The Founders on Religion

The Founders on Religion; A Book of Quotations, Ed. James H. Hutson, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2005

I earnestly, advise you to call in religion to your aid; never rise or go to bed without humbling yourself in fervent prayer before your God, and crave his all powerful grace to overcome your vicious and intemperate habit; … (Charles Carroll of Carrollton to Charles Carroll, Jr. [his alcoholic son], April 27, 1813. Carroll Papers (microfilm), reel 2, Library of Congress.)

I entreat you to comply strictly with my advice: refrain entirely from ardent spirits and strong malt liquors, and use wine with great moderation. Without a reformation you can not reasonably expect your wife to love you. (Ibid., May 25, 1813, reel 2.)

The impious said in his heart, there is no God. He would willingly believe there is no God; his passions and the corruption of the his heart would feign persuade him that there is not; the stings of conscience betray the emptiness of the delusion: the heavens proclaim the existence of God, and unperverted reason teaches that he must love virtue, and hate vice, and reward the one and punish the other. (Ibid. April 12, 1821, reel 3.)

When I took in my Glass I see that I am not what I was. I scarcely know a feature of my face. But I believe that this Mortal Body shall one day put on immortality and be renovated in the World of Spirits. Having enjoyed a large portion of the good things of this life and few of its miseries, I ought to rise satisfied from the feast, and be gratefull to the Giver. (Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, May 10, 1817. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 437, Library of Congress.)

I believe in God and in his Wisdom and Benevolence; and I cannot conceive that such a Being could make such a Species as the human merely to live and die on this earth. If I did not believe a future State I should believe in no God. This Universe; this all; this…totality; would appear with all its swelling Pomp, a boyish Fire Work. (John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, December 8, 1818. Ibid., 2:530.)

In order to encourage us to Obedience, and to deter us from Disobedience, hath not God been graciously pleased to reveal, that there will be a Day of Judgment, in which he will be Jesus Christ Our Lord judge all Mankind? (John Dickinson, “Religious Instruction for Youth,” undated. R. R. Logan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)

The Body of
B. Franklin,
Printer:
Like the Cover of an old Book,
Its contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms,
But the Work shall not be wholly lost:
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new & more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended
By the Author
(Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771. Labaree, Autobiography of Franklin, 44.)

Not many Weeks ago we had also a fine hearty Girl, but a violent Fever has since carried her to Heaven, where I expect one Day or other to see her much more charming and accomplished than if she had been educated either in Europe or America. (John Jay to Robert Livingston, October 6, 1780. Richard B. Morris, ed., John Jay, The winning of the Peace: Unpublished Papers, 1780-1784 (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 31.

The laws of nature have withheld from us the means of physical of the country of the spirits … When I was young I was fond of the speculations which seemed to promise some insight into that hidden country, but observing at length that they left me in the same ignorance in which they had found me, I have very many years ceased to read or think concerning them, … I have thought it better by nourishing the good passions, and controuling the bad, to merit an inheritance in a state of being of which I can know so little, … (Thomas Jefferson to the Reverend Isaac Story, December 5, 1801. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 325-26.)

We shall only be lookers on, from the clouds above, as we now look down on the labors, the hurry, the bustle of the ants and bees. Perhaps in that super-mundane region we may be amused with seeing the fallacy of our own guesses, and even the nothingness of those labors which have filled and agitated our own time here. (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, May 17, 1818. Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2:524.)

…the term is not very distant at which we are to deposit, in the same cerement, our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost… (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, November 13, 1818. Ibid. 2:529.)

But, with Cicero in speaking respecting his belief of the immortality of the Soul, I will say, if I am in a grateful delusion, it is an innocent one, and I am willing to remain under its influence. (George Washington to Annis Stockton, August 31, 1788. Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 30:76.)

Who would exchange these Consolations for the cold comfortless prospect of the Materilist? Even suppose it is an error, it is one which raises us above the bruits. It exalts and enobles our faculties, … (Abigail Adams to John Adams, February 4, 1799. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 393, Library of Congress.)

…it is good for a man, especially an old man to be at times in solitude; it is the nurse of sense and reflection, and as I am drawing to the end of my career, it is salutary to think of a better state of existence and gradually to wean myself from the passing scenes of this bustling world. (Charles Carroll of Carrollton to Mary Caton, April 26th, 1816. Carroll Papers (microfilm) reel 3, Library of Congress.)

