Volume 4, Chapter 79, Disestablishment and Religious Freedom
Another important social impact of the Revolution was a great impetus toward religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
In the first place, the southern colonies on which Britain had imposed an Anglican establishment
movement, against the will and beliefs of the majority, moved quickly during the revolution
to disestablish the Anglican Church, which eventually became a harmless Protestant Episcopal
Church. This disestablishment was almost an inevitable natural consequence of the revolution
against British imperialism. In contrast, the pro-patriot congregational establishment
in New England could not be dislodged.
Thus, New York, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia eliminated their Anglican burden
upon the state.
Significant opposition to this important liberal change came only in Virginia, where almost
half the citizens were Anglican.
Jefferson and Madison did not succeed in driving through disestablishment until six years after
to the Bill had been written and introduced by Jefferson in 1779.
Even then, it met strong opposition from, among others, George Washington, Patrick Henry,
and the young lawyer John Marshall, who urged the general establishment of all religion
in the state.
This statute of religious freedom, which Jefferson rightly regarded as one of his noblest accomplishments,
Decreed Absolute Religious Liberty
No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry
whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or birthed in his body or funds,
or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.
But that all men shall be free to profess, and by agreement to maintain, their opinions
in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect
their civil capacities.
All men were to enjoy such freedom, which the law affirmed as one of the natural rights
of mankind.
Man's philosophical preamble to the Statute of Religious Freedom was eloquently libertarian.
He strongly condemned past rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who had presumptuously
assumed dominion over the faith of others.
The human mind is by nature free and must operate uncoerced.
Truth, he affirmed, must be left to itself to prevail in the free and unfettered argument against error, errors ceasing to be dangerous where it is permitted freely to contradict them.
Some of Jefferson's ringing declarations on the supremacy of human reason were eliminated in the final peak led by such conservatives as Benjamin Harrison and John Page.
Page, while Madison and the young libertarian theorist John Taylor of Caroline fought to
preserve the eloquent affirmations intact.
The weakening was not very serious, however, and Jefferson, with due pride, printed and
circulated the statute far and wide, and it made a deep impression in Europe.
Jefferson's statute was quickly translated into French and Italian and inserted into the
The Notable French Encyclopedia.
As he eloquently wrote to Madison from France in late 1786,
it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected after so many ages during
which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests and nobles, and it is honorable
for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason
of Man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.
Another significant development during the revolution was the easing of the previously
hysterical anti-Catholicism that had permeated the colonies, north and south.
France, not long before hated Roman Catholic enemy, was now a beloved and much appreciated
Ally, and it was inevitable that France's religion would no longer be treated as a creature
of the Antichrist, no fewer than eight states moved during the revolution to allow Roman
Catholics to hold public office.