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Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson hoped that he would be remembered for three accomplishments: his founding of the University of Virginia, his crafting of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and his authorship of the Declaration of Independence. It is for the last that he has most endeared himself to succeeding generations as a champion of liberty and equality. Jefferson indeed believed that these achievements were the high points of a life dedicated to the promotion of human freedom. Education, he held, freed the mind from ignorance. Tolerance freed the will from coercion.And the assertion of human liberty and equality freed the body from the chains of tyranny. But Jefferson’s actions sometimes contradicted his words. An opponent of centralized power, as president he completed the Louisiana Purchase and unhesitatingly employed the resources of the federal government to enforce the harsh and unpopular Embargo Act. A proponent of individual rights, he excused the atrocities committed by the French Revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror. A critic of slavery who outlawed the slave trade as president, he was the owner of more than 200 African Americans. The key to understanding Jefferson lies in the difficult task of reconciling these inconsistencies. |
What he did; what he said; what others said about him What he did...
What he said...
What others said about him...
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Jefferson and religious freedom The President adjusted his kerosene lamp, dipped his quill in his inkwell and continued his letter to the church leaders: “…Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God…that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State….” Securing religious liberty in the new republic was one of Thomas Jefferson’s most important goals. His papers, including this letter to the Danbury Baptists Association, as well as the Virginia Statute for Religion Freedom, reveal a statesman who recognized the civic utility of religion, but believed that government had no business regulating belief. Virginia Statute for Religion Freedom (1786) Jefferson’s 1786 Virginia Statute for Religion Freedom brought about the end of the Episcopal Church as the official religion of the state. The statute’s wording uses religion itself to argue against government involvement in religion, arguing that state-mandated worship is contrary to God’s plan: “…Almighty God hath created the mind free… all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments…are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion.” While Jefferson recognized religion’s civic utility as a foundation for private morality and public behavior, he felt very strongly that the state had no right to compel worship or support of a religious institution. “[T]o compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical [and] is depriving him injuriously of…natural right[s].” The Virginia Statute for Religion Freedom is still part of Virginia law. The First Amendment (1791) Understanding the Founders’ intent for writing the First Amendment is a complex task. Many Founders were influenced by their Puritan roots and a variety of Deist and Christian faiths. They saw the potential for tyranny and strife if the federal government established a national church. The Founders were also influenced by natural rights theory. This philosophy holds that rights come from nature or from God, and that all people everywhere are born with the same rights. As Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “All men…are endowed by their Creator with certain rights…” One of those rights, Jefferson believed, was the right to choose and practice religion freely. As Jefferson notes in his letter, the First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This is called the Establishment Clause. The Founders understood this clause to mean that there can be no national church or national faith. A more broad interpretation is that the government cannot endorse one religion over another, as doing so would mean that it has “established” a religion. The U.S. Constitution protects religious liberty from the federal government through the First Amendment, and also in its promise that no religious test can be required of public officials (Article VI). States, however, could and did have their own official religions. All but three of the original thirteen colonies had official churches. (Delaware, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania did not.) Those state churches soon disestablished, starting with Virginia in 1786, while Connecticut retained a church until 1818. The “Separation of Church and State” (1802) Thomas Jefferson wrote his famous letter to the Danbury Baptists Association to assure them that the federal government would not interfere with their church. Though often referenced, the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights. Many believe, and the Supreme Court has held in many cases, that the First Amendment requires such a separation. Others believe this phrase is not a useful way of understanding the First Amendment, and call it, as one Chief Justice did, a “misleading metaphor.” The Supreme Court first referenced Jefferson’s letter in Reynolds v. United States (1878). (This unanimous decision upheld a federal law banning polygamy.) The ruling referred to Jefferson’s letter as “almost an authoritative declaration” of the scope of the First Amendment because Jefferson was a leading advocate of the First Amendment. In 1947, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black again referenced Jefferson’s letter as evidence that the First Amendment “was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between church and state.’” Others, however, point out that Jefferson himself played no part in writing the First Amendment or in its debate in Congress, as he was overseas serving as minister to France at the time. Chief Justice William Rehnquist referred to the phrase “separation of church and state” as Jefferson’s “misleading metaphor.” Some also note that Presidents George Washington and John Adams regularly invoked the name of God and declared national days of fasting and thanksgiving. This implies some of the Founders did not believe government should be free from religious influence. Whatever controversy his famous phrase may cause, there is little doubt that Jefferson considered the Virginia Statute for Religion Freedom one of his proudest achievements. He wrote his epitaph: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of |
On the necessity of a Bill of Rights |
"Wall of Separation" |
Audio biography |
Selected works
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