Articles
from THE WEEKLY REGISTER
There is no doubt that James Madison believed
in the separation of church and state. It was a constant theme
of his career and an area in which his views were sometimes stated
without his characteristic moderation. In the
Memorial
and Remonstrance of June 20, 1785, he wrote:
"During almost fifteen centuries has the
legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have
been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence
in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both,
superstition, bigotry and persecution."
Thirty-seven years later, he has perhaps softened
his rhetoric, but not changed his mind. In a letter to Edward
Livingston, he writes: "religion and Government will both
exist in greater purity the less they are mixed."
Nonetheless, Madison was inherently a moderate.
His support of separation of church and state did not prevent
him from issuing the proclamation below during his presidency.
Reading the proclamation, it is clear that the
President is calling for the observation of a religious holiday,
an ancestor of our Thanksgiving Day. How does he justify this?
He provides an answer in the same letter to Livingston quoted
above. He writes:
"I was always careful to make the proclamations absolutely
indiscriminant and merely recommendatory; or, rather, mere
designations of a day on which all who thought proper
might unite in consecrating it to religious purposes,
according to their own faith and forms."
Reading the Proclamation below, it is clear
that Madison followed his own rules. He does not endorse Christianity
or any specific Christian denomination; he is "absolutely
indiscriminant." He refers to "great Parent and Sovereign
of the Universe," for instance. He also asks that persons
gather "in their respective religious congregations;"
thus they can follow "their own faith and forms."
Madison may have been motivated to issue the
proclamation by the request from Congress and by the unhappy state
of the war. He also felt some pressure to "follow the examples
of predecessors." In any event, Madison does not insist upon
an absolute separation of church and state. The man who in 1785
said, "it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment
on our liberties," issues a call in 1813 for a day of "Public
Humiliation and Prayer." [italics in original]
