Leonard Verduin is the author of “The Reformers and their Step Children.” It is a book to which I have referred many times over the years. Verduin was not a Baptist but a part of the Christian Reformed Denomination, and yet his honest histories strengthen the argument that Baptist doctrine has been around since the beginning of Christianity. In a second book called “The First Amendment and the Remnant,” Verduin advocated that the First Amendment, known as the “Bill of Rights,” owes its existence to “the remnant” – the Baptistic people of early America. That First Amendment was adopted on this day in 1792.
Many, if not most, Baptists were not pleased with the proposed American Constitution, because it didn’t guarantee religious liberty. At that time, Virginia was a “swing” state, and their citizens could well have decided whether or not the Constitution would be accepted.
In his desire to see the Constitution passed, James Madison, who became the fourth president of the United States, met with the Baptist pastor, John Leland. Leland carefully explained the Baptist reluctance to accept a Constitution which left the door open for the eventual establishment of a “state” church. It was in that meeting that Madison agreed to propose the Bill of Rights. With that guarantee and Leland’s recommendation, the Baptists of Virginia began to promote the ratification of the Constitution.
Historian Joseph Dawson has written, “If the researchers of the world were asked who was most responsible for the American guarantee for religious liberty, their prompt reply would be ‘James Madison;’ but if James Madison might answer, he would as quickly reply, ‘John Leland and the Baptists.’”
– Source: This Day in Baptist History III, Cummins