Joseph Story (September 18, 1779-September 10, 1845) was a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed in 1811 by President James Madison ("The Chief Architect of the Constitution"). He was the youngest person ever to serve in that position and continued on the bench for 34 years, until his death. He had been a U.S. Representative, 1808-09, and son of one of the Boston Tea Party "Indians." He was instrumental in establishing federal supremacy in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1816; and in establishing the illegality of the slave trade in the Amistad case.
The founder of Harvard Law School, 1821-45, Joseph Story wrote tremendously influential works, including: Bailments, 1832; Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833; Equity Jurisprudence, 1836; and A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, 1840.
In 1829, Justice Joseph Story explained in a speech at Harvard:
<There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.> 1779JS001
In his work, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, 1840, Justice Joseph Story, stated:
<We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity (which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution)....
Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship.
An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.
But the duty of supporting religion, and especially the Christian religion, is very different from the right to force the consciences of other men or to punish them for worshipping God in the manner which they believe their accountability to Him requires....The rights of conscience are, indeed, beyond the just reach of any human power. They are given by God, and cannot be encroached upon by human authority without a criminal disobedience of the precepts of natural as well as of revealed religion.
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.> 1779JS002
In 1833, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Justice Joseph Story stated:
<It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape.> 1779JS003
<The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments is to construe them according to the sense of the terms and the intentions of the parties.> 1779JS004
<The whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State governments, to be acted upon according to their justice and the State Constitutions.> 1779JS005
In the 1844 case of Vidal v. Girard's Executors, Justice Joseph Story delivered the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous opinion:
<Christianity...is not to be maliciously and openly reviled and blasphemed against, to the annoyance of believers or the injury of the public....
It is unnecessary for us, however, to consider the establishment of a school or college, for the propagation of...Deism, or any other form of infidelity.
Such a case is not to be presumed to exist in a Christian country....
Why may not laymen instruct in the general principles of Christianity as well as ecclesiastics....And we cannot overlook the blessings, which such [lay]men by their conduct, as well as their instructions, may, nay must, impart to their youthful pupils.
Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a Divine Revelation in the [school] - its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?
What is there to prevent a work, not sectarian, upon the general evidences of Christianity, from being read and taught in the college by lay teachers? It may well be asked, what is there in all this, which is positively enjoined, inconsistent with the spirit or truths of the religion of Christ? Are not these truths all taught by Christianity, although it teaches much more?
Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?> 1779JS006
Joseph Story, 1832, responded to a pamphlet titled The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States, written by Rev. Jasper Adams, President of the College of Charleston, South Carolina:
<I have read it with uncommon satisfaction. I think its tone and spirit excellent. My own private judgment has long been (and every day's experience more and more confirms me in it) that government can not long exist without an alliance with religion; and that Christianity is indispensable to the true interests and sold foundations of free government.> 1779JS206
Justice Joseph Story insured:
<There is not a truth to be gathered from history more certain, or more momentous, than this: that civil liberty cannot long be separated from religious liberty without danger, and ultimately without destruction to both.
Wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first or last, bring in and establish political liberty.> 1779JS007
The Constitution of the United States of America-Analysis and Interpretation, prepared by the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress (Edward S. Corwin, editor, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1953, p. 758), stated:
<In his Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833, Justice Joseph Story asserted that the purpose of the First Amendment was not to discredit the then existing State establishments of religion, but rather "to exclude from the National Government all power to act on the subject." Justice Story continued:
In some of the States, Episcopalians constituted the predominant sect; in other, Presbyterians; in others, Congregationalists; in others, Quakers; and in others again, there was a close numerical rivalry among contending sects. It was impossible that there should not arise perpetual strife and perpetual jealousy on the subject of ecclesiastical ascendancy, if the national government were left free to create a religious establishment. The only security was in the abolishing the power. But this alone would have been an imperfect security, if it had not been followed up by a declaration of the right of the free exercise of religion...
Thus, the whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State governments, to be acted upon according to their own sense of justice and the State constitutions.> 1779JS008
John Bouvier's Law Dictionary, published in Philadelphia by the J.B. Lippincott Company, 1889, stated in its definition of Religion:
<The Constitution of the United States provides that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' This provision and that relating to religious tests are limitations upon the power of the Congress only...The Christian religion is, of course, recognized by the government, yet...the preservation of religious liberty is left to the States.> 1779JS009
During North Carolina's Convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution, Governor Samuel Johnston stated on July 30, 1788:
<I know but two or three States where there is the least chance of establishing any particular religion.