The most undesirable is a long life and there is nothing I have ever dreaded so much. Altho’ subject to occasional indispositions my health is too good generally not to give me fear on that subject. I am weak indeed in body, able scarcely to walk into my garden without too much fatigue, but a ride of 6, 8, or 10 miles a day gives me none. Still however a start or stumble of my horse or some one of the accidents with constantly beset us, may cut short the thread of life and relive me form the evils of dotage. Come when it will it will find me neither unready nor unwilling. [Jefferson was eighty-two—Ed.] (Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, January 8, 1825. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.)

You will be…strengthened with inconceivable supplies of force and constancy, by that sympathetic ardor, which animates good men, confederated in a good cause. Your honor and welfare will be, as they now are, most intimately concerned; and besides—you are assigned by divine providence, in the appointed order of things, the protectors of unborn ages, whose fate depends upon your virtue. (John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies. Paul H. Ford, ed., The Writings of John Dickinson (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1895), 1:405.

[Atheism] I would advise you therefore not to attempt unchaining the Tyger, but to burn this Piece before it is seen by any other Person, whereby you will save yourself a great deal of Mortification from the Enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a great deal of Regret and Repentance. If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it. (Benjamin Franklin to --, December 13, 1757. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 7:294-95.)

The Bible contains these writings, and exhibits such a connected series of the Divine revelations and dispensations respecting the present and future state of mankind, and so amply attested by internal and external evidence, that we have no reason to desire or expect that further miracles will be wrought to confirm the belief and confidence which they invite and require. (John Jay to the American Bible Society, May 12, 1825. Johnston, Correspondence of Jay, 4:503-4.)

In like manner we daily read chapter in the Bible rich with divine truths without perceiving them. The next generation will probably perceive them and wonder at our blindness in not finding them out. “Each verse in the Bible,” says Luther, “is a bush with a bird in it. But the bird will not fly from it till the bush is well beaten.” I have been astonished to find how much justice there is in this observation. I never read a chapter in the Bible without seeing something in it I never saw before. (Benjamin rush to Mary Stockton, September 7, 1788. Butterfield, Letters of Rush, 1:484.)

…call particularly on all ministers of the Gospel to look more to the Author and Finisher of our Faith than to the Expositors of it; and disregarding the doubtful and mysterious doctrines by which the latter have divided Christians from Christians, to unite in defending the plain and intelligible faith delivered to us by our Redeemer and his apostles. (John Jay to John Lathrop, March 3, 1801. Jay Papers (online editions), Columbia University Library.)

The Scriptures of the Two Testaments speak in a familiar and consonant manner of the one true God, of the Messiah and of the Holy Spirit. The authorities being equal, we ought in construing them, preserve that Harmony and not raise up such a metaphysical civil war between them, that men of common understanding and improvements may be so perplexed, as not to know, whether they ought to take side with the Old Testament or with the New Testament, and at last from the doubtfulness of their Titles, fall into an indifference and contempt for both of them. (John Dickinson, undated notes on religion. R. R. Logan Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)

There are I grant, several chapter, and many verses in the old testament, which in their present unfortunate translation, should be passed over by children. (Rush, Essays: Literary, Moral, and Philosophical, 60-61.)

…the style, being obsolete, and thence less agreeable, is perhaps one reason why the reading of that excellent book is of late so much neglected. I have therefore thought it would be well to procure a new version, in which, preserving the sense, the turn of phrase and manner of expression should be modern. I do not pretend to have the necessary abilities for such a work myself; … Old Text: ‘And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?;’, New Text: ‘And God said, Well, what think you of Lord Job? You see he is my best friend, a perfectly honest man, full of respect for me, and avoiding every thing that might offend me.’ … Old Text: ‘But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.’, New Text: ‘Try him;--only withdraw, turn him out of his places, and withhold his pensions, and you will soon find him in opposition.’ (Benjamin Franklin, Proposed New Version of the Bible, [1779?]. Smyth, Writings of Franklin, 7:432-33.)

…I have never known any better people than the Calvinists. Nevertheless I must acknowledge that I can not class myself under that denomination. (John Adams to Samuel Miller, July 8, 1820. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 450, Library of Congress.)

…Calvinism has introduced into the Christian religion more new absurdities that it’s leader had purged it of old ones. (Thomas Jefferson to Salma Hale, July 26, 1818. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 385.)

It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823. Ibid., 410.)

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. (John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, February 3, 1821. Ibid., 2:571.)

Our ancestors from Catholic became first Church of England men, and then refined into Presbyterians. To change now from Presbyteriansism to Popery seems to me refining backwards, from white sugar to brown. (Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, April 13, 1785. Smyth, Writings of Franklin, 9:303.)

