ity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This
important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led
each state in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior
magnitude, than might otherwise have been expected; and thus the
Constitution which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and
of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our
political situation rendered indispensible."

Let us, my fellow citizens, take up this constitution with the same spirit
of candour and liberality; consider it in all its parts; consider the
important advantages which may be derived from it; let us obtain full
information on the subject, and then weigh these objections in the balance
of cool impartial reason. Let us see if they be not wholly groundless; but
if upon the whole they appear to have some weight, let us consider well,
whether they be so important, that we ought on account of them to reject
the whole constitution. Perfection is not the lot of human institutions;
that which has the most excellencies and fewest faults, is the best that
we can expect.

Some very worthy persons, who have not had great advantages for
information, have objected against that clause in the constitution which
provides, that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification
to any office or public trust under the United States.(37) They have been
afraid that this clause is unfavorable to religion. But my countrymen, the
sole purpose and effect of it is to exclude persecution, and to secure to
you the important right of religious liberty. We are almost the only
people in the world, who have a full enjoyment of this important right of
human nature. In our country every man has a right to worship God in that
way which is most agreeable to his conscience. If he be a good and
peaceable person he is liable to no penalties or incapacities on account
of his religious sentiments; or in other words, he is not subject to
persecution.

But in other parts of the world, it has been, and still is, far different.
Systems of religious error have been adopted, in times of ignorance. It
has been the interest of tyrannical kings, popes, and prelates, to
maintain these errors. When the clouds of ignorance began to vanish, and
the people grew more enlightened, there was no other way to keep them in
error, but to prohibit their altering their religious opinions by severe
persecuting laws. In t