consequences legislation. These consequences are so plain as not to be denied; Logical and they are so entirely subversive of religious lib- of religious erty, that if they should take place in Virginia, we should be reduced to the melancholy necessity of saying with the apostles in like cases, "Judge ye whether it is best to obey God or man;" and also of acting as they acted. Reasons strance. Therefore, as it is contrary to our principles and interests; and, as we think, subversive of religious liberty, we do again most earnestly entreat that our for remon Legislature would never extend any assessment for religious purposes to us, or to the congregations under our care.1 And your memorialists, as in duty bound, shall ever pray for, and demean themselves as peaceable subjects of, civil government. Signed by order of the presbytery. RICHARD SANKEY, TIMBER RIDGE, April 25, 1777. Moderator. 1 The position taken by these early Presbyterians in these remarkable memorials, that religion, being a matter of conscience, can be directed only "by reason and conviction," and not by civil legislation; that the church of Christ stands in need of no state-imposed tax for its support, and that to exact such a tax would be "subversive of religious liberty," has been sadly departed from by many, even of the same faith, in later times, in attempts to justify Sunday legislation. Thus Rev. W. F. Crafts, a Presbyterian, in his "Sabbath for Man," page 248, says: “It is the conviction of the majority that the nation cannot be preserved without religion, nor religion without the Sabbath, nor the Sabbath without laws, therefore Sabbath laws are enacted by the right of self-preservation, not in violation of liberty, but for its protection." Dr. R. C. Wylie, a Reformed Presbyterian, in his "Sabbath Laws in the United States," page 231, reasons similarly: "Our free government would be impossible without our Christian civilization; our civilization is produced and perpetuated by the Christian religion; the Christian religion cannot exist without the Christian church; the Christian church would languish and die without assemblies for public worship; assemblies for worship are impossible without a day of rest; a day of rest needs the protection of statute law." Sunday laws are relics of the old establishments. They are permanent barriers to complete religious liberty. May, 1784. General sentiment in revolutionary times. When the spirit of liberty is alert. EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION. MEMORIAL OF THE PRESBYTERY OF HANOVER TO To the Honorable Speaker and House of Delegates of Virginia: GENTLEMEN: The united clergy of the Presbyterian church in Virginia, assembled in presbytery, request your attention to the following representation. In the late arduous struggle for everything dear to us, a desire of perfect liberty, and political equality animated every class of citizens. An entire and everlasting freedom from every species of ecclesiastical domination, a full and permanent security of the unalienable rights of conscience and private judgment, and an equal share of the protection and favour of government to all denominations of Christians, were particular objects of our expectations and irrefragable claim. The happy revolution effected by the virtuous exertions of our countrymen of various opinions in religion, was a favourable opportunity of obtaining these desirable objects without faction, contention, or complaint. All ranks of men, almost, felt the claims of justice, when the rod of oppression had scourged them into sensibility, and the powerful band of common danger had cordially united them together against civil encroachments. The members, therefore, of every religious society had a right to expect, and most of them did expect, that former invidious and exclusive distinctions, preferences, and emoluments conferred by the State on any one sect above others, would have been wholly removed. They justly supposed that any partiality of this kind, Statechurchism un people. any particular and illicit connection or commerce between the State and one description of Christians more than another, on account of peculiar opinions in religion, or in anything else, would be unworthy of worthy a free the representatives of a people perfectly free, and an infringement of that religious liberty which enhances the value of other privileges in any state of society. We, therefore, and the numerous bodies of citizens in our communion, as well as in many others, are justly dissatisfied and uneasy, that our expectations from the Legislature have not been answered in these important respects. We regret that the prejudice Prejudice of education, the influence of partial custom, and habits of thinking confirmed by these, have too much confounded the distinction between matters purely religious and the objects of human legislation, and have occasioned jealousy and dissatisfaction by injurious inequalities respecting things which are connected with religious opinion, towards different sects. of Christians. That this uneasiness may not appear to be entertained without ground, we would wish to state the following unquestionable facts for the consideration of the House of Delegates. resulting from erroneous education. Ordinary law not a suffi guard. The security of our religious rights upon equal and impartial ground, instead of being made a funda- cient safemental part of our constitution as it ought to have been, is left to the precarious fate of common law. A matter of general and essential concern to the people is committed to the hazard of the prevailing opinion of a majority of the assembly at its different sessions. In consequence of this the Episcopal church was virtually regarded as the constitutional church, the church of the state, at the revolution; and was left by the framers of our present government, in that station of unjust pre-eminence which she had formerly acquired under the smiles of royal favour. And even when the late oppressive establish Virginia's religious establishment. Other inequalities. Further injustice ment of that church was at length acknowledged an unreasonable hardship by the assembly in 1776, a superiority and distinction in name was still retained, and it was expressly styled the established church as before, which title was continued as late as the year 1778, and never formally disclaimed; our common danger at that time not permitting that opposition to the injustice of such distinction which it required and de served. But "a seat on the right hand of temporal glory as the established mother church" was not the only. inequality then countenanced and still subsisting, of which we now have reason to regret and complain. Substantial advantages were also confirmed and secured to her, by a partial and inequitable decree of government. We hoped the time past would have sufficed for the enjoyment of those emoluments which that church long possessed without control by the abridgment of the equal privileges of others, and the aid of their property wrested from them by the hand of usurpation; but we were deceived. An estate reputed to be worth several hundred thousand pounds in churches, glebes, etc., derived from the pockets of all religious societies, was exclusively and unjustly appropriated to the benefit of one, without compensation or restitution to the rest, who in many places, were a large majority of the inhabitants. Nor is this the whole of the injustice we have felt in matters connected with religious opinion. The Episcopal church is incorporated, and known in law as a body, so that it can receive and possess property for ecclesiastical purposes, without trouble or risk in securing it, while other Christian communities are obliged to trust to the precarious fidelity of trustees chosen for the purpose. The Episcopal clergy are considered as having a right, ex-officio, to celebrate marriages throughout the State, while unnecessary Imposition of petty bur senting clergy. hardships and restrictions are imposed upon other clergymen in the law relating to that subject passed dens upon disin 1780, which confines their exercise of that function to those counties where they receive a special license from the court by recommendation, for recording which they are charged with certain fees by the clerk; and which exposes them to a heavy fine for delay in returning certificates of marriages to the office. The vestries of the different parishes, a remnant of hierarchical domination, have a right by law to levy money from the people of all denominations for certain purposes; and yet these vestrymen are exclusively required by law to be members of the Episcopal church, and to subscribe a conformity to its doctrines and discipline as professed and practised in England. Such preferences, distinctions, and advantages, granted by the legislature exclusively to one sect of Christians, are regarded by a great number of your constituents as glaringly unjust and dangerous. Their continuance so long in a republic, without animadversion or correction by the assembly, affords just ground for alarm and complaint to a people, who feel themselves, by the favour of Providence, happily free; who are conscious of having deserved as well from the State as those who are most favored; who have an undoubted right to think themselves as orthodox in opinion upon every subject as others, and whose privileges are as dear to them. Such partiality to any system of religious opinion whatever, is inconsistent with the intention and proper object of well directed government, and obliges men of reflection to consider the legislature which indulges it, as a party in religious differences, instead of the common guardian and equal protector of every class of citizens in their religious as well as civil rights. We have hitherto restrained our com Peculiar religious dis tinctions dan gerous to lib erty. |