WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1832-1853
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"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free use thereof." Our state constitu- tion says: "Ministers of the gospel being by their profession dedicated to God, and the care of souls, ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions; therefore, no minister of the gospel or priest of any denomination whatever shall be eligible to the legislature." The clause in our state constitution just quoted, disfranchising clergymen, I think, is an abridgement of religious liberty. Had I been a member of the constitutional convention I should not have given it my support. It violates the very principles it intended to protect, inasmuch as it recognizes the right to control the free enjoyment of religious belief by law. The men, many of them, that framed and voted for it were smarting from the effects of the tyrannical act of the Mexican Catholic priesthood, which was the cause, I have no doubt, that inspired the enactment. I wish to be understood in my remarks that I have no prejudice against persons embracing the Catholic faith that would debar me from according to them the same rights due to any other denomination of Christians, or any other religious creed. History teaches us that men composing all denominations of religious faith, when clothed with ecclesiastical and temporal power combined, have been tyrants. Now, any law made by the law-making power of the state, intended to regulate a person's religious or civil conduct on Sun- day, is in violation of the spirit of the constitution of the United States, if not the letter. That clause was placed there by wise men; by men who had been careful students of history. They determined that their beloved country should not become the battleground of religious enthusiasts. They were not ignorant of the early colonial history-a history that disclosed the fact, that the New England colonists enacted and enforced laws com- pelling persons to observe and subscribe to a particular religious faith. Laws were enacted regulating all persons' conduct on Sunday, which were so severe that people dared not prepare food for nourishment. They were compelled to prepare the traditional Indian pudding and baked beans on Saturday to be served cold on Sunday. It is asserted that laws declaring Sunday, the first day of the week, a day of rest, and to be unlawful for any person to do certain acts on that day that are lawful on week days, is not in violation of the spirit or letter of the constitution, because
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