Compared with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, George Washington's political thought regarding church and state has long been overlooked. It is commonly assumed that on matters of religious liberty Jefferson and Madison speak for the founding generation. The near-exclusive concern with Jefferson and Madison can be traced to Everson v. Board of Education (1947), in which the Supreme Court presumed, first, that the Founding Fathers shared a uniform understanding of religious freedom and, second, that Jefferson and Madison represented the Founders' view. Ever since, most historically minded constitutional scholars and judges have uncritically accepted Everson's presumptions. George Washington, however, was no less dedicated to securing religious freedom than were his second and third presidential successors. In a 1783 letter he testified that “the establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the field [of battle].” Washington, moreover, offers a different understanding of the right to religious freedom than either Jefferson or Madison – who, we will attempt to show, themselves disagreed.