Quotes On Religious Liberty

John Witherspoon The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men

Date: May 17, 1775

There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage. 

 

John Adams Letter to Benjamin Rush

Date: 1812

Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion. 

 

John Adams Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law

Date: 1765

Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God . . . . Let it be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliaments.

Thomas Jefferson A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom

Date: 1779

[T]hat the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty. 

 

James Madison A Memorial and Remonstrance

Date: 1785

Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "that Religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only be reason and convection, 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. 

James Madison Letter to Frederick Schaeffer

Date: December 3, 1821

The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting Usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity. 

James Madison essay on Property

Date: March 29, 1792

Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

  

George Washington letter to the Members of the New Church in Baltimore

Date: January 27, 1793

We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.   

George Washington to the Annual meeting of Quakers

Date: September, 1789

The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreebly to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights. 

 

John Leland The Rights of Conscience Inalienable

Every man must give an account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in that way that he can best reconcile to his conscience . . . . It would be sinful for a man to surrender that to man which is to be kept sacred for God.

William Penn Pennsylvania Charter of Liberty, Laws Agreed Upon in England

Date: 1682

That all persons living in this province, who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and eternal God, to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world; and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall, in no ways, be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion, or practice, in manners of faith and worship, nor shall they be compelled, at any time, to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry whatever.

Hugo Black Delivering opinion of the Court for Everson v. Board of Education

Date: February 10, 1947

The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.