Yirglnia Presbyterianism 
 and Religious Liberty 
 
 in Goionial and Revolutionary 
 Times 
 
BX 8947 .V8 J6 
 
 Johnson, Thomas Gary, 1859- 
 
 1936. 
 Virginia Presbyter lanism ai 
 
Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Religious Liberty 
 
 IN 
 
 Colonial and Revolutionary Times 
 
 By THOS. GARY JOHNSON, 
 
 Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Union Theological Seminary, 
 
 Richmond, Va.; author of "The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis 
 
 Dabney," "The Life and Letters of Benjamin Morgan 
 
 Palmer," '-John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation," 
 
 " The Presbyterian Church in the United States." 
 
 RICHMOND, Va. 
 
 Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 
 
 1907 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introduction. — Purpose of this Booklet, 7 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Condition of Dissenters in the Colony of Vir- 
 ginia, 1607-1688, 9 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Efforts to Secure the Application of the Act 
 
 OF Toleration, 1689-1763, 15 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Progress into Religious Liberty During the 
 
 Revolutionary Period, 1763 to 1791- 57 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Repeatedly asked, during the last seven months, to 
 produce a sketch of the services of Presbyterians during 
 Colonial and Revolutionary days to the cause of religious 
 liberty, this little book is the writer's response. It has 
 been his steadfast desire to claim nothing more for Pres- 
 byterians than was warranted by objective fact; and, not- 
 withstanding the limits of space fixed by his publishers, 
 tc acknowledge, at least in general terms, the highly im- 
 portant services of other forces. 
 
 He should acknowledge here the free use he has made, 
 in preparing this paper, of Foote's Sketches of Virginia, 
 Brigg's American Presbyterians, Rives' Life and Times 
 of Madison, William Wirt Henry's Life, Correspondence, 
 and Speeches of Patrick Henry, etc., etc. He owes 
 thanks, also, to the librarians of the Virginia State Li- 
 brary, who kindly and courteously gave him access to the 
 rich treasures of that institution, including many original 
 manuscripts, copies of which were verified before their 
 incorporation into this work. 
 
 With the hope that it may conserve the interests of 
 truth, he sends this little book forth. 
 
 Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 
 July i8, 1907. 
 
Virginia Presbyterianism and 
 Religious Liberty. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction : Purpose of this Booklet. 
 
 THE Virginia doctrine of the separation of Church 
 and State has long prevailed throughout all the 
 vast territory of these United States, save where Mor- 
 monism has fixed its unholy seat. The old mother of 
 States and statesmen is venerable for nothing more than- 
 for this doctrine, and for her exemplification of it. Too 
 little, however, is generally known as to how Virginia 
 came to hold to the separation of Church and State, and 
 as to how she came to put the principle into application. 
 No attempt shall be made in this booklet even to name 
 all the forces which worked together, under the Provi- 
 dence of God, to these ends. Forces, apparently the most 
 hostile, the advocates of privilege and prerogative, of the 
 establishment, no less than the advocates of toleration and 
 liberty, were used of Providence to achieve this advance. 
 The positive forces working for it were numerous. In- 
 dividuals from every denomination in the colony helped 
 in the great struggle. Quakers, the Baptists particularly, 
 and other denominations , as well as Presbyterians, took 
 a useful part in the struggle. No one denomination can 
 justly claim to have been the sole aggressive agency at any 
 one time in the long contest. Principles which constj- 
 
8 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 tilted the common heritage of Protestants, wrought them- 
 selves out in their legitimate fruitage in this doctrine of 
 religious liberty. Civil commotions and political revolu- 
 tion, by the opportunities afforded, favored the cause. The 
 Time-Ghost of the America colonies, made for the same 
 thing. 
 
 To sketch all these forces would require much space. 
 In this brochure an attempt is made to indicate some of 
 the services of Presbyterians in behalf of religious liberty, 
 during colonial and revolutionary days. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Condition of Dissenters in the Colony of Virginia, 
 I 607- I 688. 
 
 THE early colonists of Virginia were, in the main, 
 conforming Englishmen, who had come, not for 
 religious reasons, but to advance their temporal fortunes. 
 They, naturally, established the Church of England by 
 law.' The Church of England of the period was not a 
 thorough-going Episcopal church till the Act of Uni- 
 formity of 1662, passed by the Cavalier Parliament of 
 Charles II., which required thenceforth that all its minis- 
 ters should have received Episcopal ordination. The 
 Puritan party was strong in the church. The mixed char- 
 acter of the Anglican Church was reproduced in the early 
 colonial church in Virginia. 
 
 The percentage of Puritans, and the percentage of 
 Presbyterian Puritans amongst the colonists in this period 
 can only be conjectured. But both the purpose in the 
 founding of the colony and the character of the Virginia 
 Company of London, composed of men, some of whom 
 were amongst the most remarkable . of their age for 
 breadth of mind, makes for the view that it was not incon- 
 siderable. The Rev. Robert Hunt, the pious and devoted 
 minister who came with the first body of settlers, may 
 have been a Puritan ; he was educated at the University of 
 Cambridge, a Puritan centre at the time. If the Puritan- 
 ism of Mr. Hunt is incapable of proof, the same cannot be 
 said of Alexander Whitaker, who, in the language of a 
 contemporary, was "a. scholar, graduate, preacher, well- 
 
10 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 born and friended in England; not in debt nor disgrace, 
 but completely provided for, and liked and beloved where 
 he lived; not in want, but (for a scholar and as these 
 days be) rich in possession, and more in possibilities, of 
 himself without any persuasion (but God's and his own 
 heart), did voluntarily leave his warme nest; and, to the 
 wonder of his kindred and amazement of them that knew 
 him, undertook this hard, but, in my judgment, heroicall 
 resolution to go to Virginia, and helpe to bear the name 
 of God unto the Gentiles."^ He was a son of the famous 
 Dr. William Whitaker, Professor of Divinity at Cam- 
 bridge, England, and an Independent (Presbyterian) 
 Puritan, as shown in the literature of the time. He writes, 
 June, 1614: 
 
 " Every Sabbath-day, we preach in the forenoon and catechise 
 in the afternoon. Every Saturday, at night, I exercise in Sir 
 Thomas Dale's house. Our Church affairs be consulted on by the 
 minister and four of the most religious men. Once every month 
 we have a communion, and once a year we have a solemn fast." 
 He subsequently wrote : '' Here neither surplice nor subscription 
 is spoken of."^ 
 
 Nansemond County seems to have become a centre of 
 Puritanism in the period before us. Encouraged by the 
 state of affairs in England in 1641, Puritan congregations 
 of Nansemond sent to New England for ministers. Three 
 answered the call. After a brief ministry, at least t\yo of 
 
 ^ W. Crashawe's Epistle Dedicatorie to the Godnewes from Vir- 
 ginia," quoted in F. L. Hawk's, A Narrative of Events Connected 
 zi'ith the Rise and Progress of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 Virginia, p. 28. 
 
 ' E. D. Neill, Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy, Philadel- 
 phia, 1877, p. 4; George Bancroft's History of the United States, 
 Vol. I., p. 141, quoted in C. A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism, 
 p. 87. 
 
And Religious Liberty. ii 
 
 them were driven out. Puritanism continued to grow, 
 nevertheless, till the bitter measures in 1649, when some 
 of the Virginia Puritans migrated to Maryland, others to 
 other colonies, some going to New England f and others 
 conformed, for the time, to the requirements of the 
 ecclesiastical establishment. 
 
 It has been seen that the Established Church in Virginia 
 was not, at first, much concerned about uniformity. Large 
 freedom was encouraged by the Virginia Company of 
 London. When its charter was revoked, in 1624, and the 
 English Government took immediate oversight of the 
 colony, the Government showed broad-mindedness in ref- 
 erence to religious differences. In the instructions to Sir 
 William Berkeley, September 12, 1662, we read: 
 
 "And because we are willing to give all possible encouragement 
 to persons of dififerent persuasions in matters of religion to trans- 
 port themselves thither and their stocks, you are not to suffer any 
 man to be molested, or disquieted in the exercise of his religion, 
 so he be content with a quiet and peaceful enjoying it, not giving 
 therein offence or scandal to the government; but we oblige you 
 in your own house and family to the profession of the Protestant 
 religion, according as it is now established in our Kingdom of 
 England, and the recommending it to all others under your gov- 
 ernment, as far as it may consist with the peace and quiet of our 
 said colony." * 
 
 These instructions, it is supposed, represent fairly the 
 attitude of the English Government throughout the years 
 now considered. But the majority in the colonial legisla- 
 ture took a narrower course. In the year 1624, the House 
 of Burgesses enacted the following statute: 
 
 " That there be an uniformity in our Church as neere as may 
 be to the canons in England ; both in substance and circumstance, 
 
 ' Cotton Mather, D. D., Magnalia, pp. 538, 539. 
 ' E. D, Neill, Virginia Qarolorum, p. 292, 
 
12 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 and that all persons yield ready obedience unto them under painc 
 of censure.'"* 
 
 Similar laws^, but in somewhat severer form, were 
 passed in 163 1 and 1632.^ But no great rigor of perse- 
 cution was indulged till 1642, when the following Act of 
 Uniformity was passed : 
 
 " For the preservation of the purity of doctrine and unitie of 
 the Church, It is enacted that all ministers whatsoever vi^hich shall 
 reside in the colony are to be conformable to the orders and con- 
 stitution of the Church of England, and to the laws therein estab- 
 lished, and not otherwise to be admitted to teach or preach pub- 
 licly, or privately. And that the Governor and Council do take 
 care that all Non-Conformists, upon notice of them, shall be com- 
 pelled to depart the colony with all conveniencie.'" 
 
 Sir William Berkeley, Governor of the Colony, 1642 to 
 1677, with the exception of an intermission during the 
 Protectorate of Cromwell, was in full sympathy with this 
 enactment. It was under him that some of the Nanse- 
 mond Puritans migrated to Maryland, and others to other 
 points. After the restoration of the Stuarts to the English 
 throne, in the-revisal of the colonial legislation of 1662, 
 this Act of Conformity was re-affirmed. Severer laws 
 were passed in 1663,® intended particularly for the Quak- 
 ers, who had been coming in since about 1656 ; the laws of 
 1663 were framed so as to include all "Separatists." Nor 
 were they dead letters. This is proven by the Journal of 
 the House of Burgesses. This record shows that 
 Separatists smarted under penalties inflicted. 
 
 " Henning's Statutes at Large; Vol. I., p. 123. 
 ' Henning's Statutes at Large, pp. 155, 180. 
 ' Henning's Statutes at Large, Vol. I., p. 277. 
 * Henning's Statutes at Large, Vol. 2, pp. 180-4. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 13 
 
 In the county of Accomac and on Elizabeth River, Pres- 
 byterians developed organic life after about 1683. In one 
 of these quarters the tobacco produced v^as so poor, that 
 the people could not get an orthodox minister to stay 
 among them.® In these regions there were occasional 
 Scotch merchants and factors, occasional Huguenots, some 
 Scotch-Irish, and some English settlers of Puritan 
 proclivities. The Accomac people were neighbors to a 
 similar people in Somerset County, Maryland. In Mary- 
 land, prior to 1692, when the Church of England was es- 
 tablished,' perfect religious liberty had been enjoyed. 
 People of Presbyterian leanings in these happy circum- 
 stances had, as early as 1680, addressed the Presbytery of 
 Laggan, in the North of Ireland, for a minister. In 
 answer to their call, and to another from Barbadoes, 
 young and resourceful Francis Makemie was sent over, 
 first to Barbadoes and then to Maryland.^" He organized 
 churches in Maryland and Accomac County, Virginia ; 
 looked after the remnants of the Puritan congregations in 
 Nansemond County, and later became foster-father to all 
 American Presbyterianism. 
 
 Mr. Makemie, it is probable, lived in Maryland for a 
 time, after coming to this country. But events carried 
 him to Virginia. He met with relatively little opposition 
 on the eastern shore, owing to the absence of an Episcopal 
 minister. He steadily grew in influence ; and, if the 
 growth in influence brought persecution upon him, he was 
 not the man to yield till the last available weapon had 
 been used. 
 
 " Compare Beverly, History and Present State of Virginia, Book 
 4th, Part 1st, chap. 7th, sec. 39; also, Foote, Sketches of Virginia, 
 p. 50. 
 
 " C. A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism, Appendix, p. 44, et 
 seq. 
 
14 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 He was a man of Scotch-Irish blood and typical Scotch- 
 Irish character; won to Christ as a lad of fourteen or 
 fifteen ; educated at the University of Glasgow ; ordained 
 by the martyr Presbytery of Laggan, knowing well what 
 he braved from what he had seen, while in Scotland, of 
 her streams running with blood from the victims of 
 Claverhouse and Dalziel. He was a man of fervid piety, 
 strong intellectuality, vigorous will-power, attractive ad- 
 dress, tact, and general, all-round endowments. Indis- 
 posed to excite unnecessary antagonisms, he was an 
 invincible fighter for what he regarded due to right. He 
 was the man to cultivate Presbyterianism with success in 
 the difficult circumstances found in Virginia in 1683 to 
 1688, and to take advantage of the Act of Toleration given 
 in England in 1689. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Efforts to Secure the Application of the Act of 
 Toleration, 1689-1763. 
 
 THE Revolution of 1688, which substituted for 
 James Stuart, as King of England, William of 
 Orange and his wife, Mary, is justly memorable as epochal 
 in the history of religious liberty, "the privileges of con- 
 science having had no earlier magna charta and petition 
 of right whereto they could appeal against encroachment." 
 They secured the passage of the Act of Toleration. 
 "This act exempts from the penalties of existing statutes 
 against separate conventicles, or absence from the estab- 
 lished worship, such as should take the oath of allegiance, 
 and subscribe the declaration against popery, and such 
 ministers of separate congregations as should subscribe 
 the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England," three 
 of those articles and a portion of a fourth excepted. It 
 gives also an indulgence to Quakers without this condi- 
 tion. Meeting houses are required to be registered, and 
 are protected from insult by a penalty.^ 
 
 The Toleration Act gave but a scant measure of 
 religious liberty. The Dissenters still labored under civil 
 disabilities. The Test Act and Corporation Act still stood 
 between them and civil office. But small though this char- 
 tered right of religious liberty was, it was a bulwark of 
 that degree conceded and involved in it seeds germinant 
 and growing into larger liberties. 
 
 ^ Henry Hallam, Constitutional History of England, Vol. II., p. 
 381. 
 
i6 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Mr. Makemie was the man in Virginia to profit by the 
 Toleration Act. He was possessed of the disposition and 
 the abihties to make it avail for Dissenters. Tradition 
 says that he previously had often suffered under the laws 
 of Virginia. "He durst not deny preaching, and hoped he 
 never should while it was wanting and desired." "In de- 
 fence of himself, he appeared before magistrates and 
 before the Governor." It is not improbable that he occa- 
 sioned the incorporation of the Toleration Act into the 
 Virginia laws, which was not done till 1699, and then 
 only by a grudging and belittling reference.^ 
 
 Could he have preached without restraint wherever, in 
 the vast field to which Providence had called him, he; 
 found an open ear on the people's part, he would have 
 preferred this greater freedom. But he was ready to 
 apply to the utmost the legal vantage of the Toleration 
 Act, in the absence of something better. In the course of 
 1699, he applied to the county court of Accomac for a 
 certificate of qualification under that act. In the records 
 of Accomac, under date of October 15, 1699, we read: 
 
 " Whereas Mr. Francis Makemie made application by petition 
 to this court, that being ready to fulfill what the law enjoins to. 
 Dissenters, that he might be qualified according to law, and 
 prayed that his own dwelling-house at Pocomoke, also his own 
 house at Onancock, next to Captain Jonathan Livesley's, might 
 be the places recorded for meeting, and having taken the oaths 
 enjoined by Act of Parliament, instead of the oaths of Allegiance 
 and Supremacy, and subscribed the Test as likewise that he did 
 in compliance with what the said law enjoins, produce certificate 
 from Barbadoes of his qualifications there, did declare in open 
 court, of the said county, and owned the articles of religion men- 
 tioned in the statute made in the 13th year of Queen Elizabeth, 
 except the 34th, 35th and 36th, and those words of the 20th article, 
 
 ' For this belittling reference see William H. Foote's Sketches 
 of Virginia, pp. 48, 49. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 17 
 
 viz. ' The Church hath power to decide rites and ceremonies, and 
 authority in controversies of faith,' which the court have ordered 
 to be registered and recorded; and that the clerk of the court 
 give certificate thereof to said Makemie according as the law 
 enjoynes.' ' ' This is the first certificate of the kind known to be 
 on record.' " 
 
 The founder of the Presbyterian Church in North 
 America, the organizer of the first American Presbytery — ■ 
 the old General Presbytery of Philadelphia — interested in 
 enlarging the supply of ministers of his denomination, as 
 well as in evangelistic effort over a wide territory, he 
 travelled much through the colonies, from South Carolina 
 to Massachusetts, and, in one of these remote colonies, 
 fought his greatest single battle, perhaps, for religious 
 liberty. In the month of January, 1707, Mr. Makemie, 
 on a tour to New England, preached in the incipient city 
 of New York. He had been invited to preach by some 
 of the citizens. He had consented. Application had been 
 made, without his knowledge, to the Governor for per- 
 mission to preach in the Dutch Church. This had been 
 refused, the Governor declaring, too, that it was his 
 prerogative to decide who should be permitted to preach 
 in the city and province. Air. Makemie preached, never- 
 theless, in an open and public manner, in the house of 
 William Jackson, on Pearl Street. He also baptized a 
 child presented for that ordinance. Two or three days 
 later he was arrested, and brought before Lord Cornbury 
 in the Council Chamber. Here he was greeted with the 
 arrogant question: "How dare you to take it upon you 
 to preach in my government without my license?" Make- 
 mie pointed to his "liberty from an act of Parliament 
 made in the first year of the reign of King William and 
 Queen Mary," with which law he "had complied." Corn- 
 
 ' L. P. Bowen, Days of Makemie, p. 309. 
 
Rev. Francis Makemie on Trial Before Lord Cornbury 
 
 From a Painting by Mr. H. A . Ogdeti, in the possession of Dr. McCook, the 
 President of the Preshyteriaii Historical Society. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 19 
 
 bury declared that none should preach in his government 
 without his license. Makemie replied: "If the law for 
 liberty had directed us to any particular person in au- 
 thority for license, we would readily have observed the 
 same ; but we cannot find any direction in the act of 
 Parliament, therefore we would not take notice thereof." 
 Cornbury declared : "That law does not extend to the 
 American plantations, but only to England." Makemie 
 responded : "My lord, I humbly conceive that it is not a 
 limited nor local act ; and am well assured it extends to 
 other plantations of the queen's dominions, which is evi- 
 dent from certificates from courts of record of Virginia 
 and Maryland, certifying we have complied with the law." 
 
 Here the certificates were produced and read by Lord 
 Cornbury, who declared that they did not extend to New 
 York. 
 
 He said of the Act of Toleration : "I know it is local 
 and limited, for I was at the making thereof." 
 
 Makemie replied: "\^our Excellency might be at the 
 making thereof, but we are assured that there is no such 
 limiting clause therein as in local acts, and desire that the 
 law may be produced to determine the point." 
 
 Turning to the attorney, Mr. Bekely, Cornbury said : 
 "Is it not so, Mr. Attorney?" 
 
 The attorney affirmed : "Yes, it is. local, my lord." Pro- 
 ducing an argument, he went on to say, that all the penal 
 laws were "local and limited, and did not extend to the 
 plantations ;" and that "the Act of Toleration, being made 
 to take off the edge of the penal laws, does not extend to 
 the plantations." 
 
 To this Makemie answered : "I desire the law may be 
 produced; for I am morally persuaded that there is no 
 limitation or restriction in the law, to England, Wales 
 and Berwick on Tweed ; for it extends to sundry planta- 
 
20 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 tions of the queen's dominions, as Barbadoes, Virginia 
 and IMaryland, which is evident from certificates produced, 
 which we could not have obtained if the Act of Parhament 
 had not extended to the plantations. I presume New 
 York is a part of Her Majesty's dominions also; and 
 sundry ministers on the east end of Long Island have 
 complied with the law and qualified themselves at court 
 by complying with the directions of said law, and have no 
 license from your lordship." 
 
 Cornbury replied : "Yes, New York is of Her Ma- 
 jesty's dominions; but the Act of Toleration does not 
 extend to the plantations by its own intrinsic virtue, or any 
 intention of the legislators, but only by Her Majesty's 
 instructions signified unto vie, and that is from her pre- 
 rogative and clemency, and the courts which have qualified 
 these men are in error, and I will check them for it." 
 
 To this Makemie said : *Tf the law extends to the plan- 
 tations any manner of way, whether by the queen's pre- 
 rogative, clemency, or any other wise, our certificates were 
 demonstration that we had complied therewith." 
 
 But Cornbury asserted: "These certificates were only 
 for Virginia and Maryland; they did not extend to New 
 York." 
 
 Makemie responded : "We presume, my lord, our cer- 
 tificates do extend as far as the law extends ; for we are 
 directed by the Act of Parliament to qualify ourselves in 
 the places where we live, which we have done; and the 
 same law directs us to take certificates of our qualification, 
 which we have also done ; and these certificates are not to 
 certify to such as behold us taking our qualifications, being 
 performed in the face of the country at a public court; 
 but our certificates must be to satisfy others abroad in 
 the world, who saw it not, nor heard anything of, other- 
 wise it were needless. And that law which obliges us to 
 
And Religious Liberty. 21 
 
 take a certificate must allow said certificate to have a 
 credit and a reputation in Her Majesty's dominions; 
 otherwise it is to no purpose." 
 
 Cornbury here took refuge in a rude impeachment : 
 "That Act of Parliament was made against strolling 
 preachers^ and you are such and shall not preach in my 
 government." 
 
 The imperturbable Makemie answered : "There is not 
 one word, my lord, mentioned in any part of the law 
 against traveling or strolling preachers, as your Excel- 
 lency is pleased to call them; and we are to judge that to 
 be the true end of the law which is specified in the pre- 
 amble thereof, which is: 'For the satisfying scrupulous 
 consciences and uniting the subjects of England in interest 
 and affection.' And it is well-known to all, my lord, that 
 Quakers, who have liberty by this law, have few or no 
 fixed teachers, but are chiefly taught by such as travel, 
 and it is known to all, that such are sent forth by the 
 yearly meeting at London, and travel and teach over the 
 plantations, and are not molested." 
 
 To this Cornbury retorted : "I have troubled some of 
 them, and will trouble them more." 
 
 Makemie replied : "We hear, my lord, one of them was 
 prosecuted at Jamaica, but it was not for traveling and 
 teaching, but for particulars in teaching for which he 
 suffered." 
 
 Cornbury again retorted : "You shall not spread your 
 pernicious doctrines here." 
 
 The ready Makemie replied : "As to our doctrines, my 
 lord, we have our Confession of Faith, which is known 
 to the Christian world, and I challenge all the clergy of 
 New York to show us any false or pernicious doctrines 
 therein; yea, with these exceptions specified in the law, 
 we are able to make it appear that they are in all doctrinal 
 
22 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 articles of faith, agreeable to the established doctrines of 
 the Church of England." 
 
 Cornbiiry further objected: "There is one thing wanting 
 in your certificates, and that is the signing the Articles of 
 the Church of England." 
 
 Said Makemie: "That is the clerk's omission, my lord, 
 for which we are no way accountable . . . ; but if we had 
 not complied with the whole law, in all parts thereof, we 
 should not have had certificates pursuant to said Act of 
 Parliament. And your lordship may be assured that we 
 have done nothing in complying with said law but what 
 we are still ready to perform, if your lordship require it, 
 and that ten times over. And as to the articles of religion, 
 I have a copy in my pocket, and am ready at all times to 
 sign, with those exceptions specified by law." 
 
 Upon this Cornbury charged him with preaching in a 
 private house. Makemie replied that his lordship had nec- 
 essi.tated this course by shutting him out of the Dutch 
 Church; but that he had preached "in as public a manner 
 as possible, zvith open doors." 
 
 His lordship again fell back upon his instructions, de- 
 claring that no one should preach in his government with- 
 out his license. To this Makemie replied that he could be 
 guided only by what he had seen, declaring that, "Promul- 
 gation is the life of the law." The Governor demanded 
 that Makemie should give bond and security for good 
 behavior, and that he should not preach any more in his 
 government. The steadfast preacher replied, that though 
 he had "no way broke" his behavior, endeavoring always 
 to keep a "conscience void of ofifence toward God and 
 man," yet, his lordship requiring it, he would give security 
 for his good behavior, but that he "neither could nor 
 dared" give bond and security to preach no more in His 
 "Excellency's government." "Then," said Cornbury, 
 
And Religious Liberty. 23 
 
 "you must go to gaol." Makemie answered : "We are 
 neither ashamed nor afraid of what we have done. . . . 
 And it will be unaccountable in England, to hear . . . 
 that we, who have complied and are still ready to comply 
 with the Act of Toleration, and are nearest and likest to 
 the Church of England of any Dissenters, should be hin- 
 dered, and that only in the government of New York and 
 New Jersey. This will appear strange indeed." 
 
 After further dialogue, the Governor proceeded to write 
 out the necessary papers for Makemie's commitment in 
 New York. Makemie moved that the law be produced to 
 determine whether it were local and limited or not. He 
 offered to pay the attorney for a copy of that paragraph 
 which contained the limiting clause. 
 
 Cornbury contemptuously asked : "You, sir, know law ?" 
 Makemie replied with confidence: "I do not, my lord, 
 pretend to know law ; but I pretend to know this particular 
 law, having had sundry disputes thereon." 
 
 The copy of his commitment was written out. It was 
 illegal in several particulars — granted and signed by the 
 Governor, whose legal functions did not include such acts ; 
 without reference to the queen's authority ; without alleg- 
 ing any crime as the ground of commitment ; directing the 
 sheriff to hold him not "until he is delivered by due course 
 of law," but "until further- orders." Mr. Makemie was 
 kept in prison till March ist, notwithstanding petitioning 
 the Governor to know his crime ; pleading that he was a 
 stranger and on his way to New England, about four 
 hundred miles from his home ; and asking what he "con- 
 ceived to be the undoubted right and privilege of every 
 English subject," a "speedy trial." When at length 
 brought to trial before a grand jury, he was indicted for 
 "having preached to an assembly of more than five per- 
 sons without having obtained permission and without 
 
24 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 qualification, and also for having used other rites and 
 ceremonies than those used in the Book of Common 
 Prayer."* 
 
 The trial was postponed till the next term, in June. 
 As June approached, the resolute advocate of Dissenters' 
 rights, "with his man," returned from far Virginia, to 
 New York, in time to meet the court on the first day of its 
 sessions. In the conduct of his case, he had the aid of 
 three of the best lawyers in New York. The iniquity of 
 the prosecution was made plain. His lawyers having 
 concluded their arguments, Makemie spoke in his own de- 
 fence. He had been trained by many experiences in Vir- 
 ginia. He made the ablest speech, vindicating himself 
 from every charge, showing masterful familiarity with 
 the English laws bearing upon his case, and that he had 
 kept within his right in preaching in New York. He over- 
 matched the attorney as easily as he had Lord Cornbury. 
 The jury brought in a verdict of not guilty, and declared 
 that he had violated no law. The court, nevertheless, 
 made him pay all costs, including the fees of his prosecu- 
 tor, amounting in all to more than eighty-three pounds. 
 
