Frank Lambert, The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America, Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 240–241, ISBN 978-0-691-12602-9.
«Ten years after the Constitutional Convention ended its work, the country assured the world that the United States was a secular state, and that its negotiations would adhere to the rule of law, not the dictates of the Christian faith. The assurances were contained in the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 and were intended to allay the fears of the Muslim state by insisting that religion would not govern how the treaty was interpreted or enforced. John Adams and the Senate made clear that the pact was between two sovereign states, not between two religious powers.»
