Iredell

Iredell knew there is no response to such mockery but more mockery.

To be sure, there are aspects of Iredell’s conception of religious freedom that today we find blinkered.

Iredell’s fellow delegate, one Henry Abbot, had observed that Article VI’s proscription of religious tests for office made some people uncomfortable: “They suppose that if there be no religious test required, pagans, deists, and Mahometans might obtain offices among us, and that the senators and representatives might all be pagans.”

When Iredell rose to put Abbot’s mind at ease, he referred to a pamphlet he said he had just come across that, to his mind, expressed such concerns in their fullest, truest, and most absurd version, a straw man he could easily, gleefully set on fire.

“I confess this never struck me before,” Iredell said.