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The Origins of Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Clericalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Fred C. Luebke
Fred C. Luebke
Affiliation:
Concordia Teachers College, Seward, Nebraska
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Extract

Cannibals - mountebanks - charlatans - pious and whining hypocrites - necromancers - pseudo-Christians - mystery mongers. These are among the epithets which Thomas Jefferson applied to the clergy of the Protestant denominations and of the Roman Catholic Church as well. It was they who “perverted” the principles of Jesus “into an engine for enslaving mankind”; it was the Christian “priesthood” who had turned organized religion into a “mere contrivance to filch wealth and power” for themselves; they were the ones who throughout history had persecuted rational men for refusing to swallow “their impious heresies.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 1963 , pp. 344 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1963

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References

1. Peterson, Merrill D., The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 303Google Scholar. For a selective list of some of these writings see bibliography, p. 499 and passim.

2. Jefferson, Thomas, The Literary Bible of Thomas Jefferson: His Commonplace Book of Philosphers and Poets, edited with an introduction By Chinard, Gilbert (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, and Paris: Los Presses Universitaires de France, 1928), pp. 40ff.Google Scholar

3. TJ to Robert Skipwith, Monticello, August. 3, 1771, in Jefferson, Thomas, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Boyd, Julian P. (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1950 —), I, 75–81Google Scholar. Hereafter references to this edition will be cited as Boyd.

4. Boyd, I, 544–588.

5. This development is described in Bernhard Fabian, “Jefferson's Notes on Virginia: The Genesis of Query [xvii], The different religions received into that State?” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, XII (January, 1955), 126–131.Google Scholar

6. TJ to Peter Carr, Paris, August. 10, 1787, Boyd, XII 14–18.

7. For an excellent analysis of the smear sspects of this campaign see Lerche, Charles O. Jr, “Jefferson and the Election of 1800: A Case Study in the Political Smear,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, V (10, 1948), 467–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Quoted in Martin, Edwin T., Thomas Jefferson: Scientist (New York: Henry Schuman, 1952), p. 238.Google Scholar

9. Timothy Dwight, The Duty of Americans, at the Present Crisis, Illustrated in a Discourse Preached on the Fourth of July, 1789 … at the Request of the Citizens of New Haven, quoted in Beard, Charles A., Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915), pp. 365–366.Google Scholar

10. Post, Albert, Popular Freethought in America, 1825–1850 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), p. 17.Google Scholar

11. Jameson, J. Franklin, The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 1956), pp. 83–100.Google Scholar

12. Koch, G. Adolf, Republican Religion: The American Revolution and the Cult of Reason (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1933), p. 269.Google Scholar

13. TJ to Mrs. S. Harrison Smith, Monticello, August. 6, 1816, in Jefferson, Thomas, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Bergh, Albert E. (Washington D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), XV, 60Google Scholar. Hereafter references to this edition will be cited as LB.

14. [Randolph, Edmund], “Edmund Randolph's Essay on the Revolutionary History of Virginia (1774–1782),” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XLII (04, 1935), 123.Google Scholar

15. Koch, , Republican Religion, p. 269.Google Scholar

16. Alexander Hamilton to Gov. John Jay, New York, May 7, 1800, in Hamilton, Alexander, The Works of Alexander Hamilton, edited by Lodge, Henry Cabot (Federal edition; New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904), X, 372.Google Scholar

17. TJ to James Monroe, Eppington, May 26, 1800, in Jefferson, Thomas, The Works of Thomas Jefferson edited by Ford, Paul L. (Federal edition; New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1905), IX, 136Google Scholar. Hereafter references to this edition will be cited as Ford.

18. Linn, William, Serious Considerations on the Election of a President: Addressed to the Citizens of the United States (New York: Printed and sold by John Farmer, 1800), p. 4.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., pp. 6–7.

