The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-10-19

lish few of the more decisive paragraphs:
Article l. Section 1, Paragraph Ia, of the Con-
stitutOn Of the State Of Georgia reads as follows:
mo money shall be taken from the public
treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any
Church, Sect, Or Denomination of Religionsts or
of any Sectarian institution"
America was settled by brave men seeking
land where they could worship God according to
the dictates OF their own conscience. For re-
lgious liberty they turned their backs upon their
native lands and sailed for the more rugged but
freer cline Of Columbia. Freedom of thought
and liberty of conscience even dearer to
them than the tenderest memories of fire-side and
hearthstone Renouncing the sacred sentiments
and traditions of home and country they boldly
moved out to establish government untram-
meled by bigotry and intolerance.
1t would be most remarkable if these funda-
mental principles not of the very warp and
wool Of the American Law. If I properly inter
pref the genius of our government freedom Of re-
hgious conscience is guarded as jealousy as
personal liberty itself. This very genius and this
very jealousy have we'll earned for our country
the merited title The land Of the free and the
home of the brave.''
Every patriotic citizen will guard with care
these bedrock principles of government and
resist any encroachment upon the security of
freedom
Considerations, such as those herein referred
to, no doubt led the people of this State in con-
vention assembled to place in the fundamental
law the unmistakable mandate, mo money shall
be taken from the public treasury directly or in
directly, in aid of any Church, Sect, or Denomi-
nation of Reigionists, or Of any Sectarian Insti-
tuition
So sound is this principle that high-thinking
people united in their allegiance to the doc
trine of absolute separation Of church and State.
A UNCONVENTIONAL enterprise which receives
favors from the State must inevitably accept con-
ditions and instructions from the State In con-
sideration of receiving appropriations from
secular government, church must receive and
obey orders from that government.
If a government in one city favorable to a GER
tain church may grant special concessions to that
church. then the government of another city UNI
favorable to that church may place ban upon it
and its communicates.
The next logical. step is that city government
favorable to one church might provide that only
teachers who were communicates Of that church
should be employed in it's city schools. This
might be followed by a requirement on the part of
another government unfavorable to such church
that no communicates of that church should
be employed in it's city schools
Such contingencies may be remote; but they
are unquestionably possible. They are repugnant
to all ideas of republican government The only
safe course is found in maintaining an absolute
and complete separation Of church and State.
Applying the foregoing principles to the
at hand it seems to me that there can be but one
conclusion.
l. A church in the city of Savannah owns two
buildings adapted to school purposes 1t agrees to
permit the city government to use those buildings
for the regular conduct of it's public schools. In
consideration of this agreement the city govern
ment on it's part grants to that church certain
valuable concessions All the teachers of the par
icuar faith and order assigned to these special
schools, and only such teachers employed
therein. The officers of that special church are
permitted to hold in these school buildings
IigiOus services exclusively, sectaran Immediately
preceding the assembling of the schools city
schOOls-services held exclusively for influencing
the students of that faith and of other faiths who
come to the public schools upon the invitation of
the city and at the expense of the tax payers of
all faiths and orders. Such religious services
held i'm other school in the city.
Even If such an ARRANGEMENT enteWl5 into