Editor,
The Jan. 11 Associated Press article in the Daily Journal about prayer at the presidential inauguration admits that violations of the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government have existed throughout American history, but neither tradition nor repeated violations are above "the supreme law of the land," regardless of what revisionist judges or justices say.
Complaints about constitutional violations of the constitution's religion commandments are nothing new. Soon after leaving the presidency, James Madison, "father of the constitution," wrote:
"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history ("Detached Memoranda," William and Mary Quarterly, 3:555, c.1817). Read it at a college library.
Madison later wrote of the "immunity of Religion from civil jurisdiction, in every case where it does not trespass on private rights or the public peace." In the matter at issue, injecting religion into a governmental function, which involves citizens of all religions and of none, obviously, trespasses on "the public peace." In the very next sentence, for example, Madison wrote: "This has always been a favorite principle with me; and it was not with my approbation (approval), that the deviation from it took place in Congress, when they appointed Chaplains, to be paid from the national treasury" ("Writings of James Madison," 9:100, 1822).
Gene Garman
Pittsburg, Kan.
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