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When Congress Taxed Churches: Religion & Politics in the District of Columbia After the Civil War

1,206 views · Published 12 October 2018 · 57:09 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: Library of Congress · 2018 · Education

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Sarah Barringer Gordon presented the annual Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History Maguire Lecture titled "When Congress Taxed Churches: Religion and Politics in the District of Columbia After the Civil War." In 1874, Congress imposed taxes on all religious property in the District of Columbia. Other jurisdictions also debated taxing churches and some did, including Missouri and California. This lecture explores why imposing taxes on all religious property in the District of Columbia seemed like a good idea to many religious and political thinkers in the 1870s, and how the backlash against them created the extraordinarily deferential system that has only increased exemptions over the past 145 years. Gordon's talk was a culmination of four months of research in Library's collections for her upcoming book tentatively titled "Freedom's Holy Light: Disestablishment in America, 1776-1876." 

Speaker Biography: Sarah "Sally" Barringer Gordon held the Maguire Chair at the Library's John W. Kluge Center in 2017 and is Arlin M. Adams professor of Congressional law and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is well known for her work on religion in American public life and the law of church and state, especially the ways that religious liberty developed over the course of American national history. 

For transcript and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=8413

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