'Pride ignorance and knavery': James Madison's formative experiences with religious establishments.

• Author: Olree, Andy G.
• Position: III. A New Wave of Persecutions through Conclusion, with footnotes, p. 240-276

3. A NEW WAVE OF PERSECUTIONS

   Most likely, the imprisonment of several Separate Baptists in Orange County and neighboring Culpeper County provided the catalyst. First, about the time Madison was writing his September 25th letter to Bradford (recommending that Bradford study law but refusing to "meddle with Politicks" himself), the Culpeper County court convicted Nathaniel Saunders, pastor of the Mountain Run Church in Orange County, of unlawful preaching and sedition. (175) Apparently, as was the wont of itinerant Baptist preachers, Saunders sometimes preached in Culpeper as well as Orange, and had been doing so for some time. The Culpeper authorities had been frustrated in their attempts to call Saunders to account. A year earlier, in August 1772, the clerk of Culpeper County had issued a "command" to the sheriff of Orange County to "summons" Saunders to appear before the Culpeper court, to answer a grand jury presentment for "unlawful preaching." (176) This sort of "command" no doubt posed jurisdictional problems, however, and there is no evidence that the Orange County sheriff did anything in response to it. (177) But finally, in 1773, Culpeper authorities apparently found Saunders within Culpeper County and seized him under a new arrest warrant. Holding a trial on September 20, the Culpeper court found Saunders guilty and set a bond of two hundred pounds to assure future good behavior. (178) As Saunders was unwilling or unable to pay that mammoth sum, he was accordingly confined in the Culpeper County jail, possibly with a codefendant named William McClannahan. (179) No one knows how long Saunders was held there, but it could easily have been a period of some weeks during October and November, during which Madison might well have been informed about the case; indeed, Madison may even have been generally familiar with Saunders's activities in Orange County.

   The case that hit closest to home, though, was surely the one involving Joseph Spencer, another Separate Baptist from Orange County. Spencer had come before the Orange County authorities before, having escaped by swearing a modified Toleration Act oath back in 1768. (180) Now, in 1773, he had been arrested and was made to appear before the Orange County court on October 28. He was charged with "a Breach of his Good Behavour in teaching & Preaching The Gospel as a Baptist not having a License." (181) The seven justices in Spencer's case included Rowland Thomas, who had signed the warrant for Spencer's arrest. (182) Notably, the group of justices that day did not include James Madison, Sr., who was perceived to have been friendly toward dissenters, or at least not unfriendly. (183) Interestingly, Madison, Sr., had attended court on the previous day it was in session (which had been a month earlier, on September 24) and had even signed the minutes for that day in the Order Book, as he often did on days he was in attendance. (184) The outcome in Spencer's case might well have been different if the elder Madison had been present in court on the fateful day of Spencer's appearance in October.

   The justices who presided at this trial were not favorably disposed to Spencer. The court ordered Spencer to post bond in the amount of one hundred pounds to guarantee that he would not teach again without a license. (185) Because Spencer was either unwilling or unable to pay this amount on these terms, he was committed to the Orange County jail. (186) The court agreed to allow him freedom to roam "the Bounds" around the jail if he would post a separate security of fifty pounds; however, Spencer again was unwilling or unable to do this, and so he was held in close confinement--in a cell inside the jailhouse--for nearly a month. (187) Considering the correspondence between Madison and Bradford, including Madison's sudden interest in religious liberty and religious establishments in early December, the timing of Spencer's case appears anything but coincidental to Madison's interests. Madison's newfound interest in law and religious liberty, originating sometime between September 25 and December 1, may very well have been kindled by Joseph Spencer's trial and imprisonment in Orange County in October and November.

   Notably, Spencer and Madison evidently became friends at some point before 1788. In that year, Spencer wrote to Madison as one would write to a good friend, urging Madison to hasten home to campaign among the Orange County Baptists for election to Virginia's Constitutional Ratification Convention. (188) The wording and nature of the letter, as well as Spencer's boldness in presuming to offer James Madison political advice, suggest that the two had formed some sort of bond beyond neighborly acquaintance.

