James Madison wrote in his essay “Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments” that "besides the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government,” there were also indirect dangers relating to the constitutional principle of “separation between Religion and Government.” The following is the list of dangers, encroachments, and illustrations of precedents cited by James Madison--in his own words, in context, and in the same order as he discussed them in his essay, for example:
1. “The danger of silent accumulations [of property and money] and encroachments [actions exceeding proper limits] by ecclesiastical bodies [churches] have not sufficiently engaged attention in the United States.”
2. “Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history."
3. "See the cases [President James Madison's Baptist and Episcopal vetoes in an essay above] in which negatives [vetoes] were put by J.M. on two bills passed by Congress."
4. "See also attempt in Kentucky; for example, where it was proposed to exempt Houses of Worship from taxes."
5. "The most notable attempt was that in Virginia to establish a general assessment [public tax] for the support of all Christian sects."
6. "But besides the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government, there is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity [forever] by ecclesiastical corporations."
7. "The excessive wealth of ecclesiastical corporations and the misuse of it.... Are the United States duly awake to the tendency of the precedents they are establishing, in the multiplied incorporations of religious congregations with the faculty [power] of acquiring and holding property real as well as personal?"
8. "The appointment of chaplains to the two houses of Congress.... The establishment of the chaplainship to Congress is a palpable [easily noticeable] violation of equal rights, as well as of constitutional principles."
9. "The doctrine that religious truth is to be tested by numbers, or that the major sects have a right to govern the minor."
10. "The expense of a religious worship ... allowed by the legislature ... paid by the public."
11. "The precedent of chaplainships for the army and navy."
12. "Religious proclamations by the Executive [President]. ... Although recommendations only, they imply a religious agency, making [constituting] no part of the trust delegated to political rulers."
13. "The erronious [sic] idea of a national religion."
14. "The idea also of a union of all to form one nation under one government in acts of devotion to the God of all."
15. "The idea of [political] policy associated with religion, whatever be the mode or the occasion."
James Madison's complete essay, from which the above quotations are taken, is printed in the book America's Real Religion by Gene Garman and can also be located in "Madison’s ‘Detached Memoranda,’" William and Mary Quarterly, (October 1946), vol. 3, series 3. Another article dealing with this essay can be located in “Aspects of Monopoly One Hundred Years Ago,” Harper’s Magazine, vol. 128 (March 1914).
Copyright 1997, 2000 Gene Garman