Governor Chafee isn’t the only one who remains deeply touched by the legacy of Rhode Island founding father Roger Williams, who died 329 years ago. Martha Nussbaum, the prominent University of Chicago law professor, invokes Williams in her new book (emphasis mine):

Finally, there is the need for “sympathetic imagination” on the part of citizens. Here the United States has long taken the lead, cultivating respect for religious differences since the 17th century, when Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, the “first colony (anywhere in the world, it seems) in which genuine religious liberty obtained for all.” Nussbaum is particularly impressed with Williams’s respectful treatment of the Narragansett Indians, whose language and culture he struggled to understand at a time when most of the colonists thought of them as beasts or devils.

Quite a legacy. (What would Williams have thought about the Narragansetts’ casino frustrations?)

• Related: WSJ, NYT look at ‘exasperatingly admirable’ Roger Williams (Dec. 30)