George Washington, January 27, 1793 letter to the members of the New Church in Baltimore
“In the Enlightened Age and in this Land of Equal Liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.”
Thomas Jefferson, 1802 letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut
“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 prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1858 speech in Edwardsville, IL
“Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you will have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage, and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, January 27, 2005, In McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of KY, 545 U.S. 844
"Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?"
Thomas Paine, 1776 Common Sense
“As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business government has to do therewith.”
The display is near a Capitol rotunda statue, seen in the background of this picture, which represents "Illinois welcoming the world."
The right panel includes quotes from religious leaders.
Matthew 22: 20-21
"Render therefore unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God those that are God's."
Roger Williams, in The Bloody Tenet of Persecution (Founder of First Baptist Church in America)
“An enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”
James Cardinal Gibbons, 1877 in Faith of Our Fathers, (The second American to be made a Catholic Cardinal)
“A civil ruler dabbling in religion is as reprehensible as a clergyman dabbling in politics. Both render themselves odious as well as ridiculous”
George W. Truett, 1920 from the steps of the United States Capitol (Baptist pastor)
“’Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,’ is one of the most revolutionary and history-making utterances that ever fell from those lips divine. That utterance, once and for all, marked the divorcement of church and state. . . .It was the sunrise gun of a new day, the echoes of which are to go on and on until in every land, whether great or small, the doctrine shall have absolute supremacy everywhere of a free church in a free state.”
John Leland, Statement in 1820 (Baptist minister)
“The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence; whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks [Muslims], Pagans and Christians. Test oaths and established creeds should be avoided as the worst of evils.”
The center panel includes text from the constitution, the first amendment, and several examples of ACLU cases in defense of religious freedom. Those cases and more can also be found at the ACLU website.