The Present Congress on the Religious Amendment.
By Uriah Smith
SOME of the petitions, the past winter, in behalf of the Religious Amendment, by some misunderstanding found their way to Congress instead of to the Convention at Pittsburgh. These were referred to the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, who reported thereon, through their chairman, Gen. Butler, as follows:— “Your committee would respectfully report that upon examination even of the meagre debates by the Fathers of the Republic in the convention which framed the Constitution, they find that the subject of the memorial was fully and carefully considered, and then, in that convention, decided, after grave deliberation, to which the subject was entitled, that, as this country, the foundation of whose government they were then laying, was to be the home of the oppressed of all nations of the earth, whether Christian or pagan, and in full realization of the dangers which the union between church and State had imposed upon so many nations of the Old World, agreed, with great unanimity, that it was inexpedient to put anything into the Constitution or form of government which might be construed to be a reference to any religious creed or doctrine. And they further find that this decision was accepted by our Christian fathers with such great unanimity that, in the amendments which were afterwards proposed, in order to make the Constitution more acceptable to the nation, none had ever been proposed to the States by which this wise determination of the fathers had been attempted to be changed. Wherefore, your committee report that it is inexpedient to legislate upon the subject of the above memorial, and ask that they be discharged from further consideration thereof, and that this report, together with the petitions, be laid upon the table.” The Christian Statesman, in noticing this report, thinks it augurs well for their cause, that this year the Committee venture to argue the question, whereas in preceding years, they have simply reported adversely on such petitions, and asked to be excused from further consideration of the subject. U. S.