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Page 20 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 >