New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-30
THE FOUNDERS AND CHRISTIANITY
Quoted n Show Disbelief and JfersonBshoP
White. Report of the Generals Church Attendance

says, never afterward came on the morning
Of sacramental Sunday"
an all the vouminous writings OF Genera
Washington the holy name Of Jesus CHRIS
is never once written" complains "The Cath
clic World"
DR.. Conway, who was employed to eds
Washington's letters and who is considered
an authority on his domestic life. says
MANY clergymen visited him, but they were
never invited to hold family prayers and M
grace was ever said at table"
During Jackson's administration the Rev
DR.. Wilson, a noted divine Of Albany
preached famous sermon on "The Religion
of the Presidents" which was published ant
Rad wide circulation. Dr. Wilson showed
that of the seven Presidents, Washington
Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams
and Jackson, not one had professed BELIEF
in Christianity.
In view of the facts must refuse to &C
cept Mr.. Duncan's correction. Washington
was in no sense a Christian, his church con
nections notwithstanding.
II is surprising that any one should doubt
the infidelity of Thomas Jefferson, as he was
courageous freethinker, probably ever
more radical than Thomas Paine. He speaks
for himself. | quote from Randolph's edition
Of Jefferson's works, published in 1929.
In letter to his ward, Peter Carr, he
writes: "Read the Bible as you would Liyy
or Tacitus Fix reason firmly in heI
seat and call to her tribunal every fact
every opinion Question with boldness ever
the existence of a God."-Vol. H., p. 217.
In the four gospels jefferson discovers
what he terms "a groundwork Of vulgar igno
rance, of things impossible, of superstitions
fanaticisms and fabrications." Ibid.
"Of this band of dupes and impostors Pau
was the great Corypheus and first corruptei
Of the doctrines Of Jesus."-Vol. w., p. 327.
"It is too late in the day for men of sim
cerity to pretend they believe in the PlatoniC
mysticism that three are one and one is
three Ibid, p. 205.
"The hocus-pocus phantasm Of God, like
another Cerberus, with one body and three
heads, had its birth and growth in the blood
Of thousands of martyrs."-lbid., p. $50.
Mr.. Duncan either misleads or is mislec
when he says that Jefferson was so fond
of the Bible that he made book out OF
fevorite passages which he cut from copy
of the Scriptures and devoutly studied it on
Sundays" Jefferson did not love the Bible
if we may accept his word for it, but he did
make a compilation of the finer alleged say
ings of Jesus, which has been published and
paraded as proof of his acceptance of Christ
He, like Paine, Ingersoll and other free
thinkers, had the greatest admiration for the
nan Jesus, bat for the Jesus Christ of ortho-
dox Christianity he had the greatest con-
tempt.
Space does not permit me to substantiate
my statement as regards Adams, Lincoln and
Grant. However, the proofs are positive and
voluminous, as in the cases of Washington
and Jefferson.
If Mr. Duncan is still unconvinced | will
answer any letter sent me care of The Trib'
une. If he is disilusioned, his duty as ar
honest man requires that he admit it pub
licly in these columns. H. Z. +.
Brooklyn, Jan. 10, 1917.