Copyright 2005 Gene Garman. No part of this material may be reproduced in full or in part without express permission from the owner and publisher.
America's Real Religion publishes a Space Age Calendar for the space age. On July 20, 1969, the United States of America landed a manned space craft on the surface of the moon which orbits planet earth. When American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, it was a small step for a man but a giant leap for mankind. That step marked the first time in the written history of mankind a human being stepped onto the surface of another celestial body. That day opened a new chapter in recorded history and serves as a date specific which provides opportunity for a new beginning for all mankind in terms of recording modern history, in contrast to the ancient calendars of both the eastern and western world.
As dated by the Gregorian calendar, July 20, 2005, marked the beginning of the thirty-sixth year since a human being first landed on earth's moon and established that day as an appropriate and verifiable day by which to begin a new calendar dating system for the recording of human life on earth . From the beginning of recorded time mankind is known for its divisions. Never has there been a more spectacular moment than when united citizens of earth looked out into the universe to behold a feat never before accomplished by one of its own. The moon landing was significant world wide and began a whole new appreciation for what human beings can achieve. That day began a whole new understanding of the space age and of the abilities of citizens of the world. In recognition of that special day, it is entirely fitting that a whole new calendar be dedicated for citizens of the entire world.
From the beginning of recorded time mankind is known for its religion divisions. The purpose of this website, in recognition of a new age, the space age, is to also recognize the new age of thought which developed from establishment of a new world in earth's western hemisphere, in contrast to the dogma of Dark Ages thought which prevailed in Europe. The New World generated hope from the Age of Enlightenment, especially in respect to eventual establishment of a constitutional republic in the United States of America and of its constitutional principle of separation between religion and government. The cited and documented quotations accompanying the Space Age Calendar dating system are in recognition of significant commentaries relating to the issue of religion and government in the United States of America. Beginning in recognition of the first day of Space Age Calendar year 37, hopefully, all citizens of the world will appreciate and benefit from daily quotations relating to religion and government in the United States of America.
SA 41:1 [JULY 20, 2009] Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. ... They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. [Jesus] Matthew 6:5-6, New Testament, King James Version, Christian Bible.
******************************************************************SA 41:2 [July 21, 2009] I do hereby grant and declare. That no person ... inhabiting in this province ... shall be, in any case, molested or prejudiced in his or their personal estate because of his or their consciences, persuasion or practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry.[William Penn,10-28-1701] F.N. Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters.
******************************************************************SA 41:3 [July 22, 2009] I imagine a Man must have a good deal of Vanity who believes ... all the Doctrines he holds, are true; and all he rejects, are false. And ... the same may be justly said of every Sect, Church, or Society ... when they assume to themselves that Infallibility which they deny to the Popes. [Benjamin Franklin, April 13, 1738] Leonard W. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 2:203.
******************************************************************SA 41:4 [July 23, 2009] [V]ital Religion has always suffered, when Orthodoxy is more regarded than Virtue. And the Scripture assures me ..., we shall not be examined [by] what we thought, but what we did; ... not ... that we said Lord, Lord, but that we did GOOD to our Fellow Creatures. See Matt. 25. [Benjamin Franklin, April 13, 1738] Leonard W. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 2:204.
******************************************************************SA 41:5 [July 24, 2009] The Faith [Christianity] you mention has doubtless its use. ... But I wish it were more productive of Good Works than I have generally seen it: ... Kindness, Charity, Mercy, and Public Spirit; not Holiday-keeping, Sermon ... Hearing, performing Church Ceremonies, or making long Prayers. [Ben Franklin, June 6, 1753] Leonard W. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 4:505.
******************************************************************SA 41:6 [N]ow-a-days we have scarce a little Parson, that does not think it the Duty of every Man within his Reach to sit under his petty Ministrations, and that whoever omits them offends God. I wish to such more Humility. [Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, June 6, 1753] Leonard W. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 4:506.
****************************************************************** SASA 41:7 Dr Sir [George Washington]: On the first Saturday of this month (Our Lodge Day) Coln. John Thorton was ... voted to the Chair. [Washington entered the Masonic lodge in Fredericksburg as an apprentice in Nov. 1752, passed Fellowcraft in Mar. 1753, and raised to Master Mason on Aug. 4, 1753.] [D. Campbell, 6-28-1754] W.W. Abbot, Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, 1:151-3.
******************************************************************SA 41:8 Our growing property, meaning the Tobacco, is assailed by every villainous worm that has had an existence since the days of Noah (how unkind it was of Noah now I have mentioned his name to suffer such a brood of vermin to get a birth in the Ark). [Founding Father, George Washington, August 28, 1762] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 37:485.
******************************************************************SA 41:9 Since the promulgation of Christianity, the two greatest systems of tyranny ... are the canon and the feudal law. The desire of DOMINION. ... [I]t becomes an encroaching ... power. Numberless have been the systems of iniquity contrived ... for the gratification of this passion. [John Adams, August, 1765] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 3:449.
******************************************************************SA 41:10 Union of Religious Sentiments begets a surprising confidence and Ecclesiastical Establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption[,] all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects. [James Madison, January 24, 1774] William T. Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison, 1:105.
******************************************************************SA 41:11 My Country [Virginia]. ... Pride, ignorance and knavery among the Priesthood and vice and wickedness among the Laity. ... That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages among some and to their eternal infamy the Clergy can furnish their quota of Imps for such business. [James Madison, January 24,1774] William T. Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison, 1:106.
******************************************************************SA 41:12 Indeed I have ever looked on America as the land of freedom when compared with the rest of the world, but compared with the rest of America Tis Pennsylvania that is so. ... I do not remember that any Person was ever imprisoned here for his religious sentiments however heretical or unepiscopal. [William Bradford, Mar. 4, 1774] William T. Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison, 1:109.
******************************************************************SA 41:13 Our [Virginia] Assembly is to meet the first of May when ... something will be done in behalf of the Dissenters: Petitions I hear are already forming among the persecuted Baptists and I fancy it is in the thoughts of the Presbyterians also to intercede for greater liberty in matters of religion. [James Madison, 4-1-1774] William T. Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison, 1:112.
******************************************************************SA 41:14 That liberal catholic and equitable way of thinking as to the rights of Conscience, which is one of the Characteristics of a free people and so strongly marks the People of your [Pennsylvania] province is but little known among the Zealous adherents to our [Virginia] hierarchy. [James Madison, 4-1-1774] William T. Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison, 1:112.
******************************************************************SA 41:15 You are happy in dwelling in a land [Pennsylvania] where those inestimable privileges are fully enjoyed and the public has long felt the good effects of their religious as well as Civil Liberty. ... Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.[Founding Father,J.Madison,4-4-1774] William T. Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison, 1:112.
******************************************************************SA 41:16 Craven Street [London], Sunday morning. ... Dr. Franklin presents his respects to Lord Le Despencer, and acquaints him that Mr. Lindsey¹s [Unitarian] Church opens this Day at 11 o¹clock, in Essex House, Essex Street, Strand; ... Dr. F. will be ready to attend him. [Benjamin Franklin, April 17, 1774] William B. Willcox, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 21:196.
******************************************************************SA 41:17 General Orders. Head Quarters, Cambridge, September 17, 1775. Parole Andover. Countersign Beverly. The Revd. Mr. John Murray [Universalist--Founder of American Universalism] is appointed Chaplain to the Rhode Island Regiments and is to be respected as such. [George Washington, September 17, 1775] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 3:497.
******************************************************************SA 41:18 We believe that Preachers should be supported only by voluntary Contributions from the People, and that a general [tax] assessment (however harmless, yea useful some may conceive it to be) is pregnant with various evils destructive to the rights and privileges of religious society. [Virginia Baptists, Dec. 25,1776] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:661.
******************************************************************SA 41:19 If ... the State provides a support for Preachers of the Gospel, ... it has a Right to regulate and dictate to. ... Yea, farewell to ... the ³free exercise of Religion,² if civil Rulers go so far out of their sphere as to take the care and management of religious affairs upon them! [Virginia Baptists, Dec. 25, 1776]. Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:661.
******************************************************************SA 41:20 The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. [Thomas Jefferson, 1782] Notes on the State of Virginia, Peden Edition (1955), 159.
******************************************************************SA 41:21 Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. ... Convinced that our Religious Liberties were as essential as our Civil, my endeavors have never been wanting to encourage and promote the one, while I have been contending for the other; and I am ... flattered by finding that my efforts have met ... approval. [Geo. Washington, Nov. 16, 1782] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 25:346.
*******8**********************************************************SA 41:22 I believe that you abhor the introduction of religious ideas into politics, and ... so do I. ... [T]his is to avert the evil which we abhor; because we know there are men of every society, who, if they had the power, would appoint none but those of their own to places of power and profit.[Epis. Bishop William White, 1-31-1783] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 76-77.
******************************************************************SA 41:23 Circular to the States. ... The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition. ... There are four things ... essential ... to the existence of the United States as an Independent Power: 1st. An indissoluble Union of the States under one Federal head. [George Washington, June 8, 1783] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 26:485, 487.
******************************************************************SA 41:24 Unless the States will suffer Congress to exercise those prerogatives, they are undoubtedly invested with by the Constitution, every thing must ... tend to Anarchy and confusion, ... there should be ... a Supreme Power to ... govern the general concerns of the Confederated Republic. [Geo. Washington, 6-8-1783] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 26:488.
******************************************************************SA 41:25 Dutch Reformed Churches of Hackensack and Schalenburg. ... Having shared ... the hardships and dangers of the War ... I feel the most lively sentiments of gratitude to that divine Providence which has graciously interposed for the protection of our Civil and Religious Liberties. [George Washington, November 10, 1783] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 27:239.
******************************************************************SA 41:26 Reformed German Congregation. ... The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the motive which induced me to the field--the object is attained--and it now remains to be my earnest wish ... that the citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings. [George Washington, Nov. 27, 1783] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 27:249.
******************************************************************SA 41:27 I am informed that a ship with Palatines is gone up to Baltimore, among whom are ... Tradesmen. I am ... in want of a House Joiner and Bricklayer. ... If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans, Jews or Christian of any Sect, or they may be Atheists. [George Washington, 3-24-1784] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 27:367.
******************************************************************SA 41:28 Your Memorialists ... humbly pray, that all Distinctions in your Laws may be done away, and that no ... Denomination of Christians in this Commonwealth [Virginia], have any ... Privileges allowed them, more than their Brethren of other Religious Societies, ... lest they Tyrannize over them. [Committee of Baptists, 10-9-1784] H.J. Eckenrode, Separation of Church and State in Virginia, 85.
*****************************************************************SA 41:29 We ..., citizens of the said [Virginia] Commonwealth, having taken into serious consideration, ... ²A Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion,² and conceiving that the same if finally armed with the sanctions of a law ... will be a dangerous abuse of power, ... remonstrate. [J. Madison, 6-20-1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:298-299.
******************************************************************SA 41:30 We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, ³that Religion ... can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man. ... This right is in its nature an unalienable right. [James Madison, June 20, 1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:299.
******************************************************************SA 41:31 The preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them, be suffered [allowed] to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. [James Madison, June 20, 1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:299.
******************************************************************SA 41:32 It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. ... The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They ... avoided the consequences by denying the principle. [James Madison, June 20, 1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:300.
******************************************************************SA 41:33 During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been it fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both superstition, bigotry and persecution. [James Madison, June 20, 1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:301.
******************************************************************SA 41:34 What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny ...; in many instances ... upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. [J. Madison, 6-20-1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:302.
******************************************************************SA 41:35 The proposed establishment [for teachers of the Christian religion] ... degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative authority. Distant as it may be in its present form from the Inquisition, it differs ... only in degree. [J.Madison, 6-20-1785] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 8:302.
******************************************************************SA 41:36 Dear Sir [George Mason]: I have ... received ... a memorial and remonstrance against the Assessment Bill. ... As the matter now stands, I wish an assessment [tax] had never been agitated, and ... that the Bill [for funding teachers of the Christian religion] could die an easy death. [George Washington, October 3, 1785] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 28:285.
******************************************************************SA 41:37 To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves ... is sinful and tyrannical. ... No man shall be compelled to ... support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever. [Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, January 16, 1786] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 2:301-302.
*****************************************************************SA 41:38 The most important bill in our whole [Virginia Revisal] code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. ... If any body thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators of the public happiness, send them here [Paris]. ... Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance. [Th. Jefferson, 8-13-1786] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 10:244.
