Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders (75 page)

19.
Leland,
Writings
, 241; Huff, “How High the ‘Wall’?,” 259. Leland doubtless read his contemporary
Isaac Backus’s
History of the Baptists in New England
, which described Roger Williams’s travails, but Backus stopped short of repeating Williams’s universal claims for the religious freedom and civil protection of Muslims and Jews in his ideal state.

20.
Leland,
Writings
, 241.

21.
McLoughlin,
New England Dissent
, 2:929.

22.
Roger Williams,
The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience
, ed. Samuel L. Caldwell, vol. 3 of
The Complete Writings of Roger Williams
(New York: Russell and Russell, 1963), 142.

23.
In two instances, Leland did refer to “Mahometans,” but the majority of his references are to “Turks.”

24.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 172–73; Buckley,
Church and State
, 12–16. For the role of Baptists in pre-Revolutionary Virginia, see Rhys Isaac,
The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), 161–80.

25.
Leland,
Writings
, 27; Ragosta,
Wellspring of Liberty
, 29.

26.
Leland,
Writings
, 255; Kidd,
God of Liberty
, 157.

27.
James Madison,
The Papers of James Madison
, ed. Robert A. Rutland and William M. E. Rachal et al., 17 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 8:298–304. Hereafter cited as
Papers of James Madison.

28.
“From Richard Henry Lee to James Madison,” November 26, 1784,
Papers of James Madison
, 8:149; Buckley,
Church and State
, 101–2, 116, 174.

29.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 181; Robert B. Semple,
A History of the Rise and Progress of Baptists in Virginia
(Philadelphia: American Baptist Society, 1894), 207.

30.
“James Gordon, Jr., to James Madison,” February 17, 1788,
Papers of James Madison
, 8:516.

31.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 169.

32.
Leland,
Writings
, 27, 38; Huff, “How High the ‘Wall’?,” 237–73.

33.
Papers of James Madison
, 8:516.

34.
“Joseph Spencer to James Madison,” February 28, 1788,
Papers of James Madison
, 2:541. Leland’s comments, and an enclosure to Madison, are reprinted in
Documentary History of the Constitution and the United States, 1786–1870
, 5 vols. (Washington, DC: Department of State, 1905), 4:526–29. The relationship between Leland
and Madison, with a focus on Leland “
as a Baptist preacher
, not just a private citizen,” is recounted in detail by Mark S. Scarberry, “John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on the Ratification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of the Bill of Rights,”
Penn State Law Review
113, no. 3 (April 2009): 733–800, quote on 797.

35.
Robert M. Calhoon, “John Leland,” in
American National Biography
, ed. John Garraty and Mark Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 13:466.

36.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 188–92. Scarberry is more positive about the meeting than Butterfield: “John Leland and James Madison,” 769–75; Kidd,
God of Liberty
, 222–24. The plaque is near Orange, Virginia, at the intersection of Highway 20 and Clifton Road (County Route 628) in Leland-Madison Monumental Park. The inscription reads, “Courageous leader of the Baptist Doctrine. Ardent advocate of the principles of democracy. Vindicator of separation of church and state.”
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=4697
.

37.
“To James Madison, Sr., from James Madison,” July 1, 1788,
Papers of James Madison
, 11:185.

38.
“Madison’s Election to the First Federal Congress, Editorial Note,” October 1788–February 1789,
Papers of James Madison
, 11:302–4; Kidd,
God of Liberty
, 221–23; Ragosta,
Wellspring of Liberty
, 167–68.

39.
“John Leland to James Madison,” February 15, 1789,
Papers of James Madison
, 11:442–43.

40.
Leland,
Writings
, 53.

41.
George Washington,
Writings of George Washington
, ed. Jared Sparks (Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, 1840), 12:155.

42.
“George Washington to Tench Tilghman,” March, 24, 1784, in George Washington,
The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799
, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, 39 vols. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1938), 27:367.

43.
Leland,
Writings
, 10. For a profile of the Baptists of Leland’s native Worcester County, see John L. Brooke,
The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1713–1861
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 61, 158–72.

44.
Ibid., 18.

45.
John Adams,
The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States
, ed. Charles Francis Adams, 10 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1850–56), 2:397–400; Butterfield, “John Leland,” 165–67.

46.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 165.

47.
Ibid., 165–67; McLoughlin,
New England Dissent
, 1:512–30.

48.
Adams,
Works
, 2:398.

49.
Ibid., 2:399.

50.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 202–3.

51.
M. Louise Greene,
The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut
(Cambridge, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1905), 372–74; Huff, “How High the ‘Wall’?,” 331–56.

