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Washington Responds: A Statement of Principles

gw-letter-rectoA few days after leaving Newport, the President wrote to the citizen groups who had addressed him at Newport, thanking them for their hospitality and graciousness. Washington's response to the Newport group's address, the Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, was sent August 21, 1790. More than simple courtesy, the letter reflected the policy of the new government toward those whose religious beliefs were perceived as different. Washington echoed Seixas' phrase "which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance," thus confirming the sentiments expressed in the Seixas letter.

The President's words also helped to define the role of the Federal government in matters of conscience. As in other letters to Jewish congregations, the President explicitly acknowledges Jewish participation in the new nation. Washington writes, "May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants." He goes on to oppose the mere "toleration" of religious differences and instead emphasizes religious liberty in "the exercise of inherent natural rights," echoing the Declaration of Independence.

American historian Melvin Urofsky has written:

Although this letter carries with it a unique and cherished significance for American Jewry, in many ways it is a treasure of the entire nation. America, as de Tocqueville [a French political thinker and historian who visited America in the early 1800s] famously wrote, had been "born free," unfettered by the religious and social bigotries of medieval Europe. The United States, although initially founded by people from the British Isles, had well before the Revolution become a haven of many peoples from continental Europe seeking political and religious freedom and economic opportunity. The new nation recognized this diversity for what it was, one of the country's greatest assets, and took as its motto E Pluribus Unum—Out of Many, One…. The separation of church and state, and with it the freedom of religion enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution, has made the United States a beacon of hope to oppressed peoples everywhere.

Washington's commitment to religious liberty, the involvement of all people in the new democracy and the campaign for passage of the Bill of Rights combined on that August day in Newport, Rhode Island. The result is the Letter to the Hebrew Congregations in Newport, a profound statement of the values that make America an example to the world.