As to Article 11, that was not a reference to the fact that America was not built on, primarily, the Judeo/Christian ethic, which back to Sir William Blackstone and English Common Law which was based primarily on the same ethic, simple meant that America, as far as the Federal Government as a body was concerned, did not endorse any one religion, but was a respecter of other religions. Aside from what I would consider apostate or heretical movements such as the Crusades (after #2 especially), most English common law and what we would call "The Rule of Law" was biblically based on the precepts of those two religions. The right to property was a stringent and ubiquitous concept in the Hebrew culture, and many of our modern day "usury" laws are based on those concepts. So, to say that the Treaty of Tripoli, which had nothing to do with Washington who left office prior to the Treaty, was a statement of "Separation of Church and State" as we know it today is misleading and not based on solid history. In fact the "Separation Clause" itself is not in the First Amendment, but was from a letter from Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists and was a defense of the Federal Government not giving preference to one denomination over another, not what we hear so much about as you cannot conduct any (especially Christian because other religions are allowed to many times as cited in case history) religious business on government property or in the public square. This "Separation Clause" as we hear today is a complete "bastardization" of the First Amendment intent and is mostly perpetrated by the followers of Roger Baldwin, the founder of a well know legal group represented by four letters. He was a devout Atheist, and one of his main aims in life, other than hedonism, open borders, and open marriage (whatever that is - ha!), was to eradicate the expression of religion (any religion except Atheism which is in itself a religion) in the public square. We still fight that battle today unfortunately. Here's a little link to some of this; other related topics require their own thread. http://www.usconstitution.net/jeffwall.html