The Founding and the Natural Right of Religious Freedom

The Founding and the Natural Right of Religious Freedom 

In 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington reflected on the purpose of the war. He wrote, “The establishment of Civil & Religious Liberty, was the motive which induced me to the Field.” His sentiment about the significance of religious liberty and the American Revolution was not unique. Many Americans shared the idea that religious liberty was an essential right in a system of republican self-government.

The idea of religious toleration had emerged earlier than the Founding, during the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. As part of the Age of Enlightenment, religious toleration had come to be valued after a period of religious wars that divided Protestants and Catholics. Religious toleration was the policy that the government would accept certain religious denominations, allow them to worship, and not impose civil penalties on members of religious minorities.

While religious toleration was a great innovation in advancing rights, the Founders established an even more fundamental principle. Simply practicing religious toleration meant the government would allow people to exercise their religion. The Founders believed this was an insufficient protection of a fundamental right, because it did not protect the freedom of conscience. They believed freedom of conscience was a natural right that all humans enjoyed, and no government could justly violate.

Before the Revolution, most American colonists did not enjoy religious liberty. Colonists often paid taxes to support the official, established church within the colonies (even if it was not their church) and suffered penalties for not attending church services. Colonial governments had religious tests for public office and religious restrictions on voting. Dissenters often faced persecution and sometimes violence.

Most of the Founders thought the lack of religious liberty was unacceptable. They believed religious liberty was a natural right and a foundation of republican self-government. They also believed religion was a significant basis for the civic virtue and morality at the core of republican self-governance. Thus, they enshrined religious liberty in American Founding documents and civic life. 

The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) demonstrates the development of religious liberty in the American Revolution. George Mason’s first draft supported religious toleration and read, “All Men should enjoy the fullest Toleration in the Exercise of Religion, according to the Dictates of Conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the Magistrate.” After revisions, the final document came to include James Madison’s view of religious liberty as a natural right. “All men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience,” it declared. Other states followed this example in writing constitutions after declaring independence.

In the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), Thomas Jefferson emphasized that religious freedom was one of “the natural rights of mankind.” The law disestablished the official church and ended civil penalties for a person’s religious beliefs.

In 1787, the Constitution endorsed religious liberty. The document bans religious tests for office at the federal and state level in Article VI, clause 3. The Constitution states, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

In the First Congress, James Madison took up the cause of securing a bill of rights. Congress adopted religious liberty in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights. The Establishment Clause stated, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” In addition, the Free Exercise Clause preserved religious freedom by stating, “Congress shall make no law…prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” While the exact meaning of the clauses has been a source of much debate and contention, including in Supreme Court cases, the First Amendment plainly treats religious liberty as an essential right.

George Washington played an often unsung role in establishing religious liberty. As president, Washington wrote several letters to a variety of different denominations praising religious liberty as a natural right and the basis of good citizenship. In his letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, Washington notes the revolutionary, exceptional nature of religious liberty in the world: “The citizens of the United States of America have…given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.”

Washington continued, arguing that freedom of conscience as a natural right superseded mere religious toleration. “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it were the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

In his 1796 Farewell Address, Washington encouraged the practice of religion and civic virtue as the “necessary spring of popular government.” In dispensing advice to his fellow citizens about creating a lasting republic, he asserted, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Washington and the Founders thought religious liberty and civic virtue were essential for self-government.

Since the American Founding, the unalienable natural right of religious liberty has been at the heart of self-governance and living in a free society. It is an essential individual right and promotes civic virtues that help to preserve liberty.