Religious Legislation and Religious Liberty
"WE are asked to-day, by those who have forgotten — or have never known — the lesson of the past, to encourage the enactment of laws by the state which will deal with the religious affairs and the consciences of men. The church importunes the state to make certain religious requirements a part of the fundamental law of the nation. She asks that the God of the Bible be made the god of the republic by having His name engrossed upon the constitution of the nation. Rome had its many national gods; America would then have its one. Rome legislated for the protection of its gods and the institutions sacred to them; America would then do the same. Rome banished and imprisoned and put to death men whose only offense was their religious belief, and their mode of practicing it. Will America follow to the logical result the career of the ancient republic?"