GW: May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
Adams: I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. “I believe [that]… once restored to an independent government & no longer persecuted [the Jews] would soon wear away some of the asperities and peculiarities of their character & possibly in time become liberal Unitarian[s]
Jefferson: a nasty sect, which had presented for the object of their worship a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust….Moses had bound the Jews to many idle ceremonies, mummeries and observances, of no effect towards producing the social utilities which constitute the essence of virtue…[Letter:] He is happy in the restoration of the Jews, particularly, to their social rights, and hopes they will be seen taking their seats on the benches of science as preparatory to their doing the same at the board of government. …The prejudice still scowling on your section of our religion altho’ the elder one, cannot be unfelt by ourselves. ..
Madison: The history of the Jews must for ever be interesting. The modern part of it is at the same time so little generally known..Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect.And it is particularly pleasing to observe in the good citizenship of such as have been most distrusted and oppressed elsewhere, a happy illustration of the safety and success of this experiment of a just and benignant policy.