205 / 366
VI. ENJOYING TRUE RELIGION AND
GAINING INNER RENEWAL
In 1787, James Madison's illustrious
political career almost came to an abrupt, early
end when he broke an important promise to the
religious people of Virginia. He had promised
to get the
"free exercise of religion"
written into
the Constitution, but he changed his mind.
Patrick Henry and George Mason branded him
to be unreliable and unfit for election to public
office because of that one scandalous broken
promise.
Consequently, Madison promised the
preachers and voters that he would never
break his promise again and that he would
work hard to correct his mistake. There are
those who say that the incident resulted in our
First Amendment liberties, and possibly the
entire Bill of Rights!
The lesson? Politicians in any country do
their best only when the decent voters of the
land level with them. Edmond Burke said it
best,
"The only thing necessary for evil · to
triumph is for good people to do nothing."
A half century later, Alexis De Tocqueville
journeyed to the United States in an attempt to
discover the secret of democracy. He wanted
to know what it was that made the democratic
experiment in the New World a success.
189