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3. History - Part 3

In all that time, America underwent a period of great change. Between 1620, when the Pilgrims landed, and 1787, when the Constitution was drawn up, the country had advanced tremendously.1

In 1620, the non-Native American population of what is now the continental United States was around 500. By 1776, the population was about 2,500,000. Also, a mail service of post riders went from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Virginia in 1732. And, in 1775, a more formal Post Office Department had been set up.2

Finally, the construction of roads helped bring the colonies together. By 1756 stage coaches could make the trip between New York and Philadelphia in three days. By 1788, there were 2,000 miles of post roads running from New Hampshire to Georgia.3

Another change in colonial society was the decreased interest in religion. Since life was no longer a struggle to survive in a hostile environment, colonists did not have to rely upon God too much, and people now had time to read, think, and talk about ideas for living.4

Another change was brought by the Revolutionary War. Soldiers from many nationalities and religions fought side by side for a common interest. This brought an increased tolerance to the life of the colonists.5

However, there was another aspect to the American Revolution that often gets neglected. For the very religious revivalist churches, the Revolution became a religious, as well as a secular affair. British officials were portrayed as being in league with the devil. After the passing of the Stamp Act (1765), patriotic poems and songs presented its perpetrators, Lords Bute, Grenville, and North, as the minions of Satan, who were conspiring to lure the Americans into the devil's eternal Kingdom.6 The Stamp was described as the "mark of the Beast," and effigies depicting the British ministers were carried alongside portraits of Satan in political processions and hung from "liberty trees" throughout the colonies.7 In 1774, King George III became associated with the Antichrist when he granted religious freedom to the French Catholics in the Canadian territory conquered by England in the Seven Years War.8 Even the more educated colonists fell prey to the fear of hidden cosmic conspiracy. The presidents of Harvard and Yale both believed that the colonists were fighting a war against satanic forces, and looked forward to the defeat of popery. "The War of Independence had become part of God's providential design for the destruction of the Papal Antichrist, which would surely herald the arrival of God's millennial Kingdom in America," writes Karen Armstrong (p. 84).

This, of course was in stark contrast with the beliefs of the Founding Fathers, who were guided by the Enlightenment principles, rather than the religious beliefs of the masses. In 1782, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the government had no authority in the area of religion except to prevent "such acts only as are injurious to others".9 Jefferson wrote his ideas about church-state separation in the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom. The bill provided that nobody should be legally forced to attend or support a religious institution, nor should anyone suffer the loss of personal property or civil liberties because of religious beliefs and opinions.10

Another Founding Father, James Madison, wrote the Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, in which he wrote "Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians in exclusion of all other sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?".11

The Constitution was shaped by men like Madison and Jefferson, deists who declined to support any particular religion. The Constitution contains no references to God or a Supreme Being. The one reference to religious liberty appears in Article VI, clause 3, which forbids religious tests as a qualification for public office. In other words, it says the government cannot require public servants to belong to a particular church or synagogue.12

That idea of separation of Church and State became the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The ways the First Amendment was interpreted by the Founders was very different, however. George Washington declared national days of prayer, and approved the use of public funds to pay congressional chaplains. John Adams also declared national days of prayer and thanksgiving. On the other hand, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson said that the First Amendment prohibited them from proclaiming national days of thanksgiving, from exempting religious organizations from taxation, and from using government funds for any religious activities. Neither gave land grants to religious groups.13 While Jefferson was president, he used the phrase "wall of separation." In January 1802 the Connecticut Baptists Association of Danbury received a letter from President Jefferson. It said:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.14

Although Thomas Jefferson believed in the separation of church and state, others did not. Religious restrictions remained in many states. Often they discriminated against Catholics, Jews, or other minorities, and were not repealed until the late nineteenth century. A Massachusetts law, repealed in 1833, for example, required each town to pay Protestant teachers to teach religion and morality. Only Protestants had full civil rights in New Jersey until 1844. Jews could not hold public office in North Carolina until 1868. Connecticut citizens' taxes were used to support the Congregational church until 1868. In New Hampshire, Jews and Catholics could not hold public office until 1876. Maryland did not grant full political rights to Jews and Unitarians until 1876.15 This, and the fact that most public schools were run by Protestants, proves that separation of church and state was almost nonexistent in the 19th century.

However, as the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1868, this began to change. The relevant portion of the Amendment, contained in section 1, states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any person deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".16 This Amendment gave the federal government the right to interfere in state matters, and for the Supreme Court to strike down state laws that violated the separation of church in state.

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Footnotes

1Kleeberg, Separation of Church and State, p. 20

2Ibid, p. 20

3Ibid, p. 21

4Ibid, p. 21

5Sherrow, Separation of Church and State, p. 24

6Armstrong, The Battle for God, p. 84

7Ibid, p. 84

8Ibid, p. 84

9Sherrow, Separation of Church and State, p. 28

10Ibid, p. 28

11Ibid, p. 28

12Ibid, p. 30

13Ibid, p. 32

14Ibid, p. 32

15Ibid, p. 33

16Ibid, p. 40

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