 Immediately upon his liberation, he preached again in 
 the church allowed to the French. His sermon was 
 printed. Great excitement followed. Cornbury tried to 
 have him arrested again ; but he made his escape to New 
 England. Meanwhile, after getting out of confinement 
 
 *A Narrative of a New and Unusual American Imprisonment 
 of Two Presbyterian Ministers; And Prosecution of Mr. Francis 
 Makemie, One of Them, for Preaching One Sermon in the City 
 of New York. By a Learner of Law and Lover of Liberty; 17^7' 
 This edition was reprinted by Peter Force, Tracts, Washington, 
 1846. Vol. III. Another edition was printed, New York, 1755. 
 -These have reappeared in the writings of William Hill, William 
 H. Foote, and L. P. Bowen. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 25 
 
 in the previous March, he had "commenced a corres- 
 pondence with our Brethren of the Ministry at Boston," 
 had secured their "sympathizing concurrence." They had 
 written to London agents, April i, 1707: 
 
 " Except speedy relief be obtained, the issue will be not only a 
 vast oppression on a very worthy servant of God, but also a con- 
 fusion upon the whole body of Dissenters in these colonies, where 
 they are languishing under my Lord Cornbury's arbitrary and 
 unaccountable government. We do therefore earnestly solicit you, 
 that you humbly petition the Queen's Majesty on this occasion, 
 and represent the sufferings of the Dissenters in those parts of 
 America which are carried on in so direct violation of her 
 Majesty's commands, of the laws of the nation, and the common 
 rights of Englishmen." ° 
 
 After his trial in New York, and escape from Corn- 
 bury, Makemie travelled to Boston in person, where he 
 further aroused the indignation of Dissenters at such 
 oppression as he had been afflicted with ; and their opposi- 
 tion to its repetition in the colonies. Thence also he issued 
 a noble letter of remonstrance to Lord Cornbury aga'nst 
 the treatment to which he had been subjected. 
 
 Returning to Virginia, Makemie died in 1708. He had 
 fought the battle of his age for toleration in the colonies. 
 He had fathered Presbyterianism in this country. He 
 had impressed his own character upon it. He was to live 
 on in that body of Christian people of which it has been 
 well said: "No civil state, or religious denomination south 
 of the Hudson, or perhaps in the Union, has done more 
 for the advance of civil liberty, or freedom of conscience, 
 and the public welfare." 
 
 ** Hutchinson, History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 
 2d Edition, London, 1768, II., p. 125, quoted in C. A. Briggs, 
 American Presbyterianism, p. 154. 
 
2,6 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 For some years after the death of Makemie, Presbyter- 
 ianism waned in Virginia. The congregations to which 
 he had ministered in Accomac and on EHzabeth River 
 broke up. Though there were Scotch and Scotch-Irish 
 famihes scattered through the province, there was no 
 Presbyterian colony, or congregation in all the province 
 till that of Potomoke, about 1720, and no vigorous colony 
 till 1732, when Joist Hite came with sixteen families and 
 settled in the Great Vahey, a few miles south of the 
 present town of Winchester. From this time immigra- 
 tion into the Valley and into the region at the eastern 
 base of the Blue Ridge was rapid. The dominating body 
 of these immigrants was Scotch-Irish in blood, many of 
 them almost immediately from the North of Ireland. 
 They were of the same race with Makemie. They had 
 had inwrought into them by the siege of Derry and by 
 the treatment they had received at the hands of the Eng- 
 lish government since that memorable and heroic service, 
 an increase of their love for civil and religious liberty. 
 It has been said with truth that these Scotch-Irishmen 
 on the frontier, "thought freedom of choice in regard to 
 doctrines of belief, forms of worship, and ordinances of 
 religion, and the undisputed and undisturbed exercise of 
 this choice, confirmed to every member of society, and 
 defended by law, made religious liberty ;" and "thought 
 freedom of person, the right of possession of property in 
 fee simple, and an open road to civil honors, secured to the 
 poorest and feeblest member of society, constituted civil 
 liberty." Within a dozen years from the time of Joist 
 Kite's settling in Opeckon, there were "congregations" of 
 Presbyterians at points in Berkeley, Jefferson, Hardy, 
 Rockingham, Augusta, Rockbridge, Botetourt, Charlotte, 
 Prince Edward and Campbell. 
 
 These Presbyterians had shown a degree of caution 
 
And Religious Liberty. 27 
 
 when invading the valley and adjacent parts. John Cald- 
 well, who settled subsequently in Charlotte County, (and 
 who became grandfather of John C. Calhoun, the South 
 Carolina statesman), '^on behalf of himself and many 
 families" of the same persuasion, who were about to settle 
 in the back parts of Virginia," waited on the Synod of 
 Philadelphia of 1738, and desired that some members of 
 the Synod should be "appointed to solicit their favor in 
 behalf of our interest in that place." The Synod of Phila- 
 delphia, in 1729, in the acts by which it had adopted the 
 Westminster Standards its own, had denied to the State 
 all right of control over religion. The Synod complied 
 with Mr. Caldwell's request, appointing certain of its 
 members to wait on the Governor and Council of Virginia 
 with a view of procuring "the favor and countenance of 
 the government of that province to the laying a foundation 
 of our interest in the back parts thereof. The Synod also 
 addressed the following letter to Governor Gooch : 
 
 '' To the Honorable William Gooch, Esquire, Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor of the Pj-ovince of Virginia, the humble address of the 
 Presbyterian ministers convened in Synod, May 28th, 1738, etc. : 
 May it please your Honor, we take leave to address you in behalf 
 of a considerable number of our brethren who are meditating a 
 settlement in the remote parts of your government, and are of 
 the same persuasion with the Church of Scotland. We thought it 
 our duty to acquaint your Honour with their design, and to ask 
 your favor in allowing them the liberty of their consciences, and 
 of worshipping God in a way agreeable to the principles of their 
 education. Your Honour is sensible that those of our profession 
 in Europe have been remarkable for their inviolable attachment to 
 the Protestant succession, in the illustrious house of Hanover, 
 and have upon all occasions manifested an unspotted fidelity to 
 our gracious sovereign, King George, and we doubt not but these 
 our brethren will carry the same loyal principles to the most dis- 
 tant settlements where their lot may be cast, which will ever in- 
 fluence them to the most dutiful submission to the government 
 
28 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 which is placed over them. This we trust will recommend them 
 to your Honour's countenance and protection, and merit the free 
 enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties. We pray for the 
 Divine blessing upon your person and government, and beg leave 
 to subscribe ourselves your Honour's most humble and obedient 
 servants." ' 
 
 The Governor of Virginia was pleased to give a "favor- 
 able reply" to the Synod's representations, the substance of 
 which is in the following letter to the Moderator of the 
 Synod : 
 
 " Sir, — By the hands of Mr. Anderson I received an address 
 signed by you, in the name of your brethren of the Synod of 
 Philadelphia. And as I have been always inclined to favor the 
 people who have lately removed from other provinces, to settle 
 on the western side of our great mountains; so you may be as- 
 sured that no interruption shall be given to arty minister of your 
 profession who shall come among them, so as they conform them- 
 selves to the rules prescribed by the act of toleration in England, 
 by taking the oaths enjoined thereby, and registering the places 
 of their meeting. And behave themselves peaceably toward the^ 
 government. This you may please to communicate to the Synod 
 as an answer of theirs. Your most humble servant, 
 
 " William Gooch. 
 
 " Williamsburg^ Va., November 4th, 1738." ' 
 
 This letter promises in terms nothing more than what 
 Makemie had wrested from the Virginia authorities in his 
 day. But the promise was of great value to the Presby- 
 terians. It pledged the local government to place no bar- 
 riers between them and the enjoyment of the English Tol- 
 eration Act of 1689. It was something additional to the 
 Toleration Act , to which appeal could be made in the day 
 of stress. Moreover, provided they could achieve a larger 
 liberty by measures consistent with a "peaceable attitude 
 
 " Records of the Presbyterian Church, p. 140. 
 ^Records of the Presbyterian Church, p. 145. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 29 
 
 toward the government," they were in no way hindered, 
 in proceeding on this promise, from attempting to achieve 
 this larger liberty. 
 
 Governor Gooch had been ready "to promise protection 
 in the exercise of their religious forms," although in a 
 colony "whose laws of uniformity were precise and en- 
 forced with rigor ;" because : First, He wished them to 
 form a frontier wall in the valley, for the Virginia east- 
 ward, against the savages. Second, Because he knew the 
 quality of these men ; and knew that they would make 
 good citizens and soldiers. They seemed so far away, too, 
 from the older parts of Virginia, that he had little fear 
 of the two sections colliding on the question of religion. 
 
 With this vantage, we shall see these Scotch-Irish Pres- 
 byterians, possessed of the characteristics which had 
 distinguished them in the old world, and in union with 
 sympathizers east of the Blue Ridge, largely controlling 
 the history of Virginia ; "upon all questions involving the 
 exercise of arbitrary powers" forming "a united band, 
 withstanding the tendency of the cavaliers to bow to royal 
 authority, and maintaining their rights with the spirit of 
 John Knox.^ We shall see them quietly putting the gov- 
 ernment into their debt by their military services, and 
 quietly taking to themselves a larger liberty; w^e shall see 
 them giving essential aid to the legal and constitutional 
 recognition of this larger libertty. 
 
 About the time that Presbyterians had begun to pour 
 in large numbers, into the Valley of Virginia, certain com- 
 munities east of the Blue Ridge began to develop Presby- 
 terian principles. Dissatisfied with the character of the 
 preaching in their parish churches and profoundly stirred 
 
 * William Wirt Henry, Patrick Henry, Life and Correspondence, 
 Vol. I., p. 75. 
 
30 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 by the teaching of a few evangelical volumes with which 
 they became acquainted, such as Lulther's "Commentary 
 on the Galatians," Boston's "Fourfold State," and a 
 volume of "Whitefield's Sermons," they met together to 
 hear these books read. They met at first in private houses ; 
 but as their numbers grew, they determined to build 
 meeting-houses in which they might gather for the 
 reading. 
 
 Absenting themselves from church, they were soon 
 called upon by the court to assign reasons for their ab- 
 sence; they were subjected to fines. Asked to declare the 
 name of the sect to which they belonged, they did not 
 know by whait name to call themselves. Recollecting that 
 Luther was a great reformer, and that his book on the 
 Galatians had been of special service to them, they deter- 
 mined to call themselves Lutherans. But amongst the 
 gentlemen who travelled to Williamsburg, to interview the 
 Governor and Council about the matter, was one who, 
 traveling alone, was overtaken and detained by a violent 
 storm, at the house of a poor man on the road. Interest- 
 ing himself in an old volume which he found lying dust- 
 covered on a shelf, he found his own sentiments on re- 
 ligious subjects set forth in appropriate language. 
 Offering to purchase the book, the owner gave it to him. 
 In Williamsburg he and his friends examined the book, 
 and found that it expressed their views on religious sub- 
 jects. When they appeared before the Governor, they 
 presented this volume as containing their creed. The 
 book was a copy of the Confession of Faith of the Pres- 
 byterian Church of Scotland. Governor Gooch, of Scotch 
 origin and education, pronounced them Presbyterians. 
 Beginning thus, without the agency of a minister, they 
 were stimulated and strengthened by four days of preach- 
 ing in July, 1743, by Rev. William Robinson, evangelist 
 
And Religious Liberty. 31 
 
 of the Presbytery of New Castle. During the winter of 
 1744 and 1745, the Rev. John Roan was, by appointment 
 of the Presbytery of New Castle, in Virginia, visiting the 
 churches. He preached much in Hanover and neighbor- 
 ing counties, and with great efifect. He gathered con- 
 verts at several new centres, and freely criticised the de- 
 generacy of the clergy in the colony of Virginia. He 
 thus became an occasion of the increase of persecutions 
 against the Hanover Presbyterians. Governor Gooch 
 himself was aroused. He had promised to the Presby- 
 terian colonists in the valley and on the southwestern 
 frontier, protection. He was not unmindful of this ; but 
 he had made no promises to such as were leaving the Es- 
 tablished Church in Hanover and becoming Presbyterians. 
 Nor did he relish the free criticisms of the clergy by this 
 Presbyterian preacher. The trials, fines, and other pun- 
 ishments for non-attendance on church and for holding 
 their meetings, were made much more burdensome and 
 severe. Enduring these persecutions, they were cheered 
 by transient visits from Revs. William Tennant, Jr., and 
 Samuel Blair, and by a visit of four or five days from Mr. 
 Whitefield, which resulted in additions to their members. 
 After Mr. Whitefield's departure these Presbyterians were 
 not only without a minister, but sorely harassed by the 
 pains and penalties of the law. A proclamation was set 
 up, on a Sabbath day, at their meeting-house, "strictly re- 
 quiring all magistrates to suppress and prohibit, as far as 
 they lawfully could, all itinerant preachers ;" the people 
 forebore the reading that day "and consulted what was 
 expedient to do." They were filled with joy the week en- 
 suing, however, to learn that Samuel Davies was coming 
 to preach amongst them, and that he had qualified himself 
 according to law and obtained the licensing of four meet- 
 ing-houses amongst them. 
 
Rev. Samuel Davies 
 
And Religious Liberty. 33 
 
 This man, born November 3, 1723, in New Castle 
 County, Delaware, was highly endowed with capacities 
 for leadership. "In person he was tall, well proportioned, 
 erect and comely; his carriage easy, graceful and digni- 
 fied ; his dress neat and tasteful, and his manners polished. 
 A distinguished Virginian well expressed the impression 
 his appearance made, who, seeing him walk through a 
 court yard, remarked that he looked like the ambassador 
 of some great king.^ He was a most persuasive orator, 
 having all 'the needed physical, mental and emotional 
 qualities and powers. He was tactful, resourceful, strate- 
 gic in planning. He is one of the great men in the history 
 of American Presbyterianism. 
 
 His approach to Hanover, by way of Williamsburg, and 
 armed with legal permits, shows the strategy of the man. 
 As far as the law recognized his right, he would avail 
 himself of its bulwarks. His first sojourn in Virginia, in 
 1747, was brief; but he came back in 1748 and served as 
 pastor about eleven years. When he returned to Virginia 
 in 1748, he brought with him his friend, John Rodgers. 
 They went to Williamsburg with the view of obtaining a 
 license for Mr. Rodgers. Notwithstanding the willing- 
 ness of the Governor and a minority of the Council, the 
 majority of the Council would not grant a license; were 
 even disposed to withdraw Davies's license. In their con- 
 tention the young men insisted that they "asked only for 
 a right, and not a privilege — that the Act of Toleration 
 was explicit in making it a right to ask, and a duty to 
 grant, license in such cases." The narrow policy of the 
 Council was a reflection of the spirit of the age. "Almost 
 all the intelligent men of the colony, and among the rest 
 
 • William Wirt Henry, Life. Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol I., p. 13. 
 
34 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 some who afterwards became distinguished as the cham- 
 pions of an unqualified freedom in every thing relating to 
 the human mind — and even the venerable name of Pendle- 
 ton, appear in the class of persecutors, a proof that liber- 
 ality and toleration are not instinctive qualities, the 
 growth of an hour ; but the result of wisdom and experi- 
 ence."i« 
 
 Mr. Rodgers was forced to return to the Northern colo- 
 nies, where he was to run a distinguished career; and Mr. 
 Davies to go on to Hanover alone, where his eloquence 
 and his advocacy of the rights of Dissenters was to sound 
 out through all the colonies and into the moither country. 
 
 The desire to hear this young Dissenter, whom the ma- 
 jority of the Council would have silenced, preach the 
 Gospel, could not be confined to the four localities within 
 which Davies had preaching places. People came scores 
 of miles to hear him, and soon expressed the desire to 
 obtain a portion of his services for their neighborhoods 
 for the sake of their families and neighbors. ' In Novem- 
 ber, 1748, on petition from the several neighborhoods, 
 three additional places were authorized as places of wor- 
 ship. Of the seven authorized places for preaching, at 
 that date, three were in Hanover, one in Henrico, one in 
 Goochland, one in Louisa, and one in Caroline. Of these 
 no two seem to have been closer together than twelve or 
 fifteen miles ; and some of his parishioners had to travel 
 thirty or forty miles to reach the nearest meeting-house. 
 
 April 12, 1750, the court of New Kent County, on 
 petition from a body of its Dissenting citizens, licensed a 
 preaching place within its limits. This license, however, 
 the General Court revoked. A question debated at this 
 time between Mr. Davies and the General Court was as 
 
 ^° Burke, History of Virginia, Vol. III., pp. 121, 122. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 35 
 
 to how many places of preaching a Dissenting minister 
 should have. The Attorney-General, Peyton Randolph, 
 and certain members of the court, contended that the 
 number should be smaller than Davies already had, rather 
 than larger. Mr. Davies held that licensure of places and 
 ministers, was a right to be acknowledged by the govern- 
 ment on demand by the Dissenters themselves. He pled, 
 too, contrary to charges made, that he was not guilty of 
 originating dissent in Hanover, that it had sprung up 
 without a preacher ; that the desire of the people to attend 
 his preaching should not be imputed to him as a crime, 
 that some ministers of the Established Church, in Han- 
 over, had two or more preaching places, owing to the ex- 
 tent of their parishes. That those connected with his 
 own church were sufficiently numerous to constitute two 
 respectable congregations, were they located in the vicini- 
 ty of each other and of the places of worship ; but that 
 they were greatly scattered, the mass being in Hanover, 
 "the others in Henrico, Goochland, Louisa, Carolina and 
 New Kent," gnd at distances too great to attend at two 
 places, except by riding thirty or forty miles ;" that the 
 intention of the Toleration Act was to give the Dissenters 
 the privilege of worship in their own preferred way under 
 cover of law ; that unless houses were licensed in sufficient 
 numbers to accommodate them, the intention of the Act of 
 Toleration would be thwarted ; that the Dissenters would 
 be compelled by the court to break the laws of the pro- 
 vince which obligate the citizen to the habit of attending 
 the parish church ; and that court could not design, by 
 withholding license, "to compel the peaceable citizens to 
 subject themselves to expensive and vexatious suits at 
 law, or grieve their consciences." 
 
 The lawyers in attendance complimented Mr. Davies ; 
 the Governor and majority of the Council sustained him. 
 
36 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 THe young Dissenter gained laurels; and he rejoiced be- 
 cause it gave him opportunity to preach the Gospel to his 
 fellowmen. The attorney-general, Peyton Randolph, 
 could not be prevailed upon to put a favorable construc- 
 tion upon the law, and continued for years to throw 
 obstacles in the way of the Presbyterians obtaining license 
 for meeting-houses, especially when the petition came 
 from neighborhoods originally settled by others than Pres- 
 byterians. A great part of Mr. Davies' labor wa;s in 
 counties not originally Presbyterian ; and his success was 
 reckoned by the attorney and others as the progress of 
 dissent to the detriment of the Established Church."" 
 
 The Established clergy had become greatly excited by 
 the degree of favor shown to the Dissenters by the Gen- 
 eral Court, small as their favor had been. They accord- 
 ingly appealed to their diocesan, the Bishop of London. 
 Mr. Davies took measures to inform dissenting ministers 
 in England, and, through them, the Bishop of London, of 
 the real conditions and history of the Virginia Dissenters ; 
 took measures to learn the nature of the representations 
 made by members of the Establishment, and to see that 
 they were rectified when appearing to him unjust. His 
 spirit, in all this long struggle, appears in this quotation 
 from his letter to Dr. Benjamin Avery, bearing date of 
 May 2, 1752: 
 
 " But this, Sir, I would inform you of, that we are not asking a 
 favor of the government, but entering a legal claim. If it be 
 determined by competent authority, that the Act of Toleration 
 does not allow the Dissenters to have meeting houses licensed, 
 where they may occasionally meet for public worship, we shall 
 quietly resign our claim, till some favorable juncture happens 
 when we may petition for our liberties. But if we may legally 
 make this claim; if Dissenters enjoy this privilege in England; 
 and if the rulers there judge that the Act of Toleration entitles 
 
 " William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, p. 171. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 37 
 
 them to it, then we humbly conceive that the pushing the matter 
 to a determination could be attended with no ill consequences; 
 as we only pressed for an explication of the Act of Toleration, 
 with reference to Virginia, according to its true intent and mean- 
 ing in England. Whether the determination of such a point be- 
 longs to the lawyers, to judges, or to his Majesty and Council, 
 you, sir, can determine ; though an authoritative order from the 
 latter would be most regarded by our rulers ; and all the order 
 we desire is this, that wherever ten or fifteen families of Protes- 
 tant Dissenters, who cannot attend at the meeting-house already 
 licensed, apply for licenses at the ^General Court, they shall be 
 granted them. It has been confidently affirmed to me by some of 
 the Council that the Dissenters in England have no such privilege. 
 In this, sir, I request your information ; for if this be the case 
 we must resign our claims." '" 
 
 From Dr. Avery he learns that by the Enghsh inter- 
 pretation of the Act of Toleration, the Dissenters might 
 "ask for the licensure of as many meeting-houses as they 
 thought necessary without fear of refusal — and that this 
 interpretation properly extended to Virginia" — an inter- 
 pretation, however, to which the Governor and Council 
 of Virginia were not to yield until the Dissenters had 
 placed the colony deeply in debt for political services. 
 
 Mr. Davies meant to secure to Dissenters, as far as pos- 
 sible, their legal rights to the full. He expected, on a 
 "favorable jwicture," to move for an enlargement of their 
 legal rights. He fully believed that the amount of tolera- 
 tion legally accorded dissent was far short of what was 
 their right. Nor did he hesitate to minister to Dissenters 
 far beyond the bounds of his legally recognized field. He 
 made frequent missionary excursions into the territories 
 "now included in the counties of Cumberland, Powhatan, 
 Prince Edward, Charlotte, Campbell, Nottoway and 
 Amelia." 'Tn these circuits, ... it was the habit of 
 
 '" William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, pp. 210, 211. 
 
38 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Mr. Davies either to preach at the places where he lodged, 
 or to give a lecture to the family and servants, at evening 
 worship. These services were pre-eminently blessed ; 
 many neighborhoods have traditions of their usefulness. 
 Every visit enlarged his circuit and increased the number 
 of places that asked for Presbyterian preaching."^^ 
 
 As opportunity offered, he brought in other ministers. 
 
 The fact that the peoples in whose houses he stopped on 
 these excursions were generally Scotch-Irish, and of the 
 Presbyterian faith by inheritance, made this more toler- 
 able to representatives of the establishment, than if the 
 objects of his evangelizing efforts had by inheritance be- 
 longed to the Established Church. 
 
 The circumstances of Presbyterianism farther North 
 gave to Mr. Davies an opportunity to carry the fight in 
 behalf of Virginia to England itself. The Rev. Gilbert 
 Tennent and he were chosen by the trustees of the 
 College of New Jersey to go on a mission to the British 
 Isles, with a view to securing funds with which to set the 
 institution on its feet. On this mission Mr, Davies spent 
 the latter part of the year 1753, and the whole of the 
 year 1754. Their mission in behalf of the college was 
 successful beyond their largest expectations. They be- 
 came widely and favorably known throughout England 
 and Scotland. One of Mr. Davies' motives in accepting 
 this distinguished mission, is revealed in these words from 
 his journal: 
 
 " To these I may add, what has most weight with me, that the 
 Dissenters in Virginia lie under such intolerable restraints, that 
 it is necessary to seek a redress ; that now is the only proper 
 season for it, and that none can manage this affair as well as 
 myself, who am concerned in it, and so well acquainted with it," 
 
 "William H Foote, Sketches of Virginia, pp. 214, 215. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 39 
 
 Again, after balancing considerations pro and con, he 
 says: 
 
 "Then, I consider that there is so much need to make some 
 attempt for the security and enlargement of the privileges of Dis- 
 senters in Virginia, and that if I were obliged to undertake a 
 voyage for that end alone, at the expense of the congregation, it 
 would be very burdensome to them and me. I cannot but con- 
 clude that it is with a view to this that Providence has directed 
 the trustees to make application to me." " 
 
 Mr. Davies' journal shows that the cause of the Vir- 
 ginia Dissenters was never absent from his mind while 
 in the mother country, and that he used every endeavor 
 which promised any relief. Toward the end of his visit 
 he notes in a tone of congratulation : 
 
 " I find by conversation with Dr. Stennet, there is a prospect 
 of obtaining licenses in the Bishop of London's court for meeting 
 houses in Virginia." 
 
 Mr. Davies' labors in behalf of larger liberties for his 
 fellow dissenters could not be fruitless. His fame as a 
 preacher had filled London and all England and Scotland. 
 Pulpits were open to him everywhere. Immense audi- 
 ences hung upon his word. It is said that King George IL, 
 when once in his audience, was so enraptured with his 
 eloquence and his solemn and impressive manner that he 
 repeatedly gave vent in speech, to those about him, of his 
 feelings, that Mr. Davies was shocked at what he mis- 
 took for the king's irreverence; and that, after pausing 
 and looking sternly in royalty's direction several times, 
 he exclaimed : "When the lion roars, the beasts of the 
 forest all tremble ; and when King Jesus speaks, the 
 princes of the earth should keep silence," and that thus he 
 increased the king's admiration for himself. Certainly he 
 
 " See entry in Journal under date of July 2, 1753. 
 
40 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 was too impressive a character for his apologies for Vir- 
 ginia Dissenters to fall unheeded. 
 
