George Washington and Liberty
It has come to be a splendid custom in this country to appropriately commemorate the birthdays of some of the nation's great men. The great value of this sort of thing lies in the fact that it keeps before us the worthy principles for which those men stood while living. George Washington is fondly spoken of as the "Father of his country," and in saying this about him the mind turns instinctively to the foundation principles for which he stood. The world was still in the throes of a mighty struggle for freedom. Some mighty battles had been fought, and some great victories had been won; but there was still wanting the decisive and positive action that would place liberty where it belonged. The crowning touch and the solidifying work of some great souls must place upon the statue of freedom the eternal truth that "all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It was not contended by Washington and his colaborers that all men were equal in height, or in strength, or in any of their capacities or natural abilities; but they were all equal in their right to their life and their liberty and their pursuit of happiness. Each individual's right to his freedom was inalienable. To "secure" these rights that inherently belong to men, is the purpose of governments. This great principle for which Washington and his fellows stood, should be oft repeated, that we may not lose sight of it. Governments were not for the purpose of granting rights to men; but they were to secure to men the rights that they already possessed — rights that were inalienable. For centuries the world had been battling the notion that kings were divinely appointed. In fact it had been a cherished notion of the mighty rulers of the great empires of Babylon, of Medo-Persia, of Greece, and of Rome that they were themselves semidivine. Their mightiest rulers possessed great natural abilities and were usually great military leaders. It was asserted that these men were sent to earth from among the gods, and so divine honors were demanded for them. When Caesar died, a great comet — commonly supposed now to be the one known as Halley's — appeared in the heavens. The populace were told with awestruck accents that it was the chariot of the gods that had been sent to convey the soul of Caesar to his appointed place with them. With such notions in the minds of men it is easy to see how rulers would spread the idea that they must rule, not only in the matters that were between men and men, but they must also rule in matters that were between the individual and God. In other words, the ruler must control the worship of the individual as well as his civil relation to the state. But Washington and those with him stood for complete emancipation. They stood for absolute freedom, and they were keen enough to see that unless the individual had freedom to worship or not to worship, he did not enjoy full liberty. The following is a letter written by Washington, Aug. 4, 1789, to the Ephrata Community, and voices clearly his sentiments on the subject of religious freedom: "If I had had the least idea of any difficulty resulting from the Constitution adopted by the convention of which I had the honor to be president when it was formed, so as to endanger the rights of any religious denomination, then I never should have attached my name to that instrument. If I had any idea that the general government was so administered that the liberty of conscience was endangered, I pray you be assured that no man would be more willing than myself to revise and alter that part of it, so as to avoid all religious persecution. You can, without any doubt, remember that I have often expressed as my opinion, that every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his conscience." ("American Communities," by Hinds, p. 21.) It will be observed that Washington says he had often expressed the conviction that the individual is accountable alone to God for his religious faith. Then this was not a statement that he had dashed off carelessly, but it was one that was so deeply woven into his life that he had frequently repeated it. Holding such convictions as this on the subject of freedom, Washington did his part in establishing this as the first great nation of the world that did not have a state religion. This was indeed "a new order of things," and a reversal of the sentiments of the past. The great nations of antiquity — Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, and on through to Rome — had each their national deities and their prescribed forms of worshiping the gods. The nation which had the most powerful god, was supposed to be the strongest and most successful. Hence, many of the wars of ancient times were for the express purpose of testing the efficacy and power of their national gods. The ruler was both king and "pontifex maximus." He ruled in the religion of the individual as well as in purely civil affairs. To fail to acknowledge the gods as prescribed by the state, was disloyalty and treason. The breaking away from all such rubbish of sentiment and government constitutes some of the most interesting incidents of history. The work was the result of the intellectual awakening that sprang from the Reformation which cast off the darkness of the Middle Ages. America was the first and only power to bring the great doctrines of freedom to their logical perfection, and establish a state without having as its heart