The Congruence of Thomas Jefferson and Moses Mendelssohn

8/3/2019 The Congruence of Thomas Jefferson and Moses Mendelssohn

1/11

Religious Liberty: The Congruence of Thomas Jefferson and Moses MendelssohnAuthor(s): Milton R. KonvitzSource: Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Spring, 1987), pp. 115-124Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467371 .

Accessed: 29/06/2011 12:37

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupress. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toJewish Social

Studies.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupresshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4467371?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupresshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupresshttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4467371?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupress


2/11

ReligiousLiberty:The CongruenceofThomasJefferson nd MosesMendelssohn*by MiltonR. Konvitz

1"Take areof me when[I am]dead."'This wasthecryfromthe heartof ThomasJefferson o his old friendandco-worker, amesMadison, ess than five monthsbe-fore Jefferson'sdeath. It is a crythat has reverberatedhroughovera centuryanda half, and it is a crythat we have heardand that has broughtus togetheron thisoccasion.Whatdid Jeffersonmeanby askingMadison o takecareof himwhenhe isdead?A largepartof the ong etternwhich he sentence ppearss devoted o matterselatingto the Universityof Virginia, o the ten boxesof books he had ordered rom Parisfor the University,evenboxes fromLondon, he room for them and theirshelving,the selectionof a lawprofessor, nd otherdetails.Soon,hewrote,hewill notbe abletogive urther ttention otheUniversity,ndas hewillbe removed beyondhe bourneof life itself,as I soonmust," t is, Jefferson old his friend,who waseightyearshis

junior,"acomfort o leave hat nstitution nderyourcare."Bycryingoutto Madison,"Take are of me when [I am]dead,"Jeffersonof coursemeantkeepingan eyeonthe institutionsand ideals to whichboth friendsweredeeplydevoted.At the age of fifty-seven,when he hadtwenty-sixmoreyears o live,Jeffersonwrotea memorandum2he firstsentenceof whichreadsas follows:"Ihavesometimesaskedmyselfwhethermycountry s the betterfor my having ived at all?"Then heproceededo list thethingshe had donewhichwouldaccount or hisdaysandyears,an apologia pro vitasua, a procedurefamiliarin Hebrewliteratureas heshbenanefesh.Jefferson isted the followingactions:1. His first act of constructivepublicservicewasmakingthe North Branchofthe JamesRiver,knownas the Rivanna,navigable.Thishappenedwhen he hadjustreachedhismajority.He learned hatit was not possible o transportobacco downthe Rivanna o where t met the James.He took a canoe and went downstream ndsawthat it could be madenavigable o loadedboatsmerelybythe removalof looserock. He raised wo hundredpoundsby subscription nd interested neighborwhowas a memberof theHouse of Burgesses, ndwho introduced bill that waspassedin 1765 o clearthe Rivannabyprivate xpense.3Thirty-fiveears aterJefferson tilltook pridein this accomplishment.And who couldblamehim?2. Next Jefferson istedthe Declarationof Independence.3. He proposed"the demolitionof the churchestablishment, nd the freedom

