“Systems of religious error have been adopted in times of ignorance. It has been the interest of tyrannical kings, popes, and prelates to maintain these errors. When the clouds of ignorance began to vanish and the people grew more enlightened, there was no other way to keep them in error but to prohibit their altering their religious opinions by severe persecuting laws. In this way persecution became general throughout Europe.”
~Oliver Ellsworth

American Founding Father, attorney, jurist, politician, diplomat, a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator from Connecticut, and third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court Oliver Ellsworth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Ellsworth) was born on this day in 1745.