Religious Persuasion, Not Legislation
Our Constitution recognized no other power than that of persuasion for enforcing religious observances. Let the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence, by Christian meekness, by lives of temperance and holiness. Let them combine their efforts to instruct the ignorant, to relieve the widow and orphan, to promulgate to the world the Gospel of their Saviour, recommending its precepts by their habitual example. . . . Their moral influence will then do infinitely more to advance the true interests of religion than any measure they may call upon Congress to enact.—U. S. Senate Report, 1829.