The people of Massachusetts and Connecticut are mostly Presbyterians. In every other State, the people are divided into a great number of sects. In Rhode Island, the tenets of the Baptists, I believe, prevail.
In New York, they are divided very much; the most numerous are the Episcopalians and the Baptists.
In New Jersey, they are as much divided as we are.
In Pennsylvania, if any sect prevails more than others, it is that of the Quakers.
In Maryland, the Episcopalians are most numerous, though there are other sects.
In Virginia, there are many sects; you all know what their religious sentiments are. So in all the Southern States they differ; as also New Hampshire.
I hope, therefore, that gentlemen will see there is no cause of fear that any one religion shall be exclusively established.> 1779JS010
Charles Carroll of Maryland, the only Catholic to sign the Declaration, wrote to Rev. John Stanford, October, 9, 1827:
<Observing the Christian religion divided into many sects, I founded the hope that no one would be so predominant as to become the religion of the State. That hope was thus early entertained because all of them joined in the same cause.> 1779JS011
French political writer Gustave de Beaumont, a contemporary of Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote in his 1835 work, Marie ou L'Esclavage aux E'tas-Unis:
<All of the American constitutions exhort the citizens to practice religious worship as a safeguard both to good morals and to public liberties.
In the United States, the law is never atheistic...
All of the American constitutions proclaim freedom of conscience and the liberty and equality of all the confessions.
The Constitution of Massachusetts proclaims the freedom of the various faiths in the sense that it does not wish to persecute any of them; but it recognizes within the state only Christians and protects only the Protestants.
Maryland's Constitution also declares that all of the faiths are free, and that no one is forced to contribute to the maintenance of a particular Church.
However, it gives the legislature the right to establish a general tax, according to the circumstances, for the support of the Christian religion.
The Constitution of Vermont recognizes only the Christian faiths, and says specifically that every congregation of Christians should celebrate the Sabbath or the Lord's Day, and observe the religious worship which seems to it most pleasing to the will of God, manifested by revelation.
Sometimes the American constitutions offer religious bodies some indirect assistance: thus, Maryland Law declares that, to be admitted to public office, it is necessary to be a Christian.
The Pennsylvania Constitution requires that one believe in the existence of God and in a future life of punishment or rewards...
I have just indicated how the law...confirms the power of religion...
There is not a single State where public opinion and the customs of the inhabitants do not forcefully constrain an obligation to these beliefs.> 1779JS012
The Massachusetts Supreme Court stated in the 1838 case of Commonwealth v. Abner Kneeland, 37 Mass. (20 Pick) 206, 216-217:
<In New Hampshire, the constitution of which State has a similar declaration of rights, the open denial of the being and existence of God or of the Supreme Being is prohibited by statute, and declared to be blasphemy.
In Vermont, with a similar declaration of rights, a statute was passed in 1797, by which it was enacted, that if any person shall publicly deny the being and existence of God or the Supreme Being, or shall contumeliously reproach his Providence and government, he shall be deemed a disturber of the peace and tranquility of the State, and an offender against the good morals and manners of society, and shall be punishable by fine....
The State of Maine also, having adopted the same constitutional provision with that of Massachusetts, in her declaration of rights, in respect to religious freedom, immediately after the adoption of the constitution reenacted, the Massachusetts statute against blasphemy....
In New York the universal toleration of all religious professions and sentiments, is secured in the most ample manner. It is declared in the constitution...that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious worship, without discrimination or preference, shall for ever be allowed in this State to all mankind...
Notwithstanding this constitutional declaration carrying the doctrine of unlimited toleration as far as the peace and safety of any community will allow, the courts have decided that blasphemy was a crime at common law and was not abrogated by the constitution [People v. Ruggles].
[The First Amendment] embraces all who believe in the existence of God, as well...as Christians of every denomination....
This provision does not extend to atheists, because they do not believe in God or religion; and therefore...their sentiments and professions, whatever they may be, cannot be called religious sentiments and professions.> 1779JS013
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in Wallace v. Jaffree, 1985:
<The individual's freedom to choose his own creed is the counterpart of his right to refrain from accepting the creed established by the majority. At one time it was thought that this right merely proscribed the preference of one Christian sect over another, but would not require equal respect for the conscience of the infidel, the atheist, or the adherent of a non-Christian faith.> 1779JS014
French political writer Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, 1835, 1840:
<The sects that exist in the United States are innumerable...Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same...
