Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1837-03-01
VOL. IX....NO. %.

go to such extreme lengths, may 60 yet
further, and place the results of its scrutiny
on record, and publish them, pro salute
aninacee pubtice. Such a doctrine BELTS
the judgment-seat of Spanish court of
inquisition, but it is hostile to freedom, and
should not be admitted into the legal tribu-
mails of America. We feel, that this point
need not be further argued with those who
cherish the name and the doctrines of Rob-
ert Williams
18th. The law, by the rule in question,
makes, not only the proper sphere Of its
operation, b~t the actual e:rtent of its ca
pd6i1ities for it asserts, as far as rule
Of law can assert any thing, that opinion
and belief are within the influence of legis-
lative action; that the law can force men to
believe, and frighten them to doubt
Such doctrine is at open war with the
most obvious principles of mental philoso-
ply. Men are not to be driven nor beaten
into conviction or disbelief: They cannot
be persuaded, at the point of the bayonet,
nor argued with, by the fundamentally of
legal compulsion. Belief is the result of
evidence, of reflection, argument, insight"
But rule of law is no fact a rod Of legal
terror is no argument; and penalties are not
proofs. Opinion is creature Of the under
standing. The law appeals to a very diff
ferent part Of our nature, to our passions and
appetites, to our hopes and our fears. -,
Men may be forced, by Legislative severi~
ty, to pretend belief and false convictions
to genuine, never! Coleridge tells US, that
in his boyish days, second Rogging from
his school-master expelled from his fancy
host Of crude, half-formed notions of inf
delity. But, however we'll such a course of
treatment may answer, to purge boyish
brains, its operation upon adults has always
served to harden, them in their old convic-
, tions.
The prevalence of in6delity cannot be
checked by law,-nor can the imposition Of
legal disquali6cations convert an infdel to
the true faith. But the unjust and futile
! attempt to put down any form of religious
belief or disbelief, may, and does, always,
> tend, by awakening sympathy for the vic
tim of oppression, to spread abroad the evil
SO wrongfully oppressed. The tyranny Of
the law is as odious as that of an individual
despot; and the arbitrary maxim Of "Stet
pro rGtiOne roluntds, the substance Of
authority for eason,-whether in monarch
les or in republics, is equally mischievous,
and always iutolerable.
5th. What has been said in regard to the
exclusion, by law, OF witness, on the
ground of religion, is enough to satisfy US,
that such a la1o is an infringement on re-
Hgious liberty, violation of the freedom of
conscience.
The law affixes penalty,-and very
severe and odious penalty,-upon certain
opinions in regard to religious matters, AMI
it must, therefore, by the advocates Of tolera-
ton and religious liberty, be regarded with
adherence. AS denomination, the BaP-
lists have ever stood foremost in the cause
of unfeuered conscience. From the days of
Roger Williams, the great father of tolera-
ton, down to the time Of our lately deceas-
ed and venerable Baldwin, we have strug-
gled, through good report and evil report,
in this noble cause, and, by US, that cause
can never be abandoned.
The law now complained Of originated
in religious interchangeable intolerance Of
a proud ecclesiastical establishments
which every measure Of coercion and re-
straint, legal or illegal, was eagerly seized,
and directed against all who dared to differ
therefrom in opinion. For ages, every wit
ness was driven from the courts, except he
conformed, in all things, to mother church.
As recently as the reign Of queen Elizabeth,
great judge (Lord Coke) declared all non
conformists criminals, and subjects of the
devil, between whom and Christians there
was endless war and contention.
The original intent of the law was not to
facilitate the development of truth; or the
disclosure Of facts in the case, but to prevent
heresy and dissent from the established
creed to restrain men from cherishing and
promulgating the doctrines of non-conformi-
ty. In the prosecution Of this design, the
value of testimony was forgotten, and no
care was bestowed upon the best methods
of bringing evidence before the legal tribu-
nails. On the contrary, the courts preferred
to administer the law in the dark-to OBJ
scure the real merits Of every case,-to set
aside the most important evidence,-to let
fraud, and vice, and crime 60 unpunished,
rather than allow Dissenters an equal par
ticipation with others in the enjoyment Of
the most obvious rights.