Category: history

Daily Jefferson: June 29, 1812 Letter from Jefferson to James Madison on the Declaration of the 1812 War

Jefferson was a mentor for James Madison. The men corresponded often. Jefferson had some definite ideas about the aims of the 1812 conflict and communicated those in this letter.

Dear Sir,—I duly received your favor of the 22d covering the declaration of war.  It is entirely popular here, the only opinion being that it should have been issued the moment the season admitted the militia to enter Canada.
To continue the war popular, two things are necessary mainly.  1. To stop Indian barbarities.  The conquest of Canada will do this.  2. To furnish markets for our produce, say indeed for our flour, for tobacco is already given up, and seemingly without reluctance.  The great profits of the wheat crop have allured every one to it;  and never was such a crop on the ground as that which we generally begin to cut this day.  It would be mortifying to the farmer to see such an one rot in his barn.  It would soon sicken him to war.  Nor can this be a matter of wonder or of blame on him.  Ours is the only country on earth where war is an instantaneous and total suspension of all the objects of his industry and support.  For carrying our produce to foreign markets our own ships, neutral ships, and even enemy ships under neutral flag, which I would wink at, will probably suffice.  But the coasting trade is of double importance, because both seller and buyer are disappointed, and both are our own citizens.  You will remember that in this trade our greatest distress in the last war was produced by our own pilot boats taken by the British and kept as tenders to their larger vessels.  These being the swiftest vessels on the ocean, they took them and selected the swiftest from the whole mass.  Filled with men they scoured everything along shore, and completely cut up that coasting business which might otherwise have been carried on within the range of vessels of force and draught.  Why should not we then line our coast with vessels of pilot-boat construction, filled with men, armed with cannonades, and only so much larger as to assure the mastery of the pilot boat?  The British cannot counter-work us by building similar ones, because, the fact is, however unaccountable, that our builders alone understand that construction.  It is on our own pilot boats the British will depend, which our larger vessels may thus retake.  These, however, are the ideas of a landsman only, Mr. Hamilton’s judgment will test their soundness.

 

Daily Jefferson: On June 28, 1776 a Draft of the Declaration of Independence was Given to Congress

The Declaration of Independence was one of the three accomplishments Thomas Jefferson wanted written on his tombstone. His tombstone reads:

HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE 
DECLARATION OF
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA 
FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Today in 1776, the draft of the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson and edited by the remaining committee members (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston) was given to the delegates assembled from the colonies to discuss.
From the Library of Congress website:

Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia behind a veil of Congressionally imposed secrecy in June 1776 for a country wracked by military and political uncertainties. In anticipation of a vote for independence, the Continental Congress on June 11 appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston as a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee then delegated Thomas Jefferson to undertake the task. Jefferson worked diligently in private for days to compose a document. Proof of the arduous nature of the work can be seen in the fragment of the first known composition draft of the declaration, which is on public display here for the first time.
Jefferson then made a clean or “fair” copy of the composition declaration, which became the foundation of the document, labeled by Jefferson as the “original Rough draught.” Revised first by Adams, then by Franklin, and then by the full committee, a total of forty-seven alterations including the insertion of three complete paragraphs was made on the text before it was presented to Congress on June 28. After voting for independence on July 2, the Congress then continued to refine the document, making thirty-nine additional revisions to the committee draft before its final adoption on the morning of July 4. The “original Rough draught” embodies the multiplicity of corrections, additions and deletions that were made at each step. Although most of the alterations are in Jefferson’s handwriting (Jefferson later indicated the changes he believed to have been made by Adams and Franklin), quite naturally he opposed many of the changes made to his document.

Daily Jefferson: June 27, 1813 Letter to John Adams

Jefferson wrote to Adams on June 27, 1813:

the summum bonum with me is now truly Epicurean, ease of body and tranquility of mind; and to these I wish to consign my remaining days.

He did a lot of Epicurean pursuits in his older age, but he did not completely retire from public life. He had a major hand in directing the development of the University of Virginia toward the end of his life.

Daily Jefferson: June 26, 1822 Letter – Not a Young Man Now Living in the U.S. Who Will Not Die an Unitarian.

