RICHARD MENTOR JOHNSON

We must now oppose the further encroachments of Great Britain by war, or formally annul the Declaration of Independence.

It is not the legitimate province of the Legislature to determine which religion is true, or what false. Our government is a civil, and not a religious institution.

What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights.

The line cannot be too strongly drawn.

Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for violation of what Government denominated the law of God. To prevent a similar train of evils in this country, the Constitution has wisely withheld from our Government the power of defining the divine law.

Let the national legislature once perform an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legitimate bounds.

Their moral influence will then do infinitely more to advance the true interests of religion, than any measures which they may call on Congress to enact.

Let the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence - by Christian meekness - by lives of temperance and holiness.

[The line] cannot be too strongly drawn between church and state.

Our Constitution recognises no other power than that of persuasion, for enforcing religious observances.

What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small.

Let the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence - by Christian meekness - by lives of temperance and holiness.

Our Constitution recognises no other power than that of persuasion, for enforcing religious observances.

The line cannot be too strongly drawn.

We are afraid to trust ourselves, and pretend that we are afraid to trust the people. My hopes have rested and always will rest upon the people …. The people will rise in their majesty, and the world will be interested in the spectacle.

We must now oppose the further encroachments of Great Britain by war, or formally annul the Declaration of Independence.

[The line] cannot be too strongly drawn between church and state.

Let the national legislature once perform an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legitimate bounds.

What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights.

Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for violation of what Government denominated the law of God. To prevent a similar train of evils in this country, the Constitution has wisely withheld from our Government the power of defining the divine law.

Their moral influence will then do infinitely more to advance the true interests of religion, than any measures which they may call on Congress to enact.

It is not the legitimate province of the Legislature to determine which religion is true, or what false. Our government is a civil, and not a religious institution.