First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty Page #8

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a petition opposing

the general assessment,

and the measure soon died.

Jefferson's act

for religious freedom,

instead, became

Virginia law in 1786.

Meacham:
The legacy

of the Virginia act

is providing

the intellectual foundation,

underpinnings, and argument

for a culture and nation

in which religion is a matter

of choice and not coercion,

and almost every other country,

it had been an issue

of coercion.

Mitchell:
Jefferson's act took

a simple but revolutionary step.

It entirely separated

the institutions

of government and religion.

Jefferson and Madison

had redefined the modern state.

Man as Madison:

We have in this country

extinguished forever

the ambitious hope

of making laws

for the human mind.

James Madison.

Mitchell:
Within a few years

after it had begun,

the United States was

on the brink of failure.

The former colonies

were united only loosely

under the articles

of confederation.

The federal government could

neither pay its debts

nor protect its people.

Something had to be done.

In the summer of 1787,

delegates from 12

of the 13 states

gathered in Philadelphia.

James Madison came

from Virginia

11 days before the meeting

was supposed to begin.

He needed to be prepared,

for Madison wanted

his delegation

to present an ambitious plan

to the convention.

Instead of fixing

the broken government,

the assembly would create

an entirely new system,

a constitution.

The United States constitution

had a long, difficult nativity,

4 months of wrangling,

compromise, and distrust.

So much of Madison's

original plan

was discarded that he became

bitterly disappointed.

Before long, the assembly was

on the verge of breaking apart.

Sir, fairness demands

that each state

be represented equally

and not..

Mitchell:
The only one who could

not be discouraged

was 81 year-old

Benjamin Franklin.

Not known for his

public speaking,

Franklin delivered

a perfectly timed

and delicately

articulate suggestion.

I have lived, sir,

a long time,

and the longer I live,

the more convincing proofs I see

of this truth,

that God governs

in the affairs of men.

Bushman:
Benjamin Franklin

was virtually a second father

of this country.

George Washington

had attained his high standing

in the public mind

through his generalship.

Benjamin Franklin attained

it through diplomacy,

so though he said very little

in the constitutional

convention,

whenever he spoke,

everyone listened.

I therefore beg leave

to move

that henceforth prayers

imploring

the assistance of heaven

and blessings

on our deliberations

be held in this assembly

each morning

before we proceed

to our business.

For the people's sake

and for the country's sake,

they needed to invoke

God's blessing.

Your excellency.

Mitchell:
But what

the founders did next

was astounding,

a kind of American revolution

all by itself.

Most of them thought

that a common religious belief

was necessary

for a moral society,

yet the venerable

Ben Franklin

was quickly voted down.

On the bottom of his speech,

Franklin scrawled,

"the convention,

except 3 or 4 persons,

thought prayers unnecessary!"

The impasse

over the representation

of states was eventually

circumvented,

and the constitution

was written during

the course of 1787.

Butler:
The constitution is

an amazing document.

Itt's amazing

an amazing document

in a structural fashion.

It's an amazing document

as a political fact

because it was forged

in a sense from nothing.

It is amazing

in its inventiveness,

its creativeness.

Nothing like this

had existed before,

and it's frankly amazing

in its secularity,

that is, its power

isn't derived

from claims

about the divine.

Mitchell:
The only mention

of religion

in the original

constitution was meant

to enforce the idea

of religious liberty.

It came from Charles pinckney,

an unlikely source.

Pinckney was an ambitious,

unrestrained South carolinian

from a powerful family.

He had no apparent interest

in religious freedom.

Against the inclinations

of many delegates,

pinckney eventually pushed

through a seminal line

in article vi.

And so I propose that

no religious test

should be required

as a qualification to serve

in public office

or the other public trusts.

Mitchell:
Pinckney's

line distinguished

the United States

from the old world

and pointed the way

toward a secular conception

of the state.

In the finished constitution,

God was not mentioned at all.

Who was in charge?

"This constitution,"

the document says,

"shall be the supreme law

of the land."

Butler:
The religion

question wasn't seen

as proper to a question

about the structure

of government.

It was also seen as dangerous.

In other words,

if you put the religion question

out in the structure

of government,

would that undermine

the chances

for the ratification

of a new federal government?

Mitchell:
To an extent,

the constitution

displeased everyone.

Benjamin Franklin lamented

that it didn't abolish slavery.

Several delegates

lamented that the omission

of a bill of rights,

including religious freedom,

was an appalling mistake.

Near the end, Ben Franklin

offered the convention

his wisdom one more time

but decided it would be

more effectively delivered

by someone else.

He asked his friend

James Wilson to read it.

"Mr. president,

I doubt whether

"any other convention

we can obtain

"may be able to make

a better constitution,

"for when you assemble

a number of men to have

"the advantage

of their joint wisdom,

"you inevitably assemble

with those men

"all their prejudices,

"their passions,

their errors of opinion,

"their local interests,

and their selfish views.

"It therefore

astonishes me, sir,

"to find this system

approaching so near

to perfection as it does."

[Pounding and murmuring]

Hear, hear!

Mitchell:
Moments later,

all but 3 of the delegates

signed the constitution.

After its passage,

even the disappointed

James Madison began

to look approvingly

on the document.

Many of the ideas

in the constitution

had been his work,

but he now pointed

toward a different author.

Man as Madison:
It is impossible

for the man of pious reflection

not to perceive

in the constitution a finger

of that almighty hand

which had been extended

to our relief

in the revolution.

James Madison.

Mitchell:
The constitution

was finished and signed.

The question was whether

it would be accepted

by the people.

For it to become law,

9 states would need

to ratify it

in special state conventions.

The debate was long

and contentious.

Finally the supporters

of the constitution,

called the federalists,

agreed to add a bill of rights.

With that concession,

the U.S. constitution

was ratified.

On April 30, 1789,

George Washington became

the first president

of the United States.

His was a job and a role

that was entirely undefined.

Fenster:
Newly independent

Americans were acting

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