First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty Page #10

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the vice president,

was outraged.

The election campaign

of 1800 was bitter.

George:
The election

of 1800 was a crucial moment

in our national history.

People think our politics

today is polarized--and it is--

but, boy, if you wanted

to see polarization,

you should look

at the election of 1800--

bitterness, recriminations,

nasty campaigning.

Mitchell:
Jefferson hired

James callender,

a writer who specialized

in political slander.

The Jefferson campaign called

Adams a fool, a hypocrite,

a criminal, a tyrant,

but Adams'

supporters retaliated.

Jefferson was branded

a weakling, a libertine,

and a coward.

Perhaps the worst

accusation of all--

this politician who said he was

"in a sect by myself,"

did he believe in God at all?

Man:
"The only question to

be asked by every American,

"laying his hand

on his heart, is

"shall I continue

in allegiance to God

"and a religious president

or impiously declare

for Jefferson and no God?"

Wood:
Jefferson was accused

of being an atheist,

and he felt he was

not an atheist.

He never was.

He learned his lesson,

which Franklin had voiced

several years earlier.

1784 he said, "look.

Anybody who speaks out

"against religion,

it's like spitting in the wind.

You just don't

do it in America."

Mitchell:
The brutality

of the campaign severed

the old friendship.

It was a tragedy of spirit

that seemed to endanger

everything that

the two great men had worked

so hard to create--

the American system itself.

Brinkley:
There was great fear

that America was going to be

destroyed because suddenly

this two-party system

had reared its head,

and the Adams crowd,

the federalists, were saying

that he was a pagan--

Thomas Jefferson--

a crazy deist,

and that he was going to

forever ban christianity

in the United States,

and it got very heated.

Mitchell:
The partisan

maelstrom created genuine fear.

Citizens actually believed

that Jefferson

would banish the Bible.

Bushman:
In 1800,

one of the questions was,

"are we going to go

the jeffersonian/baptist route

"with no established religions

of any kind

"and take the risk that

religion will diminish

in America and virtue

will go down with it?"

Mitchell:
It was a close

and confused election.

In the end, Jefferson won.

Fenster:
The election

proved a point that

reverberates to this day,

that the implementation

of religious freedom

and separation of church

and state were laws

laid down by the founders,

but the protection

of those ideas was

in the hands

of the people.

Man as Jefferson:

If the freedom for religion,

guaranteed to us

by law in theory,

can ever rise in practice under

the overbearing inquisition

of public opinion,

truth will prevail

over fanaticism.

Thomas Jefferson.

Mitchell:
Jefferson

and Madison both realized

that freedom is

a greater spur than force.

The absence of federal

government intervention

actually helped religion

to grow.

Hatch:
There was

tremendous upsurge.

I was reading the diary

of William Bentley,

who kept talking about

how the common people

of the town were holding

night religious meetings,

and there would be

sailors preaching,

there would be women preaching,

there would be

African-Americans preaching.

I shout, "hallelujah,"

when I think of his life.

Butler:
The first amendment

forbids an establishment

and also protects the right

of religious worship,

and both of them working

together have encouraged

religious groups to go out

and seek members.

In the old days,

in the days of an establishment,

you didn't need

to seek members

because the state paid

for religious services.

Hatch:
Look at

the yellow pages of any town

in America, and you can

find forms of faith

that the founding fathers

would have found unimaginable

but would have given

free choice

to any individual to belong

to a wide variety of groups

or to no group,

and I think that

would have pleased them.

Butler:
The state

of the United States

at the beginning

of the 21st century suggests

that they were

completely correct.

They couldn't have

been more correct.

We now live

in a society that has

far more religions,

far more religious

participation,

far more religion involved

in the nature of society

than happened to have

been true at the time

of the American revolution

and the creation

of the first amendment,

and that in part is

a testament

to their conviction

that religion would

flourish on its own.

Meacham:
The great good news

about the country

is that religion has shaped us

without strangling us.

Mitchell:
The American

revolution we all know

came with drums and guns,

with battle and bloodshed.

The quieter revolution

was less spectacular

and much slower,

coming only step by step,

but it was more

unique in human history.

This was the story

of an idea,

a government devoted

to maintaining liberty,

not uniformity.

Bushman:
The story of liberty

is never a simple story.

It requires constant attention,

constant thought.

It requires argument and debate,

and only out of that process

can we achieve

the goal that we want,

which is religious freedom

for all.

Wood:
The founding fathers

not only created

the institutions by which

we still govern ourselves,

but they infused

into the culture, our culture,

all of our highest aspirations,

our ideals,

our greatest values,

including religious liberty

being one of the most important.

The struggle

for religious liberty is

a perennial struggle.

There will always be

the temptation

to cut back

on religious freedom.

There will always be

some end in view,

some fear that people have

that will tempt us as a people

to dishonor

the fundamental right

to religious freedom

and the right to bring faith

into the public square.

It was a world historic

contribution to say that

"yes, religion matters

for the health

"of a society,

but government

"must leave people free

to pursue their beliefs

as they see fit."

It is a system that we should

change with great care,

if at all.

Mitchell:
Ben Franklin

was the first to go.

By 1790, he was 84

and quite ill.

One day his daughter said,

"I hope, father,

that you will yet recover,

and live many years."

"I hope not,"

Ben Franklin said.

His wish was granted.

He died that April, 1790.

It was soon discovered

that he'd added a note

onto his will.

Man as Franklin:

My fine crab-tree walking stick

with a gold head

curiously wrought

in the form

of a cap of liberty

I give to my friend

and the friend of mankind

George Washington.

Mitchell:
Washington

himself still had Miles to go

before he could rest

from his 8 years as president.

It was 1796 before

he would write

his farewell address

to the American people.

An advisor suggested

that Washington mention

"a generally received

and divinely authoritative

religion"in the address.

Washington refused,

but he believed that faith

needed to be a part

of the national character.

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