sons, professing the Christian religion."
Not until 1851, when Maryland's sec-
ond Constitution was drafted, were the
words "professing the Christian re-
ligion" deleted.
The original Article 36 [then 33] also
enabled the legislature to "lay a general
and equal tax, for the support of the
Christian religion. . . ." (cf. the pre-1776
enforced contribution to the Church of
England). In 1810 any taxation "for
the support of any religion" was made
unlawful by the General Assembly,121
and the taxation provisions disappeared
in the 1851 Constitution.
However, the 1851 version did add
the requirement that witnesses and
jurors believe "in the existence of God"
or otherwise be disqualified, and this
clause has remained in existence to the
present day. That the test for jurors, at
least, violates the federal Constitution,
has been recently decided.122
Article 37
Article 37 (in 1776, 25) originally
provided that public officeholders could
be subjected to no oath other than that
prescribed by the legislature, besides a
declaration of belief in Christianity. This
clearly discriminated against members of
the Jewish faith — but it was a Scotch
Prebyterian who led the dramatic, half-
century fight to gain full equality for all
non-Christians seeking state office.
121 Md. Laws of 1809, ch. 167. niles, supra
note 90 at 379. Only one serious effort to
enforce a tax was made — and defeated — in
1785. nevins, supra note 103 at 430, 431.
122 Schowgurow v. Maryland, 213 A.2d 475
(1966). Also, the opening clause to Article
36 is apparently no longer tenable under
Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488, 81 S.Ct.
1680 (1961). Levitsky v. Levitsky, 231 Md.
388, 397, 190 A.2d 621, 625 (1963). See
generally, appendix II, VI (notes 3, 4, 10,
14).
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Thomas Kennedy was a staunch
advocate of religious liberty and equal-
ity. In 1817 he was elected a delegate
to the General Assembly and headed a
committee (created as the result of a
resolution made by him) to place Jew-
ish citizens on a footing equal to Chris-
tians. In two weeks Kennedy's commit-
tee submitted a proposal for an act that
"no religious test, declaration or sub-
scription of opinion as to religion, shall
be required from any person of the sect
called Jews, as a qualification to hold
or exercise any office or employment of
profit or trust in this state." The bill
was twice defeated by a more than 2-1
majority. Kennedy was attacked as "an
enemy of Christianity," and called "one
half Jew and the other half not a Chris-
tian." When he came up for reelection,
his bill was the major issue to the
opposition's campaign. Benjamin Gal-
loway, running on a so-called "Christian
ticket" and openly disclaiming the sup-
port of "Jews, Deists, Mohammedans,
or Unitarians," won the election. How-
ever Kennedy persisted, ran as an inde-
pendent candidate in the next year's
election (1824) and won. His proposal
for Jewish equality became something
of a national issue, with the press
strongly aligned behind Kennedy. A
bill similar to the original proposal was
finally enacted in 1825.123
In 1851 the present Article 37 (then,
Article 34) added the clause:
". . . and if the party shall profess
to be a Jew, the declaration shall
be of his belief in a future state of
rewards and punishments."
The 1864 Constitution deleted the lan-
guage, "if the party shall profess to be
123 A. stokes & L. pfeffer, church and
state in the united states, 245-48
(1964); E. altfeld, the jew's struggle
for religious and civil liberty in mary-
land (1924); niles, supra note 90 at 383.
3!
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