by the great French thinkers by whom that
thesis was revived, and had a strong hold upon the mind of Jefferson--the
principle of religious equality, or, as it might be more exactly defined,
of the Secular State.

So many loose and absurd interpretations of this principle have been and
are daily being propounded, that it may be well to state succinctly what
it does and does not mean.

It does not mean that anyone may commit any anti-social act that appeals
to him, and claim immunity from the law on the ground that he is impelled
to that act by his religion; can rob as a conscientious communist, murder
as a conscientious Thug, or refuse military service as a conscientious
objector. None understood better than Jefferson--it was the first principle
of his whole political system--that there must be _some_ basis of
agreement amongst citizens as to what is right and what is wrong, and that
what the consensus of citizens regards as wrong must be punished by the
law. All that the doctrine of the Secular State asserted was that such
general agreement among citizens need not include, as in most modern States
it obviously does not include, an agreement on the subject of religion.
Religion is, so to speak, left out of the Social Contract, and consequently
each individual retains his natural liberty to entertain and promulgate
what views he likes concerning it, so long as such views do not bring him
into conflict with those general principles of morality, patriotism and
social order upon which the citizens of the State _are_ agreed, and
which form the basis of its laws.

The public mind of America was for the most part well prepared for the
application of this principle. We have already noted how the first
experiment in the purely secular organization of society had been made
in the Catholic colony of Maryland and the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania.
The principle was now applied in its completeness to one State after
another. The Episcopalian establishment of Jefferson's own State was the
first to fall; the other States soon followed the example of Virginia.

At the same time penalties or disabilities imposed as a consequence of
religious opinions were everywhere abrogated. Only in New England was
there any hesitation. The Puritan States did not take kindly to the idea
of tolerating Popery. In the early days of the revolution their leaders
had actually made it one of the counts of their indictment against the
British Government tha