The Presidents on Church-State Separation
Feb 18th, 2008 by nick
In honor of Presidents’ Day, here’s what our first four presidents had to say about church-state separation:
- George Washington
“…we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna Charta [Constitution] of our country.”
-From a letter to the New Hampshire-Massachusetts Presbytery, November 2, 1789.
“It shall still be my endeavor to manifest by overt acts, the purity of my inclinations for promoting the happiness of mankind, as well as the sincerity of my desires to contribute whatever may be in my power towards the preservation of the civil and religious liberties of the American People.”
-From a letter to the Methodist Bishops, May 29, 1789.
“All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support… In this enlightened age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.”
-From a letter to a Newport, Rhode Island, Hebrew congregation, August 18, 1790.
- John Adams
“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,…”
- The Treaty of Tripoli, Article II, ratified by President John Adams, 1797.
- Thomas Jefferson
“…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and state…”
-From a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, January 1, 1802.
“Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”
-Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779-1786.
- James Madison
“[T]he number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State.”
-Letter to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819
“Strongly guarded… is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States.”
-Letter to Baptist Churches, 1811.
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?”
-Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785