Virginia. The majority of the legislators were still churchmen; but gradually a decided majority of the people had become dissenters, of whom the foremost were Baptists and Presbyterians. When the struggle for independence was ended, of ninety-one clergymen of the Anglican church in Virginia, twenty-eight only remained. One fourth of the parishes had become extinct. The Churchmen began to fear the enfeeblement of religion from its want of compulsory support and from the excesses of fanaticism among dissenters. These last had made their way, not only without aid from the state, but under the burden of supporting a church which was not their own. The church which had leaned on the state was alone in a decline. system of an impartial support by the state of all branches of Christians was revived by members of "the Protestant Episcopal church," as it now began to be called. Their petitions, favored by Patrick Henry, Harrison, then governor, Pendleton, the chancellor, Richard Henry Lee, and many others of the foremost men, alleged a decay of public morals; and the remedy asked for was a general assessment, analogous to the clause in the constitution of Massachusetts which enjoined upon its towns "the maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality."* The Presbyterians at first were divided. Their clergy, even while they held that human legislation should concern human affairs alone, that conscience and religious worship lie beyond its reach, accepted the measure, provided it should respect every human belief, even "of the Mussulman and the Gentoo." The Presbyterian laity, accustomed to support their own ministry, chose rather to continue to do so. Of the Bap tists, alike ministers and people rejected any alliance with the state. Early in the autumnal session of the legislature of 1785, Patrick Henry proposed a resolution for a legal provision for the teachers of the Christian religion. In the absence of Jefferson, the opponents of the measure were led by Madison, whom Witherspoon had imbued with theological lore. The assessment bill, he said, exceeds the functions of civil authority. * Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, Article III. of 1780 The question has been stated as if it were, is religion necessary? The true question is, are establishments necessary for religion? And the answer is, they corrupt religion. The difficulty of providing for the support of religion is the result of the war, to be remedied by voluntary association for religious purposes. In the event of a statute for the support of the Christian religion, are the courts of law to decide what is Christianity and, as a consequence, to decide what is orthodoxy and what is heresy? The enforced support of the Christian religion dishonors Christianity. Yet, in spite of all the opposition that could be mustered, leave to bring in the bill was granted by forty-seven votes against thirty-two. The bill, when reported, prescribed a general assessment on all taxable property for the support of teachers of the Christian religion. Each person, as he paid his tax, was to say to which society he dedicated it; in case he refused to do so, his payment was to be applied toward the maintenance of a county school. On the third reading the bill received a check, and was ordered by a small majority to be printed and distributed for the consideration of the people. Thus the people of Virginia had before them for their choice the bill of the revised code for establishing religious freedom, and the plan of desponding churchmen for supporting religion by a general assessment. All the state, from the sea to the mountains and beyond them, was alive with the discussion. Madison, in a remonstrance addressed to the legislature, imbodied all that could be said against the compulsory maintenance of Christianity and in behalf of religious freedom as a natural right, the glory of Christianity itself, the surest method of supporting religion, and the only way to produce moderation and harmony among its several sects. George Mason, who was an enthusiast for entire freedom, asked of Washington his opinion, and received for answer that " no man's sentiments were more opposed to any kind of restraint upon religious principles." While he was not among those who were so much alarmed at the thought of making people of the denominations of Christians pay toward the support of that denomination which they professed, * Madison to Jefferson, 9 January 1785. Madison, i., 120. provided Jews, Mahometans, and others who were not Christians, might obtain proper relief, his advice was given in these words: "As the matter now stands, I wish an assessment had never been agitated; and, as it has gone so far, that the bill could die an easy death." * The general committee of the Baptists unanimously appointed a delegate to remonstrate with the general assembly against the assessment, and they resolved that no human laws ought to be established for that purpose; that every free free person ought to be free in matters of religion. † The general convention of the Presbyterian church prayed the legislature expressly that the bill concerning religious freedom might be passed into a law as the best safeguard then attainable for their religious rights. ‡ When the legislature of Virginia assembled, no one was willing to bring forward the assessment bill, and it was never heard of more. Out of one hundred and seventeen articles of the revised code which were then reported, Madison selected for immediate consideration the one which related to religious freedom. The people of Virginia had