Jefferson Memorial Education Series: Religious Freedom

Inscription in the Thomas Jefferson Memorial interior northwest wall

NPS

Grade Level

Middle School: Seventh Grade thru Eighth Grade, High School: Ninth Grade thru Twelfth Grade

Objective:

Analyze an inscription in the Jefferson Memorial. Compare the text of the inscription to its original sources. Discover changing interpretations of religious freedom in the United States.

Vocabulary:

burthens: an older form of the word burden, meaning something carried with difficulty; a heavy load to bear
inscription: words that are written or engraved on a surface
quotation: a group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker 
quoting out of context:  the practice of misquoting someone by shortening what they said or by leaving out surrounding words or sentences
statute: a written law passed by a legislature
temporal: Relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs

Guiding Questions

Why did Jefferson consider the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom one of his greatest achievements? Does the inscription in the Jefferson Memorial represent Thomas Jefferson's beliefs and philosophies regarding religion? Is this inscription an example of quoting out of context?

Jefferson and Religion

Inscription

"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively." 

Thomas Jefferson's handwritten note and sketch planning the design of his tombstone and epitaph

Library of Congress, Manuscript and Mixed Material

Prior to his death, Thomas Jefferson left detailed instructions about the design of his future tombstone. He drew a sketch of an obelisk, a tall, thin monument with four sides and a pyramid shape on top. He also wrote an epigraph, which is another word for a quotation or inscription on a building or other surface. On the face of the obelisk, he wanted this list of his accomplishments, and "not a word more," he instructed:

Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom
& Father of the University of Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the bill that became the Statute of Virginia for Religous Freedom in 1777. It was first proposed in the Virginia state legislature in June 1779. The law removed the Church of England as the official religion of Virginia. When the Virginia legislature passed the law seven years later in 1786, Jefferson was serving as Minister to France. James Madison championed the legislation while Jefferson was overseas. Jefferson translated the law into French and Italian so that he could give it to the Europeans he met as an example of the important work that was happening in America.

Jefferson considered his authorship of the law to be one of his most important accomplishments. For this reason, the Jefferson Memorial Inscription Committee decided to include a quotation from that law on the walls of the memorial.

What about the First Amendment?

Why did Virginia need to pass a law protecting religious freedom in the state? Doesn't the U.S. Constitution already do that? It is true that the First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." For more than 100 years after the ratification of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights only applied to actions of the federal government. Individual states were free to make laws establishing an official state church, which many did. States could even require elected officials and voters to follow a particular religious faith. Virginia was the first state to pass a law protecting religious freedom.

The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom became law in 1786. The U.S. Constitution was adopted one year after that, in 1787. The ten amendments of the Bill of Rights weren't ratified until in 1791. Thomas Jefferson was a trailblazer in the cause of religious freedom.

A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom

The Inscriptions Committee couldn't fit the entire law on the wall of the memorial, so they chose sentences that they thought best highlighted Jefferson's beliefs and philosophies.

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow-citizens he has a natural right; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know that this assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act shall be an infringement of natural right.

Think About It

• The first paragraph of the statute explains the philosophical reasoning to support the need for the law. It is written in 18th century language with many words that may be unfamiliar to you. Can you figure out Jefferson's argument? How would you summarize Jefferson's beliefs about religion based on this text?
• Why does the third paragraph assert that religious freedom is a "natural right"? What do you think Jefferson was concerned about?
• If you were on the Inscriptions Committee, would you choose the same sentences to represent Jefferson's position on religious freedom? Make your own proposal for the inscription quoted from the text of the statute.

James Madison, ca 1830

P.S. Duval, Lith. Phila., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Something's Missing

You may have noticed that the last sentence of the inscription is not taken from the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

"I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively." 

This sentence comes from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote from Paris to James Madison on August 28, 1789. France was in the midst of its own revolution at the time. Jefferson and Madison had been debating whether the United States should have an equal relationship with France, their ally during the Revolutionary War, and Great Britain, whom the U.S. fought the war of independence against. Here is the section that includes the last sentence of the inscription:

When of two nations, the one has engaged herself in a ruinous war for us, has spent her blood and money to save us, has opened her bosom to us in peace, and receive us almost on the footing of her own citizens, while the other has moved heaven, earth and hell to exterminate us in war, has insulted us in all her councils in peace, shut her doors to us in every part where her interests would admit it, libelled us in foreign nations, endeavored to poison them against the reception of our most precious commodities, to place these two nations on a footing, is to give a great deal more to one than to the other if the maxim be true that to make unequal quantities equal you must add more to the one than the other. To say in excuse that gratitude is never to enter into the motives of national conduct, is to revive a principle which has been buried for centuries with it’s kindred principles of the lawfulness of assassination, poison, perjury &c. All of these were legitimate principles in the dark ages which intervened between antient and modern civilisation, but exploded and held in just horror in the 18th century. I know but one code of morality for man whether acting singly or collectively. He who says I will be a rogue when I act in company with a hundred others but an honest man when I act alone, will be believed in the former assertion, but not in the latter.

Later in the letter, Jefferson offered his notes on the proposed Bill of Rights, which Madison had sent him. He suggested changes to several of the amendments, but not to the First Amendment. There is nothing in the letter about religious freedom at all.

• Now that you have the context, does it change your understanding of the last sentence?
• Why do you think the Inscription Committee included the last sentence from another, unrelated source?
• Does the last sentence affect the way you understand the entire inscription?

Additional Resources

Links to Primary Documents at the National Archives:

A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 18 June 1779
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 28, 1789
For more discussion about Thomas Jefferson and religion, Monticello has many resources in their online encyclopedia, including this article: "Jefferson's Religious Beliefs"