[gdani]

Ya know, it doesn't take a whole lot of skill or reasoning to cut & paste quotes.

The reality is that, at that time -- just like now -- there were politicians on all sides:

1) who were either strict separationists, were lukewarm either way or who feared that religious liberty would not be adequately protected.

2) who delighted in saying what their constituents wanted to hear because their primary focus was on retaining power.

3) who said one thing but did quite another with respect to their public policies and/or their private lives.

Sorry -- but cutting & pasting quotes doesn't quite grasp any of those gray areas. But I'm sure someone will come along soon who's interested in getting into a cut & paste quote war.

[.30Carbine]

"We...took our horses to the meeting in the afternoon and heard the minister again upon "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." There is great pleasure in hearing sermons so serious, so clear, so sensible and instructive as these ...."
John Adams

[.30Carbine]

"I never ... believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man."
Thomas Jefferson,letter to Don Valentine de Feronda, 1809

[cake_crumb]

"2) who delighted in saying what their constituents wanted to hear because their primary focus was on retaining power."

Regardless of how we conjecture WHY someone - particularly a dead someone who cannot correct us if our conjecture is wrong - made a statement which was recorded, they still said it. On the record. For prosperity.

Copying and pasting quotes is as great a thing as the Internet. After we look up the relavant recorded quotes, we copy and paste them so as not to get the wuote wrong.

[Robert_Paulson2]

actually I don't want to cut and paste...
and I think your three point analysis of what the founders said vs. what they wrote, vs. what they did in their private lives, was one of the most cogent, concise summaries I have ever seen.

it explains a lot about why we cannot reconcile a lot of different books written by a lot of men, who precisely quoted from diaries, letters and speeches.

thanks for posting it.