115


3/11

116 JEWISHSOCIALSTUDIESof religion."He wenton to add that this couldbeaccomplished nlybedegrees.First,in 1776,wastheVirginia ct thatexempted issentersrom heEpiscopalChurchromcontributingo thatchurch,whichwasthen theestablished hurch.This left thesup-portof theAnglicanclergy o voluntary ontributions ymembers f thechurch. n1777,hedrafted he Statute orReligiousFreedom,aspartof hisrevisionof the lawsof Virginia,butthebillwas not reportedo theAssemblyuntil1779,andthen,withthesupportof JamesMadison, t wasenactedn 1785andbecame awon 16January1786.(It is the bicentennial f this lawthat we arecelebrating, nd we shall have acloserlook at it in due course.)4. He drafteda revisionof the criminalandpenallaws to makethemmore hu-mane.Thiseliminated hedeathpenaltyexcept or treasonandmurder, ndingeneralrelaxedheseverity f punishmentsndmade hecriminalawmorerational. efferson'sbill with some revisionswasadopted n 1796.45. He ledthemovementn theVirginiaLegislatureo liberalize nddemocratizethe landand inheritance awsby the abolition of entails and primogeniture. hesechanges nthe lawhadthe effectof looseningupthearistocratic,and-holding ocietyby broadening he economic base of society.56. In 1776he introduced bill to discontinue he slavetrade,and this measurewasadoptedtwo years ater.67. His bill to liberalizenaturalizationsserted he natural ightof aperson o ex-patriatehimselfvoluntarily.All persons, he bill asserted,havethe naturalright"ofrelinquishinghecountrynwhichbirthorotheraccidentmayhave hrown hem,andseeking ubsistence ndhappinesswheresoeverheymaybeableormayhopeto findthem."78. Oneof thebills Jeffersondraftedaspartof hisrevision f the lawsof the Com-monwealthwas anact for thediffusion of knowledge.Themeasureproposed he es-tablishment f primary ndwhatwetodaycallsecondarychools; he mostpromisinggraduateswouldbegivenfreetuition at theCollegeof WilliamandMary,whichwasto become,by the law that he drafted,a stateuniversity.n 1796the section in thebill providing or primary chools wasadopted,but the legislators efused o enactthe otherprovisionsbecausetheywouldbe too costly.Jefferson atersaid that thewealthyVirginians id not want o assume he financialburdenof educatinghechil-dren on the poor.Eventhoughin his owndayJeffersondid not see the successofhisact for the diffusionof knowledge,tsunderlying rincipleswereultimately indi-cated,andJefferson asbeenrecognizeds "the hiefprophet f public ducation.... "89. In1789and 1790Jeffersonmported greatnumber f oliveplants romFrance,which wereplanted n SouthCarolinaandGeorgia,andin 1790he managed o geta cask of heavyuplandrice fromAfrica,whichwasplanted n SouthCarolina,Ten-nessee,andKentucky.He expected hisspeciesof riceto supplant he wetrice whichrenderedomeof the southern tates"pestilentialhrough hesummer." Thegreatestservicewhichcan berenderednycountry,"effersonwrote,"is o add an usefulplantto its culture;especially,a breadgrain[like rice];next in value to bread s oil."9In1800,whenJefferson skedhimselfwhether iscountrywasbetterorhishavinglived, it was,he thought, by these nine actions that he judgedhimself.Any one ofthese wouldhavemadea person'shonor andreputation. effersonmighthaveadded


4/11

Jefferson and Mendelssohn 117a tenthitem,namely,his bill to establisha public ibraryn Richmond.His billwasnot enacted.10 hebill, however,wasa window nto Jefferson'smind,andposterityshould honorhimfor it. He probablydid not includethis bill in his memorandumthatwehavebeenconsideringbecause he idea of a public ibrarywas not novel.Apublic ibraryhad beenopened n Bostonas earlyas 1653.Today he BostonPublicLibrarys the oldestfreepubliccitylibrary upportedbytaxation n theworld.Ben-jaminFranklin stablished circulatingibrarynPhiladelphian 1732.Jeffersonknewof theseprecedents.n 1800,however, robably oonafter he hadwritten he memo-randumon hisservices o hiscountry,whileservingasvice-presidentn the adminis-trationof JohnAdams,Jeffersonbecame heprimemover ortheestablishmentfthe Library f Congress,whichhe strongly upportedduringhispresidency;n 1814his own fine librarybecamethe basis for the collectionof books of the LibraryofCongress.Today t is one of the world'sgreat ibrariesandis, I thinkit fair to say,one of themonumentso Jefferson's reatness, nethatspeaksmuchmoreeloquentlyof Jefferson's haracter ndspirit handoes the marblebuilding hatwas dedicatedto his memory n 1943.Whileonly fewAmericansarefamiliarwithJefferson'smemorandum f 1800,theprovisionhe madeforhisepitaph hortlybeforehis death n 1826 s famous.Fromthenine temshehadpreviouslyisted,he selected o mentiononlytwo,namely,"Au-thorof the Declaration f American ndependencendof theStatuteof Virginiaorreligious reedom,"and he added a thirditem,"&Fatherof the Universityof Vir-ginia,"whichwascharteredn 1819andopenedin 1825,withThomasJeffersonasits rector, he country's irst stateuniversity.Thememorandumf 1800and theepitapharesignificantnotonlyfor whattheyincludebutalso forwhattheyomit.There s no mentionof theimportant ffices thatJeffersonhad filled: he wasgovernorof Virginia;as a memberof the ContinentalCongress,he prepared measure or that bodyin 1784whichwas the basis for theimportantOrdinance f 1787;hewas minister o France;he wassecretary f state nPresidentWashington'sirst erm;he wasvice-presidentnderPresident ohnAdams;hehelpedplanthecityof Washington; e served wotermsaspresident f theUnitedStates;andhe, in 1803,arranged ndeffectedthe LouisianaPurchase,hatdoubledthe nationaldomain,increasingt by over800,000squaremiles.YetJeffersonwasquite rightto exclude rom hismemorandum ndepitaph hepublicoffices.A personoughtto takecreditonly forhis ownactions.Jeffersondidnotelecthimselfgovernor rpresident, ewas herecipient f offices to whichcitizenshadelectedhim.He wouldnot takethe credit. twasJeffersonhimself,however,whodrafted he Declarationof Independence ndthe Statute or ReligiousFreedom. twasJeffersonhimselfwhoplannedheUniversity f Virginia. t washewhoimportedspecialbreeds f olivesandrice; twasJeffersonwhomade heriverRivanna avigable.Onlytheseandothersuchoccasionscould herightlyconsiderwhenheaskedhimselfwhetherhiscountrywas better orhishaving ived.Inthe draftof hisepitaphhe saidthat "becauseof these,as testimonialshat I havelived,I wishmost to be remem-bered.""Jeffersondid not need to writeto Madison,"Take areof me when[I am]dead."The testimonials hat he had lived take care of him.Inaletter o VictorHugo,Flaubertmadeadistinctionbetween randeurnherent


