with the
neutral term "respecting an establishment," etc., taking the place of
the original sweeping ban against any law "establishing religion."[10]
Explaining this phraseology, in his Commentaries, Story asserted that
the purpose of the amendment was not to discredit the then existing
State establishments of religion, but rather "to exclude from the
National Government all power to act on the subject." He wrote: "The
situation, * * *, of the different States equally proclaimed the policy
as well as the necessity of such an exclusion. In some of the States,
episcopalians constituted the predominant sect; in others,
presbyterians; in others, congregationalists; in others, quakers; and in
others again, there was a close numerical rivalry among contending
sects. It was impossible that there should not arise perpetual strife
and perpetual jealousy on the subject of ecclesiastical ascendency, if
the national government were left free to create a religious
establishment. The only security was in extirpating the power. But this
alone would have been an imperfect security, if it had not been followed
up by a declaration of the right of the free exercise of religion, and a
prohibition (as we have seen) of all religious tests. Thus, the whole
power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State
governments, to be acted upon according to their own sense of justice
and the State constitutions; and the Catholic and the Protestant, the
Calvinist and the Arminian, the Jew and the Infidel, may sit down at the
common table of the national councils without any inquisition into their
faith or mode of worship."[11]

For the rest, Story contended, the no establishment clause, while it
inhibited Congress from giving preference to any denomination of the
Christian faith, was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as
a whole from the protection of Congress. He said: "Probably at the time
of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the amendment to it now
under consideration, the general if not the universal sentiment in
America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the
state so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of
conscience and the freedom of religious worship. An attempt to level all
religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter
indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not
universal indignation."[12] As late as 1898 Cooley expounde