To Bigotry No Sanction, To Persecution No Assistance
In celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Price Library of Judaica highlights its latest acquisition: a first edition of A Collection of the Speeches of the President of the United States … (Boston: Manning & Loring, 1796). This first printing of President George Washington’s speeches, addresses, and correspondence offers valuable insight into the political culture of the early republic. Most importantly for a Judaica collection, the volume includes Washington’s famous letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, later recognized as a foundational text in the development of religious liberty in America.
Jewish life in North America began in 1654, when Sephardic Jews fleeing the Inquisition arrived in New Amsterdam (New York) and established a community there. Additional Jewish immigrants from Europe and the Caribbean followed in the early 1700s, settling in Savannah, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Newport. When Washington visited Rhode Island in 1790, shortly after the state ratified the Constitution, he met with representatives of local religious and civic groups. Among them were members of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, whose synagogue (the Touro Synagogue) was already noted for its elegant design by British architect Peter Harrison.
As was customary in the early republic, local communities presented formal public addresses to the president expressing loyalty and support for the new government. Moses Seixas, the warden of the Touro Synagogue, used his address not only to welcome Washington to Newport but also to articulate the congregation’s hopes for religious freedom and equal citizenship.
George Washington’s written reply to the Hebrew Congregation on August 18, 1790, quickly became one of the most celebrated statements on religious liberty. At the time, debates over the meaning and scope of religious freedom were still unfolding; although the Bill of Rights had been proposed, the First Amendment would not be ratified until 1791.
In his letter, Washington explicitly rejected the older European model of “toleration,” in which minority communities enjoyed rights only at the discretion of the state. Instead, he affirmed that religious liberty is an inherent right belonging equally to all U.S. citizens. His assurance that the government of the United States gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” transformed this brief exchange with the Newport Jewish community into an enduring national document.