5/11

118 JEWISHSOCIALSTUDIESin a person, and grandeurthat is conferredby circumstances.Jefferson, in reflectingupon his life in 1800 and again in 1826, removed from his reckoning the conferredgrandeur,and we, too, follow his example and pay honor to him for his inherentgran-deur,which he had in the fullestpossiblemeasureas the Creator'sgift to him- and to us.

2Just as Jefferson, when he came to preparehis epitaph, chose only three of hisactions from a muchlargernumber,so we can choose the StatuteforReligiousFreedomas the most significant and the most consequential of all of Jefferson's most famousworks and contributions. If he had to choose only one act to memorialize him on histombstone, I think that he would have said simply,"ThomasJefferson, Author of theStatute for Religious Freedom." That alone would have sufficed to mark Jefferson

as a man who had left his country the better for his having lived.By enacting Jefferson's Bill 82, as the measure was known while it was being de-bated, Virginiabecame the first state to end by law all forms of religious discrimina-tion and persecution,and Jefferson's statute became a model for other states to follow,and its essence became enshrined in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment tothe United States Constitution. Jefferson's bill was known in intellectual and liberalcircles in Europe, and its careerthrough Virginia's legislative mill was followed withinterest.Thebillwasreproducedn Diderot'sEncyclopedie n 1780.12 hestatutedeservesa place among the most celebrated defenses of intellectual and religiousliberty in his-tory. In the eighteenth century the bill had been translated into French and Italian,and today it probably can be found in all major languages throughout the world. Bythis statute alone Jefferson can be said to have left, not only his country, but alsothe world, a better place for his having lived.The enacting part of the statute is brief.13It providesthat no one shall be com-pelledto supportor attendanyreligiousworshipor religiousplaceor religiousministry,nor shall any person be burdened or molested nor in any way suffer on account forhis religious beliefs or opinions, and that all persons shall be free to profess and toargue their religious opinions, and that such acts shall in no way enlarge or diminishor affect the person's civil rights.The enactment thus, in a few words, prohibited any form of religious establish-ment. It placed religion outside the sphereof the governmentand the laws of the state.It not only prohibited he establishmentof anysinglechurch,but of allreligions,denomi-nations and sects. The statute denied the power of taxation to the state for any reli-gious purpose. These provisionsof the statute became the foundation for the judicialinterpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.The enactment had force in another direction:it guaranteed full religious libertyto everyperson. No person may be discriminatedagainst, or be made to suffer in anyway, by reason of his or her religious beliefs or opinions, and all persons shall be freeto maintain his or herreligion, without prejudiceto his or hercivil rights.These provi-sions of the statute became the foundation for the judicial interpretationof the FreeExercise Clause of the First Amendment.The statute also is important for its preamble.This part of the statute expressesthe philosophy,the intellectualand moralconvictions,on which the enactmentis based.