******************************************************************SA 41:39 The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with ... approbation in Europe and propagated with enthusiasm. ... It is honorable to us to have produced the first legislature who has had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions. [Thomas Jefferson, 12-16-1786] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 603.
******************************************************************SA 41:40 Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. ... Read the bible then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. [Th. Jefferson, August 10, 1787] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:15.
******************************************************************SA 41:41 Facts in the bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined. ... You must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from god. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong as that it¹s falsehood would be more improbable. [Th. Jefferson, Aug. 10, 1787] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:16.
******************************************************************SA 41:42 Read the new testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions. 1. Of those who say he was begotten by god, born of a virgin, ... and 2. of those who say he was a man, of illegitimate birth. ... Keep your reason firmly on the watch in reading. [Th. Jefferson, 8-10-1787] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:16.
******************************************************************SA 41:43 I am not less ardent in my wish that you [Lafayette] may succeed in your plan of toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of Christianity ... that road to Heaven, which to them ... seem the most direct.[Founding Father,G.Washington, 8-15-1787] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 29:259.
******************************************************************SA 41:44 Being one of the ... Jews of ... Philadelphia. ... [A]ll men have ... Right to worship ... according to ... their ... understanding, and ... no man ... of Right can be compelled to attend any ... Worship or Erect ... any place of worship or Maintain any minister contrary to ... his own free will. [Jonas Phillips, Sep. 7, 1787] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 4:392.
******************************************************************SA 41:45 It is well known among all the Citizens of the 13 United States that the Jews ... have bravely fought and bled for liberty. ... [I]f the ... [Constitutional] Convention shall ... Israelites will think them self happy to live under a government where all Religious societies are on an equal footing.[J.Phillips, 9-7-1787] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 4:392-393.
******************************************************************SA 41:46 Senators and Representatives ... and the members of the ... State legislatures, and all ... officers ... of the several States, shall be bound ... to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. [Founding Fathers,9-17-1787] U.S. Constitution, Article 6., Section 3.
******************************************************************SA 41:47 Founding Father William Paterson, b. Ireland, 12-4-1745; first attorney general of New Jersey; proposed New Jersey plan of government at 1787 Constitutional Convention; Senator, First Congress; helped draft 1789 Judiciary Act; appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice by George Washington in 1793; d. 1806. World Book Encyclopedia.
******************************************************************SA 41:48 A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth. ... The second feature I dislike [about the newly proposed Constitution] ... is the abandonment in every instance ... of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of the President. [Thomas Jefferson, December 20, 1787] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:440.
******************************************************************SA 41:49 If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government ... administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and ... to control itself. [James Madison, Feb. 6, 1788] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 10:477.
******************************************************************SA 41:50 No man can be a competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subject on which he is to legislate. [James Madison, member of First Congress, February 9, 1788] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 10:490.
******************************************************************SA 41:51 As to the religious test [Art. 6., Sec. 3.], I should conceive that it can imply at most nothing more than that without that exception, a power would have been given to impose an oath involving a religious test as a qualification for office. [James Madison, April 10, 1788] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 11:19.
******************************************************************SA 41:52 I have no reason to conclude, that uniformity of government will produce that of religion. This subject is, for the honor of America, perfectly free and and unshackled. The government has no jurisdiction over it--the least reflection will convince us there is no danger to be feared on this ground. [J. Madison, 6-6-1788] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 11:84.
******************************************************************SA 41:53 Is a bill of rights a security for religion? ... If there were a majority of one sect, a bill of rights would be a poor protection for liberty. ... [F]reedom arises from that multiplicity of sects, which pervades America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. [James Madison, 6-12-1788] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 11:130.
******************************************************************SA 41:54 No one can rejoice more than I do at every step the people of this great Country take to preserve the Union, establish good order and government, and to render the Nation happy at home and respectable abroad. No country upon Earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings. [George Washington, June 29, 1788] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 30:11.
******************************************************************SA 41:55 The honor you do me in proposing ... becoming one of the Sponsors of your child. ... The ... sponsor ... makes a solemn profession ... of faith in articles ... I had never sense enough to comprehend. ... Reconciling the ideas of Unity and Trinity, have ... excluded me from ... sponsorship. [Th. Jefferson, July 25,1788] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 13:418.
******************************************************************SA 41:56 One of the objections in New England was that the [United States] Constitution by prohibiting religious tests [Article 6., Section 3.] opened a door for Jews, Turks and infidels. [Founding Father, ³Father of the Constitution,² James Madison, October 17, 1788] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 11:297.
******************************************************************SA 41:57 The clergy and nobles, by their privileges and influence, have kept their property in a great measure untaxed hitherto. ... The people will probably send their deputies expressly instructed to consent to no tax. ... Against them will be the antient nobles and the clergy. [Thomas Jefferson, January 8, 1789] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 14:422-423.
******************************************************************SA 41:58 [The 1787 Constitutional Convention agreed a new government of the United States could be organized after nine states had approved the Constitution. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify. The First Congress met on March 4, 1789, in New York City. George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789.] World Book Encyclopedia, 1967, 19:129.
******************************************************************SA 41:59 Presbyterian Church. ... While all men within our territories are protected in worshipping the Deity ..., it is rationally to be expected from them the beneficence of their actions. For no man, who is ... a bad member of the civil community, can possibly be a ... credit to his own religious society. [G. Washington, May 1789] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 171.
******************************************************************SA 41:60 Baptist Churches in Virginia. ... If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution ... might possibly endanger ... religious rights ... I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous ... against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and ... religious persecution. [G. Washington, May 1789] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 30:321.
******************************************************************SA 41:61 German Reformed Congregations. ... I return you my thanks for ... your firm purpose to support ... a government founded ... for the promise that it will be your constant study to impress the minds of the people ... of the necessity of uniting reverence to such a government and obedience to its laws. [Geo. Washington, 6-11-1789] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 173.
******************************************************************SA 41:62 Protestant Episcopal Church. ... It affords edifying prospects indeed to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect to each other with a more christian-like spirit than ever they have done in any former age, or in any other nation. {Geo. Washington, 8-19-1789] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 176.
******************************************************************SA 41:63 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government or a redress of grievances. [U.S. House of Representatives, September 24, 1789] First Amendment adopted by House of Representatives, 1789.
******************************************************************SA 41:64 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government or a redress of grievances. [First Amendment, U.S. Senate, September 25, 1789] First Amendment adopted by United States Senate, 1789.
******************************************************************SA 41:65 Religious Society called Quakers. ... Government being, among other purposes, instituted to protect the persons and consciences of men from oppression, it certainly is the duty of rulers, not only to abstain from it themselves, but, according to their stations, to prevent it in others. [Geo. Washington, October 1789] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 179-180.
******************************************************************SA 41:66 Massachusetts and New Hampshire. ... I am persuaded, ... permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political attention. To this ... we ... ascribe the absence of any regulation respecting religion from the Magna Charta [Constitution] of our country. [Geo. Washington, 11-2-1789] Dorothy Twohig, Papers of George Washington, Pres. Ser., 4:274.
******************************************************************SA 41:67 Society of Free Quakers. ... Having always considered the conscientious scruples of religious belief as resting entirely with ... the individuals who entertain them, ... it will be my earnest endeavor ... to realize the ... common protection which you expect from ... that government. [George Washington, 3-2-1790] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 182.
*****************************************************************SA 41:68 As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you ... desire, I think the system of morals and his religion ... the best the world ever saw; ... but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity. [Ben. Franklin, 3-9-1790] John Bigelow, Works of Benjamin Franklin, 12:185.
******************************************************************SA 41:69 Roman Catholics in the U.S.A. ... As mankind become more liberal ... those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community, are equally entitled to the protection of the government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality. [G. Washington, 3-15-1790] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 183.
******************************************************************SA 41:70 Hebrew Congregation in New Port. ... The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy. ... [T[he government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. [G. Washington, 8-17-1790] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 186.
******************************************************************SA 41:71 Clergy of the town of Newport. ... The salutations of the Clergy of the Town of Newport on my arrival in the state of Rhode Island are rendered the more acceptable on account of the liberal sentiments and just ideas which they are known to entertain respecting civil and religious liberty. [G. Washington, 8-17-1790] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 187.
******************************************************************SA 41:72 Being persuaded that a just application of the principles, on which the masonic fraternity is founded, must be promotive of private virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the society, and be considered by them a deserving brother. [George Washington, August 17, 1790] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 31:93.
******************************************************************SA 41:73 Hebrew Congregations ... in Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond. The liberal sentiment towards each other which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country stands unrivaled in the history of nations. [George Washington, December 13, 1790] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 189.
******************************************************************SA 41:74 Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men, than it has with the principles of mathematics. Let every man speak freely without fear, ... worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods; and let government protect him in so doing. [Baptist John Leland, 1791] L.F. Greene, Writings of ... Elder John Leland, 184.
******************************************************************SA 41:75 Congregational Church. ... Your sentiments on the happy influence of our equal government ... vindicate the great interests of humanity--they reflect honor on the liberal minds that entertain them--and ... promise ... improvement of that tranquillity, which is essential to the welfare of nations. [G. Washington, May 1791] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 190.
******************************************************************SA 41:76 United Brethren. ... I am greatly indebted to your respectful ... expressions of personal regard, and I am not less obliged by the patriotic sentiments. ... From a Society, whose governing principles are industry and love of order, much may be expected towards ... prosperity of the country. [G. Washington, May 1791] Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion, 191.
******************************************************************SA 41:77 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Bill of Rights Day, December 15, 1791] Bill of Rights Day (date first ten amendments ratified by states).
******************************************************************SA 41:78 The principle of law, is, that the gospel is not to be supported by law; that civil rulers have nothing to do with religion, in their civil capacities. The evil ... from blending religious right and religious opinions. ... . Religious right should be protected to all men, religious opinion to none. [Baptist John Leland, 1791] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 188.
******************************************************************SA 41:79 The federal constitution ... forbids Congress ever to establish any kind of religion, or require any religious test to qualify any officer in any department of federal government. Let a man be Pagan, Turk, Jew or Christian, he is eligible to any post in that government. [Baptist Preacher John Leland, 1791] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 191.
******************************************************************SA 41:80 A government deriving its energy from the will of the society ... is the government for which philosophy has been searching, and humanity been fighting, from the most remote ages. Such are republican governments which it is the glory of America to have invented. [James Madison, February 18, 1792] Robert A. Rutland, Papers of James Madison, 14:234.
******************************************************************SA 41:81 Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those ... caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most ... distressing. ... I was in hopes, that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled ... religious disputes. [G. Washington,10-20-1792] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 32:190.
******************************************************************SA 41:82 New Church at Baltimore. ... [R]ejoice that ... truth and reason has triumphed over ... bigotry and superstition. In this enlightened age ... man¹s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor ... of attaining ... the highest offices ... known in the United States. [G. Washington, 1-27-1793] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 32:314.
******************************************************************SA 41:83 It has been my intention ... to contribute my mite towards the relief of the most needy. ... I am at a loss ... for whose benefit to apply the little I can give. ... To obtain information, and to render the little I can afford, without ostentation or mention of my name, are the sole objects. [George Washington, Dec. 31, 1793] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 198.
******************************************************************SA 41:84 I do not know of legal establishments [a tax ³provision for the clergy established by law²] in any of the states; unless ... Connecticut, and in Massachusetts. ... The magistracy ... have had many [tax] disputes with the Baptists, which, they said, was contrary to their religious freedom. [William White, Feb. 7, 1794] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the life of ... William White, 163-164.
******************************************************************SA 41:85 What is a Constitution? It is the form of government ... in which certain first principles of fundamental laws are established. ... [C]ertain and fixed; it contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land; it is paramount to the power of the Legislature. [U.S. Supreme Court (unanimous), April 1795] William Paterson, Vanhorne¹s Lessee v. Dorrance, 2 U.S. 304, 308.
******************************************************************SA 41:856 The Constitution fixes limits to the exercise of legislative authority. ... [T]he Constitution is the sun of the political system, around which all Legislative, Executive and Judicial bodies must revolve. ... [E]very act of the Legislature, repugnant to the Constitution, is absolutely void. [U.S.Sup.Ct., April 1795] William Paterson, Vanhorne¹s Lessee v. Dorrance, 2 U.S. 304, 308.
