ange and wandering, to the
shores of Narragansett Bay, he there laid the foundation of the first
state of modern times that in the fullest sense recognized the right of
religious freedom. The fundamental principle of Roger Williams's colony,
was "that every man should have liberty to worship God according to the
light of his own conscience."(445) His little State, Rhode Island, became
the asylum of the oppressed, and it increased and prospered until its
foundation principles--civil and religious liberty--became the corner-stones
of the American Republic.

In that grand old document which our forefathers set forth as their bill
of rights--the Declaration of Independence--they declared: "We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." And the Constitution
guarantees, in the most explicit terms, the inviolability of conscience:
"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office
of public trust under the United States." "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof."

"The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that
man's relation with his God is above human legislation, and his rights of
conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this
truth; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness
which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in
tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to
human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their
consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate."(446)

As the tidings spread through the countries of Europe, of a land where
every man might enjoy the fruit of his own labor and obey the convictions
of his conscience, thousands flocked to the shores of the New World.
Colonies rapidly multiplied. "Massachusetts, by special law, offered free
welcome and aid, at the public cost, to Christians of any nationality who
might fly beyond the Atlantic 'to escape from wars or famine, or the
oppression of their persecutors.' Thus the fugitive and the downtrodden
were, by statute, made the guests of the commonwealth."(447) In twenty
years from the first landing at Plymouth, as many thousand Pilgrims were
settled in N