I have lately read Pascalls [whose Los Provinciales (1657) was one of the most influential anti-Jesuit tracts ever written.] Letters over again, and four Volumes of the History of the Jesuits. If ever any Congregation of Men could merit, eternal Perdition on Earth and in Hell, According to these Historians though like Pascal true Catholicks, it is this Company of Loiola [Ignatius]. Our System however of Religious Liberty must afford them an Assylum. But if they do not put the Purity of our Elections to a severe Tryal, it will be a Wonder. (John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, May 6, 1816. Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2:474.)

…dear as you are to me, I had much rather you should have found your Grave in the ocean you have crossed, or any untimely death crop you in your Infant years, rather than see you an immoral profligate or a Graceless child. (Abigail Adams to John Quincey Adams, June [10?], 1778, Butterfield, Adams Family Correspondence, 3:37.)

The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know. … Worm! Ask no such question! Do justly: Love Mercy Walk humbly: This is enough for you to know and to do. The World is a better one than you deserve; strive to make yourself more worthy of it. (John Adams to Caroline de Windt (granddaughter), January 24, 1820. Ibid., reel 124.)

…our dear children…Assure them once more that they must every day of their whole lives be constant in the practice of reading at least two chapters in the New Testament and of offering their prayers. (John Dickinson to Mary Dickinson, November 25, 1797. Loundoun Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)

Our saviour did not come into the world to save metaphysicians only. His doctrines are leveled to the simplest understandings and it is only by banishing Hierophantic mysteries and Scholastic subtleties, which they have nick-named Christianity, and getting back to the plain and unsophisticated precepts of Christ, that we become real Christians. (Thomas Jefferson to Salma Hale, July 26, 1818. Ibid., 385.)

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. (John Jay to John Murray, Jr., October 12, 1816. Johnston, Correspondence of Jay, 4:393.)

We are teaching the world the great truth that Govts. do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Govt. (James Madison to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822. Ibid., 788-89.)

Yet I do not mean that you shou’d despise Sermons even of the Preachers you dislike, for the Discourse is often much better than the man, as sweet and clear Waters come to us thro’ very dirty Earth. (Benjamin Franklin to Sally Franklin, November 8, 1764. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 11:450.)

…but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion [Jesus Christ—Ed.] before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, … (Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Baldwin, January 19, 1810. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 345.)

In every country and every age the priest has been hostile to liberty. (Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.)

I condole with you, we have lost a most dear and valuable relation [Franklin’s brother, John—Ed.] … Our friend and we are invited abroad on a party of pleasure—that it to last for ever. His chair was first ready and he is gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together, and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and we know where to find him. (Benjamin Franklin to Elizabeth Hubbart, February 22, 1756. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6:406-7.)

I have never permitted myself to mediate a specific creed. (Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Whittemore, June 5, 1822. Ibid., 404.)

When all our faculties have left, or are leaving us, one by one, sight hearing, memory, every avenue of pleasing sensation is closed, and atrophy, debility and malaise left in their places, when the friends of our youth are all gone, and a generation is risen around us whom we know not, is death an evil? (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, June 1, 1822. Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2:577.)

Nay, we have heard it said that there is not a quaker or a Baptist, a Presbyterian or an Episcopalian, a catholic or a protestant in heaven: that, on entering that gate, we leave those badges of schism behind, and find ourselves united in those principles only in which god has united us all. Let us not be uneasy then about the different roads we may pursue, as believing them the shortest, to that our last abode: … (Thomas Jefferson to Miles King, September 26, 1814. Adam, Jefferson’s Extracts, 360-61.)

It would seem as if one of the designs of Providence in permitting the existence of so many Sects of Christians was that each Sect might be a depository of some great truth of the Gospel, and that it might by that means be better preserved… (Benjamin Rush, “Commonplace Book,” August 14, 1811. Corner, Autobiography of Rush, 339-40.)

I have a thousand fears for my dear Boys as they rise into Life, the most critical period of which is I conceive, at the university; there infidelity abounds, both in example and precepts, there they may imbibe the specious arguments of a Voltaire a Hume a Mandevill. … These are well calculated to intice a youth, not yet capable of investigating their principals, or answering their arguments. … Christianity gives not such a pleasing latitude to the passions. It is too pure, it teaches moderation humility and patience, which are incompatable, with the high Glow of Heath, and the warm blood which riots in their veins. (Abigail Adams to John Adams, November 11, 1783. Butterfield, Adams Family Correspondence, 5:268.)

The Episcopal clergy and laity have held a convention in this city and agreed on such alterations in their discipline, worship, and articles as will render the Episcopal Church the most popular church in America. They have adopted a form of ecclesiastical government purely republican. A church judicatory is to consist of a bishop, three presbyters, and two or three laymen. They have reduced their thirty-nine articles to nineteen and have reserved from their creeds only the Apostles’. Their baptism, their marriage and burial services are likewise made more consonant to common sense as well as true Christianity. / You will perceive from their prayer book that their Articles, though reduced in number, are equally Calvanistical with the Articles of the old English Church. (Benjamin Rush to Richard Price, October 15, 1785; May 26, 1786. Ibid., 371-72; 389.)

Morality or Virtue is the End, Faith only a Means to obtain that End: And if the End be obtained, it is no matter by what Means… Our Saviour, when describing the last Judgment, and declaring what shall give Admission into Bliss, or exclude from it, says nothing of Faith but what he says again it, … (Benjamin Franklin, “Dialogue between Two Presbyterians,” April 10, 1735. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 2:30.)

My fundamental principle would be the reverse of Calvin’s that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power, and not by our faith which is not within our power. (Thomas Jefferson to Thomas B. Parker, May 15, 1819. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 386.)

Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority. (Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, January 23, 1808. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.)

Now, my friend, can Prophecies, or miracles convince You, or Me, that infinite Benevolence, Wisdom and Power, created and preserves, for a time, innumerable million to make them miserable, forever; for his own Glory? Wretch! What is his Glory! Is he ambitious? Does he want promotion? Is he vain? tickled with Adulation? Exulting and tryumphing in his Power and the Sweetness of his Vengeance? Pardon me, my Maker, for these Aweful Questions. My Answer to them is always ready: I believe no such Things. My Adoration of the Author of the Universe is too profound and too sincere. (John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, September 14, 1813. Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2:373-74.)

Question 1. Is this stupendous and immeasurable universe governed by eternal fate? 2. Is it governed by chance? 3. Is it governed by caprice anger resentment and vengeance? 4. Is it governed by intelligence wisdom and benevolence? The three first of these questions I have examine with as close attention as I am capable of & have decided them all forever in the negative. The 4th I have meditated with much more satisfaction & comfort to myself & decided unequivocally in the affirmative & from this last decision I have derived all my system of divinity. (John Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, November 11, 1821. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 124, Library of Congress.)

That he must be a Being of infinite Wisdo, appears in his admirable Order and Disposition of Things, whether we consider the heavenly Bodies, the Star and Planets, … 2. That the Deity is a Being of great Goodness, appears in his giving Life to so many Creatures, each of which acknowledge it a benefit by their unwillingness to leave it; … 3. That he is a Being of infinite Power appears, in his being able to form and compound such Vast Masses of Matter as this Earth and the Sun and innumerable Planets and Stars, … and yet so to govern them in their greatest Velocity as that they shall not flie off out of their appointed Bounds... (Benjamin Franklin, “On the Providence of God in the Government of the World,” [1732]. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 1:265-66.)

…the benevolent and sublime reformer of that religion [Jesus] has told us only that god is good and perfect, but has not defined him. I am therefore of his theology, believing that we have neither words nor ideas adequate to that definition. And if we could all, after his example, leave the subject as undefinable, we should all be of one sect, doers of good and eschewers of evil. No doctrines of his lead to schism. (Thomas Jefferson to Ezra Stiles Ely, June 25, 1819. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 387.)

What may safely be said seems to be, that the infirmity of time & space forces itself on our conception, a limitation of either being inconceivable; that the mind prefers at once the idea of a self-existing cause to that of an infinite series of cause & effect, which augments, instead of avoiding the difficulty; and that it finds more facility in assenting to the self-existence of an invisible cause possessing infinite power, wisdom & goodness, than to the self-existence of the universe, visibly destitute of those attributes, and which may be the effect of them. In this comparative facility of conception & belief, all philosophical Reasoning on the subject must perhaps terminate. (James Madison to Frederick Beasley, November 20, 1825. Gaillard Hunt, ed., The Writings of James Madison (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910), 9:230-31.)

No Man has a more perfect Reliance on the alewise, and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have nor think his aid more necessary. (George Washington to William Gordon, May 13, 1776. Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 37:526.)

Religion my Friend does not forbid us to weep and to mourn for our departed friends. But it teaches us to cast our Sorrows upon that Being in whose hands and at whose disposal we are and who can heal… (Abigail Adams to --, January 19, 1811. Adams Paper (microfilm), reel 411, Library of Congress.)

…those lessons of…duty and of submission to the dispensations of heaven. Yet this does not forbid us to sorrow for our great Teacher wept, … (Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, January 25, 1813. Ibid., reel 415, Library of Congress.)

