Early Presidents Regarded the New Nation as a Secular State

The Founding Fathers were cosmopolitan intellectuals devoted to the rationalism of the Enlightenment, but they were not, for the most part, humanistic atheists or opposed to religion. On the contrary, they regarded morality as indispensable to a healthy state and religion as a primary foundation of morality, as well as of charity and concern for one’s fellows. But the state itself should be secular. John Adams spoke for most of them when he said that “governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone—[“We the people”]—without a pretense of miracle or mystery...are a great point gain in favor of the rights of mankind." As for Article VI, Madison, in the Federalist Papers [51 and 56], cited the "no religious test" clause as one of the glories of the new constitution.  "The door of the federal government, is open to merit of every description, whether native or adopted, whether young or old, and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith." And James Iredell [of North Carolina] a future justice of the Supreme Court, asked, “[How] is it possible to exclude any set of men” without thus laying “the foundation on which persecution has been raised in every part of the world.”

In 1797, less than ten years after ratification, while John Adams was president, the young nation clearly affirmed its secular status with respect to foreign policy when it signed a treaty with Tripoli, a Muslim region of North Africa. Article 11 of the treaty states, "As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims]...it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of harmony existing between the two countries." (Some contend that this statement does not appear in surviving Arabic versions of the document, but it indisputably appears in the English version, which is the one voted on by Congress and signed by President Adams.)