3618 — The United States Not a Christian Nation
Can you give me an authoritative statement in regard to the United States not being a Christian nation? M. E. M. Treaties in the United States Government have the force of fundamental law. According to Article 6 of the Constitution of the United States, "All treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Article 11 of that treaty made between the United States of America and the bey and subjects of Tripoli, Barbary, communicated to the Senate May 26, 1797, reads as follows: As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion, as it has itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Mussulmans, and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohammedan nations, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. Now this was in perfect harmony with the opinions of the fathers of the Republic. In the act for establishing religious freedom in Virginia, Jefferson says that "when 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 words "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 Mohammedan, the Hindu and infidel, of every denomination. (Works of Thomas Jefferson, volume 1, page 45, quoted in "American State Papers.") Madison touched the crucial point of the thing when he said, in his memorial and remonstrance, "Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians to the exclusion of all other sects?" The treaty with Tripoli, it may be well to say, was signed and sealed in Tripoli on the 4th day of November, 1796, and at Algiers January 3, 1797, by Hassan Bashaw, Dey of Algiers, and Joel Barlow, consul-general of the United States.