The Jefferson Lies

by David Barton

  107. Dorothy C. Bass, “Gideon Blackburn’s Mission to the Cherokees,” Journal of Presbyterian History (Fall 1974), 52.

  108. Walter Lowrie, ed., “The Kaskaskia and Other Tribes,” in American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive of the Congress of the United States, vol. 4 (Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1832), 687.

  109. “Thomas Jefferson to the Nuns of the Order of St. Ursula on May 15, 1804,” original on file with the New Orleans Parish.

  110. Jonathan Elliot, ed., “Treaty of Peace and Amity Between the United States of America and the Bashaw, Bey, and Subjects of Tripoli in Barbary,” The American Diplomatic Code, Embracing a Collection of Treaties and Conventions Between the United States and Foreign Powers: From 1778 to 1834. With an Abstract of Important Judicial Decisions, on Points Connected with Our Foreign Relations, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Jonathan Elliot, 1834), 501; Ibid., 1: 498, “Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary.”

  111. Ibid., 1:499, “Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary.”

  112. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1852), 9th Cong., 1st Sess. 1238, “An Act for Establishing Rules and Articles for the Government of the Armies of the United States.”

  113. Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Lipscomb, 16:291.

  114. See, for example, his signature on the presidential act of October 18, 1804 (from an original document in our possession), Four Language Ship’s Papers on January 16, 1804, and Ship’s Papers on September 24, 1807 (from originals in our possession); etc.

  115. Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 807 (1983) (Brennan, J. and Marshall, J., dissenting).

  116. Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, 679, n. 8 (1989) (Kennedy, J., concurring and dissenting).

  117. Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, vol. 4 (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1830), 104.

  118. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Lancaster Ford, vol. 1 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), 11.

  119. Thomas Jefferson, “Proclamation,” in R. McIlwaine, ed., Official Letters of the Governors of the State of Virginia, vol. 2 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1928), 65; Thomas Jefferson, “Proclamation Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer,” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Boyd, 3:178.

  120. Thomas Jefferson, “Proclamation,” in H. R. McIlwaine, ed., Official Letters of the Governors of the State of Virginia, vol. 2 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1928), 65. Thomas Jefferson, “Proclamation Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer,” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Boyd, 3:178

  121. Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Vintage Books, 1998), 310.

  LIE # 6: THOMAS JEFFERSON DETESTED THE CLERGY

  1. John E. Remsburg, Six Historic Americans (New York: The Truth Seeker Project Company, 1906), 78.

  2. Farrell Till, “The Christian Nation Myth,” the Secular Web, accessed June 7, 2011, http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html.

  3. Bill Fairchild, “Thomas Jefferson and the ‘Clergy;’” the Painful Truth, accessed June 7, 2011, http://www.hwarmstrong.com/thomas_jefferson_clergy.htm.

  4. Austin Cline, “What Is Anti-Clericalism?” About.com, accessed June 6, 2011, http://atheism.about.com/od/Criticism-Religious-Critique/f/Anti-Clericalism.htm.

  5. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 8 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), 468.

  6. Ibid.

  7. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams, vol. 9 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), 637.

  8. See Charles Warren, Odd Byways in American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942), 127–128; Dumas Malone, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962), 481; Charles O. Lerche, Jr., “Jefferson and the Election of 1800: A Case Study in the Political Smear,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., vol. 5, no. 4 (October 1948), 466–491.

  9. Wilburn E. MacClenny, The Life of Rev. James O’Kelly and the Early History of the Christian Church in the South (Suffolk: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, 1910), 171–173.

  10. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams, vol. 9 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), 636.

  11. Appleton’s Cyclopedia (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887), s.v. “Cotton Mather Smith.”

  12. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Barbara B. Oberg, vol. 32 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 58–59.

  13. Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, vol. 3 (New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830), 438–440.

  14. William Linn, Serious Considerations on the Election of a President: Addressed to the Citizens of the United States (New York: John Furman, 1800), 24, Evans no. 37835.

  15. William Linn, Serious Considerations on the Election of a President: Addressed to the Citizens of the United States (New York: John Furman, 1800), 30.

  16. John Mitchell Mason, A Voice of Warning to Christians, on the Ensuing Election of a President of the United States (New York: G. F. Hopkins, 1800), 22–23.

  17. Ibid., 37–38.

  18. Nathanael Emmons, “Jeroboam. Annual Fast, April 9, 1801,” in The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D. D., Late Pastor of the Church in Franklin, Mass., with a Memoir of His Life, ed. Jacob Ide, vol. 2 (Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1842), 194.

  19. Nathanael Emmons, “Rights of the People. National Thanksgiving, November 25, 1813,” The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D. D., Late Pastor of the Church in Franklin, Mass. with a Memoir of His Life, ed. Jacob Ide, vol. 2 (Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1842), 284–285.

  20. Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, vol. 3 (New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830), 478.

  21. Claude G. Bowers, Jefferson in Power—the Death Struggle of the Federalists (Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1936), 145.