Later in his life, Thomas Jefferson became more candid about his religious beliefs in his correspondence. During the presidential years, Jefferson’s view were similar to those expressed in this letter but he was reluctant to give his opponents material to use to criticize him. Thus, it was not uncommon for him to ask his friends not to publicly disclose his views. In this June 26, 1822 letter to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, Jefferson goes full Unitarian and leaves little doubt about his views. The entire letter is reproduced below:

I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God. I wish success to both attempts, and am happy to learn from you that the latter, at least, is making progress, and the more rapidly in proportion as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and noise about it. The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

  1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
  2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
  3. That to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself, is the sum of religion.

These are the great points on which he endeavored to reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.

  1. That there are three Gods.
  2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
  3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith.
  4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
  5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn them; no virtues of the latter save.

Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus? Or the impious dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with the horrors so falsely imputed to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die an Unitarian.

But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of creed and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they will give up morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser are the Quakers, who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, schismatize about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale of common sense, suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any more than of feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom of Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who love their neighbor!

I conclude my sermon with sincere assurances of my friendly esteem and respect.

Jefferson’s optimism about the expansion of Unitarianism was off but his opposition to trinitarian Christianity is obvious.

Waterhouse was a physician who developed the smallpox vaccine. He was born into a Quaker family which I suspect Jefferson knew (note the reference to Quakers at the end of the letter).

Home Schoolers Anonymous Blog Asks For Stories of How David Barton Ruined Conservative Christianity

Here is the title of the post: David Barton Ruined Conservative Christianity for Me: A Call for Stories.
A sample:

By Shaney Lee, HARO Board Member

Recently, a group of homeschool alumni were sharing stories of their “lightbulb moment”: a moment when we realized that we had been taught an agenda, rather than how to think for ourselves, and when we realized that the strains of conservative Christianity we had been raised with were grossly flawed. Some of us are still Christians and some are not, but we all had that “moment” where we realized we wanted to go a different direction with our lives. 

As a result of that conversation, Homeschoolers Anonymous has decided to open up a call for stories from homeschool alumni about their “lightbulb moments.” The purpose of this series is twofold: One, to shed light on the individuals and ideas that need to be weeded out from the homeschooling community; two, to allow homeschooled individuals to tell their stories. Those who don’t continue in conservative Christianity as adults are often referred to as “apostates” or assumed to be “backslidden.” We want to give alumni a chance to share their side of the story.

To start off the call for stories, I wanted to share my story. This is the story of when I realized I needed to find a different path.

*****

In October 2012 I was invited to the annual banquet for Texas Alliance for Life (TAL). Being a pro-life individual and lover of fancy events, I decided to go, despite not being thrilled with their keynote speaker: David Barton. At that point, Barton had recently been in WORLD News because his most recent book, The Jefferson Lies, had been rejected as full of inaccuracies by conservative Christian historians, and Thomas Nelson eventually decided to pull the book entirely.

Well, I certainly remember that event. Shaney then summarized the talk Barton gave and realized the audience had been hoodwinked. Go to her post to read about it.

In this room were NCFCA coaches, parents, and adult alumni. People who had taught me debate, logic, and rhetoric. Yet here they were, applauding a man who had just fed them lies, logical fallacies, and more fluff than a cotton field.
Something inside of me broke that night. I realized that I couldn’t trust these people to have given me a solid foundation of any sort. When given false assurance that their beliefs were correct and would prevail, they ate it up.
So I started questioning everything.

I have encountered quite a few students here at Grove City who were told many false things by Barton and teachers like him at youth conferences or in church and face a crisis of faith when they learn that the teachings are far away from reality. It is positive that they have this crisis here in an environment that is supportive with respect to matters of doubt and faith. Otherwise, I think they might cast it all aside.

Shaney ends with sobering words:

I tell my story today not to belittle conservative Christians. I still know many who are good, honest people. I tell my story as a wake-up call to conservatives, especially to the conservative Christian homeschool community. If you continue to teach your children based on David Barton’s “history” or Ken Ham’s “science,” continue to follow leaders who then get exposed as sexual abusers, and don’t teach your children true logic and critical thinking, I predict the homeschool movement will eventually collapse under its own weight.

Despite being warned, Missouri Baptists are sponsoring David Barton tomorrow and the next day at a conference in Springfield, MO.