******************************************************************SA 41:87 Every treaty made, by the authority of the United States, shall be superior to the constitution and laws of any individual state. ... [T]he constitution, or laws, of any of the states ... contrary to that treaty are by force of said article [Art. 6.] prostrated before the treaty. [U.S.Sup. Ct., unanimous (4 to 0),March 7,1796] Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. 199, 237.
******************************************************************SA 41:88 There is no want of ... language; ... the treaty being sanctioned as the supreme law by the Constitution of the United States, which nobody pretends to deny to be paramount and controlling to all state laws, and even state constitutions, wheresoever they ... disagree. [U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous (4 to 0), March 7, 1796] Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. 199, 284.
******************************************************************SA 41:89 Clergy ... of Philadelphia. ... I view that ... brotherly love which characterize the Clergy of different denominations ... in this, as in ... the United States; exhibiting to the world a new ... spectacle, at once the pride of our country and the surest basis of universal harmony. [George Washington, March 3, 1797] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 35:416.
******************************************************************SA 41:90 [T]he government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, as it has ... no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, and ... no ... religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony. [U.S. Senate & John Adams, 6-10-1797] Treaties and Other International Acts, Hunter Miller, 2:365.
******************************************************************SA 41:91 All the restrictions ... in the Constitution of the United States on the power of the state Legislatures, were provided in favor of ... the federal government. ... If any act of Congress, or of the legislature of a state, violates those constitutional provisions, it is ... void. [U.S.Sup.Ct., unanimous (4 to 0), August 8, 1798] Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386, 389, 399.
******************************************************************SA 41:92 The genius of the Constitution, and the opinion of the people of the United States, cannot be overruled by those who administer the Government. [Declaration of the General Assembly to the people of the commonwealth of Virginia, January 23, 1799] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 5:332.
******************************************************************SA 41:93 Of all the doctrines which have ever been broached by the federal government, the novel one, of the common law being in force and cognizable as an existing law in their courts, is to me the most formidable. ... [T]he audacious, barefaced and sweeping pretension to a system of law for the U.S. [Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 18, 1799] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 31:168-169.
******************************************************************SA 41:94 Common law ... was not in force when we landed. ... Before the revolution there existed no such nation as the U.S. They ... first associated. ... They had all their laws to make. ... [C]ommon law did not become ipso facto law on the new association, it could only become so by a positive adoption. [Th. Jefferson, 8-18-1799] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 31:170.
******************************************************************SA 41:95 No support ... can be drawn ... for the doctrine that the common law is binding on these states as one society. ... It will not be alleged that the ³common law,² could have had any legitimate birth as a law of the United States. ... Thus, ... not a vestige of this ... doctrine can be found. [James Madison, January 7, 1800] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of James Madison, 17:328.
******************************************************************SA 41:96 The Gothic idea that we are to look backwards ... for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, in religion, and in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion and government, by whom it has been recommended. [Th. Jefferson, January 27, 1800] Julian P. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 31:341.
******************************************************************SA 41:97 The clergy, by getting themselves established by law, and engrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man. They are still so in many countries and even in some of these United States. [Thomas Jefferson, August 14, 1800] Paul Leicester Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 7:455.
******************************************************************SA 41:98 I promised you a letter on Christianity. ... I have a view of the subject which ought to displease neither the rational. ... For I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. [Thomas Jefferson, September 23, 1800] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 320.
******************************************************************SA 41:99 I agree with you [Thomas Jefferson] ... in your wishes to keep religion and government independent of each other. Were it possible for St. Paul to rise ..., he would say to the Clergy who are now so active in settling the political affairs of the world: ³Cease from your political labors.² [Benjamin Rush, Oct. 6, 1800] Dickinson w. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 321.
******************************************************************SA 41:100 What an effort of bigotry in politics and religion have we gone through! The barbarians really flattered themselves, they should be able to bring back the times ... when ignorance put every thing into the hands of power and priestcraft. ... We were to look backwards, not forwards, for improvement. [Th. Jefferson,3-21-1801] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:228.
******************************************************************SA 41:101 The eastern states will be the last to come over, on account of the DOMINION of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between church and state .... If indeed they could have prevailed on us to ... look back to the opinions ... of our forefathers, instead of looking forward for improvement. [Thomas Jefferson, March 23,1801] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 324.
******************************************************************SA 41:102 But I am in hopes their [clergy] good sense will dictate to them that ... the Christian religion when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it ... is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansions of the human mind. [Thomas Jefferson, March 23, 1801] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 325.
******************************************************************SA 41:103 I suppose that all Protestants will unite in condemning ... cruelty in Papists, because Papists are such blood-thirsty bigots; but pray have not Protestants done the same, whenever they have established their religion by law and supported their preachers by a tax? [John Leland, April 9, 1801] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 240.
******************************************************************SA 41:104 Never promote men who seek after a state-established religion; .... It converts religion into a principle of state policy, and the gospel into merchandise. Heaven forbids the bands of marriage between church and state; their embraces, therefore, must be unlawful. [Baptist Preacher John Leland, April 9, 1801] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 267.
******************************************************************SA 41:105 Guard against those men who make a great noise about religion, in choosing representatives. It is electioneering intrigue. If they knew the ... worth of religion, they would not debauch it to such shameful purposes. If pure religion is the criterion ..., those who make a noise about it must be rejected. [John Leland,4-9-1801] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 267.
******************************************************************SA 41:106 Believing with you [Baptists] that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, ... that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions. ... [I am] ... convinced he [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. [Thomas Jefferson, January 1, 1802] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:281-282.
******************************************************************SA 41:107 The Baptist address ... admits of a condemnation of the alliance between Church and State, under the authority of the Constitution. It furnishes an occasion, too, which I have longed wished to find, of saying why I do not proclaim fastings and thanksgivings, as my predecessors did. [Thomas Jefferson, January 1, 1802] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:305.
******************************************************************SA 41:108 I know it [my letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut] will give great offense to the New England clergy; but the advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from them. [Thomas Jefferson, January 1, 1802] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:305.
******************************************************************SA 41:109 I should proceed to a view of the life, character, and doctrines of Jesus .... This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity and even of his inspiration. ... Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master workman, and that his system of morality ... sublime. [Thomas Jefferson, April 9, 1803] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 328.
******************************************************************SA 41:110 I never will ... bow to the shrine of intolerance, or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others. On the contrary we are bound, you, I, and every one, to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience. [Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1803] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 330.
******************************************************************SA 41:111 To the corruptions of Christianity I am ... opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus. ... I am a Christian in the only sense he wished any one to be, ... attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others, ascribing to him every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other. [Th. Jefferson,4-21-1803] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 331.
******************************************************************SA 41:112 It behooves every man, who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others, or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behooves him too, in his own case, to give no example of ... betraying the common right of independent opinion. [Thomas Jefferson, 4-21-1803] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 331.
******************************************************************SA 41:113 He [Jefferson] is generally considered as an unbeliever; if so, however, he cannot be far from us, and I hope in the way to be not only almost, but altogether what we are [Unitarian]. He now attends public worship very regularly, and his moral conduct was never impeached. [Theophilus Lindsey, April 23, 1803] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 329.
******************************************************************SA 41:114 Brothers of the Choctaw nation. ... Born in the same land, we ought to live as brothers, doing to each other all the good we can. ... We will give you a copy of the law, made by our Great Council. ... Carry it with you to your homes, and preserve it as the shield which we spread over you. [Th. Jefferson, 12-17-1803] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:400-401.
******************************************************************SA 41:115 Society of Friends. ... The Indian natives. ... They are our brethren, our neighbors. ... Both duty and interest then enjoin, that we should extend to them the blessings of civilized life, and prepare their minds for becoming useful members of the American family. [Thomas Jefferson, November 13, 1807] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:288-289.
******************************************************************SA 41:116 I have duly received ... the address ... on the part of the ... Baptists, of the Appomatox Association, and it is with great satisfaction when I learn from my constituents that the measures pursued ... during the time I have occupied the Presidential chair, have met their approbation. [Thomas Jefferson, 12-21-1807] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:298.
******************************************************************SA 41:117 No power to prescribe any religious exercise ... has been delegated to the General Government. ... That is, ... religious exercises, which the Constitution has directly precluded them [United States] from. ... [T]he President ... [has] no authority to direct ... religious exercises. [Thomas Jefferson, 1-23-1808] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 11:428, 430.
******************************************************************SA 41:118 Baltimore Baptist Assn. ... In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object. ... But be it what it may, a recollection of our former vassalage in religion and civil government, will unite the zeal ... to preserve ... independence in both. [Th. Jefferson, October 17, 1808] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:317-318.
******************************************************************SA 41:119 Ketocton Baptist Association. ... In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object. ... But be that what it may, a recollection of our former vassalage in religion and civil government will unite the zeal ... to preserve that independence in both. [Th. Jefferson, 10-18-1808] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:319-320.
******************************************************************SA 41:120 Fellow citizens [Baptist Associations represented at Chesterfield, Virginia]. ... In reviewing the history, .... We have solved by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government, and obedience to the laws. [Thomas Jefferson, November 21, 1808] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:320.
******************************************************************SA 41:121 Having ever been an advocate for the freedom of religious opinion and exercise, from no person ... was an abridgment of these sacred rights to be apprehended less than from myself. ... Our excellent Constitution ... has not placed our religious rights under the power of any public functionary. [Thomas Jefferson, Dec. 9, 1808] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:325.
******************************************************************SA 41:122 The interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to murder, steal, plunder, or bear false witness), ... we should not intermeddle with ... dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are ... unconnected with morality. [Th. Jefferson, 9-27-1809] Dickinson w. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 343.
******************************************************************SA 41:123 In a Country where all rights, religious as well as civil, are protected by the laws, and guaranteed by an enlightened public opinion, the best of securities exists for the tranquility and esteem of those, whose labors are devoted to the conscientious pursuit of laudable objects. [James Madison, April 24, 1809] J.C.A. Stagg, Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, 1:136.
******************************************************************SA 41:124 Nothing can be more ... true than ... that but a short time elapsed ... before his [Jesus] principles were departed from, by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing [increasing] their oppressors in church and state. [Th.Jefferson, Jan.19, 1810] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 345.
******************************************************************SA 41:125 [T]he purest system of morals ever ... preached to man has been adulterated [by ³special servants²] ... into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves, ... they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to ... real doctrines of Jesus. [Thomas Jefferson, January 19, 1810] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 345.
******************************************************************SA 41:126 I now return [VETO] the Bill to the House of Representatives. ... [T]he Bill exceeds the ... authority, to which Governments are limited by the essential distinction between Civil and Religious functions, and violates ... the Constitution ... which declares, that ³Congress shall make no law respecting."[J.Madison,2-21-1811] J.C.A. Stagg, Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, 3:176.
******************************************************************SA 41:127 I now return [VETO] the Bill. ... Because the Bill vests in the said ... Church, an authority to provide for the support of the poor, and the education of poor children ... which ... would be a precedent for giving to religious Societies ... a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.[J.Madison,2-21-1811] J.C.A. Stagg, Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, 3:176.
******************************************************************SA 41:128 The Bill, in reserving ... land of the United States for the use of said Baptist Church, comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States, for ... Religious societies; contrary to the ... Constitution which declares that Congress shall make no law respecting. [James Madison, 2-28-1811] J.C.A. Stagg, Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, 3:193.
******************************************************************SA 41:129 The day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason ... will do away all this artificial scaffolding. [Th. Jefferson, 4-11-1811] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 412.
******************************************************************SA 41:130 [Reserving federal land for a church] is not Consistent with the Spiritual Interest of Religion and ... would inevitably give to Religious Societies an undue weight and corrupt influence in public affairs ... and in fine [in the end] contaminate our national morals. [North Carolina Baptists, April 27, 1811] J.C.A. Stagg, Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, 3:293.
******************************************************************SA 41:131 I have ... always regarded the practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government as essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. ... None have been more vigilant or constant in maintaining that distinction, than the [Baptist] Society. [James Madison, 6-3-1811] J.C.A. Stagg, Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, 3:323.
******************************************************************SA 41:132 I was charged by Dr. Priestly [unitarian] ... and by Quakers, Baptists, and I know not how many other sects, for instituting a national fast, for even common civility to the clergy, and for being a church-going animal. [John Adams, August 28, 1811] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 9:636.
******************************************************************SA 41:133 The Supreme Court possesses jurisdiction derived ... from the Constitution, and of which the legislative power cannot deprive it. ... Certain implied powers ... result ... from the nature of their institution. But ... common law ... is not within their implied powers. [U.S. Supreme Court (unanimous), 1812] U.S. v. Hudson and Goodwin, 11 U.S. 32, 33-34.