  22. Saul K. Padover, Jefferson (1942, repr. New York: Penguin Books, 1970), 119.

  23. Allen Johnson, ed., Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribber’s Sons, 1929), s.v. “Rev. John Leland.”

  24. John Leland, “A Blow at the Root, Being a Fashionable Fast-Day Sermon, Delivered at Cheshire, April 9, 1801,” in The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland, Including Some Events in His Life, Written by Himself, with Additional Sketches, ed. L. F. Greene (New York: G. W. Wood, 1845), 255.

  25. Rev. Manasseh Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, eds. William Parker Cutler and Julia P. Cutler, vol. 2 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), 54, editor’s note in journal entry for January 1, 1802.

  26. Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841: Its Early Annals and Future Prospects (Cincinnati: Published for the Author, 1841), 187; Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, vol. 1 (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1948), 226.

  27. Ellen M. Raynor and Emma L. Petitclerc, History of the Town of Cheshire (Holyoke, MA: Clark W. Bryan & Company, 1885), 87.

  28. Rev. Manasseh Parker, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, eds. William Parker Cutler and Julia P. Cutler, vol. 2 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke and Co., 1888), 66–67.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, eds. James Bear and Lucia Stanton, vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 1062.

  31. Wilbur E. MacClenny, “James O’Kelly: A Champion of Christian Freedom,” in The Centennial of Religious Journalism, ed. John Pressley Barrett (Dayton: Christian Publishing Association, 1908), 265.

  32. Dr. J. P. Barrett, editor of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, Dayton, Ohio, quoted in Wilburn E. MacClenny, The Life
of Rev. James O’Kelly and the Early History of the Christian Church in the South (Suffolk: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, 1910), 171–173.

  33. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, vol. 1 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904–1905), 13.

  34. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Boyd, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), 116.

  35. Ibid., 2:6–7.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid., 3:67.

  38. Ibid., 1:23.

  39. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Barbara B. Osberg, vol. 35 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), 350–351.

  40. Mark A. Beliles, “Religion and Republicanism in Jefferson’s Virginia” (PhD diss., Whitfield Theological Seminary, 1993), 69–70.

  41. Samuel Stanhope Smith, The Divine Goodness to the United States of America—A Discourse on the Subjects of National Gratitude (Philadelphia: William Young, 1795); Jonathan French, A Sermon Delivered on the Anniversary of Thanksgiving, November 29, 1798 (Andover: Ames and Parker, 1799); Rev. Joseph Willard, A Thanksgiving Sermon Delivered at Boston December 11, 1783 (Boston: T. and J. Fleet, 1784); William Hazlitt, A Thanksgiving Sermon Preached at Hallowell, December 15, 1785 (Boston: Samuel Hall, 1786); John Evans, The Happiness of American Christians, A Thanksgiving Sermon Preached on Thursday the 24th of November 1803 (Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1804); Isaac Backus, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty (Boston: John Boyle, 1783); etc.

  42. See “Our Founding Fathers Were Not Christians,” BibleTrash.com, July 4, 2000, accessed June 13, 2011, http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html; Jim Walker, “Thomas Jefferson of Christianity and Religion,” Nobeliefs.com, accessed October 25, 2011, http://nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm.

  43. Lorenzo Dow, Biography and Miscellany (Norwich, CT: William Faulkner, 1834), 242–243.

  44. Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, vol. 3 (New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830), 441.

  45. Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 15 (Washington, DC: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), 60.

  46. Samuel Knox, A Vindication of the Religion of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore: W. Pechin, 1800); Thomas E. Buckley, “Thomas Jefferson and Myth of Separation,” Religion and American Presidency, accessed July, 14, 2011, http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z5212U.pdf.

  47. Fred Hood, Reformed America: The Middle and Southern States, 1783–1837 (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama, 1980), 83.

  48. Elias Smith, The Whole World Governed by a Jew, or, The Government of the Second Adam as King and Priest (Exeter: Henry Ranlet, 1805), 34–35, 76–77.

  49. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, eds. James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 1:402, 403, 407; 2:1093, 1177, 1196, 1403, 1068, etc.

  50. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, eds. James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 1070, 1144, 1146, 1180, 1403.

  51. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, eds. James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 884.

  52. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, eds. James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 1:285; 2:837, 1057, 1062, 1071, 1095, 1111, 1130, 1154, 1348, etc.

  53. Mark A. Beliles, “Religion and Republicanism in Jefferson’s Virginia” (PhD diss., Whitfield Theological Seminary School, 1993), 143. See also Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, Miscellanies, ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, vol. 3 (Charlottesville: F. Carr and Co., 1829), 463.

  54. John Leland, “Which Has Done the Most Mischief in the World, The Kings-Evil or Priest-Craft?” in The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland, Including Some Events in His Life, Written by Himself, with Additional Sketches, ed. L. F. Greene (New York: G. W. Wood, 1845), 484.