In the United States Christian sects are infinitely diversified and perpetually modified; but Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it.> 1779JS015
New York University Professor Emeritus Patricia U. Bonomi, in her article for the National Humanities Center titled The Middle Colonies as the Birthplace of Religious Pluralism, wrote:
<The colonists were about 98 percent Protestant.> 1779JS016
John K. Wilson wrote in Religion Under the State Constitutions 1776- 1800 (Journal of Church and State, Volume 32, Autumn 1990, Number 4, pp. 754):
<An establishment of religion, in terms of direct tax aid to Churches, was the situation in nine of the thirteen colonies on the eve of the American revolution.> 1779JS017
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Lafayette Black wrote in Engel v. Vitale, 1962:
<When some of the very groups which had most strenuously opposed the established Church of England found themselves sufficiently in control of colonial governments in this country to write their own prayers into law, they passed laws making their own religion the official religion of their respective colonies.
Indeed, as late as the time of the Revolutionary War, there were established Churches in at least eight of the thirteen former colonies and established religions in at least four of the other five.
But the successful Revolution against English political domination was shortly followed by intense opposition to the practice of establishing religion by law. This opposition crystallized rapidly into an effective political force in Virginia where the minority religious groups such as Presbyterians, Lutherans, Quakers and Baptists had gained such strength that the adherents to the established Episcopal Church were actually a minority themselves.
In 1785-1786, those opposed to the established Church...obtained the enactment of the famous "Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty" by which all religious groups were placed on an equal footing.> 1779JS018
Congressman James Meacham (VT) gave a House Judiciary Committee report, March 27, 1854:
<At the adoption of the Constitution, we believe every State-certainly ten of the thirteen-provided as regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the Government: one, Virginia, had the system of tithes.
Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain religion in some form. It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people. Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle.> 1779JS019
The Constitution of the United States of America-Analysis and Interpretation, prepared by the Library of Congress, (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1953, p. 759), stated:
<Justice Story contended, the establishment clause, while it inhibited Congress from giving preference to any denomination of the Christian faith, was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as a whole from the protection of Congress. Justice Joseph Story continued:
Probably at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship.
Any attempt to level all religions, and make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.> 1779JS020
In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed to give rights to freed slaves. Congressman John Bingham of Ohio who introduced it, stated:
<I repel the suggestion...that the Amendment will take away from any State any right that belongs to it.> 1779JS021
Yet the process began nonetheless. When Latter Day Saints wanted to use the First Amendment to practice polygamy, appeals were made to the Federal Judiciary (Reynolds v. United States, 1879 and Davis V. Beason, 1890).
Federal Judges gradually began using the Fourteenth Amendment to remove from States' jurisdiction responsibility for freedom of speech and press, Gitlow v. New York, 1925 (re: Socialists) and Fiske v. Kansas, 1927 (re: Unions); freedom of press, Near v. Minnesota, 1931 (re: anti-Catholics); and freedom of assembly, DeJonge v. Oregon, 1937 (re: Communists).
Federal Judges used the Fourteenth Amendment to remove responsibility for religious freedom from States' jurisdiction in cases regarding Jehovah's Witnesses: Cantwell v. Connecticut, 1940; Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 1940; Jones v. Opelika, 1942; Taylor v. Mississippi, 1943; Martin v. Struthers, 1943; United States v. Ballard, 1944; Saia v. New York, 1948; and Niemotoko v. Maryland, 1951.
Cases of anti-Catholic discrimination were appealed to the Supreme Court: Pierce v. Society of Sisters of Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, 1925, and Everson v. Board of Education, 1947. Since then, Federal Courts used a case by case "crucible of litigation" (Wallace v. Jaffree, 1985) to evolve the First Amendment into its present interpretation.
Thomas Jefferson predicted this trend in a letter to Charles Hammond in 1821:
<The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in...the federal judiciary...working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States.> 1779JS022
Since Justice Joseph Story's 1833 understanding was that the "power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State governments" and Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1889, stated "preservation of religious liberty is left to the States," it is necessary to review the State Constitutions, and the Charters that preceded them, to understand America's progression of religious freedom.
These documents are included in the book, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States. They provide insight into the colonial, pre and post 14th Amendment role of religion in America.
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1779JS001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1829, in a speech made when he become a professor at Harvard. Perry Miller, The Life of the Mind in America (London: Victor Gallanz, 1966), p. 33. John Whitehead, The Second American Revolution (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1982), p. 197.
