The Poems of Thomas Jefferson

“Thomas Jefferson did not write many poems, although he had a great appreciation for poetry.[1] He read and quoted widely from poets such as Homer, Virgil, John Dryden, and John Milton. Ossian was a special source of pleasure. In 1786, Jefferson's pleasure reading briefly turned more scholarly when he wrote "Thoughts on English Prosody," an essay in which he debated whether the principal characteristic of English poetry was accent or quantity (he settled on accent). 

From the age of fifteen until he turned thirty, he kept a Literary Commonplace Book[2] in which he pasted newspaper clippings of favorite poems and prose. Beginning in 1801, he began the first of two poetry scrapbooks dedicated exclusively to poetry clippings.[3] Jefferson also helped his granddaughters create their own poetry scrapbooks. One of them, Virginia Randolph Trist, recalled that "whenever an opportunity occurred, he sent us books; and he never saw a little story or piece of poetry in a newspaper, suited to our ages and tastes, that he did not preserve and send it to us."[4] 

A number of scholars have attributed to Jefferson an unfinished poem, "To Ellen," indicating that it may have been intended for his granddaughter Ellen Wayles Coolidge.[5] 

“To Ellen” 

Tis hope supports each noble flame, 

'Tis hope inspires poetic lays, 

Our heroes fight in hopes of fame, 

And poets write in hopes of praise. 

She sings sweet songs of future years, 

And dries the tears of present sorrow, 

Bids doubting mortals cease their fears, 

And tells them of a bright to-morrow. 

And where true love a visit pays, 

The minstrel hope is allways there, 

To soothe young Cupid with her lays, 

And keep the lover from despair. 

Why fades the rose upon thy cheek; 

Why droop the lilies at the view? 

Thy cause of sorrow, Ellen speak, 

Why alter'd thus thy sprightly hue? 

Each day, alas! with breaking heart, 

I see they beautous form decline; 

 Yet fear my anguish to impart, 

Lest it should add a pang to thine... 

Jefferson may have composed some light verse during periods of his later life, but the only surviving poem of definite authorship by Jefferson was written in 1826, at the approach of his death. Confined to bed by illness, Jefferson wrote "A death-bed Adieu" for his daughter, Martha [“Patsy”] Randolph[6]. On July 2nd, two days before he died, Jefferson told Martha that he'd composed a farewell in her honor; following his instructions, she found the verse in a small box after his death. ['Two Seraphs' refers to Jefferson's wife, Martha, and to their daughter Maria Jefferson Eppes, born August 1, 1778; died April 17, 1804].” 

“A death-bed Adieu” -- TJ to MR 

Life's visions are vanished, it's dreams are no more. 

Dear friends of my bosom, why bathed in tears? 

I go to my fathers; I welcome the shore, 

which crowns all my hopes, or which buries my cares. 

Then farewell my dear, my lov'd daughter, Adieu! 

The last pang in life is in parting from you. 

Two Seraphs await me, long shrouded in death; 

I will bear them your love on my last parting breath. 

____________________________ 

Source: The Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/tj.html 

 Notes: 

1. Until recently, most scholars thought that Jefferson's interest in poetry waned significantly in his later years. To learn why this may not have been the case, see Jonathan Gross's "When Jefferson Dined Alone" (http://hnn.us/articles/20061.html, History News Network, February 12, 2006). 

2. See Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book, ed. Douglas L. Wilson (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989) for a critical edition. 

3. The contents of Jefferson's poetry scrapbooks can be found in Jonathan Gross's Thomas Jefferson's Scrapbook's: Poems of Nation, Family & Romantic Love Collected by America's Third President (Sterforth Press: Hanover, New Hampshire, 2006). 

4. B. L. Rayner, Sketches of the Life, Writings, and Opinions of Thomas Jefferson. With Selections of the Most Valuable Portions of His Voluminous and Unrivaled Private Correspondence (New York: A. Francis and W. Boardman, 1832.): 346-47. 

