CONSCIENCE

CONSCIENCE. The moral sense, or that capacity of our mental constitution, by which we irresistibly feel the difference between right and wrong.

2. The constitution of the United States wisely provides that "no religious test shall ever be required." No man, then, or body of men, have a right to control a man's belief or opinion in religious matters, or to forbid the most perfect freedom of inquiry in relation to them, by force or threats, or by any other motives than arguments or persuasion. Vide Story, Const. 1841-1843.