The Independence of the United States and the Foundation of Its Greatness
By T.
The fourth of the month of July is a memorial day, in this nation, of the Declaration of Independence that gave it birth. There were causes which led to this courageous pronouncement of principles. The fathers of this republic were the descendants of a line of men who had been struggling against bigotry, tyranny, and oppression, for centuries. Their struggles had been in England and on the continent of Europe. They were determined men, who had visions of true freedom. They were struggling not merely for political freedom, but also for that deeper freedom of conscience in matters of religion which is the basis of all liberty, for we never have political freedom where we do not have absolute freedom of conscience in matters of faith. The tyrannies in Russia, to mention only one locality, to-day are not the result of political despotism, but reach down to their foundation, which is ecclesiastical bigotry and intolerance. The fathers of our country saw the great principles involved, and determined to establish a nation here that would have no visible head in the realm of the church, but each man would be allowed to worship God or not to worship, according to the dictates of his own conscience and the leadings of his own inclinations. Hence we have the bold assertion, in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal,” and that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Man had held, all through the ages, that the rights of government were supreme, and that the government might invade the conscience and operate the Inquisition if necessary in order that he should be brought into line with the whims and sentiments of the monarch or his ruling body. The Constitution, when formed by this new republic, stated: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”—Article 6, section 1.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”—Amendments, article 1.
It was indeed the beginning of a new order of things when the banner on which that statement was inscribed was thrown to the breezes in the face of an opposing and sneering world. It was not adopted without opposition even in this country. Old Virginia was one of the famous battle-grounds in the campaign which placed in the foundation of this government its great principles of religious freedom. In his memorial to Virginia on equal freedom to all, we find James Madison saying the following: “Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe, the religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we can not deny an equal freedom to them whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offense against God, not against man. To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.”
This utterance from Madison can not fail to appeal to the unprejudiced mind. We must see that such principles are in harmony with the freedom that is divine, and therefore a government established upon such a solid foundation could not do otherwise than succeed, for the fostering hand of divine Providence must be over it. In Madison’s memorial to the General Assembly of Virginia we find also this great statement of principle: “The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?”
With such principles before the people of Virginia, and with strong men like Madison and Jefferson using their powerful influence in behalf of these principles, we need not be surprised to find such exalted statements as the following in the Virginia Bill of Rights: “That religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, 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.”
The generation that was in the great controversy that caused this nation of destiny to break away from England and to establish itself upon these divine principles of freedom, did not soon forget the great lessons that had been taught, nor the divine principles that had been laid as a foundation under this republic, that was to shine as one of the greatest nations that had ever arisen in the history of the world. Those men established a nation that is absolutely unique. It is the first nation in all history that has been established and permitted to grow without having a state religion. Consequently this nation has been a light to the world throughout its existence thus far. The men who built the strong foundations for the grandeur, greatness, and glory of this republic were beset many times by those who were so short-sighted as to believe that we should have some kind of established religion, and upon more than one occasion they were asked to settle a religious controversy. This is shown from the following sentences taken from the United States Senate report in 1829: “Let the national legislature once perform an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legitimate bounds. The precedent will then be established, and the foundation laid, for that usurpation of the divine prerogative in this country which has been the desolating scourge to the fairest portions of the Old World.”
This utterance shows that at that time the minds of the men charged with the responsibility of government in this nation were clear upon the principle involved in this question. They understood that they had no right to settle a religious controversy in any way by human law. From the report of the same Senate we have also this sentence: “The proper object of government is to protect all persons in the enjoyment of their religions as well as civil rights, and not to determine for any whether they shall esteem one day above another, or esteem all days alike holy.”
That sentence shows that the men in 1829 saw clearly that they had no right to enter into a controversy over the question of the observance of a day as the Sabbath by enacting a law that would show any preference for one day above another. The principle is a sound one, and those in this time who are so clamorously working for laws to compel the observance of Sunday ought to reconsider the sound basis upon which our government was founded. While we are celebrating the 137th anniversary of our national independence and our national greatness, is a good time for this reconsidering. Some have tried to cast the reflection upon the illustrious galaxy of men who laid the corner-stone and reared the foundations of this republic, that they were godless, because they refused to enact statutes that would be a human attempt at regulating observances that pertain only to almighty God, our Creator. But such was not the case. It was their profound respect for the Creator and the religion taught by the Man of Nazareth that led them to do what they did. Our justly renowned United States historian, George Bancroft, not only conducted exhaustive research in the field of history covered by this republic, but he made a profound study of its Constitution and the history of that immortal document. The following paragraph from this learned and influential man states succinctly and clearly that they gathered their principles which enabled them to divorce the church totally from the state, from the great Nazarene Himself. Bancroft says: “No one thought of vindicating liberty of religion for the conscience of the individual till a voice in Judea, breaking day for the greatest epoch in the life of humanity by establishing for all mankind a pure, spiritual, and universal religion, enjoined to render to Cæsar only that which is Cæsar’s. The rule was upheld during the infancy of the gospel for all men. . . . The new nation, . . . when it came to establish a government for the United States, refused to treat faith as a matter to be regulated by a corporate body, or having a headship in a monarch or a state.
“Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting in its relations to God the principle first divinely ordained in Judea. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American Constitution, in harmony with the people of the several states, withheld from the federal government the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience, the sanctuary of the soul; and not from indifference, but that the infinite spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom and purity and power.”
The foregoing paragraphs that have been quoted from illustrious Americans and from renowned American documents, show the solid principles that were placed beneath this nation as it started upon its historic career. These principles can not be safely abandoned. They should be studied often.9 We can not afford to drift away from them. Religious combinations that would seek to subvert or overthrow them must be earnestly combated; for in standing in favor of the sound principles upon which this government rests, we are standing for the teachings and sentiments of the divine Son of God. He has said in His word that “if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” This freedom that is given to humanity by the Son of God is designed to include the realm of the civil state, so that men may be happy and free in this short life even should they choose to make the great mistake of refusing the greater freedom of the unending life that reaches beyond this world. T.