Thomas Jefferson said that no assembly should have the power to revoke an act because any Assembly was constituted with the same powers that constituted the Assembly that proposed the act. Also, Jefferson mentions that any natural rights of mankind should not be revoked and that the act that did it would be an infringement of natural right. (The works of Thomas Jefferson Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester Ford)
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was written by Thomas Jefferson and passed by Virginia’s General Assembly. It defended religious freedom as a natural right and therefore like he defended before it could not be revoked.
The lines 'at last' 'gloomy past' and 'white gleam, bright star' make me say that it is reflecting hopefulness, as opposed to what it was (I assume) like before in the story
