Extensive Religious Combinations
"Extensive Religious Combinations."—In 1829, Hon. R. M. Johnson said, and the Senate of the United States adopted the report in which he said it: "Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are . . . always dangerous. . . . If admitted, it may be justly apprehended that the future measures of the Government will be strongly marked, if not eventually controlled, by the same influence. All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes us an awful warning of the consequence." These words ought to be burned into the heart of every liberty-loving American.