re: #214 michael78244

Ahem …

A note, whether it was written by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, or pick your favorite old dude, does NOT over ride the constitution of the U.S. It also should not carry any legal weight at all.

On the other hand…how better to consider the original intent than to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth? Jefferson wasn’t the only one to voice such interpretations. Ever heard of Madison?

The civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State (Letter to Robert Walsh, Mar. 2, 1819).