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 [Muslim], the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.
– Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826), third president of the United States, author of the Declaration of Independence, referring to the Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom, which became law on January 16, 1786.
Connect:
Where does this quote come from?
@historian it is from Jefferson’s autobiography.
Source? This is an excellent quote and I would like to be able to use it but I need to be able to back it up. Where, specifically, does it come from?
Gonna need a citation for this one.
Linda,
No one is going to do your work for you.. there is this place call google…
In other word GOOGLE IT!!!!
A quick google comes up with this website, and states it is from his autobiography.
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/biog/lj12.htm
(Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:67)
Thanks, Jeff Little and do_the_google. It takes about 1.5 seconds to find it:
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/biog/lj12.htm
http://nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm
[PDF] http://www.jeffersonlegacy.org/education.pdf
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/thomas-jefferson/history3.html
http://classicliberal.tripod.com/jefferson/
http://americanvision.org/2287/the-founding-fathers-and-jesus/
If you are going to present information as fact on your website you should provide citations. If I had to go around fact checking every interesting claim myself I’d never get anywhere.
Step 1: Present interesting info
Step 2: Back it up with a citation so your readers don’t have to do it for you.
See, that’s not hard now is it Jeff?
Hi Linda –
It’s our practice to provide citations to contemporary sources but usually not to readily available information from classical works, the Bible and historical figures like Pres. Jefferson.
Thanks
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=the+Jew+and+the+Gentile,+the+Christian+and+Mahometan
Here’s the citation in its original context:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DFnUAAAAMAAJ&dq=jefferson%20hindoo&pg=PA45#v=onepage&q&f=false
Verbatim, I give you.
But before you put him in the Islam fanboy category, read this:
http://www.islam-watch.org/CHitchens/JeffersonsKoran.htm
He may have, like me and many others, insisted on giving Muslims equal rights, but that hardly makes him a fan. What he actually thought about Islam was that it posed a threat. His Koran was meant to be educational, not sacred. He learned enough from it to found the first Marines specifically to send them to fight Islamic Pirates.
> It’s our practice to provide citations to contemporary sources but usually not to readily available information from classical works, the Bible and historical figures like Pres. Jefferson.
Excellent response
@ Dixiemink, Where did he say Jefferson was an Islam fanboy?