Rhode Island Senators Claiborne Pell and John O. Pastore today introduced a bill to re-design the five-cent regular postage stamp, bearing the picture of George Washington, to incorporate Washington’s words, “To Bigotry No Sanction.”
Washington wrote this phrase in a letter to the Jewish community of Newport, R. I., after visiting the famous Touro Synagogue, now a national historic shrine. Sen. Pell told the Senate that “today this philosophy is just as meaningful as it was then, and I urge this legislation, so that all Americans may be constantly reminded of the high ideals of the founding fathers of our country.” The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil Service.
The phrase to which the Senators referred was contained in the first President’s letter to the Newport Jewish community stating that: “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
