40 The USA is not a Christian nation/state (Atheism FAQ)
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This article is from the Atheism FAQ, by mathew meta@pobox.com with numerous contributions by others.
40 The USA is not a Christian nation/state (Atheism FAQ)
"Is it true that George Washington said that the United States is not
in any sense founded upon the Christian religion?"
No. The quotation often given is in fact from Article XI of the Treaty
of Tripoli (8 Stat 154, Treaty Series 358):
Article 11
As the government of the United States of America is not in any
sense founded on the Christian Religion, -- as it has in itself no
character or enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of
Musselmen, -- and as the said States never have entered into any
war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is
declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious
opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing
between the two countries.
The text may be found in the Congressional Record or in treaty
collections such as Charles I. Bevans' "Treaties and Other
International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949",
vol. 11 (pp. 1070-1080).
The Treaty of Tripoli was signed in Tripoli on November 4th, 1796. The
English text of the treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate on June 7,
1797 and ratified by President John Adams on June 10, 1797. It was
recently discovered that the US copy of the Arabic version of the
treaty not only lacks the quotation, it lacks Article XI altogether.
Instead it seems to contain the text of a letter to the Pasha of
Tripoli from the Dey of Algiers.
The person who translated the Arabic to English was Joel Barlow,
Consul General at Algiers, a close friend of Thomas Paine -- and an
opponent of Christianity. It is possible that Barlow made up Article
XI, but since there is no Arabic version of that article to be found,
it's hard to say. It seems unlikely, however.
In 1806 a new Treaty of Tripoli was ratified which no longer contained
the quotation. The 1815 Treaty With Algiers contains a similar
article, but does not state that the US government is not founded on
religion, only that it is not incompatible with any religion.
Ignoring the question of the wording of the Arabic version of the 1776
Treaty of Tripoli, we can conclude that the wording of the English
article XI fairly represents the opinion of the time, as it was passed
and approved by both the US Senate and the President.
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