5. Ellen (Eleonora) Wayles Randolph (1796–1876), the fourth child of Thomas Mann Randolph and TJ’s daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph, shared her name with an elder sister who died in 1794. Born at Monticello, Randolph returned with her family to live there following her grandfather’s retirement from the presidency. She became one of TJ’s favorite grandchildren, often accompanying him on trips to Poplar Forest and Natural Bridge. In 1816, with his financial assistance, she visited Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, winning renown as an intelligent conversationalist. On May 27, 1825 in the Monticello drawing room, she married Joseph Coolidge, a Bostonian who had first visited TJ a year earlier. When the newlyweds settled in Boston, the separation proved difficult for both TJ and his granddaughter. Ellen Coolidge corresponded regularly with those who remained at Monticello but did not return until just after TJ’s death. 

 6. The poem first appeared in its entirety in Sarah Randolph's The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871). A facsimile of the original manuscript is available at Virginia's James Monroe Museum.

The Civil War and Christmas

“As the Civil War’s first Christmas neared, a pair of young lovers, Nathaniel Dawson and Elodie Todd, a Confederate soldier and his eventual bride, wrote to one another with increasing melancholy. They were separated by hundreds of miles, and their communication was often interrupted by delays in the mail and the desperation of the Civil War. 

“I wish I could be with you at Christmas, the festal season, where age is rejuvenated and lives again in the merry carols of youth,” Dawson wrote to Todd (sister of Mary Todd Lincoln) on December 22, 1861... Dawson and Todd’s lives changed dramatically during the war, as the Confederacy crumbled and their personal lives stretched to their limits. But they weren’t alone in wishing they could celebrate Christmas together. As the fractured United States fought, the holiday [grew in significance in both the South and the North]...

Before the Civil War, Christmas was not an official holiday in the United States. Nor was it celebrated uniformly across the country. In early New England, Christmas was looked down upon by Puritans and Calvinists, who felt the day should be observed for strict fasts and rituals, if it was observed at all. During the 17th century, Massachusetts imposed a fine on colonists who celebrated the holiday, and after it became a state, its businesses and schools did not observe the holiday at all. 

Elsewhere, Christmas was celebrated in a variety of ways, most depending on the country of origin of the immigrants who celebrated it. But by the mid-19th century, the holiday’s importance—and distance from religious tradition—was already starting to grow. Songs and carols like “Jingle Bells” (1857) and poems like “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1823) set the stage for a fun, secular holiday that revolved around gift-giving and celebration with food and drink. 

In the antebellum South, plantation owners used the holiday as a way to show off their paternalism toward the people they enslaved, write historians Shauna Bigham and Robert E. May. During lengthy Christmas celebrations, they gave enslaved people passes to marry, provided food and alcohol, and gave gifts.”[1] 

“During the Civil War, proclaiming religious holidays was one of [Abraham] Lincoln’s main cultural means of encouraging the spirit of “unionism” that the poet Walt Whitman identified as the “hard-pan of his character.” To this end, Lincoln issued nine religious proclamations—far more than any other U.S. president... 

Lincoln thought that holidays had the capacity to unite people—in his words, “they bring us together, and thereby make us better acquainted, and better friends than we otherwise would be … They make more pleasant, and more strong, and more durable, the bond of social and political union among us...” 

During Lincoln’s presidency... Christmas took on new meaning. Chiefly responsible for its transformation was the famous German American illustrator Thomas Nast, who created the modern Santa Claus—the jovially pipe-smoking, white-bearded, red-suited night flyer we know so well—and made him distinctly pro-northern and antislavery. Nast, a Lincoln devotee, put his Santa in politically charged scenarios. One of his first distinctive illustrations, on the cover of Harper’s Magazine in January 1863—the month Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation—showed Santa delivering presents to Union soldiers in an army camp. Nast’s Santa, quite literally, embodies the North: He is clad in stars and stripes, surrounded by cheering Union soldiers, and holds in his hand a toy puppet of Jefferson Davis being hanged by the neck—a reminder of the improvised line in “The John Brown Song,” “We’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree.” 

