Crestview 8th grade student (Riley S.) recites and analyzes George Washington's famous letter regarding religious tolerance and the promotion of a guaranteed freedom of religion for all American citizens in the newly founded republic. President Washington carefully selected this letter to make a public statement regarding growing anxieties that the Church of England (Anglican Church) might become an official order for the United States of America. Washington did not intend for any creed or religion to be an official religion for citizens, and used this letter to reassure Jews, Catholics and various Protestant denominations that he had no intention of pursuing a route other than freedom of all religions. Partnered with the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) and the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution (1791), this letter endures as a legacy to more than mere tolerance in the early republic.

Presented in class at Crestview Middle School on Friday, January 23, 2015.

Convoy, Ohio.

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