day of May, giving for that purpose an acre of land belonging to the City of Richmond lying upon Shockoe Hill.[22] * * * * * North Carolina, like Virginia, had an Established Church until a short time before the outbreak of the Revolution, all citizens being required to pay toward its support, and dissenting clergymen being denied the privilege of performing even the marriage ceremony. But when the Dissenters won their fight against the Establishment, they took an uncompromising stand against the complete emancipation of Roman Catholics, Jews and others not belonging to a Protestant denomination. The opposition to Jews was mainly theoretical or academic, as there were practically no Jews in North Carolina at that time. In happy contrast to some Old World countries of the present time, opposition to Jews in the United States developed only in parts of the country where they were least known. In all the original States which had considerable Jewish communities, like New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, full religious liberty was firmly established before the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Like Virginia, too, North Carolina adopted a Constitution in 1776. It provided for liberty of worship and even excluded clergymen from being members of the Senate, House of Commons or Council of State. But when it came to the question of holding office, an exception was incorporated in Article 32 which read as follows: “That no person who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion or the Divine Authority, either of the Old or New Testament, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the Civil Department within the State.”