(April 13, 1743\u2013July 4, 1826), was the 3rd President of the United States, 1801\u201309; approved the Louisiana Purchase and commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1803; Vice-President under John Adams, 1797\u20131801; Rector of the University of Virginia, 1819; Secretary of State under George Washington, 1789\u201393; U.S. Minister to France, 1785\u201389; delegate to the Continental Congress, 1783\u201385; drafted the Virginia Constitution, 1783; Governor of Virginia, 1779\u201381; drafted the Declaration of Independence, 1776; alternate delegate to the Second Continental Congress, 1775\u201376; member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1768\u201379; married Martha Wayles Skelton, 1772; admitted to bar, 1767; graduated from the College of William and Mary, 1762; in addition to being an author, architect, educator and scientist.<\/p>\n
In 1774, while serving in the Virginia Assembly, he personally introduced a resolution calling for a Day of Fasting and Prayer:<\/p>\n
To invoke the Divine interposition to give to the American people one heart and one mind to oppose by all just means every injury to American rights.1184<\/p>\n
On July 26, 1774, Thomas Jefferson drafted the \u201cResolutions of Freeholders of Albemarle County Virginia\u201d which was accepted by the Virginia House of Burgesses:<\/p>\n
And that we will ever be ready to join with our fellow-subjects in every part of the same, in executing all those rightful powers which God has given us, for the re-establishment and guaranteeing such their constitutional rights, when, where, and by whomever invaded \u2026 1185<\/p>\n
In 1774, Thomas Jefferson wrote a pamphlet entitled \u201cA Summary View of the Rights of British Americans,\u201d and sent it to the Virginia House of Burgesses as a proposed basis for the colony\u2019s delegates to the First Continental Congress:<\/p>\n
The God who gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.1186<\/p>\n
On July 6, 1775, the Continental Congress passed The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, composed by Thomas Jefferson, to explain to the British the presence of militiamen from several colonies gathering near Boston:<\/p>\n
But a reverence for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare on mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. \u2026 <\/p>\n
We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves.<\/p>\n
With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves. \u2026 .<\/p>\n
With a humble confidence in the mercies of the Supreme and impartial God and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore His divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, and to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.1187<\/p>\n
On July 4th, 1776, the words of the Declaration of Independence, which Thomas Jefferson penned, stated:<\/p>\n
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature\u2019s God entitles them. \u2026 <\/p>\n
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life. \u2026 <\/p>\n
We, Therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions. \u2026 <\/p>\n
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.1188<\/p>\n
Shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a committee was appointed to draft a seal for the newly united states which would express the spirit of this new nation. Thomas Jefferson proposed:<\/p>\n
The children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.1189<\/p>\n
During the period between 1779\u201381, Thomas Jefferson served as the Governor of Virginia. On November 11, 1779, Governor Thomas Jefferson issued a Proclamation Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer.<\/p>\n
Public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God. \u2026 That He would in mercy look down upon us, pardon all our sins, and receive us into His favour; and finally, that He would establish the independence of these United States upon the basis of religion and virtue, and support and protect them in the enjoyment of peace, liberty and safety.1190<\/p>\n
In 1781, Thomas Jefferson made this statement in Query XVIII<\/i> of his Notes on the State of Virginia.<\/i> Excerpts of these statements are engraved on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.:<\/p>\n
God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever;<\/p>\n
That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.1191<\/p>\n
In Query XIX<\/i> of his Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781\u20131785,<\/i> Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God \u2026 whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.1192<\/p>\n
On August 19, 1785, in a letter to Peter Carr, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world\u2019s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.1193<\/p>\n
Thomas Jefferson\u2019s Notes on the State of Virginia<\/i> were also part of the Republican Notes on Religion and an Act Establishing Religious Freedom, Passed in the Assembly of Virginia, in the Year 1786<\/i>:<\/p>\n
Our rulers can have no other authority over such natural rights, only as we have submitted to them (in a social compact). The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God \u2026 1194<\/p>\n
In Thomas Jefferson\u2019s Republican Notes on Religion and an Act Establishing Religious Freedom, Passed in the Assembly of Virginia, in the Year 1786,<\/i> reference is made to a law passed in 1705:<\/p>\n
By our own act of assembly of 1705, c. 30, if a person brought up in the Christian religion denies the being of a God, or the Trinity, or asserts there are more gods than one, or denies the Christian religion to be true, or the Scriptures to be of divine authority, he is punishable on the first offense by incapacity to hold any office of employment, ecclesiastical, civil or military; on the second by disability to sue, to take any gift or legacy, to be guardian, executor, or administrator, and by three years\u2019 imprisonment without bail.1195<\/p>\n
