John Adams February 3, 1821 John Adams antagonism to Catholicism reappeared in old age: “I have long been decided in opinion that a free government and the Roman Catholick religion can never exist together in any nation or Country” Dear Sir I have just read a sketch of the life of Swedenborg, and a larger work in two huge volumes of Memoirs of John Westley* by Southery, and your kind letter of January 22d came to hand in the nick…
Massachusetts January 1, 1780 It was the right as well as the duty” to worship “the Supreme Being.” While some states were moving to end the practice of having official, taxpayer-supported “established” religion, Massachusetts continued with the practice. They did, however, become more pluralistic In the sense that before the war, state support went mostly to the Congregational Church, the ancestors of the Puritans. This constitution allowed and encouraged taxpayers to provide “the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers…
John Adams October 11, 1798 In this letter Adams declares point blank that, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Gentleman, While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination…
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…
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…
John Adams December 12, 1816 Adams summarizes his religious creed in four words: “Be just and good.” return the Analysis of Dupuis, with my thanks for the loan of it. It is but a faint miniature of the original. I have read that original in twelve volumes, besides a thirteenth of plates. I have been a lover and a reader of romances all my life, from Don Quixote and Gil Bias to the Scottish Chiefs, and a hundred others. For…
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…
John Adams July 8, 1820 Toward the end of his life he recounts his religious explorations and concludes, “I believe with Justin Martyr, that all good men are Christians.” You know not the gratification you have given me by your kind, frank, and candid letter. I must be a very unnatural son to entertain any prejudices against the Calvinists, or Calvinism, according to your confession of faith; for my father and mother, my uncles and aunts, and all my predecessors,…
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…
John Adams October 29, 1775 Unlike Madison and Jefferson, Adams for many years believed that taxpayer support of religion – the approach taken in New England – was a good idea. There is, in the human Breast, a social Affection, which extends to our whole Species. Faintly indeed; but in some degree. The Nation, Kingdom, or Community to which We belong is embraced by it more vigorously. It is stronger still towards the Province to which we belong, and in…