I should have expressed my sincere sympathy with you and your whole family on the loss of your amiable Grand Child. We who have lost all our ancestors and collaterals and several of our children and Grand Children well know the pungency of grief in younger life under such tender deprivations. A gloomy Philosophy or a more melancholy Religion disposes men to misery and despair but a more cheerful confidence in the wisdom and benevolence that governs the universe ought to dispose us not only to submit but to make the best of everything. I can neither applaud nor approve of the lamentations over “Few and evil days.” “Days in which there is no pleasure.” “Vale of tears.” “Miseries of life,” etc. etc. etc. I have see no such days and those who think they have, I fear have made them such by want of reflection. (John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, March 24, 1814. Ibid., reel 95.)

The Stoicks, the Christians the Mahometans and our North American Indians all agree, that complaint is unmanly, unlawful and impious. … I see nothing but pride, vanity, affectation and hypocrise in these pretended stoical apathies. I have so much sympathy and compassion for human nature, that a man or a woman may grunt and groan, screech and scream, weep, cry, or roar as much as nature dictates under extreme distress, provided there be no affectation; for there may be hypocrisy even in these expressions of torture. (John Adams to Francis van der Kemp, May 16, 1816. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 122, Library of Congress.)

…it is your duty to feel your loss, and mourn under the mighty hand of a righteous God, and shed tears of sorrow & great distress. Jesus, your great Example and Redeemer, taught you this duty at the Tomb of Lazarus his beloved Friend…Altho He foreknew that he should immediately restore Lazarus to Life, yet the Brother was dead. (Elias Boudinot to Catherine Harris, June 7, 1818. Boudinot Papers Princeton University Library.)

Our Religion not only permits, but directs us to rejoice; and altho’ it does not forbid occasional Sorrow of Grief, yet it marks the Limits beyond which they are not be indulged. Beyond these Limits they are Temptations and are to be treated accordingly. (John Jay to Maria Banyar, January 3, 1812. Jay Papers (online edition), Columbia University Library.)

Be assured however my Dear Son, I will do all that is proper to shake off excess of grief [at the death of his young son, James—Ed.]. Thank God, in the midst of irresistible moaning & weeping I feel also an irrestible inclinations to transmit to Heaven sentiments of gratitude & thankfulness for blessings past & present… (Henry Laurens to John Laurens, January 8, 1776. Rogers, Papers of Henry Laurens, 11:12-13.)

What makes the review of life so short to most people is it has been spent upon the whole happily. In hell each moment will be like the duration of a thousand years. (Benjamin Rush, “Commonplace Book,” 1809. Corner, Autobiography of Rush, 335.)

As to Jesus Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity; tho’ it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble [Franklin was eighty-four—Ed.]. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that Belief has the good Consequence, as probably it has, of making his Doctrines more respected and better observed. (Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, March 9, 1790. Smyth, Writings of Franklin, 10:84.)

As much as I love, esteem, and admire the Greek, I believe the Hebrew have done more to enlighten and civilize the world. Moses did more than all their legislators and philosophers. (John Adams, undated marginalia in Condorcet’s Outliers of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind. Haraszti, Prophets of Progress, 246.)

Your sect by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious intolerance, inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights by putting all on an equal footing. But more remains to be done, for altho’ we are free by the law, we are not so in practice. Public opinion erects itself into an Inquisition and exercises it’s office with as much fanaticism as fans the flames of an Auto da f[e]. The prejudice still scowling on your section of our religion, altho’ the elder one, cannot be unfelt by yourselves. It is to hoped that individual dispositions will at length mould themselves to the model of the law and consider the moral basis on which all our religions rest, as the rallying point which unites them in a common interest; while the peculiar dogmas branching from it are the exclusive concern of the respective sects embracing them and no rightful subject of notice to any other. Public opinion needs reformation on this point. (Thomas Jefferson to Mordecai Noah, May 20, 1818. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.)

By discharging all the duties of conjugal life from religious principles, we enjoy a kind of exclusive happiness suited to the perfection and dignity of our natures: a happiness which involves in it all the inferior pleasures of reason and sense and which can never be equally relished by those animal machines, who are governed in all their actions by instinct only, or by the vulgar maxims and fashions of the world. (Benjamin Rush to Julia Stockton, November 12, 1775. Benjamin Rush, My Dearest Julia: The Love Letters of Dr. Benjamin Rush to Julia Stockton (New York: N. Watson Academic Publications, 1979), 13-14.)

Marriage was instituted in Paradise before the Fall. All its pleasures therefore are free from sin. (Benjamin Rush to Mary Stockton, September 7, 1788. Butterfield, Letters to Rush, 1:484-85.)

