MANNING ON RELIGION AND POLITICS

From a section of the 1798 manuscript of The Key of Liberty. This passage was left out of the 1799 manuscript; Merrill and Wilentz argue that he deleted these and other passages for fear of running afoul of the censorship practices that flourished in the climate of the Alien and Sedition Acts:

Instead of preaching about and praying for officers of government as infallible beings, or so perfect that we ought to submit to and praise them for all they do (when in fact they are all our servants, and at all times accountable to the people), they ought to teach their hearers to be watchful of men in power, and to guard their own rights and privileges with a jealous eye, and teach them how to do it in a constitutional way.

. . .

Ministers have it more in their power to turn the minds of their hearers to right and wrong than any other order of men. It had been the general practice of all arbitrary governments to prostitute religion to political purposes, and make a handle of this order of men to mislead, flatter, and drive the people by the terrors of the other world into submission to their political schemes and interests. Consequently, the ministers ought to be watched and guarded against above all other orders, especially then they preach politics.

Merrill and Wilentz edition, 175-6.