Juan Cole makes a good find in his rebuttal of Sarah Palin’s ‘refudiate’ tweet in opposition to the building of a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center. He pulled up language from the Treaty of Tripoli which was unanimously ratified by the Senate in 1797 and signed by President John Adams.
“As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, 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.”
So, in 1797, the U.S. Senate was unanimous in its opinion that the “United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” I think that’s a remarkable thing. For proponents of ‘original intent’ it’s hard to do better than to get the unanimous opinion of U.S. Senate of the 5th Congress. Sen. Richard Stockton of New Jersey served in the 5th Congress and also signed the Declaration of Independence, as did President John Adams. Several more of the twenty-six member Senate
had served in the 1st Congress. I think they knew whereof they spoke.
Of course, most Americans of the time were either Christians or had been brought up in a Christian context. Many of the elites rejected the doctrines of the trinity (essentially, the idea that Jesus was more than a mere mortal) and many of the lower classes and the settlers of the frontier had no use for doctrine of any kind. But there were very few people who professed a religion other than Christianity or some offshoot like Deism or Unitarianism. Despite this, the early government did not place Christianity on a higher pedestal than Islam or Judaism or any other world religion. None of the first six presidents of the United States (Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, or John Quincy Adams) were communicants of any Christian Church. And the seventh, Andrew Jackson, didn’t become a communicant until a year after his presidency was over. It’s hard to say what the people believed, but their willingness to elect leaders who did not take communion is a sure sign that they had more religious tolerance than we do today and did not believe that the country was founded on Christian principles.
Try telling that to a Republican. See how Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin responds.