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What did the most important founders believe about separation of church and state?


Here's our list of founders, ranked in general order of their importance (we explain our ranking system elsewhere in this site). Each founder is linked to a separate article that explains his beliefs about church and state.

Note: we've only just begun to research this section in detail. Only a few names on this list are now linked to separate articles. We will add more to this section as we have time, but it's going to take a long time, and we'd love to have help. If you want to help in this project, drop us a line!


  1. James Madison
  2. James Wilson
  3. Rufus King
  4. Elbridge Gerry
  5. Edmund Randolph
  6. Charles Pinckney
  7. George Mason
  8. Alexander Hamilton
  9. Gouverneur Morris
  10. John Rutledge
  11. Caleb Strong
  12. George Read
  13. John Marshall
  14. John Vining
  15. Ben Franklin
  16. Fisher Ames
  17. James Monroe
  18. James McHenry
  19. Thomas Jefferson
  20. Samuel Adams
  21. Patrick Henry
  22. John Q. Adams
  23. John Adams
  24. Oliver Ellsworth
  25. Ben Rush
  26. John Jay
  27. John Randolph
  28. Joseph Story
  29. Henry Lee
  30. John Hancock
  31. John Witherspoon
  32. Noah Webster

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