THE SPIRIT OF "SEVENTY-SIX."
IN speaking of his part of the work in "An Act to Establish Religious Freedom" in Virginia, Jefferson said:— The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the words "Jesus Christ, the holy Author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination.—Works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, page 45. The treaty with Tripoli, made and signed by Washington (1797), declares that— The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. These principles of liberty were restated and defended by Congress in 1829 and 1830, in reports adopted by both Senate and House (see elsewhere), and these principles have been vindicated by the history of Church and State during the first century of our nation's existence. But do we find these principles and sentiments now dominant?