Ben Carson is radically at odds in his view of a Muslim President from the Founders of this nation. This country was founded as a secular nation and the Founders specifically contemplated that a Muslim would be elected President some day.
This is not speculation or inference. The Founders views are explicitly memorialized from the debates that led to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, the founding document for our government.
First a Little History
The Colonies declared their independence from England in 1776, but the country was not truly formed until the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788. The original Constitution was a radical document. The Constitution invoked the "blessings of Liberty" not the "blessings of God," and formed a country based on the authority of "We the People" not the will of God.
The U.S. Constitution was drafted at a Constitutional convention, but it was not adopted until it was voted on separately by each State. The Founders of our country are the men who voted for its adoption in the States.
While transcripts of the debates surrounding the drafting of the Constitution were not preserved (if even made), most of the debates in the State ratification conventions were transcribed, and the public debate in the media of that time is also preserved. These documents reveal that the men who founded our country, who framed the Constitution and voted to ratify its adoption, firmly believed that the U.S. was founded as a secular country.
The evidence for this conclusion is found in the debate over the "no religious test clause" set forth in Art. 6., Cl. 3. This clause, in a radical departure from the past, provided that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." By this Clause, the Founders proclaimed that men of all religious beliefs, or none, would be treated equally and would be equally eligible for office in the United States.
The radical nature of this clause was not lost on the men who debated and voted on the Constitution. The proponents of the constitution took the position that the Federal government had NO POWER to pass legislation bearing on religion. They recognized that the Constitution enacted a wall of separation long before Jefferson ever coined that phrase or the First Amendment was drafted. This point was forcefully made during the ratification debates.
The Founders Views on a Muslim Becoming President
The forces opposed to adoption of the Constitution argued that the "no religious test clause" would lead to Papists (Catholics), Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), and pagans obtaining office. They argued a bigoted position aimed at appealing to the worst sectarian sentiments. For example, in the ratification debates in North Carolina it was argued:
Mr. LANCASTER. ... As to a religious test, had the article which excludes it provided none but what had been in the states heretofore, I would not have objected to it. It would secure religion. Religious liberty ought to be provided for. I acquiesce with the gentleman, who spoke, on this point, my sentiments better than I could have done myself. For my part, in reviewing the qualifications necessary for a President, I did not suppose that the pope could occupy the President's chair. But let us remember that we form a government for millions not yet in existence. I have not the art of divination. In the course of four or five hundred years, I do not know how it will work. This is most certain, that Papists may occupy that chair, and Mahometans may take it. I see nothing against it. There is a disqualification, I believe, in every state in the Union -- it ought to be so in this system.
And in Massachusetts it was argued:
Mr. CALDWELL thought that some danger might arise. He imagined it might be objected to in a political as well as in a religious view. In the first place, he said, there was an invitation for Jews and pagans of every kind to come among us. At some future period, said he, this might endanger the character of the United States. Moreover, even those who do not regard religion, acknowledge that the Christian religion is best calculated, of all religions, to make good members of society, on account of its morality. I think, then, added he, that, in a political view, those gentlemen who formed this Constitution should not have given this invitation to Jews and heathens. All those who have any religion are against the emigration of those people from the eastern hemisphere.
But the proponents of the Constitution forcefully countered these arguments. Not by arguing that the fear that non-Christians would obtain office were wholly unfounded, but by arguing the desirability of tolerance and a secular government. For example, in Massachusetts, the Rev. Daniel Shute a leading proponent of the Constitution, argued:
Rev. Mr. SHUTE. ... To establish a religious test as a qualification for offices in the proposed federal Constitution, it appears to me, sir, would be attended with injurious consequences to some individuals, and with no advantage to the whole.
By the injurious consequences to individuals, I mean, that some, who, in every other respect, are qualified to fill some important post in government, will be excluded by their not being able to stand the religious test; which I take to be a privation of part of their civil rights.
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In this great and extensive empire, there is, and will be, a great variety of sentiments in religion among its inhabitants. Upon the plan of a religious test, the question, I think, must be, Who shall be excluded from national trusts? Whatever answer bigotry may suggest, the dictates of candor and equity, I conceive, will be, None.
