First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty Page #7

---

for independence,

and even then, it was

already clear that we were

fighting for much more,

a new kind of nation.

For almost 170 years,

the government of Virginia

had been closely intertwined

with the anglican church,

but as the war went on,

Virginia began to take

the first steps

toward another kind

of revolution,

religious freedom.

George Mason drafted

the Virginia declaration

of rights in June, 1776.

It would deeply influence

both the declaration

of independence

and the bill of rights.

Mason's first

draft included a clause

that guaranteed toleration

of all religious creeds.

Man as George Mason:

All men should enjoy

the fullest toleration

in the exercise of religion,

unpunished and unrestrained.

George Mason.

Mitchell:

It was a giant step forward,

but for James Madison

not enough.

The small, frail boy who'd been

moved by a sermon from jail

was now a small, frail man

with weak nerves

and a squeaky voice.

He was once described as

a man "no bigger than

a half piece of soap,"

but Madison was

an incisive thinker

who prepared

with incredible thoroughness

and a voracious student

who was passionate

about religious freedom.

Brinkley:
What he got

out of his readings was

a firm belief that he

carried through life

that it was

the individual's pursuit

of religion,

that it was not doctrine

that had to be spoon-fed you,

that you needed to read

scripture and come up

with your own interpretations

and be a church unto yourself.

Mitchell:
As a young lawyer,

he defended baptist preachers

arrested for preaching

without a license

from the anglican church.

For Madison, the idea that

the government could tolerate

various beliefs

was not sufficient.

Nor was the idea new.

In 1689, the English

parliament had passed

the act of toleration,

granting freedom of worship

to protestants alone,

and dissenters like

the puritans

had to register with the church.

Toleration presupposed that

there was a dominant church

willing to let the others exist.

Toleration was a very different

thing from religious liberty.

It took a long time

for a true understanding

of liberty to develop.

Holmes:
It was goethe

who said that toleration

is an insult because

when toleration is granted

it can always be withdrawn.

Mitchell:
So the quiet

Madison helped Mason rewrite

Virginia's declaration

of rights.

It was now quite different.

Man as James Madison:

Religion can be directed

only by reason

and conviction,

not by force or violence,

and therefore,

all men are equally entitled

to the free exercise

of religion,

according to the dictates

of conscience.

James Madison.

George:
The great challenge

to the American founders--

the great experiment

that they undertook--

was to see if it would

be possible,

as the first

federalist papers said,

"to create a government

based on reflection and choice

rather than

on accident and force."

Mitchell:
Toleration

had become freedom.

Yet the amended

declaration of rights

also suggested

that the government depended

on Christian virtues.

Man as Madison:

It is the mutual duty of all

to practice

Christian forbearance, love,

and charity towards each other.

James Madison.

Mitchell:
Madison's friend

and fellow virginian

Thomas Jefferson

still wasn't satisfied.

Fenster:
He was

a legislator in Virginia

when he authored

a bill for establishing

religious freedom.

Its main point

was quite simple,

"all men shall be free

to profess and by argument

to maintain their opinions

in matters of religion."

Mitchell:
When Jefferson was

appointed minister to France,

he took care

to pack ample copies

of his bill

for religious freedom.

The great thinkers

of Europe had created

the theory of man's

natural rights of man,

but it took the new American

spirit to put those ideas

into the language of law,

but Jefferson's bill

was not yet a law.

In Virginia, the bill stalled

in the legislature.

Mitchell:
In 1783,

the treaty of Paris ended

the revolutionary war.

Against all odds,

the Americans had won.

Man as Washington:

I was but the humble agent

of favoring heaven,

whose benign interference

was so often manifested

in our behalf

and to whom the praise

of victory alone is due.

Meacham:
I think

at the end of the war

Washington's view

of divine intervention

was heartfelt,

and I think he was humbled

by what had happened,

almost crushed

in New York, valley forge,

all the great images

that we know.

No rational person would

have bet on us in 1776,

and so certainly,

it seemed like a miracle.

If anything, I think

Washington believed

that it was virtue rewarded

and that a great sense

of responsibility

came with that,

that this was a covenant.

This wasn't victory

without strings.

The strings were you

have to live up

to what you've been given--

fought for but also given.

Mitchell:
A conquering general

had always taken

up the reins of authority.

Power was the usual reward

for victory,

but George Washington

went home to Virginia.

His home state was

in the midst

of a very different struggle.

Several states had passed

what was essentially

a religious tax,

government support

for churches

in the form

of a general assessment.

Thomas Jefferson was outraged.

Man as Jefferson:

To compel a man to furnish

contributions of money

for the propagation

of religious opinions

which he disbelieves

and deplores

is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson.

Mitchell:
The baptist church too

opposed the general assessment,

but the powerful

anglican church

strongly supported the tax,

led by the eminent

Patrick Henry.

The revolutionary orator famed

for "give me liberty,

or give me death"

had been raised as

an anglican,

but as a lawyer,

he'd defended both

baptists and quakers.

He'd even been known to pay

the fines of imprisoned baptists

out of his own pocket.

His bill would

eliminate the idea

of a single state-supported,

church but it would deliver

tax money to ministers

of various

Christian denominations,

linking government with church.

Holland:
He thought

that religious morality

was absolutely critical

to sustaining liberty

and therefore government

had some role to play

to shore that up.

Mitchell:
Jefferson

and Madison opposed

any state support

for religion,

earning themselves

a formidable political foe.

The fiery Henry

was universally

revered in Virginia

and had been

elected governor 4 times.

To a friend, Jefferson wrote...

Man as Jefferson:

What we have to do, I think,

is pray devoutly

for his death.

Thomas Jefferson.

Mitchell:
Instead of praying,

the scholarly Madison wrote

a persuasive

if anonymous argument

against Henry's bill.

"The state had no

authority to involve

itself in religion,"

Madison said.

True religious freedom

did not mean that all churches

would be linked

to the government

but that none of them would.

An effective argument.

Some 11,000 virginians signed

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes