The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Alexander Hamilton
About This Quote

Thomas Jefferson’s Supreme Court decisions on religious freedom, including his famous 1802 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, were based on the idea that the government must respect and protect the rights of its citizens to worship as they see fit. He held that such rights could not be found by looking to the past but must be determined by examining the law of nature and human reason.

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