Republican (constitutionalist) President Jefferson writes to the Reverend Samuel Miller, a Presbyterian clergyman, explaining his reluctance to issue Proclamations of Thanksgiving:
I consider the government of the [u]nited States as interdicted from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof, but also from that which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the [u]nited States. Certainly no power over religious discipline has been delegated to the general government. It must thus rest with the states as far as it can be in any human authority.
[added 8/16/2026]
Subsequent Events:
References:
Paul Johnson, A History of the American People, (New York: HarperPerennial, 1997), 210-11.
Thomas Jefferson, Writings of, Merrill Peterson, ed., (New York: Library of America, 1984), 1186.
Current U.s. National Debt:
