Thomas Jefferson Tuesday- "Separation between Church and State"

Wonder where the whole "Separation between Church and State" thing came from? It was in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut!

And of course, Jefferson did not mean it to keep the Church out of the government, but to keep the government out of the Church!

Please, American people, do your research! Read the Founder's own words. Learn True History and teach it to your children.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and 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 and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."

~Thomas Jefferson 1802 — letter to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut

Thomas Jefferson Tuesday ~The Words of Our Founding Fathers~

I have got to get back to my "Words of the Founding Fathers" post! Today is "Thomas Jefferson Tuesday"! And I was delighted to find this quote in the book "The Real Thomas Jefferson"!

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man:

1. That there is one only God, and He all perfect.

2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.

3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, is the sum of religion....Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from His lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian."

-Thomas Jefferson (1822).

~Thomas Jefferson Tuesday~ The Words of Our Founding Fathers

"It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go....
In question of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, BUT BIND HIM DOWN WITH THE CHAINS OF THE CONSTITUTION."
(emphasis added)
~Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Tuesday (The Words of Our Founding Fathers)

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the States."

-Thomas Jefferson

1808 — letter to Samuel Miller Category: Religious Liberty

From the Patriot Post

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday "Shall Become as Wolves"

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, 1787

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday

"It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution."

--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia Query 19, 1781

Thomas Jefferson Tuesday~ The Words of Our Founding Fathers

If only this could be sincerely said and carried out with true dedication by our Representatives and governing leaders today.....=(

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800

The Words of our Founding Fathers.... Thomas Jefferson Tuesday

I really have to get back to my Founding Father quotes here! Is it just me that misses them? If you don't mind, let me know! Thanks!

I read a great one today, and it just happened to be Thomas Jefferson! I use to post his quotes on Tues., so that was really neat!

Oh, and this picture reminds me, I need to start reading this book! The George Washington was has been loaned out to a friend and I miss it!=(

Okay, enough of me, here is Jefferson himself!

"On every question of construction, (let us) carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." -Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Tuesday, The Words of Our Founding Fathers

“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.” -Thomas Jefferson

Qualifications of Judges, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday

From "The Real Thomas Jefferson"

"The Judges....should always be men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, and attention: their minds should not be distracted with jarring interest." - Thomas Jefferson, To George Wythe (1776)

Object of The Declaration, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday

From "The Patroit Post"


"This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion."

-Thomas Jefferson
1825 - letter to Henry Lee
Category: Declaration of Independence

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1501)

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday--3

"Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely

to surrender that freedom which we received

from our gallant ancestors, and which our

innocent posterity have a right to receive from

us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of

resigning succeeding generations to that

wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if

we basely entail hereditary bondage on them."

--Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms, 6 July 1775

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday---2

Remember this, next week on Tax Day!
-Hannah

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think,no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselvesto rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers...And this is the tendency of all human governments.A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for [another ]...till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." -Thomas Jefferson

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson Tuesday

"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery." Thomas Jefferson

"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction." Thomas Jefferson