Secularists, Religion and Government in Nineteenth-Century America - Hardcoverby Timothy Verhoeven (Author) This book shows how, through a series of fierce battles over Sabbath laws, legislative chaplains, Bible reading in public schools and other flashpoints, nineteenth century secularists mounted a powerful case for a separation of religion and government. Among their diverse ranks were religious skeptics, liberal Protestants, members of minority faiths, labor reformers and defenders of slavery. Drawing on popular petitions