Lincoln recognized the political significance of such illustrations. “Thomas Nast has been our best recruiting sergeant,” he said. “His emblematic cartoons have never failed to arouse enthusiasm and patriotism, and have always seemed to come just when these articles were getting scarce.” General Ulysses S. Grant, when asked who was “the foremost figure in civil life” during the war years, replied, “I think, Thomas Nast.” 

During the second half of the Civil War, the North became more associated with Christmas. An 1863 political cartoon, “Santa Claus Visits Uncle Sam!,” showed Lincoln in a Santa outfit stuffing Union victories—Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and others—into the nation’s Christmas stocking.”[2] 

“By the end of the war in 1865, Christmas had gone from a relatively unimportant holiday to the opposite—a day rooted in an idealized vision of home. The way Americans observed the holiday changed too, setting the stage for the more modern Christmas holiday we know today.”[3] 

________________________________ 

[1] Erin Blakemore, “How the Civil War Changed Christmas,” History Online, January 15, 2019 (https://www.history.com/news/civil-war-christmas) 

[2] David S. Reynolds, “How Lincoln Turned Regional Holidays Into National Celebrations,” The Atlantic, November 24, 2021 (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/how-lincoln-redefined-thanksgiving-and-christmas/620800/) 

[3] Blakemore, “How the Civil War Changed Christmas.”

The Declaration of Independence Teacher Workshop

“The Declaration of Independence... [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, 

and of the rights of man.” --Thomas Jefferson

The Washington, Jefferson & Madison Institute is pleased to announce its next teacher education workshop on the topic of “The Declaration of Independence: Axioms of a Free Society.” The program will include three x 1 hour class sessions. Along with presentations, the format will include a “roundtable” discussion with participation by all. The outline of the sessions and agenda are as follows:

8:30–9:00 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00–10:00 a.m. First Classroom Session -- “Natural Law and Popular Sovereignty in the Declaration of Independence.” Presentation by Tony Williams followed by discussion and Q&A.

10:15–11:15 a.m. Second Classroom Session -- “All Men are Created Equal: America's Defining Creed." Presentation by J. David Gowdy followed by discussion and Q&A.

11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Third Classroom Session -- “The Declaration's Role in American History."  Presentation by Tony Williams followed by discussion and Q&A.

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Luncheon

The workshop is designed for public and private Virginia secondary school teachers and home school teachers who teach Social Studies, U.S. Government, Virginia Government, or U. S. History. Teachers from other states are also welcome. The workshop, meals and class materials all complimentary (no cost) to teachers.

The event will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, October 29th, 2021 to be held at Prospect Hill Plantation Inn. The Seminar qualifies for four Virginia recertification points or 4 hours. 

Prospect Hill Plantation Inn, Louisa, Virginia

“How great a debt we owe to those who went before us”

This letter was written near the beginning of the American Civil War from Sullivan Ballou, a 32-year-old officer in the Union Army, to his 24-year-old wife, Sarah. He was a lawyer and politician from Rhode Island and married Sarah Hart Shumway on October 15, 1855. They had two sons. 

“July 14, 1861 Camp Clark, Washington 

My very dear Sarah: 

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days-perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . . 

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing-perfectly willing-to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . . 

Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field. The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me-perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . . 

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .” 

A week later Sullivan was mortally wounded in the First Battle of Bull Run and died on July 29, 1861.

