In 1776, near Philadelphia, lived the Ephrata community of Seventh-day Baptists, the Bible their confession of faith, their code of laws, their church discipline. One of their buildings was used as a hospital after the battle of Brandywine. Upon the old Ephrata press the Declaration of Independence was first printed. Being observers of the seventh day, the community feared that their religious liberties might be endangered under the new government. They therefore addressed a letter to Washington regarding it. Here is his reply, still preserved at Ephrata in the original, and as the author of the "American Communities" says, "worthy to be engraved in letters of gold:"
The old Ephrata Seventh-Day Baptist Press on which the Declaration of Independence was first printed.
"If I had had the least idea of any difficulty resulting from the Constitution adopted by the convention of which I had the honor to be President when it was formed, so as to endanger the rights of any religious denomination, then I never should have attached my name to that instrument. If I had any idea that the general government was so administered that the liberty of conscience was endangered, I pray you be assured that no man would be more willing than myself to revise and alter that part of it, so as to avoid all religious persecution. You can, without any doubt, remember that I have often expressed as my opinion, that every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his conscience."
