Hot Quotes
Marc at Spinning Clio re-examines one of the most hotly debated quotes in American history here (extending a very extensive earlier look here).
The quote is,
When I was a young fellow reading atheist and agnostic literature in the 1980s, this quote often was misattributed to George Washington's 1790 letter to a Newport, R.I., synagogue. There is such a letter, but this passage is not from it. Still, even though the mistake generally has been corrected, the confusion lingers and some people still think the words are Washintgton's.
As the elipses indicate, however, this is a clause in a full sentence. And the original context is even more intriguing than the synagogue letter, because the quote features in a treaty between the United States and a Muslim nation.
Marc's post makes me think this passage might have more to do with the Islamic vision of the world as divided into mutually hostile camps (Islam vs. the Crusaders) than with making a statement of American governing principles. But one objection to that (explored in Marc's longer post) is that the paragraph is unaccountably absent from the one Arabic version of the treaty that survives.
The full text of the treaties is here.
The quote is,
... the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion ...
When I was a young fellow reading atheist and agnostic literature in the 1980s, this quote often was misattributed to George Washington's 1790 letter to a Newport, R.I., synagogue. There is such a letter, but this passage is not from it. Still, even though the mistake generally has been corrected, the confusion lingers and some people still think the words are Washintgton's.
As the elipses indicate, however, this is a clause in a full sentence. And the original context is even more intriguing than the synagogue letter, because the quote features in a treaty between the United States and a Muslim nation.
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 tranquility of Musselmen, — and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan [sic] 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.
Marc's post makes me think this passage might have more to do with the Islamic vision of the world as divided into mutually hostile camps (Islam vs. the Crusaders) than with making a statement of American governing principles. But one objection to that (explored in Marc's longer post) is that the paragraph is unaccountably absent from the one Arabic version of the treaty that survives.
The full text of the treaties is here.
