The provision in Article VI of the Constitution of the United States (§3) that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States” settled the matter only as far as the National Government was concerned. Each of the independent and sovereign States could solve this problem in its own way, though most of them have already adopted full religious freedom. But it must be remembered that the basic institutions of the States were not directly changed by the Revolution, and in some of them they were not changed at all. In some instances Royal Charters remained, with some alterations, as State Constitutions; English common law remained in force even to this day, unless otherwise provided for by special enactment. The colonies were too free originally to require or desire a sudden radical change when they threw off the British yoke. They kept on progressing by the slow process of evolution, but not at an equal pace, each emphasizing the questions in which its inhabitants were mostly interested. Uniform or simultaneous action was not to be expected under such conditions. Virginia, the State of Washington and of Jefferson, the “mother of presidents” and the home of the framers of the National Constitution, began to consider the question of religious liberty seriously soon after peace was declared. It was not a new question even then, for as early as 1776, when a new Constitution for the Commonwealth was drafted, there occurred a significant discussion about the difference between toleration and rights. The Declaration of Rights, reported by a committee of which Colonel Mason was chairman, contained a provision relative to religious liberty whose authorship is attributed to Patrick Henry (1736–99). It provided that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion. Madison strongly opposed the use of the word toleration, which recognized liberty of worship not as a right but as a favor granted to dissenting denominations. At his instance the provision was amended to read: “All men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.”