On January 16, 1786, Thomas Jefferson and the Committee on Religion drafted a bill for the Virginia Assembly guaranteeing religious freedom:<\/p>\n
An Act for establishing Religious Freedom. I. <\/p>\n
Well aware \u2026 that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested His Supreme Will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraints; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to begat habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone.1196<\/p>\n
On September 11, 1790, just prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI sent a note to President Washington and the U.S. Congress expressing his gratitude for the service Thomas Jefferson had preformed as the U.S. Minister to France:<\/p>\n
To our very dear friends and allies, the President and Members of the General Congress of the United States of North America.<\/p>\n
Very Dear Great Friends and Allies: We have received the letter by which you inform us of the new mark of confidence that you have shown to Mr. Jefferson, and which puts a period to his appointment of minister plenipotentiary at our Court.<\/p>\n
The manner in which he conducted during his residence with us has merited our esteem and entire approbation, and it is with pleasure that we now give him this testimony of it.<\/p>\n
It is with the most sincere pleasure that we embrace this opportunity of renewing these assurances of regard and friendship which we feel for the United States in general and for each of them in particular. Under their influence we pray God that He will keep you, very dear friends and allies, under His holy and beneficent protection.<\/p>\n
Done at Paris this 11th September, 1790. Your friend and ally, LOUIS.<\/p>\n
Montmorin. [seal].1197<\/p>\n
On May 23, 1797, Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, as President of the Senate, addressed President John Adams:<\/p>\n
And the Senate can not suffer the present occasion to pass without thus publicly and solemnly expressing their attachment to the Constitution and Government of their country; and as they hold themselves responsible to their constituents, their consciences, and their God, it is their determination by all their exertions to repel every attempt to alienate the affections of the people from the Government, so highly injurious to the honor, safety, and independence of the United States.1198<\/p>\n
On November 16, 1798, Thomas Jefferson stated in the Kentucky Resolution<\/i>:<\/p>\n
Article III.<\/i> Resolved, that it is true as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution that \u201cthe powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people\u201d;<\/p>\n
And that no power over the freedom of religion \u2026 [has been] delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States. \u2026 <\/p>\n
That thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed;<\/p>\n
And thus also they guarded against all abridgement by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same, as this State, by a law passed in the general demand of its citizens, had already protected them \u2026 \u201cCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n
thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press, insomuch, that whatever violates either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the other, and that libels, falsehoods, defamation equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of Federal tribunals \u2026 1199<\/p>\n
On September 23, 1800, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.1200<\/p>\n
On February 20, 1801, President-elect Thomas Jefferson responded to the notification of his election:<\/p>\n
I know the difficulties of the station to which I am called, and feel and acknowledge my incompetence. But whatsoever of understanding, whatsoever of diligence, whatsoever of justice or of affectionate concern for the happiness of man, it has pleased Providence to place within the compass of my faculties shall be called forth for the discharge of the duties confided to me, and for procuring to my fellow-citizens all the benefits which our Constitution has placed under the guardianship of the General Government.1201<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, March 4, 1801, in his First Inaugural Address, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own federal and republican principles. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter. With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens\u2014a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. \u2026 <\/p>\n
You should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government. \u2026 Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political \u2026 abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus and trial by jury impartially selected. \u2026 <\/p>\n
And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe, lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.1202<\/p>\n
On December 8, 1801, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
The wars and troubles which have for so many years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among them. Whilst we devoutly return our thanks to the beneficent Being who has been pleased to breathe into them the spirit of consolation and forgiveness, we are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace has been preserved through a perilous season. \u2026 <\/p>\n
I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years is a denial to a great proportion of those who ask it, and controls a policy pursued from their first settlement by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to their prosperity; and shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall the oppressed humanity find no asylum of this globe?1203<\/p>\n
