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NOTE 79. Disestablishment and Religious Freedom

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Volume 4, Chapter 79, Disestablishment and Religious Freedom

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Another important social impact of the Revolution was a great impetus toward religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

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In the first place, the southern colonies on which Britain had imposed an Anglican establishment

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movement, against the will and beliefs of the majority, moved quickly during the revolution

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to disestablish the Anglican Church, which eventually became a harmless Protestant Episcopal

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Church. This disestablishment was almost an inevitable natural consequence of the revolution

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against British imperialism. In contrast, the pro-patriot congregational establishment

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in New England could not be dislodged.

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Thus, New York, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia eliminated their Anglican burden

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upon the state.

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Significant opposition to this important liberal change came only in Virginia, where almost

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half the citizens were Anglican.

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Jefferson and Madison did not succeed in driving through disestablishment until six years after

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to the Bill had been written and introduced by Jefferson in 1779.

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Even then, it met strong opposition from, among others, George Washington, Patrick Henry,

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and the young lawyer John Marshall, who urged the general establishment of all religion

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in the state.

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This statute of religious freedom, which Jefferson rightly regarded as one of his noblest accomplishments,

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Decreed Absolute Religious Liberty

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No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry

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whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or birthed in his body or funds,

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or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.

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But that all men shall be free to profess, and by agreement to maintain, their opinions

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in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect

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their civil capacities.

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All men were to enjoy such freedom, which the law affirmed as one of the natural rights

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of mankind.

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Man's philosophical preamble to the Statute of Religious Freedom was eloquently libertarian.

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He strongly condemned past rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who had presumptuously

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assumed dominion over the faith of others.

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The human mind is by nature free and must operate uncoerced.

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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.

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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.

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Page, while Madison and the young libertarian theorist John Taylor of Caroline fought to

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preserve the eloquent affirmations intact.

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The weakening was not very serious, however, and Jefferson, with due pride, printed and

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circulated the statute far and wide, and it made a deep impression in Europe.

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Jefferson's statute was quickly translated into French and Italian and inserted into the

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The Notable French Encyclopedia.

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As he eloquently wrote to Madison from France in late 1786,

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it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected after so many ages during

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which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests and nobles, and it is honorable

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for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason

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of Man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.

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Another significant development during the revolution was the easing of the previously

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hysterical anti-Catholicism that had permeated the colonies, north and south.

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France, not long before hated Roman Catholic enemy, was now a beloved and much appreciated

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Ally, and it was inevitable that France's religion would no longer be treated as a creature

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of the Antichrist, no fewer than eight states moved during the revolution to allow Roman

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Catholics to hold public office.