The restoration of this suffering and despised nation [the Jews—Ed.] to their ancient city and their former standing in the favour of God, with a great increase of glory and happiness, are expressly foretold by Christ, his prophets and apostles, as immediately preceding the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, … (Benjamin Rush to John Montgomery, June 6, 1801. Butterfield, Letters of Rush, 2:834.)

…they seem to consider none as qualified but their own sect. Thus, in Virginia, they say there are but 60 qualified, and that 914 are still wanting of the full quota. All besides the 60 are “mere nominal ministers unacquainted with theology.”… The country below the mountains, inhabited by Episcopalians, Methodists & Baptists (under mere nominal ministers unacquainted with theology) are pronounced “destitute of the means of grace, and as sitting in darkness and under the shadow of death.” They are quite in despair too at the insufficient means of New England to fill this fearful void “with Evangelical light, with catechetical instructions, weekly lectures, & family visiting.[“] That Yale cannot furnish above 80 graduates annually, and Harvard perhaps not more. That there must therefore be an immediate universal, vigorous & systematic effort made to evangelize the nation to see that there is a bible for every family, a school for every district, and a qualified (i.e. Presbyterian) “pastor for every thousand souls; … That section then of our union having lost it’s political influence by disloyalty to it’s country is now to recover it under the mask of religion. (Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Spafford, January 10, 1816. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.)

There is no such thing [mortality] without a supposition of a God. There is no right or wrong in the universe without the supposition of a moral government and an intellectual and moral governor. (John Adams, marginal not in Condorcet’s Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind. Haraszti, Prophets of Progress, 252.)

Religion I hold to be essential to morals. I never read of an irreligious character in Greek or Roman history, nor in any other history, nor have I known one in life, who was not a rascal. Name one if you can, living or dead. (John Adams to Benjamin Rush, April 18, 1808. Old Family Letters, 179.)

Dr. Jarvis in his seventh page has truly observed that the Indians can not communicate in relation to their religion. I have made the same observation. I have seen a strong and marked aversion to converse or say anything upon the subject… In 1789 there occurred an occasion which gave me great hopes. A large deputation of Kings Warriors and Sachims from the Creek Nations came to New York with Mr. McGillivray at their head to treat with the government. They were lodged near my house in Richmond Hill. They frequently visited me and some of them dined with me. But I could learn nothing from them. Mr. McGillivray was the son of a Scotchman by an Indian Queen. His Father had given him a good Education and he spoke and wrote very well in English. From him I was confident [of] much information but he was as close as a miser. I asked him many questions concerning the religion of the Indians but when I pressed him pretty closely for some time he said with an arch smile—“why we used to say that our customs most resembled the Jews.” When I urged him with questions concerning their belief in a future state he still betrayed great reluctance and would be silent. When I asked him whether they had any ideas of an existence after death? He answered with a malignant scornful kind of smile, “Why I believe very little. I have heard them say that men are like trees, when a tree dies it rots.” This is all I could obtain from him. (John Adams to William Smith Shaw, June 21, 1821. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 124, Library of Congress.)

These wandering nations of Indians are the long lost tribes of Israel; but kept under the special protection of Almight God, though despised by all mankind, for more than two thousand years, separated from and unknown to the civilized world. Thus wonderfully brought to the knowledge of their fellow men, they may be miraculously prepared for instruction, and stand ready, at the appointed time, when God shall raise the signal to the nations of Europe, to be restored to the land and the country of their fathers, and to Mount Zion the city of David, their great king and head, and this in direct, positive and literal fulfillment of the numerous promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to their pious progenitors and founders, near four thousand years ago. (Elias Boudinot, A Star in the West; or, a Humble Attempt to Discover the Long Lost Ten Tribes of Israel (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), 280.)

[note pg. 152] James Adair, The History of the American Indians… (London: Charles and Edward Dilly, 1775), a book which argued that the Indians were descended from the ancient Israelites.

Recollect here your definition of a New Englander given to one of your friends in Amsterdam. It was: “He is a meeting-going animal.” (Benjamin Rush to John Adams, August 20, 1811. Butterfield, Letters of Rush, 2, 1096.)

Of this band of dupes and imposters, Paul was the greatest Coryphaeus, and the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. (Thomas Jefferson to William Short, April 13, 1820. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 392.)

[Plato] is one of the race of genuine Sophists, who has escaped the oblivion of his brethren, first by the elegance of his diction, but chiefly by the adoption and incorporation of his whimsies into the body of artificial Christianity. His foggy mind is for ever presenting the semblances of objects which, half seen thro’ a mist, can be defined neither in form or dimension. Yet this which should have consigned him to early oblivion really procured him immorality of fame and reverence. The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained. (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, July 5, 1814. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 359.)