 Davies came back from England confirmed in the view 
 that the General Court in Virginia had no right to limit 
 the number of houses for public worship to be allowed 
 Dissenters under the English Toleration Act ; no right to 
 specify the persons to speak in particular meeting-houses. 
 He held that, as far as the law is concerned, any licensed 
 preacher can speak in any licensed house, and that who- 
 ever pleases to do so, can demand the registering of their 
 house as a place of meeting. As the General Court per- 
 sisted in its opposition, the Committee of the Deputation 
 of Protestant Dissenters resolved in February, 1755, to 
 bring the subject before the king in council by appeal 
 from the prosecution of the authorities in Virginia. They 
 fixed on the following plan : The Virginia Dissenters, when 
 they desired a new place of worship, were to apply first 
 to the County Court for license thereof ; if refused there, 
 then to apply to the Governor and Council; if refused 
 there, then to apply to the Governor alone for a license. 
 In case of his refusal, they were to use such house or 
 place of worship, as if it had been licensed ; and, if prose- 
 cuted for doing so, were to acquaint the Committee there- 
 with, who would then send further directions how to act. 
 Mr. Davies received a secret instruction, also, that if any 
 persons should be prosecuted for using such unlicensed' 
 houses, after such applications as directed had been made, 
 that then such persons should appeal to the king in Coun- 
 cil, whereupon the Committee would prosecute the appeal. 
 
 No appeal ever went to England. Religious prejudices 
 of long standing are hard to move ; and the incrustations 
 which Mr. Davies hoped to break up by English govern- 
 mental levers, were to be blown to pieces by volcanic out- 
 bursts during great providential upheavals; on occasion 
 
And Religious Liberty. 41 
 
 of which Dissenters would struggle into their rights. The 
 opposition to Presbyterian Dissenters was greatly lessened 
 during the French-Indian War. 
 
 Mr. Davies had no sooner landed in Virginia again, 
 than he found himself in a country in which he could open 
 his mouth wherever he listed. 
 
 England and France had entered upon the contest which 
 was to decide the fate of this country. France had been 
 successful in securing as allies a great number of the 
 Indian tribes. The Indians had begun to fall upon the 
 settlers all along the Virginia frontier. Consternation 
 had seized upon the colonists west of the Blue Ridge, and 
 in a less degree upon those east of that great divide. The 
 Provincial Legislature appointed the 5th of March, 1755, 
 as a day for fasting and prayer to Almighty God. Mr. 
 Davies preached on that day, from Daniel iv. 25 : "The 
 Most High ruleth the kingdom of men, and giveth it to 
 whomsoever he will" — a Christian and patriotic address. 
 July 20th, 1755, after Braddock's defeat and the conse- 
 quent Indian activities, Mr. Davies preached in Hanover 
 on Isaiah xxii. 12-14: "And in that day did the Lord of 
 hosts call to weeping and mourning and to boldness, and 
 to girding with sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness, 
 slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking 
 wine ; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." On 
 the first news of the defeat and the approach of the enemy, 
 the most exposed families had forsaken their dwellings, 
 and many had proposed to abandon all the frontiers and 
 to return to the more populous centres of the province. 
 After lamenting the sins that had occasioned these suf- 
 ferings, Mr. Davies proceeds : 
 
 " Let me earnestly recommend it to you to furnish yourselves 
 
 with arms and put yourselves in a posture of defence 
 
 What is that religion good for that leaves men cowards on the 
 
42 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 appearance of danger. And, permit me to say that I am particu- 
 larly solicitious that you, my brethren of the Dissenters, should 
 act with honor and spirit at this juncture, as it becomes loyal 
 subjects, lovers of your country and courageous Christians. That 
 is a mean, sordid, cowardly soul, that would abandon his coun- 
 try, and shift for his own little self, when there is any probability 
 of defending it. To give the greater weight to what I say, I 
 may take the liberty to tell you, I have as little personal interest, 
 as little to lose in this colony as most of you. If I consulted 
 either my safety or my temporal interest, I should soon remove 
 my family to Great Britain, or the Northern Colonies, where I 
 have received very inviting offers. Nature has not formed me for 
 a military life, nor furnished me with any degree of fortitude and 
 courage; and yet I must declare, that, after the most calm and 
 impartial deliberation, I am determined not to leave my country 
 while there is any prospect of defending it. Certainly he does 
 not deserve a place in any country who is ready to run from it 
 on every appearance of danger. . . . The event of the war is yet 
 uncertain; but let us determine that if the cause should require it, 
 we will courageously leave house and home and take the field.'"° 
 
 In connection with a sermon preached, August 17, 1755, 
 to the first independent volunteer company raised in Vir- 
 ginia after Braddock's defeat, Mr. Davies pronounced 
 these remarkable words : "I may point out to the public 
 that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot 
 but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a 
 manner for some important service."^^ His text for this 
 sermon was 2 Samuel x. 12 : "Be of good courage, and 
 let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our 
 God; and the Lord do that which seemeth him good." 
 
 Meanwhile the religious activities of Mr. Davies never 
 ceased. He was also introducing other workers. In the 
 course of this summer of 1755, Mr. Robert Henry was 
 installed pastor of Cub Creek in Charlotte County, and 
 
 ^^ Davies' Sermons, Vol. III., pp. 236-238. 
 ^'Davies' Sermons, Vol. III., pp. 41, ff. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 43 
 
 Briery in Prince Edward County; and Mr. John Wright 
 was installed pastor of the church in Cumberland county. 
 In December, 1755, Hanover Presbytery was organized. 
 It consisted of six ministers. Of these Messrs. Todd, 
 Henry and Wright had been brought into their pastorates 
 through the influence of Mr. Davies, and now occupied 
 portions of the territory over which he had repeatedly 
 toured. This increase of ministers took away a pretext 
 for not licensing more meeting-houses. Nevertheless, the 
 Council, under the lead of Attorney-General Peyton Ran- 
 dolph, continued its opposition to the licensing of new 
 places. 
 
 Providence, as has appeared, was on the side of the 
 Dissenters, however ; and in process of forcing upon the 
 unwilling Council a sense of the necessity of letting Pres- 
 byterian Dissenters alone. The French and Indian War 
 was wasting the spirit and resources of the colony. In 
 the spring of 1758 Mr. Davies was once more called upon 
 to stir the citizens of Hanover to "becoming action." His 
 war sermons seem to have been irresistible. Into the dis- 
 heartened and terrorized he infused courage and martial 
 fire. The following passage from the sermon at the gen- 
 eral muster in Hanover County, May 8, 1758, is credited 
 with having made more volunteers in a few minutes than 
 the ranking officer was authorized to command. 
 
 " May I not reasonably insist upon it that the company be made 
 up this very day before we leave this place. Methinks your King, 
 your country, nay ! your own interest command me and therefore 
 I insist upon it. Oh ! for the all-pervading force of Demosthenes' 
 oratory — ^but I recall my wish that I may correct it — Oh ! for the 
 influence of the Lord of Armies, the God of battles, the Author 
 of true courage, and every heroic virtue, to fire you into patriots 
 and true soldiers at this moment ! Ye young and hardy men, 
 whose very faces seem to speak that God and Nature formed you 
 for soldiers, who are free from the encumbrance of families de- 
 
44 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 pendent on j-ou for subsistence, and who are, perhaps, of but 
 little service to society while at home, may I not speak for you 
 and declare at your mouth. Here we are all ready to abandon 
 our ease and rush into the glorious dangers of the fields, in de- 
 fence of our countrj'? Ye that love your country, enlist: for 
 honor will follow you in life or death in such a cause. You 
 that love your religion, enlist ; for your religion is in danger. Can 
 Protestant Christianitj- expect quarter from heathen savages and 
 French Papists? Surely in such an alliance the powers of hell 
 make a third party. Ye that love j-our friends and relations, enlist, 
 lest }'e see them enslaved and butchered before your eyes." " 
 
 Under such circumstances Mr. Davies found it prac- 
 ticable for him to perform his ministerial services "where- 
 ever duty and convenience invited him. The attorney- 
 general could scarcely venture to throw impediments in 
 the path of the best recruiting officer in the province.^^ 
 
 Other Presbyterian ministers and communities, depre- 
 cating the expense and labor of a long journey to 
 Williamsburg, to obtain a license for a new place of wor- 
 ship, went to using the desired places without licenses ; 
 and were unmolested. This was true of Mr. Wright, of 
 Cumberland, and of Valley Presbyterians. 
 
 In the summer of 1758 Mr. Davies was elected presi- 
 dent of the college in New Jersey. After submitting the 
 matter to his Presbytery and to the Synod of New York 
 and Philadelphia, he entered upon the office of president 
 at Princeton in September, 1759. 
 
 " To no one man, in a religious point of view, does the 
 State owe as much ; no one can claim a more affectionate 
 remembrance by Christian people. His residence in the 
 State is an era in its history. To Virginia we look for the 
 record and fruits of his labors. The Virginia Synod claims 
 
 " Davies' Sermons, Vol. III., p. 91. 
 
 '^ William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, p. 296. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 45 
 
 him as her spiritual father; and the Virginia creed in 
 politics acknowledges his principles of religious freedom 
 and civil liberty. His influence on politics was indirect, 
 but not the less sure. The sole supremacy of Christ in the 
 church — the authority of the Word of God — the equality 
 of the ministers of religion — and individual rights of con- 
 science — principles for which he pleaded before the Gen- 
 eral Court, and in the defence of which he encountered 
 such men as Pendleton, Wythe, Randolph, and the whole 
 host of the aristocracy, are now part and parcel of the 
 religious and political creed of an overwhelming majority 
 of the citizens of the 'Ancient Dominion/ He demon- 
 strated the capability of the Church of Christ to sustain 
 itself, not only without the fostering aid of the State, but 
 imder its oppressive law^s. He showed the patriotism of 
 true religion; and in defending the principles of Presby- 
 tery, he maintained what Virginia now believes to be the 
 inalienable rights of man. 
 
 The time of Mr. Davies' labors in Virginia embraced 
 that interesting part of Patrick Henry's life, from his 
 eleventh to his twenty-second year." ^^ 
 
 "It was under the influence of such a man that Patrick 
 Henry came at the impressionable age of twelve. One 
 of the places at which Mr. Davies preached was known 
 as 'The Fork Church,' and here Mrs. John Henry, who 
 became a member of his church, attended regularly. She 
 was in the habit of riding in a double gig, taking with 
 her young Patrick, who, from the first, showed a high 
 appreciation of the preacher. Returning from church 
 she would make him give the text and a recapitulation of 
 the discourse. She could have done her son no greater 
 service. His sympathetic genius was not only aroused by 
 
 "William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, pp. 304 to 305. 
 
46 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 the eloquence of the preacher, who, he" ever declared, was 
 'the gfreatest orator he ever heard,' but he learned from 
 him that robust system of theology which is known as 
 Calvinism, and which has furnished to the world so many 
 of her greatest characters — a system of which Froude 
 writes : 'It has been able to inspire and sustain the bravest 
 efforts ever made by man to break the yoke of unjust 
 authority, . . . has borne ever an inflexible front to 
 illusion and mendacity, and has preferred rather to be 
 ground to powder, like flint, than to bend before violence, 
 or melt under enervating temptations.' 
 
 "Although Mr. Whitefield visited Hanover during one 
 of his American tours, it is probable that Patrick Henry 
 was too young to have appreciated him, and he had 
 reached manhood before James Waddell, the eloquent 
 blind preacher, entered the ministry. His early example of 
 eloquence, therefore, was Mr. Davies, and the effect of 
 his teaching upon his after life may be plainly traced. Al- 
 though he never withdrew from fne Episcopal Church, in 
 which he was baptized, he became a persistent advocate 
 of religious liberty. Colonel Meredith says of him : "He 
 was, through life, a warm friend of the Christian religion. 
 He was an Episcopalian, but very friendly to all sects, 
 particularly to Presbyterians. His father was an Episco- 
 palian ; his mother a Presbyterian.' "^^ 
 
 Providence often works slowly toward great ends. 
 Through Francis MaRemie in Virginia, Maryland and 
 New York, somewhat in the direction of religious liberty 
 had been achieved. Through the efforts of Mr. Davies 
 and his co-laborers, who repeatedly pleaded before the 
 
 *" William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. I., pp. 15-16. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 47 
 
 Governor and Council, somewhat further was gained to- 
 ward freedom of conscience. Still, meeting-houses could 
 not be occupied without permission ; and this was re- 
 luctantly and very slowly granted, generally one at a time 
 only. The opinion of tlje attorney-general of England, 
 favoring the Virginia Dissenters, though without prac- 
 tical effect, at the time, upon the General Court, wrought 
 in the same direction. The sympathies of English Dis- 
 senters, excited by Mr. Davies on his visit, sent him back 
 equipped with the best devices at their command. All 
 these efforts were worth while, since the end to be accom- 
 plished was so worthy. 
 
 If Providence works slowly. He works surely ; He uses 
 more than one kind of instrumentality. He makes things 
 work together for the accomplishment of His pleasure. 
 It has been seen that when Mr. Davies returned from 
 England, he found the whole frontier of Virginia in dis- 
 tress ; and the whole colony alarmed" lest there should be a 
 French and Indian invasion from the Ohio eastward. It 
 has been seen that, during this French-Indian War, when 
 the Dissenters beyond the Blue Ridge (chiefly Presby- 
 terian) were at once bearing the brunt of Indian atrocities 
 and standing as a wall between such atrocities and the 
 older portions of the colony, they chose houses for wor- 
 ship and occupied them without license or molestation — 
 "preached anywhere, being so distant from the metropolis 
 and the time being so dangerous and shocking. Thus, 
 fire and sword, tomahawk and scalping knife, aided the 
 cause of liberty and conscience." 
 
 Providence used at this time for the furtherance of re- 
 ligious liberty, negative causes as well as positive. 
 Amongst these, one of the chiefest was the character of 
 the Established clergy and the course these gentlemen 
 pursued with reference to their salaries. The character 
 
48 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 of the clergy of the EstabHshment in Virginia was not 
 such as begat a love for the Established Church. Dr. 
 Hawks, quoting from Bland's letter, teaches: "That the 
 salary appointed by law for the clergy is so scanty that it 
 is with difficulty they support themselves and families, 
 and can by no means make any provision for their widows 
 and children, who are generally left to the charity of their 
 friends, that the small encouragement given the clergy- 
 men is a reason why so few come into this colony from 
 the two universities ; and that so many, who are a dis- 
 grace to the ministry, find opportunity to fill the par- 
 ishes. "^^ He says again : "While among the clergy were 
 some who were above just suspicion of reproach, it must 
 be owned that, as a body, they were anything but in- 
 vulnerable." 
 
 In 1696, the colonial legislature enacted that each parish 
 minister should "have and receive for his maintenance, 
 the sum of sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, besides 
 his lawful pre-requisites, and that it" should and might 
 "be lawful for the vestry, etc., to levy the same in their 
 respective parishes." The legislature of 1749 made it 
 a law that the glebe lands should contain about two hun- 
 dred acres of "a good and convenient tract of land," with 
 "proper dwelling and out-houses; that the salary should 
 be sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco," with an allow- 
 ance of "four per cent, for shrinkage." It provided also 
 that "every minister received into any parish as afore- 
 said," should "be entitled to all the spiritual and temporal 
 benefits of his parish," and "might maintain an action of 
 trespass against any person whatsoever who should dis- 
 turb him in the possession and enjoyment thereof." In 
 
 " F. L. Hawkes, Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of 
 the United States of America — Virginia, Vol. I., p. 117. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 49 
 
 1755 the clergy of the Estabhshment petitioned for an 
 increase of salary. The time was not favorable to the 
 increase. The French-Indian War was beginning. The 
 summer of 1755 was one of severe drought. In October. 
 1755, the House of Burgesses, seeing that it would be 
 impossible for the planters to discharge their tobacco 
 debts in kind, passed an act, to continue in force for ten 
 months, making it lawful for debtors to pay their tobacco 
 dues and taxes in money, at the rate of sixteen shillings 
 and eight pence for every hundred pounds of tohacco, at 
 the rate of two pence per pound,-- which was the usual 
 price when the crops were fair. 
 
 "This act, the necessity of which was so obvious, was 
 very generally acquiesced in by creditors. As it was an 
 effort to regulate a fluctuating currency by one acknowl- 
 edged to be the standard, and only directed the value to be 
 placed on that which had fluctuated, which was, in the 
 minds of the parties to the contracts involved, and of the 
 legislature when the public taxes were laid, it must be ad- 
 mitted to have been right and proper. The same principle 
 was a]!)plied in settling debts in the United States, in 
 France, and in the late Confederate States, upon the 
 failure of their revolutionary currencies. Debtors were 
 allowed to pay their debts contracted with reference to the 
 collapsed paper money as a standard of value in the 
 equivalent value in specie."-^ 
 
 The clergy were somewhat divided as to the proper 
 course to take with reference to this act ; but in conven- 
 tion, the majority determined that it belonged to them to 
 share the misfortunes of their people. 
 
 " Henning's Statutes at Large. Vol. VI., pp. 568, 569. 
 '' William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. I., p. 31. 
 
so Virginia pRESBYtERiANisM 
 
 In 1758, the season was again bad, the tobacco crop 
 failed; and an act similar to that of 1755 was passed, to 
 continue in force for one year.-* 
 
 This time the clergy complained loudly, since the mar- 
 ket price of tobacco rose to thrice that which they received. 
 Although the law was universal in its effects, the clergy 
 were the only class that resisted its operation. In con- 
 vention they determined to appeal to the king. The Rev. 
 John Camm was sent to England with a petition for the 
 veto of the act. "He obtained an order of Council to 
 this effect, dated August 10, 1759, and was told by the 
 Lords of Trade and the Privy Council that this would 
 render the act void, ab initio/' Neither the act of 1755, 
 nor that of 1758, had the usual clause, suspending its 
 operation until the king's sanction should be obtained. 
 The Council denounced them as usurpation. Thereupon 
 the clergy began suits in the civil courts to recover 
 damages. 
 
 The question between the clergy on the one hand, and 
 the Burgesses and people of Virginia on the other, was a 
 twofold one. Are 'the acts of 1755 and 1758 morally justi- 
 fiable ? a question already discussed ; and,, can an act of 
 the colonial legislature be considered in force between its 
 date and the disapproval of the king. 
 
 One of the best of the clergy to bring suit was Rev. 
 James Maury, of Louisa County. The proceedings to the 
 date of the jury trial had gone in Mr. Maury's favor. 
 Providence brought forward, in a young man on whom 
 Samuel Davies had put his stamp, an advocate of the 
 rights of the people adequate to the occasion. 
 
 Having stated the issues involved in the case, Mr. 
 Henry entered upon a discussion of the mutual relations 
 
 ^* Henning's Statutes at Large, Vol. VII., pp. 249-250. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 51 
 
 and reciprocal duties of the king and his subjects. "He 
 maintained that government was a conditional compact, 
 composed of mutual and dependent covenants, the king 
 stipulating protection on the one hand, and the people 
 stipulating obedience and support on the other. He de- 
 clared that a violation of these covenants by either party 
 discharged the other from obligation. He claimed that 
 in the colonial government the Burgesses represented the 
 House of Commons, the Council the House of Lords, and 
 the Governor the king, and that a law approved by these 
 should be deemed valid until it was disallowed. He then 
 took up the act of 1758, and discussed its provisions, and 
 the necessities of the people which caused its enactment. 
 He contended that it had every characteristic of a good 
 law, that it was a law of general utility, and could not be 
 annulled consistently with the compact between the king 
 and the people ; that the disallowance by the king of this 
 salutary act was an instance of misrule, and neglect of 
 the interests of the colony, which made it necessary that 
 they should provide for their own safety by adhering to 
 the directions of the act; and that by this conduct the 
 king, from being the father of his people, had degenerated 
 into a tyrant, and forfeited all right to his subjects' obe- 
 dience to his order regarding it. At this point Mr. Lyons 
 cried out with warmth: 'The gentleman has spoken 
 treason, and I am astonished that your worships can 
 hear it without emotion, or any mark of dissatisfaction.' 
 At the same instant, among some gentlemen behind the 
 bar there was a confused murmur of 'Treason ! Treason !' 
 Mr. Henry paid no attention to the interruption, but con- 
 tinued in the same strain, without receiving any sign of 
 disapprobation from tjie bench, which sat spell-bound by 
 his eloquence, while some of the jury nodded their appro- 
 bation. Passing from this topic, the speaker next dis- 
 
52 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 cussed the relations of the clergy to the people. He con- 
 tended that the only use of an Established Church and 
 clergy in society is to enforce obedience to civil sanctions, 
 and the observance of those which are called duties of 
 imperfect obligation; that when a clergy cease to answer 
 these ends, the community have no further need of their 
 ministry,^ and may justly strip them of their appoint- 
 ments ; that the clergy of Virginia, in this particular in- 
 stance of their refusing to acquiesce in the law in ques- 
 tion, so far from answering, had most notoriously coun- 
 teracted those great ends of their institution; that there- 
 fore, instead of useful members of the State, they ought 
 to be considered as enemies of the community ; and that 
 in the case now before them, Mr. Maury, instead of 
 countenance and protection and damages, very justly 
 deserved to be punished with signal severity. While dis- 
 cussing this part of his subject, he said, as Captain 
 Trevilian relates : 
 
 " We have heard a great deal about the benevolence and holy 
 zeal of our reverend clergy, but how is this manifested? Do they 
 manifest their zeal in the cause of religion and humanity by prac- 
 ticing the mild and benevolent precepts of the Gospel of Jesus? 
 Do they feed the hungry and clothe the naked? Oh, no, gentle- 
 men ! Instead of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, 
 these rapacious harpies would, were their powers equal to their 
 will, snatch from the hearth of their honest parishoner his last 
 hoe-cake, from the widow and her orphan children their last milch 
 cow ! the last bed, nay ! the last blanket from the lying-in 
 woman !" 
 
 "These words, uttered with all the power of the orator, 
 aroused in the audience an intense feeling against the 
 clergy, which became so apparent as to cause the reverend 
 gentlemen to leave their seats on the. bench and to quit the 
 court-house in dismay. 
 
 "The speaker, continuing, described the bondage of a 
 
And Religious Liberty. 53 
 
 people, who were denied the privilege of enacting their 
 own laws, and told the jury that, unless they were disposed 
 to rivet the chains of bondage on their necks, he hoped 
 they would not let slip the opportunity, which was now 
 offered, of making such an example of the plaintiff, as 
 might hereafter be a warning to himself and to his 
 brethren not to dispute the validity of such laws, authen- 
 ticated by the only authority which, in his conception, 
 could give force to laws for the government of the colony, 
 the authority of a House of Burgesses, of a council, and 
 of a kind, benevolent and patriotic governor. He added 
 that, under the ruling of the court, they must find for the 
 plaintiff, but they need not find more than one farthing, 
 and that this would accomplish all that the defence 
 desired."*^ 
 
 No other case was brought to trial. In Mr. Maury the 
 clergy had one of their worthiest representatives. It was 
 for the good of liberty that the case was tried in Hanover, 
 where dissent was strong, and that the cause of the 
 people had as its advocate a man who had contrasted the 
 dignity and worth of dissent as embodied in Davies with 
 the character of many of the clergy entrenched in the 
 Establishment ; and who had caught the great preacher's 
 way of reasoning from fundamental principles. The strug- 
 gle over the parsons' salaries witnessed the alienation of 
 the people from the clergy. Bitter pamphleteering had 
 been indulged in on both sides. The character of the 
 clergy had been so presented that they could maintain no 
 dominancy any longer. The people, the legislature, waited 
 only for a fitting occasion to take away their legal power. 
 The rights of the people were connected in current thought 
 with dissent, and Presbyterian dissent. 
 
 ^° William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, pp. 40-42, 
 
54 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Amongst important agents used of Providence in bring- 
 ing about religious freedom were the Baptists. The Bap- 
 tists were a feeble folk in the American colonies for the 
 first century and a half. "In 1770. so far as is known, the 
 Baptists numbered JJ churches, with about 5,000 members 
 in the colonies." In 1743, a few regular Baptist famiHes 
 had settled in Berkeley County, and founded a church, 
 which spread in. the valley and east of the Blue Ridge, 
 till, by 1770, they had churches scattered through the 
 Northern Neck of Virginia, north of Fredericksburg. As 
 early as the year 1758 Separate Baptists had made a per- 
 manent lodgment in Pittsylvania, where Samuel Harris, 
 of that county, was converted. About the year 1766 he 
 went through the counties on the north side of the James 
 River. November 20, 1767, he assisted in forming the 
 church of Upper Spottsylvania. From that date the Bap- 
 tists spread rapidly between the Blue Ridge and the Bay 
 Shore. They were an ofif-shoot of the "New Lights." 
 Their enthusiasm, their evangelism, their propagandism, 
 their criticisms of the established clergy, and their being 
 new, made them popular with the masses, whilst these 
 qualities, together with their general neglect of getting 
 permits from the government for their ministers and 
 licenses for their meeting-houses, of which Presbyterians 
 had grown negligent ten years before, brought upon 
 them bitter persecutions at the hands of friends of the 
 Establishment. They were subjected to various kinds of 
 persecutions. Their preachers were jailed repeatedly in 
 various counties; and by their zeal and constancy, gave 
 occasion to the advocates of human rights to voice the 
 truth. The records show that the powerful advocacy of 
 Mr. Henry was more than once successfully invoked to 
 defend those imprisoned for the 'heinous charge of wor- 
 
And Religious Liberty. 55 
 
 shipping God according to the dictates of their own con- 
 
 '26 
 
 During these sixth and seventh decades, the Baptist 
 people were illustrating an important principle of true 
 Christian economy. They were winning the worici by mis- 
 sionary effort, undeterred by persecutions. They were 
 also giving voice to their sense of the injustice of their 
 persecutions. In the next period they will rain-in petitions 
 to the colonial or State legislature, first for larger tolera- 
 tion,^'^ afterwards for religious liberty of the fullest sort. 
 They will take a noble part in the Revolutionary move- 
 ments, looking to civil liberty, and, in consequence, be- 
 come more efficient advocates of the coveted religious 
 liberty. 
 
 Such were some of the forces marshalled by Providence 
 in the cause of religious liberty. 
 
 The Presbyterian factor had been at work since the days 
 of Makemie. He passed away, but his influence was 
 abiding. Organized Presbyterianism made its way back 
 into Virginia ; and its influence was felt. In the time of 
 Davies and the French-Indian War, Presbyterians shook 
 off many fetters from their own limbs and made the like, 
 thereby, easier for others. By patriotic services to the 
 colony, they struck blows of vast effectiveness, making 
 for religious liberty. Thenceforth, if the General Court 
 Jstill claimed the prerogative of granting papers of quali- 
 fication to dissenting ministers, and licenses for preaching 
 places, such permits were to be had for the asking. The 
 ^ Baptists, springing up, were used in similar fashion, to 
 
 "° William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. I., p. 119. 
 
 " Charles F. James, The Struggle for Religious Liberty in Vir- 
 ginia, p. 32, quotation from the Journal of the House of Burgesseg 
 of May 26, 1770. 
 
