JAMES MADISON AND SECTARIAN EDUCATION
Q: [When you write about James Madison's "Memorial and Remonstrance" and his objection to the use of public tax money for teachers of the Christian Religion,] it seems that the quotes you cite are simply Madison's objections to government-paid religion teachers. State government funds for schooling have long been seen as a good idea, schooling referring in this case to learning how to read and write. What does Madison have to say in regard to this?
A: Ronald, thanks for the good question and the opportunity to provide some information which I hope will be of value. Of course, no one objects to use of public tax money for public institutions or for public education. So, I can only add James Madison's view --in his own words--of the relationship between religion and government as it relates to education. And, I will refer you to the 1974 Newsweek book James Madison: A Biography in His Own Words by Merrill D. Peterson (Professor of History, University of Virginia).
Peterson writes of Madison's passion for the "conquest of ignorance" and points out that in the same year (1785) that Madison protested against the "bill establishing a provision (public tax money) for teachers of the Christian religion," he also "tried and failed to win legislative approval of Jefferson's comprehensive plan of public education. . . . His essentially civic conception of education, as an ally of republican government, is developed in a letter to William T. Barry of Kentucky" dated August 4, 1822:
Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty & dangerous encroachments on the public liberty. They are nurseries of skilful Teachers for the schools distributed throughout the Community. . . .
. . . At cheaper & nearer seats of Learning parents with slender incomes may place their sons in a course of Education putting them on a level with the sons of the richest. . . .
It is among the happy peculiarities of our Union . . . [that is,] the merit of diffusing the light and the advantages of public Instruction. [pp.379-380.]
Peterson continues:
Madison was closely associated with Jefferson in founding the University of Virginia. It was to be, among other things, a secular institution in strict conformity to the principle of separation of Church and State. The idea of a 'godless university' was novel, threatening to Virginia's evangelical leadership, and the university rose over its opposition. For Madison, freedom of religion was involved with freedom of mind and therefore with what would later be called academic freedom. It was the one principle upon which there could be no compromise. He stated his views in a letter to [the unitarian] Edward Everett, then a professor and later president of Harvard--a university that still labored under the constraints of its Puritan founding. [p.381.]
This is what Madison wrote on March 19, 1823:
I am not surprised at the dilemma [problem] produced at your University [Harvard], by making Theological Professorships an integral part of the System. The anticipation of such an one [dilemma], led to the omission in ours [Virginia]; the Visitors [guest teachers] being merely authorized to open a public Hall for religious occasion, under impartial regulations; with the opportunity to different Sects to establish their Theological Schools, so near that the Students of the University may respectively attend the religious exercises in them. . . .
A University with Sectarian professorships, becomes of course, a Sectarian Monopoly; . . . without any such professorship [like at the University of Virginia], it must incur [inherit]. . . the imputation [accusation] of irreligious tendencies if not designs. . . .
On this view of the subject, there seems to be no alternative. . .
The difficulty of reconciling the Christian mind to the absence of religious Tuition [Instruction] from a University, established by Law & at the common [public tax money] expense, is probably less with us [in Virginia] than with you [in Massachusetts]. The settled opinion here is that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Govt. and exempt from its cognizance; that a connexion between them is injurious to both; that there are causes in the human breast which ensure the perpetuity of religion without the aid of the law; . . . and finally, that these opinions are supported by experience, which has shewn that every relaxation [easing] of the Alliance between Law & Religion, . . . has been found as safe in practice as it is sound in Theory. [pp. 381-382.]
Sorry this is so long, Ronald; but, in answer to your specific question about the teaching of reading and writing, I would paraphrase Madison's above statement: A school with sectarian teachers, becomes of course, a church school--a church. Public funds are for public institutions. Religion, except for the academic study of it, is a matter for individuals, homes, parochial schools, and churches; religion is not the business of government and is not to be established by law--that is a lesson the majority of America's forefathers learned from history.