…Tis true God needs not to be informed by Us of our Wants: But he knows that Prayer is useful for purifying our Hearts, and inclining Us to Obedience. (John Dickinson, “Religious Instruction for Youth,” undated. R. R. Logan papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)

I can not concur, however, in your preference in Presbyterianism. The presbytery have too much priestly Authority in matters of faith like that which is claimed by the Episcopal Church. And the doctrine of both the Churches are too Calvinistical for me as well as too hierarchical. (John Adams to Alexander Johnson, March 24, 1823. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 124, Library of Congress.)

The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavour to check it, and that both they, and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms, if we insult it by our impiety, and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it. (George Washington, General Orders, August 3, 1776. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, 5:367.)

No man on earth has less taste or talent for criticism than myself, and least and last of all should I undertake to criticize works on the Apocalypse. It is between 50. and 60. years since I read it, and I then considered it as merely the ravings of a Maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams… There is not coherence enough in them to countenance any suite of rational ideas. You will judge therefore form this how impossible I think it that either your explanation, or that of any man in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, can be a correct one. What has no meaning admits no explanation. (Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Smyth, January 17, 1825. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 415-16.)

But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe. (John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776. Butterfield, Adams Family Correspondence, 2:28.)

General Inferences should never be drawn from single Facts, or even from several Instances, especially in contemplating the inscrutable and incomprehensible Councils of Providence. (John Adams to Benjamin Rush, June 23, 1807. Old Family Letters, 151.)

In the month of March last I was called to the house in another part of the town which was built by my father, in which he lived and died and from which I buried him; and in the chamber in which I was born I could not forbear to weep over the remains of a beautiful child of my son Thomas that died of the whooping cough. Why was I preserved ¾ of a century, and that rose cropped in the bud? I, almost dead at the top and in all my limbs and wholly useless to myself and the world? Great Teacher, tell me. (John Adams to Benjamin Rush, July 19, 1812. Schutz and Adair, Spur of Fame, 239.)

We are not in a world ungoverned by the laws and power of a superior agent. Our efforts are in his hand and directed by it; … (Thomas Jefferson to David Barrow, May 1, 1815. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.)

As I have heard since my arriv’l at this place, a circumstantial acc[oun]t of my death and dying speech, I take this early oppertunity of contradicting both, and of assuring you that I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence, that protected me beyond all human expectation; I had 4 Bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me, and yet escaped unhurt. (George Washington to John Augustine Washington, July 18, 1775. Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 1:152.)

A Quaker is essentially an Englishman, in whatever part of the world he is born or lives. The outrages of Great Britain on our navigation and commerce have kept us in perpetual bickerings with her. The Quakers here have taken side against their own government; not on their profession for peace, for they saw that peace was our object; but from devotion to the views of the Mother-society. In 1797. and 8. When an administration sought war with France the Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of Adherence to the Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the Original became Treason in the Copy. (Thomas Jefferson to William Baldwin, January 19, 1810. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 345-46.)

Your principles and conduct are well known to me; and it is doing the people called Quakers no more than justice to say, that (except their declining to share with others the burthen of common defence) there is no denomination among us, who are more exemplary and useful citizens. (George Washington to the Society of Friends, September 1789. Washington Papers, Library of Congress.)

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear… I repeat that you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject any thing because any other person, or description of persons have rejected or believed it. (Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787. Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:15-17.)

It seems to be reserved to Christianity alone to produce universal, moral, political, and physical happiness. Reason produces, it is true, great and popular truths, but it affords motives too feeble to induce mankind to act agreeably to them. Christianity unfolds the same truths and accompanies them with motives, agreeable, powerful, and irresistible. (Benjamin Rush to Noah Webster, July 20, 1798. Butterfield, Letters of Rush, 2:799.)

We are all necessarily Religious as we are reasoning and musical animals. It is true we are disposed to false Religions; so we are to false reasoning and false music, but this shows the depth of each of those principles in the human mind. (Benjamin Rush, “Commonplace Book,” 1809. Corner, Autobiography of Rush, 335.)

The politician who loves liberty sees…a gulph that may swallow up the liberty to which he is devoted. He knows that morality overthrown (and morality must fall without religion) the terrors of despotism can alone curb the impetuous passions of man, and confine him within the bounds of social duty. (Alexander Hamilton, The Stand, no. 3, (April 7, 1798). Syrett, Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 21:405.)

Jefferson was walking “with his large red prayer book under his arm when a friend querying him after their mutual good morning said which way are you walking Mr. Jefferson. To which he replied to Church Sir. You are going to Church Mr. J. You do not believe a word in it. Sir said Mr. J. No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I as chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example. Good morning Sir.” (Anecdote recorded by the Reverend Ethan Allen, “Washington Parish, Washington City.” Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.)

