How Religious Liberty was Established in the United States

Now the contest that established that right in the United States was a good deal longer than the contest that established the Constitution of the United States. The contest for religious liberty in the United States lasted from 1776 to 1789; and it was fought directly on this one issue; and Madison and Jeffer- son, and Washington, and their compatriots established it thus for the very purpose of prohibiting Congress or the government of the United States from ever touching in any way religion, and specifically the Christian religion above all others in the world. And they did it, as Madison said, because they saw all the consequences in the principle, and they escaped the consequences by denying the principle.RJSB 13.5

And that is why I, a citizen of the United States, but not of the District of Columbia, am here to-day, to speak upon this proposed action of the Congress of the United States.RJSB 14.1

All the consequences of all the religious legislation that has ever been in the world, all the consequences of a union of church and state, are in this legislation, in this bill as it stands to-day; and I, with a whole lot of other people of the United States outside the District of Columbia, see the consequences in the principle, and we, as our fathers who made this nation, propose to escape the consequences by denying and repudiating the principle.RJSB 14.2