Civil Government Quotes
This is the first American ordinance of freedom of conscience. Note that it only provided freedom of religion for Christians. However, that was an important first step as different sects of Christianity had been persecuting each other whenever the opportunity arose.
This quotation is one of the early arguments for local control in a republican government. Note the importance of the nobility and chief gentry. Although a republican, Milton was no democrat.
It is ironic that Pakistan, the creation of Jinnah’s efforts, has to a great extent adopted Sharia (Islamic Law) resulting in severe curtailment of freedom of speech and thought. Professors languish in jail for not teaching the history of Muhammed in the orthodox way, people are sentenced to death for what the local mullahs regard as blasphemy—results which from Jinnah’s point of view were terrible.
The Constitution had not yet been written nor the Bill of Rights enacted.
Williams was a minority voice throughout most of the world on this point. Even in modern times there are many civil and religious authorities do do not agree. The belief of God’s impotence and the need for the “sword of steel” seem so contradictory yet it persists even to modern times.
With the dissatisfaction with the British monarchy rising, American colonial leaders were considering many different alternatives. This quotation shows us that the year before Bunker Hill, the colonials were already thinking about independence but were examining alternatives for the new independent nation. The Jewish Republic was one that a number of Americans considered and some aspects of its civil law were incorporated into some independent State Governments and influenced thinking about the Federal Government in 1787.
