Excerpt from Encyclopedia of Biography of Indiana, Vol. 2: Illustrated With Steel Plate and Copper Plate EngravingsIt is fit that the chief executive of a State should welcome to its capital the representatives of a church, of which it was said by an illustrious English philoso pher more than two hundred years ago, 'the Baptists were from the beginning the friends of liberty, just and true lib erty.' A church that led the van in pro claiming the sacred right of individual judgment in matters pertaining to relig ious faith - a right called in the rugged phrase of the day when it was first pro claimed 'soul liberty' - and planting that doctrine on American soil, following it up by causing to be inserted in the Consti tution of the United States, by a con certed Baptist movement, those memor able words contained in the first amend ment, 'congress shall make no law re' specting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' A free religion without help or hurt from the State was the motto of every Baptist. Your fathers sowed the seed and their descendants reap the harvest.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.