, 1859-03-11
An EXtratt from Jefferson.


"The error seems not sufficiently eradi-
Gated, that the operations Of the mind, as
well as the acts of the body, are subject to
the coercion of the laws. But our rulers
can have no authority over such natural
rights, only as We have submitted them.
The rights Of conscience we never submit
ted we could not submit We are answer
able for them to our God. The legitimate
powers Of government extend to such acts
only, as are injurious to others. But it
does me no injury for my neighbor to say
there are twenty gods, or no God. 1t
neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
COnstraiut may make him worse by making
him a hypoCrite, but it will never make
him a trucr man. 1t may fix him obsti-
nately in his errors, but will not cure them,
Reason and free enquiry are the only Ell.
lectUal agents against error. Give loose
scope to them, they will support the true
religion by bringing every false one to their
investigation. They are the natural enc
mics Of error only
Were the government to prescribe to us
our medicine and diet, our bodies would be
in such keeping as our souls are now.
Thus in France the emctic was once forbid
den as a medicine, and the potato as an
article of food. Government is just as fal-
libIe, too, when it fixes systems in physics.
Calico was sent to the InquisitiOn for
affirming that the earth was a sphere-the
government had declared it to be as fat as
trencher, and Calico was obliged 10 alb
! jure his error. This error, however, at
length prevailed, and the earth became q
globe, and Dcscartes declared it was whirl-
ed round its axis by vortex. The govern
ment in which he lived was wise enough to
see that this was no question of civil juris-
diction, or we should all have been involved
by authority in vortices. In fact the vor-
tices have been exploded, and the Newto-
nian principle of gravitation is now more
firmly established, in the basis of reason,
than it would were the government to step
in, and to make it an article of necessary
faith.
Reason aud experiment have been indul-
ged and error has fed before him. 1t is
error alone which needs the support of
government. Truth can stand by itself.
Subject opinion to coercion: whom will
you make your inqusitors2 Fallible men;
men governed by passions, by private as
well as public reasons. And why subject
it to coerciouH To produce uniformity.
But is Uniformity of opinion desirable2 No
more than of face or stature Introduce
the bed of Procrustes, then, and as there is
danger that the large men may beat the
small, make us all of size, by looping the
former and stretching the latter. Is uni
formity attainablc? Millions Of innocen;
men, women, and children, since the intro
duction Of Christianity, have been burnt,
tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have
not advanced an inch towards uniformity
What has been the effect Of coercion? To
make one half of the earth fools, and the
other half hypocrites. To support error all
over the earth. Let us reflect that it is in
ha6ited by thousand millions Of people.
That these profess probably a thousand diff
ferent systems orrelgion. That ours is but
one of that thousand That if there is but
one right, and ours that one, we should
wish TO see the 999 wandering sects gath
cred into the fold of truth. But against
such a majority we cannot effect this by
force. Reason and persuasion are the only
practicable instruments. To make way for
these, free inquiry must be INDUCED; and
how can we wish others to indulge it, while
we refuse it ourselves2 But every State,
says an inqusitor, has established some re-
ligion. No two, say l, have established the
same. Is this proof Of the infallibility Of
establishments
Our sister States, Pennsylvania and
New York, however, have long subsisted
without any establishment at all. The ex-
pertinent was new and doubtful when they
made it. 1t answered beyond conception
They flourish infinitely They do not hang
more malcfactors than VIC do. They are
not more disturbed with religious disSensien
than we are. On the contrary, their har.
mony is unparalleled, aud can be ascribed
to nothing but their unbounded tolerance
because there is no other circumstance in
which they differ from every other nation
on earth. They have made the happy dis
covery, that the way to silence religious
disputes, is to take no notice of them. Let
us, too, give this experiment fair play, and
get rid, while we may, of those tyrannical
laws. ."-Je6ersOn's "Notes on VirginiG."