Far from limiting my charity and confidence to men of my own denomination in religion, I suppose, and I believe, sir, that there are worthy characters among men of every denomination — among the Quakers, the Baptists, the Church of England, the Papists; and even among those who have no other guide, in the way to virtue and heaven, than the dictates of natural religion.
I must therefore think, sir, that the proposed plan of government, in this particular, is wisely constructed; that, as all have an equal claim to the blessings of the government under which they live, and which they support, so none should be excluded from them for being of any particular denomination in religion.
The presumption is, that the eyes of the people will be upon the faithful in the land; and, from a regard to their own safety, they will choose for their rulers men of known abilities, of known probity, of good moral characters. The apostle Peter tells us that God is no respecter of persons, but, in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him. And I know of no reason why men of such a character, in a community of whatever denomination in religion, caeteris paribus, with other suitable qualifications, should not be acceptable to the people, and why they may not be employed by them with safety and advantage in the important offices of government. The exclusion of a religious test in the proposed Constitution, therefore, clearly appears to me, sir, to be in favor of its adoption.
And in North Carolina, James Iredell,
who subsequently was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court by Washington, eloquently argued:
Mr. IREDELL. Mr. Chairman, nothing is more desirable than to remove the scruples of any gentleman on this interesting subject. Those concerning religion are entitled to particular respect. I did not expect any objection to this particular regulation, which, in my opinion, is calculated to prevent evils of the most pernicious consequences to society. Every person in the least conversant in the history of mankind, knows what dreadful mischiefs have been committed by religious persecutions, Under the color of religious tests, the utmost cruelties have been exercised. Those in power have generally considered all wisdom centred in themselves; that they alone had a right to dictate to the rest of mankind; and that all opposition to their tenets was profane and impious. The consequence of this intolerant spirit had been, that each church has in turn set itself up against every other; and persecutions and wars of the most implacable and bloody nature have taken place in every part of the world. America has set an example to mankind to think more modestly and reasonably -- that a man may be of different religious sentiments from our own, without being a bad member of society. The principles of toleration, to the honor of this age, are doing away those errors and prejudices which have so long prevailed, even in the most intolerant countries. In the Roman Catholic countries, principles of moderation are adopted which would have been spurned at a century or two ago. I should be sorry to find, when examples of toleration are set even by arbitrary governments, that this country, so impressed with the highest sense of liberty, should adopt principles on this subject that were narrow and illiberal.
I consider the clause under consideration as one of the strongest proofs that could be adduced, that it was the intention of those who formed this system to establish a general religious liberty in America.
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But it is objected that the people of America may, perhaps, choose representatives who have no religion at all, and that pagans and Mahometans may be admitted into offices. But how is it possible to exclude any set of men, without taking away that principle of religious freedom which we ourselves so warmly contend for? This is the foundation on which persecution has been raised in every part of the world. The people in power were always right, and every body else wrong. If you admit the least difference, the door to persecution is opened.
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It would be happy for mankind if religion was permitted to take its own course, and maintain itself by the excellence of its own doctrines. The divine Author of our religion never wished for its support by worldly authority. Has he not said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it? It made much greater progress for itself, than when supported by the greatest authority upon earth.
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I hope that I have in some degree satisfied the doubts of the gentleman. This article is calculated to secure universal religious liberty, by putting all sects on a level -- the only way to prevent persecution. I thought nobody would have objected to this clause, which deserves, in my opinion, the highest approbation. This country has already had the honor of setting an example of civil freedom, and I trust it will likewise have the honor of teaching the rest of the world the way to religious freedom also. God grant both may be perpetuated to the end of time!
John Kennedy proved the fears of the opponents to the Constitution right. A "papist" became President. And a "Mohametan" has achieved Congress. And even during the lifetime of the Founders, men viewed as pagans by some because of their Deist philosophy, achieved the Presidency.
But those opponents of the Constitution were on the losing side of the debate, and their fears were simply prejudices. The arguments of Founders like Iredale and Shute carried the day. Our country's enlightened Founders considered that the Constitution they enacted was secular, and that it would give equal rights to non-Christians and establish a separation of Church and State, and concluded that it was good.
