Address of the Danbury Baptist Association to Thomas Jefferson
A letter to President Jefferson from an association of Baptist churches in Connecticut, signed by a committee of three. It states their belief in religious liberty and their complaint that in their state they held it only as a favour.
The address is headed as that of the Danbury Baptist Association, assembled on 7 October 1801, and is signed by Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins and Stephen S. Nelson. The Baptists write as a religious minority in a state that still had an established church. They say that religion is at all times a matter between God and individuals, and that the legitimate power of civil government reaches no further than to punish one who harms his neighbour. They also acknowledge that the president is not the national legislator and that the national government cannot destroy the laws of each state.
It is the letter to which Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, 1 January 1802 replies, and it shows what the dissenters themselves asked for.
Cited in
- 1786 to 1791, firm date