Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.  – Thomas Jefferson, in his Letter to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut (January 1, 1802)

This is the source of the footnote in which so many secularists and outright atheists seek to say establishes a wall between church and state in the United States.  It is not part of the US Constitution or attached Bill of Rights.  It is not meant to keep religious observances out of the public square.  It is meant fully for two purposes.  First. it was intended to assure the Baptists meeting in Danbury that the Congregationalists would not become the established national church of our republic as they were coming to fear.  Secondly, it was intended as Williams meant that the State should never impose its will over the various churches.  This is yet another example of how the intent of our Founding Fathers has been severely subverted.