First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty Page #4

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as the episcopal church,

but mainly for the sake

of his daughters

and their activities.

He did make two

statements publicly,

one in his "notes of Virginia"

where he said,

"what does it matter

whether my neighbor believes

"in 20 gods or no God?

What does it hurt me?"

Well, that did hurt him,

that statement,

and then he said in his preamble

to the bill

for religious freedom,

a very important document,

"well, religion is

no more important

"to our civic rights

than our beliefs

in geometry and physics."

Mitchell:
"I am a sect

by myself, as far as I know,"

Jefferson once wrote.

He clearly was someone

who disliked

ecclesiastical authority.

He saw it, I think,

as an unnecessary layer.

In his own mind,

he was a deeply

religious man

because his faith

and his knowledge

were all of a piece.

Mitchell:
Jefferson knew

how controversial

his own version

of faith would be

if revealed in public,

so he kept it very private.

Man as Jefferson:

Our particular principles

of religion are a subject

of accountability

to our God alone.

I inquire after no man's

and trouble none with mine.

Thomas Jefferson.

Mitchell:
Adams very

deeply believed that

government and religion

should be separate.

He later wrote how pleased

he was that the United States

were "founded

on the natural authority

yet Adams also believed

that religion played

a crucial role

in public life.

Only a religious people

with God-fearing leaders

could guide an orderly

and rational popular government.

He had, he said,

"a veneration for the religion

of a people who profess

and call themselves christians."

Man as John Adams:

Without religion,

this world would be

something not fit to be

mentioned in polite company.

I mean hell.

John Adams.

Mitchell:

For the next 50 years,

these two men at the forefront

of American politics

would be friends, rivals,

enemies, and friends again.

Their agreements

and differences alike

would shape the nation.

Mitchell:
Almost 50 years

after the events,

ex-president John Adams wrote

about the history he'd seen.

Man as John Adams: They thought

themselves bound to pray

for the king and queen

and all the royal family

and all in authority

under them as ministers ordained

of God for their good,

but when they saw

those powers bent

upon the destruction

of all the securities

of their lives,

liberties, and properties,

they thought

it their duty to pray

for the continental congress.

John Adams.

Mitchell:
By the autumn of 1774,

British policies like

the stamp act

and the coercive acts

had incensed many Americans.

Revolution was in the air.

Every colony except

Georgia sent a delegation

to Philadelphia to discuss

what measures to take,

how far to go.

This first continental congress

was the first time

that the separate colonies

had met in a single assembly.

Could they act together?

A crowd milling

around outside the meeting hall

expected news and wanted action.

Yet on the first day

of the first American congress,

with the overpowering issue

of rebellion hanging

in the balance, the first issue

discussed was faith.

A delegate

from Massachusetts proposed

that they open

the meeting with a prayer,

but as delegate John Adams

wrote his wife Abigail...

Man as John Adams:

The motion was opposed

because we were so divided

in religious sentiments--

some were episcopalians,

some quakers,

some anabaptists,

some presbyterians,

and some congregationalists--

so that we could not join

in the same act of worship.

John Adams.

Brinkley:
Well, in 1774,

everything almost went

to a crashing halt

at the continental congress

over the issue of a prayer.

What would be appropriate,

what Bible to use,

would you say something

that would alienate

an episcopalian

or a presbyterian?

And it became just

a hot button issue.

Mitchell:

Suddenly religion stood like

an immediate roadblock

to the entire idea of America.

Among the most prominent

delegates was

the uncompromising Samuel Adams.

The firebrand

congregationalist was

well-known for his

harsh condemnation

of both Roman catholics

and other protestant sects.

Samuel Adams was possibly

the most devout

of all the delegates

to the congress.

Man as John Adams:

Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said

he was no bigot.

I am no bigot.

Now I can hear a prayer

from a gentleman

of piety and virtue,

who is at the same time

a friend of my country.

Man as John Adams:

He moved that Mr. duche,

an episcopal clergyman,

might be desired

to read prayers

to the congress

tomorrow morning.

The motion was

seconded and passed

in the affirmative.

John Adams.

Man as duche:
Therefore,

for thy name's sake,

lead me and guide me.

Mitchell:

An episcopal clergyman.

It was, as one delegate

said, "a masterly stroke."

If a notoriously stubborn

congregationalist like Adams

could accept

an episcopalian,

the other sects could, too.

Man as John Adams:

We must remember this was

the next morning after

we heard the horrible rumor

of the cannonade of Boston.

I never saw a greater effect

upon an audience.

It seemed as if heaven had

ordained that psalm

to be read on that morning.

John Adams.

Constrain them to drop

the weapons of war

from their unnerved hands

in the day of battle.

Amen.

[Delegates murmuring]

George:
Certainly there was

a need for some sort of unity

in the great project

of building America.

There was a need for some

sort of, one might call it,

spiritual unity,

that did not implicate

the great divisions that

the founders had theologically.

I think Samuel Adams

understood this.

Mitchell:
Despite

their partitions,

the 56 delegates of the first

continental congress

were all one thing--

English protestants

and anti-French.

An anti-catholic rancor

was rampant at the congress,

yet as America prepared

to separate from britain,

the congress hoped

to make Canada an ally.

The assembly composed

an open letter to Canadians.

Man as John Dickinson:

What is offered to you

by the late act of parliament?

Liberty of conscience

in your religion?

No. God gave it to you.

John Dickinson.

Mitchell:
That single

sentence was a watershed.

Religious freedom,

America's founders were saying,

came from God,

not from government,

and if the two could be

separated at all,

they could eventually

be separated for good.

The revolution did not begin

with the founders

declaring independence.

Paul revere made

his celebrated midnight ride,

preceding the impromptu battles

of Lexington and Concord,

on the 18th of April in 1775.

Though not everyone knew it,

war had begun.

A few weeks later,

a second continental congress

gathered in Philadelphia.

This time, they voted to create

a continental army

with a 43 year-old

virginian as commander.

George Washington was tall,

athletic, and sickly.

He'd already suffered

from diphtheria, dysentery,

malaria, smallpox

and tuberculosis

and hadn't a single tooth

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