Jefferson the Skeptic

Hudson Review, The, Summer 2006 by Allen, Brooke

Jefferson served as secretary of State under Washington and Vice-President under Adams, during which time his reputation as an atheist and rank democrat grew apace. ("Oh Lord!" intoned a Connecticut minister in the midst of a prayer for the welfare of President-elect Adams: "Wilt Thou bestow upon the Vice President a double portion of Thy grace, for Thou knowest he needs it.") Conversation at the Virginia Voltaire's dinner table could shock even his friends. The portraitist John Trumbull, for example, here describes an evening at Jefferson's home in 1793 during which Senator Giles of Virginia

proceeded so far at last, as to ridicule the character, conduct and doctrines of the divine founder of our religion-Jefferson, in the mean time, smiling and nodding approbation on Mr. Giles, while the rest of the company silently left me and my defense to our fate; until at length my friend, David Franks, (first cashier of the Bank of the United States,) took up the argument on my side. Thinking this a fair opportunity for evading further conversation on this subject, I turned to Mr. Jefferson and said, "Sir, this is a strange situation in which I find myself; in a country professing Christianity, and at a table with Christians, as I supposed, I find my religion and myself attacked with severe and almost irresistible wit and raillery, and not a person to aid in my defense, but my friend Mr. Franks, who is himself a Jew." For a moment, this attempt to parry the discussion appeared to have some effect; but Giles soon returned to the attack, with new virulence, and burst out with-"It is all miserable delusion and priestcraft; I do not believe one word of all they say about a future state of existence, and retribution for actions done here. I do not believe one word of a Supreme Being who takes cognizance of the paltry affairs of this world, and to whom we are responsible for what we do." I had never before heard, or seen in writing, such a broad and unqualified avowal of atheism.

During the presidential election of 1800, which pitted Jefferson against the incumbent Adams, religion became for the first time a major campaign issue, establishing a destructive and divisive precedent. The following item, which was placed in the Gazette of the United States several times a month during the campaign, crudely announced the Federalist party line:

THE GRAND QUESTION STATED

At the present solemn and momentous epoch, the only question to be asked by every American, laying his hand on his heart, is "Shall I continue in allegiance to

GOD-AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT;

or impiously declare for Jefferson-and no god!!!"

Anticipating the machinations of political manipulators like Ralph Reed and Karl Rove, Alexander Hamilton cynically played on the religious sentiments and prejudices of the American electorate to blacken the opposing candidate's character. Jefferson's long history as a freethinker made him vulnerable as a candidate for national office, and Hamilton exploited this vulnerability by presenting Adams, the Federalist man, as especially pious. This dichotomy was as false as such political dichotomies usually are, for Adams could hardly have been described as an orthodox Christian, nor was Hamilton himself, at that time, any more devout than Jefferson. But appearance is everything in politics, and Jefferson was widely perceived, in the words of the New England jurist Theophilus Parsons, as the "great arch priest of Jacobinism and infidelity." In a Jefferson presidency, the Connecticut Courant editorialized, "Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will all be openly taught and practiced."