History lesson

Dear Editor:This letter is in regards to Maggie Allen's rebuttal to the letter sent by Miguel Rojas ("Politics and Religion Don't Mix," 10/30/09). It is obvious to me that Mrs. Allen is not well informed in the subject of U.S. History. First of all, her statement that "all but one signer of our Constitution were Christians" is completely false. The signers of our Constitution were a mix of Christians of different denominations, Quakers, Unitarians and Deists. They all knew, regardless of their own personal beliefs, that the adulterous connection between Church and State was better left to the English. Our own Constitution acknowledges no power to anyone other than "We The People" and makes no mention of God nor of a man called Christ. Mrs. Allen is correct in stating that "the separation of church and state" is not in any of our governing documents and only appears in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists in which he referred to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state. I would like to share a legitimate governing document with Mrs. Allen known as the "Treaty of Tripoli" Article 11 in particular which reads as follows: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. " Official records show that after President John Adams sent the treaty to the Senate for ratification in May 1797, the entire treaty was read aloud on the Senate floor and copies were printed for every senator. A committee considered the treaty and recommended ratification, 23 of the 32 sitting senators were present for the June 7 vote which unanimously approved the ratification recommendation. So to imply, as Mrs. Allen does, that our U.S. history has been so perverted in recent editions of our textbooks or that many immigrants nowadays don't really know or care about our history, would do nothing other than give the appearance of ignorance to the true intent of The Founding Fathers and racism towards educated citizens with an Hispanic surname. - Charlie Negrete, Downey

********** Published: November 13, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 30