  55. David Ramsay, The History of the American Revolution, vol. 1 (Dublin: William Jones, 1795), 212.

  56. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, vol. 9 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), 393.

  57. Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, vol. 3 (New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830), 3:304–305, 377–378, 461–462; 4:204–206, 274–277; Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Ford, vol. 11 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), 51, 491.

  58. Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 14 (Washington, D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1907), 119.

  59. Farrell Till, “The Christian Nation Myth,” the Secular Web, accessed June 7, 2011, http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html.

  60. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, vol. 11 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), 204.

  61. Ibid., 11:358–359.

  62. “The Constitution of Virginia,” The Constitution of the Sixteen States (Boston: Manning and Loring, 1797), 212 “. . . all ministers of the gospel, of every denomination, be incapable of being elected members . . .”

  63. Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Boyd, 8:470.

  64. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, vol. 9 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), 14.

  LIE # 7: THOMAS JEFFERSON WAS AN ATHEIST AND NOT A CHRISTIAN

  1. Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), 139 quoted in Mark A Gifford, “Country Mouse and Town Mouse,” hyerliterature.com, May 18, 2010, accessed October 25, 2011, http://www.hyperliterature.com/?p=1763.

  2. “Cloudy Judgment,” Minds Alike, April 18, 2011, accessed October 25, 2011, http://mindsalike.co/2011/04/18/cloudy-judgement/.

  3. Paul O’Brien, “Jefferson,” Paul O’Brien’s Web, accessed May 12, 2011, http://home.comcast.net/~pobrien48/jefferson_Letters.htm.

  4. “An Interview with Michael Weinstein of Military Religious Freedom Foundation,” Pagan + Politics, February 26, 2010, accessed October 25, 2011, http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=360240177811.

  5. John E. Remsburg, Six Historic Americans (New York: The Truth Seeker Company, 1906), 65.

  6. See “Freethinker,” Thesaurus.com, accessed June 20, 2011, http://thesaurus.com/browse/freethinker; “Freethinker,” Dictionary.com, accessed June 20, 2011, dictionary.reference.com/browse/freethinker; “Freethinker,” synonyms.net, accessed June 20, 2011, http://www.synonyms.net/synonym/freethinker; “Freethinker,” thesaurus. yourdictionary.com, accessed June 20, 2011, http://thesaurus.yourdictionary.com/freethinker.

  7. “Atheist,” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, accessed May 11, 2011, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheist?show=0&t=1305132077.

  8. “Atheist,” About.com, accessed May 11, 2011, http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/general/bldef_atheist.htm.

  9. “Atheist,” Dictionary.com, accessed May 11, 2011, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atheist.

  10. Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, ed. John Bigelow, vol. 5 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Son, 1904), 325–326.

  11. Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Lipscomb, 12:405.

  12. Claude G. Bowers, The Young Jefferson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1945), 312.

  13. Rosalie David, ed., Fredericksville Parish Vestry Book, 1742–1787 (Manchester, Missouri, 1978), 88.

  14. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, vol. 2 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), 255.

  15. Sarah Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1871), 343–345.

  16. William Stoddard, The Lives of the Presidents: John Adams and Thomas Jefferso
n, vol. 2 (New York: White, Stokes, & Allen, 1887), 270.

  17. Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson, 62–63.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Henry S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 3 (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1858), 101–103.

  20. William H. B. Thomas, Faith of Our Fathers: Religion and the Churches in Colonial Orange County (Orange, VA: Orange County Bicentennial Commission, 1975), 8.

  21. John Leland, The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland, Including Some Events in His Life, Written by Himself, with Additional Sketches, ed. L. F. Greene (New York: G. W. Wood, 1845), 98.

  22. William Maxwell, A Memoir of the Rev. John H. Rice, D. D. (J. Whetham: Philadelphia, 1835), 50–51.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia (Charlottesville: Michie Company, 1901), 131.

  25. W. Hopkins, “The Literature of the Disciples of Christ,” in W. T. Moore, ed., The Christian Quarterly (Columbia, MO: G. A. Hoffman, 1897), 498.

  26. Elias Smith, The Life, Conversion, Preaching, Travels and Sufferings of Elias Smith, vol. 1 (Boston: 1840), 275.

  27. “Christianity on the Early American Frontier: A Gallery of Trendsetters in the Religious Wilderness,” Christian History Magazine 45 (1995), 23.

  28. Michael G. Kenny, The Perfect Law of Liberty: Elias Smith and the Providential History of America (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 93.

  29. Wilburn E. MacClenny, The Life of Rev. James O’Kelly and the Early History of the Christian Church in the South (Suffolk: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, 1910), 217–221.

  30. Thomas Campbell, On Religious Reformation, accessed June 6, 2011, http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/tcampbell/etc/ORR.HTM.

  31. Michael G. Kenny, The Perfect Law of Liberty: Elias Smith and the Providential History of America (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 128.