6/11

Jefferson and Mendelssohn 119Jefferson's bill is one of the few statutes in American jurisprudence in which thepreambleplaysan importantrole for judicial interpretation.The preamblewasquotedand given weight in the SupremeCourt's opinion in the famous New Jerseybus farecase,14he first case that spelled out the doctrine of the separation of Church and stateand held that the EstablishmentClauseof the First Amendment was intended to erect,in Jefferson's words,15"a wall of separations between Church and State."The preamblestarts out by assertingthat God createdthe mind free. Since Godis the Lord of both body and mind, He could have fashioned man's mind to have cer-tain fixed beliefs, but He did not do this, He left the mind free and made it insuscep-tible to constraint. Attempts to influence the mind by punishments, or burdens, orcivil incapacitations, tend only to beget hypocrisy or meanness. God intended thatwe should propagate our religion by influence of the reason alone, so that it is an im-pious imposition when rulers, civil or ecclesiastical, who are themselves fallible, as-sume dominion over the faith of others, and claim that their opinions alone are trueand infallible, and presumeto impose them on others, and establish religions, as hasbeen done throughout the world and through all time.The preamblegoes on to state that to compel a person to contribute money forthe propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical;that even forcing a person to support a minister or religious teacher of his own reli-gious persuasion is wrong.The preamble states that a person's civil rights should not be dependent on hisor her religious opinions, any more than on his or her opinions relating to physicsor geometry; that depriving a person of public office because of his religiousbeliefsis to deprive him of privileges and advantages to which he has a natural right.The preamble states that a religion becomes corrupt when honors and benefitsare linked with external profession of and conformance to that religion.These propositions that relate to religious liberty and the separation of Churchand statearethen followedby certainbroad statementsconcerningintellectual freedomand free speech. The opinions of persons arenot the object of civil government;thatgovernment has no jurisdiction to intrude into men's opinions on the claim of theirill tendency.The concluding sentences are a passionate, grand and moving statementin defense of freedom of thought and speech:

that t is timeenough or therightfulpurposes f civilgovernmentor itsofficers o inter-ferewhenprinciplesbreakout intoovertactsagainstpeaceandgood order;andfinally,that truth s greatandwillprevailf left to herself; hat she is the properandsufficientantagonist o error,andhasnothing o fear fromthe conflictunlessbyhuman nterposi-tiondisarmed f hernaturalweapons, reeargument nddebate; rrors easing o be dan-gerouswhenit is permittedreelyto contradicthem.Is it any wonder that Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom has withstood

the ravagesof time;that it is one of the few documents that have been kept from fallinginto obsolescence and obscurity? A few other thinkers before Jefferson pleaded forreligious and intellectual toleration: for example, John Locke, whom Jefferson con-sidered one of the three greatestmen of all time (the other two being Francis Baconand Isaac Newton).16 Locke pleaded, however,not for religiousliberty,but for tolera-tion for those who would not share the beliefs of the established Church, and he ex-


7/11

120 JEWISHSOCIALSTUDIEScluded from toleration Roman Catholics and atheists. Jefferson went beyond Locke.Sometime in 1776,when he wastakingnotes on Locke'sLetteron Toleration,Jeffersonwrote: "It was a great thing [for Locke] to go so far [in his plea for toleration] butwhere he stopped short, we may go on."17He did go on, and he drafted a statute thathas become a landmark in the history of religious freedom. InterpretingJefferson'slanguage and readingit into the FirstAmendment, the United States SupremeCourthas held that:

Neithera state nor the FederalGovernmentan set up a church.Neithercanpasslawswhichaidone religion,aidall religions,or preferone religionoveranother.Neithercanforcenorinfluencea person o go to or to remainaway rom churchagainsthis will orforcehim to professa beliefor disbelief n anyreligion.No personcan be punished orentertaining r professing eligiousbeliefs or disbeliefs, or churchattendance r non-attendance.No tax in anyamount, argeor small,can be leviedto supportanyreligiousactivitiesor institutions,whateverhey maybe called,or whateverormthey mayadoptto teach or practice eligion.Neithera state nor the FederalGovernmentan,openlyorsecretly, articipaten the affairsof any religiousorganizations rgroupsand vice versa.In thewordsof Jefferson, he clauseagainst stablishmentf religionbylawwas ntendedto erect"awallof separationbetweenChurchandState."'At this point I want to call attention to a paradox. In interpretingthe meaningof the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, the Supreme Court has goneback to the intention of the Framers,Jefferson and Madison, and here we are payingtribute to Jefferson for what he drafted as a law that was enacted by Virginiatwo cen-