******************************************************************SA 41:134 Parson Austin and Abraham Brown made themselves ... known to me when I was in the Government. They all assumed the Character of Ambassadors extraordinary from the Almighty. But, as I required miracles in proof ... and they did not perform any, I never gave public audience to either of them. [John Adams, May 3, 1812] Bruce Braden, Ye Will Say I Am No Christian, Prometheus Press
******************************************************************SA 41:135 This is the doctrine which the republicans declared heretical. They [Jeffersonian republicans] deny that Congress can pass any law not authorized by the Constitution, and that the judges can act on any law not authorized by Congress, or by the Constitution in very direct terms. [Thomas Jefferson, November 11, 1812] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 17:414.
******************************************************************SA 41:136 Of my two letters ... on the subject of religion, ... publication will gratify the priesthood with new occasion of repeating their comminations [condemnations] against me. They wish it to be believed that he can have no religion who advocates its freedom. [Thomas Jefferson, June 15, 1813] Andrew A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 13:253.
******************************************************************SA 41:137 Denunciations of the priesthood are fulminated against every advocate for a complete freedom of religion. Comminations ... would be plenteously pronounced by even the most liberal of them, against Atheism, Deism, against every man who disbelieved ... the resurrection. ... For my part I cannot. [John Adams, June 28,1813] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:43.
******************************************************************SA 41:138 I have never read reasoning more absurd, sophistry more gross, in proof of the Athanasian Creed, or Transubstantiation. ... Justice for everyone, the golden rule, do as you would be done by, is all the equality that can be supported or defended by reason, or reconciled to common sense. [John Adams, July 13, 1813] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:53.
******************************************************************SA 41:139 I have more to say on religion. For more than sixty years I have been attentive to this great subject. Controversies between Calvinists and Armenians, Trinitarians and Unitarians, Deists and Christians, Atheists. ... I think I can now say I have read away bigotry, if not enthusiasm. [John Adams, July 18, 1813] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 13:319.
******************************************************************SA 41:140 It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one. ... But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would catch no more flies. [Thomas Jefferson, 8-22-1813] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 347.
******************************************************************SA 41:141 The human understanding is a revelation from its maker which can never be disputed. ... Had you [Jefferson] and I been with Moses on Mount Sinai, ... and there told that one was three and three one, we might not have had courage to deny it, but we could not have believed it. [John Adams, September 14, 1813] Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10:66.
******************************************************************SA 41:142 He [God] created ... the human species for his glory, and with the deliberate design of making nine-tenths of our species miserable forever, for his glory. ... This is the doctrine of Christian Theologians, ten to one. ... Pardon me, my Maker. ... I believe no such things. [John Adams, September 14, 1813] Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10:67.
******************************************************************SA 41:143 Howl, Snarl, bite ye Calvinistic, ye Athanasian divines, if you will. Ye will say I am no Christian! I say ye are no Christians, and there the account is balanced! Yet I believe all the honest men among you are Christians, in my sense of the word. [John Adams, September 14, 1813] Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10:67.
******************************************************************SA 41:144 I believe ... he who steadily observes those moral precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven as to the dogmas in which they all differ. ... Metaphysical heads, usurping the judgment seat ... denounce all who cannot perceive ... three are one. [Th. Jefferson, 9-18-1813]. Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 350.
******************************************************************SA 41:145 In extracting the pure principles which he [Jesus] taught, we should strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into ... riches and power to them. ... I have performed this operation ... by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book. [Th. Jefferson, 10-12-1813] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 352.
******************************************************************SA 41:146 The [Virginia] law for religious freedom ... having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind, ... on education would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground of moral respectability necessary to ... orderly government. [Thomas Jefferson, October 28, 1813] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 13:400.
******************************************************************SA 41:147 Have you [Jefferson] ever met a book the design of which is to prove that the ten commandments ... hung up in our churches, were not the ten commandments written by the finger of God upon tables delivered to Moses ... but a very different set of commandments? ... There is such a book, by J. W. Goethe. [J. Adams, 11-15-1813] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson,13:438.
******************************************************************SA 41:148 I ought to rejoice ... that Priestly has lived? ... Voltaire? ... It is because I believe they have done more than even Luther or Calvin to lower the tone of that proud hierarchy that shot itself up above the clouds, and more to propagate religious liberty than Calvin, or Luther, or even Locke. [John Adams, December 25, 1813] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:82.
******************************************************************SA 41:149 Our judges, too, have lent a ready hand to further ... frauds, and have been willing to lay the yoke of their own opinions on the necks of others; to extend the coercions of municipal law to the dogmas of their religion, by declaring that these make a part of the law of the land. [Thomas Jefferson, January 24, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:73.
******************************************************************SA 41:150 Sir Matthew Hale ... King v. Taylor ... declares ... ³Christianity is part and parcel of the laws of England.² Citing nobody, and resting it, with his judgment against the witches, on his own authority, which indeed was sound ... in all cases into which no superstition or bigotry could enter. [Th. Jefferson, Jan. 24, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:74.
******************************************************************SA 41:151 I promised you a sample from my commonplace [memorabilia] book, of the pious disposition of the English judges, to connive at the frauds of the clergy, a disposition which has even rendered them faithful allies in practice. [Thomas Jefferson, February 10, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:85.
******************************************************************SA 41:152 In the case of King v. Taylor, Sir Matthew Hale lays it down in these words, ³Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.² 1 Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority, resting it [the opinion] on his own. [Thomas Jefferson, February 10, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:88.
******************************************************************SA 41:153 Blackstone ... repeats, ... Hale, that ³Christianity is part of the laws of England ... 4 Blackst. 59. Lord Mansfield qualifies it ... ³the essential principles of revealed religion are part of the common law.² ... Chamberlain v. Evans, 1767. But he cites no authority. [Thomas Jefferson, February 10, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:88-89.
******************************************************************SA 41:154 If it [Christianity] was adopted, ... it must have been between the introduction of Christianity ...and the Magna Charta. But of the laws of this period ... none of these adopt Christianity as a part of the common law. ... Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. [Thomas Jefferson, February 10, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:91.
******************************************************************SA 41:155 The alliance between Church and State in England has ever made their judges accomplices in the frauds of the clergy. ... Thus they incorporate into the the English code, laws made for the Jews alone, and the precepts of the Gospel, ... and they arm the whole with the coercions of municipal law. [Thomas Jefferson, 2-10-1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:96.
******************************************************************SA 41:156 In answer to Fortescue Aland¹s question why the ten commandments should not now be a part of the common law of England? We may say they are not because they never were made so by legislative authority, the document which has imposed that doubt on him [Aland] being a manifest forgery. [Thomas Jefferson, Feb.10, 1814] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:97.
******************************************************************SA 41:157 The priesthood have ... nearly monopolized education. ... And, ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or Dissenting sect who would tolerate a FREE INQUIRY? ... But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, ... and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest. [J. Adams,4-15-1814] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 6:517.
******************************************************************SA 41:158 That there is such a person as the Devil, is not a part of my faith, nor that of many other Christians; nor am I sure that it was the belief of any of the Christian writers. Neither do I believe the doctrine of demoniacal possessions, whether it was believed by the sacred writers or not. [John Adams, May 14, 1814] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:92.
******************************************************************SA 41:159 Some have made the Love of god the foundation of morality. ... Whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ... Diderot, Dalembert, D¹Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue then must have had some other foundation than the love of God. [Thomas Jefferson, June 13, 1814] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 355.
******************************************************************SA 41:160 The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw ... materials with which they might build up an artificial system, which might ... give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power and preeminence. [Thomas Jefferson, July 5, 1814] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 359.
******************************************************************SA 41:161 I must ever believe that religion substantially good which produces an honest life. ... Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I inquire after no man¹s and trouble none with mine: nor is it given to us in this life to know ... exactly the right. [Th. Jefferson, Sep. 26, 1814] Dickinson w. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 360.
******************************************************************SA 41:162 Our reason at last must ultimately decide, as it is the only oracle which god has given us to determine between what really comes from him, and the phantasms of a ... deluded imagination. ... Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. [Th. Jefferson, Sep. 26, 1814] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 360.
******************************************************************SA 41:163 The Eastern States as the source of our greatest difficulties. ... The greater part of the people in that quarter have been brought by their leaders, aided by their priests, under a delusion scarcely exceeded by that recorded in the period of Witchcraft. ... Their object is power. [James Madison, November 25, 1814] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 8:319.
******************************************************************SA 41:164 He [James Madison] talked of religious sects ... and was curious to know how the cause of liberal Christianity stood with us [Bostonians], and if the Athanasian creed was well received by our Episcopalians. He pretty distinctly intimated to me his own regard for the Unitarian doctrines. [George Ticknor, January 21, 1815] George Ticknor, Life, Letters, and Journals, 1:30.
******************************************************************SA 41:165 I abuse the priests indeed, who have so much abused the pure and holy doctrines of their master, and who have laid me under no ... reticence as to the tricks of their trade. ... I have classed them with soothsayers and necromancers, I place him [Jesus] among the greatest ... scourges of priest-craft. [Th. Jefferson, 1-29-18l5] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 363.
******************************************************************SA 41:166 Government, as well as religion, has furnished it¹s ... devices for fattening idleness on the earnings of the people. It has its ... nobles, as that has ... priests. In short, Cannibals are not to be found in the wilds of America only, but are reveling on the blood of every living people. [Thomas Jefferson, January 29, 1815] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 363.
******************************************************************SA 41:167 Turning then from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow-men, who yield themselves the willing dupes and drudges of these Mountebanks, I consider reformation ... as desperate, and abandon them to the Quixotism of more enthusiastic minds. [Th. Jefferson, 1-29-1815] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 364.
******************************************************************SA 41:168 The English, Scotch, and Irish Presbyterians, the Methodists, Anabaptists, the Unitarians and Universalists ... many of the Episcopalians ..., had been carried away with the French revolution, and ... believed that Bonaparte was the instrument of Providence to destroy the Pope. [John Adams, February 14, 1815] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:120.
******************************************************************SA 41:169 Our fisheries. ... We hold them by no grant, gift, bargain, sale, or last will and testament, nor by hereditary descent from Great Britain; We hold them ... not as kings and priests claim their right and power, by hypocrisy and craft, but from God and our own swords. [John Adams, March 3, 1815] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:131.
******************************************************************SA 41:170 There is not ... a single congregation which has employed their preacher for the mixed purposes of lecturing them from the pulpit ... in anything but Religion. ... Whenever ... preachers ... discourse on ... government ... or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract. [Thomas Jefferson, March 13, 1815] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:280.
******************************************************************SA 41:171 Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us both. We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to ourselves. [Thomas Jefferson, March 13, 1815] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:283.
******************************************************************SA 41:172 I can testify as a witness to its [Unitarianism] old age. Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute, of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown of Cohasset; and ... the Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians. [John Adams, May 15, 1815] George Willis Cooke, Unitarianism in America, 58.
******************************************************************SA 41:173 The War of Reformation still continues. The struggle between different and opposite systems of religion and government has lasted from Huss and Wickliff to ... Priestly. How many powder Plots, Bartholomew¹s Days, Irish massacres, Paris guillotines, ... Napoleons, have intervened? [John Adams, June 19, 1815] Bruce Braden, Ye Will Say I Am No Christian, Prometheus Press
******************************************************************SA 41:174 The question ... is, whether the God of Nature shall govern the world by His own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles? ... or whether it has descended ... in a succession of popes and bishops, or brought down from heaven by the Holy Ghost ... in a phial of holy oil? [John Adams, 6-20-1815] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:320.
******************************************************************SA 41:175 From all that I have read, ... the writings of the Saints, ... the Fathers, and of ecclesiastical history in general, I have no doubt that the Acta Sanctorum [Acts of the Saints] is the most enormous mass of lies, frauds, hypocrisy, and imposture that ever was heaped together on this globe. [John Adams, June 22, 1815] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:329.
******************************************************************SA 41:176 The ... question before the human race, that great democratical tribunal, is whether the jus divinum [divine law] is in men or in magistrates; ... in human understanding or in holy oil; in good sense and sound morality, or in crowns, scepters, crosses, and Episcopal and Presbyterian ordination.[J. Adams, July 5, 1815] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:167.
******************************************************************SA 41:177 The fundamental article of my political creed is, that despotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power, is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junto, and a single emperor; equally arbitrary, ... bloody, and in every respect diabolical. [John Adams, 11-13-1815] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:174.
