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Prominent front-page printing of A Bill for establishing religious Freedom, (Printed for the Consideration of the People), The Providence Gazette; and Country Journal (Rhode Island), May 13, 1780, 1:1-2. One of the three achievements of which Jefferson was most proud, as listed on his epitaph.Only the second known newspaper printing, and the first front-page printing. Jefferson drafted the bill in 1777, and John Harvie (1742-1807) introduced it in the Virginia General Assembly on June 12, 1779. James Madison reintroduced a slightly different version in October 1785, and the General Assembly adopted a further revised version on January 16, 1786.This eclipses by roughly six years the rare 1786 Paris four-page printing of the Act, making it the earliest obtainable printing of Jefferson's proposed bill. It is closer to Jefferson's original text than either the amended act or Jefferson's hybrid version created in 1786.[1]Here, it is introduced by a local commentator signing as "Roger Williams," in homage to America's earliest advocate of religious toleration and separation of church and state.Complete Transcript of IntroductionMr. Carter, In times of public dissention, wherein the exertions of municipal law are too feeble to check the encroachments of popular or despotic leaders, or of factions directed to particular views, the men who nobly oppose the vicious torrent, give an irresistible proof of the innate excellence of human nature. Commotions, of every kind, are near the confines of usurpation: They terminate in horror, when the rights of mankind are essentially violated. Of all those rights, freedom of thinking, in matters religious, is the most important. Actions are the necessary consequence of volition; and therefore religious establishments counteract their own intentions. Religion is relative only to the creature and the Creator: It existed the same, where in the mundane or other systems, coeval with nature in gradation; and consequently anteceded the objects of civil institution. For governments therefore, whether republican, monarchical or despotic, to enforce religion, as pertaining to their formation, is absurd and ridiculous; but more especially so, when freedom is the glorious prize for which we dare to fight, to bleed, to die!-Unhappy contrast! The first State but one, in the confederated union of America, is attempting to enslave the free-born mind.-The first State but one, in the confederated union of America, is boldly declaring the rights of humanity, in the most critical of times! Happy Virginia! thy unsullied charms will smile with truth, when the universal boon shall be known to all, and heaven pronounce impartial freedom. The following, Sir, is an Act of the State of Virginia: That the noble sentiments therein contained may universally prevail, in the anxious prayer of your very humble servant. ROGER WILLIAMS.Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, as introduced June 12, 1779, and printed here(deletions in final version in blue)A Bill for establishing religious Freedom.(Printed for the Consideration of the People.)Well aware, that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds, thatAlmighty God has created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain, by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it, by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacities, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of religion, who, being Lord of both body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion o. (See website for full description). Codice articolo 25999.99
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