Thomas Jefferson, while serving as the 3rd U.S. President (1801\u201309), chaired the school board for the District of Columbia. He authored the first plan of education adopted by the city of Washington, which used the Bible and Isaac Watts\u2019 Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs,<\/i> 1707, as the principal textbooks for teaching reading to students.1204<\/p>\n
On March 23, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Moses Robinson:<\/p>\n
The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.1205<\/p>\n
The Baptist denomination was one of the sects which had received severe persecution under the state Anglican church in several colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. There was concern that the newly formed Federal Government may choose a national denomination, similar to the Anglican Church in England and Virginia, the Lutheran Church in Germany, the Calvinist Church in Switzerland, or the Catholic Church in Italy and Spain, etc.<\/p>\n
The Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, wrote a letter to the newly elected President Thomas Jefferson, expressing their concern. In preparing his reply, Jefferson borrowed phraseology from the Baptist minister, Roger Williams, who founded the Baptist Church in America. Roger Williams had written:<\/p>\n
When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made His garden a wilderness, as it is this day. And that therefore if He will eer please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world \u2026 1206<\/p>\n
On January 1, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson replied to their concerns by sending a personal letter to Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen Nelson of the Danbury Baptist Association, Danbury, Connecticut, calming their fears that Congress was not in the process of choosing any one single Christian denomination in order to make it the \u201cstate\u201d denomination. He stated:<\/p>\n
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptists Association, give me the highest satisfaction.<\/p>\n
My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.<\/p>\n
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should \u201cmake no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,\u201d thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.<\/p>\n
Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.<\/p>\n
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.1207<\/p>\n
Although Thomas Jefferson did sign the Declaration of Independence, he did not sign the United States Constitution. He was not present at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, nor was he there when the First Amendment was debated in the first session of Congress in 1789, as he was in France, serving as the U.S. Minister.1208<\/p>\n
Due to his not being present to hear \u201cfirst hand\u201d the debates of the Founding Fathers regarding the First Amendment, Thomas Jefferson had to rely on second-hand information to learn of what transpired, rendering his letter to the Danbury Baptists, which was written thirteen years after the First Amendment, as a \u201cthird-hand\u201d opinion,1209 and ineligible to be considered a first-hand reflection of the intent of the Framers of the First Amendment. <\/p>\n
Dr. Joseph Priestly wrote an article giving much credit for the Constitution to Jefferson. On June 19, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson wrote to him in reply, correcting:<\/p>\n
One passage in the paper you enclosed me must be corrected. It is the following, \u201cAnd all say it was yourself more than any other individual, that planned and established it,\u201d i.e., the Constitution. I was in Europe when the Constitution was planned, and never saw it till after it was established.1210<\/p>\n
On April 30, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson signed the enabling act for Ohio to become a state. It stated that the government in this new state \u201cnot be repugnant to the [Northwest] Ordinance.\u201d:1211<\/p>\n
The Northwest Ordinance\u2014Article III.<\/i> Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.1212<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, December 15, 1802, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
When we assemble together, fellow-citizens, to consider the state of our beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favor they flow and the large measure of thankfulness we owe for His bounty.<\/p>\n
Another year has come around, and finds us still blessed with peace and friendship abroad; law, order, and religion at home; good affection and harmony with our Indian neighbors; our burdens lightened, yet our income sufficient for the public wants, and the produce of the year great beyond example. These, fellow-citizens, are the circumstances under which we meet, and we remark with special satisfaction those which under the smiles of Providence result from the skill, industry, and order of our citizens. \u2026 <\/p>\n
When merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing to make large and effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and the emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an encouragement, fellow-citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have begun in substituting economy for taxation.1213<\/p>\n
On April 9, 1803, in a letter to Dr. Joseph Priestly, President Thomas Jefferson wrote concerning Jesus:<\/p>\n
His system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers.1214<\/p>\n
On April 21, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence:<\/p>\n
