nd against any or all
of the institutions just named; he may decry civil liberty, and assert
the divine right of kings, and still he does nothing criminal; but if,
to give success to such efforts, special power from a court of justice
is required, it will not be granted to him. There is not one of these
features of the general public policy of Pennsylvania against which a
school might not be established and preachers and teachers employed to
teach. That might in a certain sense be considered a school of
education, but it would not be a charity. And if Mr. Girard, in his
lifetime, had founded schools and employed teachers to preach and teach
in favor of infidelity, or against popular government, free suffrage,
trial by jury, or the alienability of property, there was nothing to
stop him or prevent him from so doing. But where any one or all of these
come to be provided for a school or system as a charity, and come before
the courts for favor, then in neither one, nor all, nor any, can they be
favored, because they are opposed to the general public policy and
public law of the State.

These great principles have always been recognized; and they are no more
part and parcel of the public law of Pennsylvania than is the Christian
religion. We have in the charter of Pennsylvania, as prepared by its
great founder, William Penn,--we have in his "great law," as it was
called, the declaration, that the preservation of Christianity is one of
the great and leading ends of government. This is declared in the
charter of the State. Then the laws of Pennsylvania, the statutes
against blasphemy, the violation of the Lord's day, and others to the
same effect, proceed on this great, broad principle, that the
preservation of Christianity is one of the main ends of government. This
is the general public policy of Pennsylvania. On this head we have the
case of Updegraph v. The Commonwealth,[4] in which a decision in
accordance with this whole doctrine was given by the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania. The solemn opinion pronounced by that tribunal begins by a
general declaration that Christianity is, and has always been, part of
the common law of Pennsylvania.

I have said, your honors, that our system of oaths in all our courts, by
which we hold liberty and property, and all our rights, is founded on or
rests on Christianity and a religious belief. In like manner the
affirmation of Quakers rests on religious scruples drawn from the same
sour