the citizen
in his rights, to defend the community from hostile powers, and to promote
the general welfare. Civil government has no business to meddle with the
private opinions of the people. If I demean myself as a good citizen, I am
accountable, not to man, but to God, for the religious opinions which I
embrace, and the manner in which I worship the supreme being. If such had
been the universal sentiments of mankind, and they had acted accordingly,
persecution, the bane of truth and nurse of error, with her bloody axe and
flaming hand, would never have turned so great a part of the world into a
field of blood.

But while I assert the rights of religious liberty, I would not deny that
the civil power has a right, in some cases, to interfere in matters of
religion. It has a right to prohibit and punish gross immoralities and
impieties; because the open practice of these is of evil example and
detriment. For this reason, I heartily approve of our laws against
drunkenness, profane swearing, blasphemy, and professed atheism. But in
this state, we have never thought it expedient to adopt a test-law; and
yet I sincerely believe we have as great a proportion of religion and
morality, as they have in England, where every person who holds a public
office, must either be a saint by law, or a hypocrite by practice. A
test-law is the parent of hypocrisy, and the offspring of error and the
spirit of persecution. Legislatures have no right to set up an
inquisition, and examine into the private opinions of men. Test-laws are
useless and ineffectual, unjust and tyrannical; therefore the Convention
have done wisely in excluding this engine of persecution, and providing
that no religious test shall ever be required.

A LANDHOLDER.

The Landholder, VIII.

The Connecticut Courant, (Number 1196)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1787.

TO THE HON. ELBRIDGE GERRY, ESQUIRE.

_Sir_,

When a man in public life first deviates from the line of truth and
rectitude, an uncommon degree of art and attention becomes necessary to
secure him from detection. Duplicity of conduct in him requires more than
double caution, a caution which his former habits of simplicity have never
furnished him the means of calculating; and his first leap into the region
of treachery and falsehood is often as fatal to himself as it was designed
to be to his country. Whether you and Mr. Mason may be ranked in this
class of transgressors I pretend not to determine. Ce