Jefferson letter to Wythe, 1786 Our act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe, resident at this court, have asked of me copies of it, to send to to their sovereigns, and it it inserted at full length in several books now in the press;among others, in the new Encyclopedie. I think it will produce considerable good even in these countries, where ignorance, superstition, poverty, and oppression of body and mind,in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped.
EMANCIPATING
If all the sovereigns of Europe were to set themselves to work, to emancipate the minds of their subjects from their present ignorance and prejudices, and that, as zealously as they now endeavor the contrary, a thousand years would not place them on that high ground, on which our common people are now setting out. ours could not have been so fairly placed under the control of the common sense of the people, had they not been separated from their parents stock,and kept from contamination, either from them, or the other people of the old world, by intervention of so wide an ocean.
Jefferson letter to Madison, 1786 The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with infinite approbation in Europe,and propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by the government,but by the individuals who compose them. It has been translated into French and Italian, has been sent to most of the courts of Europe,and has been the best evidence of the falsehood of those reports which stated us to be in anarchy.
It is inserted in the new Encyclopedie, and is appearing in most of the publications respecting America. In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us, to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare, that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions information.
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