held it under deliberation for six years; in December 1785 it passed the house by a vote of nearly four to one. Attempts in the senate for amendment produced only insignificant changes in the preamble, and on the sixteenth of January 1786 Virginia placed among its statutes the very words of the original draft by Jefferson with the hope that they would endure forever: "No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; opinion in matters of religion shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect civil capacities. The rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind." # "Thus," says Madison, “in Virginia was extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind." The principle on which religious liberty was settled in Virginia prevailed at once in Maryland. In every other American 844 *Washington to George Mason, 3 October 1785. Sparks, ix., 137. Semple's History of the Baptists, etc., 71; Foote's Sketches of Virginia, state oppressive statutes concerning religion fell into disuse and were gradually repealed. Survivals may still be found, as in nature we in this day meet with survivals of an earlier geological period. It had been foreseen that "the happy consequences of the grand experiment on the advantages which accompany tolerance and liberty would not be limited to America." The statute of Virginia, translated into French and into Italian, was widely circulated through Europe. A part of the work of "the noble army of martyrs" was done. During the colonial period the Anglican establishment was feared, because its head was an external temporal power engaged in the suppression of colonial liberties, and was favored by the officers of that power even to the disregard of justice. National independence and religious freedom dispelled the last remnant of jealousy. The American branch at first thought it possible to perfect their organization by themselves; but they soon preferred as their starting-point a final fraternal act of the church of England. No part of the country, no sect, no person showed a disposition to thwart them in their purpose; and no one complained of the unofficial agency of Jay, the American minister of foreign affairs at home, and of John Adams, the American minister in London, in aid of their desire, which required the consent of the British parliament and a consecration by the Anglican hierarchy. Their wish having been fulfilled in the form to which all of them gave assent and which many of them regarded as indispensable, the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States moved onward with a life of its own to the position which it could never have gained but by independence. For America no bishop was to be chosen at the dictation of a temporal power to electors under the penalty of high treason for disobedience; no advowson of church livings could be tolerated; no room was left for simony; no tenure of a ministry as a life estate was endured where a sufficient reason required a change; the laity was not represented by the highest officer of state and the legislature, but stood for itself; no alteration of prayer, or creed, or government could be introduced by the temporal chief, or by that chief and the legislature. The rule of the church proceeded * Luzerne to Rayneval, 6 November 1784. from its own living power representing all its members. The Protestant Episcopal congregations in the several United States of America, including the clergy of Connecticut who at first went a way of their own, soon fell into the custom of meeting in convention as one church, and gave a new bond to union. Since the year 1785 they have never asked of any American government a share in any general assessment, and have grown into greatness by self-reliance. The acknowledged independence of the United States called suddenly into a like independence a new and self-created rival Episcopal church, destined to spread its branches far and wide over the land with astonishing rapidity. Out of a society of devout and studious scholars in the University of Oxford, within less than sixty years, grew the society of Methodists. As some of the little republics of ancient time selected one man as their law-giver, as all men on board a ship trust implicitly to one commander during the period of the voyage, so the Methodist connection in its beginning left to John Wesley to rule them as he would. Its oldest society in the states was at New York, and of the year 1766. In 1772 Wesley appointed, as his "general assistant" in America,* Francis Asbury, a missionary from England, a man from the people, who had "much wisdom and meekness; and under all this, though hardly to be perceived, much command and authority." + Wesley never yielded to the temptation to found a separate church within British dominions, and during the war of American independence used his influence to keep the societies which he governed from renouncing their old allegiance. But no sooner had the people of the United States been recognised as a nation by the king of England himself, and the movement to found an American episcopacy had begun, than he burst the bonds that in England held him from schism, and resolved to get the start of the English hierarchy. In October 1783, in a general epistle, he peremptorily directed his American brethren to receive "Francis Asbury as the general assistant." + For nearly forty years Wesley had been persuaded that the apostolical succession is a "fable"; that "bishops and presby * Asbury's Journal, 10 October 1772. + Coke's Journal, 16. Wesley to the brethren in America, 3 October 1783. |