David Barton > Quotes

“Yet, if the phrase “separation of church and state” appears in no official founding document, then what is the source of that phrase? And how did it become so closely associated with the First Amendment? On October 7, 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, sent a letter to President Thomas Jefferson expressing their concern that protection for religion had been written into the laws and constitutions. Believing strongly that freedom of religion was an inalienable right given by God, the fact that it appeared in civil documents suggested that the government viewed it as a government-granted rather than a God-granted right. Apprehensive that the government might someday wrongly believe that it did have the power to regulate public religious activities, the Danbury Baptists communicated their anxiety to President Jefferson.36 On January 1, 1802, Jefferson responded to their letter. He understood their concerns and agreed with them that man accounted only to God and not to government for his faith and religious practice. Jefferson emphasized to the Danbury Baptists that none of man’s natural (i.e., inalienable) rights – including the right to exercise one’s faith publicly – would ever place him in a situation where the government would interfere with his religious expressions.37 He assured them that because of the wall of separation, they need not fear government interference with religious expressions: Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, . . . I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.38 In his letter, Jefferson made clear that the “wall of separation” was erected not to limit public religious expressions but rather to provide security against governmental interference with those expressions, whether private or public.”
― David Barton, Separation of Church and State: What the Founders Meant

“When the First Amendment was finally approved, it contained two separate clauses on religion, each with an independent scope of action. The first clause (called the Establishment Clause) prohibited the federal government from establishing a single national denomination; the second clause (called the Free Exercise Clause) prohibited the federal government from interfering with the people’s public religious expressions and acknowledgments.”
― David Barton, Separation of Church and State: What the Founders Meant

“It’s interesting that many of the best instructors in early America were Scottish Presbyterians. As historian George Marsden affirmed, “[I]t is not much of an exaggeration to say that outside of New England, the Scots were the educators of eighteenth-century America.”7 These Scottish instructors regularly tutored students in what was known as the Scottish Common Sense educational philosophy –”
― David Barton, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson

“This is why Frederick Douglass (unlike many Americans today who have never taken the time to study the Constitution) could therefore emphatically declare that the Constitution – all of the Constitution – was anti-slavery.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“While Republicans were working to end slavery and secure civil rights, the new nation of southern Democrats was determined to head in an opposite direction.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“few learn about the first slaves that arrived in the Massachusetts Colony set up by the Christian Pilgrims and Puritans. When that slave ship arrived in Massachusetts, the ship’s officers were arrested and imprisoned and the kidnapped slaves were returned to Africa at the Colony’s expense.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“Few Americans are aware that many of the soldiers who fought during the American Revolution were black – and unlike the later segregated regiments in the Civil War, many of the units in the American Revolution were fully integrated, with black patriots fighting and dying side by side with their white fellow comrades and soldiers. 5”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“Garfield fought side by side with African Americans during the Civil War; and after the War, he worked side by side with America’s first African American congressmen to pass those early civil rights bills.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“There was indeed a clear difference between the philosophy of Republicans and Democrats on the issue of race and racial equality. Southern Democrats had been willing to form an entire nation on the foundation of white supremacy – and there was no doubt that the South was strongly Democratic.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“These anti-slavery Founders argued that if the South was going to count its “property” (that is, its slaves) in order to get more pro-slavery representation in Congress, then the North would count its “property” (that is, its sheep, cows, and horses) to get more anti-slavery representation in Congress. Of course, the South objected just as strongly to this proposal as the North had objected to counting slaves.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“In 1864, following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, several civil rights laws – and laws preparing to facilitate civil rights – were passed by Republicans.85 One was a bill establishing the Freedmen’s Bureau 86 and another equalized pay for soldiers in the military, whether white or black. 87 The Fugitive Slave Law was also repealed that year 88 – over the almost unanimous opposition of the northern Democrats still in Congress. 89”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“During the Civil War, Douglass helped recruit the first black regiment to fight for the Union, and he advised Abraham Lincoln on the Emancipation Proclamation and other important issues.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write. . . . [and a]bove all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education – this will make them dutiful children, teachable scholars, and, afterwards, good apprentices, good husbands, good wives, honest mechanics, industrious farmers, peaceable sailors, and, in everything that relates to this country, good citizens.”
― David Barton, Benjamin Rush: Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Dr. Rush was firm in his belief that education, to be successful, must infuse the principles of Christianity throughout all of its academic disciplines. In fact, when he presented his plan for universal public education on March 28, 1787, he explained:”
― David Barton, Benjamin Rush: Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Recall that the 1789 law prohibited slavery in a federal territory. In 1820, the Democratic Congress passed the Missouri Compromise 40 and reversed that earlier policy, permitting slavery in almost half of the federal territories. Several States were subsequently admitted as slave States; and for the first time since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, slavery was being officially promoted by congressional policy.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“This, then, is the Three-fifths Clause – it had nothing to do with the worth of any individual;”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“The Democrats’ response against open education for black youth sometimes went beyond words to acts of violence – as when they burned down eight schools in Memphis in which black youth were being taught.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“The acquisition of knowledge without the ability to think is merely indoctrination.”
― David Barton, The American Story: Building the Republic

