The Origins of America's Religious Liberty...Birthed in Queens, NYC?

On this episode of Our American Stories, Larry Reed tells the story of the Flushing Remonstrance, an all-important document that helped inform the 1st Amendment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we return to our American stories. And up next
a story from our friend Larry Reid, President Emeritus of
the Foundation for Economic Education or FEE, on a document
and event that helped establish a very important principle in
our country. Take it away, Larry, to.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
The right Honorable Governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant. You
have been pleased to send unto us a certain prohibition
or command that we should not receive or entertain any
of those people called Quakers, because they are supposed to
be by some seducers of the people. For our part,

(00:51):
we cannot condemn them in this case. Neither can we
stretch out our hands against them. We desire therefore in
this case not to judge lest we judged, neither to
condemn lest we be condemned, but rather let every man
stand or fall to his own master. We are bound
by the law to do good unto all men, especially

(01:14):
to those of the household of faith. With those words,
Edward Hart, the town clerk of what is now the
Queen's neighborhood of Flushing, New York, began a powerful six
hundred and fifty word document known as the Flushing Remonstrance.
It was December twenty seventh, sixteen fifty seven, Hart wrote

(01:39):
on behalf of the thirty inhabitants of the village, who
also boldly signed their names below his This was a
defiant shot across the bow of the state personified by
Governor Syvesant. It was an act of resistance and an
early declaration in favor of the freedom of peaceful worship. Moreover,

(02:00):
it was not a self serving stand for the freedom
simply of those who signed it, none of them were Quakers,
but rather a defense of the freedom of others. Think
of it in these terms in contravention of the practice
of tolerance. Back in the mother country of the Netherlands,

(02:20):
Governor Stuyvesant promulgated a policy of intolerance in the Dutch
settlements of New York. He aimed to persecute those who
did not adhere to the Dutch Reformed Church, and the
nonconformist Quakers were his prime target. In this response, the
citizens of Flushing essentially stated, you are commanding us to

(02:42):
persecute Quakers. We will not. So take your intolerance and
stick it where the sun doesn't shine. If you're inclined
to stop listening, because freedom of religion is not important
to you, perhaps out of any faith. Or you believe
your faith is not threatened, think again, Freedom, in one sense,

(03:06):
is indivisible. A successful attack on one of its elements
invites assaults on the others. Allow the state to breach
one wall of freedom's fortress, and you have invited it inside,
where its agents and sycophants will work to bring down
the remaining walls. A government that can tell you what

(03:28):
to think and say, and punish you for thinking and
saying what it disapproves, will not self limit its despotism there.
This is likely what Voltaire had in mind when he
reputedly asserted I disagree with what you say, but will
contend to the death for your right to say it.
The timid multitudes stand idly by as freedom is crushed,

(03:50):
doing nothing unless the danger appears on their own doorstep.
The uncommonly courageous few will rise far sooner, and it
is to them that all of us who love freedom
owe special gratitude. Governor Stuyvesant's policy of persecution had begun
in sixteen fifty six with an ordinance banning unauthorized religious meetings.

(04:15):
Quaker preachers were harassed, arrested, jailed, and fined. In Flushing itself,
a Baptist pastor was imprisoned and then exiled for the
crime of baptizing without a license from the Dutch Reformed officialdom.
The Flushing Remonstrance stirs my blood with an abiding appreciation

(04:35):
for principled courage. How fitting for such an enlightened document
to appear two days after Christmas. Inspired by Jesus teachings,
the brave souls of Flushing were likely full of hope
for the good that peace and tolerance could bring in
the new year. They concluded their statement as follows. The

(04:57):
law of Love, peace and liberty condemns hatred, war and bondage,
desiring to do unto all men, as we desire all
men should do unto us. Therefore, if any of these
said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in
conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free
egress and regress unto our town and houses, as God

(05:22):
shall persuade our consciences. Governor Stuyvesant reacted in anger. Determined
to quash the spirit of the remonstrance, he dissolved Flushing's
town government and put his own cronies in charge. He
arrested four of the signers of the remonstrance, including Edward Hart.
To his credit, the elderly Heart went to jail but

(05:44):
never recanted. Relief from Stuyvesant's harsh rule finally arrived in
sixteen sixty three, but not by the hand of any government.
The Dutch West India Company, sponsor and investor in the
Dutch colonies of North America, batched a letter to Stuyvesant
ordering him to stop religious persecution. So much did Thomas

(06:06):
Jefferson later revel in the spirit of the Flushing inspired
motto rebellion to tyrants as obedience to God, he inserted
it on his personal seal. Religious freedom in a world
run by political and religious tyrants, even in America, had
to be fought for tooth and nail. A century before
the Flushing Remonstrance, Protestant Huguenots from France tried to settle

(06:30):
near what is now Jacksonville, Florida. The Catholic Spanish slaughtered
them by the hundreds and destroyed their settlement at Fort
Caroline in fifteen sixty five. In the sixteen thirties, religious
dissidents Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were famously expelled from
the intolerant Puritan colony of Massachusetts. Bay William Penn founded

(06:53):
Pennsylvania as a refuge from religious persecution. He himself had
been imprisoned in the Tower of London for his defiance
of the Anglican Church. From his cold, dank cell, he
had declared, my prisons shall be my grave before I
will budge a jot, for I owe my conscience to
no mortal man. Later, in Philadelphia, the capital of the

(07:17):
colony he founded, Penn wrote, I do hereby grant and
declare that no person or persons inhabiting this province or
territories shall be in any case molested or prejudiced in
his or their person or persons because of his or
their consciences, persuasion, or practice, nor be compelled to frequent

(07:38):
or maintain any religious worship place or ministry contrary to
their religious persuasion. The sixteenth and seventeenth century heroes for
religious freedom in America would have been thrilled on December fifteenth,
seventeen ninety one. That's when the First Amendment to the
US Constitution took effect. It formalized the separation of church

(08:02):
and State and forbade the government from passing any law
that would disfavor or favor any faith, or interfere with
any person's peaceful exercise of it. Adopted in eighteen sixty eight,
the Fourteenth Amendment went further by preventing the states from
enacting laws that would promote or stifle religion. Today, the

(08:25):
Flushing Remonstrance is known as the religious Magna Carta of
the New World. It proved to be a major influence
on America's founders to enshrine freedom of worship in the
Bill of Rights more than a century after the citizens
of Flushing defied a governor. God bless America.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
A great job to Monty for producing that piece, and
a special thanks to Larry Read for writing and performing
the piece The Flushing Remonstrance. Imagine a city councilor state
passing a rule prohibit unauthorized religious meetings. What else would
they pass? Which is the point of Lari Reid's brilliant
peasts a great story about religious freedom and religious persecution,

(09:11):
religious bigotry. The story of the Flushing Remonstrance here on
our American Stories