turies ago. YetJefferson himself was not a man who looked back in time. Tenyearsbefore his death, Jefferson wrote that the dead have no rights. "Theyare nothing,"he wrote.A generationthat is dead has no rightto hold to obedienceto theirwill futuregenerations. This earth, he wrote, and everything upon it, belongs to its present oc-cupants."Theyalone have arightto directwhatis the concernof themselvesalone...."19One might argue from these premises that it is foolish and idolatrous to pay tributeto Jefferson for a document that he wrote in the 1770s and to honor a statute thatwas adopted two hundred years ago.Yet we are persuaded by a countervailing line of thought. Jefferson was a firmbeliever n natural awand naturalrights; hat certainrightsare inherentand inalienable,that they constitute essential aspects of what makes a human being; that governmentis not the source of these rights;that these rights existed before governments were in-stituted;that no person can be deprivedof his naturalrights;that no government canbe given the legitimate power to curtail these rights.These propositions arethe foundation for the Statute of ReligiousFreedom. Thetruth and force of these propositions did not cease with the death of the persons whoformulated them. They are as meaningful and pertinent today as they were in 1786.By looking back in such instancesto the intention of the Founders,we are not engagedin worship of the dead; we adopt their thoughts and words as our own; we ourselvesbecome the Framersand Founders. It is like the commandment to believe that it iswe ourselves, and not only our ancestors, who stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, thatwe ourselves were among those who experiencedthe Exodus from Egypt, the marchfrom slavery into freedom.It is not fashionable today to speak of natural law or natural rights. No matter,


8/11

Jeffersonand Mendelssohn 121for it is quitepermissibleo speakof humanrights.Indeed,when the heads of thetwo super-powersmeet,humanrightsare on the agenda ordiscussionandnegotia-tion. There s a UniversalDeclaration f HumanRights,adoptedbythe GeneralAs-semblyof theUnitedNations; heEuropeanConvention or theProtection f HumanRightsandFundamental reedoms, doptedn 1953;heHelsinkiAgreement f 1975;all of theseand otherchartersandconventions ranslatenaturalrights nto humanrights, ndaffirmandvindicatehe naturalawandnatural ightsphilosophy f ThomasJefferson.Theyareallbasedonthe beliefthattherearerights nherent n thehumanbeing,andthattheserightsareinalienable, ndthata governmenthat deniesthemis a tyranny.Yes,wehavea rightand even a dutyto look backward, ven as we havea rightand evena dutyto look forward.There s a uselesspast,but there s also a usablepast,a pastness hatis congeniallypresent.Thepastnessof Jefferson s partof ourpresent,andwillbepartof the future.Jeffersonhimselfassimilatedntohispresent-ness JohnLocke,FrancisBacon,and Isaac Newton. In the samewaywe assimilateThomasJefferson.He wrote,as wehavenoted,that the dead arenothing.Yetobvi-ouslythatwas a rhetorical verstatement,wing,I believe, o his exaggeratedeliefin progress.He condemnedwhathe called "theGothic idea"

thatweare o lookbackwardsnstead f forwardsortheimprovementf the humanmind,andto recur o theannalsof our ancestors orwhat s mostperfectngovernment,n reli-gion & in learning ...20Peoplewhohave hisGothic deahe called"bigots."f Jeffersonwerealive oday,wouldhethink hat hewas ustified nhisradicaldisparagementf thepastandinhisbeliefin the inevitability f progress? doubt it. Jeffersonbelieved hat farmersare "themostvirtuousandindependentitizens"; ut"artificers",hatis, artisansandindus-trialworkers, ewrote,are"thepanders f vice & theinstruments ywhich heliber-tiesof a countryaregenerally verturned."21oday hereareonly2,200,000 arms nthe UnitedStates,only one-thirdof the numberwe had fifty yearsago. Insteadoftheagriculturalociety hatJeffersonhopedfor,wehave hemilitary-industrialom-plex hatPresident isenhowerewailed.nstead f asocietynwhich words rebeatenintoploughshares,we aremembers f a society n whichploughshares requite iter-ally beaten nto swords.Yet herehasbeenprogress, utin a paradoxicalway:everywherenthecivilizedworld here sa firmbeliefinhumanrights, hateachandeveryhumanbeing,regard-less of race,religion,nationality, r sex,hasrights hat areinherent ndinalienable;andthuswe havemadethe pastpartof ourpresent,and wereadJefferson'sStatuteforReligiousFreedom sif it werewritten orus no lessthanforhis owngeneration.

