... a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for peop...le of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself cannot stand upon it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, n...ot by force and violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.... Who does not see that the same authority which can establi...sh Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small p...rotection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be establish...ed, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, be infringed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his religion according to the dictates of conscience is held by the same ...tenure with all our rights. [The legislature] are bound to leave this particular right untouched and sacred, [or] we must say, that they may control freedom of the press, may abolish the trial by jury, may swallow the Executive and the Judiciary Powers of the State; nay that they may despoil us of our very right of suffrage ... or we must say, that they have no authority to enact [a religious assessment].LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[Religious liberty was] in its nature an inalienable right ... because the opinions of men, depending only upon the evidence conte...mplated by their minds, cannot follow the dictates of other men.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »