<P> Jefferson's letter was in reply to a letter that he had received from the Danbury Baptist Association dated October 7, 1801 . In an 1808 letter to Virginia Baptists, Jefferson used the same theme: </P> <P> We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws . And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries . </P> <P> Jefferson and James Madison's conceptions of separation have long been debated . Jefferson refused to issue Proclamations of Thanksgiving sent to him by Congress during his presidency, though he did issue a Thanksgiving and Prayer proclamation as Governor of Virginia . Madison issued four religious proclamations while President, but vetoed two bills on the grounds they violated the first amendment . On the other hand, both Jefferson and Madison attended religious services at the Capitol . Years before the ratification of the Constitution, Madison contended "Because if Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body ." After retiring from the presidency, Madison wrote of "total separation of the church from the state ." ""Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion & Govt in the Constitution of the United States," Madison wrote, and he declared, "practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government is essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States ." In a letter to Edward Livingston Madison further expanded, "We are teaching the world the great truth that Govts . do better without Kings & Nobles than with them . The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Govt ." Madison's original draft of the Bill of Rights had included provisions binding the States, as well as the Federal Government, from an establishment of religion, but the House did not pass them . </P> <P> Jefferson's opponents said his position was the destruction and the governmental rejection of Christianity, but this was a caricature . In setting up the University of Virginia, Jefferson encouraged all the separate sects to have preachers of their own, though there was a constitutional ban on the State supporting a Professorship of Divinity, arising from his own Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom . Some have argued that this arrangement was "fully compatible with Jefferson's views on the separation of church and state;" however, others point to Jefferson's support for a scheme in which students at the university would attend religious worship each morning as evidence that his views were not consistent with strict separation . Still other scholars, such as Mark David Hall, attempt to sidestep the whole issue by arguing that American jurisprudence focuses too narrowly on this one Jeffersonian letter while failing to account for other relevant history </P>

What did the founders mean by separation of church and state
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