LEGISLATION THAT FOLLOWED. 243 1785. The act suspending the salaries of clergymen, passed in 1776, was renewed each session, until in 1779 all laws providing salaries were finally repealed. The question of a general assessment for the support of religion still remained open. In the act of 1776, reference is made to the "great variety of opinion touching the propriety of a general assessment or voluntary contributions, and as this difference of sentiment cannot now be well accommodated, it is thought prudent to defer this matter to the discussion and determination of a future Assembly." It came up for discussion and determination in 1784. Madison at the suggestion of George Mason and George Nicholas, drew up a remonstrance against the assessment, which was extensively circulated and signed throughout the State. Mason had a number of copies printed at his own expense for the purpose of distribution in the several counties. "And," writes Madison, "under the influence of the public sentiment thus manifested, the celebrated bill establishing Religious Freedom [was] enacted into a permanent barrier against any future attempts on the rights of conscience as declared in the great charter prefixed to the Constitution of the State."" Madison says the assessment bill was "patronized by the most popular talents in the House." The allusion is to Patrick Henry, and his action is here characterized as an attempt "on the rights of conscience," as declared in what Professor Tyler calls "Henry's article" of the Bill of Rights.' And there is a disposition at the present day to class Patrick Henry among the " dissenters," to whom, in the person of this champion, religious freedom in Virginia is said to be chiefly indebted. The disestablishment of the Church in Virginia was the work of its own members, who in laying the foundations of their country's liberty believed they should unselfishly sacrifice the privileges the law had hitherto secured to them, that civil and religious liberty might be found inseparably united. 'MS. Letter of Madison, published in Rives' "Life of Madison." "Life of Patrick Henry," p. 184, American Statesmen Series. Patrick Henry was one of these patriots, and yet he did not embrace the whole plan of reform in his vision. George Mason saw clearly the course before him, and pursued it unflinchingly to the end; while Henry, on the contrary, nine years after the promulgation of the Bill of Rights, was employing all his oratory and his influence in support of a law taxing the people for religious purposes. In the Virginia Convention of 1788, George Mason was chairman of the committee to prepare amendments to the Federal Constitution. In all probability, therefore, he fixed the "grounds and plan" here of the Bill of Rights and amendments which were offered in the Convention by Patrick Henry. And among George Mason's papers is a draft of a Bill of Rights and amendments differing in several respects from that adopted by the Convention. The twentieth article of the Bill of Rights in this manuscript is as follows: "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 and violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others." Thus George Mason, by his acts no less than by his affirmations, sustains the claim made for him, of having in the Convention of 1776 sought to provide "for the essential rights of human nature, both in civil and religious liberty." In clear, concise language George Mason enunciated in the Virginia Bill of Rights fourteen great principles as the basis of free government. The first declared the natural, inherent right of man to the enjoyment of life and liberty with all the privileges these entailed. In the second the power of rulers and magistrates is traced to its source in the people, to whom they are at all times amenable. There follows ANALYSIS OF MASON'S DRAFT. 245 thirdly the axiom that the best government is that in which the rights above named are assured; and the deduction is inevitable that a majority of the community may abolish a government that is inadequate to the purposes for which it was formed. The fourth article declares public services to be the title to public office, and since the former is not descendible, neither should the latter be hereditary. The article that follows enunciates an important principle held in theory by Great Britain, but practically at that time in abeyance, that is, the separation of the legislative and executive powers from the judicial; and the concluding clause declares the importance of frequently recurring and regular elections to insure the community from oppression. The sixth article asserts the importance of perfect freedo in the choice of the legislative body; and in regard to the suffrage, pronounces it the right of all men giving evidence of a permanent interest in the community, while the concluding clause declares against taxation without the consent of those taxed or their representatives, the same consent being necessary to bind the governed by any law whatever. Continuing this subject, the next article pronounces against the suspension or execution of laws without the consent of the people's representatives. The three articles that follow relate to the rights of a citizen in his relation to the judiciary. In criminal prosecutions he has the four privileges of demanding the nature of his accusation, of being confronted with the accusers and witnesses, of calling for evidence in his favor, and of a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage. Also, he cannot be found guilty without the jury's unanimous consent, nor is he compelled to give evidence against himself. And no man's liberty can be taken from him but by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers. The second of these articles pronounces against excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel or unusual punishments. The last article of this triad declares in favor of the desirability and sacredness of trial by jury in suits respecting property and between man and man. The eleventh article of this Declaration of Rights holds up the freedom of the press as one of the great bulwarks of liberty. In the twelfth article a well-regulated militia is advocated as the natural and safe defence of a free State; standing armies are pronounced dangerous in time of peace, and it is declared that the military should be at all times subordinate to the civil power. The thirteenth article relates to the importance of a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles, and a firm adherence to the four civic virtues of justice, moderation, temperance, frugality. The principle of religious liberty is advocated in the fourteenth article as the apex of the pyramid. The two articles that are found in the Bill of Rights as adopted, were not of a fundamental nature. They are inserted in the paper as the tenth and fourteenth articles, so that the two which conclude George Mason's draft appear as the fifteenth and sixteenth in the amended instrument. A recent writer has noticed that in the extension of the suffrage to "all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with and attachment to the community," provided by the sixth article of the Bill of Rights, George Mason recurred to the theory of the Virginia suffrage law of 1656, that it was "something hard and unagreeable to reason, that any person shall pay taxes, and have no votes in election." The Bill of Rights has been the subject of several critical eulogies by Virginians, of which the first, in point of time, was that contributed by Theodorick Bland in 1819 to the famous revolutionary compilation of Niles.' Bland says of it: 1 "This declaration contains principles more extensive, and much more perspicuously expressed than any then to be found in the supposed analogous instruments of any other age or country. The English magna charta was, strictly speaking, a contract between an assemblage of feudal lords and a king, not a declaration of the rights of man, and the fundamental principles on which 1 Virginia Carolorum, Neill, note to p. 330. 2.44 Principles and Acts of the Revolution," p. 121. TRIBUTES TO ITS EXCELLENCE. 247 all government should rest. The articles drawn up by the Span- Grigsby, in his sketch of George Mason, contrasts the Virginia Bill of Rights with the Petition of Right addressed to Charles I., and the Declaration of Rights on the accession of William and Mary. One of these simply enumerates laws that had been violated, and prays that they may be observed; the other was "wholly historical and retrospective in its scope," while the "Virginia declaration was eminently prospective." Of the latter, this writer says: "Some of its expressions may be gleaned from Sydney, from Locke, and from Burgh; but when Mason sat down in his room in the Raleigh Tavern to write that paper, it is probable that no copy of the reply to Sir Robert Filmer, or of the Essay on Government, or of the Political Disquisitions, was within his reach. The diction, the design, the thoughts are all his own. Nor does its beauty and its worth suffer in comparison with similar productions carefully prepared at a later day." L |