Quotes from the Founders on Religious Liberty

“Religious freedom is a fundamental human right and the first among rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights[1]. It is the right to think, express and act upon what you deeply believe, according to the dictates of conscience. Freedom of conscience is critical to the health of a diverse society. It allows different faiths and beliefs to flourish. Religious freedom protects the rights of all groups and individuals, including the most vulnerable, whether religious or not.”[2] The Founders were firm in their support of this important principle that serves as the cornerstone of liberty in all nations. Following are a few quotes from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington:

“In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.” –James Madison, Federalist 51 

“Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” –James Madison, Essay on Property, March 29, 1792 

“One of the amendments to the Constitution... expressly declares that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,' thereby guarding in the same sentence and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press; insomuch that whatever violates either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others.” –Thomas Jefferson, Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798 

“The constitutional freedom of religion [is] the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights.” –Thomas Jefferson, Minutes of the Board of Visitors, University of Virginia, 1819 

“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies.” –John Adams, Letter to Zabdiel Adams, June 21, 1776 

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –John Adams, To the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia Of Massachusetts, October 11, 1798 

“Remember civil and religious liberty always go together: if the foundation of the one be sapped, the other will fall of course.” –Alexander Hamilton, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, December 15, 1774 

“[A]s far as lies in your power, you are to protect and support the free exercise of religion of the country, and the undisturbed enjoyment of the rights of conscience in religious matters, with your utmost influence and authority.” –George Washington, Letter to Benedict Arnold, September 14, 1775 

“[N]o one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution—For you, doubtless, remember that I have often expressed my sentiment, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.” –George Washington, Letter to George Mason, October 3, 1785

____________________________
Photo: Religious Liberty (1876). The country’s largest monument to religious liberty stands in front of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The towering 24-foot, 13-ton statue was commissioned by the Jewish fraternal organization Independent Order of B’nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant) and dedicated "to the people of the United States" as an expression of support for the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. It was executed in marble by sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel (1844-1917).

[1] https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/

[2] https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/official-statement/religious-freedom

Traitors Against the King of England

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other out Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” 

Although not really a new argument, today some say that America was founded by “rich white men” and that because of this and the fact that some were slaveholders we should not honor them or the documents they authored. This shallow attitude ignores the facts, and that while a few of them, such as John Hancock and George Washington were wealthy merchants or landowners, not all of them were “rich” by colonial standards. A few did lose their wealth or saw their fortunes significantly diminished as a result of the war and its economic effects. And, being traitors against the King of England was no small thing.

This view of the Founders and their generation also disregards the sacrifices made and blood shed by the men (and women), respectively, who fought for and supported the cause of independence. It is important to note that Black soldiers were scattered throughout the Continental Army in integrated infantry regiments, where they were often assigned to support roles as waggoneers, cooks, or artisans. African Americans also served as gunners, sailors and privateers in the Continental Navy during the Revolution.

The Declaration’s bold assertion that “all Men are Created Equal” and Constitution’s Article 1, twenty-year clause, put the slave trade on a path to extinction. See: “All Men are Created Equal: America's Defining Creed.” While we may wishfully look back and judge that they somehow should have done more to eradicate these wrongs in their lifetime, they first had to declare independence from their mother country (the originating empire of the colonial slave trade), out-maneuver and defeat the world-renown British army and navy, establish a new nation with a Bill of Rights, and simultaneously raise a standard of truth sowing the seeds of individual liberty and human rights-- that would eventually bear fruit after the Civil War of the 1860’s (with 612,000 casualties) and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. What risks did these men individually and together undertake for the freedoms we now enjoy? Among them was death for High Treason. 

“The most serious of all felonies in the 1700’s was High Treason, or treason against the King of England. Eighteenth-century laws describe the four basic types of high treason: 

1. “When a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king, of our lady his queen, or of their eldest son and heir.” 

 2. “If a man do violate the king's companion, or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir.” 

3. “If a man do levy war against our lord the king in his realm”. 

4. “If a man be adherent to the king's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere.” 

This aspect of the treason law pertains to trading with enemy nations, as well as trading with pirates. Many English colonies, including the American colonies, trading openly with pirates because the merchants could avoid the high English tariffs. Since High Treason was, and arguably remains, the most serious capital crime, testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act was required to convict, and the punishment in the Eighteenth century was severe. 