******************************************************************SA 41:178 Awakenings and revivals of religion always attend the most cruel extremities of anarchy, despotism [dictatorship], and civil war. They have brought again the Pope and all his train of Jesuits, Inquisitions, Sorbonnes, massacres. [John Adams, November 26,1815] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:181.
******************************************************************SA 41:179 A history of military operations from April 19th, 1775, to the 3d of September, 1783, is not a history of the American Revolution. ... The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, and in the union of the colonies; both of which were substantially effected before the hostilities commenced. [J. Adams, 11-29-1815] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:182.
******************************************************************SA 41:180 Who will believe that the apprehension of Episcopacy contributed fifty years ago, as much as any other cause, to arouse the attention, not only of the inquiring mind but of the common people, and urge them to close thinking on the constitutional authority of parliament over the colonies? [J. Adams, 12-2-1815] Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10:185.
******************************************************************SA 41:181 Can you wonder that men so enlightened ... Patrick Henry ... Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, &c., though ... educated in that [English] church, became afterwards disciples of Locke, Blackburne, Furneaux, and William Penn, and united in destroying all ecclesiastical establishments in that State? [J. Adams, 12-5-1815] Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10:188.
******************************************************************SA 41:182 I am a real Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. [Thomas Jefferson, January 9, 1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 365.
******************************************************************SA 41:183 The priests of all nations imagined they felt approaching such [Reformation] flames, as they had so often kindled about the bodies of honest men. Priests and politicians, never before, so suddenly and so unanimously concurred in reestablishing darkness and ignorance, superstition and despotism. [John Adams, 2-2-1816] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:425.
******************************************************************SA 41:184 To trace the commencement of the Reformation, I suspect we must go farther back than ... Huss. ... Luther ... and followers went less than half way in detecting the corruptions of Christianity, but they acquired reverence and authority among their followers almost as absolute as that of the Popes. [John Adams, February 2, 1816] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:425-426.
******************************************************************SA 41:185 I made, for my own satisfaction, an Extract from the Evangelists of the texts of his [Jesus] morals, selecting those only whose style and spirit proved them genuine, and his own: and they are as distinguishable from the matter in which they are imbedded as diamonds in dunghills. [Thomas Jefferson, April 25, 1816] Dickinson w. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 369.
******************************************************************SA 41:186 The Jesuits. If ever any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, ... it is this company Loyola. Our system, however, of religious liberty must afford them an asylum. But if they do not put the purity of our elections to a severe trial, it will be a wonder. [John Adams, May 6, 1816] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:219.
******************************************************************SA 41:187 For although we have freedom of religious opinion by law, we are yet under the inquisition of public opinion: and in England it [religion] would have both law and public opinion to encounter. ... Altho¹ I rarely waste time in reading on theological subjects, as mangled by our Pseudo-Christians. [Th. Jefferson, July 30, 1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 375.
******************************************************************SA 41:188 Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks [quacks] calling themselves the priests of Jesus. [Th. Jefferson, 7-30-1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 375.
******************************************************************SA 41:189 Ours [John Adams] will be the follies of enthusiasm. ... Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism. [Thomas Jefferson, August 1, 1816] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:58.
******************************************************************SA 41:190 The priests ... thought proper to ascribe to me ... antireligious sentiments, ... as soothed their resentments against the Act of Virginia for establishing religious freedom. They wished him to be thought Atheist, Deist, or Devil, who could advocate freedom from their religious dictations. [Thomas Jefferson, August 6, 1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 376.
******************************************************************SA 41:191 I have ever thought religion a concern purely between our god and our consciences, for which we were accountable to him, and not to the priests. I never told my own religion, nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another¹s creed. [Thomas Jefferson, August 6, 1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 376.
******************************************************************SA 41:192 I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives. ... For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read. ... But this does not satisfy the priesthood. They must have a positive, a declared assent to all their interested absurdities. [Thomas Jefferson, August 6, 1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 376.
******************************************************************SA 41:193 There would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves. ... I shall leave them ... to grope on in the dark. [Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 6, 1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 376.
******************************************************************SA 41:194 My history of the Jesuits is ... supported by unquestionable authorities. ... Their restoration ... a ³step towards darkness, cruelty, perfidy, despotism, death ... !² I wish we were out of ³danger of bigotry and Jesuitism!² May we be ³a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism!² [John Adams, Aug. 9,1816] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:225.
******************************************************************SA 41:195 I almost shudder at the thought of ... the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! With the rational respect which is due to it, knavish priests have added prostitutions of it that fill, or might fill, the blackest and bloodiest pages of human history. [John Adams, September 3, 1816] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:69.
******************************************************************SA 41:196 The controversy between Spiritualism and Materialism, between Spiritualists and Materialists, will not be settled. ... We will enjoin upon all these gentlemen to be silent until they can tell us what Matter is, What Spirit is! And, in the meantime, observe the Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. [J.Adams, 9-30-1816] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:228.
******************************************************************SA 41:197 The essence of virtue is in doing good to others, while what is good may be one thing in one society, and its contrary in another. Yet, however we may differ as to the foundation of morals ... as many foundations have been assumed as there are writers on the subject. [Thomas Jefferson, October 14, 1816] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:77.
******************************************************************SA 41:198 We have now ... a National Bible Society to propagate the King James Bible through all nations. Would it not be better to apply these pious subscriptions to purify Christendom from the Corruptions of Christianity than to propagate those corruptions in Europe, Africa, and America? [John Adams, November 4, 1816] Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10:228.
******************************************************************SA 41:199 We see religion split into so many thousands of sects, ... disputing ... abstractions. ... The sum af all religion as expressed by it¹s best preacher, ³fear God and love thy neighbor,² contains no mystery, ... but this won¹t do. It gives no scope to make dupes; priests could not live by it.[Th. Jefferson,11-12-1816] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 381.
******************************************************************SA 41:200 The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent of their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves ..., can not but be gratified at the progress made by ... a general suppression of so great an evil. [J. Madison, 12-3-1816] J.D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1:577.
******************************************************************SA 41:201 The American people, in their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution ... exhibit a government ... which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against encroachments and compacts between religion and the state. [J. Madison, 12-3-1816] J.D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1:579-580.
******************************************************************SA 41:202 The precepts of an enlightened age ... seeks by appeals to reason and by its liberal examples to infuse into the law ... a Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions--that of promoting peace on earth and good will to man. [James Madison, December 3, 1816] J.D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1:580.
******************************************************************SA 41:203 That the Pope will send Jesuits to this country, I doubt not; and the Church of England, missionaries too. And the Methodists, and the Quakers, and the ... Despotists of all denominations; and ... every one of these sects will find a party here already formed, to give him a cordial reception. [John Adams, December 16, 1816] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:89.
******************************************************************SA 41:204 Christianity, you will say, was a fresh revelation. I will not deny this. .... But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed? [John Adams, December 27, 1816] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:235.
******************************************************************SA 41:205 Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history. [James Madison, undated, c.1817] Detached Memoranda, William and Mary Quarterly, 3:555.
******************************************************************SA 41:206 Besides the danger of a direct mixture of Religion and Civil Government, there is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by ecclesiastical corporations. ... [A]ll corporations ought to be limited in this respect.[J.Madison, 1817] Detached Memoranda, William and Mary Quarterly, 3:556.
******************************************************************SA 41:207 Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution? ... The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious worship ... paid out of the national taxes. ... The establishment of the chaplainship ... is a palpable violation of ... Constitutional principles. [James Madison,c.1817] Detached Memoranda, William and Mary Quarterly, 3:557.
******************************************************************SA 41:208 If Religion consist in voluntary acts of individuals ... and it be proper that public functionaries should discharge their religious duties, let them like their constituents, do so at their own expense. ... Why should the expense of ... worship be allowed for the Legislature ... Executive or Judiciary? [James Madison,c.1817] Detached Memoranda, William and Mary Quarterly, 3:558.
****************************************************************** SA 41:209 The erroneous idea of a national religion ... under a theocracy, having been improperly adopted by ... nations which have embraced Christianity, is too apt to lurk in the bosoms even of Americans, who in general are aware of the distinction between religious and political societies. [James Madison, c.1817] Detached Memoranda, William and Mary Quarterly, 3:559. ******************************************************************SA 41:210 You ask what Bible I take as the standard of my faith. ... [T]he Bible containing the sermon upon the mount. ... You see my orthodoxy grows upon me. ... You will marvel perhaps that with these sentiments ... I have been recently falling in with some of the broadest Unitarians. [John Quincy Adams, January 3, 1817] Adrienne Koch, Selected Writings of ... John Quincy Adams, 292
******************************************************************SA 41:211 One of our ... biographers ... inquired ... whether he might consider ... my religion. ... My answer was, ³Say nothing of my religion.² ... Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which regulated it cannot be a bad one. [Th. Jefferson, 1-8-1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:99.
******************************************************************SA 41:212 A singular anxiety which some people have that we should all think alike. ... These are the absurdities into which those run who usurp the throne of god. ... May they with all their metaphysical riddles, appear ... with as clean hands ... as you and I. ... Faith and works will show their worth. [Th. Jefferson, 1-29-1817] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 384.
******************************************************************SA 41:213 Lemuel Bryant was my parish priest, and Joseph Cleverly my Latin schoolmaster. Lemuel was a ... liberal [unitarian] scholar ..., Joseph a scholar and a gentleman, but a bigoted Episcopalian. The parson and the pedagogue lived much together, but were eternally disputing about government and religion. [John Adams, 4-19-1817] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:254.
******************************************************************SA 41:214 One day, when the schoolmaster [Cleverly] had been more than commonly fanatical, and declared, if he were a monarch, he would have but one religion in his dominions, the parson [Bryant] coolly replied, ³Cleverly! you would be the best man in the world, if you had no religion.² [John Adams, April 19, 1817] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:254.
******************************************************************SA 41:215 Fears and pain of death here ... fears of what is to come hereafter. Priests ... Popes, Despots, Emperors, Kings, Princes, and Nobles, have been as credulous as shoe-blacks, boots, and kitchen scullions. The former seem to have believed in their divine rights as sincerely as the latter. [John Adams, 4-19-1817] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:255.
******************************************************************SA 41:216 The Editor of the Theological Repository was like those of our newspaper editors who pretend they know every thing, but ... will not tell us, while we see that they give us all they know and a great deal more. I am now at the age of quietism, and wish not to be kicked by the asses of hierophantism. [Th. Jefferson, 5-1-1817] Paul Leicester Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:78.
******************************************************************SA 41:217 For what need we despair of [Massachusetts] after the resurrection of Connecticut to light and liberality. I had believed that [Connecticut] the last retreat of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those advances of the mind which carried the other States a century ahead of them. [Thomas Jefferson, May 5, 1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:108.
******************************************************************SA 41:218 They [Connecticut] seemed still to be exactly where their forefathers were when they schismatized. ... I join you ... in ... congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and character. [Thomas Jefferson, 5-5-1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:108-109.
******************************************************************SA 41:219 If the moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution, as necessary for a social being, if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazereth, ... constitute true religion, then, without it, this would be ... indeed, a hell. [Thomas Jefferson, May 5, 1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:109.
******************************************************************SA 41:220 Oh Lord! Do you think that Protestant Popedom is annihilated in America? Do you recollect ... the ecclesiastical strifes in ... every part of New England? What a mercy it is that these people cannot whip, and crop, and pillory, and roast, as yet in the United States! If they could, they would. [John Adams, 5-18-1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:118.
******************************************************************SA 41:221 I wish you ... success in your collegiate institution. And I wish that superstition in religion, exciting superstition in politics, and both united in directing military force, alias glory, may never blow up all your benevolent and philanthropic lucubrations. But the history of all ages is against you. [John Adams,5-18-1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:120.
******************************************************************SA 41:222 I cannot foresee much utility in reviewing, in this country, the controversy between the Spiritualists and the Materialists. Why should time be wasted in disputing about two substances, when both parties agree that neither knows anything about the other? [John Adams, May 26, 1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:121.
******************************************************************SA 41:223 Liberty, equality, ... and humanity, will never again, I hope, blindly surrender themselves to an unbounded ambition for national conquests, nor ... commit themselves to the custody and guardianship of arms. ... If they do, they will again end in ... Inquisitions, Jesuits, and holy leagues. [John Adams, 5-26-1817] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:123.
