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3 3 0 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3and the laws would “determine the fate of the country.” 51 At the Universityof North Carolina, the liberal nature of the college was noted in this statement:“nothing can be more conducive to the existence of liberty, than such asystem of education as gives every citizen the opportunity of gaining knowledgeand fitting him for places of trust.” 52 The moderating effect of a collegeeducation was one of the reasons none other than Benjamin Rush rejecteddenominational or doctrinal control of education, believing instead in theunity of religious diversity. 53A country founded on the concepts of equality and liberty should havean education system dedicated to that end. Such a republic would respectthe freedom of others to choose their own path to heaven. A man’s conductmatters more than his speculative opinions. In the Notes on the State of Virginia,Jefferson noted that the early history of the colonists was one in whichreligious freedom was not realized. Indeed, the freedom of the “reigning sect”was the norm. This was antithetical to the principles of the Declaration ofIndependence:The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of themind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of thelaws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only aswe have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted,we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. Thelegitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injuriousto others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there aretwenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. 54Jefferson concluded that reason and inquiry were the only means with whichto contend against a supposed error, religious or otherwise. A free people isduty bound to respect the rights of others. Its members must have a respectfor the mind, or reason’s ability to know, to be convinced of that duty. Indeed,it was by the freedom of inquiry that Christianity got its rise, according toJefferson. Reason is the instrument of persuasion and political argumenta-51David W. Robson, “College Founding in the New Republic, 1776–1800,” History of Education Quarterly23 (Autumn 1983): 324.52Ibid.53Kuritz, “Benjamin Rush,” 436. Rush was active in the founding of Dickson College and believedstudents should have a heavy dose of republican classics, philosophy, and history in the curriculum. Inorder to make a people amenable to republican government, they needed to be exposed to republicanarguments. See Robson, “College Founding in the New Republic,” 327. In that spirit, some collegesexposed their students to the full range of religious arguments, from pietists to skeptics. See ibid., 331.54Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, in The Portable Thomas Jefferson, 210; see also 208, andMalone, Jefferson and His Time, 378–79.