52.
Leland,
Writings
, 190.

53.
Ibid., 177–92; Ellis Sandoz, ed.,
Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730–1805
(Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1991), 1080; Greene,
Religious Liberty
, 374–77.

54.
Leland,
Writings
, 187.

55.
Ibid., 189.

56.
Ibid., 118.

57.
Ibid., 187.

58.
Ibid.; Kidd, “Is It Worse to Follow Mahomet Than the Devil?,” 787; Kidd,
American Christians and Islam
, 18.

59.
Leland,
Writings
, 179.

60.
Ibid.

61.
Ibid., 181.

62.
Julian P. Boyd et al., eds.,
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
, 40 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950–), 2:546–47. Hereafter cited as
Papers of Thomas Jefferson.

63.
Papers of James Madison
, 8:299.

64.
Leland,
Writings
, 181.

65.
John Locke,
Epistola de Tolerantia: A Letter on Toleration
, ed. Raymond Klibansky, trans. J. W. Gough (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 91.

66.
Papers of James Madison
, 8:301.

67.
Thomas Jefferson,
Notes on Virginia
, in
The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson
, ed. Adrienne Koch and William Peden (New York: Modern Library, 1998), 255.

68.
Leland,
Writings
, 182.

69.
Jefferson,
Notes on Virginia
, in
Life and Selected Writings
, 255.

70.
Leland,
Writings
, 182.

71.
Jefferson,
Notes on Virginia
, in
Life and Selected Writings
, 255–56.

72.
Leland,
Writings
, 184.

73.
Papers of Thomas Jefferson
, 2:545–46.

74.
Jefferson,
Notes on Virginia
, in
Life and Selected Writings
, 254.

75.
Leland,
Writings
, 184. Leland is accused of “plagiarism” by Edwin Gaustad,
Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson
(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996), 202–3: In contrast, “When Jefferson, quoting from John Leland …” Actually, the reverse is true; see Frank Lambert,
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 281; Kidd,
God of Liberty
, 176–77; Ragosta,
Wellspring of Liberty
, 146.

76.
Leland,
Writings
, 185.

77.
Ibid., 191.

78.
Ibid.; Ragosta,
Wellspring of Liberty
, 144.

79.
Greene,
Religious Liberty
, 287–88. Leland later published several notable political statements attacking the
Connecticut state constitution, including “A Blow at the Root, a fashionable Fast-Day Sermon,” and in 1803, “Van Tromp lowering his Peak with a Broadside”; see Leland,
Writings
, 423, 329.

80.
Greene,
Religious Liberty
, 376; Lambert,
Founding Fathers
, 285.

81.
Leland, “The Yankee Spy,” in
Writings
, 213.

82.
Leland,
Writings
, 229; Huff, “How High the ‘Wall’?,” 357–94.

83.
Brooke,
Heart of the Commonwealth
, 172–88; see also Charles P. Hanson,
Necessary Virtue: The Pragmatic Origins of Religious Liberty in New England
(Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998), 205–6.

84.
Leland,
Writings
, 220. Article II, in the original, read, “It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession of sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in religious worship”; in Francis Newton Thorpe, ed.,
The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America
, 7 vols. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1909), 3:1889.

85.
Leland,
Writings
, 220–21.

86.
Ibid., 221, 223. The Declaration of Rights, Article III, read, in part, “Therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily”; in Thorpe,
Federal and State Constitutions
, 3:1889–90.

87.
Leland,
Writings
, 223–24.

88.
Ibid., 224.

89.
Ibid., 226.

90.
Ibid., 229.

91.
Quoted in Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Cheese and the Words: Popular Political Culture and Participatory Democracy in the Early American Republic,” in
Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic
, ed. Jeffrey L. Pasley, Andrew W. Robertson, and David Waldstreicher (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 34. The episode was first described by Butterfield, “Elder John Leland,” 154–56, 214–29. A more up-to-date overview is given by Barbara B. Oberg, ed., “Editorial Note,” in
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 36:246–49; and Daniel L. Dreisbach, “Mr. Jefferson, a Mammoth Cheese, and the ‘Wall of Separation between Church and State’: A Bicentennial Commemoration,”
Journal of Church and State
43 (2001): 725–45. Recent
historians who offer an account of this event include Steven Waldman,
Founding Faith
, ix–x, 171–73; Kidd,
God of Liberty
, 4–5; and Kevin J. Hayes,
The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 474–76.

92.
Pasley, “Cheese,” 34, describes the “sensation” in the eighteenth-century newspapers.

93.
Butterfield, “John Leland,” 154;
Papers of Thomas Jefferson
, 36:406.

94.
“From the Committee of Cheshire, Massachusetts,” December 30, 1801,
Papers of Thomas Jefferson
, 36:249.