A Christian, I say again, cannot fail of being a republican, for every precept of the Gospel inculcates those degrees of humility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness, which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy and the pageantry of a court. (Benjamin Rush, “Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic.” Rush, Essays: Literary, Moral, and Philosophical, 6.)

I have read many of the Calvinistical Treatises on original sin and they have not convinced me of the total Depravity of human Nature. (John Adams to Francis van der Kemp, March 9, 1806. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 118, Library of Congress.)

…Adam’s first Guilt. To this I answer once for all, that I look upon this Opinion every whit as ridiculous as that of Imputed Righteousness. ’Tis a Notion invented, a Bugbear set up by Priests (whether Popish or Presbyterian I know not) to fright and scare an unthinking Populace out of their Senses, and inspire them with Terror, … (Benjamin Franklin, “A Defense of Mr. Hemphill’s Observations,” 1735. Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 2:114.)

The Bible itself has not authority sufficient in these days to reconcile negro slavery to reason, justice & humanity… (John Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, January 13, 1820. Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 449, Library of Congress.)

It is not a little surprising that the professors of Christianity, whose chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, and in cherishing and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally repugnant to the first impression of right and wrong. (Patrick Henry to Robert Pleasants, January 18, 1773. Campbell, Henry, 99-100.)

An excellent law might be made out of the Pennsylvania one for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till America comes into this Measure her Prayers to Heaven for Liberty will be impious. This is a strong expression but it is just. (John Jay to Egbert Benson, September 18, 1780. Jay Papers (online edition), Columbia University Library.)

What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment or death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him thro’ his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must await with patience the workings of an overruling providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. (Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicolas D[e]meunier, June 26, 1786. Boyd. Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 10:63.)

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. If it could be understood it would not answer their purpose. Their security is in their faculty of shedding darkness, like the scuttle fish, thro’ the element in which they move, and making it impenetrable to the eye of a pursuing enemy. And there they will skulk, until some rational creed can occupy the void which the obliteration of their duperies would leave in the minds of our honest and unsuspecting brethren. (Thomas Jefferson to Francis van der Kemp, August 6, 1816. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 375.)

We Unitarians, one of whom I have had the Honour to be, for more than sixty Years, do not indulge our Malignity in profane Cursing and Swearing, against you Calvinists; one of whom I know not how long you have been. You and I, once saw Calvin and Arius, on the Plafond of the Cathedral of St. John the Second in Spain roasting in the Flames of Hell. We Unitarians do not delight in thinking Plato and Cicero, Tacitus Quintilian Plyny and even Diderot, are sweltering under the scalding drops of divine Vengeance, for all Eternity. (John Adams to John Quincy Adams, March 28, 1816, Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 122, Library of Congress.)

I trust that there is not a young man now living in the US. who will not die an Unitarian. (Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, June 26, 1822. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 406.)

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823. Adams, Jefferson’s Extracts, 412.)

…I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. … Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness. (Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776. Butterfield, Adams Family Correspondence, 1:370.)

The Curses against Fornication and Adultery, and the prohibition of every wanton glance or libinous ogle at a woman, I believe to be the only system that ever did or will preserve a Republick in the World. … national Morality never was and never can be preserved, without the utmost purity and chastity in women: and without national Morality a Republican Government cannot be maintained. Therefore my dear Fellow Citizens of America, you must ask leave of your wives and daughters to preserve your Republick. (John Adams to Benjamin Rush, February 2, 1807. Old Family Letters, 127-28.)

I know that it is a favourite observation with many, that Husband and Wife are equal and there should be no superiority. This is not true, but a dangerous Error, from whence many disagreeable Consequences flow. / It is true, neither in Theory or Practice, In point of Merit, perhaps it may be strictly true, but in point of Order, God has thought proper to make it otherwise, … The Imperfection of all human Societies, renders it absolutely necessary, that there should be a Head and Chief, … placed this in Man, not to tyrannize and lord it over his Wife and Family, but for their protection, instruction, nourishment and guidance. (Elias Boudinot to Susan Bradford, December 1784. Boudinot Papers, Princeton University Library.)

A clergyman of long experience in the instruction of youth informed me, that he always found children acquired religious knowledge more easily than knowledge upon other subjects; and that young girls acquired this kind of knowledge more readily than boys. The female breast is the natural soil of christianity; … (Benjamin Rush, “Thoughts on Female Education, Accommodated to the Present State of Society, Manners, and Government, in the United States of America,” July 28, 1787. Rush, Essays: Literary, Moral, and Philosophical, 48-49.)