The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION / RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which
had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the
latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with
some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a
singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant
to be universal. Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a
departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an
amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ,"
so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus
Christ, the holy author of our religion"; the insertion was
rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend,
within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the
Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every
denomination.
from Notes for an Autobiography, 6 January 1821
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