Quote
By George Washington
For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
- Source
- George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790 · The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 6, pp. 284-286
- Read at
- Founders Online, National Archives
Share this quote
About this quote
Washington's reply, dated August 18, 1790, to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. The editors of the Washington Papers note a suggestion that Jefferson originally drafted it. The sentence before this one reads: "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights."