“A BILL for establishing RELIGIOUS FREEDOM,
printed for the consideration of the PEOPLE”
This week on the Paralegal Power Blog we invite guest blogger Thomas “TJ” Jefferson. Juuuuust kidding, sort of. For today’s blog I am posting a copy of the bill Thomas Jefferson wrote and was eventually set forth in Virginia to establish religious freedom.
Thomas Jefferson: A Man of Contradiction
While as an anti-racist I cannot help but have mixed emotions when it comes to ol’ Mr. Jefferson, I cannot deny this bill is not only full of snap-worthy quotes on our human right to intellectual liberty (“the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction”) but it is an important piece of legal history.
Jefferson wrote the bill in 1777, two years before becoming governor of Virginia. In his first year as governor, the House had requested a bill on such a matter from a group of delegates. This group happened to include Jefferson’s close childhood friend John Harvie.
The Good Ol’ Boy System
Jefferson and Harvie were so down for each other that Harvie’s father even stepped up as Jefferson’s legal guardian when Jefferson was left without one when his cousin passed away.
So no doubt Jefferson had an “in” with this committee when the opportunity arose. And the text below is what was handed over to Harvie who then offered it to the House of Delegates. Despite quickly making it through the first two readings, the bill died in that session. But the manuscript lived on and was published under the title “A BILL for establishing RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, printed for the consideration of the PEOPLE.”
This publication appears to have been done by Jefferson personally, although some bills at that time still in deliberations would be published by the General Assembly for the consideration of the people. There is nothing on the record to indicate that was the case with this bill.
Press Leak or Propaganda?
Jefferson’s “press leak” did keep the bill relevant and eventually the House was back to discussing the bill. At one point the discussion led to not just to make a few amendments but to scrapping Jefferson’s words entirely and replacing them with the following paragraph and calling it a day:
“Whereas, it is declared by the Bill of Rights, ‘that religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, and it is the mutual duty of all to practice christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other.’”
Weird. They Left Out The Good Stuff
I don’t know, but I wouldn’t even call that the cliffnotes of the bill they were considering. Thankfully, after much diligence the bill passed in 1786. The bold italicized text seems to denote the most elegant and inspiring text; however, it actually denotes text that was stripped from the bill by amendment.
But I wanted you all to be able to read the bill in the true glory intended by its author. (Typos, run-on sentences and all. ) Once you do you will see why this bill and James Madison’s “Argument Against Religious Assessment” set the foundation for the Constitution. I hope you enjoy this read as much as I did.
Bill 82. A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom
Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint;
that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, 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 coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone;
that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time:
That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness;
and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry;
that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right;
that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way;
that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty,
because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order;
and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.
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We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief;
but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law;
yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.
The typos just remind me this was written prior to the enlistment of paralegals. And that Grammarly makes us all look better. To see the bill in its final form you will have to find it in the Report of the Committee of Revisors Appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia in MDCCLXXVI.
About the Author
Valentina Zapata Harris
Mother | Advocate | Blogger
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