Thomas Jefferson on Freedom of Conscience

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - 1777

"It is inconsistent with the spirit of our laws and Constitution to force tender consciences." - 1781

"But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to God." - 1782

"The freedom of opinion and the reasonable maintenance of it is not a crime and ought not to occasion injury." - 1801

"We are bound, you, I, and every one, to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience." - 1803

"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become their own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God and himself." - 1803

"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the "rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority." - 1809

"This country which has given to the world the example of physical liberty owes it that of moral emancipation also." - 1821

* The right of freedom on conscience is not guaranteed by the State of Alaska Constitution.

- Distributed by Representative Terry Martin