by their protests virtually said, If you wish us to help you gain your civil liberty, you ought to grant to us our religious liberty. In some respects this struggle for religious freedom carried on during the Revolutionary War, may be said to have been more important even, and more far-reaching in its results, than the war itself; for to the principles of religious liberty here established, more than to its national independence and its stand for civil liberty. have been due the real greatness and influence of this nation in the world. A new nation with the old religious despotism still clinging to it, would have been no great addition to the world's assets; but a nation founded upon the true principles of both civil and religious liberty, was something worth while. A STATE. What constitutes a state? Not high raised battlements or labored mound, Thick walls or moated gate; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned, Nor bays and broad arm ports, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride— With powers as far above dull brutes endued, In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude, Men, who their duties know, But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain, These constitute a state. - Sir William Jones. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.' ADOPTED IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, SEPTEMBER 17, 1787. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Preamble. No religious test No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United ever to be States.2 1" United States Statutes at Large," volume i, page 10. JUSTICE STORY ON CHURCH AND STATE. 2 Justice Joseph Story in his Commentaries on the "Constitution of the United States," page 690 et seq., says: required. Object of the clause. forever severed. "This clause is not introduced merely for the purpose of satisfying the scruples of many respectable persons who feel an invincible repugnance to any religious test or affirmation. It had a higher object: to cut off forever every pretense of any alliance between church and state in the national government. The framers of the Constitution All alliance with rewere fully sensible of the dangers from this source, marked out in the ligion to be history of other ages and countries, and not wholly unknown to our own. They knew that bigotry was unceasingly vigilant in its stratagems to secure to itself an exclusive ascendancy over the human mind, and that intolerance was ever ready to arm itself with all the terrors of the civil power to exterminate those who doubted its dogmas or resisted its infallibility. The Catholic and Protestant had alternately waged the most ferocious and unrelenting warfare on each other, and Protestantism, at the very moment when it was proclaiming the right of private judgment, prescribed boundaries to that right, beyond which if any one dared to pass, he must seal his rashness with the blood of martyrdom. The history of the parent country, too, could not fail to instruct them in the uses and the abuses of religious tests. They there Tactics of both Catholic and Protestant. |