56 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 the same end. He who maketh the wrath of man to 
 prai&e Him, turned the baseness of a portion of the clergy 
 of the EstabHshment, and the Parsons' Cause into an oc- 
 casion of forwarding the cause of rehgious Hberty. He 
 raised up a man of destiny, trained him through a Pres- 
 byterian mother and a Presbyterian minister, to be the 
 peerless advocate of the people's rights against the tyranny 
 of arbitrary power, in State and in Church; trained him 
 for the defense of the rights of Baptist dissent before the 
 civil courts ; and provoked him to the actual defense by 
 the sufferings of the Baptists — provoked him to re- 
 announce principles as old as Christianity, formally held 
 by all Protestants since the Reformation, and which the 
 major part of Virginians would be ready ere long to put 
 into practice. 
 
 By such concurrence of forces, Providence was about 
 to introduce Virginians to a new stage of Christian 
 civilization. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Progress into Religious Liberty During the Revo- 
 lutionary Period. — 1763 to' 1791. 
 
 THE conclusion of the French-Indian War, in the 
 Peace of Paris, gave Great Britain an oppor- 
 tunity to enforce vigorously the system of repression 
 and taxation which her ministers thought necessary 
 in dealing with the independent colonists. Early in 
 1764, Parliament voted that they had a right to tax 
 the American colonies, though the colonies were not 
 represented. This was followed by a number of acts 
 of indirect taxation. In March, 1765, Parliament passed 
 the Stamp Act, which required the use of stamped 
 paper for legal documents, pamphlets, and news- 
 papers throughout the colonies. The news was re- 
 ceived in America with fear and indignation. For some 
 reason or other, fear, most probably, the colonial legisla- 
 tures were slow to make decided opposition. In the Vir- 
 ginia Legislature the leaders were disposed to submit. 
 They had joined with the colonies in their earnest protest 
 against its passage, prior to the enactment. They had 
 done their utmost. Mr. Patrick Henry had just been 
 elected to the House. His sagacity convinced him "that 
 submission to the act would be fatal to the liberties of the 
 colonies ; and that a bold move might have the efifect of 
 uniting the people in a determined opposition to its ex- 
 ecution." Seeing the men of weight averse to opposi- 
 tion, and the commencement of the tax at hand, and that 
 no other m^n was likely to step forth, he "determined to 
 
58 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 venture alone, unadvised, and unassisted." On a blank 
 leaf of an old law book, he wrote his famous Resolutions 
 Against the Stamp Act, May 30, 1765 : 
 
 " Resolved, That the first adventurers and settlers of this, his 
 Majesty's colony and dominion, brought with them, and trans- 
 mitted to their posterity, and all other his Majesty's subjects, 
 since inhabiting in this, his Majesty's said colony, all the privi- 
 leges, franchises, and immunities, that have at any time been 
 held, enjoyed, and possessed by the people of Great Britain. 
 
 " Resolved, That by two royal charters, granted by King James 
 the First, the colonists, aforesaid, are declared entitled to all the 
 privileges, liberties and immunities, of denizens and natural-born 
 subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding 
 and born within the realm of England. 
 
 " Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves, or by 
 persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only 
 know what taxes the people are able to bear, and the easiest mode 
 of raising them, and are equally affected by such taxes them- 
 selves, is the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and 
 without which the ancient constitution cannot subsist. 
 
 ''Resolved, That his Majesty's liege people of this most ancient 
 colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being thus gov- 
 erned by their own assembly in the article of their taxes and 
 internal police, and that the same hath never been forfeited, or 
 any other way given up, but hath been constantly recognized by 
 the king and people of Great Britain. 
 
 " Resolved, Therefore, That the General Assembly of this 
 colony have the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions 
 upon the inhabitants of this colony; and that every attempt to 
 vest such power in any person or persons whatsoever, othei" than 
 the General Assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to de- 
 stroy British as well as American freedom." 
 
 Showing them to Messrs. George Johnston, of Fairfax, 
 and John Fleming, of Cumberland, and getting promise 
 of their support, he moved them. Mr. Johnston seconded 
 them. They were opposed by Messrs. Randolph, Bland, 
 Pendleton, Wythe and all the old members, whose influ- 
 ence till now had been unbroken. "But torrents of sub- 
 
And Religious Liberty. 59 
 
 lime eloquence from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning 
 of Johnston, prevailed," and the resolutions were passed 
 by a small majority. This son of a Presbyterian mother, 
 with the impress of Davies upon him, won this great vic- 
 tory by the aid of Presbyterians. "Mr. Jefferson, in 
 after years, said that the members from the upper coun- 
 ties invariably supported Mr. Henry in his revolutionary 
 measures, and there can be no doubt they did so on this 
 occasion, and that to the Scotch-Irish and Huguenot 
 members he was indebted for his triumph."^ 
 
 The Stamp Act and Mr. Henry's opposition made the 
 Revolutionary War inevitable, through which the estab- 
 lishment of religious liberty was made practicable. 
 
 Meanwhile Presbyterianism continued to diffuse its in- 
 fluence in Virginia, under the protection of a generous 
 interpretation of the Act of Toleration. Presbyterians 
 were now so numerous, their ministers of such respecta- 
 bility, and their patriotic temper and services so valuable, 
 that they were persecuted at most only with tongue and 
 pen. 
 
 This species of persecution fell particularly to the lot 
 of such ministers as did missionary work within the sphere 
 hitherto dominated by the Episcopal Church. The Rev. 
 James Waddell, in Lancaster and Northumberland Coun- 
 ties, was one of those who suffered most severely. He 
 was singularly well-fitted, too, to vindicate the rights of 
 his party before the bar of reason and justice. Virginia 
 Presbyterians grew in intellectual grasp of the whole 
 question of. religious rights. "Truth is like a torch — the 
 more it's shook it shines." 
 
 They profitted not only by virtue of their own local 
 
 ' William Wirt Henry. Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. I., p. 87. 
 
6o Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 agitations, but by the discussions going on in their 
 church at large, and particularly by that in the colony of 
 New York. There Presbyterianism was ancient, its rights 
 clear, and those rights maintained with distinguished 
 ability. 
 
 "During the quarter of a century immediately preceding 
 the Revolution, a discussion of the whole subject of re- 
 ligious rights, important for its effect upon the popular 
 mind, as well as for the ability displayed in its prosecu- 
 tion, was conducted through the public press by leading 
 men of the Presbyterian Church in New York. Three 
 of these were eminent lawyers. A fourth was the young 
 pastor of the Wall Street Church, Alexander Cumming, 
 whose appeals and cogent arguments contributed not a 
 little to the force and weight of the pamphlet and news- 
 paper publications of the day. But the names of his 
 parishioners, William Smith, William Livingston, John 
 Morin Scott, are better known in connection with this 
 debate. The battle for religious liberty was well fought, 
 at a time when the great struggle for civil freedom was 
 beginning, by 'the Presbyterian lawyers' of New York; 
 and not only for their own religious communion, but 
 equally for other Christian bodies. It is certainly to the 
 credit of these advocates of the rights of conscience, that 
 representing a church which, in Great Britain, was a 
 church by law established — one of the two communions 
 in alliance with the State, the National Church of Scot- 
 land — they pleaded the common cause of Protestant de- 
 nominations not conforming to the Church of England. 
 By the prominent part they took in this discussion, as 
 well as by their activity in the political discussions of the 
 day, Livingston and his associates incurred suspicion and 
 odium as dangerous men. But their arguments and ap- 
 peals carried the judgment and the sympathies of the 
 
And Religious Liberty. 6i 
 
 people. The partisans of the Church estabUshment were 
 no match for the men who stood forth in defence of the 
 rights of conscience and the freedom of the land from an 
 oppressive ecclesiastical rule."- 
 
 Virginia Presbyterians, about this time, were receiving 
 furt^ier fitting for their fight, from Princeton College, 
 and particularly from its head. Dr. John Witherspoon. He 
 was training men who would lead them to victory — Caleb 
 Wallace, Samuel Stanhope Smith, John Blair Smith, Wil- 
 liam Graham, Henry Lee and James Madison. Dr. With- 
 erspoon had vastly improved the curriculum of the insti- 
 tution over which he presided. ''Among the important 
 reforms he introduced into the system of studies, were 
 an enlargement of the mathematical course, a special at- 
 tention to metaphysical science, which had recently made 
 such marked advances under the lead of the great minds 
 of his own country (Scotland), an extension of the course 
 of moral philosophy, so as to embrace the general princi- 
 ples of public law and politics, a course of history, and 
 regular instruction practical and theoretic, in the canons 
 of criticism and taste, and the art of literary composi- 
 tion."-'' He was possessed of a strong sympathy and at- 
 tachment to popular rights, "nurtured in the contests he 
 had waged against the claims of privilege and patronage 
 in his mother church ; a practical wisdom and talent for 
 affairs acquired by the experience of life ; and a purity, 
 manliness and conscientious courage and energy, all his 
 own."* 
 
 ^ C. W. Baird, Civil Status of Presbyterians in the Province of 
 New York, in Mag. Amer. Hist., 1879, pp. 620-21, quoted in C. A. 
 Briggs, American Presbytcrianism, pp. 341-2. 
 
 ^ William C. Rives, Life and Times of James Madison, Vol. I., 
 p. 17. 
 
 * William C. Rives, Id., I., pp. 16, 17. 
 
Rev. John Witherspoon 
 
And Religious Liberty. 63 
 
 It was natural that such a man should put his impress 
 on his pupils. This he did; but James Madison is said 
 to have been "the pupil upon whom, more than upon any 
 other, he seems to have impressed the distinctive charac- 
 teristics of his own mind ; for no intelligent reader, ac- 
 quainted with their works, can fail to remark how much 
 the. same clearness of analytical reasoning, the same lucid 
 order, the same precision and comprehensiveness com- 
 bined, the same persuasive majesty of truth and convic- 
 tion clothed in a terse and felicitous diction, shine forth 
 in the productions, whether written or spoken, of both. 
 Such intellectual affinities, joined to moral worth, could 
 not but form a strong bond of friendship, and of mutual 
 confidence, attachment, and respect between them. . . . 
 
 "Dr. Witherspoon continued to feel a lively interest in 
 the studies and pursuits of his pupil, after the formal con- 
 nection of the latter with the college was terminated. 
 Young Madison, appreciating at its just value the aid of 
 so enlightened a guide and counsellor, and desiring also 
 to avail himself of the riches of the college library, de- 
 termined after his graduation, to pass one more year at 
 Princeton as a private student. The preceptor and the 
 pupil were destined to meet again, after a lapse of nine 
 years, in the supreme councils of the country, as co- 
 wokers in the great cause of national independence and 
 national union. ''^ 
 
 The services of Princeton to Virginia Presbyterians in 
 training these leaders was incalculable. 
 
 This attitude of Presbyterians in Virginia, the spread 
 of the Baptists, in spite of all the persecutions with which 
 they were afflicted, the growth of dissent in its various 
 
 * William C. Rives, Life and Times of Madison, Vol. I., pp. 
 24-26. 
 
64 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 forms, until a large portion of the inhabitants had become 
 dissenters, forced upon the attention of a still reluctant 
 legislature the duty of relieving those who disagreed with 
 the forms and creed of the Church of England. "In the 
 years immediately preceding the War of the Revolution, 
 the majority of the legislature were for toleration in its 
 restricted sense — an established church, with freedom 
 from legal disabilities to Dissenters. This was some ad- 
 vance upon the ideas of toleration in the times of Davies ; 
 but very far from the demands of those who were called 
 Dissenters, two branches of whom contended that the 
 true meaning of toleration was an equality of privilege 
 and protection to all denominations, by the civil powers."® 
 To appease the agitated community, a bill was prepared 
 in 1772, recognizing certain privileges of Dissenters. The 
 Assembly had the bill printed and circulated, that the 
 sense of the people might be had. The Presbyterians nar- 
 rowly scanned it. Hanover Presbytery, sitting at Rock- 
 fish meeting-house, October 15, 1773, "took the bill of 
 toleration into consideration," and appointed a committee 
 to attend the legislature and advocate their rights. No 
 laws were passed, however, at the ensuing term of the 
 legislature, owing to the disagreement between the Gov- 
 ernor and the Assembly. November 2, 1774, the Presby- 
 tery met in special session at the house of Colonel William 
 Cabell, of Amherst, to remonstrate against the bill. Their 
 paper of remonstrance betrayed great ability and "ad- 
 vance in the popular apprehension of free institutions."^ 
 
 The full text of the document is : 
 
 William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, p. 320. 
 William Wirt Henry, Id., Vol. I., pp. 309-10. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 65 
 
 " To the Honorable the Speaker and the Gentlemen of the House 
 of Burgesses: 
 
 " The petition of the Presbytery of Hanover, in behalf of them- 
 selves, and all the Presbyterians in Virginia in particular, and all 
 Protestant dissenters in general, humbly showeth, That upon 
 application made by the Rev. Mr James Anderson in behalf of the 
 Synod of Philadelphia, the Honorable Governor Gooch, with the 
 advice of the Council, did in the year 1738, or about that time. 
 for the encouragement of all Presbyterians who might incline to 
 settle in the colonies, grant an instrument of writing under the 
 seal of the colony, containing the most ample assurances that they 
 should enjoy the full and free exercise of their religion, and all 
 the other privileges of good subjects. Relying upon this express 
 stipulation, as well as upon the justice and catholic spirit of the 
 whole legislative body, several thousand families of Presbyterians 
 have removed from the Northern provinces into the fronliers of 
 this colony, exposed themselves to a cruel and savage enemy, and 
 all the other toils and dangers of settling a new country, and soon 
 became a barrier to the former inhabitants who were settled in 
 the more commodious parts of the colony. Ever since that time 
 we have been considered and treated, upon an equal footing with 
 our fellow subjects, nor have our ministers or people been re- 
 stricted in their religious privileges by any law of the colony. 
 Your humble petitioners further show, that with gratitude they 
 acknowledge the catholic design of our late honorable Assembly 
 to secure by law the religious liberties of all Protestant dissenters 
 in the colony; accordingly they did, in the year 1772, prepare 
 and print a Toleration Bill, but as the subject was deeply interest- 
 ing, it was generously left open for amendment. But, notwith- 
 standing, we are fully persuaded of the catholic and generous 
 design of our late representatives; yet we are deeply sensible 
 that some things in the above named bill will be very grievous 
 and burdensome to us if passed into a law. Therefore we humbly 
 and earnestly pray that the said bill may not be established with- 
 out such alterations and amendments as will render it more 
 agreeable to the principles of impartial liberty and sound policy, 
 which we presume were the valuable ends for which it was first 
 intended. Therefore we humbly beg leave, while we are making 
 the prayer of our petition in a more particular way, to lay before 
 this honorable house in the most respectful manner a few remarks 
 upon the bill. 
 
66 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 " The preamble is agreeable to what we desire, only we pray 
 that the preamble and every other part of the bill may be so ex- 
 pressed as will be most likely to obtain the royal assent. 
 
 "We are also willing that all our clergymen should be required 
 to take the oaths of allegiance, etc., usually taken by civil officers, 
 and to declare their belief of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 "Likewise, as is required in the said bill, we shall willingly 
 have all our churches and stated places for public worship regis- 
 tered, if this honorable house shall think proper to grant it. -But 
 every minister of the Gospel is under indispensable obligations 
 to follow the example of our blessed Saviour, 'who went about 
 doing good,' and the example of his Apostles who not only 
 'taught in the Temple, but in every house where they came they 
 ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.' From which, and 
 their constant practice of traveling into every quarter of the 
 world, we humbly trust that it will appear to this Assembly, that 
 we cannot, consistent with the duties of our office, wholly confine 
 our ministrations to any place or number of places; and to be 
 limited by law would be the more grievous, because in many 
 parts of this colony, even where the majority of the inhabitants 
 are Presbyterians, it is not, and perhaps it may not, in any short 
 time be easy to determine where it would be the most expedient 
 to fix upon a stated place for public worship, and indeed where 
 we have houses for worship already built, generally the bounds 
 of our congregation are so very extensive, that many of our peo- 
 ple, especially women, children, and servants are not able to at- 
 tend by reason of the distance, which makes it our duty, as faith- 
 ful ministers of Christ, to double our diligence, and frequently 
 to lecture and catechise in the remote corners of our congrega- 
 tions. This restriction would also be very grievous to us in many 
 other respects. We only beg leave to add : That the number of 
 Presbyterians in this province is now very great, and the number 
 of clergymen but small, therefore we are obliged frequently to 
 itinerate and preach through various parts of the colony, that our 
 people may have an opportunity to worship God and receive the 
 sacraments in the way agreeable to their own consciences. As to 
 our having meetings for public worship in the night, it is not a- 
 frequent practice among our churches; yet sometimes we find it 
 expedient to attend night meetings, that a neighborhood may hear 
 a sermon or a lecture, or be catechised, without being much inter- 
 rupted in their daily labor. And so long as our fellow subjects 
 
And Religious Liberty. 67 
 
 are permitted to meet together by day or by night, for the pur- 
 poses of business or diversion, we hope we shall not be restrained 
 from meeting together as opportunity serves us, upon business of 
 all others the most important; especially if it be considered that 
 the Apostles held frequent societies by night, and once St. Paul 
 continued to speak till midnight; accordingly it is well known 
 that in city and collegiate churches evening prayers and lectures 
 have long been esteemed lawful and profitable exercises. As to 
 any bad influence this practice may have upon servants or any 
 others, it is sufficient to say that there is nothing in our princi- 
 ples or way of worship that tends to promote a spirit of dis- 
 obedience or disorder, but, much to the contrary; and if any 
 person shall be detected in doing or teaching anything criminal 
 in this respect, we presume he is liable to punishment by a law 
 already in being; therefore we pray that no dissenting minister, 
 according to law may be subjected to any penalty for preaching 
 or teaching, at any time, or in any place in this colony. 
 
 " We confess it is easy for us to keep open doors in time of 
 divine service, except in case of a storm or other inclemencies of 
 the weather; yet we would humbly represent that such a require- 
 ment implies a suspicion of our loyalty, and will fix a stigma 
 upon us to after ages, such as we presume our honorable repre- 
 sentatives will not judge that we have anyhow incurred; there- 
 fore we pray that this clause may also be removed from the bill. 
 
 "And as to baptizing or receiving servants into our communion, 
 we have always anxiously desired to do it with the permission of 
 their masters; but when a servant appears to be a true penitent 
 and makes profession of his faith in Christ, upon his desire it is 
 our indispensable duty to admit him into our church, and if he 
 has never been baptized, we are to baptize him according to the 
 command of Christ : ' Go ye therefore and teach all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you, and lo! I am with you alway. even unto 
 the end of the world. Amen.' And wc are so confidently per- 
 suaded of the liberal sentiments of this house, that in obeying 
 the laws of Christ, we shall never be reduced to the necessity of 
 disobeying the laws of our country. 
 
 "And, also, having abundant reasons to hope that we shall be 
 indulged in every other thing that may appear reasonable, your 
 petitioners further pray: 
 
68 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 " For liberty and protection in the discharge of all the functions 
 and duties of our office as ministers of the Gospel, and that the 
 penalties to be inflicted on those who may disturb any of our 
 congregations in the time of Divine service, or misuse the 
 preacher, be the same as on those who disturb the congregation, 
 or misuse the preachers of the Church of England, and that the 
 dissenting clergy, as well as the clergy of the Established Church, 
 be excused from all burdensome offices. All of which we con- 
 ceive is granted in the English Toleration Act. 
 
 "And we pray for that freedom in speaking and writing upon 
 religious subjects which is allowed by law to every member of 
 the British Empire in civil affairs, and which has long been so 
 friendly to the cause of liberty. 
 
 "And, also, we pray for a right by law to hold estates, and 
 enjoy donations and legacies for the support of our churches and 
 schools for the instruction of our youth. Though this is not 
 expressed in the English Act of Toleration, yet the greatest law- 
 yers in England have pled, and the best judges have determined, 
 that it is manifestly implied. 
 
 " Finally, we pray that nothing in the Act of Toleration may be 
 so expressed as to render lis suspicious or odious to our country- 
 men, with Avhom we desire to live in peace and friendship; but 
 that all misdemeanors committed by dissenters may be punished 
 by laws equally binding upon all our fellow subjects, without any 
 regard to their religious tenets. Or, if any non-compliance with 
 the conditions of the Act of Toleration shall be judged to deserve 
 punishment, we pray that the crime may be accurately defined, 
 and the penalty ascertained by the legislature ; and that neither 
 be left to the discretion of any magistrate, or court whatsoever. 
 
 " May it please this honorable Assembly, There are some other . 
 things which we omit, because they are less essential to the rights 
 of conscience, and the interest of our Church; we trust that we 
 petition for nothing but what justice says ought to be ours; for 
 as ample privileges as any of our fellow-subjects enjoy : 
 
 " To have and enjoy the full and free exercise of our religion, 
 without molestation or danger of incurring any penalty what- 
 soever. We are petitioning in favor of a Church that is neither 
 contemptible nor obscure: It prevails in every province to the 
 Northward of Maryland, and its advocates in all the more South- 
 ern provinces are numerous and respectable. The greatest mon- 
 
And Religious Liberty. 69 
 
 arch in the north of Europe adorns it; it is the established re- 
 ligion of the populous and wealthy states of Holland ; it pre- 
 vails in the wise and happy cantons of Switzerland; and it is, the 
 possession, of Geneva, a state among the foremost of those who, 
 at the Reformation, emancipated themselves from the slavery of 
 Rome ; and some of the first geniuses and writers in every branch 
 of literature were sons of our Church. 
 
 " The subject is of such solemn importance to us, that compara- 
 tively speaking, our lives and our liberties are but of little value ; 
 and the population of the country, and the honor of the Legisla- 
 ture, as well as the interest of American liberty, are certainly 
 most deeply concerned in the matter : Therefore we would will- 
 ingly lay before this honorable house a more extensive view of 
 our reasons in favor of an unlimited, impartial toleration; but, 
 fearing we should transgress upon the patience of the House, we 
 conclude with praying that the all wise, just and merciful God 
 would direct you in this and all your other important determina- 
 tions. 
 
 " Signed by order of Presbytery, 
 
 '■ David Rice, Uoderator; 
 " Cable Wallace. Clerk. 
 ■ "At a session of the Presbytery in Amherst County, November 
 nth, 1774.'" 
 
 These men, while willing to have all their "churches 
 and stated places for worship registered," petitioned for 
 freedom to preach, "to follow the example of our blessed 
 Saviour, 'who went about doing good ;' and the example 
 of his Apostles, who not only 'taught in the temple, but 
 in every house where they came they ceased not to teach 
 and preach Jesus Christ.' " They petitioned to be allowed 
 to meet whenever they pleased, night or day ; to meet 
 without any restriction, of evil implication, as to doors 
 open or closed ; that the dissenting clergy be placed upon 
 
 * This document was discovered in the State Archives by Mr. 
 William Wirt Henry, and by him published in the Central Pres- 
 byterian, Richmond, Va., in the issue of May 16, 1888. 
 
70 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 the same plane with regard to liberty, protection, and 
 immunity from burdensome offices, with the clergy of the 
 Established Church; for unlimited freedom of speech on 
 religious subjects. They claimed that these things were 
 granted directly or by implication in the English Tolera- 
 tion Act. They say : "There are some other things which 
 we omit, because they are less essential to the rights of 
 conscience, and the interest of our church ; we trust that 
 we petition for nothing but what justice says ought to be 
 ours ; for as ample privileges as any of our fellow-subjects 
 enjoy: 'To have and enjoy the full and free exercise of 
 our religion, without molestation or danger of incurring 
 any penalty whatsoever.' " Here the yearning for "im- 
 partial toleration" for religions liberty is briefly, perhaps 
 inconsistently, but comprehensively, voiced. Circum- 
 stances were about to arise in which this right would be 
 more adequately expressed. 
 
 The oppressions of the mother country were driving 
 the colonies into political revolution. "The Presbyterians 
 of America were the earliest and staunchest friends of 
 the independence of the American colonies. The Scotch- 
 Irish on the frontiers of Virginia and North Carolina, in 
 the Presbyteries of Hanover and Orange, were the first 
 to advance to a declaration of independence of the mother 
 country. The struggles against the government of Vir- 
 ginia for their religious rights had prepared them for 
 the issue."'^ 
 
 January 20, 1775, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of 
 Southwest Virginia met in council and prepared an ad- 
 dress to the Virginia delegates in the Continental Con- 
 gress, in the course of which they said : 
 
 ° C. A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism, p. 347. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 71 
 
 " We crossed the Atlantic and explored this uncultivated wil- 
 derness, bordering en many nations of savages and surrounded 
 by mountains almost inaccessible to any but those very savages, 
 who have incessantly been committing barbarities and depredations 
 on us since our first seating this country. The fatigues and dan- 
 gers we patiently encountered supported by the pleasing hope of 
 enjoying those rights and liberties which had been granted to 
 Virginians, and were denied us in our native country, and of 
 transmitting them inviolate to our posterity; but soon to these 
 remote regions the hand of unlimited and unconstitutional power 
 hath pursued us, to strip us of that liberty and property with 
 which God, nature, and the rights of humanity have vested us. 
 We are ready and willing to contribute all in our power for the 
 support of his Majesty's government if applied to constitutionally, 
 and when the grants are made by our own representatives, but 
 cannot think of submitting our liberty or property to the power 
 of a venal British Parliament, or the will of a corrupt ministry. 
 
 " We by no means desire to shake off our duty or our allegiance 
 to our lawful sovereign, but, on the contrary, shall ever glory in 
 being the loyal subjects of a Protestant Prince descending from 
 such illustrious progenitors as long as we can enjoy the free 
 exercise of our religion, as Protestants, and our liberties and 
 properties as British subjects, 
 
 " But if no pacific measures shall be proposed or adopted by 
 Great Britain, and our enemies shall attempt to dragoon us out 
 of these inestimable privileges which we are entitled to as sub- 
 jects, and to reduce us to a state of slavery, we declare that we 
 are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender 
 them to any power upon earth, but at the expense of our lives. 
 
 " These are our real, though unpolished, sentiments of liberty 
 and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die." ^° 
 
 The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Mecklenburg County, 
 North CaroHna, through their county committee, May 31, 
 ■1775, went even further. They passed certain resohitions, 
 implying at least temporary independence : 
 
 "Thomas L. Preston, Historical Sketches and Reminiscences 
 of an Octogenarian, pp. 27, 28. 
 
