norml21 - Page 8
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religion as to shake off all religion, and
while they ha(d) labored to set up heathen
above Christian morals, ha(d) shown
themselves destitute of all morality o "
Notwithstanding these complaints_ it does not
appear that there was any deep-seated
coarseness or general ima_orality during the
closing years of the eighteenth century.
What was b_9_qinninqk_to Pcc_rafter__h_
Revolution was not significantlf_ more immoral
but an abandonment of the p_r_e-revo]utionarz
notion that _overnmentsh___Duld act to enforce
m orali%___ Over time howev r__Lhe
abandonment by__g_ovesnment of it_ enforcement
role W_euld impair the notion theft there was
any_ one set of ethical sL__ that all men
İught to obey__
Nelson, __a p.4, at Ii0-Iii (emphasis added) (footnotes
omitted).
As Chief Justice Cushing explained at: the time, when men
rejected the old religious traditions, they also rejected many of
the old moral ones, among them the theretofore unquestioned
assumption that government should enforce morality° W. Cushing,
"Notes on Biennial Elections and Other Subjects Under Debate in
the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention," in Willliam Cushinq
P_apers, (1788). Thus, men at the time of the adoption of the
Constitution and Bill of Rights were taking a step toward a
modern view of criminal law - the view that its purpose is to
protect men and women of unwanted invasions of their rights. 42
N.Y.Uo L. Revo supra p.3, at 465.
It was within this context and spirit and James Madison and
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