My views \u2026 are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others.1215<\/p>\n
Continuing in his letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson wrote of Jesus:<\/p>\n
His system of morals \u2026 if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments He left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man. \u2026 He corrected the deism of the Jews, confirming them in their belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of His attributes and government. \u2026 <\/p>\n
The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the hearts of man, erected his tribunal in the region of thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountainhead. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Of all the systems of morality, ancient and modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.1216<\/p>\n
On October 17, 1803, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again in Europe, and nations with which we have the most friendly and useful relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the miseries in which we see others involved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our late legislative councils while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs, guarded us from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest and left us only to look on and to pity its ravages.1217<\/p>\n
On December 3, 1803, it was recommended by President Thomas Jefferson that the Congress of the United States pass a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians. Included in this treaty was the annual support to a Catholic missionary priest of $100, to be paid out of the Federal treasury. Later in 1806 and 1807, two similar treaties were made with the Wyandotte and Cherokee tribes. The treaty provided:<\/p>\n
And whereas the greater part of the said tribe have been baptized and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually, for seven years, one hundred dollars toward the support of a priest of that religion, who will engage to perform for said tribe the duties of his office, and also to instruct as many of their children as possible, in the rudiments of literature, and the United States will further give the sum of three hundred dollars, to assist the said tribe in the erection of a church.1218<\/p>\n
President Thomas Jefferson also extended, three times, a 1787 act of Congress in which special lands were designated: <\/p>\n
For the sole use of Christian Indians and the Moravian Brethren missionaries for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity.1219<\/p>\n
On June 17, 1804, President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Henry Fry:<\/p>\n
I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain the outlines of the sublimest system of morality that has ever been taught but I hold in the most profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which have been invented.1220<\/p>\n
On September 11, 1804, in a letter to Abigail Adams, President Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
Nothing in the Constitution has given them [federal judges] a right to decide for the Executive, more than to the Executive to decide for them. \u2026 But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also, in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.1221<\/p>\n
In 1804, in a letter to John Page, President Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
Whatever is to be our destiny, wisdom as well as duty dictates that we should acquiesce to the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and be contented in the enjoyment of those (loved ones) who are still permitted to be with us.1222<\/p>\n
On Monday, March 4, 1805, in his Second Inaugural Address, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger the union, but who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? \u2026 <\/p>\n
In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state and church authorities by the several religious societies. \u2026 <\/p>\n
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. \u2026 I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced from my constituents; the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing year.<\/p>\n
I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessities and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with His Providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils and prosper their measures, that whatever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship and approbation of all nations.1223<\/p>\n
On March 4, 1805, President Thomas Jefferson offered a National Prayer for Peace:<\/p>\n
Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. <\/p>\n
Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.1224<\/p>\n
On December 3, 1805, in his Fifth Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
In taking a view of the state of our country we in the first place notice the late affliction of two of our cities under the fatal fever which in latter times has occasionally visited our shores. Providence in His goodness gave it an early termination on this occasion and lessened the number of victims which have usually fallen before it.1225<\/p>\n
On February 19, 1806, in a message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
In pursuance of a measure proposed to Congress by a message of January 18, 1803, and sanctioned by their approbation for carrying it into execution, Captain Meriwether Lewis, of the First Regiment of infantry, was appointed, with a party of men, to explore the river Missouri from its mouth to its source, and, crossing the highlands by the shortest portage, to seek the best water communication thence to the Pacific Ocean; and Lieutenant Clarke was appointed second in command.1226<\/p>\n
