This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories.

Up next, a story on one of the most important series of letters regarding our nation's

great principle of religious tolerance. Here to tell the story is our regular contributor and the founder

and chairman of Bold Gold Media Group, Vince Benedetto. Let's get into the story.

In August 1790, America was a new nation with a new constitution and a new government.

And the country had a war hero for its president, a man the country knew and loved.

A one-page thank you letter, written by George George Washington on August 18th of that year

would set the course of religious liberty and tolerance in America

and pave the path for the passage of the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights.

The story of how that letter, Washington's letter to the Hebrew congregation in Rhode Island, came to be,

reflects not just his character and ideals, but also his new nations.

America's first president understood the importance of visiting the people of the new

constitutional republic he was leading, as well as the power of the first three words of the newly

ratified Constitution. We, the people. He spent a good deal of time making ceremonial tours

of the nation, visiting the people of the states he had been chosen to serve. The first nine

states, the number required for the Constitution's ratification, had been

reached by June of 1788, and the Constitution became effective in March 1789.

On April 30, 1789, Washington took his oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City.

Washington was the wonder of his era.

He built an army from nothing, defeated the world's greatest empire,

willingly walked away from power, presided over an unprecedented constitutional convention,

...