On
Religious Freedom
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS
And let us reflect that, having banished
from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so
long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we
countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and
capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.... error of
opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat
it.... I deem the essential principles of our government....
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or
persuasion, religious or political; ... freedom of religion,
freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection
of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected.
-- Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4,
1801
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