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The Southern Israelite
Page 5 1
Rel gious Freedom as a Legal Right
(Continued from page 37)
ently 111
his mo'
stitutiof
years
Constit ut ion,
recited is full
litied his views, for it was on
ii that the New York Con-
convention ratified eleven
creafter the United States
and that its resolution
confidence that pro-
, se d miendments would be adopted,
a provision for complete re-
ligious liberty.
It sit-ins to me of far more signifi
cance that the convention, under the
leadership of Gouveneur Morris and
Chancellor Livingstone, defeated the
amendment by a vote of nineteen to
tfn. and finally adopted a resolution
in ringing words : “And, whereas, we
are required by the benevolent princi
ples of rational liberty, not only to
expel civil tyranny, but also to guard
a^aint" that spiritual oppression and
intolerance wherewith the bigotry and
ambition of weak and wicked priests
and princes have scourged mankind,
this convention doth further, in the
name and by the authority of the good
people of this State, ordain, determine,
and declare that the free exercise and
enjoyment of religious profession and
worship without discrimination or pref
erence, shall forever hereafter be al
lowed within this State to all man
kind. Provided that the liberty of con
science hereby granted shall not be so
construed as to excuse acts of licen
tiousness.”
President Roosevelt has said of this
achievement: “The convention did one
most praiseworthy thing in deciding
in favor of complete religious tolera
tion. This seems natural enough now,
but at that time there was -hardly a
European State that practiced it. Great
Britain harassed her Catholic subjects
in a hundred different ways, while in
France Protestants were treated far
worse, and in fact could scarcely be re
garded as having any legal standing
whatever. On no other point do the
statesmen of the Revolution show to
more marked advantage when com
pared with their European compeers
than in that of complete religious tol
eration.” Well may we say that be-
au>e America led the way, religious
freedom seems natural to us now.
I he labor of the men who in the
>>titutional conventions of the sepa-
' States had succeeded in obtaining
■gnition of the principle that re-
is liberty was an inherent right of
citizens with which the State
nt not interfere received its crown
n the Constitution of the United
es was adopted with its prohibi-
against all religious tests and its
f but all-inclusive provision in the
t Amendment that “Congress shall
“ !<e no laws respecting an establish-
nt of religion or prohibiting the free
rcise thereof”.
1 have no intention of attempting to
beyond the subject of this paper in
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order to trace even briefly the ebb
and flow of tides of public opinion in
the United States in regard to religious
prejudices. The great leaders of thought
and action during the Revolution—
Washington and Franklin, Jefferson
and Madison, were all men of splen
did liberality of thought and spirit, who
could perceive that thought and con
science cannot be constrained and that
a civil government may not enter into
realms where constraint is both unde
sirable and impossible. They succeeded
in making men of lesser minds see that
freedom of thought and conscience is
a matter of right and not of favor.
They embodied that principle in the
fundamental law of the country, and
that is perhaps the greatest contribu
tion which America has made to po
litical thought and ideals and practice.
They gave practical effect to Paine’s
words, though some of them abhorred
Paine’s religious views: “Toleration is
not the opposite of intoleration, but
the counterfeit of it. Both are despot
isms. The one assumes the right of
withholding liberty of conscience, and
the other of granting it. Who, then,
art thou, vain dust and ashes, by what
ever name thou art called, whether a
king or bishop, a church or a state, a
parliament, or anything else, that ob
trudes thine insignificance between the
soul of man and his maker? Mind
thine own concern.”
It is a trite saying that government
is not merely a matter of law, but of
men. As the very foundation of our
government, the organic law decrees
freedom of thought and conscience, yet
from tune to time men try to destroy
or abridge the freedom which the law
decrees. It has been said that no man
is worthy of freedom who cannot de
fend it. We celebrate this year the
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the recognition of religious freedom
as a legal right. We rejoice and are
proud because we are citizens of the
country which has recognized that
right and guaranteed it in its consti
tution. We prove ourselves worthy of
it when we are ready to defend it from
direct or indirect attack, when we fight
all forms of prejudice, whether directed
against us or others, which threaten it.
“What Metcalf says is so”
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