7255. RELIGION, Public office and.—
The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the
public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity
of being called to offices of trust or
emolument, unless he profess or renounce this
or that religious opinion, * * * tends to
corrupt the principles of that very religion
it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a
monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments,
those who will externally profess and conform
to it.—
Statute of Religious Freedom. Washington ed. viii, 455.
Ford ed., ii, 238.
(1779)
