Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Secular View of Religion in the State: And the Bible in the Public Schools
It is assumed that there is nothing in the Constitution as it stands, which forbids a state from establishing a religion, and that no power is conferred on congress by the Constitution to forbid a foreign hierarchial establish ment in the United States. If such a power he needed, then the proposed amendment is also necessary.
In discussing the proposition it seems proper, even at the risk of being tedious, to draw on some of the first principles of civil government, and to make a few bistori cal references pertinent to the subject. I commence, then, by observing that there exist but two pure, original sources of governmental authority: one professedly derived from the Supreme Divine Power, and exercised by divine right, which is theocracy; while the other is earthly and human, deriving all authority from the people, and is based on their consent; which is democracy. In the former the ruler is the vicegerent of Heaven while in the latter he is the mere servant of the people. The one is a minister of the Divine Will; while the other only executes the will of the people. The right divine is, of course, a mere assumption but this assumption, believed and acquiesced in by a nation, becomes a reality, and, in general, a dreadful one.
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