3As wehavenoted,Jefferson'sBill82, probablydraftedn 1777andnot enacteduntil1786, ttractednterestnEurope ndwasreproducedyDiderotnhisEncyclopediewhile he bill waspending.Amongthose whowerekeenly nterestednwhatwashap-pening n Virginia ndin Jefferson'sbillwasMosesMendelssohn.Mendelssohnwasalso quitefamiliarwiththe Toleranzpatent,he edict of toleration hat was issued


9/11

122 JEWISHSOCIALSTUDIESby Emperor Joseph II in 1782, originally applicable only to Vienna and Lower Aus-tria, but later made applicable to other provinces.While this edict continued existingrestrictions against an increase in the number of tolerated Jews, some economic re-strictions werelifted, and Jews wereencouraged to establish schools and enter univer-sities. The main thrust of the edict was to encourage upper class Jews to integrate so-cially. The edict was certainlyimportant as a milestone on the way to Emancipation.Moses Mendelssohn, however,had misgivings, for he feared that it was offered as anenticement to assimilation.22Coincident with the developments in Virginiaand in theHoly RomanEmpire,therewasthe publicationof ChristianWilhelm von Dohm's bookUeberdie buergerlicheVerbesserung er Juden(Onthe Civil Improvementof the Jews),which essentially was an elaboration of the policies on which the Toleranzpatentwasbased.It was these events that motivated Mendelssohn to write his Jerusalem, whichwas published in 1783, directly following the issuance of the edict by Joseph II andthe publication of Dohm's book, and while there was a great deal of public agitationover religious freedom in Virginia.Jerusalemdeservesrecognition, by both non-Jewsand Jews, as one of the most eloquent and reasoned pleas for intellectual liberty andreligious freedom. Mendelssohn knew the works of John Locke, but like Jefferson,he takes the argument beyond Locke and formulates a reasoned philosophy of totalreligious liberty and separation of Church and state. I submit that it is altogether ap-propriate hat, as wemarkthe bicentenaryof Jefferson'sStatuteforReligiousFreedom,we,at the same time, paytribute to Jerusalemon its bicentennial,and recallwith rever-ence the grandfatherof these monumentalachievements,John Locke'sLetteron Toler-ation, the tricentennial of which should have been celebrated in 1985.MendelssohnsharedLocke'sand Jefferson'sbelief in natural awand naturalrights.The human being, as createdby God, possesses the ability to reason and to have moralprinciples. These are God-given qualities and are not dependent on the state or anyother institution. Natural man, or man in society, does not need supernaturalrevela-tion to teach him that God exists, that there is providential governance, and that thesoul is immortal. Merely by the use of his natural reasoneveryperson can reach thesethree fundamental beliefs, which are the basis for his bliss or salvation. Mendelssohntook quite literally the message of Psalm 19: It is the heavens that declare the gloryof God; it is day and night that give instruction; yet no words are spoken, and theirmessage goes to the ends of the earth.23Truereligious beliefs and the principals ofvirtue are not, therefore, dependent on any special supernaturalrevelation. They arenot dependenton anyreligion'sholy scriptures.Why,he askedrhetorically,must humanbeings in remote parts of the earth, such as India, wait until it pleases some personsin Europe to come to them with the message or gospel without which they would re-main abandoned by God without virtue or happiness?24

By entering into civil society, man does not surrenderthe natural rights whichhe theretoforeenjoyed,andamongtheserights s the rightto determinehis ownthoughtsand his own beliefs. This right is inherentin him as a human being, and is inalienable.A person cannot give up this right, and it is tyrannyto deprive him of it. It follows,wrote Mendelssohn, that


10/11

Jefferson and Mendelssohn 123neither hurchnor statehas aright o subjectmen'sprinciples ndconvictionso anycoer-cion whatsoever.Neitherchurchnor state is authorized o connectprivilegesandrights... withprinciplesandconvictions.... Not even the socialcontractcouldgrantsucha rightto eitherstateor church.25

