ines that the judicature of the country is less safe, that the
administration of public justice is less respectable or less secure,
because the Chief Justice of the United States has been, and is, an
ardent adherent to that religion. And so it is in every department of
society amongst us. In both Houses of Congress, in all public offices,
and all public affairs, we proceed on the idea that a man's religious
belief is a matter above human law; that it is a question to be settled
between him and his Maker, because he is responsible to none but his
Maker for adopting or rejecting revealed truth. And here is the great
distinction which is sometimes overlooked, and which I am afraid is now
too often overlooked, in this land, the glorious inheritance of the sons
of the Pilgrims. Men, for their religious sentiments, are accountable to
God, and to God only. Religion is both a communication and a tie between
man and his Maker; and to his own master every man standeth or falleth.
But when men come together in society, establish social relations, and
form governments for the protection of the rights of all, then it is
indispensable that this right of private judgment should in some measure
be relinquished and made subservient to the judgment of the whole.
Religion may exist while every man is left responsible only to God.
Society, civil rule, the civil state, cannot exist, while every man is
responsible to nobody and to nothing but to his own opinion. And our New
England ancestors understood all this quite well. Gentlemen, there is
the "Constitution" which was adopted on board the Mayflower in November,
1620, while that bark of immortal memory was riding at anchor in the
harbor of Cape Cod. What is it? Its authors honored God; they professed
to obey all His commandments, and to live ever and in all things in His
obedience. But they say, nevertheless, that for the establishment of a
civil polity, for the greater security and preservation of their civil
rights and liberties, they agree that the laws and ordinances, and I am
glad they put in the word "constitutions," invoking the name of the
Deity on their resolution; they say, that these laws and ordinances, and
constitutions, which may be established by those they should appoint to
enact them, they, in all due submission and obedience, will support.

This constitution is not long. I will read it. It invokes a religious
sanction and the authority of God on their civil obligations; for