Did not pro- plaints from reaching our representatives, that we test inoppor tunely. Entitled to freedom. might not be thought to take advantages from times of confusion, or critical situations of government in an unsettled state of convulsion and war, to obtain what is our cleár and incontestable right. But as the happy restoration of peace affords leisure for reflection, we wish to state our sense of the objects of this memorial to your honorable house upon the present occasion; that it may serve to remind you of what might be unnoticed in a multitude of business, and remain as a remonstrance against future encroachments from any quarter. That uncommon liberality of sentiment, which seems daily to gain ground in this enlightened period, encourages us to hope from your wisdom and integrity, gentlemen, a redress of every grievance and remedy of every abuse. Our invaluable privileges have been purchased by the common blood and treasure of our countrymen of different names and opinions, and therefore ought to be secured in full and perfect equality to them all. We are willing to allow a full share of credit to our fellow-citizens, however distinguished in name from us, for their spirited exertions in our arduous struggle for liberty; we would not wish to charge any of them, either ministers or people, with open disaffection to the common cause of America, or with crafty dissimulation or indecision, till the issue of war was certain, so as to oppose their obtaining equal privileges in religion; but we will resolutely engage against any monopoly of the honors and rewards of government by any one sect of Christians more than the rest; for we shun not a comparison with any of our brethren for our efforts in the cause of our country, and assisting to establish her liberties, and therefore esteem it unreasonable that any of them should reap superior advantages for at most but equal merit. Perfect po litical equality We expect from the representatives of a free people, that all partiality and prejudice on any account what- demanded. ever will be laid aside, and that the happiness of the citizens at large will be secured upon the broad basis of perfect political equality. This will engage confidence in government, and unsuspicious affection towards our fellow-citizens. We hope that the legislature will adopt some measures to remove present inequality, and resist any attempt, either at present session or hereafter, to continue those which we now complain of. Thus by preserving a proper regard to every religious denomination as the common protectors of piety and virtue, you will remove every real ground of contention, and allay every jealous commotion on the score of religion. The citizens of Virginia will feel themselves free, unsuspicious, and happy in this respect. Strangers will be encouraged to share our freedom and felicity; and when civil and religious liberty go hand in hand, our late posterity will bless freedom. the wisdom and virture of their fathers. We have the satisfaction to assure you that we are steady well wishers to the State, and your humble servants. THE PRESBYTERY OF HANOVER. 1 Contrast this liberal and commendable position with the position of those churches to-day which are demanding religious laws, urging that those churches whose rights will be infringed are only "seven tenths of one per cent" of our population. They would place power in the stead of law, and their anxiety to accomplish their ends makes them forget justice and right and even humanity, and as a result of their state-churchism, scores of Christians in various parts of the country are compelled to go to jail-placed there by their loving "brother Christians." This is the difference between the Christianity of freechurchism and state-churchism. Blessings re sulting from October, 1784. Renewal of petition. Eternal vigilance the price of liberty. PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. MEMORIAL OF THE PRESBYTERY OF HANOVER TO To the Honorable Speaker and House of Delegates: GENTLEMEN: The united clergy of the Presbyterian church of Virginia, assembled in presbytery, beg leave to again address your honorable house upon a few important subjects, in which we find ourselves interested as citizens of this State. The freedom we possess is so rich a blessing, and the purchase of it has been so high, that we would ever wish to cherish a spirit of vigilant attention to it, in every circumstance of possible danger. We are anxious to retain a full share of all the privileges which our happy revolution affords, and cannot but feel alarmed at the continued existence of any infringement upon them, or even any indirect attempt tending to this. Impressed with this idea, as men whose rights are sacred and dear to them ought to be, we are obliged to express our sensibility upon the present occasion, and we naturally direct our appeal to you, gentlemen, as the public guardians of our country's happiness and liberty, who are influenced, we hope, by that wisdom and justice which your high station requires. Conscious of the rectitude of our intentions and the strength of our claims, we wish to speak our sentiments freely upon these occasions, but at the same time with all that respectful regard which becomes us when addressing the representatives of a great and virtuous people. It is with pain that we find ourselves obliged to renew our complaints upon the subject stated in our memorial last Perversion of spring. We deeply regret that such obvious grievances should exist unredressed in a republic whose end ought to be the happiness of all the citizens. Conscious ness of rights. government. We presumed that immediate redress would have succeeded a clear and just representation of them; as we expect that it is always the desire of our representatives to remove real grounds of uneasiness, and allay jealous commotions amongst the people. But as the objects of the memorial, though very important in their nature and more so in their probable consequences, have not yet been obtained, we request that the house of delegates would be pleased to recollect what we had the honor to state to them in that paper at their last sessions; to resume the subject in their present deliberation; and to give it that weight which its importance. deserves. The uneasiness which we feel from the continuance of the grievances just referred to, is increased under the prospect of an addition to them by certain exceptionable measures said to be proposed to the legislature. We have understood that a comprehensive incorporating act has been and is at present in agitation, whereby ministers of the gospel as such, of certain descriptions, shall have legal advantages which are not proposed to be extended to the people at large of any denomination. A proposition has been made by some gentlemen of the house of delegates, we are told, to extend the grace to us, amongst others, in our professional capacity. If this be so, we are bound to acknowledge with gratitude our obligations to such gentlemen for their inclination to favor us with the sanction of public authority in the discharge of our duty. But as the scheme of incorporating clergymen, independent of the religious communities to which they belong, is inconsistent with our ideas of propriety, we request the liberty of declining any such solitary honor should it be again proposed. To form clergymen into a distinct order in the community, and especially where it would be possible for them to have the principle direction of a considerable public Justice insures peace. Unwise propositions. Ministers must be re sponsible to churches. All state churchism injurious. estate by such incorporation, has a tendency to render them independent, at length, of the churches whose ministers they are; and this has been too often found by experience to produce ignorance, immorality, and neglect of the duties of their station. Besides, if clergymen were to be erected by the State into a distinct political body, detached from the rest of the citizens, with the express design of "enabling them to direct spiritual matters," which we all possess without such formality, it would naturally tend to introduce that antiquated and absurd system, in which government is owned, in effect, to be the fountain head of spiritual influences to the church. It would establish an immediate, a peculiar, and for that very reason, in our opinion, illicit connection between government and such as were thus distinguished. The legislature, in that case, would be the head of a religious party, and its dependent members would be entitled to all decent reciprocity, to a becoming paternal and fostering care. This, we suppose, would be giving a preference, and creating a distinction between citizens equally good, on account of something entirely foreign from civil merit, which would be a source of endless jealousies, and inadmissible in a republic or any other well directed government. The principle, too, which this system aims to establish, is both false and dangerous to religion, and we take this opportunity to remonstrate and protest against it. The real ministers of true religion derive their authority to act in the duties of their profession from a higher source than any legislature on earth, however respectable. Their office relates to the care of the soul, and preparing it for a future state of existence, and their administrations are, or ought to be, of a spiritual nature suited to this momentous concern. And it is plain from the very nature of the case, that they should neither expect nor receive from government any permission or |