William Linn was a Dutch Reformed minister in New York. He came to be elected unanimously to the post of the first Chaplain of the United States House. In 1789 he said the following (presumably in response to a statement from Jefferson about tolerance of others' religious beliefs):
"Let my neighbor once persuade himself that there is no God, and he will soon pick my pocket, and break not only my leg but my neck. If there be no God, there is no law, no future account; government then is the ordinance of man only, and we cannot be subject for conscience sake."
See Gary Scott Smith's book Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush
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