   In his old age, Madison recalled not only that he had discussed these matters with his family, but that he had been active in trying to help the persecuted Baptists in Orange County, although he did not mention Spencer or any other Baptists by name. In a short autobiographical sketch (written in third person), Madison related that when he returned home from college,

   he entered with the prevailing zeal into the American Cause; being under very early and strong impressions in favour of Liberty both Civil & Religious. His devotion to the latter found a particular occasion for its exercise in the persecution instituted in his County as elsewhere against the preachers belonging to the sect of Baptists then beginning to spread thro' the Country. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm which contributed to render them obnoxious to sober opinion as well as to the laws then in force, against Preachers dissenting from the Established Religion, he spared no exertion to save them from imprisonment & to promote their release from it. This interposition tho' a mere duty prescribed by his conscience, obtained for him a lasting place in the favour of that particular sect. (189) This final observation is especially cogent. Although there may have been many reasons for their feelings, the Virginia Baptists have always lauded Madison as a particular friend and hero to their cause, (190) notwithstanding the fact that he never became a Baptist.

   If it is true, as Madison claimed, that as a fresh college graduate he "spared no exertion" on behalf of the Baptists who were being persecuted "in his County," and if his interest in religious toleration and law became acute sometime between September and December 1773, (191) then Joseph Spencer's imprisonment in October and November very likely induced Madison to investigate law and religious establishments, and, further, that Madison tried to intervene in some manner on Spencer's behalf.

   Moreover, Madison's exertions may have been effective, at least in Spencer's case. Orange County court records show that after a month of close confinement, Spencer petitioned the court to allow him to live in the courthouse rather than the jail. (192) On November 25, the court granted this unusual petition, subject to the requirement that he provide restitution to the county for any damage he might cause to the courthouse. (193) What happened next was even more amazing. On the following day Spencer made a new petition to the court, this time asking for a reduction in the amount of the bond and security set by the court a month before. (194) And the court once again agreed, ordering that

   for reasons now offered [the bond amount of one hundred pounds] is to be Lessened to the Sum of Twenty pounds and two Securities In the Sum of Ten pounds Each Whereupon the s.d Spencer with Wm. Morton and Jonathan Davis his Securities came into court and acknowledged Themselves Indebted to our Sovereign Lord the King in the above mentioned Sums respectively to be Levied of their Goods and Chattels Land & Tenements And this recognizance to be Forfeited if the s.d Spencer is Guilty of a Breach of his Good Behavour According to a Former Order. (195) Apparently, Spencer was released at this court appearance on November 26, as he and his securities gave their respective bonds in court at the reduced sum. The turnaround in the court's attitude toward Spencer in one month's time is nothing short of astounding. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the Madisons may have been largely responsible. In addition to the younger Madison's "exertion" on behalf of persecuted Baptists "'in his County," one finds on close examination of the record that the elder Madison returned to court and was present on November 25 and 26--the very days on which Spencer reappeared after a month in jail and successfully petitioned for clemency. (196) It seems fair to conclude either that the younger Madison's exertions had moved his father, or that the father's views on religious liberty were bearing fruit in the son. Perhaps both assertions are true.

   Within two years of his release from prison, as the Revolutionary War was beginning, Joseph Spencer was serving as a captain in a Virginia military company from Orange County. (197) Virginia Baptists were commonly warm supporters of the revolutionary cause, and it seems that Spencer was no exception. (198) If Madison's early defense of persecuted Baptists earned him a lasting place in their favor, the Baptists' early and consistent support of the revolution against Britain probably earned them a place in Madison's favor (and his father's) as well.

   Madison's December 1 letter to William Bradford, (199) apparently written just after Spencer's release from prison, prompted a reply from Bradford later that month. (200) Bradford enclosed a newspaper account of the Boston Tea Party, along with his own description of Philadelphia's recent refusal to allow a similar tea shipment to be unloaded in that city. (201) But the other main subject of the letter was Madison's determination to "cultivate an acquaintance with the Law," a decision Bradford praised. (202) Alluding to Madison's request for information about the origins and principles underlying "the Constitution...