19th Century (Antebellum)

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson April 11, 1823 Jefferson attacks Calvin, predestination, the immaculate conception and other facets of Christianity. DEAR SIR, — The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of `mon Dieu! jusque à quand’! would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism….

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, September 4, 1823

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson September 4, 1823 Jefferson believed that the mind-numbing power of clergy in Europe made citizens there less likely to rebel. DEAR SIR, Your letter of Aug. 15. was recieved in due time, and with the welcome of every thing which comes from you. With it’s opinions on the difficulties of revolutions, from despotism to freedom, I very much concur. The generation which commences a revolution can rarely compleat it. Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to F. A. Van Der Kemp, May 25, 1816

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson May 25, 1816 Jefferson explains that his various efforts to highlight what he sees as the uncorrupted portions of Jesus’s teachings. He makes reference to the project he undertook while President, which he says was hasty, and to his forthcoming efforts to create a new Bible using just the valuable parts of scripture. This project resulted in the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, better known as The Jefferson Bible. SIR,-Your favor of March 24th was handed…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Thomas Cooper, November 2, 1822

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson November 2, 1822 Jefferson believed Unitarianism would become the dominant religion. He also explains why he has no professor of divinity at the University of Virginia. DEAR SIR, Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all. I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and freedom…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, June 26, 1822

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson June 26, 1822 Jefferson believed that Christianity no longer reflected the true teachings of Jesus. DEAR SIR, — I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson May 21, 1803 In 1803, Jefferson had hoped that someone other than himself write a book on the merits of Christianity. He wrote a “Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus” and sent it to Benjamin Rush, the prominent doctor and Patriot. The syllabus can be found here. The cover letter to Rush is interesting in itself, reflecting as it does Jefferson’s bitterness about how his own religious views had been mischaracterized. Dear…

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Letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, September 14, 1818

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams September 14, 1818 Adams bristles as the Calvinist notion that a man’s fate is determined by the grace of God instead of good works. He rejects the idea that non-Christians who lead good lives will go to Hell, and poses an alternative definition of being a good Christian. owe you a thousand thanks for your favor of August 22d, and its inclosures, and for Doctor Priestley’s ” Doctrines of Heathen Philosophy compared with those of Revelation.” Your letter…

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Letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, December 25, 1813

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams December 25, 1813 Though praising Christianity, Adams also finds much that he likes in Eastern religions. Joseph Priestley was a leading scientist and theologian, who helped found Unitarianism. Answer my letter at your leisure. Give yourself no concern. I write as a refuge and protection against ennui. The fundamental principle of all philosophy and all Christianity is, “Rejoice always in all things.” “Be thankful at all times for all good, and all that we call evil.” Will it…

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Letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 1816

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams November 4, 1816 Adams suggests that before we promote the Bible in the rest of the world, we should fix Christianity’s problems. Your letter of October 14th has greatly obliged me. Tracy’s Analysis I have read once, and wish to read it a second time. It shall be returned to you; but I wish to be informed whether this gentleman is one of that family of Tracys with which the Marquis Lafayette is connected by intermarriages. I have…

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Letter from John Adams to Benjamin Rush, January 21, 1810

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams January 21, 1810 Adams declares God to be “the first good, first perfect, and first fair” and defines Christianity to include all Christian denominations. [Thomas Paine’s] political writings, I am singular enough to believe, have done more harm than his irreligious ones. He understood neither government nor religion. From a malignant heart he wrote virulent declamations, which the enthusiastic fury of the times intimidated all men, even Mr. Burke, from answering as he ought. His deism, as it…

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