No honors or emolumentsand no penaltiesmaybe connectedwithopinions or beliefs.26By their belief in inherentand inalienable human rights, Jefferson and Mendels-sohn affirmed that the essential liberty is not a civil liberty but one that transcends

any civil or social order, a liberty that is absolute, a liberty that is an essential partof the definition of man, not merely of man as citizen, but of man as man. Inherentin that liberty is the essence of one's religion, for it is there that man knows himselfor herself as one who is made in the image of God. It is there that man's alienationis overcome, it is there that he or she discovers one's true essence under the aspectof eternity and divinity, that is, under the aspect of one's true humanity.It is appropriateto close with Mendelssohn's own concluding words, and it wasat this point that, in a footnote, he referredto the contemporary agitation over reli-gious freedom in Virginia:Reward ndpunishno doctrine, emptand bribeno one to adopt any religiousopinion!Leteveryonebe permittedo speakas he thinksto invokeGod afterhis own mannerorthat of his fathers,and to seek eternal alvationwherehe thinkshe mayfindit, as longas he does not disturbpublicfelicityand actshonestly oward he civillaws,. . . Letnoone ... be a searcher f heartsand a judgeof thoughts;et no one assumea rightthatthe Omniscient as reservedo Himselfalone!If we renderunto Caesarwhat s Caesar's,then do you yourselves enderunto God what is God's! Lovetruth!Lovepeace!27Although Mendelssohn knew of Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom, it istoo bad that Jefferson did not know of Mendelssohn'sJerusalem;for they were kin-dred sprits. There are those who are devoted exclusively to religion; there are thosewho are devoted exclusivelyto liberty.the genius of Jefferson and Mendelssohn wasthat they saw that liberty was inextricablylinked with religion, for, wherethere is no

liberty, religion can be only hypocrisy or superstition, or an instrument of cruelty,tyranny and corruption. We pay tribute to Jefferson and Mendelssohn because theywere pioneers in establishing the link between religion and liberty.

NOTES*Thisessaywas deliveredn celebration f the 50thAnniversaryf theConference n JewishSocialStudies, nc.,whichwasheld n NewYork n 14December 986.Theessaywassponsored yTheValentine:The Museum f the Life andHistoryof RichmondVirginia,n cooperationwiththe JewishCommunityFederation f Richmond.1.Letter romJefferson o Madison,17February 826.Jefferson Library f America,NewYork,

1980),pp. 1,512,1,515. Hereinafterhisvolumewillbe referredo simplyas Jefferson).2. Jefferson,p. 702. DumasMalone,JeffersonandHis Time Boston,1948),pp. 116.3. Malone,Jeffersonand His Time,pp. 115-16.4. Ibid.,pp. 269-73.5. Ibid., pp. 251-57.


11/11

124 JEWISHSOCIALSTUDIES6. Ibid.,p. 264.7. Ibid.,p. 269.8. Ibid.,p. 280.9. Jefferson,p. 703.

10.Malone,Jeffersonand His Time,p. 285.11.Jefferson,p. 706.12.AdrienneKoch,ThePhilosophyof ThomasJefferson NewYork,1943),p. 47.13.Jefferson,p. 346.14.Eversonv. Boardof Education,330 U. S. 1 (1947).15.Jefferson'setter o DanburyBaptistAssoc.,in Jefferson,p. 510.16.Adrienne och,Power,Morals,nd heFounding athersIthaca,N.Y.,1961), .29.Malone effersonand theRights of Man(Boston, 1951),pp. 211,287.17.Koch,Power,Morals,and theFoundingFathers,p. 24.18.Everson ase,citedabove Note 14.19.Jeffersonetterto Sam.Kercheval, 2July 1816:Jefferson,pp. 1,401-403.20. Jefferson etterto Jos. Priestley, 7 January1800:Jefferson,p. 1,703.21.Jefferson,Noteson Virginia1787), efferson,p.301;etter o JohnJay,23August1785: efferson,p. 818.22.Encylopedia udaica,XV, 1,210.23. MosesMendelssohn,erusalem1783), ranslated yAllanArkush. ntroductionndCommen-tary by AlexanderAltmann Hanover,N.H., 1983),p. 126.24. Ibid.,p. 94.25. Ibid.,p. 70;cf. p. 61.26. Ibid.,p. 71.27.Ibid.,p. 139.

Documents

The Congruence of Thomas Jefferson and Moses Mendelssohn