Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“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.”
- Date
- 1790
Meaning of “It is now no more that toleration is…”
Washington rejects the idea that religious liberty is a favor granted by a dominant group: the stronger claim is that conscience belongs to citizens as an inherent right rather than by another group’s permission.
Where does it come from?
Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.
