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Author: Religious Freedom Archive

Jefferson’s Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus

Jefferson’s Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus

Thomas Jefferson May 21, 1803 Before he wrote the Jefferson Bible, Jefferson had tried to get others to create a more honest depiction of the true merits of Jesus. He crafted this syllabus ostensibly as a guide for someone else who might tackle the project. In the end, he did the Philosophy of Jesus and, later, the Life and Morals of Jesus, himelf. Here is the cover note he sent to Benjamin Rush and and an earlier note on the…

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Second Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson, 1802

Second Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson, 1802

Thomas Jefferson December 15, 1802 Even though he supported separation of church and state and criticized much religion, Jefferson still seemed to believe that God protected America. December 15, 1802 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: When we assemble together, fellow-citizens, to consider the state of our beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favor they flow and the large measure…

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Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson

Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson February 27, 1787 Jefferson wrote this book in 1781 and 1782. His section on religion catalogued the penalties against “heresy,” and also included one of the lines that would get him into trouble during the 1800 election. Here is his chapter on religion. Religion The first settlers in this country were emigrants from England, of the English church, just at a point of time when it was flushed with complete victory over the religious of all other persuasions….

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William Short, October 31, 1819

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William Short, October 31, 1819

Thomas Jefferson October 31, 1819 Monticello Oct. 31. 19 Dear Sir Your favor of the 21st is recieved. My late illness, in which you are so kind as to feel an interest was produced by a spasmodic stricture of the ilium, which came upon me on the 7th inst. The crisis was passed over favorably on the 4th day, and I should soon have been well but that a dose of calomel & Jalap, in which were only 8 or…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William Canby (on Jesus), September 18, 1813

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William Canby (on Jesus), September 18, 1813

Thomas Jefferson September 18, 1813 Jefferson praises Jesus but says those who believe in the “those moral precepts in which all religions concur” will go to heaven. MONTICELLO, September 18, 1813 SIR, — I have duly received your favor of August 27th, am sensible of the kind intentions from which it flows, and truly thankful for them. The more so as they could only be the result of a favorable estimate of my public course. During a long life, as…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 1814

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 1814

Thomas Jefferson June 13, 1814 Jefferson wrestles with the role of God and religion in the formation of morality. The copy of your Second Thoughts on Instinctive Impulses, with the letter accompanying it, was received just as I was setting out on a journey to this place, two or three days’ distant from Monticello. I brought it with me and read it with great satisfaction, and with the more as it contained exactly my own creed on the foundation of…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Smith, February 21, 1825

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Smith, February 21, 1825

Thomas Jefferson February 21, 1825 In his later years, Jefferson offers his religious and moral creed to the son of a friend. This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run, and I too, as…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, January 1, 1802

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, January 1, 1802

Thomas Jefferson January 1, 1802 The Danbury Baptist Association was founded in 1790 as a coalition of about 26 churches in the Connecticut Valley. Connecticut had established Congregationalism as its official state religion. It was as a persecuted religious minority that they wrote to President Jefferson asking for his help in overthrowing the establishment. Jefferson’s response was not some throwaway courtesy note but the product of careful deliberation involving several of his top advisors. We know this with some certainty…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826

Thomas Jefferson June 24, 1826 This is thought to be one of Jefferson’s final letters. Asked to participate in a Fourth of July celebration, he reflected on the meaning of American Independence, declaring freedom of conscience to be one of the greatest achievements. RESPECTED SIR,  The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration on the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Samuel H. Smith, August 6, 1816

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Samuel H. Smith, August 6, 1816

Thomas Jefferson August 6, 1816 After a friend reports that she’d heard that Jefferson had become religious, Jefferson scathingly explains that his views had long been mischaracterized by his enemies. have received, dear Madam, your very friendly letter of July 21st, and assure you that I feel with deep sensibility its kind expressions towards myself, and the more as from a person than whom no others could be more in sympathy with my own affections. I often call to mind…

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