Triumph Over Bigotry and Persecution
George Washington May/June 2010We have abundant reasons to rejoice that in this land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest offices that are known in the United States.
--President George Washington, in a letter to the members of the New Church in Baltimore, Janauary 27, 1793.