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William Penn and the American Heritage of Religious Liberty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Arlin M. Adams  and
Charles J. Emmerich
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Extract

[I]mposition, restraint, and persecution for matters relating to conscience directly invade the divine prerogative, and divest the Almighty of a due, proper to none besides himself.

— William Penn, The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience, 1683

[The] right to religious liberty based upon freedom of conscience remains fundamental and inalienable. While particular beliefs may be true or false, better or worse, the right to reach, hold, exercise them freely, or change them, is basic and non-negotiable.

— The Williamsburg Charter

In affirming that the First Amendment Religion Clauses are one of America's great contributions to Western civilization, the Williamsburg Charter appropriately looks to our nation's rich heritage of religious liberty. Like the Declaration of Independence, the Charter is a consensus document that recognizes human dignity and the importance of moral values that transcend the state. It eloquently invokes many of the historic principles that influenced the Founders in creating the republic, including inalienable rights, liberty of conscience, government by popular consent, the danger of centralized governmental power, the role of religion as a source of civic virtue, and the evils resulting from an established church. The Charter also emphasizes the close connection between civil and religious liberty.

Type
I. Commentary on The Williamsburg Charter
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 8 , Issue 1-2 , 1990 , pp. 57 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1990

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References

1. See generally Adams, Arlin & Emmerich, Charles, A Nation Dedicated to Religious Liberty: The Constitutional Heritage of the Religion Clauses (Pennsylvania, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Adams, & Emmerich, , A Heritage of Religious Liberty, 137 U Pa L Rev 1559 (1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Witherspoon, John, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men (1776), in 3 The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon 37 (William Woodward, 1802)Google Scholar.

3. See generally Peare, Catherine, William Penn: A Biography (Michigan, 1956)Google Scholar and Bronner, Edwin B., William Penn's Holy Experiment: The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1681-1701 (Temple, 1962)Google Scholar. For a helpful work focusing on the central role of liberty of conscience in Penn's political thought and in the founding of Pennsylvania, see Dunn, Mary M., William Penn: Politics and Conscience (Princeton, 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A thoughtful examination of the manner in which Penn's theological convictions shaped his political theory is contained in Endy, Melvin Jr., William Penn and Early Quakerism (Princeton, 1973)Google Scholar. The definitive multi-volume collection of Penn's writings is Dunn, Richard & Dunn, Mary, eds, The Papers of William Penn (Pennsylvania, 1981) [hereinafter Papers of Penn]CrossRefGoogle Scholar. An early compilation is Besse, Joseph, ed, A Collection of the Works of William Penn (Sowle, J., 1726; photo reprint, AMS Press, 1974)Google Scholar [hereinafter Works of Penn].

4. Mary Dunn, at viii (cited in note 3).

5. Scholars disagree over the extent to which Williams influenced the American tradition of religious liberty. In 1953, Perry Miller made the controversial assertion that Williams was a radical Christian thinker who had little enduring effect on this tradition. See Miller, Perry, Roger Williams: His Contribution to the American Tradition (Bobbs-Merrill, 1953)Google Scholar; and see Jordan, W. K., 3 The Development of Religious Toleration in England 472–506 (Harvard, 1938)Google Scholar (asserting that Williams influenced England more than America in the area of religious freedom). The legal profession discovered Williams largely because of Professor Mark DeWolfe Howe, who advanced a more sympathetic view. See Howe, Mark DeWolfe, The Garden and the Wilderness: Religion and Government in American Constitutional History (Chicago, 1965)Google Scholar; see also Morgan, Edmund S., Roger Williams: The Church and the State (Norton, 1967)Google Scholar (giving a generally favorable assessment of Williams).

6. See, e.g., Ahlstrom, Sidney, A Religious History of the American People 182–83, 212 (Yale, 1972)Google Scholar (noting the limited influence of Williams and Rhode Island, while concluding that “Penn‘s Holy Experiment … was truly to become the ‘Keystone State’ of American religious history”).

7. On Penn's early life, see Endy, at 94-106 (cited in note 3), and Mary Dunn, at 3-6 (cited in note 3).

8. See Endy, at 96-97 (cited in note 3).

9. Mary Dunn, at 5 (cited in note 3).

10. For a brief discussion of Penn's involvement on the two committees, see id at 10-12.

11. Id at 21.

12. Quoted in Penn, William, in Stephen, Leslie & Lee, Sidney, eds, 15 The Dictionary of National Biography 312 (Oxford, 1921–1922)Google Scholar.

13. Conventicle Act of 1670, 22 Charles II, cap. 1, reprinted in Gee, Henry & Hardy, William, eds, Documents Illustrative of English Church History 623–24 (Macmillan, 1896)Google Scholar.