Blackstone states that “the punishment of high treason in general is very solemn and terrible”: 

1. That the offender be drawn to the gallows, and not be carried or walk: though usually (by connivance length ripened by humanity into law) a sledge or hurdle is allowed, to preserve the offender from the extreme torment of being dragged on the ground or pavement 

2. That he be hanged by the neck and then cut down alive 

3. That his entrails be taken out and burned, while he is yet alive 

4. That his head be cut off 

5. That his body be divided in four parts 

6. That his head and quarters be at the king's disposal. 

The punishment did not end with the personal suffering of the offender; the punishment extended to his or her family. The law states that a person who is found guilty of treason must also undergo "forfeiture" and "corruption of blood." In forfeiture, the person is forced to give all their lands and property to the state. Corruption of blood prevents the person's immediate family and hereditary heirs from owning property or conducting business-- in effect ruining the offender's family forever. 

But the punishment of treasonous women is similar, yet different from men. “For as the decency due to the sex forbids the exposing and publicly mangling their bodies, their sentence (which it to the full as terrible to sensation as the other) is to be drawn to the gallows, and there to be burned alive.”

Today, the most famous offenders of the eighteenth-century English treason laws are the Founding Fathers and American Revolutionaries. The Declaration of Independence violates the 3rd law of Treason, [and their subsequent actions violated the 4th]. When John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other founding fathers signed this statement, they did not sign some empty philosophical statement, they signed their death warrant. This action displayed their dedication to the cause of American independence and the ultimate disloyalty to King George III. Until the Declaration of Independence, Washington, Jefferson, Adams and the others only disagreed with Parliament, not the Crown; in fact, after a day of fighting the British soldiers, Washington and his officers would toast the King before dinner. This document is important because it marks the revolutionaries' acknowledgment that the corruption of the English government was not contained within the Parliament, but extended all the way up to the King; it marks the point of no return: either the revolutionaries were going to gain their independence from England and create a new country, or they were going to lose the war to the best army in the world, forfeit everything they owned, ruin their families, and be hung, drawn and quartered.” As Benjamin Franklin exclaimed to his fellow signers on August 2nd, 1776 (when the Declaration was actually signed), “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” 

Of those fifty-six men who pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor,” no signer was killed outright by the British. One, Richard Stockton, was imprisoned solely for having signed the Declaration of Independence. Others were captured while fighting in the army and were treated like other prisoners of war (which was fairly harsh). Of the 56 signers, seventeen held commissions in the army or did medical duty during the war. While the majority survived the conflict, many of those had property that was looted or destroyed, but most managed to re-establish themselves financially after the war. Carter Braxton did suffer financial hardship because of the British, but he retained other holdings. What ruined him were commercial setbacks after the war [just as those that affected Thomas Jefferson]. “The signers of the Declaration of Independence knew they could have been targeted by the British as traitors. They showed tremendous courage and bravery by willingly putting their names on a document that could bring about their deaths. They were remarkable men.” 

And, lest we forget, throughout the course of the seven-year Revolutionary War, an estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, such as smallpox, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.  Are we as willing to risk our lives and fortunes (great or small) and so unselfishly sacrifice for human liberty? Without regard to the color of their skin, we owe a great debt of gratitude to our nation’s founders and to the Patriots of ’76. 

_____________________________

Sources: http://websites.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/bonifield/treason2.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-07-04-0107040006-story.html

James Madison and Religious Liberty

Dunking of Baptist Preachers in Virginia (1778)

By: Joseph Loconte 

"A wide-eyed and youthful James Madison, traveling in Culpeper County in Virginia, came upon a jail that housed half a dozen Baptist preachers, held simply for publishing their religious views. Madison bristled with indignation at the "diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution." Writing to his friend William Bradford, he ended with a lament: "So I leave you to pity me and pray for Liberty and Conscience to revive among us..." 

