Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ulysses.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!smb From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) Newsgroups: net.religion,net.politics,net.legal,net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: religion and public life: texas Message-ID: <960@ulysses.UUCP> Date: Thu, 9-Aug-84 20:29:57 EDT Article-I.D.: ulysses.960 Posted: Thu Aug 9 20:29:57 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 10-Aug-84 02:50:59 EDT References: <235@mit-athena.ARPA> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 9 Martillo is right about the mixed attitude towards freedom of religion among the framers of the Constitution. They were a mixed bag, with opinions all over the spectrum. Jefferson, for example, had said many nasty things about Christianity in his youth, and was an ardent defender of full religious freedom. Most of the other prominent Virginians were with him on that issue. But the New Englanders still had state-paid clerics, which Virginia had abolished quite some time before. And yes, some states did restrict the franchise well into the 19th century -- Maryland and Delaware come to mind, though I'm not certain about that.