Founding document · 1785

Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

Written anonymously by James Madison and circulated as a petition to the Virginia General Assembly, the Memorial opposed a bill backed by Patrick Henry to levy a general assessment — a tax to support teachers of the Christian religion. In fifteen numbered arguments, Madison held that religion “can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence,” that duty to the Creator comes before the claims of civil society, and that legal establishments had harmed both religion and government.

“The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.”

James Madison, c. June 20, 1785

Why it matters

Copies of Madison’s petition gathered more than 1,500 signatures and joined a wave of petitions that defeated the assessment and cleared the way for the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom; the Supreme Court has repeatedly cited the Memorial in interpreting the First Amendment’s religion clauses.

Read the full text at founders.archives.gov

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

founding religious liberty church and state virginia

From the library

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