Letters & Documents

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 James Madison, December 20, 1787

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson December 20, 1787 Writing from Paris, where he was ambassador, Jefferson is responding to reports he’s hearing about the new Constitution. Some advocates of the Constitution argued that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary because Congress could only exercise powers it was explicitly granted. Jefferson disagreed. DEAR SIR, My last to you was of Oct. 8 by the Count de Moustier. Yours of July 18. Sep. 6. & Oct. 24. have been successively received, yesterday, the day before…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, March 15, 1789

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson March 15, 1789 James Madison had written Jefferson suggesting that perhaps a Bill of Rights might not be wise, since it would not have the breadth that the two of them might want. Jefferson responded forcefully that a Bill of Rights was essential. Your thoughts on the subject of the Declaration of rights in the letter of Oct. 17. I have weighed with great satisfaction. Some of them had not occurred to me before, but were acknoleged just…

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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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Draft of The Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson January 1, 1779 This was Jefferson’s original draft of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. This version placed a greater emphasis on “reason” as the path to God. For instance, the legislature ultimately deleted the idea that God had chosen to “extend it by its influence on reason alone.” The bill, amended, was passed in 1785, while Jefferson was in Paris. SECTION I. Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will,…

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South Carolina Constitution of 1778

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

South Carolina January 1, 1778 Section XXI. And whereas the ministers of the gospel are by their profession dedicated to the service of God and the cure of souls, and ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their function, therefore no minister of the gospel or public preacher of any religious persuasion, while he continues in the exercise of his pastoral function, and for two years after, shall be eligible either as governor, lieutenant-governor, a member of…

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The Rights of the Colonists by Sam Adams, 1772

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Samuel Adams November 20, 1772 The Patriot leader here argues for religious liberty for all, except Catholics. As neither reason requires, nor religeon permits the contrary, every Man living in or out of a state of civil society, has a right peaceably and quietly to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience.” Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty” in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all Men are clearly entitled to, by the…

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