Page:New England and the Bavarian Illuminati.djvu/53

 tration of government firmly fixed upon the main point, " the peculiar good and benefit of the whole." "It is as plain as daylight, there are no species of government like a democracy to attain this end." 1

Such literary assaults upon the usurpations of government, upon the violation of individual rights, and upon obstructions erected in the path of democracy, were frontal. As has been said, they were also happily timed. The oppressed would have to content themselves a little longer with a type of toleration which seemed but the shadow of genuine freedom; but the broad dissemination of such principles as those proclaimed by Backus and Wise had had the effect of altering appreciably the spirit of the times.

The close of the struggle for political freedom gave early proof that the cause of religious toleration had passed into a new stage. Dissent had grown in numbers and influence. 2 Distant voices, too, were being heard. Virginia's noble example in adopting the Act Establishing Religious Freedom had given a practical demonstration of the complete severance of church and state. The impression created by this determination of the issue of religious freedom on the broadest possible basis had been profound throughout the country. When the Constitution of the United States was before the people of Massachusetts for ratification, in the fall and winter of 1787-88, they found in it a single pro


 * 1 Wise, op, cit., p. 56.


 * 2 Backus, History of New England, vol. ii, pp. 391-401, furnishes the following table of Baptist strength in New England in the year 1795: Churches, 325; ministers, 232; members, 20,902. Methodism had emerged in New England within the last quarter of the century, and Methodist ministers were indefatigable in their labors. By the close of the century as generous-minded a Congregational minister as Bentley could not altogether cover over his chagrin on account of the growth and influence of the "sects". Cf. Diary of William Bentley, vol. ii, pp. 127, 409, 419.