ABSTRACT
The Jeffersonian and Madisonian ideas on the subject might be counted as advanced, and equally sophisticated commentators, such as Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons of Massachusetts made an articulate case for the opposing view, such an “independence of Church and State” as they worked for was ultimately adopted by all of the states as they followed Virginia’s lead in disestablishing churches and guaranteeing religious liberty. Neither can the laws prevent, by temporal punishment, secret offences, committed without witness, to gratify malice, revenge, or any other passion, by assailing the most important and most estimable rights of others. The Bill of Rights was ratified by the necessary number of states in the relatively short period of 26 months with a notable lack of protest or negative comment. The history of religion in America in the nineteenth century cannot be well understood without an awareness of the importance of the accommodative perspective which was clearly evident in the last quarter of the eighteenth.
