Letter · 1802

Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association

Replying to Baptists in Connecticut, a religious minority in a state with a tax-supported Congregationalist establishment, President Jefferson wrote that religion “lies solely between Man & his God” and that the legitimate powers of government “reach actions only, & not opinions.” He described the First Amendment’s religion clauses as “building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

“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 & State.”

Thomas Jefferson, January 1, 1802

Why it matters

The Supreme Court adopted the “wall of separation” metaphor in Reynolds v. United States and Everson v. Board of Education (1947); whether it calls for strict separation or chiefly protects religion from government remains debated.

Read the full text at founders.archives.gov

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

founding religious liberty church and state first amendment

From the library

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