ebook THE ORIGINAL 13 - A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States

"The whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State governments, to be acted upon according to their sense of justice and the State Constitutions," wrote Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833. Who was Joseph Story? He was the founder of Harvard Law School and appointed to the Supreme Court by President James Madison - the same James Madison who introduced the First Amendment in the first session of Congress. To understand the progression of religious freedom in America, it is necessary to review the Constitutions of the original thirteen States, together with the Colonial Charters that preceded them, i.e.: VIRGINIA CHARTER OF KING JAMES I, 1606 "...propagating of Christian Religion to such People as yet live in Darkness..." DELAWARE CHARTER OF KING ADOLPHUS, 1626 "...further propagation of the Holy Gospel..." MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTION, 1780, Part 1, Article 3 "Every denomination of Christians...