The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.

[<i>Letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, 1803</i>]

No axiom is more clearly established in law or in reason than wherever the end is required, the means are authorized; wherever a general power to do a thing is given, every particular power for doing it is included.

It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, <b>will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Govt. from interference in any way whatsoever</b>, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others.

[<i>Letter to the Reverend Jasper Adams, January 1, 1832</i>]