Thomas Jefferson: The Danbury Letter

THOMAS JEFFERSON: THE DANBURY LETTER & the SEPARATION of CHURCH and STATE

This work intends to examine Thomas Jefferson's ideas on the separation of church and state as it was crystallized in his 1801 letter to Danbury Baptists. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his January 1, 1802 letter to Danbury Baptists Association 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..." (1802) Jefferson additionally stated that he contemplated "with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." (Jefferson, 1802)

JEFFERSON- FIRST ANTI-FEDRALIST PRESIDENT

Many Baptists were extremely "elated" upon the election of Thomas Jefferson who as the first Anti-Federalist President of the United States and the Baptists were also primarily Anti-Federalist. In the letter that Danbury Baptist Association penned to Jefferson they expressed concern over the concept of the First Amendment overall and this included the guarantee in the first amendment for 'the free exercise of religion'. Stated specifically by the Danbury Baptist Association in their letter to Jefferson was "Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty: that religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals, that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions, [and] that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. But sir, our constitution of government is not specific.... [T]herefore what religious privileges we enjoy (as a minor part of the State) we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights." (1801)

II. The CONCERN of the DANBURY BAPTISTS

It appears that the 'free exercise of religion' in the U.S. constitution indicated to the Danbury Baptists that the right of religious expression "was government-given (thus inalienable) rather than God-given (hence inalienable), and that therefore the government might someday attempt to regulate religious expression." (Barton, 2001) This concern was understood by Jefferson because it was this that was Jefferson's primary concern. Jefferson made many declarations concerning the inability of the federal government within the limits of the constitution to "regulate, restrict, or interfere with religions expression..." (Barton, 2001) Examples are as follows:

N]o power over the freedom of religion... [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution. Kentucky Resolution, 1798

In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the general [federal] government. Second Inaugural Address, 1805

O]ur excellent Constitution... has not placed our religious rights under the power of any public functionary. Letter to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1808 consider the government of the United States as interdicted [prohibited] by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions... Or exercises. Letter to Samuel Millar, 1808 (as cited in Barton, 2001)

III.. CLARIFICATION on JEFFERSON'S VIEW www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=123"

Indeed, Jefferson's view was that the government held no power whatsoever to interfere with religion expressions because Jefferson had noted the tendency of the government to tread upon the free exercise of religion. Jefferson stated to Noah Webster that "It had become an universal and almost uncontroverted position in the several States that the purposes of society do not require a surrender of all our rights to our ordinary governors... And which experience has nevertheless proved they [the government] will be constantly encroaching on if submitted to them; that there are also certain fences which experience has proved peculiarly efficacious [effective] against wrong and rarely obstructive of right, which yet the governing powers have ever shown a disposition to weaken and remove. Of the first kind, for instance, is freedom of religion." Jefferson was very committed to seeing to it that the government in no way limited, restricted, regulated or interfered with religious practices of the public and held that the enactment of the First Amendment was solely for the purpose of preventing the federal establishment of a national denomination. Jefferson wrote in his letter to Benjamin Rush, who was also a signer along with Jefferson of the Declaration of Independence as follows:

T]he clause of the Constitution which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through the United States; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians and Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes and they believe that any portion of power confided to me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly."

In his letter to the Danbury Baptists Jefferson made a reference to 'natural rights' and it was this that "invoked an important legal phrase which was part of the rhetoric of that day and which reaffirmed his belief that religion liberties were inalienable rights." (Barton, 2001) it is stated that 'natural rights' "by definition...included that which the Books of the Law and the Gospel do contain." (Barton, 2001) in other words, natural rights "incorporated what God Himself had guaranteed to man in the Scriptures. Thus, when Jefferson assured the Baptists that by following their 'natural rights' they would violate no social duty, he was affirming to them that the free exercise of religion was their inalienable God-given right and therefore was protected from federal regulation or interference." (Barton, 2001)

It was the belief of Jefferson that it was not the government, but God whom was "the Author and Source of our rights and that the government, therefore, was to be prevented from interference with those rights." (Barton, 2001) Therefore the 'fence' in the letter to Noah Webster and the 'wall' in the letter to Danbury Baptists were not idealized to place limitations on activities that were religious but instead to place limitations on the government's power to interfere with or place prohibitions on religious expression.