James Madison’s Veto Message on Act Incorporating the Alexandria Protestant Episcopal Church
James Madison February 21, 1811 Congress passed legislation providing special legal protections to the Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Madison vetoed the bill as a violation of the First Amendments “establishment” clause. Having examined and considered the Bill, entitled “An Act incorporating the protestant Episcopal Church in the Town of Alexandria in the District of Columbia,” I now return the Bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections. Because the Bill exceeds the rightful…