Thomas Jefferson's Letter

Jefferson's Letter Thomas Jefferson (in his oft miss-quoted dissertation on the subject) did NOT state that there was or should be such a separation, but that there was a "wall of separation" which the government could not breach. The misunderstood statement from Thomas Jefferson has resulted in Judges who ignore the Constitution and the original intent of the First Amendment of our Founding Fathers. Jefferson's statement was in a letter to a group of Baptists in Connecticut (January 1, 1802), who were concerned about the government breaching their religious freedom and the affairs of the Church. Jefferson in his letter stated exactly this:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
Is not Jefferson saying the legislature can not favor a specific religion and it can not prohibit religious exercise? As he also stated: "No power over the freedom of religion is delegated to the United States by the Constitution."
In another letter the same Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises." (letter to Samuel Miller, 23 January 1809) Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 1186.


http://www.earstohear.net/Separation/letter.html​