As President, Thomas Jefferson not only signed bills which appropriated financial support for chaplains in Congress and in the armed services, but he also signed the Articles of War, April 10, 1806, in which he:<\/p>\n
Earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers, diligently to attend divine services.1227<\/p>\n
On January 23, 1808, in a letter to Samuel Miller, President Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States [10th Amendment].<\/p>\n
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. \u2026 <\/p>\n
I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines. \u2026 Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets.1228<\/p>\n
On November 8, 1808, in his Eighth Annual Message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies, I trust that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public authorities I see a sure guaranty of the permanence of our Republic; and, retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.1229<\/p>\n
In 1813, in a letter to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
In extracting the pure principles which Jesus taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled \u2026 there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.1230<\/p>\n
On September 18, 1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Canby:<\/p>\n
An eloquent preacher of your religious society, Richard Mote, in a discourse of much emotion and pathos, is said to have exclaimed aloud to his congregation that he did not believe there was a Quaker, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist in heaven, having paused to give his hearers time to stare and to wonder. He added, that in Heaven, God knew no distinctions, but considered all good men as his children, and as brethren of the same family. I believe, with the Quaker preacher, that he who steadily observes those moral precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven, as to the dogmas in which they all differ. That on entering there, all these are left behind us, and the Aristides and Catos, the Penns and Tillotsons, Presbyterians and Baptists, will find themselves united in all principles which are in concert with the reason of the Supreme Mind.1231<\/p>\n
On March 17, 1814, in a letter to Horatio G. Spafford, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.1232<\/p>\n
On June 13, 1814, in a letter to Thomas Law, Jefferson acknowledged:<\/p>\n
It shows how necessary was the care of the Creator in making the moral principle so much a part of our constitution as that no errors of reasoning or of speculation might lead us astray from its observance in practice.1233<\/p>\n
On September 26, 1814, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Miles King:<\/p>\n
\u2026 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 \u2026 Let us not be uneasy about the different roads we may pursue, as believing them the shortest, to that our last abode; but following the guidance of a good conscience, let us be happy in the hope that by these different paths we shall all meet in the end. And that you and I may meet and embrace, is my earnest prayer. And with this assurance I salute you with brotherly esteem and respect.1234<\/p>\n
In 1815, Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
We are not in a world ungoverned by the laws and the power of a Superior Agent. Our efforts are in His hand, and directed by it and He will gives them their effect in His own time.1235<\/p>\n
In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, extracted textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English<\/i>\u2014\u201cA Table of the Texts from the Evangelists employed in this Narrative and the order of their arrangement.\u201d1236<\/p>\n
In 1904, the fifty-seventh Congress, in order to restrain unethical behavior, voted:<\/p>\n
That there be printed and bound, by photolithographic process, with an introduction of not to exceed twenty-five pages, to be prepared by Dr. Cyrus Adler, Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, for the use of Congress, 9,000 copies of Thomas Jefferson\u2019s Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,<\/i> as the same appears in the National Museum; 3,000 copies for the use of the Senate and 6,000 copies for the use of the House.1237<\/p>\n
On January 9, 1816, in a letter to Charles Thomson, Thomas Jefferson wrote regarding his book, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,<\/i> which he had recently translated into other languages:<\/p>\n
I have made this wee-little book \u2026 which I call the Philosophy of Jesus. It is a paradigm of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time and subject.<\/p>\n
A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me an infidel, and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its Author never said nor saw.1238<\/p>\n
On August 6, 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Mrs. Harrison Smith regarding his letter to Charles Thomson, January 9, 1816:<\/p>\n
I recognize the same motives of goodness in the solicitude you express on the rumor supposed to proceed from a letter of mine to Charles Thomson, on the subject of the Christian religion. It is true that, in writing to the translator of the Bible and Testament, that subject was mentioned; but equally so that no adherence to any particular mode of Christianity was there expressed, nor any change of opinions suggested.<\/p>\n
A change from what? That priests indeed have heretofore thought proper to ascribe to me religious, or rather anti-religious sentiments, of their own fabric, but such as soothed their resentments against the Act of Virginia for establishing religious freedom.<\/p>\n
