Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-02-09
Tho%n. s%srssss sssfson r. nasx er EsI.gSI

Perhaps it is not generally known
that colonial Virginia was one of the
most intolerant of our early settlements.
Thomas Jefferson was the author of the
act establishing religious freedom which
was proposed in l777 and was Lot
passed until 1885, and then by the assist
ance of Mr. Madison. Mr.. Jefferson s
account of the early legislation in Vir-
ginia in reference to religion will proba-
bly, be found interesting. He informs
us that
The first settlers of this colony were
Englishmen, loyal subjects to their King
and church, and the grant to Sir Walter
Raleigh contained an express proviso
that their laws should not be against
the true Christian faith now professed
in the Church Of England AS soon as
the state of the colony admitted, it was
divided into parishes in each of which
was established minister of the Angli-
can church, endowed with fixed salary,
in tobacco, globe, house and land, with
the other necessary appendages. To
meet these expenses, all the inhabitants
of the parishes were assessed, whether
they were or were not members of the es-
tablished church. Toward Quakers who
came here, they were most cruelty intol-
Grant, driving them from the colony by
the severest penalties. . . Several
Of the acts of the Virginia assem-
bly, of 1859, 1862 and 1868 had
made it penal in parents to refuse to have
their children baptized; had prohibited
the unlawful assembling of Quakers or
other separatists; had made it penal for
any master of vessel to bring Quaker
into the State; had ordered those already
here, and such as should come there
after, to be imprisoned till they should
abjure the country; provided a milder
punishment for the first and second re-
turn, but death for their third; had pro-
hibited all persons from suffering their
meetings in or near their houses, enter
tanning them Individually, or disposing
of books which supported their tenets.
If no execution took place here, as did
in New England, it was not owing to the
moderation of the church or the spirit
of the Legislature, as may be inferred
from the law itself, but to historical cir
cumstances which have not been handed
down to us. The Anglicans retained
full possession of the country about a
century"
1t is my belief that this was a greater
amount of intolerance than any which
prevailed in New England, and it ex-
tended through a longer period. Ply
mouth and Connecticut colonies did not
engraft on their codes the extremely
proscriptive legislation of Massachusetts,,
and some excuse is found for Massachu
sets on account of her fears of Arch
bishop Laud and the inquisitorial pro
ceedings of his star chamber.
The Virginia Convention Of l776 re-
pealed all statutory expressions on relig-
ion, and the State was then left to the
jurisdiction of the common law under
which heresy was punishable by burning
in accordance with the writ de heretico
comburando. By the act Of Assembly
of 1905:
If person brought up in the Christ
ian religion denies the being of God,
or the Trinity, or asserts there are more
Gods than one, or denies the Christian
religion to be true, or the Scripture to
be of divine authority, he is punishable
on the first offense by incapacity to hold
any Office or employment ecclesiastical,
civil or military; on the second by dis
ability to sue, to take any gift or legacy,
to be guardian, executor or administra
tor, and by three years imprisonment
without bail. - This is sum
mary view of that religious slavery under
which people have been willing to re-
main who have lavished their lives and
fortunes for the establishment of their
civil freedom. The error seems not suf- |
6ciently eradicated that the operations
of the mind as well as the acts of the |
body are subjected to the coercion of the
laws. But our rulers can have no au-
thority over such natural rights only as
we have submitted to them. The rights
of conscience we never submitted-we
could not submit. We are answerable
for them to our God"
1t is well-known apothegm-which
is found in the writings of Lord Boiling
broke, and of which the authorship is
ascribed by Mr.. John Bartlett, of Bos-
ton, to Thuoydides--that history is
teaching by examples"
There is certainly much of sound phil
ospophy to be learned from the historic
page. The wisdom of the present gene
ration is derived in large measure from
a study of the errors of the past. And
in reviewing the narrative of the intol-
srance of our early colonists, we learn
many lessons which will persuade us to
The practice of humility and charity.
' Let brotherly love continue, is the de-
rout invocation Of Scripture, and it is
his principle of Christian faith in its
development throughout the ages which
S the watchword Of human progress.
Respectfully yours,
NpVv ENc1 ANnEp