| 250 Congress can not pass a law for the government [of ] the Territories which shall prohibit the free exercise of religion. The first amendment to the Constitution expressly forbids such legislation. Religious freedom is guaranteed everywhere throughout the dominion of the United States, so far as congressional interference is concerned. The question to be determined is, whether the law now under consideration comes within this prohibition. The word "religion" is not defined in the Constitution. We must go elsewhere therefore to ascertain its meaning; and nowhere more appropriately, we think, than to the history of the times in the midst of which the provision was adopted. The precise point of inquiry is, What is the religious freedom that has been guaranteed? In the preamble of the Act introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates by Jefferson in 1775, religious freedom is defined, and after reciting "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 the supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty." It is declared "that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when the principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order." In these two sentences is found the true distinction of what properly belongs to the church and what to the state. In a little more than a year after the passage of this statute the convention met which prepared the Constitution of the United States. Five of the States, while adopting the Constitution, proposed amendments. Three-New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia-included, in one form or another, a declaration of religious freedom in changes they desired to have made, as did also North Carolina, where the convention at first declined to ratify the Constitution until the proposed amendments were acted upon. Accordingly, at the first session of the First Congress an amendment was under consideration. It was proposed, with others, by Mr. Madison. It met the views of the advocates of religious freedom and was adopted. Jefferson afterward, in reply to an address to him by a committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, took occasion to say: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for the faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature
with the right "to worship God according to the dictates of conscience," but only to annul all acts and laws which establish, maintain, protect, or countenance the practice of polygamy, evasively called spiritual marriage, however disguised by legal or ecclesiastical solemnities, sacraments, ceremonies, consecrations, or other contrivances.
Section 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for any corporation or association for religious or charitable purposes to acquire or hold real estate in any territory of the United States during the existence of the territorial government of a greater value than $50,000; and all real estate acquired or held by any such corporation or association contrary to the provisions of this act shall be forfeited and escheat to the United States: Provided, That existing vested rights in real estate shall not be impaired by the provisions of this section. Approved July 1, 1862.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 28, p. 35.
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