Religion
and the Early Republic
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t the end of the Constitutional Convention,
Alexander Hamilton was asked why the framers had omitted the word
"God" from the document. His reply: "We forgot." Yet when the first Congress assembled in
1790, among its very first acts were to select a chaplain and to ask President
George Washington to declare a day of thanksgiving.
On his gravestone, Thomas Jefferson
listed the three accomplishments for which he most wanted to be remembered:
drafting the Declaration of Independence, founding the University of Virginia,
and writing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Enacted in 1786, the
Statute for Religious Freedom is one of the most important documents in American
history on the subject of religious liberty. It prohibited government
interference or support for religion and became an inspiration for the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Jefferson originally
drafted the statute in 1777, during the American Revolution. But the measure
was opposed by Patrick Henry and many of Virginia's larger religious
denominations, who feared that churches would decline without tax support.
James Madison, who
guided the Statute for Religious Freedom through the Virginia Assembly, argued
that the right to religious liberty was one of the rights for which Americans
had waged the Revolution. Jefferson and Madison held that the right to freedom
of conscience extended to non-Christians and even to nonbelievers. Jefferson
felt that religion would flourish if left alone. "It is error alone which
needs the support of government," he wrote. "Truth can stand by
itself."
During the years
following the Revolution, every state ended tax support for churches and
religious qualifications for voting and officeholding. Religious denominations
had to compete for followers without government support.
There can be no doubt
that the "American system" of voluntary support for religious proved
to be enormously successful. Between 1800 and 1840, the proportion of Americans
who were church members doubled. Older denominations--including Baptist,
Methodist, and Catholic churches--grew rapidly, while a host of new
denominations arose, including the Church of Christ, the Mormons, and new
African American churches. Today, a higher proportion of Americans regularly
attend a religious institution than in virtually any other western nation.
President Washington's letter to the
Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, is a classic statement of the new
nation's commitment to religious freedom. It is the first public declaration
that Jews will be able to practice their religion free from government
persecution.
In his letter, the
President states that America's is a government "which gives to bigotry no
sanction, to persecution, no assistance." According to Washington, it is
not enough to merely tolerate (put up with) other religions. Freedom of
conscience, he insists, is an "inherent natural right."
A year after Washington
wrote his letter, the principle of religious freedom was included in the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In this 1793 letter to the members
of Baltimore's New Church, President Washington expresses his pride in living
in a country in which "every person may...worship God according to the
dictates of his own heart." In the United States, people may reach for the
highest government offices, regardless of their religious beliefs.
In this famous 1802 letter, Thomas
Jefferson calls for a "wall of separation" between church and state.
This phrase has profoundly influenced the way that twentieth-century courts
have understood the constitutional relationship between government and
religion. It led the Supreme Court to restrict prayer in schools and the
display of religious symbols in public spaces.
In 1802 an alliance of
26 Baptist churches sent a letter to Jefferson congratulating him on his
election to the presidency. In their letter, the Baptists also complained that
Connecticut's government discriminated against religious minorities.
Jefferson used his
response to present his views on the proper relationship between religion and
government. He wanted to explain why he, unlike earlier presidents or
governors, refused to designate days of public prayer, fasting, and
thanksgiving. And he wanted to answer the Federalist charge that he was an
enemy of religion because he opposed government support for churches.
The President stated
that religion is a matter lying solely between an individual and that person's
God. In his view, the First Amendment absolutely prohibited the federal
government from meddling in peoples' beliefs or from favoring a particular
religious denomination.
Currently, the U.S.
Supreme Court imposes a three-prong test to determine whether a public activity
violates the First Amendment's prohibition of