The Secret of Our Power – Part 2

TimeWatch Editorial
September 21, 2016

In part one of “The Secret of Our Power” we promised that given this apparent threat to the first Amendment, it is therefore imperative that we provide some history regarding its beginning. We will do that here. William Addison Blakely, Counselor at Law, in his book entitled “American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation” Published in 1911 proclaims under the heading Reason for the First Amendment, on page 152 that;

“When the Constitution first made its appearance, the friends of religious liberty, especially those who had been oppressed under the religious establishments of the colonies, felt that liberty of conscience was not sufficiently secured in it. Article 6 forbade religious tests as a qualification for office under the government, but there was no guarantee against religious tests and religious intolerance to those not in office.” William Addison Blakely, Counselor at Law, “American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation” Page 152

Article 6 of the Constitution was quite clear regarding debts incurred prior to the ratification of the Constitution or laws passed by either Congress or the several States. The final paragraph of that Article stated that there should be no religious test applied to those serving the nation. The following is the entire Article 6.

However, as William Blakely clearly stated, there was no guarantee against religious tests and religious intolerance to those not in office. On August 8, 1789, the United Baptist Churches of Virginia expressed their concern in a letter to George Washington, in which they gave expression to the prevailing fears in this regard. George Washington replied:

“If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it ; and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution. For, you doubtless remember, I have often expressed my sentiments that any man, conducting himself as a good citizen and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience." A History Of The Baptists By Thomas Armitage, D. D. pages 806, 807.

Following this complaint by the Baptists and the response of George Washington, William Blakely relates the following event.

“A month later, Madison, with the approval of Washington, introduced in the first Congress that met under the new Constitution, the first ten amendments, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, the first of which enjoins Congress from all religious legislation. These were approved by Congress September 23, 1789, and ratified by ten of the States — all of the thirteen original States excepting Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Georgia — within the next two years. There is no evidence on the journals of Congress that the legislatures of the three States named ratified them.” William Addison Blakely, Counselor at Law, “American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation” Page 152

What is tremendously intriguing is that last part of the above paragraph quoted from William Addison Blakely’s“American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation” Page 152, which announces that three states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Georgia did not ratify the Bill of Rights. Remember that Blakely’s book was published in 1911. His statement is corroborated by Gordon Lloyd, in his article posted on the Teaching American History.Org website entitled, “What about the Two Amendments and Three States that Got Away?” in which he says:

“Three States did not officially support the adoption or rejection of the Bill of Rights. This absence of official adoption or rejection in the 1790s as symbolically rectified in 1939 when the legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Georgia ratified the Bill of Rights on the 150th anniversary of the Congressional signing in September 1789.” Gordon Lloyd; “What about the Two Amendments and Three States that Got Away?” Teaching American History.Org

Notice then, the year in which these three states finally ratified the Bill of Rights, and how long it took. 1939, the year of the beginning of the Second World War. It is symbolic of the debate that ensued regarding the Ten Amendments and how important the matter was. The Ralston (Pa.) "Herald" of April 28, 1910, commenting on the reason for the first amendment says the following:

“We wonder how many of our readers have read the history of New England’s colonial times? of the persecutions, the whipping of the Baptists and Quakers, and the banishing of Roger Williams, by the Puritans? The Puritans were not worse than other people; in fact, they were honest, hard-working people. You ask, then how could they persecute inoffensive people? — Simply because they were following wrong principles in government. They failed to make any separation between the church and the state. They thought that the stability of the state depended on the people's observing certain religious forms; and as the Baptists and Quakers would not conform to the religio-political order of government, they were punished, or rather persecuted. It was to prevent a repetition of such persecutions that the first amendment to the Constitution was added. Did our forefathers make a mistake in separating the church and the state? If not, let us keep them separate. Liberty — both religious and civil — is safe only so long as the people understand the principles on which it is based." The Ralston (Pa.) "Herald" of April 28, 1910

The counsel given in the Ralston Herald is worthy of careful consideration today.

Cameron A. Bowen