Diocese of Covington - Our Religious Liberty at 401 E. 20th Street, Covington, KY 41014 US - What did our early American leaders say about religious freedom?

· George Washington: "If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the
Constitution framed in the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly
endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed
my signature to it; and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so
administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no
one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of
spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution." (Letter to the United Baptist
Churches in Virginia, 1789.)

· George Washington: “[T]he conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great
delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be [] extensively
accommodated to them…” (Letter to the Annual Meeting of Quakers, 1789.)
· Thomas Jefferson: “No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which
protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.” (Letter to New
London Methodist, 1809.)



· James Madison: “[T]he equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his Religion according
to the dictates of conscience is held by the same tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to
its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be less dear to us;
if we consult the Declaration of Rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis
and foundation of Government, it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather studied
emphasis.” (Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessment, 1785.) (Internal
quotation marks omitted.)

· James Madison: “[W]e hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth that religion, or the duty
which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, 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; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these
may dictate.” (Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessment, 1785.) (Internal
citation and quotations omitted.

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