They wished him to be thought atheist, deist or devil, who could advocate freedom from their religious dictations. But I have ever thought religion a concern purely between our God and our consciences, for which we were accountable to Him, and not to the priests. \u2026 <\/p>\n
I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives and by this test my dear Madam, I have been satisfied yours must be an excellent one to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read. \u2026 1239<\/p>\n
On September 6, 1819, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.1240<\/p>\n
On September 28, 1820, in a letter to William Jarvis, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
You seem \u2026 to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. \u2026 and their power [is] the more dangerous, as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control.<\/p>\n
The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots.1241<\/p>\n
On November 4, 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Jared Sparks:<\/p>\n
I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man.1242<\/p>\n
In 1821, in a letter to Mr. Hammond, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in \u2026 the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States.1243<\/p>\n
On October 7, 1822, in a memorandum clarifying the regulations of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
The relations which exist between man and his Maker, and the duties resulting from those relations, are the most interesting and important to every human being, and most incumbent on his study and investigation.1244<\/p>\n
On April 11, 1823, in a letter to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson remarked:<\/p>\n
I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in its parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. \u2026 <\/p>\n
It is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is, in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an Ultimate Cause, a Fabricator of all things from matter to motion, their Preserver and Regulator, while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their Regenerator into new and other forms. <\/p>\n
We see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a Superintending Power to maintain the Universe in its course and order. \u2026 <\/p>\n
So irresistible are these evidences of an Intelligent and Powerful Agent that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed thro\u2019 all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to Unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a Creator, rather than in that of self-existent Universe \u2026 1245<\/p>\n
On June 12, 1823, in a letter to Supreme Court Justice William Johnson (December 27, 1771\u2013August 4, 1834), regarding the meaning to the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.1246<\/p>\n
On August 30, 1823, Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison regarding the Declaration of Independence:<\/p>\n
I know that I turned to neither book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiments which had never been expressed before \u2026 I pray God that these principles may be eternal, and close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for yourself of long life, health and happiness.1247<\/p>\n
On February 21, 1825, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, the son of a friend, Thomas Jefferson gave the admonition:<\/p>\n
Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the Portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss.1248<\/p>\n
In establishing the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson not only encouraged the teaching of religion by recommending the establishment of a school of \u201cTheology and Ecclesiastical History,\u201d1249 but he also set aside a place inside the Rotunda for chapel services:<\/p>\n
It is supposed probable, that a building of somewhat more size in the middle of the grounds may be called for in time, in which may be rooms for religious worship.1250<\/p>\n
On April 7, 1824, the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, of which James Madison was a member, approved the regulations prepared by Thomas Jefferson, Rector of the University, which stated: <\/p>\n
Should the religious sects of this State, or any of them, according to the invitation held out to them, establish within or adjacent to, the precincts of the University, schools for instruction in the religion of their sect, the students of the University will be free, and expected to attend religious worship at the establishment of their respective sects, in the morning, and in time to meet their school in the University at its stated hour. \u2026 <\/p>\n
The students of such religious school, if they attend any school of the University, shall be considered as students of the University, subject to the same regulations, and entitled to the same priviledges. \u2026 <\/p>\n
The upper circular room of the rotunda shall be reserved for a library. One of its larger elliptical rooms on its middle floor shall be used for annual examinations, or lectures to such schools as are too numerous for their ordinary school room, and for religious worship, under the regulations to be prescribed by law.1251<\/p>\n
In his plan for the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson outlined the responsibilities of the professor of ethics:<\/p>\n
The proof of the being of a God, the Creator, Preserver, and Supreme Ruler of the Universe, the author of all the relations of morality, and the laws and oblations which these infer, will be in the province of the professor of ethics.1252<\/p>\n
In 1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote concerning the curriculum of the University of Virginia:<\/p>\n
The want of instruction in the various creeds of religious faith existing among our citizens presents \u2026 a chasm in general instruction of the useful sciences. \u2026 <\/p>\n
