Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-01-18
AN ACT for establishing religious freedom, passed
in the Assembly Of Virginia in the beginning Of
the year 1855;

in the Assembly Of Virginia in the beginning Of
the year 1886:
Well aware that Almighty God hath created the
mnd Tree that all attempts To influence 1t by tenn
poral punishments or burdens, or by civil incapa-
citations, tend only to bcgct habits Of hypocrisy
and meanness, and are departure from the plan
OF the Holy Author Of our religion, who, being Lord
both OF body and of mind, yet chose not to prop
agate by coercions either as was in his almighty
power to do that the impious presumption Of leg
slatures and rulers, civil 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 infallibe and as such
endeavoring to impose them upon Others, hath es-
tablished 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
dsbceves, 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 torghteousness, and is Withdrawing from
the ministry those temporal rewards, which, pro-
ceeding from an appreciation Of their personal con-
duct, are an additional incitement to earnest and
unremitting labors for the instruction Of mankind
that our civil rights have dependence on our re-
ligious opinions more than our opinions In physics
or geometry that, therefore, the prescribing OF
any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by
laying upon him an incapacity of being called to
the offices of trust and emolument, unless he pro-
fess 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 q natural right that it tends also
to corrupt the principles Of the very religion it is
meant to encourage, by bribing, with monopoly
Of worldly hOnOrs those who will externally pro-
fess and conform to it; that though, indeed those
are criminal who do not withstand such tempta-
tions, yet neither are those innocent who lay the
bait in their way; that to suffer the civil ma
gstrate to intrude his powers into the field of opin-
ion and to RESTRAIN the profession propagation of
principles, on the suppositon of their i'll tendency,
is dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all
religious liberty, because, he being of course Judge
of that tendency, viii make his opinions the rule
OF judgment, and approve or condemn the sent-
ments of Others only they shall square with, or
differ from, his own; that it is time enough, for the
rightfu purposes of civil government, for its off,
GERS 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 antag-
onist Of error, and has nothing to fear from the
conflict unless by human interposition disarmed Of
her natural weapons, free argument and debate,
errors ceasng to be dangerous when It Is permitted
freely to combat them.
BE ID, therefore, enacted BY the General As
sen6ly, That no man shall be compelled to fre-
quent or support any religious worship, place, or
ministry whatsoever, shall he be enforced, re-
strained, molested orburdened in his body or goods
nossha otherwise suffer on account ohis religious
opinions or belief but that all men shall be free to
profess and by argument to maintain, their opirr-
ions in matters of religion and that the same shall
in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil
capacities.
And though We well know this Assembly, elected
by the people for the ordinary purposes Of legis-
lation only, have power to restrain the acts of
succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers
equal to our own; and that, therefore, to declare
this act rrevocable 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 II any act shall be hereafter
passed to repeal the present. or TO narrow its ope-
rations, such an act will be an infringement of
natural right.