72 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 "All laws and commissions confirmed by or derived from the 
 authority of the King or Parliament are annulled and vacated. 
 All commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the 
 crown to be exercised in the colonies are void; the provincial 
 congress of each province, under the direction of the great Conti- 
 nental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive 
 powers within the respective provinces, and no other legislative 
 or executive power does or can exist at this time in any part of 
 these colonies. As all former laws are now suspended in this 
 province, and the congress has not yet provided others, we judge 
 it necessary, for the better preservation of good order, to form 
 certain rules and regulations for the internal government of this 
 countr}^, until its laws shall be provided for us by the congress." " 
 
 Though the Presbyterians of New York, New Jersey 
 and Pennsylvania acted more slowly, they reached the 
 same goal : 
 
 " The friends of the British Government in New York were 
 found only on the surface. The Dutch-Americans formed the 
 basis of the population, and were animated by the example of 
 their fathers, who had proved to the world that a small people 
 under great discouragements can found a republic. By tempera- 
 ment moderate but inflexible, little noticed by the government, 
 they kept themselves noiselessly in^reserve. The settlers in New 
 York from New England and the mechanics of the city were 
 almost to a man enthusiasts for resistance. The landed aris- 
 tocracy was divided, but the Dutch and the Scotch Presbyterians, 
 especially Schuyler of Albany and the aged Livingston of Rhine- 
 beck, never hesitated to risk their estates in the cause of inherited 
 freedom. In no colony did English dominion find less of the 
 sympathy of the people than in New York." " 
 
 In New Jersey the Presbyterians and the Reformed In 
 a body struck for liberty. Indeed, throughout the colo- 
 
 " George Bancroft, History of United States, IV., p. 197 ; Wil- 
 liam Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of Patrick 
 Henry, Vol. I, pp. 2,67 ff. 
 
 "George Bancroft, History of the United States, IV., p. 130, 
 eJ seq. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 73 
 
 nies, two ministers in New England and the Highlanders 
 settled in the Valley of the Mohawk in New York and 
 on the Cape Fear River, in North Carolina, excepted, 
 Presbyterians arose as one man far the rights and liberties 
 of the colonies. 
 
 The American Presbyterians, as represented by the 
 Synod of New York and Philadelphia, hesitated aboai 
 breaking with the mother country. Distinguishing be- 
 tween the minii-try and the crown, they t. deavored for 3 
 time to maintain their allegiance to the monarch while 
 shaking off that of the ministry.^. 
 
 In a pastoral letter of May 20, 1775, the Synod says : 
 
 " First. In carrying on this important struggle, let every oppor- 
 tunity be taken to express your attachment and respect to our 
 sovereign. King George, and to the revolution principles by which 
 his august family was seated on the British throne. We recom- 
 mend, indeed, not only allegiance to him from duty and principle, 
 as the first magistrate of the empire, but esteem and reverence 
 for the person of the prince, who has merited well of his subjects 
 on many accounts, and who has probably been misled into the late 
 and present measures by those about him; neither have we any 
 doubt that they themselves have been in a great degree deceived by 
 false information from interested persons residing in America. It 
 gives us the greatest pleasure to say, from our own certain 
 knowledge of all belonging to our communion, and from the best 
 means of information, of the far greatest part of all denomina- 
 tions in this country, that the present opposition to the measures 
 of administration does not in the least arise from dissaflfection 
 to the King, or a desire of separation from the parent state. We 
 are happy in being able with truth to affirm, that no part of 
 America would either have approved or committed such insults 
 as have been offered to the sovereign in Great Britain. We ex- 
 hort you, therefore, to continue in the same disposition, and not 
 to suffer oppression, or injury itself, easily to provoke you to 
 anything which may seem to betray contrary sentiments ; let 
 it ever appear, that you only desire the preservation and security 
 of those rights which belong to you as freemen and Britons, and 
 that reconciliation upon these terms is your most ardent desire. 
 
74 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 " Secondly. Be careful to maintain the union, which at present 
 subsists through all the colonies; nothing can be more manif st 
 than that the success of every measure depends on its being in- 
 violably preserved, and therefore, we hope that you will leave 
 nothing undone which can promote that end. In particular, as the 
 Continental Congress, now sitting in Philadelphia, consists of 
 delegates chosen in the most free and unbiased manner, by the 
 body of the people, let them not only be treated with respect, and 
 encouraged in their difficult service — not only let your prayers 
 be offered up to God for his direction in their proceedings — but 
 adhere firmly to their resolutions; and let it be seen that they 
 are able to bring out the whole strength of this vast country to 
 carry them into execution. We would also advise for the same 
 purpose, that a spirit of candor, charity, and mutual esteem, be 
 preserved and promoted toward those of different religious de- 
 nominations. Persons of probity and principle of every profes- 
 sion should be united together as servants of the same master, 
 and the experience of our happy concord hitherto in a state of 
 liberty should engage all to unite in support of the common in- 
 terest; for there is no example in history, in which civil liberty 
 was destroyed, and the rights of conscience preserved entire." " 
 
 In a short while it became clear that the colonies should 
 become independent of the mother country. John Wither- 
 spoon, the only minister in the Continental Congress, gave 
 the Presbyterian voice for the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence: 
 
 " There is a tide in the affairs of men, a nick of time. We per- 
 ceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own 
 slavery. That noble instrument upon your table which insures 
 immortality to its author should be subscribed this very morning 
 by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents 
 and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is un- 
 worthy the name of freeman. . . . For my own part, of property 
 I have some, of reputation more. That reputation is staked, that 
 property is pledged on the issue of this contest, and although these 
 gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infi- 
 
 " Records of the Presbyterian Church, 467-468. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 75 
 
 nitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of the execu- 
 tioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country." " 
 
 Presbyterians supported their brave resolutions by cor- 
 responding behavior during the long years of tlie war. 
 Of Presbyterian ministers, John Witherspoon did valuable 
 service as a member of the Continental Congress. George 
 Duffield was one of its two chaplains. "John Rodgers, 
 of New York, was chaplain of Heath's Brigade ; James 
 Caldwell, of Elizabethtown, of the New Jersey Brigade ; 
 Alexander McWhorter, of Knox's Brigade; James F. 
 Armstrong, of the Second Maryland Brigade; Adam 
 Boyd, of the North Carolina Brigade; Daniel McCall, of 
 the Expedition to Canada. Jacob Green was a member 
 of the Congress of New Jersey; Henry Patillo, of that 
 of North Carolina; William Tennent, of that of South 
 Carolina ; John Murray, of that of Massachusetts ; David 
 Caldwell was a member of the Convention of North 
 Carolina of 1776, which drew up its constitution; Abra- 
 ham Kettletas, of the Convention of New York. James 
 Hall, of Iredell, N. C, was a captain of a cavalry com- 
 pany, as well as chaplain of a regiment."^^ 
 
 In the province of South Carolina, Presbyterian elders 
 took a most active part in the War of Independence. 
 
 "The battles of the 'Cowpens,' of 'King's Mountain,' 
 and also the severe skirmish known as 'Huck's Defeat,' 
 are among the most celebrated in this State as giving a 
 turning point to the contests of the Revolution. General 
 Morgan, who commanded at the Cowpens, was a Pres- 
 byterian elder, and lived and died in the communion of 
 the church. General Pickens, who made all the arrange- 
 ments for the battle, was also a Presbyterian elder, and 
 
 "W. P. Breed, Presbyterians and the Revolution, p. 166. 
 " C. A. Briggs, American Presbyterians, p. 352. 
 
^6 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 nearly all under their command were Presbyterians. In 
 the battle of King's Mountain, Colonel Campbell, Colonel 
 James Williams (who fell in action), Colonel Cleaveland, 
 Colonel Shelby and Colonel Sevier, were all Presbyterian 
 elders; and the body of their troops were collected from 
 Presbyterian settlements. At Huck's Defeat in York, 
 Colonel Bratton and Major Dickson were both elders in 
 the Presbyterian Church. Major Samuel Morrow, who 
 was with Colonel Sumpter in four engagements, and at 
 King's Mountain, Blackstock and other battles, and 
 whose home was in the army till the termination of hos- 
 tilities, was for about fifty years a ruling elder in the 
 Presbyterian Church. It may also be mentioned in this 
 connection that Marion, Huger, and other distinguished 
 men of Revolutionary memory, were of Huguenot — that 
 is, of fuU-blooded Presbyterian — descent."^® 
 
 Presbyterians elsewhere, with the exceptions already 
 noted, and the Dutch Reformed, were behaving with equal 
 patriotism and devotion. They felt that the Revolution- 
 ary War was a war for religious as well as for civil lib- 
 erty. This, in part, explains their singular devotion to 
 the patriotic cause. The progress of the Revolution was 
 favorable to the increase of religious liberty. It presented 
 the "favorable juncture" for which Davies had longed, 
 as an occasion on which Presbyterians might "petition 
 for the enlargement of our liberties." Presbyterians 
 quickly took advantage of the "juncture," as will appear 
 in the sequel. 
 
 May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention assembled at 
 Williamsburg, declared that no alternative was left, "hut 
 abject submission to the zvill of those overbearing tyrants, 
 
 " Thomas Smythe, Presbyterianism, the Revolution, the Decla- 
 ration, and the Constitution, pp. 32iif. ; Briggs, American Presby- 
 terians, p. 355. 
 
And Religious Liberty. jy 
 
 or a total separation from the crozvn and government of 
 Great Britain." The Convention instructed the Virginia 
 delegates in the Continental Congress to propose to that 
 body, "to declare the united colonies free and independent 
 States." June 12, the Convention adopted a Bill of Rights, 
 and, June 29th, a Constitution. The last clause of the Bill 
 of Rights adopted is in these words : 
 
 " That religion, or the duty we owe our Creator, and the man- 
 ner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and convic- 
 tion, not by force or violence, and therefore all men are equally 
 entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates 
 of conscience, and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice 
 Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other." 
 
 These v^ord were, in the main, from the draft of tire 
 Bill of Rights presented by the celebrated George Mason, 
 a member of the Established Church. The section, in 
 Mason's draft of the Bill of Rights, on religion, was con- 
 tributed by Patrick Henry, who, according to Mr. Ed- 
 mund Randolph, was appealed to to say "whether it was 
 designed as a prelude to an attack on the Established 
 Church. "^^ This Mr. Henry disclaimed. One clause only 
 in the Henry-Mason draft received a material amendment. 
 In their draft it was written that all should enjoy the 
 fullest toleration in the exercise of religion. Their state- 
 ment of the rights of conscience is very like that of the 
 Independents in the Westminster Assembly ; and the word 
 toleration is used in a liberal sense, implying non-inter- 
 ference of the State with the Church ; nevertheless, the 
 word toleration, strictly speaking, implies a power in the 
 civil government to interfere with religion. "A young 
 man, then unknown to fame, of bright hazel eyes, inclining 
 
 " William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry Vol. I., p. 430. See, however, William C. Rives, 
 Life and Times of Madison, Vol. I., p. 138. 
 
78 Virginia PREgBYXERiANiSM 
 
 to gray, small in stature, light in person, delicate in ap- 
 pearance, a pallid, sickly scholar in an assembly of the 
 most robust men, proposed an amendment. He was 
 James Madison, the son of an Orange County planter, 
 bred in the school of Presbyterian Dissenters, under With- 
 erspoon, at Princeton; trained by his own studies, by 
 meditative rural life in the Old Dominion, by an ingenuous 
 indignation at the persecution of the Baptists, and by 
 the innate principles of right, to uphold the sanctity of 
 religious freedom. He objected to the word 'toleration,' 
 because it implied an established religion, which endured 
 dissent only as a condescension; and, as the earnestness 
 of his conviction overcame his modesty, he proceeded to 
 demonstrate that 'all men are equally entitled to the free 
 exercise of religion, according to the dictates of con- 
 science.' His motion, which did but state with better 
 dialectics the very purpose which Mason [and Henry] 
 wished to accomplish, obtained the suffrages of his col- 
 leagues."^^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the clearness of this declaration con- 
 cerning the right of every man to religious liberty, it 
 seems not to have been well-understood even by the mem- 
 bers of the Assembly, as subsequent history made clear. 
 
 By the subsequent legislation of the State, the principle 
 was to be developed into absolute separation of Church 
 and State, was in no long time to be engrafted upon every 
 State Constitution, and upon the Federal Constitution. 
 This great principle is now considered "the chief corner- 
 stone of the American system of government," peculiarly 
 American and its "contribution to the science of govern- 
 ment." The principle of religious freedom is clearly in- 
 
 " George Bancroft, History of the United States, IV., pp. 416, 
 et seq.; Rives, Life and Times of Madison, I., pp. 140, et seq. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 79 
 
 volved in the teaching of Christ. But in the fourth cen- 
 tury Christianity became, by the conversion of the Roman 
 Emperor and his substitution of the Christian for the old 
 heathen rehgions, closely united to the State — the State's 
 religion, indeed. 
 
 The principles of the Reformation in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury involved that of universal religious freedom ; but, 
 owing to the desire of the Reformers for protection, the 
 most of them practically rather strengthened the power of 
 those Protestant rulers who were of their faith. But the 
 union of Church and State was a great evil. The inter- 
 ference of European civil governments with the con- 
 sciences of men filled America with immigrants. Yet so 
 inveterate was the bias in favor of the union of Church 
 and State that these very immigrants who had fled from 
 intolerance, showed little disposition to tolerate dissent 
 from their views when they had established themselves in 
 power in the New World. The most liberal colonies were 
 those founded by Lord Baltimore, William Penn and 
 Roger Williams, to each of whom self-interest dictated 
 this liberality, however some of them may have been 
 moved by other considerations. They advocated also only 
 a circumscribed liberality. "Baltimore only professed 
 to make 'free soil for Christianity.' Penn only tolerated 
 those who believed in 'one Almighty and Eternal God, the 
 Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the world;' and denied 
 the right to hold office to all except Christians. Williams' 
 charter was expressly to propagate Christianity, and under 
 it a law was enacted excluding all except Christians from 
 the rights of citizenship, and including, in the exclusion, 
 Roman Catholics. 
 
 "At the date of the Virginia Bill of Rights, although 
 more than one sect had claimed religious freedom, and an 
 absolute divorce of Church and State, no civil government 
 
8o Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 had ever allowed the claim. Virginia led the way in in- 
 corporating into the very foundation of her government 
 the principle upon which religious liberty is based, and in 
 doing so, completed the great reformation commenced in 
 the sixteenth century.''" 
 
 This work was, in the Providence of God, chiefly by 
 Patrick Henry and James Madison. Mr. Henry's hand 
 was the foremost one. Mr. Madison's work was impor- 
 tant. They were each chiefly indebted to Presbyterians 
 for their fitting for these great services. 
 
 To return to the year 1776. The principle of religious 
 freedom had been expressed in the Virginia Bill of Rights, 
 but it remained to give the principle practical expression 
 in the laws and life of the State. October 7, 1776, the 
 General Assembly convened for the first time under the 
 new Constitution. At an early date it entered upon the 
 consideration of religious freedom. Petitions began to 
 rain upon it. "October nth, a petition from Sundry In- 
 habitants of Prince Edward, that without delay all church 
 establishments might be pulled down, and every tax upon 
 conscience and private judgment abolished, and each in- 
 dividual left to rise or sink by his own merit and the gen- 
 eral laws of the land;" October i6th, a petition from 
 Dissenters from the Ecclesiastical Establishment, that 
 "having long groaned under the burden of an ecclesiastical 
 establishment," this, as well as every other yoke, may be 
 broken, and that the oppressed may go free, that so every 
 religious denomination being on a level, animosities may 
 cease, and Christian forbearance, love, and charity, prac- 
 ticed toward each other, while the legislature interferes 
 only to protect them in their just and equal privileges; 
 
 "William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. I., pp. 432-434 ; Justin Winsor, Narrative and 
 Critical History of America, Vol. III., p. 379. 
 
And Religious Liberty. Si 
 
 October 22, two petitions from Dissenters in Albemarle, 
 Amherst and Buckingham, complaining of the inequalities 
 under which they had labored in being required to support 
 the establishment, prayed that every religious denomina- 
 tion might be put upon an equal footing; October 22nd, 
 a petition from Lutherans, "praying that they be exempted 
 from the further payment of parochial charges, other 
 than to support their own church and poor, and that their 
 ministers may have equal rights and privileges with their 
 brethren in Pennsylvania, or the Established Church 
 ministers in Virginia, so far as may extend to the mem- 
 bers of their church only;" October 24, A Memorial of 
 the Presbytery of Hanover, to which return will presently 
 be made ; October 25th, two petitions from the Dissenters 
 from the Church of England, "praying that the ecclesias- 
 tical establishment may be suspended or laid aside;" 
 October 28th, a petition from the Methodists, claiming to 
 be a society in communion with the Church of England, 
 and praying "that the Church of England as it hath 
 ever been, may still continue to be the established church ;" 
 November 8, a memorial of a considerable number of the 
 clergy of the Established Church, pleading for the con- 
 tinuance of the Establishment ; November 9th, a memorial 
 from the Comity Committee for Augusta County, ex- 
 pressing their grievance at "being obliged to contribute to 
 the support of the Established Church," "and praying 
 such speedy and immediate relief as may best correspond 
 with Christian liberty, and those noble sentiments which 
 should animate every virtuous Americaiv"-" This Augusta 
 memorial was from a Presbyterian centre. So was the 
 Prince Edward petition. Others of them betray a Pres- 
 byterian hand in their shaping. "The Memorial of the 
 
 '" C. F. James, Id., pp. 68-77. 
 
82 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Presbytery of Hanover that was read on the 24th of 
 October, received very considerate attention, occupying a 
 full page in the Journal of Proceedings — a compliment 
 which was probably due to the fact that its substance was 
 ably argumentative and its tone was courtly and re- 
 spectful."^^" It was the paper of breadth of view, grasp 
 of pertinent truth and argumentative force. A compari- 
 son of this memorial, together with that of the Presbytery, 
 against a general assessment, which bears date April 25, 
 1777* ^nd which will appear later in this sketch, with Mr. 
 Jefferson's famous "Bill for Establishing Religious Free- 
 dom," reveals the fact, that the Presbytery, representing 
 the Presbyterians of the State, had expressed with re- 
 markable precision and force, the proper relations of 
 Church and State, before the great statesman had drafted 
 his act defining those relations, and that the act was no 
 advance on the positions taken by the Presbytery."^^ 
 
 The Memorial of 1776 is as follows : 
 
 "■ To the Honorable the General Assembly of Virginia : 
 
 " The Memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover humbly repre- 
 sents, That your memoriahsts are governed by the same senti- 
 ments which have inspired the United States of America; and 
 are determined that nothing in our power and influence shall be 
 wanting to give success to their common cause. We would also 
 represent, that dissenters from the Church of England, in this 
 country, have ever been desirous to conduct themselves as peace- 
 able members of the civil government, for which reason they have 
 hitherto submitted to several ecclesiastical burdens and restric- 
 tions, that are inconsistent with equal liberty. But now, when 
 the many and grievous oppressions of our mother country have 
 laid this continent under the necessity of casting off the yoke of 
 tyranny, and of forming independent governments upon equitable 
 
 " William H. Whitsitt, Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace. 
 ^William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. I., pp. 498-499. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 83 
 
 and liberal foundations, we flatter ourselves that we shall be freed 
 from all the encumbrances which a spirit of domination, preju- 
 dice, or bigotry, hath interwoven with most other political sys- 
 tems. This we are the more strongly encouraged to expect, by 
 the Declaration of Rights, so universally applauded for that dig- 
 nity, firmness and precision with which it delineates and asserts 
 the privileges of society, and the prerogatives of human nature; 
 and which we embrace as the magna charta of our common- 
 wealth, that can never be violated without endangering the grand 
 superstructure it was destined to sustain. Therefore we rely upon 
 this Declaration, as well as the justice of our honorable Legisla- 
 ture, to secure us the free exercise of religion according to the 
 dictates of our consciences; and we should fall short in our duty 
 to ourselves and the many and numerous congregations under our 
 care, were we, upon this occasion, to neglect laying before you 
 a state of the religious grievances under which we have hitherto 
 labored; that they may no longer be continued in our present 
 form of government. 
 
 " It is well known that in the frontier counties, which are justly 
 supposed to contain a fifth part of the inhabitants of Virginia, the 
 dissenters have borne the heavy burdens of purchasing glebes, 
 building churches, and supporting the established clergy, where 
 there are very few Episcopalians, either to assist in bearing the 
 expense, or to reap the advantage ; and that throughout the othei 
 parts of the country, there are also many thousands of zealous 
 friends and defenders of our State, who, besides the invidious 
 and disadvantageous restrictions to which they have been sub- 
 jected, annually pay large taxes to support an establishment, from 
 which their consciences and principles oblige them to dissent: all 
 which are confessedly so many violations of their natural rights ; 
 and in their conseqiaence_s, a restraint upon freedom of inquiry, 
 and private judgment. 
 
 " In this enlightened age, and in a land where all, of every 
 denomination, are united in the most strenuous efforts to be free, 
 we hope and expect that our representatives will cheerfully con- 
 cur in removing every species of religious as well as civil bond- 
 age. Certain it is, that every argument for civil liberty, gains 
 additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of re- 
 ligion ; and there is no argument in favor of establishing the 
 Christian religion, but what may be pleaded, with equal propriety 
 for establishing the tenets of Mahommed by those who believe the 
 
84 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Aleoran; or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the 
 magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various 
 sects that profess the Christian faith, without erecting a chair 
 of infallibility, which would lead us back to the Church of Rome. 
 
 " We beg leave farther to represent, that religious establish- 
 ments are highly injurious to the temporal interests of any com- 
 munity. Without insisting upon the ambition, and the arbitrary 
 practices of those who are favored by government; or the intri- 
 guing seditious spirit, which is commonly excited by this, as well 
 as every other kind of oppression; such establishments greatly 
 retard .population, and consequently the progress of arts, sciences, 
 and manufactures: witness the rapid growth and improvements 
 of the Northern provinces, compared with this. No one can deny 
 that the more early settlement, and the many superior advantages 
 of our country, would have invited multitudes of artificers, 
 mechanics and other useful members of society, to fix their habi- 
 tation among us, who have either remained in their place of 
 nativity, or preferred worse civil governments, and a more barren 
 soil, where they might enjoy the rights of conscience more fully 
 than they had a prospect of doing in this. From which we infer 
 that Virginia might have now been the capital of America, and a 
 match for the British arms, without depending on others for the 
 necessaries of war, had it not been prevented by her religious es- 
 tablishment. 
 
 " Neither can it be made to appear that the Gospel needs any 
 such civil aid. We rather conceive that when our blessed Saviour 
 declares his kingdom is not of this world, He renounces all de- 
 pendence upon state power, and as His weapons arc spiritual, 
 and were only designed to have influence on the judgment and 
 heart of man, we are persuaded that if mankind were left in the 
 quiet possession of their unalienable rights and privileges, Chris- 
 tianity, as in the days of the Apostles, would continue to prevail 
 and flourish in the greatest purity, by its own native excellence, 
 and under the all-disposing Providence of God. 
 
 " We would humbly represent, that the only proper objects of 
 civil government are the happiness and protection of men in the 
 present state of existence; the security of the life, liberty and 
 property of the citizens; and to restrain the vicious and encour- 
 age the virtuous by wholesome laws, equally extending to every 
 individual. But that the duty which zve owe our Creator, and the 
 manner of discliarging it, can only be directed by reason and 
 
And Religious Liberty. 85 
 
 conviction; and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the 
 universal Judge. 
 
 " Therefore we ask no ecclesiastical establishments for our- 
 selves; neither can we approve of them when granted to others. 
 This indeed would be giving exclusive or separate emoluments 
 or privileges to the one set (or sect) of men, without any special 
 public services, to the common reproach and injury of every other 
 denomination. And for the reasons recited we are induced earn- 
 estly to entreat, that all laws now in force in this commonwealth 
 which countenance religious domination, may be speedily repealed 
 — that all, of every religious sect, may be protected in the full 
 exercise of their several modes of worship; and exempted from 
 all taxes for the support of any church whatsoever, further than 
 what may be agreeable to their own private choice, or voluntary 
 obligation. This being done, all partial and invidious distinctions 
 will be abolished, to the great honor and interest of the State; 
 and every one be left to stand or fall according to merit, which 
 can never be the case, so long as any one denomination is estab- 
 lished in preference to others. 
 
 " That the great Sovereign of the Universe may inspire you 
 with unanimity, wisdom and resolution and bring you to a just 
 determination on all the important concerns before you is the 
 fervid prayer of your memorialists. 
 
 " Signed by order of the Presbytery. 
 
 " John Todd, Moderator. 
 
 " Caleb Wallace, P. Clerk." "^ 
 
 The Rev. Caleb Wallace is believed to have written the 
 memorial. He was sent by the Presbytery to Williams- 
 btirg to push the views of the Presbytery with the mem- 
 bers of the legislature, which he seems to have done with 
 great ability. In addition to other means, he appears to 
 have availed himself of the columns of the Virginia Ga- 
 
 -^ This memorial is still preserved in the Virginia archives. 
 Copies may be found in William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, 
 PP- 323, 324; in William H. Whitsitt, Life and Times of Judge 
 Caleb Wallace, pp. 47-49 ; C. F. James, The Struggle for Religious 
 Liberty in Virginia, pp. 222-225. 
 
