Washington's Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport

Summary

In August 1790, during a tour of New England, President George Washington was welcomed at Newport, Rhode Island, by Moses Seixas, warden of the Hebrew Congregation there. Seixas's address, dated 17 August, speaks for "the children of the stock of Abraham." It remembers days of difficulty and danger, and it gives thanks for a government "which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance," and which affords to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. The letter asks that the God who conducted Israel's forefathers would also conduct the president. Washington's reply, dated 18 August 1790, is the document for which this page is named. The library hosts both letters, clearly labeled, so that students can see what Washington takes up and what he changes. He thanks the congregation for a welcome from all classes of citizens, and he says that the Citizens of the United States have given mankind an example of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights." Happily, he writes, the Government of the United States, "which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens." He closes with a blessing: may the children of the Stock of Abraham sit in safety under their own vine and fig-tree, and may there be none to make them afraid. The difference between the two letters matters. Seixas already praises a government that does not sanction bigotry. Washington accepts that language, then adds a sharper claim: "toleration" is too small a word when rights are inherent and equal, not a favor granted by a majority. The letters belong to the year before the Bill of Rights was ratified, and they should be read with Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, not as a later myth about a single synagogue visit. They do not appear in the library's Washington collection of the Farewell Address and selected letters, so this stand-alone page fills a genuine gap. A Christian reading can give thanks for liberty of conscience without pretending that every American practice then, or now, already matched the standard Washington named.

Top Lessons

• More than toleration

  Washington says it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if one class indulged another. He treats liberty of conscience as an inherent natural right under a government that does not sanction bigotry.

• A conversation, not a monologue

  The famous phrases about bigotry and persecution already appear in Seixas’s address. Washington takes them up, then adds the argument about inherent rights and good citizenship.

• Rights and duties together

  The government requires that those under its protection demean themselves as good citizens and give it effectual support. Liberty of conscience is joined to civic duty, not set against it.

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