John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on theRatification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of theBill of Rights -- Working Paper on SSRN

[Robert Sheridan]

Fascinating.

Good ideas from mundane, not to say terrible, beginnings?

 From the mud, the lotus?

I should hope so, for what other source is there?

rs
sfls


On Sep 2, 2008, at 8:15 PM, Calvin Johnson wrote:

> It is quite plausible that the Baptists provided the critical votes  
> to put Madison into Congress.   Patrick Henry, the arch nemesis, put  
> James Monroe up against Madison in the election and Monroe, as shown  
> later, was an attractive candidate.   But the logical link between  
> the Baptist support and the bill of rights is quite weak, even in  
> the wrong direction.  The Bill of Rights is a misdirected remedy for  
> what is bothering Leland and Madison.  Leland got nothing from it,  
> as expected from the nature of the Bill of Rights.
>
>            The suppression of Baptist free exercise and the  
> establishment of Episcopal Church in Virginia came  from Patrick  
> Henry, the most powerful boss of Virginia.   Henry came from a long  
> line of Presbyterian dunkers and was no more sympathetic to the  
> dissenting religions than his kin.  He was the one who had proposed  
> a tax to support mostly Episcopal ministers that Madison was able to  
> beat with an unheard of technique now called grass roots lobbying.
>       Patrick Henry is the primary target of Federalist 10.  In the  
> small republics,  the states, Madison said,  Episcopals would  
> suppress Baptists (Viriginia),  Presbyterians would oppress Angicans  
> (Pa.) and vice versa (Pa.), Congregationalists would suppress any  
> one not Congregationalist (Mass).  But on the national level, with  
> the extended republic, no sect could predominate and all would live  
> happily with each other and allow individual freedom of conscience.  
> a nonsectarian Protestant ideal.   Patrick Henry was plausibly the  
> primary target of the Constitution.  The Constitution is fairly  
> described as Madison's revenge upon Henry on all the issues  
> ( including religion) they had fought over in the prior decade in  
> Virginia.
>      The Bill of Rights, however, has no impact on the states, where  
> the problem arises in fact and under Madisonian theory.   The Bill  
> of Rights affects only the Federal government, the extended  
> republic, where no suppression was possible because no sect was  
> predominant.  It is a fine workable theory that the Bill of Rights  
> is a near meaningless sop, prohibiting establishment and suppression  
> of religion on the fedreal level where no establishement or  
> suppression was possible and leaving the established churches and  
> religious oppression free to work in the states where the serious  
> problem was.  Leland got nothing out the Bill of Rights.
>         The Bill of Rights is plausibly described as sop -- a crumb  
> to evil RI and unimportant North Carolina, which state had not  
> ratified, but signifying nothing, given its intended design
>
> From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu on behalf of Scarberry, Mark
> Sent: Tue 9/2/2008 7:50 PM
> To: conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu; religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu; election-law at mailman.lls.edu
> Subject: John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on  
> theRatification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of theBill  
> of Rights -- Working Paper on SSRN
>
> Shameless self-promotion alert, and with apologies for the cross- 
> posting:
>
> In case anyone is interested, I've just posted a working paper  
> (actually a nearly completed article) to SSRN entitled:
>
> "John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on the  
> Ratification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of the Bill of  
> Rights"
>
> You can see the abstract and download the full text at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1262520 
> .
>
> Leland was an itinerant Baptist preacher who became one of the  
> leading Baptists in Virginia and one of the key proponents of  
> religious liberty for all, both in Virginia and later in New  
> England. My article discusses his influence (and Baptist influence  
> generally) on Madison's 1788 election to the Virginia ratifying  
> convention and 1789 election to the First Congress. Others have  
> noted Leland's influence on these elections and the possibly  
> substantial effect on American history that may have resulted.  
> (Without Madison at the convention, Virginia might not have ratified  
> the Constitution, and without him in the First Congress we might not  
> have a Bill of Rights.) My article considers the evidence for  
> Leland's and the Baptists' influence on those elections and comes up  
> with, I think, some new information or conclusions. For example,  
> George Eve's famous defense of Madison in a Baptist church meeting  
> did not happen, as is generally assumed, at Eve's Blue Run Baptist  
> church in Orange County (Madison's home county), but rather at Eve's  
> Rapidan Baptist church in Culpeper County, the pivotal county in the  
> congressional election. (Eve actually was the pastor of three  
> churches.)
>
> The article also discusses Leland more generally, including Leland's  
> relationship with Jefferson, Leland's criticism of slavery, and the  
> easy availability now of Leland's works on Google Books.
>
> The paper is a very substantial expansion of a presentation I made  
> in the spring at the Boston College Law and Religion Program  
> symposium on Electing Faith: The Intersection of Law and Politics.  
> My panel more specifically was to address the effect of religion on  
> elections and the legislation that may result. I took the term  
> "legislation" broadly to include ratification of the Constitution  
> and amendment of it by way of a Bill of Rights.
>
> The BC Law and Religion Program does not yet publish a journal and  
> thus I will be seeking a home for the article.
>
> Comments or suggestions for improvement would be very much  
> appreciated.
>
> Mark S. Scarberry
> Pepperdine University School of Law
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