Whatever Madison's reasons for doing so, I believe that most scholars
would agree that, in 1791, there was deep disagreement about the value
of state religious establishments. It is quite likely that many
founders simultaneously believed that federal establishments were bad
but state establishments were very important. I don't think any
historian working on this period would disagree.
Deep divisions? All thirteen colonies had disestablished, at least mostly, by 1778. No colony, or state, ever backtracked on that decision. By 1787, only four states had vestiges of establishment left, which were not punitive and were phased out everywhere but Massachusetts by 1816 -- and in Massachusetts in 1833. When Patrick Henry proposed a more modest re-establishment in 1785 for Virginia, thousands of Virginians signed petitions in opposition, and the Virginia assembly instead passed into law Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom, which expressly states that it is a right of humans to be free from such bondage forever.
Other than odd, usually out-of-context quotes from stray "founders," what evidence is there of any significant support for an established church after 1778 -- outside the Mormon movement?
Ed Darrell
Dallas
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