Carter
Braxton
Carter
Braxton
To retaliate for his trying to start a new nation,
the British ruined much of Braxton's plantation.
Born in Virginia to a successful farming family, Carter Braxton and his brother George were orphaned at a young age. After graduating from the college of William and Mary, Carter married Judith Robinson, who died when she was only twenty years old. Several years later Carter remarried to a Miss Corbin, daughter of the royal receiver-g
eneral of the customs of Virginia. Together, they had sixteen children. "Notwithstanding the social position, and patrician connections of Mr. Braxton, which would seem naturally to have attached him to the aristocracy, he was among the earliest in Virginia who raised the voice of patriotism." Lives of the Signers, B. J. Lossing, 1848
Known as a virtuous man and a "devoted church member, Braxton was a vestryman, and sometimes served as a representative of his church in statewide conventions." http://www.geocities.com/peterroberts.geo/Relig-Politics/CBraxton.html
When Peyton Randolph died in 1775, Carter was chosen as delegate to fill the vacancy where he did his part to promote independence. In October, 1776, he and Thomas Jefferson received public thanks:
Saturday, October 12th, 1776.
Resolved, unanimously, that the thanks of this house are justify due to Thomas Jefferson and Carter Braxton, Esquires, for the diligence, ability, and integrity, with which they executed the important trust reposed in them, as two of the delegates for this county in the general congress.With the calm judgment and direction of purpose that became his trademark, he gave his own money to support the cause. Unfortunately for him, some of his money was also invested in shipping, which proved the wrong time to show such early optimism. Since the British captured many of his vessels, the venture turned somersaults and flipped withershins. Braxton's landholdings were ravaged, and the years to follow found him unable to recover. Finally rendered bankrupt, he was forced to leave his family's country estate for a modest home in the city.
He continued public service in the Virginia Legislature until 1785 and then went on to be a member of the council of the State until 1797 when he died at the age of sixty-one.
Draft For A Bill For Establishing Religious Freedom, 1779
- SECTION I.
- Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness; and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.
- SECT. II.
- WE the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
- SECT. III.
- AND though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.
From The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb (Washington, D.C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), pp. 300-303.
File is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923.
Image above by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876, Library of Congress
II Corinthians 3-4Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.