******************************************************************SA 41:224 Pennsylvania ... rejected a proposition to make the belief in a god a necessary qualification for office, altho¹ I presume there was not an atheist in their body; ... When the law for freedom of religion was before the Virginia legislature ... they rejected ... prefix[ing] ... the name of ³Jesus Christ.²[Th. Jefferson,6-6-1817] Paul Leicester Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:81-82.
******************************************************************SA 41:225 I have received ... the eloquent discourse delivered at the Consecration of the Jewish Synagogue. Having ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect, ... I observe with pleasure ... the blessings offered by our Government and Laws. [James Madison, May 15, 1818] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 8:412.
******************************************************************SA 41:226 Rational Christianity will thrive more rapidly there [Kentucky] than here [Virginia]. They are freer from prejudices. ... [O]f the revolution of South America ... the dangerous enemy is within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their minds ... under religious ... despotism. [Th. Jefferson, 5-17-1818] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:168-170.
******************************************************************SA 41:227 Independence of Church and Parliament was a fixed principle of our predecessors in 1620. ... Independence of Church and Parliament were always kept in view. ... The Hierarchy and Parliamentary Authority were dreaded and detested even by a majority of professed Episcopalians. [John Adams, May 29, 1818] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:313.
******************************************************************SA 41:228 Calvinism has introduced into the Christian religion more new absurdities than it¹s leader had purged .... His [Jesus] doctrines are ... the simplest understandings, and it is only by banishing Hierophantic mysteries ... and getting back to the ... precepts of Christ, that we become real Christians.[Th. Jefferson,July 26,1818] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 385.
******************************************************************SA 41:229 The sincere and conscientious Protestants had been driven from England into Holland, Germany, Switzerland, etc., by the terrors of stocks, pillories, croppings, scourges, imprisonments, roastings, and burnings, under Henry VIII, Elizabeth, Mary, James I., and Charles I. [John Adams, September 18, 1818] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:358.
******************************************************************SA 41:230 Indians are as bigoted to their religion as the Mahometans are to ... Koran, ... Hindoos to ... Shaster, ... Chinese to Confucius, ... Romans to ... saints and angels, ... Jews to Moses. ... It is ... religion, at bottom, which inspires the Indians with such an invincible aversion ... to ... Christianity. [J. Adams, 9-23-1818] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:361.
******************************************************************SA 41:231 It was the universal opinion ..., that civil Government could not stand without the prop of a religious establishment, and that the Christian religion itself would perish if not supported by a legal provision for its clergy. The experience of Virginia conspicuously corroborates the disproof of both opinions. [J. Madison, 3-2-1819] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 8:431-432.
******************************************************************SA 41:232 The Civil Government, though bereft of every thing like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, by the total separation of the church from the State. [James Madison, 3-2-1819] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 8:432.
******************************************************************SA 41:233 I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know. ... And if we could ... we should all be of one sect, doers of good and eschewers of evil. ... It is the speculations of crazy theologists which have made a Babel of a religion ... calculated to heal, and not to create differences. [Thomas Jefferson, June 25, 1819] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 387.
******************************************************************SA 41:234 The greatest of all the Reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, ... as the diamond from the dung hill, ... we have ... the most sublime morality .. ever fallen from the lips of man: [Thomas Jefferson, October 31, 1819] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 388.
******************************************************************SA 41:235 Epictetus and Epicurus give us laws for governing ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities we owe to others. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent Moralist, and the rescuing it from ... misconstructions of his words ... a most desirable object.[Th. Jefferson,10-31-1819] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 388.
******************************************************************SA 41:236 It would in time, it is to be hoped, effect a quiet euthanasia of the heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which have so long triumphed over human reason, and so generally and deeply afflicted mankind. But this work is to be begun by winnowing the grain from the chaff of the historians of his life. [Th. Jefferson,10-31-1819] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 388.
******************************************************************SA 41:237 Imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by Ultra-Christian sects, ... e.g. the immaculate conception, ... deification, ... miraculous powers, ... ascension, ... presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy. [Thomas Jefferson, October 31,1819] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 391.
******************************************************************SA 41:238 That there has been an increase of religious instruction since the revolution can admit of no question. ... Among the early acts of the Republican Legislature, were those abolishing the Religious establishment, and putting all Sects at full liberty and on a perfect level. [James Madison, December 15, 1819] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 8:430.
******************************************************************SA 41:239 It was the Universal opinion ..., that Civil Government could not stand without the prop of a Religious establishment, & that the Xn religion itself, would perish. ... [In Virginia] the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State. [James Madison, December 15, 1819] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 8:431-432.
******************************************************************SA 41:240 If I were a Calvinist, I might pray that God by a miracle ... would ... convert a whole contaminated nation ... to purity; but ... the fatalism of Mahometanism, Materialists, Atheists, Pantheists, and Calvinists, and Church of England articles, appear to me to render all prayer futile and absurd.[J.Adams, 12-18-1819] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:386.
******************************************************************SA 41:241 Among the features peculiar to ... the United States, is the perfect equality ... which it secures to every religious Sect. ... Equal laws, ... among Citizens of every religious denomination, which are necessary to social harmony and most favorable to ... the Jews of your [Jacob LaMotta] Congregation.[J.Madison,Aug.1820] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:29-30.
******************************************************************SA 41:242 My aim ... to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of His pseudo-followers. ... We find in ... his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. ... First, ... ignorance, ... fanaticisms. ... Intermixed with ... precepts of ... morality ... which have not been surpassed. [Thomas Jefferson, August 4, 1820] A.A. Lipscomp, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:257-259.
******************************************************************SA 41:243 To talk of immaterial existences, is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God are immaterial is to say, they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: ... I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by [John] Locke. [Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 15, 1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 400.
******************************************************************SA 41:244 At what age (Athanasius and the Council of Nicaea anno 324) of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it. ... [H]e has not ... said that it [spirit] is not matter. [Th. Jefferson, Aug. 15, 1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 400-01.
******************************************************************SA 41:245 I hold the precepts of Jesus, as delivered by himself, to be the most pure ... which have ever been preached. ... The metaphysical insanities of Athanasius, of Loyola, and of Calvin, are ... mere relapses into polytheism, differing from paganism only by being more unintelligible. [Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 401.
******************************************************************SA 41:246 If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, truth will prevail over fanaticism, and the genuine doctrines of Jesus, so long perverted by his pseudopriests, will again be restored to their ... purity. [Th. Jefferson, 11-4-1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 402.
******************************************************************SA 41:247 Jesus ... no impostor himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with him in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of spiritualism ... preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness ..., I require ... good works.[Th. Jefferson,4-13-1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 391-92.
******************************************************************SA 41:248 Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of ... correct morality ... and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth ... as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.[Th. Jefferson,4-13-1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 392.
******************************************************************SA 41:249 I separate therefore the gold from the dross; restore to him [Jesus] the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity ... and roguery of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the ... first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. [Thomas Jefferson, April 13, 1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 392.
******************************************************************SA 41:250 Falsifications of his [Jesus] doctrines led me to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious ... and that his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man. ... I read them as I do ... other ... moralists, with a mixture of ... dissent. [Thomas Jefferson, April 13, 1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 392.
******************************************************************SA 41:251 The serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind it¹s improvement is ominous. Their pulpits ... resounding with denunciations against ... opposition to ... tritheism. ... [T]hey unite ... against those who believe there is one god only. [Th. Jefferson, 4-13-1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 392.
******************************************************************SA 41:252 They pant to reestablish by law that holy inquisition, which they can now only infuse into public opinion. We have most unwisely committed to the hierophants [priests] of our particular superstition, the direction of public opinion, that lord of the Universe. [Thomas Jefferson, April 13, 1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 393.
******************************************************************SA 41:253 We have given them [priests] stated and privileged days to collect and catechize us, opportunities of delivering their oracles to the people in mass, and of molding their minds as wax in the hollow of their hands. But, in despite of their fulminations ... this state [Virginia] will ... give fair play. [Th. Jefferson,4-13-1820] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 393.
******************************************************************SA 41:254 This country which has given to the world the example of physical liberty, owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet it is but nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms in practice, the freedom asserted by the laws in theory. [Thomas Jefferson, January 22, 1821] Paul Leicester Ford, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:308.
******************************************************************SA 41:255 The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so monstrous and inconceivable, as to shock reasonable thinkers ... and drive them rashly to pronounce it¹s founder an impostor. [Thomas Jefferson, 2-27-1821] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 403.
******************************************************************SA 41:256 No one sees with greater pleasure than myself the progress of reason in it¹s advances towards rational Christianity. When we ... have done away the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one, and one is three ... we shall then be truly ... his disciples. [Thomas Jefferson, February 27, 1821] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 402.
******************************************************************SA 41:257 The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. [J. Madison, 12-3-1821] Saul K. Padover, The Complete Madison, 310.
******************************************************************SA 41:258 You ask my opinion on the items of doctrine in your catechism. ... These formulas have been the ... ruin of the Christian church, ... made of Christendom a slaughter house, and ... divides it into casts of inextinguishable hatred to one another. Witness the present ... rage against the Unitarian. [Th. Jefferson, 6-5-1922] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 404.
******************************************************************SA 41:259 Whether the common law (of England) makes a part of the laws of our General Government? ... [T]he Virginia Report on the alien and sedition laws, has ... pulverized this pretension. ... Still, judges of the Supreme Court (... Story) have been found capable of such paralogism [false arguments]. [Thomas Jefferson, 6-13-1822] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:382.
******************************************************************SA 41:260 Now which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus? Or, the impious dogmatists, of Athanasius and Calvin? ... They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion ... foreign from Christianity. [Thomas Jefferson, June 25, 1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 405.
******************************************************************SA 41:261 Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached as pure as ... from his lips, the whole civilized world would now be Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed ... to neither kings nor priests, the ... doctrine of one God only is reviving. [Thomas Jefferson,6-26-1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 405.
******************************************************************SA 41:262 I trust that there is not a young man ... in the U.S. who will not die an Unitarian. But much I fear that its votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas ... which ... destroyed the religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama: that ... give up morals for mysteries. [Th. Jefferson, 6-26-1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 406.
******************************************************************SA 41:263 How much wiser are the Quakers, who ... within the pale of common sense, suffer no speculative differences of opinion ... to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom of the Unitarians; this the holy mantle, which shall cover ... all who believe in one God, and who love their neighbor. [Thomas Jefferson, June 26,1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 406.
******************************************************************SA 41:264 Immunity of Religion from civil jurisdiction, in every case where it does not trespass on private rights or the public peace. ... [I]t was not with my approbation [approval], that the deviation from it took place in Congress, when they appointed Chaplains, to be paid from the National Treasury. [James Madison, July 10, 1822] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:100.
******************************************************************SA 41:265 Notwithstanding the general progress made within the two last centuries ... in some parts of our Country, there remains ... a strong bias towards the old error, that without some sort of alliance or coalition between Government and Religion neither can be duly supported. [James Madison, July 10, 1822] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:101.
******************************************************************SA 41:266 Every new & successful example ... of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance. I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that Religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed. [J.Madison, July 10, 1822] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:101.
******************************************************************SA 41:267 The example of the colonies, now States, which rejected religious establishments altogether, proved that all Sects might be safely and advantageously put on a footing of equal and entire freedom. ... [C]onfirmation ... found in the States ... which have abolished their religious establishments. [J. Madison, 7-10-1822] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:102.
******************************************************************SA 41:268 It is impossible to deny that Religion prevails with more zeal, ... than it ever did when established and patronized by Public authority. We are teaching the world the great truth. ... Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government. [James Madison, July 10, 1822] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:102-103
******************************************************************SA 41:269 The genus irritable vatum [clergy], on whom argument is lost, and reason is ... disclaimed in matters of religion. ... I should as soon undertake to bring the crazy skulls of Bedlam to sound understanding, as to inculcate reason into that of an Athanasian. Keep me from the fire ... of Calvin! [Th. Jefferson, July 19, 1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 406.
******************************************************************SA 41:270 In our village of Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small spice only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without ... meeting-house. ... Here, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together ... all mix in society with perfect harmony. [Thomas Jefferson, November 2, 1822] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:404.
******************************************************************SA 41:271 Where Presbyterianism prevails undividedly ... tyranny would tolerate no rival if they had power. Systematical in grasping at an ascendancy over all other sects, they aim, like the Jesuits at engrossing the education of the country, are hostile to every institution which they do not direct. [Th. Jefferson, 11-02-1822] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:404-405.
******************************************************************SA 41:272 In our university ... there is no Professorship of Divinity. ... In our annual report to the legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of ... their independence of us and of each other. {Th. Jefferson, 11-02-1822] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:405.
