今天给大家带来的阅读材料是SAT必读材料,美国建国文档第二篇《James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance
against Religious Assessments》
To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia A
Memorial and Remonstrance
We the subscribers, citizens of the said Commonwealth, having taken into
serious consideration, a Bill printed by order of the last Session of General
Assembly, entitled "A Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the
Christian Religion," and conceiving that the same if finally armed with the
sanctions of a law, will be a dangerous abuse of power, are bound as faithful
members of a free State to remonstrate against it, and to declare the reasons by
which we are
determined. We remonstrate against the said Bill.
1. Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "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 or violence."
[Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] The Religion then of every man must be
left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every
man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an
unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending
only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates
of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men,
is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the
Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This
duty is precedent, both in order of time and in deGREe of obligation, to the
claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil
Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe:
And if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate Association,
must always do it with a reservation of his duty to the General Authority; much
more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it
with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain
therefore that in matters of Religion, no mans right is abridged by the
institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its
cognizance. True it is, that no other rule exists, by which any question which
may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but the will of the
majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of
the minority.
2. Because if Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at
large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body. The latter
are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their jurisdiction is both
derivative and limited: it is limited with regard to the co-ordinate
departments, more necessarily is it limited with regard to the constituents. The
preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds
which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more
especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the GREat Barrier which
defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an
encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and
are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by
themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.
3. Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our
liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and
one of the noblest charACTeristics of the late Revolution. The free men of
America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and
entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the
principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere
this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority
which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may
establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of
all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute
three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may
force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?