20. Ibid., pp. 8–13.

21. Ibid., p. 15.

22. Ibid., pp. 16–17.

23. Ibid., p. 20.

24. Ibid., pp. 21–28.

25. Ibid., p. 30.

26. These and other pamphlets written by both sides are listed in Johnston, Richard N., A Contribution to a Bibliography of Thomas Jefferson, LB, XX, 27.Google Scholar

27. [Mason, John M.], The Voice of Warning to Christians on the Ensuing Election of a President of the United States (New York: Printed and Sold by G. F. Hopkins, 1800), p. 8.Google Scholar

28. Randall, Henry S., The Life of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1858), II, 567.Google Scholar

29. Quoted in Sehachner, Nathan, Thomas Jefferson: A Biography (New York: Appletdn-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1951), II, 641.Google Scholar

30. Quoted in Randall, , Jefferson, II, 569 nGoogle Scholar. Evidently this tract, not identified by Randall, is Smith, William Loughton, The Pretensions of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency Examined: and the Charges against John Adams Refuted (Philadelphia, 1796)Google Scholar. See Johnston, Bibliography, LB, XX, 26.

31. TJ to Benjamin Rush, Monticello, Sept. 23, 1800, LB, X, 175. See also TJ to Elbridge Gerry, Philadelphia, Jan. 26, 1799, LB, X, 74; TJ to Jeremiah Moor, Monticello, Aug. 14, 1800, Ford, IX, 143; TJ to Moses Robinson, Washington, Mar. 23, 1801, LB, X, 236–237.

32. TJ to Benjamin Rush, Monticello, Sept. 23, 1800, LB, X, 175.

33. TJ to Uriah McGregory, Monticello, Aug. 13, 1800, LB, X, 170.

34. TJ to Joseph Priestley, Philadelphia, Jan. 18, 1800, LB, X, 139.

35. TJ to Joseph Priestley, Philadelphia, Jan. 27, 1800, LB, X, 148.

36. TJ to Benjamin Rush, Monticello, Sept. 23, 1800, LB, X, 174.

37. TJ to Joseph Priestley, Washington, Mar. 21, 1801, LB, X, 228.

38. TJ to Moses Robinson, Washington, Mar. 23, 1801, LB, X, 236–237.

39. TJ to Elbridge Gerry, Washington, Mar. 29, 1801, LB, X, 254.

40. TJ to Levi Lincoln, Monticello, Aug. 26, 1801, Ford, IX, 290.

41. Cf. Jefferson's comments on the clergy in his Notes on Religion, prepared in 1776. Boyd, I, 552.

42. TJ to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, Jan. 19, 1810, LB, XII, 345–346.

43. TJ to the Reverend Charles Clay, Monticello, Jan. 29, 1815, LB, XIV, 233; TJ to F. A. Van der Kamp, 1816, quoted in Jefferson, Thomas, Thomas Jefferson on Democracy, edited by Padover, Saul K. (New York: New American Library, 1953), p. 118Google Scholar; TJ to the Reverend Jared Sparks, Monticello, Nov. 4, 1820, LB, XV, 288; TJ to Horatio G. Spafford, Monticello, Mar. 17, 1814, LB, XIV, 119; TJ to Benjamin Waterhouse, Monticello, Oct. 13, 1815, Ford, XI, 491.

44. TJ to Benjamin Waterhouse, Monticello, June 26, 1822, LB, XV, 384.

45. TJ to Mrs. S. Harrison Smith, Monticello, Aug. 6, 1816, LB, XV, 60.

46. TJ to Horatio G. Spafford, Monticello, Jan. 10, 1816, Ford, XI, 507.

47. According to Henry Wilder Foote, this project was begun in 1804. See his introduction to Jefferson, Thomas, the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (Boston: The Beacon Press, 1951), p. 18–19.Google Scholar

48. TJ to Richard Rush, Monticello, May 31, 1813, Ford, XI, 291.

49. TJ to William Short, Monticello, Oct. 19, 1822, quoted in Schachner, , Jefferson, II, 984.Google Scholar