When in 1811 certain congressmen wanted to establish by law a precedent and principle that public property could be given to a religious society, President James Madison, Father of the Constitution and a cochairman of the joint Senate-House conference committee which produced the final draft of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, said such a law was unconstitutional because it violated the provision of the Constitution which forbid establishments of religion through laws passed by Congress. Further, Madison said, in regard to the specific Baptist church in Kentucky, it was unconstitutional to establish by law any legal recognition of a religious society as having a right to public property or funds. In other words, the vetoed law would have given a governmental okay to a legal financial connection between religion and government and would have voided the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government. Religion is not in any way to be established by law as a part of the responsibility of government. Religion and government are to exist in two separate realms.
Religion is free in regard to opinions, as contrasted to actions.
Actions are to be regulated by civil law. Religious institutions are established by private citizens and are to fund themselves without aid from government, and no action is to be authorized by Congress which would create an exception to the American principle that religious establishments are to be distinguished from public establishments. In 1811 some congressmen also tried to get past President Madison another proposed law which violated the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government. An Episcopal church actually wanted the federal government to approve its legal incorporation including terms of its organization. Let there be no misunderstanding as to what Madison meant.