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"That such persons may raise companies, and if enough companies are raised, may form regiments having their own field-officers, chaplains, and so on.'

99 94

In the spring and summer of 1776, the Virginia Convention prepared and adopted the Declaration of Rights, with its immortal sixteenth section," pronouncing religion henceforth free in Virginia (June 12, 1776), and also adopted the Constitution. In all this it does not appear that the Baptists as such took any direct part, though they doubtless did their duty as citizens, particularly at the polls.

The following remark by Fristoe makes it likely that they may have influenced the membership of this convention of 1776 as well as that of subsequent General Assemblies. Fristoe is speaking of the year 1776. “The business then was to unite, as an oppressed people, in using our influence and give our voice in electing members of the State Legislature-members favorable to religious liberty and the rights of conscience. Although the Baptists were not numerous, when there was anything near a division among the other inhabitants in a county, the Baptists, together with their influence, gave a caste to the scale, by which means many a worthy and useful member was lodged in the House of Assembly and answered a valuable purpose there."

94

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Hening, ix, 348.

25 This famous section is as follows: "A Declaration of Rights made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free Convention; which rights do pertain to them and to their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government. (Unanimously adopted June 12, 1776.)

"16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other."

Hening, ix, 109-112; cf. Bitting, Strawberry Association, p. 18. Fristoe, 90.

96

Eight days after the adoption of the Declaration of Rights, "A petition of sundry persons of the Baptist Church, in the County of Prince William, whose names are thereunto subscribed, was presented to the Convention and read; setting forth that at a time when this colony, with others, is contending for the civil rights of mankind, against the enslaving schemes of a powerful enemy, they are persuaded the strictest unanimity is necessary, among ourselves; and, that every remaining cause of division may, if possible, be removed, they think it their duty to petition for the following religious privileges, which they have not yet been indulged with in this part of the world, to wit: That they be allowed to worship God in their own way, without interruption; that they be permitted to maintain their own ministers and none others; that they be married, buried, and the like, without paying the clergy of other denominations; that, these things granted, they will gladly unite with their brethren, and to the utmost of their ability promote the common cause." The petition was referred to the Committee of Propositions and Grievances, which was ordered to "inquire into the allegations thereof, and report the same, with their opinion thereupon, to the Convention."

99 97

This petition was probably from the Regular Baptist Church at Occoquon of which David Thomas was pastor," and may be considered the forerunner of the petitions to the convention and of its consequent action at its next meeting in October as the General Assembly.

The next association had been appointed for Thompson's meeting-house, Louisa county, on the second Saturday in August, 1776. "They met accordingly," says Semple, "and letters from 74 churches were received, bringing mournful tidings of coldness and declension. This declen

"Journal of Convention, under date.

98

Semple; James, Religious Herald, Feb. 23, 1899.

sion is accounted for by some of the letters as arising from too much concern in political matters, being about the commencement of the Revolution. Others ascribed it to their dissensions about principles, etc. Both doubtless had their weight." This increase of nearly one-fifth in the number of Separate churches since the May meeting of 1775, does not seem to an outsider to mark either coldness or declension. There must have been between ninety and one hundred Baptist congregations, organized and unorganized, in existence at this time in Virginia. But it does not appear that the Separates took any organic action in behalf of further religious liberty at this meeting of the Association, or at other meetings held in this same year and in 1777. Not indeed until 1778, as far as the records seem to show, did the Association again petition the Legislature. The dissensions among the Baptists themselves were sharp. "This was an exceedingly sorrowful time," says Semple.

The Separate Association did not act, but the churches as congregations or as individual members did act, if we can attribute to the Baptists a share in the various petitions presented in the fall of 1776. The Journal of the House of Delegates often does not show from what denomination of dissenters the petitions came; it generally does show if the petition came from any representative body. The Baptists were now numerous, probably the most numerous body of dissenters in Virginia. They had in all probability already adopted the custom, afterwards used by them, of sending in petitions by counties so as to make the stronger impression on the legislature. It seems reasonable, therefore, to give them credit for a share in these petitions not otherwise accounted for. Accordingly in the pages following, such petitions are mentioned as if emanating from Baptist sources. This may be allowed the more readily because from this time on the Baptists worked with others for religious freedom and against the Establishment; that is to say, the Baptists were one element in a large and compli

cated movement. The parts played by others in influencing legislative action will be set forth in due order."

The first General Assembly of the State of Virginia met in Williamsburg on Monday, October 7, 1776. Among its early enactments was a bill which swept away all existing parliamentary laws restricting liberty of religious opinion and worship. This was done in part in response to the public demand as shown in petitions from many sources. The petitions probably or certainly from Baptist or partly Baptist sources are here given.

October 11, 1776. “A petition of sundry inhabitants of Prince Edward . . . that, without delay, all church establishments might be pulled down, and every tax upon conscience and private judgment abolished, and each individual left to rise or sink by his own merit and the general law of the land."-Referred to Committee for Religion."

100

October 16, 1776. "A petition of dissenters . . . that having long groaned under the burthen of an ecclesiastical establishment, they pray that this, as well as every other yoke, may be broken, and that the oppressed may go free, that so, every religious denomination being on a level, animosities may cease,” etc-Referred, etc."

101

October 22, 1776. "Two petitions from dissenters from the Church of England in the counties of Albemarle, Amherst, and Buckingham . . . praying that every religious denomination may be put upon an equal footing.”—Referred, etc.102

"Cf. Fristoe, p. 90-91.

...

These petitions exist in their original manuscript form in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia; but, owing to their chaotic condition, they are inaccessible. Not only the Baptists, but all those interested in the preservation of the sources of Virginia history should unite in an effort to secure an appropriation from the Virginia Legislature providing for the speedy cataloguing and publication of these valuable records. They would throw great light upon the genealogies as well as upon the social and political history of the State.

100

101

Journal of House of Delegates, Oct. 11, 1776.
Ibid., Oct. 16.

102

Ibid., Oct. 22.

October 25, 1776. "Two petitions from dissenters praying that the ecclesiastical establishment may be suspended or laid aside."-Referred, etc.'

103

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the counties of Albemarle and Amherst . . . praying that every religious denomination may be put upon an equal footing, independent of another."-Referred, etc.10

On November 9, 1776, it was "Ordered, That the Committee for Religion be discharged from proceeding on the petitions of several religious societies, and that the same be referred to the Committee of the whole House upon the state of the country."

99 105

On November 19, the Committee of the Whole reported the following series of resolutions to the House: "Resolved, As the opinion of this Committee, that all and every act or statute, either of the parliament of England or of Great Britain, by whatever title known or distinguished, which renders criminal the maintaining any opinions in matters of religion, forbearing to repair to church, or the exercising any mode of worship whatsoever, or which prescribes punishment for the same, ought to be declared henceforth of no validity or force within this Commonwealth.

"Resolved, That so much of the petitions of the several dissenters from the church established by law within this Commonwealth, as desires an exemption from all taxes and contributions whatever towards supporting the said church and the ministers thereof, or towards the support of their respective religious societies in any other way than themselves shall voluntarily agree is reasonable.

66

'Resolved, That though the maintaining any opinions in matters of religion ought not to be restrained, yet that public assemblies of societies for divine worship ought to be regulated, and that proper provision should be made for

103 Journal House of Delegates, Oct. 25, 1776.

104

Ibid., Nov. I.

105

Ibid., Nov. 9.

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