Bonds of Affection: Civic Charity and the Making of America--Winthrop, Jefferson, and Lincoln

3 A Model of Natural Liberty

90 Winthrop and America’s Point of Departure 49. For many, the paranoia of Puritan New England is simply captured in the infamous Salem witch trials—as if this were a characteristic snapshot of seventeenth -century Puritan New England. What needs to be kept in mind here is that the Salem witch trials were an isolated incident, coming forty years after Winthrop was dead, and never reaching anything the likes of which was seen in several places across Europe. For a discussion of witchcraft, see Macfarlane, Witchcraft; Levack, Witch-Hunt. 50. Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches, 1039. PART TWO Jefferson and the Founding The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. . . . All honor to Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln, April 6, 1859 In extracting the pure principles which [Jesus] taught . . . we must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus . . . [and] there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. Jefferson to John Adams, October 12, 1813 This page intentionally left blank 1776—The Other Declaration I n May of 1776, George Mason drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which the Virginia Convention of Delegates adopted unanimously the very next month with only a few changes. The impact of this document was immediate and widespread. Thomas Jefferson was almost certainly guided by a draft of it as he sat in Philadelphia composing the Declaration of Independence. Nine other colonies followed Virginia ’s lead and affixed similar statements to their new constitutions or passed comparable statutes. A few more years down the road, when drafting the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution, James Madison would look to this text more than any other. And Condorcet felt that George Mason deserved nothing less than the ‘‘eternal gratitude of mankind’’ given the way the Virginia Declaration of Rights shaped France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man.1 Rightly appreciated for its vast influence as the Revolution’s prototypical assertion of fundamental natural rights tied to commensurate demands for popular sovereignty, separation of powers, and some basic civil liberties, this significant document is less recognized for its revealing commentary on the political status of Christian charity at the dawn of American independence. The last line of the last article of the Virginia Declaration of Rights asserts not a right, but a duty, specifically a ‘‘mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity, towards each other.’’ To show that this line was more than just rhetorical window dressing, it is useful to consider how the whole of the final article that contains the line both changed and did not change through the drafting process. Mason’s original draft of the declaration passed out of committee with little modification. By the time of final passage, however, several small but significant edits were made. Here is the final article as amended (deleted committee draft language is shown with a line through the text, and new language is shown in italics). 93 94 Jefferson and the Founding That Religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate, unless, under colour of religion, any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or safety of society . and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance , love, and charity, towards each other.2 Perhaps as important as what changes were made to the passage is who made them. Despite his junior status (he was only twenty-five at the time) and otherwise negligible contributions to the proceedings, James Madison engineered these highly significant alterations. Worried that the phrase ‘‘all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion’’ would not go far enough to protect what he considered a more fundamental liberty, Madison, in the face of self-described ‘‘powerful forces that surged around this explosive issue,’’ succeeded in replacing the worrisome committee draft language with the phrase ‘‘all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion.’’ In doing so, he transformed the freedom of religious worship...