Day 199 MCAT Practice Question

Passage 3

An account of the American Revolution which took cognizance only of the armed

conflict with England would tell much less than half the truth, and even that half

would be misleading. If anyone doubts that the real inspiration which made America

a nation was drawn, not from Whiggish quarrels about taxes, but from the great

dogmas promulgated by Jefferson, it is sufficient to point out that the States did

not even wait till their victory over England was assured before effecting a complete

internal revolution on the basis of those dogmas. Before the last shot had been fired

almost the last privilege had disappeared…

Hereditary titles and privileges went first. On this point public feeling became so strong

that the proposal to form after the war a society to be called “the Cincinnati,” which

was to consist of those who had taken a prominent part in the war and afterwards

of their descendants, was met, in spite of the respect in which Washington and the

other military heroes were held, with so marked an expression of public disapproval

that the hereditary part of the scheme had to be dropped.

Franchises were simplified, equalized, broadened, so that in practically every State

the whole adult male population of European race received the suffrage. Social

and economic reforms having the excellent aim of securing and maintaining a wide

distribution of property, especially of land, were equally prominent among the

achievements of that time. Jefferson himself carried in Virginia a drastic code of

Land Laws, which anticipated many of the essential provisions which through the

Code Napoleon revolutionized the system of land-owning in Europe….

Another principle, not connected by any direct logic with democracy and not set

forth in the Declaration of Independence, was closely associated with the democratic

thesis by the great French thinkers by whom that thesis was revived, and had a

strong hold upon the mind of Jefferson—the principle of religious equality, or, as it

might be more exactly defined, of the Secular State…it does not mean that anyone

may commit any anti-social act that appeals to him, and claim immunity from

the law on the ground that he is impelled to that act by his religion; can rob as a

conscientious communist, murder as a conscientious Thug, or refuse military service

as a conscientious objector. None understood better than Jefferson—it was the first

principle of his whole political system—that there must be some basis of agreement

amongst citizens as to what is right and what is wrong, and that what the consensus

of citizens regards as wrong must be punished by the law. All that the doctrine of

the Secular State asserted was that such general agreement among citizens need

not include, as in most modern States it obviously does not include, an agreement

on the subject of religion. Religion is, so to speak, left out of the Social Contract, and

consequently each individual retains his natural liberty to entertain and promulgate

what views he likes concerning it, so long as such views do not bring him into conflict

with those general principles of morality, patriotism and social order upon which the

citizens of the State are agreed, and which form the basis of its laws.

The public mind of America was for the most part well prepared for the application of

this principle. We have already noted how the first experiment in the purely secular

organization of society had been made in the Catholic colony of Maryland and the

Quaker colony of Pennsylvania. The principle was now applied in its completeness

to one State after another. The Episcopalian establishment of Jefferson’s own

State was the first to fall; the other States soon followed the example of Virginia…

It may be added that America affords the one conspicuous example of the Secular

State completely succeeding. In France, where the same principles were applied

under the same inspiration, the ultimate result was something wholly different: an

organized Atheism persecuting the Christian Faith. In England the principle has never

been avowedly applied at all. In theory the English State still professes the form of

Protestant Christianity defined in the Prayer-book, and “tolerates” dissenters from it

as the Christian States of the middle ages tolerated the Jews, and as in France, during

the interval between the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes and its revocation, a

State definitely and even pronouncedly Catholic tolerated the Huguenots…

The American Republic has not escaped the difficulties and problems which are

inevitable to the Secular State, when some of its citizens profess a religion which

brings them into conflict with the common system of morals which the nation takes

for granted; the case of the Mormons is a typical example of such a problem. But

there is some evidence that, as the Americans have applied the doctrine far more

logically than we, they have also a keener perception of the logic of its limitations…

Changes so momentous, made in so drastic and sweeping a fashion in the middle of a

life and death struggle for national existence, show how vigorous and compelling was

the popular impulse towards reform.

Chesterton, C. (2007). A history of the United States. Project Gutenberg. (Original

work published 1919)

Which of the following statements about present-day America are consistent

with the author’s position?

A) Greater religious heterogeneity has decreased the difficulty of maintaining a

modern Secular State

B) Increased moral laxity has no bearing on the success of the Secular State

C) Economic distress is the most likely motivation to pursue greater

democracy and freedom

D) Modern Americans’ desire for an egalitarian society promotes the Secular

State