86 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 zette, November 8th, 1776, to set forth, in a paper entitled 
 Queries on the Subject of Religious Establishments, one 
 of the ablest performances within the range of the entire 
 Hterature of the struggle for religious freedom in Vir- 
 ginia."'* 
 
 Mr. Thomas Jefferson regarded the enforced support 
 of the Established Church upon Dissenters who believed 
 the Establishment to be erroneous in important particu- 
 lars, as an unrighteous compulsion. He was the leading 
 champion, in the Assembly of 1776, of religious freedom. 
 He gave, long afterwards, the following account, er- 
 roneous in regard to certain features-^ of the struggle, but 
 trustworthy in regard to the results, of the contest which 
 he and iiis party waged : 
 
 " The first Republican Legislature, which met in 1776, was 
 crowded with petitions to abolish this spiritual tyranny. These 
 brought on the severest contest in which I have ever been en- 
 gaged. Our great opponents were Mr. Pendleton and Robert 
 Carter Nicholas; honest men, but zealous churchmen. The peti- 
 tions were referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
 State of the Country; and after desperate contests in that com- 
 mittee, almost daily from the nth of October to the Sth of De- 
 cember, we prevailed so far only, as to repeal the laws which 
 rendered criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, the 
 forbearance of repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode 
 of worship ; and, further, to exempt dissenters from contributions 
 to the support of the Established Church; and to suspend only 
 until the next session, levies on the members of that church for 
 the salaries of their own incumbents. For, although a majority 
 of our citizens were dissenters, the majority of the Legislature 
 were churchmen. Among these, however, were some reasonable 
 and liberal men, who enabled us on some points to obtain feeble 
 
 *■• William H. Whitsitt, Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace, 
 PP- 43-47- 
 
 ^ Cf. William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches 
 of Patrick Henry, Vol. L, p. 493, et seq. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 87 
 
 majorities. But our opponents carried, in the general resolutions, 
 of the committee of November 19th, a declaration that religions 
 ought to be regulated, and that provision ought to be made for 
 continuing the succession of the clergy, and superintending their 
 conduct." '" 
 
 On suspending the tax for the support of the ministers 
 of the Episcopal Church, the legislature of 1776 invited, 
 an expression of the public opinion on the question of a 
 general assessment for the support of religion. The 
 earliest expression of opinion in response to this invitation, 
 which posterity has thought worthy of preservation, and 
 the ablest given in all years while the question was open — 
 the one that continued to represent the voice of the Pres- 
 byterian people, is the following paper drafted by Revs. 
 Samuel Stanhope Smith and David Rice, and presented 
 to the House of Delegates, June 3, 1777: 
 
 " To the Honorable the General Assembly of Virginia : 
 
 '• The memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover humbly repre- 
 sents, that your memorialists and the religious denomination with 
 which we" are connected, are most sincerely attached to the com- 
 mon interests of the American States, and are determined that 
 our most fervent prayers and strenuous endeavors shall ever be 
 united with our fellow-subjects to repel the assaults of tyranny 
 and to maintain our common rights. In our former memorial we 
 have expressed our hearty approbation of the Declaration of 
 Rights, which has been made and adopted as the basis of the 
 laws and government of this State, and now we take the oppor- 
 tunity of testifying that nothing has inspired us with greater con- 
 fidence in our Legislature, than the late act of Assembly declaring 
 that equal liberty, as well religious as civil, shall be universally 
 extended to the good people of this country; and that all the 
 oppressive acts of Parliament respecting religion which have been 
 formerly enacted in the mother country, shall henceforth be of 
 no validity or force in this commonwealth; as also exempting 
 dissenters from all levies, taxes, and impositions, whatsoever, 
 
 *" Thomas Jefferson: Works, Vol. I., p. 39. 
 
Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith 
 
[ ' And Religious Liberty. 89 
 
 towards supporting the Church of England as it now is or here- 
 after may be established. We would, therefore, have given our 
 honorable Legislature no further trouble on this subject, but we 
 are sorry to find that there yet remains a variety of opinions 
 touching the propriety of a general assessment, or whether every 
 religious society shall be left to voluntary contributions for the 
 maintenance of the ministers of the Gospel who are of diflferent 
 persuasions. As this matter is deferred by our Legislature to the 
 discussion and final determination of a future Assembly, when 
 the opinions of the country in general shall be better known ; we 
 think it our indispensable duty again to repeat a part of the prayer 
 of our former memorial, 'that dissenters of every denomination 
 may be exempted from all taxes for the support of any church 
 whatsoever, further than what may be agreeable to the private 
 choice or voluntary obligations of every individual ; while the civil 
 magistrates no otherwise interfere than to protect them all in 
 the full and free exercise of their several modes of worship.' We 
 then represented as the principal reason upon which this request 
 is founded, that the only proper objects of civil governments are 
 the happiness and protection of men in the present state of exist- 
 ence, the security of the life, liberty and property of the citizens, 
 and to restrain the vicious and encourage the virtuous by whole- 
 some laws equally extending to every individual; and that the 
 duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging 
 it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere 
 cognizable but at the tribunal of the Universal Judge. 
 
 " To illustrate and confirm these assertions, we beg leave to 
 observe, that to judge for ourselves, and to engage in the exer- 
 cise of religion agreeable to the dictates of our own consciences is 
 an unalienable right, which upon the principles that the Gospel 
 was first propagated, and the reformation from Popery carried on, 
 can never be transferred to another. Neither does the Church of 
 Christ stand in need of a general assessment for its support ; and 
 most certain we are that it would be no advantage, but an injury 
 to the society to which we belong : and as every good Christian 
 believes that Christ has ordained a complete system of laws for 
 the government of his kingdom, so we are persuaded that, by his 
 providence, he will support it to its final consummation. In the 
 fixed belief of this principle, that the kingdom of Christ, and the 
 concerns of religion, are beyond the limits of civil control, we 
 should act a dishonest, inconsistent part, were we to receive any 
 
90 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 emoluments from human establishments for the support of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 " These things being considered, we hope we shall be excused 
 for remonstrating against a general assessment for any religious 
 purpose. As the maxims have long been approved, that every 
 servant is to obey his master ; and that the hireling is accountable 
 for his conduct to him from whom he receives his wages; in 
 like manner, if the Legislature has any rightful authority over the 
 ministers of the Gospel in the exercise of their sacred office, and 
 it is their duty to levy a maintenance for them as such ; then it- 
 will follow that they may revive the old establishment in its 
 former extent; or ordain a new one for any sect they think 
 proper ; they are invested with a power not only to determine, but 
 it is incumbent on them to declare who shall preach, what they 
 shall preach ; to whom, when, or at what places they shall preach ; 
 or to impose any regulations and restrictions upon religious 
 societies that they may judge expedient. These consequences are 
 so plain as not to be denied ; and they are so entirely subversive 
 of religious liberty, that if they should take place in Virginia, we 
 should be reduced to the melancholy necessity of saying with the 
 apostles in like cases, 'Judge ye whether it is best to obey God or 
 man,' and also of acting as they acted. 
 
 " Therefore, as it is contrary to our principles and interest ; and, 
 as we think, subversive of religious liberty, we do again most 
 earnestly entreat that our Legislature would never extend any 
 assessment for religious purposes to us, or to the congregations 
 under our care. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, shall 
 ever pray for, and demean themselves as peaceable subjects of 
 civil government. 
 
 " Signed by order of the Presbytery. 
 
 " Richard Sankey, Moderator. 
 " Timber Ridge^ April 25, 1777." " 
 
 November 5, 1776, Messrs. Pendleton, Wythe, George 
 Mason, Thomas L. Lee and Thomas Jefferson had been 
 appointed by the Assembly a committee to revise the laws. 
 This committee met at Fredericksburg, January 13, 1777. 
 
 " Found in Virginia Archives. Copy in William H. Foote, 
 ^Ketches of Virginia, pp. ^26-32^, etc, 
 
And Religious Liberty. 91 
 
 It determined upon the plan of abolishing "the whole ex- 
 isting system of laws and preparing a new and complete 
 institute." Messrs. Lee and Alason excused themselves 
 from further services on the committee, on the ground of 
 lack of qualification as not being lawyers. Messrs. Jef- 
 ferson, Wythe and Pendleton, working assiduously, ac- 
 cording to .their own plans, were ready to report to the 
 General Assembly June 18, 1779. Of the one hundred and 
 twenty-six bills proposed by this committee, some bills 
 were taken out from time to time and passed into laws ; 
 "but the main body of the wotk was not entered upon by 
 the legislature, until after the general peace, in 1785, when, 
 by the unwearied exertions of 'Mr. ^Madison, in opposition 
 to the endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations 
 and delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills 
 were passed by the legislature with little alteration. 
 
 "The bill for establishing religious freedom,'' says Mr. 
 Jefferson, "the principles of which had, to a certain degree, 
 been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of rea- 
 son and right. It still met with opposition ; but, with 
 some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed ; 
 and a singular proposition proved that its protection of 
 opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble 
 declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the 
 holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed 
 by inserting the words 'J^sus Christ,' so that it should 
 read 'A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy 
 author of our religion ;' the insertion was rejected by a 
 great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, 
 within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gen- 
 tile, the Christian and ^Mahometan, the Hindoo, and 
 infidel of everv denomination."-^ 
 
 ^ Thomas Jefferson : Works, Vol. L, pp. 44, 45. 
 
92 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Mr. Jefferson had proposed to the Assembly the demoH- 
 tion of Church EstabHshment and the freedom of reHgion 
 as early as 1776, as has appeared. "It could only be done 
 by degrees; to- wit: the act of 1776, c. 2d, exempted Dis- 
 senters from contributions to the Church, and left the 
 Church clergy to be supported by voluntary contributions 
 of their own sect ; was continued from year to year ; and 
 was made perpetual in 1779."^^ Thus the Established 
 Church was stripped of the greater part of her support. 
 The clergy, however, still retained the glebes ; they 
 claimed the prerogative 5f marriage ceremonies with 
 their fees ; and the vestries still exercised the right of lay- 
 ing taxes for the support of the poor. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Dissenters had been anxiously watching 
 the legislature for laws in accord with the Bill of Rights. 
 The Presbytery of Hanover, as its records show, was on 
 the alert. Partially bridled, indeed, by its zeal to see the 
 war with Britain safely ended, before pressing its desires 
 with reference to religion on the attention of the legisla- 
 ture, it was not forgetful of the Assembly's duty to recog- 
 nize in fact and law the separation of Church and State 
 and the absolutely equal treatment of all sects. As soon 
 as the war was over the Presbytery's voice becomes 
 strongly vibrant again. 
 
 At a meeting held at Bethel, Augusta County, May 19, 
 1784, the Presbytery, through the Revs. John Blair Smith 
 and James Waddell, prepared this memorial : 
 
 " To the Honorable Speaker and House of Delegates of Virginia; 
 
 " Gentlemen, — The united clergy of the Presbyterian Church 
 
 in Virginia, assembled in Presbytery, request your attention to the 
 
 following representation. In the late arduous struggle for every- 
 
 "" Thomas Jefiferson : Works, Vol. I., p. 174; Journal House of 
 Delegates, October Session, 1776, pp. 62, 6^. 
 
j^E\ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 
 '''^^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^^'>' 
 
 
 ' ^S 
 
 
 
 Rev. John Blair Smith 
 
94 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 thing dear to us, a desire of perfect liberty and political equality 
 animated every class of citizens. An entire and everlasting free- 
 dom from every species of ecclesiastical domination, a full and 
 permanent security of the unalienable rights of conscience, and 
 private judgment, and an" equal share of the protection and favor 
 of government to all denominations of Christians, were particu- 
 lar objects of our expectations and irrefragable claim. The happy 
 resolution effected by the virtuous exertions of our countrymen 
 of various opinions in religion was a favorable opportunity of 
 obtaining these desirable objects without faction, contention or 
 complaint. All ranks of men, almost, felt the claims of justice 
 when the rod of oppression had scourged them into sensibility, 
 and the powerful band of common danger had cordially united 
 them together against civil encroachments. The members, there- 
 fore, of every religious society had a right to expect, and most of 
 them did expect, that former invidious and exclusive distinctions, 
 preferences, and emoluments conferred by the State on any one 
 sect above others would have been wholly removed. They justly 
 supposed that any partiality of this kind, any particular and illicit 
 connection or commerce between the State and one description 
 of Christians more than another, on account of peculiar opinions 
 in religion or anything else would be unworthy of the represen- 
 tatives of a people perfectly free, and an infringement of that 
 religious liberty which enhances the value of other privileges in 
 the state of society. 
 
 " We, therefore, and the numerous body of citizens in our com- 
 munion, as well as many others, are justly dissatisfied and uneasy, 
 that our expectations from the Legislature have not been an- 
 swered in these important respects. We regret that the prejudice 
 of education, the influence of partial custom, and habits of think- 
 ing confirmed by these, have too much confounded the distinction 
 between matters purely religious and the objects of human legis- 
 lation, and have occasioned jealousy and dissatisfaction by injur- 
 ious inequalities, respecting things which are connected with 
 religious opinions, towards different sects of Christians. That 
 this uneasiness may not appear to be entertained without ground, 
 we would wish to state the following unquestionable facts for 
 the consideration of the House of Delegates : 
 
 " The security of our religious rights upon equal and impartial 
 ground, instead of being made a fundamental part of our con- 
 stitution, as it ought to have been, is left to the precarious fate of 
 
And Religious Liberty. 95 
 
 common law. A matter of general and essential concern to the 
 people is committed to the hazard of the prevailing opinion of a 
 majority of the Assembly at its different sessions. In consequence 
 of this the Episcopal Church was virtually regarded as the con- 
 stitutional church, the church of the State, at the Revolution; 
 and was left by the framers of our present government in that 
 station of unjust pre-eminence which she had formerly acquired 
 under the smiles of royal favor. And even when the late oppres- 
 sive establishment of that church was at length acknowledged an 
 unreasonable hardship by the Assembly in 1776, a superiority and 
 distinction in name was still retained, and it was expressly styled 
 the Established Church, as before ; which title was continued as 
 late as the year 1778, and never formally disclaimed : Our com- 
 mon danger at that time not permitting that opposition to the 
 injustice of such distinction which it required and deserved. 
 
 " But 'a seat on the right hand of temporal glory as the estab- 
 lished mother church' was not the only inequality then counte- 
 nanced, and still subsisting, of which we now have reason to re- 
 gret and complain. Substantial advantages were also confirmed 
 and secured to her by a partial and inequitable decree of govern- 
 ment. We hope the time past would have sufficed for the enjoy- 
 ment of these emoluments which that church long possessed 
 without control by the abridgment of the equal privileges of 
 others, and the aid of their property wrested from them by the 
 hand of usurpation ; but we were deceived. An estate computed 
 to be worth several hundred thousand pounds in churches, glebes, 
 etc., derived from the pockets of all religious societies, was ex- 
 clusively and unjustly appropriated to the benefit of one, without 
 compensation or restitution to the rest, who in many places, were 
 a large majority of the inhabitants. 
 
 "Nor is this the whole of the injustice we have felt in matters 
 connected with religious opinion. The Episcopal Church is 
 actually incorporated, and known in law as a body, so that it 
 can receive and possess property for ecclesiastical purposes, with- 
 out trouble or risk in securing it, while other Christian Com- 
 munities are obliged to trust to the precarious fidelity of trustees 
 chosen for the purpose. The Episcopal clergy are considered as 
 having a right, ex-ofUcio. to celebrate marriages throughout the 
 State, while unnecessary hardships and restrictions are imposed 
 upon other clergymen in the law relating to that subject passed in 
 1780, which confines their exercise of that function to those coun- 
 
96 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 ties, where they receive a special license from the court by recom- 
 mendation, for recording which they are charged with certain 
 fees by the clerks ; and which exposes them to a heavy fine for 
 delay in returning certificates of marriage to the office. 
 
 " The vestries of the different parishes, a remnant of hierarchi- 
 cal domination, have a right by law to levy money from, the people 
 of all denominations for certain purposes, and yet these vestrymen 
 are exclusively required by law to be members of the Episcopal 
 Church, and to subscribe a conformity to its doctrines and disci- 
 pline as professed and practiced in England. Such preferences, 
 distinctions and advantages granted by the Legislature exclusively 
 to one sect of Christians are regarded by a great number of your 
 constituents as glaringly unjust and dangerous. Their contin- 
 uance so long in a republic, without animadversion or correction 
 by the Assembly, affords just ground for alarm and complaint to 
 a people, who feel themselves, by the favor of Providence, happily 
 free; who are conscious of having deserved as well from the 
 State as those who are most favored; who have an undoubted 
 right to think themselves as orthodox in opinion upon every 
 subject as others, and whose privileges are as dear to them. 
 Such partiality to .any system of religious opinion whatever is 
 inconsistent with the intention and proper object of well-directed 
 government, and obliges men of reflection to consider the Legis- 
 lature which indulges it, as a party in religious differences, instead 
 of a common guardian and equal protector of every class of citi- 
 zens in their religious as well as civil rights. We have hitherto 
 restrained our complaints from reaching our representatives, that 
 we might not be thought to take advantages from times of con- 
 fusion, or critical situations of government in an unsettled state 
 of convulsion and war, to obtain what is our clear and incon- 
 testable right. 
 
 " But as the happy restoration of peace affords leisure for 
 reflection, we wish to state our sense of the objects of this me- 
 morial to your honorable house upon the present occasion; that 
 it may serve to remind you of what might be unnoticed in a mul- 
 titude of business, and remain as a remonstrance against future 
 encroachments from any quarter. That uncommon liberality of 
 sentiment, which seems daily to gain ground in this enlightened 
 period, encourages us to hope from your wisdom and integrity, 
 gentlemen, a redress of every grievance and remedy of every 
 abuse. Our invaluable privileges have been purchasd by the com- 
 
And Religious Liberty. 97 
 
 mon blood and treasure of our countrymen of different names 
 and opinions, and therefore ought to be secured in full and perfect 
 equality to them all. We are willing to allow a full share of 
 credit to our fellow citizens, however distinguished in name from 
 us, for their spirited exertions in our arduous struggle for liberty; 
 we would not wish to charge any of them, either ministers or 
 people, with open disaffection to the common cause of America, 
 or with crafty dissimulation or indecision, till the issue of the 
 war was certain, so as to oppose their obtaining equal privileges 
 in religion; but we will resolutely engage against any monopoly 
 of the honors or rewards of government by any one sect of Chris- 
 tians more than the rest ; for we shun not a comparison with any 
 of our brethren for our efforts in the cause of our country and 
 assisting to establish her liberties, and therefore esteem it un- 
 reasonable that any of them should reap superior advantages for, 
 at most, but equal merit. We expect from the representatives 
 of a free people that all partiality and prejudice on any account- 
 whatever will be laid aside, and that the happiness of the citizens 
 at large will be secured upon the broad basis of perfect political 
 equality. This will engage confidence in government and unsus- 
 picious affection toward our fellow-citizens. We hope that the 
 Legislature will adopt some measures to remove present inequality 
 and resist any attempt, either at their present session or hereafter, 
 to continue those which we now complain of. Thus by pre- 
 serving a proper regard to every religious denomination as the 
 common protectors of piety and virtue, you will remove every real 
 ground of contention, and allay every jealous commotion on the 
 score of religion. The citizens of Virginia will feel themselves 
 free, unsuspicious and happy in this respect. Strangers will be 
 encouraged to share our freedom and felicity; and when civil 
 and religious liberty go hand in hand, our late posterity will bless 
 the wisdom and virtue of their fathers. We have the satisfaction 
 to assure you that we are steady well-wishers to the State and 
 your humble servants. " The Presbytery of Hanover." '" 
 
 '" This memorial is found in the Virginia Archives. Copies are 
 in William H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, pp. 333-334 ; and in 
 C. F. James, The Struggle for Religious Liberty in Virginia pp. 
 227 ff. 
 
98 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 By appointment of the Presbytery, the Rev. John Blair 
 Smith and the Rev. James Waddell were charged with 
 having this memorial properly presented to the Assembly, 
 a duty which these gentlemen discharged to the satisfac- 
 tion of the Presbytery, as is shown by the minutes of its 
 next meeting. 
 
 This paper shows that Hanover Presbytery of May, 
 1784, is the worthy successor of the body of the same 
 name of 1777. They still make the "distinction between 
 matters purely religious, and the objects of human legis- 
 lation," they are dissatisfied with the "injurious inequali- 
 ties respecting things which are connected with religious 
 opinion." "Such partiality to any system of religious 
 opinion whatever, is inconsistent with the intention and 
 proper object of well-directed government." They long 
 to have "civil and religious liberty go hand in hand." 
 
 From the beginning of the struggle for separation of 
 Church and State, some of the citizens seem to have 
 favored the State's providing for a general assessment to 
 support all sects. During the year 1784 the subject of a 
 general assessment was freshly brought before the legis- 
 lature in its two sessions, by petitions: ""May 15, 1784: 
 A petition of sundry inhabitants of the County of War- 
 wick, . . . setting forth that, in the present neglected 
 state of religion and morality, they conceive a general 
 assessment would greatly contribute to restore and propa- 
 gate the holy Christian religion ; and praying that an act 
 may pass for the assessment upon all titheables for the 
 support of religion.""^ 
 
 June 4, 1784: "A petition of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church was presented to the House and read, setting 
 
 ^^ Copy in C. F. James, The Struggle for Religious Liberty in 
 Virginia, p. 122. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 99 
 
 forth that their church labors under many inconveniences 
 and restraints, by the operation of sundry laws now in 
 force, which direct modes of worship, and enjoin the ob- 
 servance of certain days, and otherwise produce embar- 
 rassment and difficulty ; and praying that all acts which 
 direct modes of faith and worship and enjoin the observ- 
 ance of certain days may be repealed ; that the present 
 vestry laws may be repealed or amended; that the 
 churches, glebe lands, donations, and all other property 
 heretofore belonging to the Established Church may for- 
 ever be secured to them by law ; that an act may pass to 
 incorporate the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia 
 to enable them to regulate all the spiritual concerns of 
 that Church ; and in general, that the legislature will aid 
 and patronize the Christian religion. '"'*- 
 
 Patrick Henry was an advocate of a general assessment 
 for the support of religion. The decadence of religion in 
 the presence of spreading French infidelity, occasioned 
 doubts in the minds of liberal statesmen as to the pro- 
 priety of the non-support of religion by the State. It was 
 generally feared that some kind of assessment would be 
 demanded by the majority of the citizens and passed into 
 an act by the legislature. Under these circumstances the 
 Presbytery, meeting at Timber Ridge, October 27, 1784, 
 approved another memorial, drawn up by the Rev. Messrs. 
 William Graham and John Blair Smith, to be presented to 
 the General Assembly of the State. This memorial states 
 again in various implications the view as to the proper 
 relation of State and Church hitherto maintained by Han- 
 over Presbytery. But on the view that, contrary to this 
 theory, some kind of assessment would be imposed, under- 
 
 '^ C. F. James, Id., p. 124 ; F. L. Hawks, Contributions to the 
 Ecclesiastical History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 156, 157. 
 
loo Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 took to indicate that the only tolerable kind of assessment 
 must proceed on so liberal a basis as to provide for the 
 inclucation "of the great fundamental principles of all 
 religion" merely. 
 
 The memorial of October, 1784, is as follows: 
 
 " To the Honorable Speaker and House of Delegates of Virginia : 
 " Gentlemen,^The united clergy of the Presbyterian Church of 
 Virginia assembled in Presbytery, beg leave again to address your 
 honorable house upon a few important subjects, in which we find 
 ourselves interested as citizens of this State. 
 
 " The freedom we possess is so rich a blessing, and the pur- 
 chase of it has been so high, that we would ever wish to cherish 
 a spirit of vigilant attention to it in every circumstance of pos- 
 sible danger. We are anxious to retain a full share of all the 
 privileges which our happy Revolution affords, . and cannot but 
 feel alarmed at the continued existence of any infringement upon 
 them, or even any indirect attempt tending to this. Impressed 
 with this idea as men, whose rights are sacred and dear to them, 
 ought to be, we are obliged to express our sensibility upon the 
 present occasion, and we naturally direct our appeal to you, gen- 
 tlemen, as the public guardians of your country's happiness and 
 liberty, who are influenced, we hope, by that wisdom and justice 
 which your high station requires. Conscious of the rectitude of 
 our intentions and the strength of our claims, we wish to speak 
 our sentiments freely upon these occasions, but at the same time 
 with all that respectful regard which becomes us when addressing 
 .the repres'entatives of a great and virtuous people. It is with pain 
 that we find ourselves obliged to renew our complaints upon the 
 subjects stated in our memorial last spring. We deeply regret 
 that such obvious grievances should exist unredressed in a repub- 
 lic whose end ought to be the happiness of all the citizens. We 
 presumed that immediate redress would have succeeded a clear 
 and just representation of them, as we expect that it is always the 
 desire of our representatives to remove real grounds of uneasi- 
 ness and allay jealous commotions amongst the people. But as 
 the objects of the memorial, though very important in their nature, 
 and more so in their probable consequences, have not yet been 
 
And Religious Liberty. ioi 
 
 obtained, we request that the House of Delegates would be 
 pleased to recollect what we had the honor to state to them in 
 that paper at their last sessions; to resume the subject in their 
 present deliberation; and to give it that weight which its impor- 
 tance deserves. The uneasiness which we feel from the con- 
 tinuance of the grievances just referred to, is increased under 
 the prospect of an addition to them by certain exceptionable 
 measures said to be proposed to the Legislature. We have under- 
 stood that a comprehensive incorporating act has been and is at 
 present in agitation, whereby ministers of the Gospel, as such, of 
 certain descriptions, shall have legal advantages which are not 
 proposed to be extended to the people at large of any denomina- 
 tion. A proposition has been made by some gentlemen in the 
 House of Delegates, we are told, to extend the grace to us, 
 amongst others, in our professional capacity. If this be so, we 
 are bound to acknowledge with gratitude our obligations to such 
 gentlemen for their inclination to favor us with the sanction of 
 public authority in the discharge of our duty. But as the scheme 
 of incorporating clergymen, independent of the religious com- 
 munities to which they belong, is inconsistent with our ideas of 
 propriety, we request the liberty of declining any such solitary 
 honor should it be again proposed. To form clergymen into a 
 distinct order in the community, and especially where it would be 
 possible for them to have the principal direction of a consider- 
 able public estate by such" incorporation, has a tendency to render 
 them independent, at length, of the churches whose ministers 
 they are ; and this has been too often found by experience to 
 produce ignorance, immorality, and neglect of the duties of their 
 station. 
 
 " Besides, if clergymen were to be erected by the State into a 
 distinct political body, detached from the rest of the citizens, 
 with the express design of 'enabling them to direct spiritual mat- 
 ters,' which we all possess without such formality, it would 
 naturally tend to introduce that antiquated and absurd system, in 
 which government is owned, in effect, to be the fountain head 
 of spiritual influences to the Church. It would establish an im- 
 mediate, a peculiar, and for that very reason, in our opinion, 
 illicit connection between government and such as were thus 
 distinguished. The Legislature in that case would be the head 
 of a religious party, and its dependent members would be entitled 
 to all decent reciprocity, to a becoming paternal and fostering 
 
102 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 care. This, we suppose, would be giving a preference and creating 
 a distinction between citizens equally good, on account of some- 
 thing entirely foreign from civil merit, which would be a source 
 of endless jealousies, and inadmissible in a republic or any other 
 well-directed government. The principle, too, which this system 
 aims to establish is both false and dangerous to religion, and we 
 take this opportunity to remonstrate and protest against it. The 
 real ministers of true religion derive their authority to act in the 
 duties of their profession from a higher source than any Legisla- 
 ture on earth, however respectable. Their office relates to the 
 care of the soul, and preparing it for a future estate of existence, 
 and their administrations are, or ought to be, of a spiritual nature, 
 suited to this momentous concern. And it is plain from the very 
 nature of the case that they should neither expect nor receive 
 from government any permission or direction in this respect. We 
 hope, therefore, that the House of Delegates shares so large a 
 portion of that philosophic and liberal discernment which prevails 
 in America at present as to see this matter in its proper light — 
 and that they will understand too well the nature of their duty 
 as the equal and common guardians of the chartered rights of all 
 the citizens to permit a connection of this kind we have jusi 
 mentioned to subsist between them and the spiritual instructors of 
 any religious denomination in the State. The interference of 
 government in religion cannot be indififerent to us, and as it will 
 probably come under consideration at the present session of the 
 Assembly, we request the attention of the honorable House to our 
 sentiments upon this head. 
 