1779JS002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1833. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833 (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1833; reprinted NY: Da Capo Press, 1970), Vol. III, p. 726, Sec. 1868, and p. 727, Sec. 1869. Joseph Story, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States (MA: Marsh, Capen Lyon, and Webb, 1840; reprinted New York: Harper & Brothers, 1854; reprinted Washington, D.C.; Regnery Gateway, 1986), pp. 259-261, p. 314, Sec. 441, p. 316, Sec. 444. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1891), Secs. 1874, 1876, 1877. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), pp. 47-48. Judge Brevard Hand, in Jaffree v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, 544 F. Supp. 1104 (S. D. Ala. 1983). Russell Kirk, ed., The Assault on Religion: Commentaries on the Decline of Religious Liberty (Lanham, NY: University Press of America, 1986), p. 84. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 113. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 5.
1779JS003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1833. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833 (reprinted NY: Da Capo Press, 1970), Vol. III, p. 726, Sec. 1868, and p. 727, Sec. 1869. Joseph Story, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States (MA: Marsh, Capen Lyon, and Webb, 1840; reprinted Washington, D.C.; Regnery Gateway, 1986), p. 314, Sec. 441, p. 316, Sec. 444. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 5.
1779JS004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1833. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1833; reprinted NY: Da Capo Press, 1970), Vol. III, p. 383, Sec. 400. Joseph Story, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States (MA: Marsh, Capen Lyon, and Webb, 1840; reprinted Washington, D.C.; Regnery Gateway, 1986), p. 314, Sec. 441, p. 316, Sec. 444. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 5.
1779JS005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1833. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1833; reprinted 1879), Vol. III, p. 731, Section 1873. Ward W. Keesecker, Laws Relating to the Releasing of Pupils from Public Schools for Religious Instruction (U.S. Office of Education, Bulletin No. 14, U.S. Government Printing Office, pamphlet; 1930). Anson Phelps Stokes and Leo Pfeffer, Church and State in the United States (NY: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1950, revised one-volume edition, 1964), p.188.
1779JS006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1844. Vidal v. Girard's Executors, 43 U.S. 126, 132 (1844), pp. 198, 205-206. William W. Story, Life and Letters of Judge Story, Vol. II, Chap. XII. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 434.
1779JS206. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, 1832, writing in respond to a pamphlet titled The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States, written by Rev. Jasper Adams, President of the College of Charleston, South Carolina and sent to James Madison, John Marshall and Joseph Story. Robert Alley, James Madison on Religious Liberty, pp. 86-88. http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/jasper.htm
1779JS007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Joseph Story, Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 337.
1779JS008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). The Constitution of the United States of America-Analysis and Interpretation, prepared by the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress (Edward S. Corwin, editor, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1953, p. 758). William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Bouvier's Law Dictionary, published in Philadelphia by the J.B. Lippincott Company, 1889, definition of Religion. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). North Carolina's Governor Samuel Johnston, July 30, 1788, statement at North Carolina's Convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution. William J. Federer, The Original 13- A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Charles Carroll of Maryland, October, 9, 1827, to Rev. John Stanford. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Gustave de Beaumont, 1835, French political writer and contemporary of Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote in his work, Marie ou L'Esclavage aux E'tas-Unis. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Massachusetts Supreme Court, 1838, case of Commonwealth v. Abner Kneeland, 37 Mass. (20 Pick) 206, 216-217. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS014. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, 1985, Wallace v. Jaffree. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS015. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, French political writer, 1835, 1840, Democracy in America. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS016. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Patricia U. Bonomi, New York University Professor Emeritus, in her article for the National Humanities Center titled The Middle Colonies as the Birthplace of Religious Pluralism. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS017. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John K. Wilson, 1990, Religion Under the State Constitutions 1776-1800 (Journal of Church and State, Volume 32, Autumn 1990, Number 4, pp. 754). William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS018. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Lafayette Black, 1962, Engel v. Vitale, 1962. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS019. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Meacham, U.S. Congressman (VT), March 27, 1854, House Judiciary Committee report. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS020. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). The Constitution of the United States of America-Analysis and Interpretation, prepared by the Library of Congress, (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1953, p. 759). William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS021. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Bingham, U.S. Congressman of Ohio, 1868, introducing the Fourteenth Amendment. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
1779JS022. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Jefferson, 1821, letter to Charles Hammond. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).