Like Roger Williams, several important American colonialists were impressed with the culture of the Native Americans, particularly the Iroquois. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) admired the Iroquois' representative democracy and lack of religious discrimination. Franklin wanted to pattern the new colonies after it but his efforts met with resistance at first. Franklin was a Deist who had written in his book Poor Richard (1758) that "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches" and "The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."
The Iroquois also had gender equality that was not adopted by the colonialists because of Biblical teachings regarding the inferiority of women. Unlike the Iroquois, the colonialists imported women as servants, often abusing them and treating them as slaves. Women and girls could not go to school, but many educated themselves or hired tutors. During the American Revolution, the Daughters of Liberty curtailed British imports by producing textiles, wrote letters in support of American independence, and took care of the injured.
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) in 1776, echoed principles that Jefferson, Franklin and John Adams had observed among the Iroquois such as human equality, the pursuit of happiness, government by the consent of the governed, and the power of public opinion to condition morality. The Declaration was also influenced by similar movements in Europe, especially the writings of Voltaire (who will be discussed in the next article).
In the late 18th century, America ratified the Constitution and then the Bill of Rights. The first amendment reads,
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."In a letter to the Danbury Baptist Assocation January 1, 1802 Jefferson wrote:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, 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." (The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Edition, edited by Lipscomb and Bergh, 1903-04, 16:281)
