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Category: Letters & Documents

Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States Through Foreign Immigration and the Present State of the Naturalization Laws by Samuel Morse

Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States Through Foreign Immigration and the Present State of the Naturalization Laws by Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse 1835 Excerpts from Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States (1835).  At the time, Samuel Morse was a well known painter and a prominent anti-Catholic writer. He would later go on to help invent the telegraph and the Morse Code. He also ran for mayor of New York City as a nativist, but lost badly. [W]e well know what is the nature of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical rule, — it is the double refined spirit of despotism,…

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The Flushing Remonstrance

The Flushing Remonstrance

December 27, 1657 Peter Stuyvesant, director general of New Amsterdam, tried to block Quaker immigration in Vlissingen (now Flushing, Queens), prompting objections from the non- Quaker residents. They issued the Flushing Remonstrance, one of the first communal articulations of a more universal conception of religious liberty in the New World. They defiantly rejected Stuyvesant’s rules—a shocking bit of civil disobedience—and proclaimed tolerance not only of Quakers and Baptists but even of Presbyterians, “Jews, Turks and Egyptians” because Jesus had instructed…

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The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution by Roger Williams

The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution by Roger Williams

Roger Williams 1644 The full title was The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for the Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference Between Truth and Peace. (London, 1644).  It includes his response to a letter from Puritan leader John Cotton, Williams wrote: “When they [the Church] have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the Candlestick, etc., and…

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Spanish Requerimiento of 1513

Spanish Requerimiento of 1513

Juan López de Palacios Rubios 1513 […] Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world, and the high priest called Pope, and in his name the King and Queen Doña Juana our lords, in his place, as superiors…

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Al Smith Response To Charles Marshall in the Atlantic

Al Smith Response To Charles Marshall in the Atlantic

Al Smith May 1927 Charles Marshall had written a major piece in The Atlantic arguing that Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic nominee, could not be truly independent from the Church.  Smith’s response, largely written by his advisor Joseph Proskauer, was a significant explication of how to be a Catholic politician in America. Charles C. Marshall, Esq. DEAR Sir: — In your open letter to me in the April Atlantic Monthly you ‘impute’ to American Catholics views which, if held by them, would leave open…

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An Open Letter to the Honorable Alfred E. Smith in The Altantic

An Open Letter to the Honorable Alfred E. Smith in The Altantic

Charles C. Marshall to Al Smith in the Atlantic April 1927 Charles Marshall, a prominent lawyer, wrote a major piece in the Atlantic magazine questioning whether Al Smith could truly be independent of the Roman Catholic Church. …The deduction is inevitable that, as all power over human affairs not given to the State by God, is given by God to the Roman Catholic Church, no other churches or religious or ethical societies have in theory any direct power from God and…

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James Madison to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819

James Madison to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819

James Madison March 2, 1819 Montpellier Mar 2. 1819 This remarkable excerpt shows that Madison believes the Bill of Rights has succeeded — but the proof is not that religious minorities are less persecuted but rather that the quality and quantity of religion has increased dramatically. That there has been an increase of religious instruction since the revolution can admit of no question. The English Church was originally the established religion: the character of the clergy that above described. Of…

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John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, February–3 March 1814

John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, February–3 March 1814

John Adams February 1814 Quincy Dear Sir I was nibbing my pen and brushing my Faculties, to write a polite Letter of Thanks to MrCounsellor Barton for his valuable Memoirs of Dr Rittenhouse though I could not account for his Sending it to me; when I received your favour of Jan. 24th. I now most cordially indorse my Thanks over to you. The Book is in the modern American Style, an able imitation of Marshalls Washington, though far more entertaining and…

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Thomas Jefferson Autobiography (portion on religious freedom)

Thomas Jefferson Autobiography (portion on religious freedom)

Thomas Jefferson 1821 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…

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William Willams’s Letter About the Godless Constitution

William Willams’s Letter About the Godless Constitution

William Williams February 11, 1788 In the American Mercury, William Williams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Connecticut, complains about the failure of the Constitution to invoke God’s Supremacy and protection. He proposes amending the preamble to call upon “the creator and Supreme Governour of the world.” Since the Federal Constitution has had so calm, dispassionate and so happy an issue, in the late worthy Convention of this State; I did not expect any members of that hon….

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