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3 3 2 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3could be further from the truth. Madison is not saying that a liberal educationshould be an indoctrination of a different kind. Madison and Jeffersondid not dilute the religious influence only to institute their own brand of religioustruth; rather, they were seeking to broaden the learning of the citizenby including a philosophical teaching:They were talking about a “nature” and “laws of nature,” that are accessibleto reason, and better known if the reason is trained to see them.Jefferson and Madison thought that an educated man would haveinvestigated these matters, indeed, that he would have come to someconclusions about them that would decisively shape his life. Students,when they are young, must have a reason to begin the journey of learning,or they will not begin it at all. 60In Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance,” he urged caution against thepublic ascendancy of religious institutions because if any one sect were toreceive favor, it would banish all other, opposing sects. Madison was nothostile to religion per se, or against Christianity, but dedicated to preservingliberty for all men, which he found more amenable to the appeal to a person’sreason and conviction. 61 James Kent, the lawyer and legal scholar educatedat Yale, thought that an education should be conducted on reasonable principles.He reasoned that the principles of government were accessible to allmen and hence the principles of unalienable rights were discernible. SamuelWilliams concluded that the best remedy to religious superstition and ignorance,not to mention infidelity to the faith, was an “increase of knowledgeand education.” 6260Larry P. Arnn, “Why the GOP is Flunking Higher Education,” Claremont Review of Books 6, no. 4(Fall 2006): 21.61James Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance,” in American Political Writing during the FoundingEra, 1760–1805, ed. Charles S. Hyneman and Donald S. Lutz (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1983),1:632–33. Somewhat more favorable is Benjamin Rush, who believed the Christian religion should becentral to an education, even while he found religion of any sort—say, Islam or Confucianism—beneficial.However, Rush was not speaking about a college education, but the education of children. Onething that Rush believed religion should inculcate in all school-age children was republican principles.See Benjamin Rush, “A Plan for the Establishment of Public Schools and the Diffusion of Knowledgein Pennsylvania,” in ibid., 1:675–92. Likewise, John Adams thought that a liberal education was necessaryfor youth: John Adams, Thoughts on Government, in ibid., 1:407. Zabdiel Adams believed thatthe government should only generally encourage education in God, all other matters related to himbeing individual and left to our conscience. See “An Election Sermon,” in ibid., 1:556. In Charleston,an anonymous author deduced from the law of nature that a college education was valuable and thatstudents should be taught their duty to God generally and to their countrymen. See Rudiments of Lawand Government Deduced from the Law of Nature, in ibid., 1:582.62Samuel Williams, The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, in American Political Writing, 2:962;James Kent, “An Introductory Lecture to a Course of Law Lectures,” in ibid., 2:938–39.