14. For a discussion of the arrest and trial, see Peare, at 109-25 (cited in note 3).

15. The People's Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted in The Trial of William Penn and William Mead (1670), reprinted in part in Schwartz, Bernard, ed, 1 A Documentary History of the Bill of Rights 144, 147, 150 (Chelsea, 1972)Google Scholar.

16. Quoted in Peare, at 125 (cited in note 3).

17. See Mary Dunn, at 17-18 (cited in note 3).

18. Endy, at 323 (cited in note 3).

19. See Penn, William, The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670)Google Scholar, in 1 Works of Penn, at 462Google Scholar (cited in note 3) (dated in the text in accordance with modern reckoning).

20. Id at 447-48 (changed to conform to modern usage; emphasis deleted).

21. Quoted in Endy, at 126 (cited in note 3).

22. Id at 116-17.

23. Peare, at 172 (cited in note 3) (quoting Quaker scholar Amelia Mott Gummere).

24. Concessions and Agreements of West New Jersey of 1677, The Charter or Fundamental Laws, of West New Jersey, Agreed Upon, ch. XVI (Liberty of conscience), reprinted in Perry, Richard L. & Cooper, John C., eds, Sources of Our Liberties 184, 185 (American Bar Foundation, 1978) [hereinafter Sources]Google Scholar.

25. Letter from William Penn to the Earl of Romney (Sept 1701), in 4 Papers of Penn, at 80Google Scholar (cited in note 3) (changed to conform to modern usage).

26. Letter from William Penn to Robert Turner (Aug 16, 1681), in 2 Papers of Penn, at 110Google Scholar (cited in note 3) (changed to conform to modern usage). Penn commented in 1683 that the settlers came to Pennsylvania “not to be rich, but to plant the Lord's earth,” and that “God hath made it a matter of religious exercise to my soul in getting and settling this land.” Letter from William Penn to John Alloway (Nov. 29, 1683), in 2 Papers of Penn, at 503, 504Google Scholar (cited in note 3) (changed to conform to modern usage).

During the Puritans' voyage to New England, John Winthrop shared his vision for Massachusetts Bay in the lay sermon, A Model of Christian Charity. He urged the Puritans to establish an ideal theocentric commonwealth, for “as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” Winthrop, John, A Model of Christian Charity (1630)Google Scholar, reprinted in part in Miller, Perry & Johnson, Thomas, eds, 1 The Puritans: A Sourcebook of Their Writings 195, 199 (Harper & Row, rev. ed. 1963) (changed to conform to modern usage)Google Scholar.

27. For a detailed examination of Penn's drafting of the Frame of Government, see 2 Papers of Penn, at 135–238 (cited in note 3)Google Scholar.

28. On the theological and political views animating the Frame of Government, see Endy, at 336-47 (cited in note 3), and Sources, at 204-08 (cited in note 24).

29. This discussion of the influence of the two-kingdom's view on Penn's thought is largely taken from Adams, & Emmerich, , A Heritage of Religious Liberty, at 1623–24 (cited in note 1)Google Scholar.

30. Romans 13:1 (King James).

31. Pennsylvania Frame of Government of 1682, Preface, in Thorpe, Francis, ed, 5 The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws 3052, 3053 (Government Printing Office, 1909) [hereinafter Thorpe]Google Scholar.

32. Pennsylvania Frame of Government of 1682, Laws Agreed Upon in England, art. XXXV (1682), in 5 Thorpe, at 3063 (cited in note 31)Google Scholar.

33. See id at 3062-63 (arts. XXIV, XXXVI & XXXVII).

34. See Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges of 1701, art. I (granting liberty of conscience to those who acknowledge God and limiting the right to hold public office to Christians) & art. VIII (stating that the first article “shall be kept and remain, without any Alteration, inviolably for ever”), in 5 Thorpe, at 3077–78, 3079–80 (cited in note 31)Google Scholar.

35. Channing, Edward, 2 A History of the United States: A Century of Colonial History, 1660-1760, at 322 (Macmillan, 1927)Google Scholar.

36. Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper (Nov. 2, 1822), in Lipscomb, Andrew A., ed, 15 Writings of Thomas Jefferson 403 (Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1905)Google Scholar.

37. The Williamsburg Charter, 8 above.

38. Penn, William, No Cross, No Crown: A Discourse Showing the Nature and Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ (1682)Google Scholar, in 1 Works of Penn, at 295–96 (cited in note 3)Google Scholar (changed to conform to modern usage). In this tract, Penn emphasized that “[a] godfearing people does not want more than it needs, does not incur exorbitant debts, alleviates one another's woes, visits the sick and the imprisoned, relieves the needy, preys not upon the small.” Peare, at 244 (cited in note 3) (paraphrasing Penn).