RELIGION IN THE NEW REPUBLIC

Following the war for independence, each of the thirteen colonies assumed the task of establishing state governments. States were as eager as congress to assure that religion thrived in the new republic.

Majority religious groups in each state expected tax money to be dedicated for direct support of their churches. Religious taxes were laid on all citizens, although some states enforced the new laws more severely than others.

In Virginia, the debate over state- supported churches was taken up by coalitions of Baptists and liberals who challenge a bill proposed by Patrick Henry to use tax monies for the Anglican Church.

James Madison, himself educated to become an Anglican minister, was the leading opponent of government- sponsored religion.

With Madison’s help, Jefferson’s Act for Establishing Religious Freedom was brought up for debate and passed by the Virginia legislature in 1786.

But despite the Virginia law guaranteeing religious liberty, persecutions of religious minorities continued, especially against Baptists and Presbyterians. Examples of whippings and violent “dunkings” were commonplace.

Individuals were summoned into court for preaching without a government permit…

But in no place was the debate more heated than in Massachusetts. Most of the Congregationalist ministers supported public tax money for churches, since they had received such support prior to the revolution. But churches who had struggled to survive without tax support argued against it now.

Isaac Backus, leader of the Baptists, believed that the best way to assure the health of religion was for the state to leave it alone.

But 2/3 of the voters approved of the state constitution of 1780, which granted tax money to churches. 

Following this example, Maryland also approved tax money for religious instruction in public education.

Meeting in Federal Hall, Philadelphia in 1789, representatives from the colonies drafted a new Constitution.

Important in the document was a phrase in Article VI forbidding religious tests as a requirement for federal officeholders; a provision especially aimed at some state Constitutions, like Virginia’s, which still prevented non-Anglican Church members from running for office.

Following ratification of the Constitution, the first congress  adopted the Bill of Rights, including its first amendment forbidding the “establishment of religion” as proposed by its primary author James Madison. 

Major ideas for the Bill of Rights were derived from the Virginia Declaration of Rights  drawn up in 1776 by Virginia judge and law professor to Jefferson and Madison, George Mason

However, Congress was not opposed to supporting religious activity. It voted to pay for a revised translation of the Bible…

Jefferson began a tradition of Presidents attending church services each Sunday in the House of Representatives. Services featuring preachers from various denominations continued until after the Civil War.

Religious services were held in the legislative chambers prior to Congressional meetings…

Washington’s farewell address asks for public support of religion, “ national morality is the great pillar of human happiness, the duties of men and citizens.”

Presidents continued to issue proclamations for days of prayer, fasting, or thanksgiving.

Jefferson’s open support for worship services in government buildings seems contradictory to his image as one who supported a “wall of separation” between religion and government. His attendance at services was a deliberate symbolic support of religion’s importance to society.

His letter to the Danbury Baptists declared his opposition to one national religion, an opinion shared by Madison, as well.

Cartoonist continued to portray Jefferson as a danger. (The eagle is being sent by God to capture the Constitution from Jefferson before it is burned.)

In 1800, major religious movements spread across the new nation, once again, creating a “Second Great Awakening” and the exuberant “Great Revival” in Kentucky.

Services were held by itinerant (circuit) preachers without a church of their own, sent out as missionaries by sponsoring churches.

The evangelical community was anxious about the lack of formal church establishments on the growing western frontier. The American Home Missionary Society was formed and results of their efforts were regularly reported to the head office. 

Presbyterian mass communion service, 1801.

In Kentucky, pioneers loaded their families into their wagon and drove to Presbyterian and Baptist meetings, pitched their tents and settled in for several days. The camp meetings were so intense and successful, that soon Methodists brought camp meetings to New England.

Revivals were often characterized by flamboyant preaching for long hours, and emotional participation and displays of conviction by participants.

Shakers, a branch of Quakers, emigrated to America in 1774, established colonies of believers the new republic, (known as “shakers” for their forms of worship, including dance, trembling and shaking during services).

Christianity practiced in the African-American population of the new republic also expanded due to the evangelical movements. During revivals, Baptists and Methodists converted large numbers of blacks; both groups had advocated the end of slavery during the revolution.

Disappointed with the continuation of slavery, black religious leaders, such as former slave Absalom Jones, founded their own churches, such as the African Episcopal Church.

Richard Jones and first bishops of the African Methodist Church…

Black churches were graced with eloquent female preachers, such as Mrs. Juliann Tillman.

Benevolent societies were a new feature of American religion in the new republic. Originally devoted to the salvation of souls, they soon began to address other social problems, such as education, juvenile delinquency, alcohol abuse, and child welfare.

The public began to generously fund such societies by the early 1800s.

The largest societies, including the American Board of Foreign Missions, American Bible Society, and the American Tract Society, focused efforts to spread Christianity through the printing of religious publications, all tax-exempt by the new state constitutions.

Hymns were published for camp meetings by religious societies…

The American Tract Society’s volunteers handed out 35 million flyers such as this in the first year of its founding.

For the significant number of Americans who could not read, tract societies published beautiful prints, describing the nature of Christianity’s narrow road to paradise, such as those printed for Methodist preacher John Hagerty in 1791.

Tracts also reminded parents of their duty to raise children properly, encouraging them to being their children to newly-created “Sabbath Schools.” 

These leaders and members of evangelical religious groups saw themselves as American patriots who followed the views of the Founders of the new republic; that religion was a “necessary spring for self-government.”

When Massachusetts became the last state to terminate tax-money going to the Congregational church, the “wall of separation” became stronger. State and national governments stepped aside, allowing private churches to assume the role of meeting the nation’s spiritual needs.