Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-05-03

instituted for their peace, safety and
happiness; for the advancement of
these ends, they have at all times an
inalienable and infeasible right to alter,
reform or abolish the government in
such manner as they may think proper.
"Sec. 2. The government being
instituted for the common benefit, the
doctrine and non>resistance against
arbitrary power and oppression is alb,
surd, slavish, and destructive of the
good and happiness of mankind.
"Sec. 3. That all men have natu>
raj and indefeasible right to worship
Almighty God according othe dictates
Of their own conscience; that no man
can of right be compelled to attend,
erect, Or support any place of worship
or to maintain any minister against
his consent that no human authority
can, in any case whatever, control or
interfere with the rights of conscience:
and that no preference shall ever be
given, by law, to any religious estab.
lishment or mode of worship.
cart. 8, Sec. l. Whereas ministers
of the gospel are, by their profession,
dedicated to God and the care of souls,
and ought not to be diverted from the
great duties of their functions; there.
fore no minister of the gospel, or priest
of any denomination whatever, shall
be eligible to seat in either house of
the Legislature.
Sec. 2. No person who denies the
being of God, or future state of re.
wards and punishments, shall hold any
Office in the civil department of this
State.
cart. II, Sec. Is. No person
shall in time Of peace, be required to
perform any service to the public in
any day set apart by his religion as a
day of rest"
You have Sunday laws on your
statute book that have been standing
there ever since that Constitution was
made, or very shortly after; laws that
stood upon the statute book of North
Carolina before Tennessee came out as
its daughter to take her place among
the States; laws that stood as part Of
the colonial legislation of North Caro-
lima before the Revolution; laws which
stood upon the statute books of the
original thirteen States; and / may
add, laws which stand to-day upon al
the statute books of all the states o.
the Union, from the Oldest to thu
youngest. And it is said that they
are laws which violate liberty OF con
sciencel Why, the people who came
to this country fled from the union o
Church and State; from the right o
man to tell them what they SHOULD
believe or how they should worship
and their desire was when organizing
governments that they should "leav
untouched what here they found
freedom to worship God;" and in ever,
Constitution the very first declaration
is used as I have read from the Con
stitution of Tennessee.
Could anything be stronger as evinc
ing the spirit Of Tennesseans whe
they undertook to erect Tennessee int
State than that declaration? And
has been said by one of the most eIn
nent of all law writers of this country
Chancellor Kent, that the free excl
else and enjoyment of religious profes
ion and worship may be considered 6
one of the absolute rights of individl
: ais secured by all American law. .a
There was nothing as to which tn
people-the original people of tb
State and of all the States-fe
more jealousy and more concern tina
to secure that righs of conscienc,
; Then, just looking at the thing prim
facie, is it possible that, passing rigl
from the work of making constitutio
j like that, in which, as bedrock, the
: have placed the right of conscienc
and protection of religious liberty, tht
their Legislatures should, unrebukec
pass laws violating those principles
laws which have put "pad locks upc
7 the lips and chains upon the souls"
u all the neonle2 tn ask that nuestio