prominent among whom was Dr. Thomas Baldwin, for thirty-five years an honored pastor in Boston. He was a man of persuasive speech, of commanding influence, and withal genial in spirit and manner, and, ably seconded by Rev. N. W. Williams, of Beverly, and others, took a very active part in the Convention in the interest of religious liberty. In his different addresses he contended that all the persecutions and consequent bloodshed of the past were due to an unnatural combination of religion with civil power, and that religion should not be propagated and supported by aid of the civil magistrate. He thought every religious society would better manage its own affairs. He favored voluntary contribution, and sought no support from taxation. His chief contention was that "6 every man should have a right to worship where he pleased, and not to pay where he did not worship." One proposition of his was that

Whenever any person shall become a member of any religious society, corporate or unincorporate, such membership shall be certified by a committee, chosen for this purpose, and if filed with the clerk of the town where he dwells, such person shall forever after be exempted from taxation for the support of public worship and public teachers of religion in every other religious corporation whatsoever, so long as he shall continue such membership.

Rev. Mr. Williams, of Beverly, proposed that

Every religious society, incorporated or unincorporated, should have power to raise money for the purposes of the society, in such manner as they should choose; that every person should be at liberty to unite himself to such society as he pleased, and the monies paid by him should go to the support of the teacher of such society, and that every person who did not class himself voluntarily with any society should be classed with the town,

parish, or precinct in which he lived, and be taxed [was this a compromise?] for the support of public worship in such town, parish, or precinct.

Mr. Childs, of Pittsfield, offered a resolution that was favored by the Baptist members generally, which was that

Each and every society or denomination of Christians in this State shall have and enjoy the same and equal powers, rights, and privileges; and shall have power and authority to raise money for the support and maintenance of religious teachers of their respective denominations, and to build and repair houses of public worship, by a tax on the members of any such society only, to be laid by a major vote of the legal voters assembled at any society meeting, warned and held according to law.

All these propositions were, of, course, voted down. We think, however, our Baptist brethren must have been tolerably well satisfied with "Article the First," which with thirteen others, the Convention submitted to the people, the first part of which reads as follows:

The power and the duty of the Legislature to require provision to be made for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public teachers, shall not be confined to Protestant teachers, but shall extend and be applied equally to all public Christian teachers of piety, religion, and morality; and shall also extend to all religious societies, whether incorporated or unincorporated.

All monies paid by the subject for the support of public worship and of the public teachers aforesaid, shall, if he require it, be applied to the support of the public teacher or teachers, if there be any, on whose instructions he attends, whether of the same or of a different sect or denomination from that of the parish or religious society in which the said monies are raised.

The clause in the third article of the declaration of rights which invests the Legislature with authority to enjoin on all the subjects of the Commonwealth an attendance upon the instructions of public teachers, shall be and hereby is annulled.

This article which substitutes "Christian" for " Protestant," allows one to pay where he chooses to worship, and does away with the former enforced attendance on public religious service, on being submitted to the people failed of securing their ratification-eleven thousand and sixty-five voting for it, while nineteen thousand five hundred and forty-seven voted against it! The large

Counties of Suffolk and Middlesex, the original home of the Puritans in this country, voted for it, but Plymouth County voted largely in the negative, five hundred and ninety-seven yeas to one thousand six hundred and fortyfive nays!

Thus Massachusetts was in a measure consistent with herself. In 1789 she proposed nine articles of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but the glorious first article was not one of them-that article we mean, which was proposed by New Hampshire and Virginia and which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"; nor did she, to her shame be it said, do herself the honor of voting for its adoption. And now, through her strong Puritanic influence, she again puts off the day of equal religious liberty for all.

XIII. CHURCH AND STATE FINALLY SEPARATED.

We are teaching the world the great truth that governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will

be doubled by the other lesson: that religion flourishes in greater purity without than with the aid of government.

JAMES MADISON, 1822.

If to hold a doctrine first and last and all the time, as individuals and as a denomination, alone and peculiarly, consistently, persistently, emphatically, obtrusively, gives a denomination a right to claim that doctrine, then Baptists may claim as theirs the doctrine of a separation of Church and State.

Prof. JOHN C. LONG.

In 1831 the House of the Massachusetts Legislature voted favorably upon an amendment of the third article of the Bill of Rights, two hundred and seventytwo yeas to seventy-eight nays, but the Senate, by a majority of three, referred the matter to the next General Court. Very early in the legislative session of 1832 a flood of petitions was sent in for the passage of an amendment showing that there was a general sentiment in its favor. But the Committee of the Judiciary to which it was referred, twice reported its adoption unnecessary and inexpedient. Yet the House did adopt it by a vote of three hundred and forty-seven to ninety-two, and the Senate by a vote of twenty-five to thirteen, referring it, as by law required, to the action of the next Legislature, which, early in 1833, gave it a still larger affirmative vote the House, four hundred and twenty-nine to seventy-four, and the Senate, twenty-eight to nine. The popular vote on the eleventh of November following was thirty-two thousand one hundred and sixty-four in favor of its adoption, to three thousand two hundred and sixty-five against its adoption. In this matter Nantucket was plainly the banner county, Bristol County coming next. Plymouth County, we are sorry

to say, gave comparatively a very large negative vote, Plymouth and Hampshire in this respect standing lowest on the list.

Thus after many long years, during which the selfcontradiction of the third article was allowed to con♦ tinue as a source of trouble, the people of Massachu setts, by an overwhelming majority, adopted in its stead the eleventh article of Amendment, which frees the Church from State domination, and which not only allows but secures equal liberty to all. Article XI. reads as follows:

As the public worship of God and instructions in piety, religion, and morality promote the happiness and prosperity of a people and the security of a republican government; therefore, the several religious societies of this Commonwealth, whether corporate or unincorporate, at any meeting legally warned and holden for that purpose, shall ever have the right to elect their pastors or religious teachers, to contract with them for their support, to raise money for erecting and repairing houses for public worship, for the maintenance of religious instruction, and for the payment of necessary expenses; and all persons belonging to any religious society shall be taken and held to be members until they shall file with the clerk of such society a written notice declaring the dissolution of their membership, and thenceforth shall not be liable for any grant or contract which may be thereafter made or entered into by such society; and all religious sects and denominations demeaning themselves peaceably and as good citizens of the Commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law; and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law.1

1 Elder Backus, of course, did not live to see this day of assured equal liberty, yet in the last sentences of the last work he ever published (a