by Ellen Harmon
"Let us reject this decree," said the princes. "In matters of conscience the majority has no power." To protect liberty of conscience is the duty of the state, and this is the limit of its authority in matters of religion. Every secular government that attempts to regulate or enforce religious observances by civil authority is sacrificing the very principle for which the (many) so nobly struggled. The principles contained in this celebrated Protest … constitute the very essence of...