IX. Freedom
How Freedom Of Worship, Speech, The Press, And Assembly Are Guaranteed
This morning we begin the consideration of what I believe to be the most important of all the subjects we have talked about. I think people are more interested in their privileges and rights than they are in their duties. In fact we hear a great deal and we read a great deal about “rights”, but we do not find very much said on the streets, in the homes, or in the newspapers about our “duties”.[48]
Now we have considered in a very general way the nature of our government and something of our powers and duties under the Constitution. I know that you will be interested in considering our rights and privileges under the Constitution of the United States.
Always keep in mind that each State has a Constitution, and that the Nation has a Constitution, that the Constitution of the United States covers the entire Nation, not only the original thirteen colonies, but the present forty-eight States, and that any States that may hereafter be brought in the Union will have as their fundamental law the Constitution adopted by the people in the long ago.[49]
Also always keep in mind that the Nation has certain powers, and that the Constitution of the United States is supreme only as to the things over which the United States as a Nation has control.
But it is important to bear in mind that the great principles of the Constitution of the United States have been carried into the Constitutions of the various States, and that the rights and privileges of the people under the Constitution [pg 074] of the United States have also to a large extent been guaranteed by the Constitutions of the States.[50]
This morning we take up a constitutional guaranty which you perhaps have not thought much about, but which is one of the most important in the whole Constitution—Freedom of Worship. The Constitution provides:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”[51]