buckeye-ELO@nospam.net wrote:

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams,
letter to Thomas Jefferson

Another source (has many other quotes with somewhat decent citations):
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/adams.htm

I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!
-- John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, from George Seldes, The Great Quotations, also from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief

Those books may have more complete citations.

:|buckeye-ELO writes:
:|
:|> "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
:|> the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
:|> Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams,
:|> letter to Thomas Jefferson
:|>
:|> AND
:|>
:|> "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
:|> the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
:|> Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams
:|
:|It's actually dated Sept. 3 1816, not Sept. 13 1816 as was incorrectly
:|posted earlier by the good senator.

:|
:|The whole letter (plus a lot more) is here,
:|
:|http://www.constitution.org/tj/jeff15.txt
:|
:|and photos of the actual letter itself from the Library Of Congress are
:|here,
:|
:|http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/049/0400/0423.jpg
:|http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/049/0400/0424.jpg
:|http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/049/0400/0425.jpg
:|
:|"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
:|the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved-the Cross.
:|Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! With the
:|rational respect which is due to it, knavish priests have added
:|prostitutions of it, that fill, or might fill, the blackest and bloodiest
:|pages of human history."
:|
:|Looks like more than a few folks have been quoting this slightly out of
:|context. (Gee, what a big surprise.)

:|nospam.net writes:
:|
:|> "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
:|> the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
:|> Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams,
:|> letter to Thomas Jefferson
:|>
:|> AND
:|>
:|> "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
:|> the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
:|> Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams
:|
:|http://www.usna.edu/History/honors/2003/SchwartzThesis.doc
:|
:|{37} John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 13 September 1816, in Lester
:|J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters (Chapel Hill: University of
:|North Caroline Press, 1959), vol. 2, 487-488. Adams is writing a letter
:|responding to Jefferson’s question "What are the uses of grief?" Adams
:|asks, "What have been the Abuses of grief?" Adams then goes down a list of
:|historical examples in which a death of a great person has been used to some
:|type of wrongful end. His last example is that of the crucifixion of Jesus
:|Christ, which he considers to be history’s most abusive example.

nospam.net writes:

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams,
letter to Thomas Jefferson

AND

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross.
Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams

http://www.usna.edu/History/honors/2003/SchwartzThesis.doc

{37} John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 13 September 1816, in Lester
J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters (Chapel Hill: University of
North Caroline Press, 1959), vol. 2, 487-488.

Adams is writing a letter
responding to Jefferson’s question "What are the uses of grief?" Adams
asks, "What have been the Abuses of grief?" Adams then goes down a list of
historical examples in which a death of a great person has been used to some
type of wrongful end. His last example is that of the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ, which he considers to be history’s most abusive example.