 " We conceive that human legislation ought to have human 
 affairs, as they relate to this world alone for its concern. Legis- 
 lators in free states possess delegated authority for the good of 
 the community at large in its political or civil capacity. 
 
 " The existence, preservation and happiness of society should 
 be their only object, and to this their public cares should be con- 
 fined. Whatever is not materially connected with this lies not 
 within their province as statesmen. The thoughts, the inten- 
 tions, the faith, and the consciousness of men, with their modes 
 of worship, lie beyond their reach, and are ever to be referred 
 to a higher and more penetrating tribunal. These internal and 
 spiritual matters cannot be measured by human rules, nor be 
 amenable to human laws. It is the duty of every man, for him- 
 self, to take care of his immortal interests in a future state, 
 
And Religious Liberty. 103 
 
 where we are to account for our conduct as individuals, and it is 
 by no means the business of a Legislature to attend to this, for 
 there governments and states as collective bodies shall no more 
 be known. 
 
 " Religion, therefore, as a spiritual system, and its ministers in 
 a professional capacity, ought not to be under the direction of the 
 State. 
 
 Neither is it necessary to their existence that they should be 
 publicly supported by a legal provision for the purpose, as tried 
 experience has often shown; although it is absolutely necessary 
 to the existence and welfare of every political combination of men 
 in society to have the support of religion and its solemn institu- 
 tions as affecting the conduct of rational beings more than human 
 laws can possibly do. On this account it is wise policy in legisla- 
 tors to seek its alliance and solicit its aid in a civil view, because 
 of its happy influence upon the morality of its citizens, and its 
 tendency to preserve the veneration of an oath, or an appeal to 
 heaven, which is the cement of the social union. Ii. is upon this 
 principle alone, in our opinion, that a legislative body has a right 
 to interfere in religion at all, and of consequence we suppose that 
 this interference ought only to extend to the preserving of the 
 public worship of the deity and the supporting' of institutions for 
 inculcating the great fundamental principles of all religion, vitb-r 
 out which society could not easily exist. Should it be thought 
 necessary at present for the Assembly to exert this right of sup- 
 porting religion in general by an assessment on all the people 
 we would wish it to be done on the most liberal plan. A general 
 assessment of the kind we have heard proposed is an object o'' 
 such consequence that it excites much anxious speculation 
 amongst your constituents. 
 
 " We therefore earnestly pray that nothing may be done in 
 the case inconsistent with the proper objects of human legis- 
 lation or the Declaration of Rights as published at the Revolution. 
 We hope that the assessment will not be proposed under the idea 
 of supporting religion as a spiritual system, relating to the care of 
 the soul and preparing it for its future destiny. W^e hope that 
 no attempt will be made to point out articles of faith that are not 
 essential to the preservation of society, or to settle modes of wor- 
 ship, or to interfere in the internal government of religious com- 
 munities, or to render the ministers of religion independent of 
 the will of the people whom they serve. We expect from our 
 
104 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 representatives that careful attention to the political equality of all 
 the citizens, which a republic ought ever to cherish; and that no 
 scheme of an assessment will be encouraged which will violate 
 the happy privilege we now enjoy of thinking for ourselves in 
 all cases where conscience is concerned. 
 
 " We request the candid indulgence of the honorable House to 
 the present address, and their most favorable construction of the 
 motives which induce us to obtrude ourselves into public notice. 
 We are urged by a sense of duty. We feel ourselves impressed 
 with the importance of the present crisis. We have expressed 
 ourselves in the plain language of freedom, upon the interesting 
 subjects which called for animadversion, and we hope to stand 
 excused with you, gentlemen, for the manner in which it is exe- 
 cuted, as well as for the part we take in the public interests of the 
 community. In the present important moment we conceive it 
 criminal to be silent, and have therefore attempted to discharge 
 a duty which we owe to our religion as Christians ; to ourselves 
 as freemen, and to our posterity, who ought to receive from us 
 a precious birthright of perfect freedom and political equality. 
 
 " That you may be blessed with the direction of Heaven in your 
 deliberations and possess in a high degree the spirit of your im- 
 portant station, is the prayer of your humble servants. 
 
 " The Presbytery of Hanover." ^ 
 
 At the same meeting of the Presbytery, a plan was in- 
 troduced, "agreeably to which alone Presbytery are will- 
 ing to admit a general assessment for the support of 
 religion by law ; the leading principles of which are as 
 follows : First, Religion as a spiritual system is not to be 
 considered as an object of human legislation, but may, in 
 a civil view, as preserving the existence and promoting 
 the happiness of society. Second, That public worship 
 and public periodical instruction to the people, be main- 
 tained in this view by a general assessment for this pur- 
 pose. Third, That every man, as a good citizen, be 
 
 ^ See State Archives, copy in William H. Foote, Id., pp. 536- 
 538; C. F. James, Id., pp. 231-235. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 105 
 
 obliged to declare himself attached to some religious com- 
 munity, publicly known to profess the belief in one God, 
 his righteous providence, our accountableness to him, and 
 a future estate of rewards and punishments. Fourth, That 
 every citizen should have liberty annually to direct his 
 assessed proportion to such community as he chooses. 
 Fifth, That twelve titheables, or more, to the amount of 
 one hundred and fifty families, as near as local circum- 
 stances will admit, shall be incorporated, and exclusively 
 direct the application of the money contributed for their 
 support." 
 
 The Presbytery was led to give reluctant, wavering and 
 inconsistent assent to a hypothetical assessment, because 
 it was asseverated that some form of assessment zvas in- 
 evitable. It had the courage, be it remembered, to restate 
 by implications and to vindicate the relation of the civil 
 and ecclesiastical powers which it regarded as correct, 
 even while making the concession. Some of the members 
 of Presbytery were highly dissatisfied with the assent, 
 qualified, even though it was. Moses Hoge, afterwards 
 president of Hampden-Sidney College, was one of these.^* 
 
 While the Rev. William Graham, rector of Liberty Hall 
 Academy, and Rev. John Blair Smith, president of Hamp- 
 den-Sidney, are chiefly chargeable for the contents of this 
 memorial, Mr. Graham seems to have been moved to take 
 the part he did by the conviction that an assessment of 
 some sort was inevitable, since Mr. Patrick Henry advo- 
 cated it and so many citizens favored it; and even the 
 Rev. John Blair Smith, though he is suspected to have 
 entertained temporarily the scheme with more favor, had 
 the hardihood to make a fling at Mr. Henry, in 1788, for 
 
 ''See sketch of Moses Hoge, D. D., in William H. Foote, 
 Sketches of Virginia, p. 557. 
 
io6 Vhkhnia Presbyterianism 
 
 his advocacy of the Assessment Bill of 1784.^^ Their 
 "tolerable" scheme of assessment was unlike others, in 
 that it would have had the State support the Mahomedan 
 sects, etc., as well as the Christian sects, if it felt that it 
 ought, to support religion by a general tax. But it was 
 misunderstood by friends and foes, and has been mis- 
 represented down to this day : According to the Journal 
 of the House of Delegates, October session, 1784, the 
 united clergy of the Presbyterian Church expressed the 
 opinion, that, "a. general assessment for the support of 
 religion ought to be extended to those who profess the 
 public worship of the deity. ^^ Mr. James Madison thought 
 the Presbyterian clergy semed "as ready to set up an 
 establishment which is to take them in, as they were to put 
 down that which shut them out."^^ 
 
 The October Memorial (1784) is the ground on which 
 partisan writers have made such ugly assertions, as that, 
 "The Presbyterians . . . broke ranks and went over to 
 the Episcopalians and Methodists in favor of General In- 
 corporation and General Assessment Bills," — assertions 
 false in several particulars. 
 
 The Presbyterian laity were intolerant of this "toler- 
 able" scheme.^® 
 
 Mr. Bancroft thus characterizes the situation: ."The 
 Presbyterians at first were divided. Their clergy, even 
 while they held that human legislation should concern 
 
 "'William Wirt Henry, Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
 Patrick Henry, Vol. II.', p. 333. 
 
 "^ William C. Rives Life and Times of lames Madison, Vol. 
 I., p. 601. 
 
 '^ William C. Rives, idem, Vol. I., p. 630. 
 
 ^See here, William C. Rives, idem, Vol. I., pp. 609 and 630; 
 see also Mr. Bancroft's words incorporated in text. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 107 
 
 human affairs alone, that conscience and rehgious worship 
 He beyond its reach, accepted the measure, provided it 
 should respect every human belief, 'even of the Mussul- 
 man and the Hindoo.' The Presbyterian laity, accustomed 
 to support their own ministry, chose rather to continue 
 to do so."^® 
 
 In the first of these assertions, Mr. Bancroft is incor- 
 rect in impliedly teaching that the whole body of the 
 clergy was willing to have the assesment even on the plan. 
 A'majority of the Presbytery, under the lead of two able 
 members, went so far as to declare that if an assessment 
 was to be had, in order to its being tolerable, it must 
 conform to a given plan ; and to grant that the exigencies 
 of the State might make such a plan desirable. Even this 
 anticipation of possible defeat of their preferred theory, 
 and the effort to prevent as far as possible injustice in 
 that event, gave profound dissatisfaction to the Presby- 
 terian people. 
 
 This dissatisfaction w^as evinced in various ways. The 
 Presbytery was sharply interrogated at its next meeting. 
 May 19, 1785, as to its meaning in the Memorial of Oc- 
 tober, 1784. The body was met at Bethel in Augusta 
 County. A petition was presented to the Presbytery from 
 the session of Augusta congregation, requesting an ex- 
 plication of the word "liberal, as used in the Presbytery's 
 Memorial of last fall ; and also the motives and end of the 
 Presbytery in sending it to the Assembly." . . . "On 
 motion, the opinion of the Presbytery was taken — whether 
 they do approve of any kind of assessment by the General 
 Assembly for the support of religion. Presbytery are 
 tmanimously against such a measure:" 
 
 Meanwhile, a bill for the incorporation of the clergy of 
 
 '" George Bancroft, History of the United States, VI., p. 156. 
 
io8 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church had been introduced, in 
 the fall of 1784, in the Virginia Legislature; of which 
 Mr. James Madison has given the following description : 
 
 "The Episcopal clergy introduced a notable project for re- 
 establishing their independence of the laity. The foundation of 
 it was that the whole body should be legally incorporated, in- 
 vested with the present property of the Church, made capable of 
 acquiring indefinitely, empowered to make canon and by-laws not 
 contrary to the laws of the land; and incumbents, when once 
 chosen by the vestries, to be irremovable otherwise than by sen- 
 tence of the convocation. Extraordinary as such a project was, 
 it was preserved from a dishonorable death by the talents of Mr. 
 Henry. It lies over for another session." ^° 
 
 During the same session a bill had been introduced, 
 entitled "A Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of 
 the Christian Religion." The preamble was as follows : 
 
 " Whereas the general diffusion of Christian knowledge hath 
 a natural tendency to correct the morals of men, restrain their 
 vices and preserve the peace of society, which cannot be effected 
 without a competent provision for learned teachers, who may be 
 thereby enabled to devote their time and attention to the duty of 
 instructing such citizens as, from their circumstances and want 
 of education, cannot otherwise attain such knowledge; and it is 
 judged such provision may be made by the Legislature without 
 counteracting the liberal principle heretofore adopted and in- 
 tended to be preserved by abolishing all distinctions of pre- 
 eminence among the different societies or communities of Chris- 
 tians." 
 
 This act passed to its third reading. It had the pat- 
 ronage of Patrick Henry. It showed no partiality for 
 one over others of Christian sects. All taxed persons 
 were to declare to what denomination of Christians they 
 would give their support. If they would not specify a 
 
 ^'' William C. Rives, Life and Times of lames Madison, Vol. I., 
 p. 562. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 109 
 
 denomination, their assessments were to go to the support 
 of schools of learning in their respective counties. 
 
 On its third reading, the engrossed bill was sent out 
 for public examination, and to elicit indications as to the 
 desires of the people. 
 
 There was general and free discussion. Hanover Pres- 
 bytery felt that Presbyterians should speak out. Accord- 
 ingly, we find the following amongst the minutes of its 
 May meeting, 1785 : 
 
 " On motion, the opinion of the Presbytery, and likewise of 
 several members of different congregations present was taken, 
 whether a general convention of the Presbyterian body was ex- 
 pedient in our present circumstances. It was unanimously agreed 
 to; and an invitation was accordingly signed by the ministers 
 and several private members of the Presbyterian Church to the 
 whole body, to send representatives to a convention proposed to 
 be held at Bethel, on the loth day of next August." 
 
 Mr. James Madison learns of this, and speaks much 
 more approvingly of the Presbyterian clergy. 
 
 On the 29th of May he writes : "The adversaries to 
 the assessment begin to think the prospect here flattering 
 to their wishes. The printed bill has excited great dis- 
 cussion, and is likely to prove the sense of the community 
 to be in favor of the liberty now enjoyed. I have heard 
 of several counties where the late representatives have 
 been laid aside for voting for the bill, and not a single 
 one where the reverse has happened. The Presbyterian 
 clergy, too, who were, in general, friends to the scheme, 
 are already in another tone — either compelled by the 
 laity of that sect, or alarmed at the probability of farther 
 interference of the legislature if they begin to dictate in 
 matters of religion." 
 
 On the 2ist of June he again writes: "A very warm 
 opposition- will be made to this innovation (the general 
 
no Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 assessment) b}^ the people of the middle and back coun- 
 ties, particularly the latter. They do not scruple to de- 
 clare it an alarming usurpation on their fundamental 
 rights ; and that, though the General Assembly should 
 give it the form, they will not give it the validity of a 
 law. If there be any limitation to the power of the 
 legislature — particularly if this limitation is to be sought 
 in our Declaration of Rights, or form of government — I 
 own the bill appears to me to warrant this language of 
 the people."*^ 
 
 The Presbyterian Convention, called to meet in August, 
 1785, at Bethel, Augusta County, convened at the ap- 
 pointed time. It prepared, chiefly through the hand of 
 William Graham, again, a memorial and sent it forth for 
 signers. This paper expresses the mind and heart of the 
 Presbyterians of the time. Of it their posterity may well 
 be proud. This is the document : 
 
 " To the Honorable th$ General Assembly of the Commonwealth 
 of Virginia: 
 
 " The Ministers and lay Representatives of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Virginia, assembled in convention, beg leave to address 
 you. 
 
 "As citizens of the State, not so by accident, but choice, and 
 having willingly conformed to the system of civil policy adopted 
 for our government and defended it with the foremost at the 
 risk of everything dear to us, we feel ourselves deeply interested 
 in all the measures of the Legislature. 
 
 " When the late happy Revolution secured to us an exemption 
 from British control, we hoped that the gloom of injustice and 
 usurpation would have been forever dispelled by the cheering 
 rays of liberty and independence. This inspired our hearts with 
 
 " William C. Rives, Life and Times of James Madison, Vol. 
 I., p. 630 fif. These " back counties " were strongholds of the Pres- 
 byterians. 
 
And Religious Liberty. hi 
 
 resolution in the most distressful scenes of adversity and nerved 
 our arm in the day of battle. But our hopes have since been over- 
 cast with apprehension when we found how slowly and unwill- 
 ingly ancient distinctions among the citizens on account of re- 
 ligious opinions were removed by the Legislature. For although 
 the glaring partiality of obliging all denominations to support 
 the one which had been the favorite of government, was pretty 
 early withdrawn, yet an evident predilection in favor of that 
 church still subsisted in the acts of the Assembly. Peculiar dis- 
 tinctions and the honor of an important name were still con- 
 tinued, and these are considered as equally partial and injurious 
 with the ancient emoluments. Our apprehensions on account of 
 the continuance of these, which could have no other effect than to 
 produce jealous animosities and unnecessary contentions among 
 different parties, were increased when we found that they were 
 tenaciously adhered to by government notwithstanding the re- 
 monstrances of several Christian societies. To increase the evil 
 a manifest disposition has been shown by the State to consider 
 itself as possessed of supremacy in spirituals, aS well as temporals, 
 and our fears have been realized in certain proceedings of the 
 General Assembly at their last sessions. The engrossed bill for 
 establishing a provision for the teachers of the Christian religion 
 and the act for incorporating the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 so far as it secures to that church, the churches, glebes, etc., pro- 
 cured at the expense of the whole community, are not only evi- 
 dences of this, but of an irnpolitic partiality which we are sorry 
 to have observed so long. 
 
 " We therefore, in the name of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Virginia, beg leave to exercise our privilege as freemen in re- 
 monstrating against the former absolutely, and against the latter 
 under the restrictions above expressed. 
 
 " We oppose the bill, 
 
 " Because it is a departure from the proper lines of legislation ; 
 
 " Because it is unnecessary and inadequate to its professed 
 end — impolitic, in many respects — and a direct violation of the 
 Declaration of Rights. 
 
 " The end of civil governments is security to the temporal 
 liberty and property of mankind, and to protect them in the free 
 exercise of religion. Legislators are invested with powers from 
 their constituents for this purpose only and their duty extends 
 no farther. Religion is altogether personal, and the right of 
 
112 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 exercising it unalienable, and it is not, cannot, and ought not to 
 be, resigned to the will of the society at large, and much less to 
 the Legislature, which derives its authority wholly from the con- 
 sent of the people, and is limited by the original intention of civil 
 associations. 
 
 " We never resigned to the control of government our right 
 of determining for ourselves in this important article, and acting 
 agreeably to the convictions of reason and conscience in discharg- 
 ing our duty to our Creator. And therefore it would be an un- 
 warrantable stretch of prerogative in the Legislature, to make 
 laws concerning it, except for protection. And it would be a fatal 
 symptom of abject slavery in us were we to submit to the usurpa- 
 tion. 
 
 " The bill is also an unnecessary and inadequate expedient for 
 the end proposed. We are fully persuaded of the happy influence 
 of Christianity upon the morals of men, but we have never known 
 it, in the history of its progress, so effectual for this purpose, as 
 when left to its native excellence and evidence to recommend it, 
 under the all-directing Providence of God, and free from the in- 
 trusive hand of the civil magistrate. Its Divine Author did not 
 think it necessary to render it dependent on earthly governments. 
 And experience has shown that this dependence, where it has 
 been effected, has been an injury rather than an aid. It has 
 introduced corruption among the teachers and professors of it, 
 wherever it has been tried, for hundreds of years, and has Peen 
 destructive of genuine morality in proportion to the zeal of the 
 powers of this world in arming it with the sanction of legal ter- 
 rors or inviting to its profession by honors and rewards. 
 
 " It is urged, indeed, by the abettors of this bill that it would 
 be the means of cherishing religion and morality among the 
 citizens. But it appears from the fact that these can be promoted 
 only by the internal conviction of the mind and its voluntary 
 choice, which such establishment cannot effect. 
 
 " We further remonstrate against the bill as an impolitic 
 measure : 
 
 " It disgusts so large a proportion of citizens that it would 
 weaken the influence of government in other respects, and diffuse 
 a spirit of opposition to the rightful exercise of constitutional 
 authority, if enacted into a law. 
 
 " It partially supposes the Quakers and Menonites to be more 
 
And Religious Liberty. 113 
 
 faithful in conducting the religious interests of their societies 
 than the other sects — which we apprehend to be contrary to fact. 
 
 " It unjustly subjects men who may be good citizens, but who 
 have not embraced our common faith, to the hardship of sup- 
 porting a system they have not as yet believed the truth of, and 
 deprives them of their property, for what they do not suppose 
 to be of importance to them. 
 
 " It establishes a precedent for farther encroachments by 
 making the Legislature judges of religious truth. If the Assem- 
 bly have a right to determine the preference between Christianity 
 and the other systems of religion that prevail in the world, they 
 may also, at a convenient time, give a preference to some favored 
 sect among Christians. 
 
 " It discourages the population of our country by alarming 
 those who may have been oppressed by religious establishments 
 in other countries with fears of the same in this, and by exciting 
 our own citizens to emigrate to other lands of greater freedom. 
 
 " It revives the principle which our ancestors contested to blood, 
 of attempting to reduce all religions to one standard by the force 
 of civil authority. 
 
 "And it naturally opens a door for contention among citizens 
 of different creeds and different opinions respecting the extent of 
 the powers of government. 
 
 " The bill is also a direct violation of the Declaration of Rights, 
 which ought to be the standard of all laws. The sixteenth 
 article is clearly infringed upon by it, and any explication which 
 may have been given of it by the friends of this measure in the 
 Legislature so as to justify a departure from its literal construc- 
 tion might also be used to deprive us of other fundamental prin- 
 ciples of our government. 
 
 " For these reasons and others that might be produced we con- 
 ceive it our duty to remonstrate and protest against the said 
 bill, and earnestly urge that it may not be enacted into a law. 
 
 " We also wish to engage your attention a little farther while 
 we request a revision of the act for incorporating the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, and state our reasons for this request. We 
 do not desire to oppose the incorporation of that church for the 
 better management of its temporalities; neither do we wish to 
 lessen the attachment of any of the members of the Legislature 
 in a private capacity to the interests of that church. We rather 
 wish to cultivate a spirit of forbearance and charity towards the 
 
114 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 members of it, as the servants of one common Master who differ 
 in some particulars from each other. But we cannot consent that 
 they shall receive particular notice or favor from government as 
 a Christian society, nor peculiar distinctions or emoluments. 
 
 " We find by the act that the convenience of the Episcopal 
 Church has been consulted by it, in the management of their 
 interests as a religious society at the expense of other denomina- 
 tions. Under the former establishment there were perhaps few 
 men who did not at length perceive the hardships and injustice 
 of a compulsory law, obliging the citizens of this State by birth- 
 right free, to contribute to the support of a religion from which 
 their reason and conscience obliged them to dissent. Who then 
 would not have supposed that the same sense of justice which 
 induced the Legislature to dissolve the grievous establishment 
 would also have induced them to leave to common use the prop- 
 erty in churches, glebes, etc., which had been acquired by common 
 purchase. 
 
 " To do otherwise was, as we conceive, to suppose that long 
 prescription could sanction injustice, and that to persist in error 
 is to alter the essential difference between right and wrong. As 
 Christians also, the subjects of Jesus Christ, who are wholly 
 opposed to the exercise of spiritual powers by civil rulers, we 
 conceive ourselves obliged to remonstrate against that part of 
 the incorporating act which authorizes and directs the regulation 
 of spiritual concerns. This is such an invasion of Divine prero- 
 gative, that it is highly exceptionable on that account, as well as 
 on account of the danger to which it exposes our religious liber- 
 ties. Jesus Christ hath given sufficient authority to his Church 
 for every lawful purpose, and it is forsaking his authority and 
 direction for that of fallible men, to expect or to grant the sanc- 
 tion of civil law to authorize the regulation of any Christian 
 society. It is also dangerous to our liberties, because it creates 
 an invidious distinction on account of religious opinions, and 
 exalts to a superior pitch of grandeur, as the Church of the 
 State, a society which ought to be contented with receiving the 
 same protection from government which the other societies enjoy, 
 without aspiring to superior notice or regard. The Legislature 
 assumes to itself by that law the authoritative direction of this 
 church in spirituals, and can be considered in no other light than 
 its head, peculiarly interested in its welfare ; a matter which 
 cannot be indifferent to us, though this authority has only as yet 
 
And Religious Liberty. 115 
 
 been extended to those who have requested it or acquiesced in it. 
 This Church is now considered as the only regular church in the 
 view of the law, and it is thereby raised to a state of unjust pre- 
 eminence over others. And how far it may increase in dignity 
 and influence in the State by these means at a future day, and 
 especially when aided by the emoluments which it possesses and 
 the advantages of funding a very large sum of money without 
 account, time alone can discover. But we esteem it our duty 
 to oppose the act thus early, before the matter be entangled in 
 precedents more intricate and dangerous. Upon the whole, there- 
 fore, v.e hope that the exceptionable parts of this act will be 
 repealed by your honorable House, and that all preferences, dis- 
 tinctions and advantages contrary to the fourth article of the 
 Declaration of Rights will be forever abolished. 
 
 " We regret that full equality in all things and ample protection 
 and security to religious liberty were not incontestably fixed in 
 the constitution of the government. But we earnestly request 
 that the defect may be remedied as far as it is possible for the 
 Legislature to do it by adopting the bill in the revised laws 
 for establishing religious freedom. (Chap. LXXXII. of the 
 report.) 
 
 " That Heaven may illuminate your minds with all that wisdom 
 which is necessary for the important purpose of your deliberation 
 is our earnest wish. And we beg leave to assure you that how- 
 ever warmly we may engage in preserving our religion free from 
 the shackles of human authority and opposing claims of spiritual 
 domination in civil powers we are zealously disposed to support 
 the government of our country and to maintain a due submission 
 to the lawful exercise of its authority. 
 
 "Signed by order of 'the Convention. 
 
 " John Todd, CJiairman. 
 
 "Attest, Daniel McCalla, Clerk. 
 
 Bethel, Augusta County, 13^/1 August, 1785." " 
 
 Under the stimulus of the opposition to the Bill of 
 Assessment, Mr. Madison prepared his "Masterly" "Me- 
 
 *^In Virginia State Archives. Copy in Foote's Sketches of Vir- 
 ginia, pp. 342-344; also in C. F. James, The Struggle for Religious 
 Liberty in Virginia, pp. 236-240. 
 
ii6 Virginia Presbyterianism j 
 
 morial and Remonstrance" to the legislature against the 
 bill. Madison, "whom Witherspoon had imbued with 
 theological lore,"*^ with his political philosophy and his 
 practical spirit, discussed the question of an establishment 
 of religion by law, from every possible point of view — of 
 natural right, the inherent limitations of the civil power, 
 the interests of religion itself, the genius and precepts of 
 Christianity, the warning lessons of history, the dic- 
 tates of a wise and sober policy — and treated them all 
 with a consummate power of reasoning, and a force of 
 appeal to the understandings and hearts of the people, 
 that bore down every opposing prejudice, and precluded 
 reply. It was dififused extensively throughout the State, 
 and was rapidly covered with the signature of voters. 
 
 "When the Assembly met in October, the table of the 
 House of Delegates almost sank under the weight of the 
 accumulated copies of the memorials sent forward from 
 the different counties, each with its long and dense col- 
 umns of subscribers. The fate of the assessment was 
 sealed. The manifestation of the public judgment was too 
 unequivocal and overwhelming to leave the faintest hope 
 to the friends of the measure. It was abandoned without 
 a struggle."** 
 
 December 17th, an engrossed bill, entitled "An Act for 
 the Establishment of Religious Freedom," passed the 
 House. This bill was Mr. Jefferson's bill, with some 
 "mutilations in the preamble." 
 
