# Ulysses S. Grant — "Keep the church and the state forever separate" > [!quote] "Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separate." > — Ulysses S. Grant, Address to the Army of the Tennessee reunion, Des Moines, Iowa, September 29, 1875 ## Context Grant's speech to Union veterans came amid a national fight over public funding for religious (largely Catholic) schools. He proposed free, universal public education funded by taxes — and a constitutional bar on any public money going to sectarian institutions. The "Blaine Amendment" campaign of the same period grew out of this moment. Grant's formulation made the principle a ringing imperative: religion belongs to civil society, not the state. ## Why this matters A Republican president and [[American Civil War]] hero stating the separation principle as flatly as any Founder: "Keep the church and the state forever separate." Grant locates religion's proper home in "the family altar, the church, and the private school" — sustained by private contributions, not public funds — which is exactly the line that modern voucher and public-funding-of-religious-schools efforts cross. From the party that now champions Christian-nationalist policy, it is one of this collection's load-bearing receipts. ## Verification - **Primary source:** Address to the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, September 29, 1875, reported contemporaneously and collected in *The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant*; authenticity confirmed by [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/grant-next-civil-war/) and reproduced by the [Freedom From Religion Foundation](https://ffrf.org/ftod-cr/item/14389-ulysses-s-grant). - **Status:** Verbatim per these sources. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Andrew Jackson - complete separation of religion and government]] — the same principle as executive restraint, four decades earlier. - [[James A. Garfield - absolute religious freedom]] — Grant's Republican successor, restating it from the inaugural platform six years later. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Separation of Church and State]].