“A bill establishing a provision for teachers of the Christian religion” was brought in December 23, 1784, and after it was amended, but without materially changing its substance, it passed its second reading. But on the next day (December 24) Madison was able to secure the passage of a resolution postponing the third reading till the following November, and copies of the bill were ordered to be printed and distributed in every county of the Commonwealth. The people were requested to signify their opinion respecting the adoption of such a measure to the next session of the legislature. An active and thorough discussion of the bill followed throughout the State. Madison prepared a “Memorial and Remonstrance” against the bill, which was extensively circulated and signed. Madison made no mistake in suggesting this appeal to the people. When the Assembly met in October, 1785, the table of the House of Delegates almost sunk under the weight of the accumulated copies of the memorial against the bill which came from different counties, each with its long and dense columns of subscribers. The fate of the assessment was sealed. The manifestation of the public judgment was too unequivocal and overwhelming to leave the faintest hope to the friends of the measure, and it was abandoned without a struggle. The declaratory act for the establishment of religious liberty, which had been drawn by Jefferson as one of the committee of revisors and presented to the legislature in 1779, was then taken up and passed into a law. Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance” had cleared away every obstruction. In a letter to Madison, dated December 16, 1786, Jefferson, who was then our Minister to France, wrote: “The Virginia Act for religious freedom has been received with infinite approbation in Europe, and ♦propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by the governments, but by the individuals who compose them. It has been translated into French and Italian, has been sent to most of the courts of Europe, and has been the best evidence of the falsehoods of those reports which stated us to be in anarchy. It is inserted in the new Encyclopædia, and is appearing in most of the publications respecting America. In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests and nobles; and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of men may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.”