John Adams – Page 3

A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law by John Adams, 1765

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams 1765 Patriots equated the practices of the Church of England with that of the Catholic Church. On August 12, 1765, the Boston Gazette published an essay again linking both churches to each other, and to tyranny. The essay argued that religious canon law – “extensive and astonishing” — was created by the “the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order.” Church law enslaved people by “reducing their minds to a state of sordid ignorance and staring timidity” and…

A Memoir of the Life and Times of Isaac Backus

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

Isaac Backus January 1, 1858 Isaac Backus was one of the most important Baptist leaders of the revolutionary era. He argued fervently against persecution of Baptists and in favor of separation of chuch and state. Here he describes how he was dispatched to visit the members of the Continental Congress to plead against the religious establishment in Massachusetts. Adams resisted his pleas. Oct. 14th. In the evening there met at Carpenters’ Hall, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert…