Differences Between James Madison's Memorial And Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

Religious Matters Of all arguments, conflicts, and conclusions that have been made towards the government, nothing has proved to be more argumentative than those disputes concerning religion. In the summer of 1785, James Madison wrote the Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments. In this document, Madison showed his answer to the proposed tax in Virginia to the support of Christian teachers. Throughout the document, Madison argued that people should be free to choose their own religious beliefs and practices and that the governments participation in religious issues should have limits. In the following January, Thomas Jefferson wrote a bill to guard religious freedom. This bill was titled Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

According to Madison, the people should be free to choose their own religious beliefs and practices. Madison began the Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessment by stating that it would be a risky misuse of power to create a bill that would support Christian teachers. He goes on to say that the obligation, which we owe to our creator, and the way of releasing it can be coordinated by conviction, not by power or roughness. According to Madison, because religion is left to the morality and conviction of the people, it is the right of the people to practice what they feel is needed to practice. He said that this right is unalienable or simply impossible to take away because the convictions and morals that some people have are not going to be the same convictions and morals that other people may have. Madison stated that people could not deny other religion simply because it differs from their own. He concluded his document by stating that if the Legislative branch is given a too large of an authority measure they would most likely take away all of our fundamental rights including control of the freedom of press, abolishing the Trial by Jury, lowering the authority of the Executive and Judiciary Powers of the State, and even the

This bill was written after James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments and shared similar ideas. In this bill Jefferson argued that taxes should not be paid to a particular religion. Jefferson began this bill by stating that the mind was created free and that all negative influences are a withdrawal from the plan that God has for the people. He believed that no person should be forced to attend any certain church and that the people should not have to support and certain church with taxes. Jefferson stated that to make a man provide funds for something that he did not believe in would be sinful. It would keep him from giving funds to something that he did believe in such as his particular pastor. Jefferson felt that our rights as citizens should have no dependence of our religious freedoms. He concluded this bill by stating how the assembly is elected by the people (for legislation purposes only) and that they should have no power to control what religion the people feel obligated to participate in. Jefferson said that doing so would be a breach of the inalienable