Ivtolcrancc in JVczu Hampshire.
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��the laws from the Congregationalists, and were to be recognized as such. The judge said that the constitution was designed to secure to every man the free enjoyment of his own opin- ion on rehgious subjects. All de- nominations were to be equally under the protection of the law, securing to them even safety from persecution. He did not regard the payment of taxes as an infringement of con- science, but only a question of the extent of civil obligation and duty. He was of the opinion that the church government, worship, and disciijline were what denoted a sect, not doc- trine or creeds. From this opinion the associate justice, Wingate, dif- fered. It was probably early decided in New Hampshire jurisprudence that difference in denominations consisted in discipline and ordinances, not in doctrines. In 1801 Chief-Justice 01- cott left a certificate that Univer- sal ists were not a sect, persuasion, or denomination, according to the state constitution, so as to be exempted from i)aying taxes for the settled ministry. In the famous case of Ab- bott, the free-thinking pastor, the ac- tion of the lower court against him was sustained by two out of three of the justices of the supreme court, since they deemed the principles lie taught were subversive of the funda- mental principles of Christianity. The dissenting judge thought that Abbott was a Protestant within the meaning of that term in the constitu- tion, and so entitled to be used by the Unitarian majority of the jiarish. Gov. William Plumer was early a prominent " Protestant," and freely a legal helper to those against whom cases were entered. It was necessary
��to have such a champion, for the col- lectors of church taxes did not scru- ple in their methods. Barstow, in his History of New Hampshire, tells of a case in which the cow of a poor la- borer was sold at vendue in default of paying church taxes ; nor was household furniture or even dishes exempted from the stern parish col- lector. Acts of incorporation would be granted the Congregational church but be denied to other denominations. The advent of Quakers, Freewill Bap- tists, Methodists, Universalists, and other sects was working a revolution. They entered the courts, and could always find in Gov. Plumer, at least, able and willing counsel in those legal contests.
lu the constitutional convention of 1791 he tried hard to carry a provi- sion giving full liberty to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience. But this liberty was not then granted, nor, on the other hand, could the opponents of it carry a provision to tighten the principles of the constitution of 1784. He did succeed in that convention in getting a motion carried to abolish the relig- ious test for office-holders, but this failed in the vote of the people on it. But so great had become the pressure from the increase of other persua- sions, and the spirit of deeper insight, tliat the legislature of 1804 granted the right to Freewill Baptists to be considered a distinct religions sect or denomination, with all the privi- leges of such agreeable to the consti- tution. The next year the Universal- ists obtained a similar recognition, and in 1807 the Methodists shared the same favor.
In 1816 the legislature passed an
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