Far from a household name, John Leland stands as one of the giants of American political philosophy and American liberalism. He was a Jeffersonian and later a Jacksonian Democrat. He held public office twice, first as a delegate to the Virginia Convention of 1788 that ratified the Constitution. Later in 1811, he was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature. Politically Leland was a liberal, though he himself would have only described himself as a dissenter.

For Leland, conscience was “a censor morum” over the actions of all men. Censor morum is a Latin term meaning censor of morals. This precept dating from Roman times found new life in the Enlightenment where conscience came to mean to speak the truth as the mind understands it. Leland consistently opposed slavery, even in Virginia, and was instrumental in helping to end the Atlantic slave trade. He remained an ardent abolitionist throughout his life and made a distinction between the “civil and religious rights of all men.” He was a strong advocate of the separation of Church and State writing in 1834 that we should “exclude religious opinions from the list of objects of legislation.”

While The First Amendment of the Constitution prohibited the establishment of a state religion or abridgment of free speech by Congress, religious liberties in the various states took a little longer to get fully established. The background to this sermon was the debate over the Congregationalist system in Connecticut. Religious freedom in Connecticut was not firmly established until 1820, if you were not a Congregationalist you were taxed for your dissenting religious beliefs. In Massachusetts, the Congregationalist orthodoxy lasted in 1833 making Massachusetts the last state to permit true religious freedom.

You can read more about the historical perspective of the rights of conscience inalienable. Or you can read the actual sermon. If you prefer you can purchase a two volume set edited by Ellis Sandoz entitled “Political Sermon of America Founding Era, 1730-1805” at your local bookstore.

Politicians are often wont of misquoting the Founding Fathers or belying their intentions. These sermons represent the first native American literature written by the ministers to the founding political class of the nation and their politics is far from what Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee would want us to believe. On Friday at the Commonwealth Club here in San Francisco, I intend to give one Baptist preacher what another Baptist preacher once wrote about the separation of Church and State and the Rights of Conscience Inalienable. Maybe he will listen to one of his own though John Leland is perhaps more clearly one of our own, a man of conviction who was a tireless fighter for the principles of liberty.