******************************************************************SA 41:273 By bringing the sects together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion of peace, reason, and morality. [Thomas Jefferson, November 2, 1822] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:406.
******************************************************************SA 41:274 The article of discipline is the most difficult in American education. Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by parents, beget a spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle to science with us, and a principal cause of its decay since the Revolution. [Thomas Jefferson, November 2, 1822] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:406
******************************************************************SA 41:275 No historical fact is better established than that the doctrine of one god, pure and uncompounded was that of the early ages of Christianity; and was among the efficacious doctrines which gave it triumph over the polytheism of the antients, sickened with the absurdities of their own theology. [Thomas Jefferson, 12-8-1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:276 Nor was the unity of the supreme being ousted from the Christian creed by the force of reason, but by the sword of civil government wielded at the will of the fanatic Athanasius. The hocus-pocus phantasm of a god ... with one body and three heads had it¹s birth ... in the blood of ... of martyrs. [Thomas Jefferson, 12-8-1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:277 And a strong proof of the solidity of the primitive [Christian] faith is it¹s restoration as soon as a nation arises which vindicates to itself the freedom of religious opinion, and it¹s eternal divorce from the civil authority. [Thomas Jefferson, December 8, 1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:278 In fact the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one is so incomprehensible to the human mind that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea. He who thinks he does only deceives himself. [Thomas Jefferson, December 8, 1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:279 He proves also that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck. [Th. Jefferson, 12-8-1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:280 While I claim a right to believe in one god, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of believing in three. Both religions I find make honest men, and that is the only point society has any authority to look to--altho this mutual freedom should produce mutual indulgence. [Thomas Jefferson, Dec. 8, 1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:281 I take no part in controversies religious or political. At the age of 80 ... the strongest of our desires [is] that of dying in the good will of all mankind. And with the assurances of all my good will to Unitarian & Trinitarian, to Whig & Tory, accept for yourself ... my entire respect. [Th. Jefferson, December 8, 1822] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 409.
******************************************************************SA 41:282 What are we to think of the Crusades in which three millions of lives at least were probably sacrificed? And what right had St. Louis and Richard Coeur de Lion to Palestine and Syria more than Alexander to India, or Napoleon to Egypt and Italy? [John Adams, March 10, 1823] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:424.
******************************************************************SA 41:283 I can never join Calvin in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, ... or rather his religion was demonism. If ever a man worshiped a false God, he did. The Being described in his five points, is not the God whom you and I adore; but a demon of malignant spirit. [John Adams, April 11, 1823] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 410
******************************************************************SA 41:284 The truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. [Thomas Jefferson, April 11, 1823] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 412.
******************************************************************SA 41:285 I thank you, Sir, for the copy ... of the reverend. Mr. Bancroft¹s Unitarian sermons. ... I have read them with great satisfaction, and always rejoice in efforts to restore us to primitive Christianity, in all the simplicity in which it came from the lips of Jesus. [Thomas Jefferson, January 18, 1824] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 413.
******************************************************************SA 41:286 Had it [primitive Christianity] never been sophisticated by ... Commentators, nor paraphrased into meanings totally foreign to it¹s character, it would at this day have been the religion of the whole civilized world. But ... Athanasius, and ... Calvin, have ... loaded it with absurdities. [Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 18, 1824] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 413.
******************************************************************SA 41:287 If all Christian sects would rally to the Sermon in the mount, make that the central point of union in religion, and the stamp of genuine Christianity (since it gives us all the precepts of our duties to one another) why should we further ask, ... ³What think ye of Christ²? [Thomas Jefferson, January 26, 1824] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 414.
******************************************************************SA 41:288 You press me to consent to the publication of my sentiments and suppose they might have effect even on Sectarian bigotry. But have they not the Gospel? If they hear not that, and the charities it teacheth, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. [Thomas Jefferson, January 26, 1824] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 415.
******************************************************************SA 41:289 Such is the malignity of religious antipathies that, altho¹ the laws will no longer permit them, with Calvin, to burn those who are not exactly of their creed, they raise the hue and cry of heresy against them, place them under the ban of public opinion, and shut them out ... of society. [Thomas Jefferson, 1-26-1824] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 415.
******************************************************************SA 41:290 In Governments, where the will of the people prevails, the danger of injustice arises from the interest, real or supposed, which a majority may have in trespassing on that of the minority. [James Madison, March 23, 1824] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:180.
******************************************************************SA 41:291 The want [lack] of efficacy in the confederation, left the states in a languid condition: to remedy which evil, the sages of the states assembled in convention, and framed a Constitution of government, which, being submitted to, and ratified by the people, became the supreme law of the land. [John Leland, July 4, 1824] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 501.
******************************************************************SA 41:292 The legislature has no right ... to establish any religion--force any man to support any--give one religious sect any preference ... proscribe [outlaw] any man for heresy--appoint any holy-days ... compel any man to attend public worship, or cease from labor ... or require any religious test ... for office. [J.Leland, 7-4-1824] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 506.
******************************************************************SA 41:293 Before the revolution, many of the colonies had religious establishments. ... Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had none. ... [O]ld states ... revised their laws to place religion where it ought to be. ... [N]ew states ... have left religion to stand on its own merit. [John Leland, 7-4-1824] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 506.
******************************************************************SA 41:294 Roger Williams was ejected from Salem ... for contending ... that rulers, in their official capacity, had nothing to do with religion. ... Admit of the principle, that religious opinions are objects of civil government, ... and the broad stair is laid in the case that leads to the inquisition. [John Leland, 7-4-1824] L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 506-507.
******************************************************************SA 41:295 These and a multitude of other questions it will be incumbent on them [Athanasians] to answer otherwise than by the dogma that every one who believeth not with them, without doubt shall perish everlastingly. The materialist ... will hear with derision these Athanasian denunciations. [Thomas Jefferson, January 11, 1825] Paul Leicester Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:338.
******************************************************************SA 41:296 I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one preacher well. I must therefore be contented to be a Unitarian by myself. [Thomas Jefferson, January 8, 1825] Paul Leicester Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:336.
******************************************************************SA 41:297 It is between 50 and 60 years since I read it [the Apocalypse--Revelations], and I then considered it as merely the ravings of a Maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams. ... I do not consider them as revelations of the supreme being. [Thomas Jefferson, 1-17-1825] Dickinson W. Adams, Jefferson¹s Extracts from the Gospels, 415-16.
******************************************************************SA 41:298 There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it blasphemy to deny ... divine inspiration ... of all the books ... Genesis to Revelations. In most countries of Europe it is punished by fire at the stake. ... In America it is not much better; even in Massachusetts. [John Adams, 1-23-1825] Charles Francis Adams, Works of John Adams, 10:415.
******************************************************************SA 41:299 Neither aiming at originality ... nor yet copied ..., it [the Declaration] was intended to be an expression of the American mind. ... All its authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether ... in conversation ... or in ... Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc. [Th. Jefferson, May 8, 1825] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:118.
******************************************************************SA 41:300 When forced ... to resort to arms ..., an appeal to the ... world was deemed proper for our justification. This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. ... Not ... merely to say new things, ...; but, ... to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. [Thomas Jefferson, May 8, 1825] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:118.
*****************************************************************SA 41:301 All power in human hands is liable to be abused. ... In Republics, where the majority govern, a danger to the minority arises from ... a sacrifice of their rights to the interests ... of the majority. ... [T]he Federal-Republican system ... involves a greater security to the minority [James Madison, Dec. 18, 1825] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:232.
******************************************************************SA 41:302 We [Catholics] do not believe that God gave to the church any power to interfere with our civil rights, or our civil concerns. ... I would not allow to the Pope, or to any bishop of our church the smallest interference with the humblest vote at our most insignificant balloting box. [Bishop John England, Jan. 8, 1826] First Catholic sermon preached in the House of Representatives.
******************************************************************SA 41:303 May it [July 4] be to the world, what I believe it will be, ... the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which Monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self government. [Thomas Jefferson, June 24, 1826] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:181-182.
******************************************************************SA 41:304 All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ... [S]cience has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. [Th. Jefferson, June 24, 1826] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 16:182.
******************************************************************SA 41:305 The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. Woe to the ambition that would meditate the destruction of either. [James Madison, August 27, 1829] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:357.
******************************************************************SA 41:306 It amounts to nothing to say there is a majority ... for minorities have unalienable rights, which ought not, and cannot be surrendered to government. ... Government should defend the rights of the religionists, as citizens, but the religious opinions of none. [Baptist Preacher John Leland, January 8, 1830] L.F. Greene, The Writings of Elder John Leland, 561.
******************************************************************SA 41:307 The Constitution of the United States is a charter of powers granted and rights retained; among all the enumerated powers given to Congress, there is none that authorizes them to determine which day of the year or week the people shall abstain from labor or travel. [Baptist Preacher John Leland, January 8, 1830] L.F. Greene, The Writings of John Leland, 561.
******************************************************************SA 41:308 Many plead for an equality of all Christian societies, and plead as strongly that they should become bodies politic, and be supported by the civil law. If this is proper for Christian societies, it is as proper for Jews, Pagan or Mahometan societies. [Baptist Preacher John Leland, January 8, 1830] L.F. Greene, The Writings of Elder John Leland, 562.
******************************************************************SA 41:309 I am sorry that Congress have committed themselves by a precedent of giving their chaplains a legal reward for religious services. How preposterous the sound! A far-fetched construction supports it. ... The chaplain ... would be selling his prayers for money, and turning the gospel into merchandise. [John Leland, 1-8-1830] L.F. Greene, The Writings of Elder John Leland, 563.
******************************************************************SA 41:310 It [government] is not designed to defend the religious opinions of any, but the persons and rights of all; so that Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians, with all their subdivided opinions, may peaceably live together in the same domain ... all impartially protected by the law. [Baptist John Leland, July 5, 1830]. L.F. Greene, Writings of Elder John Leland, 579.
******************************************************************SA 41:311 The Constitution ... of the U.S. shall be the supreme law of the land.... The judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding [which means, in spite of anything in the Constitution or laws of any state]. [James Madison, Aug. 28, 1830] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:395.
******************************************************************SA 41:312 Those who have denied or doubted the supremacy of the judicial power of the U.S. ..., seem not to have sufficiently adverted [recognized] ... the utter inefficiency [ineffectiveness] of a supremacy in a law of the land, without a supremacy in the exposition and execution of the law. [James Madison, 8-28-1830] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:397-398.
******************************************************************SA 41:313 The inquiry you make, I can only state the following facts:--that, as Pastor of the Episcopal Church, ... on Sacrament Sundays, General Washington, immediately after the desk and pulpit services, went out with the greater part of the congregation,--always leaving Mrs. Washington. [Rev. Dr. James Abercrombie, 1831] William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, 5:394.
******************************************************************SA 41:314 The lapse of time now more than 50 years, since the legal support of Religion was withdrawn, sufficiently prove that it [Religion] does not need the support of Government, and it will scarcely be contended that Government has suffered by the exemption of Religion from its cognizance. [James Madison, undated, 1832] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:486.
******************************************************************SA 41:315 The father of our country, whenever in this city [Philadelphia] ... attended divine service in Christ Church. ... As to the point of kneeling during the service, ... I never saw him in the said attitude. During his Presidency, our vestry provided him a pew, ten yards in front of the reading desk. [William White,11-28-1832] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 189.
******************************************************************SA 41:316 Although I was often in company of this great man [George Washington], and had the honor of dining often at his table, I never heard any thing from him that could manifest his opinions on the subject of religion. ... In his answer ... there was nothing that committed him ... to religious theory. [W. White, 11-28-1832] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 189-190.
******************************************************************SA 41:317 Reverend Dear Sir: ... I do not believe that any degree of recollection will bring to my mind any fact which would prove General Washington to have been a believer in the Christian revelation. ... Respectfully, Your affectionate brother, Wm. White [Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, December 21, 1832]. Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 193.
******************************************************************SA 41:318 Truro Parish is the one in which Mount Vernon, Pohick Church ... are situated. General Washington had a pew in Pohick Church. ... His pew was near the pulpit. ... On Communion Sundays, he left the church with me ... and returned home, and we sent the carriage back for [Martha] my grandmother. [Nellie Custis, Feb. 26, 1833] Jared Sparks, Life of George Washington, Appendix 4:521.
******************************************************************SA 41:319 The words of the Constitution are explicit that the Constitution and laws of the United States shall be supreme over the Constitution and laws of the several States; supreme in their exposition and execution as well as in their authority. [James Madison, ³Father of the Constitution,² March 3, 1833]. Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:512.
