7219. RELIGION, Federal government and.—[continued]
I consider the government
of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious
institutions, their doctrines, discipline,
or exercises. This results not only from the
provision that no law shall be made respecting
the establishment or free exercise of religion,
but from that also which reserves to
the States the powers not delegated to the
United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe
any religious exercise, or to assume
any authority in religious discipline, has been
delegated to the General Government. It
must then rest with the States, as far as it
can be in any human authority.—
To Rev. Samuel Miller. Washington ed. v, 236.
Ford ed., ix, 174.
(W.
1808)