A remedy, however, has been suggested of promising aspect, which, while it excludes the public authorities from the domain of public religious freedom, will give to the sectarian schools of divinity the full benefit of public provisions made for instruction in the other branches of science. \u2026 <\/p>\n
It has, therefore, been in contemplation, and suggested by some pious individuals, who perceive the advantages of associating other studies with those of religion, to establish their religious schools on the confines of the University, so as to give to their students ready and convenient access and attendance on the scientific lectures of the University; and to maintain, by that means, those destined for religious professions on as high a standing of science, and of personal weight and respectability, as may be obtained by others from the benefits of the University.<\/p>\n
Such establishments would offer the further and greater advantage of enabling the students of the University to attend religious exercise[s] with the professor of their particular sect, whether in rooms of the building still to be erected, and destined to that purpose under impartial regulations, as proposed in the same report of the commission, or in the lecturing room of such professor. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Such an arrangement would complete the circle of the useful sciences embraced by this institution, and would fill the chasm now existing, in principles which would leave inviolate the constitutional freedom of religion.1253<\/p>\n
Thomas Jefferson also spoke highly using the local courthouse for religious services.1254 When in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson attended Christ Church, along with George Washington, Robert Morris, Francis Hopkins, Alexander Hamilton, Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin,. In Virginia, Jefferson attended Bruton Parish Church (Episcopalian) in Williamsburg, along with George and Martha Washington. In the catalog listing the books in his library, Thomas Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n
I am for freedom of Religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.1255<\/p>\n
Thomas Jefferson stated:<\/p>\n
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.1256<\/p>\n
Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christians.1257<\/p>\n
The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty. A student\u2019s perusal of the sacred volume will make him a better citizen, a better father, a better husband.1258<\/p>\n
I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.1259<\/p>\n
1. The doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend to the happiness of man.<\/p>\n
2. There is only one God, and He is all perfect.<\/p>\n
3. There is a future state of rewards and punishment.<\/p>\n
4. To love God with all the heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of all. These are the great points on which to reform the religion of the Jews.1260<\/p>\n
No one sees with greater pleasure than myself the progress of reason in its advance toward rational Christianity, and my opinion is that if nothing had ever been added to what flowed from His lips, the whole world would at this day been Christian. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Had there never been a commentator there never would have been an infidel. I have little doubt that the whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also.1261<\/p>\n
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.1262<\/p>\n
Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that \u2026 of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable in His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.1263<\/p>\n
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were on the opposite sides of several major political issues, many times resulting in heated debates. John Adams, the 2nd President, was succeeded in office by Thomas Jefferson. So strong were John Adam\u2019s feelings against Jefferson at the time, that Adams even left Washington, D.C., to avoid being at Jefferson\u2019s Inauguration. <\/p>\n
Later in life, however, the two became the best of friends. Their correspondence reveals, not only their faith, but their friendship. In a providential coincidence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they both had signed the Declaration of Independence. Once hardened political opponents, John Adams\u2019 last words were:<\/p>\n
Thank God, Jefferson lives!1264<\/p>\n
Inscribed on his grave is the epitaph Jefferson composed:<\/p>\n
Here lies buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Statutes for Religious Freedom in Virginia, and father of the University of Virginia.1265<\/p>\n
The Jefferson Memorial, on the south banks of Washington D.C.\u2019s Tidal Basin, has inscribed in marble Thomas Jefferson\u2019s own words:<\/p>\n
Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens \u2026 are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion.1266<\/p>\n
No men shall \u2026 suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively.1267<\/p>\n
Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Life than that these people are to be free.1268<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(April 13, 1743\u2013July 4, 1826), was the 3rd President of the United States, 1801\u201309; approved the Louisiana Purchase and commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1803; Vice-President under John Adams, 1797\u20131801; Rector of the University of Virginia, 1819; Secretary of State under George Washington, 1789\u201393; U.S. Minister to France, 1785\u201389; delegate to the Continental Congress, … Continue reading “JEFFERSON,
\nTHOMAS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}