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Category: Adams views on Religion

Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, November 18, 1775

Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, November 18, 1775

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John Adams November 18, 1775 November 18. 1775 Your kind Letter of the 5th. Inst. came to Hand yesterday by Captain McPherson. I admire your skill in Phisiognomy, and your Talent at drawing Characters, as well as that of your Friend Marcia from whom at the same Time I received several important Characters, which you shall one day see. I agree with you in your sentiments that there is Reason to be diffident of a Man who grossly violates the…

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Diary of John Adams, March 07, 1756

Diary of John Adams, March 07, 1756

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John Adams March 7, 1756 Adams believes in a free market of religious ideas, in which the best ones emerge from an open discussion. Heard Mr. Maccarty all day. Spent the Evening and supped at Mr. Greenes, with Thayer. Honesty, Sincerity and openness, I esteem essential marks of a good mind. I am therefore of opinion, that men ought, (after they have examined with unbiassed judgments, every System of Religion, and chosen one System on their own Authority, for themselves)…

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Diary of John Adams, July 25 1796

Diary of John Adams, July 25 1796

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John Adams July 25, 1796 Tom Paine had become a leading Deist, arguing against the infallibility of the Bible. Cloudy and begins to rain, the Wind at N.E. The Men gone up the Hill to rake the Barley. In conformity to the fashion I drank this Morning and Yesterday Morning, about a Jill of Cyder. It seems to do me good, by diluting and dissolving the Phlegm or the Bile in the Stomach. The Christian Religion is, above all the…

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Diary of John Adams, February 22, 1756

Diary of John Adams, February 22, 1756

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John Adams February 22, 1756 February 22 SUNDAY. Suppos a nation in some distant Region, should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. Every member would be obliged in Concience to temperance and frugality and industry, to justice and kindness and Charity towards his fellow men, and to Piety and Love, and reverence towards almighty God. In this Commonwealth, no man would impair his health by Gluttony,…

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Diary of John Adams, February 21, 1765

Diary of John Adams, February 21, 1765

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John Adams February 21, 1765 Found in his diary, this was a draft of a longer essay on cannon and feudal law. It was a Resolution formed by a sensible People almost in despair. [The Puritans’ decision to leave England and settle in America.] They Puritans had become intelligent in general, and some of them learned but they had been galled, and fretted, and whipped and cropped, and hanged and burned. In short they had been so worried by Plagues…

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Diary of John Adams, February 13, 1756

Diary of John Adams, February 13, 1756

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John Adams February 13, 1756 Adams doesn’t think much of the idea that Christ wiped away the sins of others. pleasant morning. Saw my classmates Gardner, and Wheeler. Wheeler dined, spent the afternoon, and drank Tea with me. Supped at Major Gardiners, and ingag’d to keep School at Bristol, provided Worcester People, at their insuing March meeting, should change this into a moving School, not otherwise. Major Greene this Evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and…

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Diary of John Adams, February 02, 1756

Diary of John Adams, February 02, 1756

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John Adams February 2, 1756 Suppos a nation in some distant Region, should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. Every member would be obliged in Concience to temperance and frugality and industry, to justice and kindness and Charity towards his fellow men, and to Piety and Love, and reverence towards almighty God. In this Commonwealth, no man would impair his health by Gluttony, drunkenness, or Lust-no…

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Diary of John Adams, August 14, 1796

Diary of John Adams, August 14, 1796

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John Adams August 14, 1796 Adams lays out the mechanics of why religion is particularly effective at promoting morality. The Weather hot and dry. One great Advantage of the Christian Religion is that it brings the great Principle of the Law of Nature and Nations, Love your Neighbour as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you, to the Knowledge, Belief and Veneration of the whole People. Children, Servants, Women and Men are all…

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A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law by John Adams, 1765

A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law by John Adams, 1765

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John Adams 1765 Patriots equated the practices of the Church of England with that of the Catholic Church. On August 12, 1765, the Boston Gazette published an essay again linking both churches to each other, and to tyranny. The essay argued that religious canon law – “extensive and astonishing” — was created by the “the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order.” Church law enslaved people by “reducing their minds to a state of sordid ignorance and staring timidity” and…

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