Congress not only approved his request but issued this statement in 1782: "The Congress of the United States approves and recommends to the people, the Holy Bible...for use in schools."
Excellent work. BTTT!
"Christianity is part of the common-law."Jefferson disagreed:
Jefferson, who as a careful historian had made a study of the origin of the maxim [that the common law is inextricably linked with Christianity], challenged such an assertion. He noted that "the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced or that such a character existed".-Leo Pfeffer, Religion, State, and the Burger Court.Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1984, p. 121
Jefferson wrote voluminously to prove that Christianity was not part of the law of the land and that religion or irreligion was purely a private matter, not cognizable by the state.-Leonard W. Levy, Treason Against God: A History of the Offense of Blasphemy, New York: Schocken Books, 1981, p. 335
Certainly, the primacy of Christianity as a whole is not part of English "common law", since the Anglican Church is the established faith there. Even if it were, such association would have been severed by the First Amendment, since explicit law passed according to the laws of the United States is always considered to trump the "common law".
-Eric