“I have seen and put in study to look into all the Scriptures….Our Lord opened to my understanding (I could sense His hand upon me), so that it became clear that it was feasible to navigate from here to the Indies....All those who heard about my enterprise rejected it with laughter, scoffing at me….Who doubts that this illumination was from the Holy Spirit? I attest that He [the Spirit], with marvelous rays of light, consoled me through the holy and sacred Scriptures….No one should be afraid to take on any enterprise in the name of our Savior, if it is right and if the purpose is purely for His holy service.33”
― David Barton, The American Story: The Beginnings

“I have never seen a contemporary history book that informs students that witch trials were also occurring across the world at that time with 500,000 put to death in Europe,45 including 30,000 in England, 75,000 in France, and 100,000 in Germany.46 Why do modern texts point out the twenty-seven deaths in America but ignore the 500,000 elsewhere? Historical Negativism.”
― David Barton, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson

“And in the famous picture of the 1776 crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, two men depicted at the front of the boat include Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell – two black patriots who served with George Washington and other American generals during the Revolution.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“The Three-Fifths Clause had to do only with representation: it was an anti-slavery provision designed to limit the number of pro-slavery representatives in Congress.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“Several other pro-slavery laws were also passed by Democrats in Congress, including the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. 42 That law required Northerners to return escaped slaves back into slavery or else pay huge fines.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“African American history – so much of it is truly unknown today. For example, few know of James Armistead – a black patriot and spy who helped make possible the 1781 Yorktown victory during the American Revolution that established America as an independent nation. 1”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“All know the Bible story of David’s victory over Goliath, 12 yet the Bible also tells the story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba 13 and of his failure with his son Absalom. 14 If only David and his failures were mentioned, that would not be the complete story; on the other hand, if only David and his victories were listed, neither would that be the complete story. It takes all sides of a story to see the full, accurate picture. So the Bible (and early writers in black history) illustrate the principle that the good, the bad, and the ugly must be presented in order to transmit the full story not only of history in general but of African American political history in particular – which is the policy that will be pursued in this work. In this chronological journey through many momentous events in black political history, both the people and the issues involved in those early events”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“That the Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.”
― David Barton, Benjamin Rush: Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Another aspect of behavior directly impacted by the removal of religious principles was morality. Recall that both George Washington and Fisher Ames had warned that neither national morality in general nor student morality in particular could be maintained apart from religious principles. Statistics now verify the accuracy of their warnings. For example, following the 1962-1963 court-ordered removal of religious principles from students, teenage pregnancies immediately soared over 700 percent,52 with the United States recording the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world.53 Similarly, sexual activity among fifteen year-olds skyrocketed,54 and sexually transmitted diseases among students ascended to previously unrecorded levels.55 In fact, virtually every moral measurement kept by federal cabinet-level agencies reflects the same statistical pattern: the removal of religious principles from the public sphere was accompanied by a corresponding decline in public morality.56”
― David Barton, Separation of Church and State: What the Founders Meant

“Although the history of black Americans begins in 1619 with the arrival of the first slaves in America, the political history of black Americans actually begins much later, in 1787 – the year in which the American political system was constructed – the year in which the Constitution was written.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

“The key question for any nation is always, “Which system of morals should be followed?” Numerous American leaders, including Thomas Jefferson, thoroughly investigated the answer to this query. For years, Jefferson studied the moral teachings of dozens of history’s most famous moral philosophers, including Ocellus, Timæus, Pythagoras, Aristides, Cato, Socrates, Plato, Epicurus, Cicero, Xenophon, Seneca, Epictetus, Antoninus, and many others.27 After reading and critiquing the writings of each, Jefferson repeatedly praised the preeminence of Jesus’ moral teachings over all others,28 pointing out that Jesus alone “pushed His scrutinies into the heart of man, erected His tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.”29 Jefferson contemplated publishing a personal work to document his findings, explaining how he would cover this subject in such a piece: I should first take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of the ancient philosophers of whose ethics we have sufficient information to make an estimate—say Pythagoras, Epicurus, Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice to the branches of morality they have treated well, but point out the importance of those in which they are deficient….I should proceed to a view of the life, character, and doctrines of Jesus….[H]is system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers.30 Jefferson eventually did compile a work on the “benevolent and sublime” teachings of Jesus for his personal use. He titled it The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, and in it he included 81 moral teachings of Jesus.31 In 1895, Congress purchased Jefferson’s original manuscript from his great-granddaughter,32 and in 1902, the US Congress published it for use by the nation’s federal senators and representatives.33 Nine thousand copies were printed at government expense, and for the next 50 years, every senator and representative received a copy of Jefferson’s Life and Morals of Jesus at his or her swearing in.34 This book is often called “The Jefferson Bible,” which is a substantial misrepresentation of this work on the wonderful moral teachings of Jesus. After all, Jefferson never called it a Bible; he simply created a readily-usable collection of the moral teachings of Jesus.*”
― David Barton, The American Story: The Beginnings

“Following the Civil War, Douglass received Presidential appointments from Republican Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James A. Garfield.”
― David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White