1629. CONSCIENCE, Rights of.—[further continued].
No provision in our Constitution
ought to be dearer to man than that
which protects the rights of conscience against
the enterprises of the civil authority. It has
not left the religion of its citizens under the
power of its public functionaries, were it
possible that any of these should consider
a conquest over the conscience of men either
attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose.—
R. To A. New London Methodists. Washington ed. viii, 147.
(1809)