U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: "the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state..."

   “§ 1868. Probably at the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration, the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship. An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.[1 – See 2 Lloyd’s Deb. 195, 196.]”–U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Amendments To The Constitution, Volume III. Pg. 726. [1833]