[While Madison's] role as the major architect of the Constitution is widely understood, his passion for securing religious freedom is not. "There is no principle in all of Madison's wide range of private opinions and long public career," writes biographer Ralph Ketcham, "to which he held with greater vigor and tenacity than this one of religious liberty." Historians mistakenly ignore the importance of Madison's early education. Rather than going closer to home, he chose the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), an evangelical seminary known as both a citadel for republicanism and a haven for dissenting Presbyterianism. The influence of college president Rev. John Witherspoon--under whom Madison studied directly--is difficult to overstate. One of the assigned topics in Madison's senior year was to defend the proposition that "every religious profession, which does not by its principles disturb the public peace, ought to be tolerated by a wise state." Madison's lifelong zeal for religious freedom began in May 1776 when state lawmakers wrote a new constitution for the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia. The document contained a Declaration of Rights with a clause on religious liberty, penned by George Mason. The original clause declared that "all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience...." 

Madison didn't like it. He objected to Mason's use of the word "toleration" because it implied that the exercise of faith was a gift from government, not an inalienable right. Madison's substitute--"all men are entitled to the full and free exercise" of religion--essentially won the day. This put Madison far ahead of John Locke, who generally mustered no more than grudging toleration for religious belief. 

Over the next decade, Madison would be involved in various religious liberty battles in the Virginia legislature, from repealing penalties against dissenters to suspending taxpayer support for Anglican clergymen. Those struggles came to a head in 1784 when--religious conservatives take note--the General Assembly tried to pass a General Assessment bill to collect tax money for all Christian churches in the name of "public morality." Madison and others saw the bill for what it was: an attempt to prop up the Protestant Episcopal (Anglican) church with taxpayers' money. Prompted by Baptist leaders and others, Madison penned his now-famous Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments in July 1785. 

Biographer Irving Brant calls the 15-point document "the most powerful defense of religious liberty ever written in America." One reason is that Madison made freedom of conscience--meaning belief or conviction about religious matters--the centerpiece of all civil liberties. He called religious belief "precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society." By placing freedom of conscience prior to and superior to all other rights, Madison gave it the strongest political foundation possible. 

Hard-core separationists and others disagree, claiming that the Memorial's pious rhetoric masks an antipathy to religion. But consider Madison's appeals in the Memorial. He voices concern that the misuse of religion would lead to "an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation." He reasons that government support would "weaken in those who profess this Religion a pious confidence in its innate excellence and the patronage of its Author." He recalls that ecclesiastical establishments of the past have done great damage to the "purity and efficacy" of religion." Are these the arguments of a religious scoffer? 

Madison would pick up the fight again during the drafting of the First Amendment. As chairman of the House conference committee on the Bill of Rights, Madison's original draft was among the most ambitious: "the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship...nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed...." Though somewhat less expansive in its protections, the final version--"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" --clearly bears the Madison stamp. 

The point is that, thanks largely to Madison, free exercise replaced toleration as the national standard for protecting religious liberty, a standard he first raised in Virginia and sustained throughout his political career... What is nearly indisputable is that his religious instincts fueled much of his political activity. 

In the fight to pass the Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty, he shamed Christian conservatives--who tried to insert the words "Jesus Christ" in an amended preamble--with these words: "The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative discussion...." In 1795, during a congressional debate over naturalization, he bluntly repelled anti-Catholic prejudices: "In their religion there was nothing inconsistent with the purest Republicanism." At age 65, in retirement at his estate in Virginia, Madison praised the separation of church and state because, by it, "the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased...." 

In the twilight of his life, Madison wrote that "belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the World and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources...." 

_________________________

The Heritage Foundation, March 16, 2001. 

https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/james-madison-and-religious-liberty

Joseph Loconte is the William E. Simon Fellow for Religion and a Free Society at The Heritage Foundation and a regular commentator on religion for National Public Radio.