******************************************************************SA 41:320 You [Grimke] wish to be informed of the errors in your pamphlet. ... The first related to the proposition of Doctor Franklin in favor of a religious service in the Federal Convention. The proposition was received and treated with the respect due to it; but ... [referred to a] Committee. [James Madison, 1-6-1834] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 9:529.
******************************************************************SA 41:321 In the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. ... They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country to the separation of church and state. ... I did not meet a single individual ... who was not of the same opinion. [Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1:308.
******************************************************************SA 41:322 For the First Amendment does not say that some forms of establishment are allowed; it says that "no law respecting an establishment of religion" shall be made. What may not be done directly may not be done indirectly lest the Establishment Clause become a mockery. Abington v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 231
******************************************************************SA 41:323 I [Colonel Hugh Mercer, with Washington at Trenton] have a desire, my dear sir [Bishop William White], to know whether General Washington was a regular communicant in the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, or whether he occasionally went to the communion only, if he ever did at all. [ Hugh Mercer, August 13, 1835] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 196.
******************************************************************SA 41:324 Dear Sir [Colonel Mercer]: In regard to the subject of your inquiry, truth requires me to say, that General Washington never received the communion, in the churches of which I am parochial minister. [Protestant Episcopal Bishop William White, August 15, 1835] Bird Wilson, Memoir of the Life of ... William White, 197.
******************************************************************SA 41:325 There was the strangest combination of church influence against me. ... My wife has some relatives ... Presbyterian and some ... Episcopal ... whilst it was everywhere contended that no christian ought to go [vote] for me, because I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist. [Abraham Lincoln, March 26, 1843] Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 1:320.
******************************************************************SA 41:326 To the Reverend Mr. Pyne, St. Johns [Episcopal] Church. Dear Friend: I wish to be with you this day of Confirmation. D.P. Madison. [Dolly Madison, July 15, 1845, nine years after James Madison died, Dolly joined a church, which she and the President had attended in Washington, D.C., but were not communicants.] Katherine Anthony, Dolly Madison. 381.
******************************************************************SA 41:327 A charge ... that I am an open scoffer at Christianity. ... That I am not a member of any church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular. [A. Lincoln, 7-31-1846] Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 1:382.
******************************************************************SA 41:328 No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.[Amendment 14,7-28-1868] Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1., U.S. Constitution.
******************************************************************SA 41:329 The divorce between the church and the state ought to be absolute ... so absolute that no church property ... in any State or in the nation should be exempted from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, ... you impose a church tax upon the whole community. [James A. Garfield, June 22, 1874] Congressional Record, 1874, 2:(part 6), 5384.
******************************************************************SA 41:330 Avoid all disrespect to or contempt of the Religion of the Country [Canada] and its ceremonies. ... While we are contending for our own Liberty, we should be very cautious of violating the Rights of Conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the Judge of the hearts of men. [George Washington, September 14, 1875] John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 3:492.
******************************************************************SA 41:331 The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another contest in ... our national existence ... the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixons but between, patriotism and intelligence ... and superstition, ambition and ignorance. [Ulysses S. Grant, 9-29-1875] John Y. Simon, Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 26:343.
******************************************************************SA 41:332 Encourage free schools and resolve that not one dollar of money ... no matter how raised, shall ... support ... any sectarian school. ... Leave the matter of religion to the family ... church & the private school supported entirely by private contribution. Keep the church and state forever separate. [U.S.Grant, 9-29-1875] John Y. Simon, Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 26:344.
******************************************************************SA 41:333 The scope and effect of the [First] amendment thus secured. Congress was deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order. [U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous, (9 to 0), May 5, 1879] Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 164.
******************************************************************SA 41:334 Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. [U.S. Supreme Court (precedent setting unanimous decision, 9 to 0), May 5, 1879] Reynolds v. U.S., 98 U.S. 145, 166.
******************************************************************SA 41:335 Can a man excuse his practices ... because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make ... religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances. [U.S.Sup.Ct. (9 to 0), 5-5-1879] Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 166-167.
******************************************************************SA 41:336 Every treaty made by the authority of the United States shall be superior to the Constitution and laws of any individual State. ... [T]he Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States are as much a part of the law of every State as its own local laws and Constitution. [U.S. Sup. Ct., unanimous (9 to 0), Jan. 19, 1880] Hauenstein v. Lynham, 100 U.S. 483, 489-490.
******************************************************************SA 41:337 However free the exercise of religion may be, it must be subordinate to the criminal laws of the country. [U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous decision (9 to 0), February 3, 1890] Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 343.
******************************************************************SA 41:338 Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. ... Can a man excuse his practices ... because of his religious belief? To permit this would ... permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. [U.S. Sup. Ct., (9 to 0), Feb. 3, 1890] Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 344.
******************************************************************SA 41:339 While legislation for the establishment of a religion is forbidden, and its free exercise permitted, it does not follow that everything which may be so called can be tolerated. Crime is not the less odious because sanctioned by what any particular sect may designate as ³religion.² [U.S. Sup. Ct., (9 to 0), 2-3-1890] Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 345.
******************************************************************SA 41:340 To Episcopal clergymen his [James Madison] course did not render him popular, and, although he attended their church, he was not a communicant. [Gaillard Hunt, Editor, Writings of James Madison, 1900] Gaillard Hunt, Writings of James Madison, 1:xxiii
******************************************************************SA 41:341 He [Thomas Jefferson] did not deny God. He denied the dogmatic statements that men had made about God. He was no enemy of religion, but he was a bitter opponent to the bigotry of sectarianism. Tyranny was tyranny, whether it was the tyranny of the throne or the tyranny of theology. [A.A. Lipscomb, 1904] A.A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 17:vii.
******************************************************************SA 41:342 The First Amendment declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Fourteenth Amendment has rendered the legislatures of the states as incompetent as Congress to enact such laws. [U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous (9 to 0), May 20, 1940] Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303.
******************************************************************SA 41:343 [The First Amendment¹s religion commandments embrace] two concepts,--freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society. [U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous (9 to 0), May 20, 1940] Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303-304.
******************************************************************SA 41:344 Civil liberties, as guaranteed by the Constitution, imply the existence of an organized society maintaining public order without which liberty itself would be lost in the excesses of unrestrained abuses. ... The argument as to freedom of worship is also beside the point. [ U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous (9 to 0), Mar.31, 1941] Cox v. New Hampshire, 312 U.S. 569, 574, 578.
******************************************************************SA 41:345 It is hardly lack of due process for the government to regulate that which it subsidizes. [U.S. Supreme Court, precedent setting unanimous decision (9 to 0), Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 131, November 9, 1942] Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 131.
******************************************************************SA 41:346 The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. ... [R]ights may not be submitted to vote. [U.S.Sup.Court (6 to 3), 6-14-1943] West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 638.
******************************************************************SA 41:347 If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion[,] or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. [U.S. Supreme Court (6 to 3), June 14, 1943]. West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642.
******************************************************************SA 41:348 The ³establishment of religion² clause of the First Amendment means at least this: ... No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. [U.S. Sup. Court (9 to 0), 2-10-1947] Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 15.
******************************************************************SA 41:349 The basic Constitutional principle of absolute Separation was violated when the State of Illinois, speaking through its Supreme Court, sustained the school authorities of Champaign in sponsoring and effectively furthering religious beliefs by its educational arrangement. [U.S. Supreme Court (6 to 1), March 8, 1948] McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 231.
******************************************************************SA 41:350 We have staked the very existence of our country on the faith that complete separation between the state and religion is best for the state and best for religion. [U.S. Supreme Court (6 to 1), March 8, 1948] U.S. McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 232.
******************************************************************SA 41:351 [P]lacards ... cannot immunize ... unlawful conduct from state control. ... [I]t has never been ... an abridgment of ... speech or press to make ... conduct illegal ... because the conduct was in part initiated ... or carried out by means of language, either spoken, written, or printed. [U.S. Sup. Court (9 to 0), 4-4-1949] Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co., 336 U.S. 490, 502.
******************************************************************SA 41:352 [T]he state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or all religions from views distasteful to them. ... It is not the business of government ... to suppress ... attacks upon ... religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches, or motion pictures. [U.S. Supreme Court (9 to 0), May 26, 1952] Burstyn v. Wilson, 330 U.S. 495, 505.
******************************************************************SA 41:353 I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ... where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. ... I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish ... and ... religious liberty is ... indivisible. [J.F.Kennedy, 9-12-1960] Freedom of Communications, GPO, 1961, report 994, pt. 1, 208.
******************************************************************SA 41:354 While this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, ... it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. ... I believe in an America where .... Catholics, Protestants and Jews will ... promote instead ... brotherhood. [John F. Kennedy, Sep. 12, 1960] Freedom of Communications, GPO, 1961, report 994, pt. 1, 208.
******************************************************************SA 41:355 The First Amendment ... did not simply bar a congressional enactment establishing a church; it forbade all laws respecting an establishment of religion. Thus, this Court has given the Amendment a broad interpretation ... in the light of its history. [U.S. Supreme Court, unanimous (9 to 0), May 29, 1961] McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 441.
******************************************************************SA 41:356 We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person to ³profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.² Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against nonbelievers.[U.S. Sup. Ct.,unanimous (9 to 0),6-19-1961] Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488, 495.
******************************************************************SA 41:357 It is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite as a part of a religious program carried on by government. [U.S. Supreme Court (7 to 1), June 25, 1962] Engel v. Vitale, U.S. 370 U.S. 421, 425.
******************************************************************SA 41:358 The prohibition of the First Amendment against ... any law ³respecting an establishment of religion,² ... is made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, no state law or school board may require ... the Bible be read or ... the Lord¹s Prayer be recited in the public schools. [U.S.Sup.Ct.(8 to 1), 6-17-1963] Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203.
******************************************************************SA 41:359 ³The [First] Amendment¹s purpose was ... to create a complete ... separation of ... religious activity and civil authority by ... forbidding every form of public aid or support for religion.² The same conclusion has been firmly maintained ever since [Everson, 1947] ... and we reaffirm it now. [U.S.Sup.Ct.(8 to 1), 6-17-1963] Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 217.
******************************************************************SA 41:360 [T]he exercises here ... are religious exercises, required ... in violation of the command of the First Amendment that the Government maintain strict neutrality, neither aiding nor opposing religion. ... [W]e cannot accept that ... neutrality ... collides with ... free exercise. [U.S. Sup. Court (8 to 1), June 17,1963] Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 225.
******************************************************************SA 41:361 I don¹t know of anywhere in the history of Christianity where the Catholic church, the Protestant church, or any other church has made greater progress than in the United States of America, and, in my opinion, the chief reason is there is no union of church and state. [Richard Cardinal Cushing, January 26, 1964] Boston Globe, January 26, 1964, A-7.
******************************************************************SA 41:362 Free speech and assembly ... do not mean that everyone with opinions or beliefs to express may address a group at any public place and at any time. The ... guarantee of liberty implies ... maintaining public order, without which liberty itself would be lost in ... anarchy. [U.S. Supreme Court (8 to 1), Jan. 18, 1965] Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 536, 554.
******************************************************************SA 41:363 There is and can be no doubt that the First Amendment does not permit the State to require that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principle or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma. ... [T]he State may not adopt programs ... which ³aid or oppose² any religion. [U.S.Sup.Ct.,unanimous (9 to 0),11-12-1968] Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 106.
******************************************************************SA 41:364 If religion becomes just another political action committee, ... another contract employee of the federal government ... religion loses. ... When in the history of religion have you ever known a prophet to speak truth to power when power was paying the prophets' salary? [Welton Gaddy, March 8, 2005] Christian Science Monitor, 3-9-05, 20.
******************************************************************SA 41:365 When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, Œtis a sign, I apprehend of its being a bad one.² [Benjamin Franklin]. Works of Benjamin Franklin, Knickerbocker Press, 1887, 13:506.
******************************************************************SA 41:366 A political party should resist identification with a religious movement. ... [T]he work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. [John C. Danforth, March 30, 2005] In the Name of Politics, The New York Times, Sec. A, p.17, Col.1.
****************************************************************** COPYRIGHT GENE GARMAN 2007 GENE GARMAN Copyright Gregorian 2007, Space Age 38, Gene Garman No part of this calendar may be reproduced or copied or electronically transmitted in full or in part without express permission from the author and publisher.Click here to review list of other essays by Gene Garman.