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The Southern Israelite
Traffic and
parking don’t
worry the folks
who—
SHOP
by
STREET CAR
Ride them between
shopping centers
Georgia
POWER
COMPANY
A CITIZEN WHEREVER WE SERVE
Religious Freedom as a Legal / /,/
(Continued from page 13)
erance. These influences were particu
larly strong in the years immediately
preceding the Revolution. The ties of
common interest and common politi
cal views which bound together the
colonists in their dispute with England
kept out the dividing force of differ
ence in religious view. The Congrega-
tionalist of New England, the dissenter
and the Church of England men from
other parts of the country could not
maintain an attitude of bigotry and
intolerance when all were working to
gether for a common end. “It was im
possible that neighboring communities,
characterized by such differences but
otherwise homogeneous in race and
social condition, should fail to react
upon one another and to liberalize one
another. Still more was this true when
they attempted to enter into a politi
cal union” (Fiske, “The Beginnings of
New England”). Though test acts and
statutes imposing civil disabilities be
cause of difference in religious view
remained on the books, in practice at
the time of the Revolution the Jews
at least were under no significant dis
abilities except in regard to the right
to hold public office. Indeed, Jews had
been elected to the colonial assemblies
in Pennsylvania (David Franks), Geor
gia (Joseph Ottelenghi), and South
Carolina (Francis Salvador), and had
been permitted to take their seats
without question.
The Virginia convention met in the
atmosphere of enthusiasm for human
liberty and against all forms of tyr
anny which justified the American
Revolution, even in the minds of many
who had only with reluctance given
up their loyalty to the British crown.
All were agreed that in the new State
individual liberty must be protected
against tyranny by the government. A
declaration of rights which “pertain to
the people and their posterity as the
basis and foundation of government”
to be effective must contain more than
vague phrases about liberty. To be
effective it must contain a definite
statement of those rights which the
government must protect and might
not destroy. The right to set up false
Gods had never been recognized as
inherent in liberty, and men were not
then, and are not even today, disposed
to doubt that those who do not accept
their peculiar religious beliefs are in
fact setting up false Gods. Toleration
was sometimes taught as a Christian
duty, but in Virginia itself the Church
of England was the established church,
and not very long before, dissenters
had been persecuted. No Anglo-Saxon
tradition made religious liberty an “in
herent" right of a free people, and the
original draft of the Bill of Rights
said to have been prepared by George
Mason did not contain any provision
safeguarding it.
Perhaps the battle which had waged
in Virginia in the past over the per
secution of dissenters had made men
think about the iniquity of attempts
to force men’s conscience. In the con
vention were many men who were im
bued with a sincere love of liberty in
all its phases. It was dt
provision should be inclu
bills of rights to safeguar
liberty. George Mason,
drafted a resolution that
should enjoy the fullest tol
the exercise of religion ac.
the dictates of conscience'
Madison was a member of
vention. He recognized that
thought and conscience mu.-
confused with toleration. Jo
in his Essay on James Mad! i (|\.
says Hictorical) says: (Madi-
ed out that this provision did
to the root of the matter,
exercise of religion according to the
dictates of conscience is something
which every man may demand as a
right, not something for which he must
ask as a privilege. To grant to tin-
state the power of tolerating is im
plicitly the power of prohibiting,
whereas Madison would deny to it any
jurisdiction whatever in the matter ut
religion.” The substitute resolution
offered by Madison protected that
right in fullest manner. "That reli
gion, or the duly we owe our Creator,
and the manner of discharging it, be
ing under the direction of reason and
conviction only, not of violence or
compulsion, all men are equally enti
tled to the full and free exercise of it,
according to the dictates of conscience,
and therefore that no man or class oi
men ought, on account of religion to
be invested with peculiar emoluments
or privileges nor subjected to any pen
alties or disabilities unless under color
of religion, the preservation of equal
liberty, and the existence of the State
be manifestly endangered.
The convention agreed that for the
word “toleration” the phrase, "right o
the free exercise of religion," should
be substituted, but its members were
not willing to go so far as to adopt
prohibition of peculiar emoluments or
privileges to the adherents of a par
ticular church. In the form finally
adopted, this clause reads: “That re
ligion, or the duty we owe to our Cre
ator, and the manner of discharging
it can be directed, only by reason and
conviction, not by force or violence,
and therefore all men are equally en
titled to the free exercise of religion
according to the dictates of conscience,
and that it is the mutual duty of all
to practice Christian forbearance, love,
and charity towards each other.
It would, I think, be impossible to
exaggerate the significance of this
achievement of the Virginia conven
tion. In formulating the basis of the
new State, the bill of rights had con
fined the powers of the State so that
the right of citizens to think and to
exercise religion according to the die
tates of their conscience must remain
inviolate. The convention had r 1
nized that true freedom was not
achieved so long as thought and
science might be fettered. Otlu
stitutions have included P r
which expressed the principle
ter form. To Virginia belong
(Continued on page o7 >