In our country there were three infidels--Paine, Franklin and Jefferson.
The colonies were full of superstition, the Puritans with the spirit
of persecution. Laws savage, ignorant, and malignant had been passed in
every colony for the purpose of destroying intellectual liberty.
Mental freedom was absolutely unknown. The toleration acts of
Maryland tolerated only Christians--not infidels, not thinkers, not
investigators. The charity of Roger Williams was not extended to those
who denied the Bible, or suspected the divinity of Christ. It was not
based upon the rights of man, but upon the rights of believers, who
differed in non-essential points.