"Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested His supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint. [* * *] All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: Statute of Religious Freedom. EDITION: Washington ed. viii, 454. EDITION: Ford ed., ii, 237. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1779 "I sincerely rejoice at the acceptance of our new Constitution by nine States. It is a good canvas, on which some strokes only want retouching. What these are, I think are sufficiently manifested by the general voice from north to south, which calls for a bill of rights. It seems pretty generally understood that this should go to [* * *] religion. [* * *] The declaration, that religious faith shall be unpunished, does not give impunity to criminal acts, dictated by religious error." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: To James Madison. EDITION: Washington ed. ii, 445. EDITION: Ford ed., v, 45. PLACE: Paris DATE: July. 1788
"One of the amendments to the Constitution [* * *] expressly declares, that "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"; thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech and of the press; insomuch, that whatever violates either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the others." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: Kentucky Resolutions. EDITION: Washington ed. ix, 466. EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 295. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1798
"I am for freedom of religion, and against all manuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: To Elbridge Gerry. EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 268. EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 328. PLACE: Philadelphia, DATE: 1799
"Freedom of religion I deem [one of the] essential principles of our government and, consequently, [one] which ought to shape its administration." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: First Inaugural Address. EDITION: Washington ed. viii, 4. EDITION: Ford ed., viii, 5. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1801
"Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that [* * *] of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: R. to A. of Baptists. EDITION: Washington ed. viii, 119. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1807
"We have solved [* * *] the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government, and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason, and the serious convictions of his own inquiries." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: R. to A. Virginia Baptists. EDITION: Washington ed. viii, 139. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1808
"Having ever been an advocate for the freedom of religious opinion and exercise, from no person, certainly, was an abridgment of these sacred rights to be apprehended less than from myself." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: R. to A. Pittsburg Methodists. EDITION: Washington ed. viii, 142. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1808
"The Constitution has not placed our religious rights under the power of any public functionary." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: R. to A. Pittsburg Methodists. EDITION: Washington ed. viii, 142. PLACE: [none given] DATE: 1808
"There are certain principles in which the constitutions of our several States all agree, and which all cherish as vitally essential to the protection of the life, liberty, property and safety of the citizen. [One is] Freedom of Religion, restricted only from acts of trespass on that of others." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: To M. Coray. EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 323. PLACE: Monticello DATE: 1823 See Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, in Appendix.
"Whatsoever is lawful in the Commonwealth, or permitted to the subject in the ordinary way, cannot be forbidden to him for religious uses; and whatsoever is prejudicial to the Commonwealth in their ordinary uses and, therefore, prohibited by the laws ought not to be permitted to churches in their sacred rites. For instance, it is unlawful in the ordinary course of things, or in a private house, to murder a child. It should not be permitted any sect then to sacrifice children: it is ordinarily lawful (or temporarily lawful) to kill calves or lambs. They may, therefore, be religiously sacrificed, but if the good of the State required a temporary suspension of killing lambs, as during a siege, sacrifices of them may then be rightfully suspended also. This is the true extent of toleration." Thomas Jefferson, TITLE: Notes on Religion. EDITION: Ford ed., ii, 102. PLACE: [none given] 1776?
