What Eminent Men Have Said.
GEORGE WASHINGTON: "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 OWN CONSCIENCE." THOMAS JEFFERSON: "Almighty God hath created the mind FREE; all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of HYPOCRISY and MEAN-NESS, and are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercion on either, as was in His almighty power to do." JAMES MADISON: "RELIGION is NOT in the PURVIEW of HUMAN government. Religion is essentially distinct from government and exempt from its cognizance. A connection between them is injurious to both." U. S. GRANT: "Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contribution. KEEP THE STATE AND THE CHURCH FOREVER SEPARATE." MACAULAY: "The whole history of the Christian religion shows that she is in far greater danger of being CORRUPTED by the ALLIANCE of power than of being CRUSHED by its OPPOSITION." UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: "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." PRESBYTERY OF HANOVER, VIRGINIA: "The only proper objects of civil government are the happiness and protection of men in the present state of existence; the security of the life, liberty, and property of the citizen; and to restrain and encourage the virtuous by wholesome laws equally extended to every individual; but THE DUTY THAT WE OWE TO OUR CREATOR, AND THE MANNER OF DISCHARGING IT, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the universal Judge. To judge for ourselves, and to engage in the exercise of religion agreeably to THE DICTATES OF OUR OWN CONSCIENCE, is an INALIENABLE RIGHT, which, upon the principles on which the Gospel was first propagated, and the Reformation from popery carried on, can NEVER8BE TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER."—Declaration of 1776. UNITED STATES SENATE: "It is NOT in the LEGITIMATE PROVINCE OF THE LEGISLATURE to determine WHAT RELIGION is TRUE or what FALSE. Our government is a civil and not a religious institution. Our Constitution recognizes in every person the right to choose his own religion, and to enjoy it freely without molestation. THE PROPER OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT IS to protect all persons in the enjoyment of their civil as well as their religious rights, and NOT TO DETERMINE FOR ANY WHETHER THEY SHALL ESTEEM ONE DAY ABOVE ANOTHER, or esteem all days alike holy. What other nations call religious TOLERATION, we call religious RIGHTS. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as RIGHTS of which government can NOT DEPRIVE ANY PORTION OF CITIZENS, however small. Despotic POWER may INVADE those RIGHTS, but JUSTICE still CONFIRMS them."—Report, 1829. UNITED STATES SENATE: "Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for the violation of what GOVERNMENT DENOMINATED THE LAW OF GOD."—Report, 1829. DR. PHILIP SCHAFF: "LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE requires LIBERTY OF WORSHIP as its manifestation. To grant the former and to deny the latter is to imprison conscience and to promote hypocrisy and infidelity. Religion is in its nature voluntary, and ceases to be religion in proportion as it is forced. God wants free worshipers, and no others." DR. PHILIP SCHAFF: "SECULAR power has proved a SATANIC gift to the CHURCH, and ECCLESIASTICAL power has proved an ENGINE of TYRANNY in the hands of the STATE." JOHN CLARK RIDPATH: "Proscription has no part nor lot in the modern government of the world. The stake, the gibbet, and the rack, thumb-screws, swords, and pillory, have no place among the machinery of civilization. Nature is diversified; so are human faculties, beliefs, and practises. ESSENTIAL freedom is the RIGHT TO DIFFER, and that right must be sacredly respected." SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA: "If we can not trust free agents to regulate their own labor, its times and quantity, it is difficult to trust them to make their own contracts. If the Legislature could prescribe THE DAYS OF REST for them, then it would seem that the SAME POWER could prescribe the HOURS to WORK, REST, and EAT.
"If the Legislature have the authority to appoint A TIME OF COMPULSORY REST, . . . it is without limit, and may extend to the prohibition of all occupations at all times."—Ex parte Newman, 9 Cal., pp. 509, 518, 517, 510. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, can not long retain it."