President Obama made a speech in Cairo today that was mostly directed at Muslims. At one point he quoted from an early American treaty with Morocco:
In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, “The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.”
As with most treaties, this one was eventually broken (within three years, resulting in the First Barbary War — proving you can’t negotiate with pirates). What Obama left out, and what I am sure would have made some heads explode back in Kansas, was the phrase that immediately preceded the one he quoted:
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 Musselmen (Muslims); and as the said States never have 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.
The treaty was read aloud and ratified by the Senate in a unanimous vote 212 years ago this coming Sunday (June 7, 1797).
Next time someone tells you our Founding Fathers intended America to be a Christian nation, you could remind them of this.
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