The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-06-25
REFORMING VIRGINIA

only varying as between themselves. but
with some utterly opposed to the genius
and spirit of the Declaration of indie
pendence.
In none of the colonies We're abuses
so rife and firmly established as in
Virginia. Prmogeniture ana entail had
created a class of thoughtless elder
brothers and vagabond heirs, who were
reckless and self-indulgent to the very
verge of lawlessness.
The union of Church and State had de-
stroyed the rights of conscience. and a
licentiOus clergy, SO far from leading
the way to Heaven" Were merely adj
juncts to the great houses. where high
play and old Madeira rewarded their
complaisant ministry
The world for hundreds of years. had
listened to the clanking of chains and
shrieks of martyrs, whilst fire and faggot
irradiated the deadly work of religious
bigotry
Even the Pilgrims, flying from perse.
cution, ''having landed ON Pilgrim Rock
fallen on their knees and then on the
aborigines." no sooner found themselves
firmly established in New England
than they began to torture in the name
of God.
To deny any book of the Old or New
Testaments to be the word of God was
punished by fire or by stripes, and bias.
phemy left the delinquent without his
ears and with his tongue bored by red
hot iron. Men we're pilloried branded
and executed for conformity to the
established church. and in but three out
of the thirteen colonies was there reli
gous observation-disclosures Island, Mary.
land and Pennsylvania
Mr. Jefferson graphically describes the
condition of Virginia.:
THE first settlers of this country were
emigrants from England of the English
Church. just at point of time when il
was flushed with complete victory over
the religion of all other persuasons
Possessed, as they became, of the power
of making, administering and executing
the laws. they showed equal intolerance
in this country with their Presbyterian
brethren who had emigrated to tho
northern government. The poor Quakers
We're flying from persecution in England
they cast their eyes on these new coun
tries as aSyltlms of civil and religious
freedom. but they found them free only
Tor the reigning sect.
General acts of the Virginia Assem-
bly, of 1859. 1862 and 1893. had made
| it penal in parents to refuse to have
their children baptized; had prohibited
the unlawful assembly of Quakers: had
made it penal for any master of Il vessaI
| TO bring a Quaker into the State: had
ordered those already here. and such as
should come thereafter, TO be imprisoned
until they should abjure the country
provided a milder punishment for their
| first and second return. but death fol
their third: had inhibited all persons
from suffering their meetings in or neal
their houses. entertaining them individu
| ally. or disposing of books which support
ed their tenets.
IF no executions took place here, "a
did in New England. it was not owing
to the moderation of the church or spirit
of the legislature. as may be inferred
| from the law itself, but to historical cir
cumstances that have not been handed
/ down to us.
by our own Act of Assembly of 1905.
if person brought up in the Christian
religion denies the existence of a God
or the Trinity. or asserts there are more
! Gods than one. or denies the Christian
religion to be true. or the scriptures to
| be of divine authority. he is punishable
ON the first offence by incapacity to hold
any office or employment, ecclesiastical.
civil or military, on the second, by disa-
| bility to sue. to take any gift or legacy.
| TO be guardian, executor or adminiStra-
tor. and by three years imprisonment
without bail.
a fathers right to the custody of his
own children being founded in law on
his right of guardianship, this being
taken ay,they may of course be sever
ed from him and put by authority Of the
court into more orthodox hands"
| Amidst a storm of opposition and OBJ
| loquy, such as was never before seen on
| this continent, Jefferson resolutely at
tackled primogenture. entail, and the
union of Church and State.
From October the 18th to December
the 9TH the battle ragged daily in the Vir-
gina Assembly. and resulted in sub
stantial victory for Jefferson, although
| the statute for religious liberation did
not finally become a law until 1856.
When nearly eighty years old, Mr.. JEFF
ferSon spoke of this as the most terrible
contest of his long and stormy career.
Against him We're arrayed the wealthy
families whose large estates We're held
monies were taken from them, and more
than all. the clergy and established
church, who resented the statute for re-
ligious liberation as blasphemous at
tack upon religion and a personal outrage
upon themselves. Jefferson was denounc.
ed as communist, an atheist foe to
religion, and the bitter enmites engen-
dered by this conflict harassed him dur
ing life and assailed his memory after
death
No one lnew better than Jefferson how
unreentinG rs religious intolerance, and
how dangerous the charge Of infidelity or
atheism to a pubic man. but so true was
he to the rights of conscience. that in his
long life and under all assaults, he made
no reply to his enemies. He absolutely
denied the right of any being, except his
Maker, to call in question his religious
belief, and thus he lived and died
In private letter to Dr. BENJAMIN
Rush, dated April DIST, 1903, he wrote
of his religious opinions:
"They are the result of life of inqui-
ry and reflection. and very different
from that anti!Christian system imputed
to me by those who knew nothing Of my
opinions. To the corruptions of Chris