 The following is the bill : 
 
 *' George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. VI., p. 
 156. 
 
 " William C. Rives, Life and Times of James Madison, Vol. I., 
 pp. 632. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 117 
 
 "AN ACT FOR ESTABLISHING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM." 
 
 " 'Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free ; that all 
 attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or 
 by civil incorporations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and 
 meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author 
 of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind,' yet 
 chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his 
 almighty power to do; that the impious presumptiors of legisla- 
 tors and rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, who being themselves 
 but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the 
 faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of 
 thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring 
 to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false 
 religions over the greater part of the world and through all time ; 
 that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the 
 propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyran- 
 nical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher 
 of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfort- 
 able liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor 
 whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he 
 feels most persuasive to righteousness and is withdrawing from 
 the ministry those temporary rewards which, proceeding from an 
 approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement 
 to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; 
 that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions 
 any more than our opinions in physics and geometry ; that, there- 
 fore, the prescribing any citizens as unworthy of public confidence 
 by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of 
 trust or emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that 
 religious opinion is depriving him injuriously of those privileges 
 and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he 
 has a natural right ; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of 
 that religion it is meant to encourage by bribing with a monopoly 
 of worldly honors and emoluments those who will externally pro- 
 fess and conform to it; that though indeed those are criminal who 
 do not withstand such temptations, yet neither are those innocent 
 who lay the bait in their way ; that to suffer the civil magistrate 
 to intrude his power into the field of opinion, and to restrain the 
 profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill 
 tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all re- 
 
ii8 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 ligious liberty, because he being, of course, judge of that ten- 
 dency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve 
 or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square 
 with or differ from his own ; that it is time enough for the right- 
 ful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when 
 principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order, 
 and, finally, that truth is great, and will prevail, if left to herself ; 
 that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has 
 nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition 
 disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, error 
 ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict 
 them. 
 
 " 2d. Be it enacted by the General Assembly^ That no man shall 
 be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place 
 or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, mo- 
 lested or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise 
 sufifer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that 
 all men shall be free to profess, and, by arguments, maintain their 
 opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no 
 wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities. 
 
 " 3d. And though we well know that this Assembly, elected 
 by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have 
 no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, consti- 
 tuted with powers. equal to our own; and that, therefore, to de- 
 clare this act to be irrevocable, would be of no effect in law ; yet 
 we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby 
 asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act 
 shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its 
 operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right." 
 
 The principles of this statute were carried by James 
 Madison into the Constitution of the United States, by its 
 first amendment, which contained the provision that "Con- 
 gress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
 religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 
 
 Concerning the relation of Mr. Madison to the ten 
 amendments to the Constitution of the United States 
 ratified in 1 791, Mr. William C. Rives well says : "Nothing 
 short of the high standing of Mr, Madison in the public 
 
And Religious Liberty. 119 
 
 councils, and the deference accorded to his opinions and 
 his virtues, could have secured a favorable reception for 
 propositions so counter to the prepossessions of the body 
 to which they were addressed."*^ But Mr. Madison, great 
 friend as he was of religious liberty and ready to form 
 bulwarks for its protection, was, at first, indisposed to the 
 amendments. "Until he met Mr. Henry in debate on the 
 floor of the Virginia Convention (called to consider the 
 Federal Constitution), Mr. Madison had manifested no 
 disposition to amend the Constitution. Pressed by the 
 arguments of Mr. Henry, he agreed to advocate amend- 
 ments in order to secure ratification. Afterwards, when 
 defeated for the Senate by Mr. Henry, and having to 
 carry a district demanding amendments, he was forced to 
 pledge himself to his constituents to advocate them, in 
 order to secure his election. It was thus, by the influence 
 of Mr. Henry, the great leader of the anti-Federalists, 
 that he was driven to the course he pursued, and in 
 which he dared not halt. While he disobeyed the com- 
 mand of the Virginia Convention, in not offering all the 
 amendments that body proposed, yet what he ac- 
 complished may well be set down as so much to the credit 
 of Mr. Henry and the earnest men who acted with him. 
 And it is doubtless true, as Mr. Madison said, that he 
 accomplished all that it was possible for him to do, even 
 if he had approved of and urged all the amendments pro- 
 posed by Virginia."**^ 
 
 Thus, the man who had put the world into his debt for 
 the plank on religion in Mason's draft of the Virginia 
 
 "William C. Rives, Life and Times of lames Madison, Vol. 
 III., p. 40. 
 
 " William Wirt Henry, Life and Correspondence and Speeches 
 of Patrick Henry, Vol. I., pp. 445 ff. 
 
I20 Virginia Plesbyterianism 
 
 Bill of Rights, shares largely in the honor with Mr. Madi- 
 son, in putting it, as perfected by the latter, into the Con- 
 stitution of the United States. 
 
 The neutral religious character of the Constitution of 
 the United States co-worked with the influences which 
 had availed to give it this character, to delete, by degrees, 
 the provisions which .implied the obligations to a particular 
 religion, inwrought into the organic laws of the older 
 States. 
 
 Thus the principles which Virginia Presbyterians had 
 done so much to further, triumphed throughout the coun- 
 try. "The separation of the Church and the State by the 
 establishment of religious equality was followed by the 
 wonderful result that it was approved of everywhere, 
 always and by all."*^ 
 
 Presbyterians are not entitled to exclusive praise. Did 
 not the Episcopal Church furnish a considerable quota, in 
 the course of the struggle, to aid in the process of dis- 
 establishing their own church? Did they not furnish 
 heroic and able leaders? It is conceded by all that the 
 Baptists did yeoman service in the cause. But it is clear 
 that the great mass of Presbyterians were always true to 
 the cause; that they generally furnished the effective 
 leadership in the fight for it; that they excelled in the 
 pleas which were put forth in behalf of "soul liberty;" 
 and that they made the largest contribution to the educa- 
 tion, severally, of Mr. Patrick Henry, and Mr. James 
 Madison, the great statesmen, who, more than any other 
 statesmen of the time, wrought successfully to the legal 
 and constitutional recognition of religious liberty. They 
 made a struggle toward and for religious liberty, which, 
 
 " George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. VI.. 
 P- 123 
 
And Religious Liberty. 121 
 
 for length, persistence, tactfulness, resourcefulness, effi- 
 ciency and general consistency, united with a regard for 
 the rights of others, challenges the highest admiration. 
 
 It may well be believed that had Presbyterians been in 
 the majority in Virginia, they would have given to the 
 people full religious liberty much more quickly. "Nor 
 was the demand by Presbyterians for equality confined to 
 Virginia, where they were in a minority," says Mr. Ban- 
 croft ; "^'it was from Witherspoon, of New Jersey, that 
 Madison imbibed the lesson of perfect freedom in mat- 
 ters of conscience. When the Constitution of that State 
 was framed by a convention composed chiefly of Presby- 
 terians, they established perfect liberty of conscience 
 without the blemish of a test."*^ 
 
 ^'George Bancroft History of the United States, Vol. VI., p. 
 123. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Accomac county, 13, 1(5, 26. 
 
 Act establishing religious free- 
 dom, of 1785, 117, 118. 
 
 Act of Toleration, English, 14, 
 15, 59. 
 
 , efforts to secure its ap- 
 plication in the American 
 Coloiiies, 15, 5(3. 
 
 , discussed, 17-23, 33, b5, 
 
 65-69. 
 
 Act of Uniformity of 1662, 9. 
 
 Act of UrifonnUy of 1642, 12. 
 
 Act, Stamp Act, 57. 
 resolutions against, 58. 
 consequences of, 59. 
 
 Acts of 1755 and 1758, 49, 52. 
 
 Augusta county. County Com- 
 mittee of, memoralizes Legis- 
 lature, of 1776, 81, 62. 
 
 Alcoran, 84. 
 
 Anderson, Rev. James, 28, 65. 
 
 Armstrong Rev. James, 75. 
 
 Assessment, General, of the kind 
 proposed by the state, 87, 
 
 . 88, 99. 
 
 , opposed by Presbyter- 
 ians, 110, 115. 
 
 — , of the only kind to 
 
 which Hanover Presbytery 
 would give assent, 100-115. 
 
 , misunderstood and un- 
 
 happy, 101. 
 Avery, Dr. Benjamin, 36, 37. 
 Baird, C. W., 61. 
 Baltimore, Lord, 79. 
 Bancroft, George, History of the 
 
 United istates, referred to, 10, 
 
 72, 78, 107, 116. 
 Baptists, 7, 54, 55. 
 Barbadoes, 13, 20. 
 Bekely, 19, 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, instruc- 
 tions to, of 1062, 11. 
 
 , betrays religious nar- 
 rowness, 12. 
 
 "Bill Establishing a Provision 
 for the Teaching of Religion," 
 of 1784," 108, 109. 
 
 "Bill for Incorporation of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 of 1784, 108. 
 
 Bill of Rights, Virginia, 17fr, 
 80, 83. 
 
 Bill of Toleration, of 1772, 64, 
 65. 
 
 Blair, Rev. Samuel, 31. 
 
 Blue Ridge, 20, 29, 41, 47. 
 
 Boston, Brethren of the minis- 
 try at. Letter of, 25. 
 
 Bowen, L. P., i7, 24. 
 
 Boyd, Rev. Adam, 75. 
 
 Bratton, Colonel, 76. 
 
 Briggs, C. A., American Preshy- 
 terianism, referred to, 10, 25, 
 01, 70, 75, 76. 
 
 Burgesses, House of, Religious 
 narrowness of, 11, 12, 50, 51, 
 53. 
 
 Burke's History of Virginia, 34. 
 
 Cabell, Colonel William, 64. 
 
 Caldwell, Rev. David, 75. 
 
 Caldwell, Rev. James, 75. 
 
 Caldwell, John, 27. 
 
 Calhoun, John C, 27. 
 
 Cannon, Rev. John, 50. 
 
 Campbell, Colonel, 76. 
 
 Charles II., y. 
 
 Church and State, How con- 
 nected, 79. 
 
 , forces which worked for 
 
 the separaton of, 7, 8, 77-80, 
 110, 115. 
 
124 
 
 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Church and State, the proper 
 relations between, 87ff. 
 
 Church of England in Early 
 Virginia, 9, 11. 
 
 Church, Protestant Episcopal, 
 petition of, in 1784, 99. 
 
 Civil Government should con- 
 cern themselves only with, 84. 
 
 Claverhouse, 14. 
 
 Cleaveland, Colonel, 76. 
 
 Clergy of the Established 
 Church in Virginia, 9, 10, 31, 
 36, 47, 48, 53. 
 
 , their maintenance, 48. 
 
 , memoralize Legislature 
 
 of 1776, 81. 
 
 College of New Jersey, 38. 
 
 Colonists of Virginia, early, 9. 
 
 committee to revise laws of Vir- 
 ginia, 91. 
 
 Convention, Virginia, of 1776, 
 77. 
 
 Cornbury, Lord, 19ff. 
 
 Corporation Act, 15. 
 
 Council, Governor, and Council 
 of Virginia, narrowness of, 
 33, 37, 43, 45. 
 
 Cowpens, Battle of, 75. 
 
 Crashowe, W., 10. 
 
 Cumming, Rev. Alexander, 60. 
 
 Dale, Sir Thomas, 10. 
 
 Dalziel, 14. 
 
 Davies, Rev. Samuel, 31, 53. 
 
 , parentage and qualities, 
 
 31, 32. 
 
 -, approaches to Hanover, 
 
 32, 33. 
 
 effectiveness 
 
 preacher in his field, 34. 
 
 , size of his parish, 34, 35. 
 
 , struggles for licensure 
 
 of preaching places, 35ff. 
 , letter to Dr. Benjamin 
 
 Avery, 36. 
 , efforts to secure the 
 
 legal rights of dissenters, 37, 
 40flF. 
 
 , missionary journeys of, 
 
 38. 
 
 , his political services in 
 
 the French-Indian war, 41ff. 
 
 Davies, introduces other min- 
 isters into his territory, 42. 
 
 , mission to England, 3sii. 
 
 , made president of the 
 
 College of New Jersey, 43. 
 
 , place in religious and 
 
 civil history of Virginia, 44, 
 45. 
 
 , influence on Patrick 
 
 Henry, 44, 53. 
 Dickson, Major, 76. 
 Dissenters, condition of, in the 
 
 Colony, 9, 14, 82ff. 
 , persecution of, ■ 12, 38, 
 
 39. 
 
 , plan devised by which 
 
 they were to force licensing 
 preaching places, 40. 
 
 , growth of, 63, 64. 
 
 , petition Legislature, 80, 
 
 81, 82ff. 
 
 Dutch Reformed, 73, 76. 
 
 Elders, Presbyterian, who dis- 
 tinguished themselves during 
 the Revolutionary War, 75, 
 76. 
 
 Elizabeth River, 11, 26. 
 
 Established Church, uses of, 52, 
 85. 
 
 Establishment demolished, 92, 
 94, 96. 
 
 Fleming, John, 58. 
 
 Foote, William H., Sketches of 
 Virginia, referred to, 16, 24, 
 36, 37, 38, 44, 45, 64, 85, 90, 
 98 105, 115. 
 
 Force, Peter, referred to, 24. 
 
 Fredericksburg, 91. 
 
 French-Indian War, 41, 43, 57. 
 
 Froude, James A., quoted, 46. 
 
 General Assessment, 87, 88. 
 
 George II., rebuked by Davies, 
 39. 
 
 Gooch, Governor William, 27, 29 
 
 , letter of Synod of Phil- 
 adelphia to, 28, 65. 
 
 , why ready to promise 
 
 tolerance to Valley Presby- 
 terians, 29. 
 
 , angered at Hanover 
 
 county Presbyterians, 31. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 
 
 [25 
 
 Government, English, breadth 
 of in regard to religion, 11. 
 
 Graham, Rev. William, 61, 100, 
 105, 110. 
 
 Great Britain's oppressive treat- 
 ment of the colonies, 57. 
 
 Green, Rev. Jacob, 75. 
 
 Hall, Rev. James, 75. 
 
 Hallam, Henry, 15. 
 
 Hawks, F. L., 48. 
 
 Hanover county Presbyterians, 
 29fr. 
 
 , origin of, 29, 30. 
 
 , treatment of, 30ff. 
 
 , their difficulties in find- 
 ing a name for themselves, 
 30. 
 
 , history of, 31flF. 
 
 Hanover Presbytery, 43ff. 
 
 , organized, 43. 
 
 , remonstrates against 
 
 Toleration bill of 1772, 
 64-69. 
 
 , memorials of to Legis- 
 lature of 1776, 82-85. 
 
 , to Legislature of 1777, 
 
 87-90. 
 
 , to Legislature of spring 
 
 of 1784, 94-98. 
 
 , to Legislature of fall of 
 
 1784, 99-104. 
 
 , to Legislature of 1785, 
 
 110-115. 
 
 , on assessment schemes, 
 
 100-107, 109, 110-115. 
 
 Harris, Samuel, 54. 
 
 Hennings, Statutes at Large, re- 
 ferred to 12, 49, 50. 
 
 Henry, Mrs. John, 45. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 46ff. 
 
 , moulded by Presbyter- 
 ian influence, 45, 46. 
 
 , argument of Parsons 
 
 ease, 5 Iff. 
 
 , defence of persecuted 
 
 Baptist, 54. 
 
 , opposition to the Stamp 
 
 Act, 57-59. 
 
 , his hand in the Virginia 
 
 Bill of Rights, 77. 
 
 Henry, Pat'k hand in separa- 
 tion of Church and State, 80. 
 , advocate of general as- 
 sessment, 99, 106, i09. 
 , insists on amendments 
 
 to the Constitution of the 
 U. S., one of which express- 
 ed the principle of religious 
 liberty, 119,120. 
 
 Henry, Rev. Robert, 42. 
 
 Henry, William Wirt, discovers 
 remonstrance of Hanover 
 Presbytery of 1774, 69. 
 
 , Life, Correspondence 
 
 and Speeches of Patrick Hen- 
 ry, referred to, 29, 33, 46, 49, 
 53, 55, 59, 64, 72, 77, 80, 82, 
 86, 106, 119. 
 
 Hill, Rev. William, 24. 
 
 Hindoo Religion, 92. 
 
 Hite, Joist, 20. 
 
 Hoge, Rev. Moses, 105. 
 
 Huck's Defeat, 75, 76. 
 
 Hugar, 76. 
 
 Huguenots, 13, 54, 76. 
 
 Hunt, Rev. Robert, 9. 
 
 Hutchinson's History of the 
 Province of Mass. Bay, 25. 
 
 Intolerance, Religious, 31. 
 
 Jackson, William, 17. 
 
 James, C. P., Struggle for Re- 
 ligious Liberty in Virginia, 
 referred to, 51, 81, 85, 98, 99, 
 104, 115. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 86, 87, 91, 
 92, 116. 
 
 Johnston, George, 58, 59. 
 
 Kettletas, Rev. Abraham, 75. 
 
 King's Mountain, battle of, 75. 
 
 Laws, severe against Dissenters, 
 11, 12, 
 
 Lee, Henry, 61. 
 
 Lee, Thomas L., 91. 
 
 Legislature of 1776, 86. 
 
 Liberty, civil and religious, 
 
 ,views of the Scotch-Irish 
 
 on, 26. 
 
 , favored by Providence, 
 
 43, 46. 
 
 -, many forces working 
 
 for, 7, 8, 46, 47. 
 
126 
 
 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 liberty, discussed by Presby- 
 terians in New York, 60. 
 
 , denounced by Presby- 
 terians, 76. 
 
 (See memorials of Hanover 
 Presbytery. ) 
 
 , guaranteed in Virginia 
 
 Bill of Rights, 78. 
 
 , Struggle over religious 
 
 liberty in Legislature of 1776, 
 86, 87. 
 
 , Presbyterians ask l^eg- 
 
 islature of 1785 to enact Jef- 
 ferson bill as law, 110-115. 
 
 , "Act for Establishing 
 
 Religious Freedom," 117, 118. 
 
 , principle of religious 
 
 freedom embedded in the Con- 
 stitution of the U. S.J 
 
 78, 118-1-J. 
 
 , Presbyterians share in 
 
 furthering it, 120-121. 
 
 Lutherans," Hanover Presby- 
 terians call themselves so, 30. 
 
 , changing Bill of Rights, 
 
 61-63. 
 
 , hand in separation of 
 
 Church and State, 80. 
 
 agency in securing the 
 
 adoption of the Virginia laws 
 in 1785, 91. 
 
 harsh views of Presby- 
 
 terians, 106. 
 
 , describes bill of 1784 
 
 for the incorporation of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 108. 
 
 , pleased, again, with 
 
 Presbyterians, 109-116. 
 
 , his memorial and re- 
 monstrance, 116. 
 
 , carries principle of re- 
 ligious liberty into the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, 
 118-120. 
 
 Magnalia of Cotton Mather, D. 
 D., 11. 
 
 Makemie, Francis, 13, 14, 16, 
 17, 25, 55. 
 
 , arrest and trial of, 17, 
 
 25. 
 
 Marion, General Francis, 76. 
 Maryland, 11, 12, 13, 
 Mason, George, 77', 91, 120. 
 IVIaury, Rev. James, 50, 52, 53. 
 McCall, Rev. Daniel, 75. 
 McCalla, Rev. Daniel, 115. 
 McWhorter, Rev. Alexander, 75. 
 Memorials and Petitions to the 
 
 Legislature, 80, bo, 98, 99, 
 
 100. 
 Memorials of Hanover Presby- 
 . tery : 
 
 that of 1776, 82-85. 
 
 that of 1777, 87-90. 
 
 that of 1784, April, 93-98. 
 
 that of 1784, October. 100-104. 
 
 that of 1785, 110-115. 
 Merid.eth, Colonel, 46. 
 Methodists, 81. 
 Mohammetan religion, 92. 
 Mohammed, 84. 
 Morgan, General, 75. 
 Mormonism, 7. 
 Morrow, Major Samuel, 76. 
 Murray, Rev. John, 75. 
 Nansemond county Puritans, 
 
 10, 12. 13. 
 Neill. E. D., Works of, referred 
 
 to, 10, 11. 
 New England, appeared to for 
 
 ministei-s, 10. 
 , emigrated to by Puri- 
 tans, 11. 
 Nicholas, Robert Carter, 86. 
 Opeckon, 26. 
 Orange, William of, and his 
 
 wife, Mary, 15. 
 Parson's Cause, 49-53, 56. 
 Patillo, Rev. Henry, 75. 
 Peace of Paris, 57. 
 Pendleton. 45, oo, 86, 91. 
 Penn, William, 79. 
 Petitions and memorials to the 
 Legislatures of Virginia: 
 
 to that of 1776. 80-85. 
 
 to that of 1777, 87-90. 
 
 to that of 1784,94-98,102-104 
 
 to that of 1785, 110-115. 
 Pickens, General, 76. 
 Potomoke, 26. 
 
And Religious Liberty. 
 
 127 
 
 Presbyierians, American friends 
 of American Independence, 
 70-76. 
 
 Presbyterians in Hanover coun- 
 ty (see Hanover county Pres- 
 byterians). 
 
 Presbyterians m North Caro- 
 lina, 71. 
 
 Presbyterians in Southwest Vir- 
 ginia, 70, 71. 
 
 Presbyterians in the Valley of 
 Virginia fix upon preaching 
 places without license, 44. 
 
 Presbyterians in Virginia, 7, 8, 
 13, 26, 29, 44, 59, 61, 63, 70, 
 71,82, 106. • 
 
 Presbvterians maligned, 107, 
 110-115. 
 
 Presbytery of Hanover, 43, 64- 
 69. 
 
 , ask for larger liberty, 
 
 70. 
 
 , memc-alize Legislature 
 
 of 1776. 81. 
 
 , and of 1777, 87-90. 
 
 , and of 1784 twice, 94- 
 
 98, 99-107. 
 
 , on general assessments, 
 
 99-107, 109. 110-115. 
 
 Presbytery of Laggan, 13, 14. 
 
 Preston, Thomas L., 71. 
 
 Prince Edward county, sundry 
 inhabitants of, 80. 
 
 Princeton College, 61. 
 
 Progress into religious liberty, 
 57-121. 
 
 Providence favoring liberty of 
 religion, 43, 46. 
 
 Puritanism in New Jersey, 73. 
 
 Puritanism in New York, 60-72. 
 
 Puritans, percentage of, and 
 character of, in Colonial Vir- 
 ginia, 10, 11, 13, 83. 
 
 Quakers, 7, 15. 
 
 Qualification of Makemie under 
 the Toleration Act, 16. 
 
 Queries on the subject of relig- 
 ious establishments, 86. 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, 77. 
 
 Randolph, Peyton, 34, 35, 43, 
 45, 58. 
 
 Records of Presbyterian Church, 
 33, 74. 
 
 Revolution, English, of 1688, 15 
 
 Revolutionary War, 59, 60, 70. 
 
 Rice, Rev. David, 69, 87. 
 
 Rives, William C, Life ana Let- 
 ters of Madison, referred to, 
 61, 62, 77, 78, 106, 107, 108, 
 110, 116, liy. 
 
 Roan, Rev. John. 30. 
 
 Robinson, Rev. William, 30. 
 
 Rodgers, Rev. John, 33, 34, 75. 
 
 Sankey, Rev. Richard, 90. 
 
 Scotch, 13, 26. 
 
 Scotch-Irish : 
 
 of Mecklenburg, N. C, 71, 72. 
 of Southwest Virginia, 70, 71. 
 of Virginia generally, 13, 26, 
 38, 59. 
 
 Scott, John Morin, 60. 
 
 Sermons of Samuel Davies, 41, 
 42, 43, 44. 
 
 Sevier, Colonel, 76. 
 
 Shelley, Colonel, 76. 
 
 Smith, Rev. John Blair, 61. 
 
 Smith, Rev. Sanuel Stanhope, 
 61. 
 
 Smith. William. 60. 
 
 Smythe, Rev. Thomas, 76. 
 
 Stamp Act, 57. 
 
 , resolutions against, 58. 
 
 , brought on Revolution- 
 ary War, 59. 
 
 State, Church and forces which 
 worked for the separation of, 
 7, 8. 
 
 Stennet, Rev. Dr., 39. 
 
 Stuart, James, 15. 
 
 Stuarts, restoration of, to the 
 English throne, 12. 
 
 Sumpter, Colonel, 76. 
 
 Synod of New York and Phila- 
 delphia, pastoral letter of, 73, 
 74. 
 
 Synod of Philadelphia, 27. 
 
 Tennent, Rev. Gilbert, 38. 
 
 Tennent, Rev. William, Jr., 31, 
 75. 
 
 Test Act, 15. 
 
 Tobacco Legislation, 48, 49, 50ff. 
 
 Todd, Rev. John, 43, 85, 115. 
 
:28 
 
 Virginia Presbyterianism 
 
 Toleration, Act of, 14, 15, 16, 
 
 27. 
 , discussed by Makemie 
 
 and Cornbury, 17-23. 
 
 -: , by Davies, 33-35. 
 
 by Hanover Presbytery, 
 
 65-69. 
 
 , a shield to Presbyter- 
 ians, 59. 
 
 bill of 1772, 64, 65. 
 
 Trevilian, Captain, 52. 
 Valley of Virginia: 
 
 character of the settlers, 26, 
 
 29. 
 conditions under which some 
 of them entered the region, 
 27, 28. 
 wall to East Virginia, 29. 
 influence on history of Vir- 
 ginia, 29. 
 bore brunt in French-Indian 
 war, 47. 
 Virginia Bill of Rights, 77ff. 
 Virginia comes under immed- 
 iate oversight of English 
 Government, 11. 
 Virginia Company of London, 9. 
 11. 
 
 Virginia Convention of 1776, 
 
 77. 
 Virginia Gazette, 86. 
 Waddell, Rev. James, 46, 59, 92, 
 
 98. 
 Wallace, Rev. Caleb, 61, 69, 85. 
 War, the French-Indian, 41ff, 
 
 47, 49, 57. 
 War, Revolutionary, 59. 
 Warwick, inhabitants of ihe 
 
 county of, petition, 98. 
 Washington, Col. George, 42. 
 Whitaker, Rev. Alexander, 9, 
 
 10. 
 Whitaker, Dr. William, 10. 
 Whitefield, 31, 46. 
 Whitsitt, William H., 82, 85, 
 
 86. 
 Williams, Colonel James, 76. 
 Williams, Rodger, 79. 
 Winchester, Va., 26. 
 VVinsor, Justin, 80. 
 Witherspoon, Dr. John, 61, 62, 
 
 74, 75, 121. 
 Wright, Rev. John, 42, 44. 
 Wythe, 45, 58, 91. 
 

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