History, Culture and Faith – Church and State – Thomas Jefferson (Part 4)

By Dr. Rick Chromey 

I contemplate with sovereign reverence … building a wall of separation between Church & State.  – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptists (January 1, 1802) 1 

The separation of church and state. 

If you ask most Americans, they’d say the “separation” phrase was in the U.S. Constitution. And that Thomas Jefferson coined the concept, even wrote the Constitution. After all, one Supreme Court claimed Jefferson played a “leading role…drafting” the document. 2 Another Court named him “the architect of the First Amendment.” 3 

But those assertions aren’t true…nor new. In an 1802 letter to a friend, Jefferson dealt with this early misrepresentation of his record: 

“One passage…must be corrected… [that I] … more than any other individual, planned and established… [the Constitution]. I was in Europe when the Constitution was planned and never saw it till after it was established.” 

In reality, Jefferson’s influence on the Constitution was minimal, limited only to his suggestion for “provision for the freedom of religion,” and other rights to the document. 4 

The First Amendment 

On June 8, 1789, James Madison introduced the First Amendment to the Constitution. Regarding religion: 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” 

There are two surprises in the First Amendment. First, the phrase “separation of church and state” is not present. In fact, only Jefferson and Madison spoke of that concept. Second, the limits are upon government, not religion. There is no Constitutional statement separating religion from government. 

The Founding Fathers believed religion was a private matter between man and his God. Consequently, they desired to keep the Federal government out of religion. However, they also felt individual states should retain their rights to legislate religion and religious activity. Jefferson noted this distinction in his 1805 presidential inaugural address: 

“In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have left them as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies.” 5 

In early America this distinction mattered, because every state recognized Christianity as its religion. Except for Catholic Maryland, all were Protestant. And most states were constitutionally bound to a denomination (i.e., Pennsylvania Quakers, Rhode Island Baptists, Virginia Episcopalians), even requiring state officials to pass a religious test. 

For example Delaware demanded state officials to “profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son, and in the Holy Ghost…[acknowledging] the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration.” Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Connecticut required a “professing belief in any Protestant sect.” Virginia mandated governing officials confess the Anglican creed. Other states, like Massachusetts, legislated “the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality.” 

Every state had “religious liberty” to denominate and legislate religion as they pleased. The Church wasn’t the problem, it was the State. So the Founding Fathers constituted the “united” states with a recognition of “free religious exercise” but also a protection that no nationalized Church would be “established.” 

Separation of State from Church 

But such religious freedom didn’t fully assure. 

After all, any government capable to grant “freedom” could also remove or regulate it. And early America was populated by the descendants of religious dissidents who fled oppressive European state religions to colonize beneath their religious flag. 

Jefferson hardly coined the “separation” phrase, but rather borrowed it from 16th century English clergymen, like Richard Hooker and John Greenwood. These church leaders first employed the phrase to confront the oppressive English monarchy who defiantly split from papal power to create its own Church (of England), then arrogantly ruled both institutions. 

In the 1600s, a tyrannical persecution unleashed a great immigration to America. In some cases, entire churches moved (Pilgrims). Dissident colonial clergy – most notably Roger Williams (Rhode Island) – propagated the “separation of church and state” concept throughout New England. One 19th century writer recorded Williams so “distinctly…enunciated the doctrine of separation of Church and State,” that he not only carved Rhode Island’s constitution with it, but “our [American] political system” too. 6 

One thing was clear. This “separation” kept the State out of the Church, not vice versa.7 

After all, the Founders never envisioned a secular America. In fact, most warned against it. 

[T]he Christian religion…must ever be regarded 

 among us as the foundation of civil society. 8 

(Daniel Webster) 

There must be [Christian] religion. When that ligament is torn, 

society is disjointed and its members perish…the denunciation 

of ruin to every state that rejects the precepts of religion. 

(Gouverneur Morris) 9 

[T]he Christian religion… is the source, of all genuine freedom in government… 

no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable 

 in which the principles of Christianity have not a controlling influence. 

(Benjamin Rush) 10 

Jefferson’s Wall 

It’s within this context Thomas Jefferson authored a letter to concerned Baptist clergy from Danbury, Conn. (January 1, 1802). He assuaged their fears of a national denomination, then said religion was private and Congress’s power was limited. 

To cement his argument, Jefferson employed the historic Roger Williams’ Baptist metaphor writing: “thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” 11 

Jefferson’s letter and “the phrase” satisfied the clerics…then laid dormant for decades. 

For the next 150 years, every state operated constitutionally. State legislatures controlled the religious instruction of their public schools, expenditures (even funding religious works), and appeals for days of prayer and fasting. At the national level, Presidents ordered “fasting and prayer” days for Americans, spoke of their faith and prayed publicly. Churches (with steeple and bells) centered every community, doubling as schools and community halls. Preachers served as teachers, mayors, governors and president (James Garfield). 

None of these religious activities were considered unconstitutional. Americans – including presidents – commonly called America a “Christian nation.” 

Until everything changed…in 1947. 

 

(To be continued) 

 

NEXT ISSUE: “The Separation of Church from State: How One Supreme Court Opinion Forever Changed America.” 

 

Sources: 

1 “Faith and Freedom,” Monticello.org: https://www.monticello.org/the-art-of-citizenship/faith-and-freedom/ 

2 Everson vs. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 13 (1947). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/330/1/ 

3 Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 214, 234-235 (1963). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/374/203/ 

4 Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 10 (Washington, DC: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904): 324-325. 

5 James D. Richardson, “Second Inaugural Address,” A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, Volume 1 (Washington, D.C.: Published by the Authority of Congress, 1899), 379-380. 

6 Will C. Wood, Five Problems of State and Religion (Boston: Henry Hoyt, Publisher) 1877): 168. Downloadable at Google Books. 

7 Will C. Wood: “The separation of Church and State does not mean the exclusion of God, righteousness, morality, from the State.” Ibid., 92. 

8 Daniel Webster, Mr. Webster’s Speech in Defence of the Christian Ministry and in Favor of the Religious Instruction of the Young. Delivered in the Supreme Court of the United States, February 10, 1844, in the Case of Stephen Girard’s Will (Washington: Printed by Gales and Seaton, 1844), 41. 

9 “An Inaugural Discourse Delivered Before the New York Historical Society by the Honorable Gouverneur Morris, (President,) 4th September 1816,” Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1821 (New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1821), 32, 34. 

10 K. Alan Snyder, Defining Noah Webster: Mind and Morals in the Early Republic (New York: University Press of America, 1990), 253, Noah Webster to James Madison, October 16, 1829. 

11 Jefferson: To the Danbury Baptist Association, 1 January 1802,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-36-02-0152-0006. 

 

Dr. Rick Chromey is an historian, author and speaker who helps people interpret history, navigate culture, and explore faith. Since 2022, he’s worked as a Lewis and Clark historian for American Cruise Lines on the Columbia and Snake rivers. He is available to speak to churches, schools and organizations about topics related to history, apologetics, leadership and Christian education. 

 

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