JANUARY 24, 1774
MY WORTHY FRIEND,
Yours of the 25 of last month came into my hands a few days past.
It gave singular pleasure not only because of the kindness expressed in it
but because I had reason to apprehend the letter you reed. last from me had
miscarried and I should fail in procuring the intelligence I
wanted before the Trip I design in the Spring.
.. . . However Political Contests are necessary sometimes as well as
military to afford excercise and practise and to instruct in the Art of
defending Liberty and property. I verily believe the frequent Assaults that
have been made on America[,l Boston especially [,] will in the end prove of
real advantage. If the Church of England had been the established and
general Religion in all the Northern Colonies as it has been among us here
and uninterrupted tranquility had prevailed throughout the Continent, It is
clear to me that slavery and Subjection might and would have been gradually
insinuated among us. Union of Religious Sentiments begets a surprizing
confidence and Ecclesiastical Establishments tend to great ignorance and
Corruption all of which facilitate the Execution of mischievous Projects.
But away with Politicks!
.. . but have nothing to brag of as to the State and Liberty of my Country.
Poverty and Luxury prevail among all sorts: Pride ignorance and Knavery
among the Priesthood and Vice and Wickedness among the Laity. This is bad
enough But It is not the worst I have to tell you. That diabolical Hell
conceived principle of persecution rages among some and to their eternal
Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business. This
vexes me the most of any thing whatever. There are at this [time?] in the
adjacent County not less than 5 or 6 well meaning- men in close Goal for
publishing their religious Sentiments which in the main are very
orthodox.(8) I have neither patience to hear talk or think of any thing
relative to this matter, for I have squabbled and scolded abused and
ridiculed so long about it, [to so lit]tle purpose that I am without common
patience.(9) So I [leave you] to pity me and pray for Liberty of Conscience
[to revive among us.](10)
FOOTNOTES:
(8)Near the beginning of this sentence JM either left out a word or words
between "this" and "in" or, as Bradford assumed when transcribing the
letter into his copybook, meant the "in" to be "and." Although the
unaccustomed fervor displayed by JM in this passage, together with some
stronger evidence from other sources (Lewis Peyton Little, Imprisoned
Preachers and Religious Liberty in Virginia [Lynchburg, 1938], pp. 127-40,
516-21), suggests that he was witness`ing
"persecution" close by Montpelier, the editors think he more likely had
only "the adjacent county"
of Culpeper in mind. There, in 1773-1774, flagrant intolerance led to the
imprisonment of a half-dozen Baptist preachers (Robert B. Semple. A History
of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia [1810], revised and
extended by Reverend G. W. Beale [Richmond, 1894], pp. 382, 481-84).
(9)Judging from this statement, JM was already conspicuous in his own
locality as a defender of religious dissenters. In a brief autobiography
which he sent to James K. Paulding in 1832, he declared that he was "under
very early and strong impressions in favor of liberty both Civil and
Religious. His devotion to the latter found a particular occasion for its
exercise in the persecution instituted in his County as elsewhere, against
the preachers belonging to the sect of Baptists., Notwithstanding the
enthusiasm which contributed to render them obnoxious to sober public
opinion, as well as the laws then in force, against Preachers dissenting
from the Established Religion, he spared no exertion to save them from
impnsonment, and to promote their release from it. This interposition, tho'
a mere duty prescribed by his conscience, obtained for him a lasting place
in the favor of that particular sect." Fortunately, he concluded, American
independence brought with it religious freedom (LC: William C. Rives
Papers). Apparently it was religious issues, more than tax and trade
regulation disputes with England, which were rapidly luring JM away from
his beloved studies and arousing his interest in contemporary politics.
(10). The bracketed words in this and the preceding sentence, illegible in
the original letter, were taken from Bradford's copybook version. William
C. Rives, one of the anonymous editors of the Congressional edition of JM's
papers, made the sentence say: "So I must beg you to pity me, and pray for
liberty of conscience to all" (Madison, Letters [Cong. ed.], I, 12).Rives
sometimes made improper alterations in JM's phraseology, but it is possible
that here the handwriting may have been less faded when he read it than it
is now. In any event, JM clearly wrote "Liberty of Conscience" instead of
the expression "religious Toleration" used by him in his letter to Bradford
on 1 December 1773. If JM in each instance took special care to state
exactly what he meant, he had moved to a significantly more liberal
position during the month intervening between these two letters.
(SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Excerpt of a letter to William Bradford from James
Madison, Jan 24. 1774 RC (Historical Society of Pennsylvania). Addressed:
"To Mr. William Bradford Junr. at the Coffee-House Philadelphia."
Bradford's copybook version is also at the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania. The papers of James Madison, Volume I, 1751 to 1779, Ed. By
William T. Hutchinson & William M. E. Rachal, University of Chicago &
University of Virginia, (1962) pp 104-08)
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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