JUNE 25, 1813
Adams to Jefferson
Quincy June 25. 1813
DEAR SIR
Your favour of the 15th came to me Yesterday, and it is a pleasure to
discover that We are only 9 days apart.
Be not surprised or alarmed. Lindsays Memoirs will do no harm to you
or me. You have right and reason to feel and to resent the breach of
Confidence. I have had enough of the same kind of Treachery and
Perfidy practiced upon me, to know how to sympathize with you. I will
agree with you, in unquallified censure of such Abuses. They are the
worst Species of Tyrany over private Judgment and free Enquiry. They
suppress the free communication of Soul to Soul.
There are critical moments, when Faction, whether in Church or State,
will stick at nothing. Confidence of Friendship the most sacred, is
but a cobweb tie. How few! Oh how few are the exceptions! I could name
many Cases of the rule, but will mention but one. Do you remember
Tenche Core!
You must have misunderstood me, when you understood that I "proposed
to write on the Subject," if you meant, to the Public. I have written
enough and too much. I have no thought, in this correspondence, but to
satisfy you and myself. If our Letters should be shewn to a friend or
two, in confidence; and if that confidence should be betrayed: your
Letters will do you no dishonour. As to mine I care not a farthing. My
Reputation has been so much the Sport of the public for fifty Years,
and will be with Posterity, that I hold it, a bubble, a Gossameur,
that idles in
the wanton Summers Air. Now for your Letter.
During the three Years, that I resided in England, I was somewhat
acquainted with Lindsay, Disnay, Farmer, Price, Priestley, Kippis,
Jebb, Vaughans, Bridgen, Brand Hollis, etc. etc. etc., even Dr. Towers
was not personally unknown to me. A Belsham was once introduced to me,
probably the Author of Lindsays Memoirs. I had much conversation with
him. Whether he is a Brother of Belsham the Historian, I know not.
Lindsay was a singular Character, unless Jebb was his parrallel.
Unitarianism and Biblical Criticism were the great Characteristicks of
them all. All were learned, scientific, and moral. Lindsay was an
heroic Christian Philosopher. All professed Friendship for America,
and these were almost all, who pretended to any such Thing.
I wish You could live a Year in Boston, hear their Divines, read
their : publications, especially the Repository. You would see how
spiritual Tyranny and ecclesiastical Domination are beginning in our
Country: at least struggling for birth.
Now, for your political Letter. No, I have not done with spiritual
Pride, in high places and in low. I would trust these liberal
Christians in London and in Boston, with Power, just as soon as I
would Calvin or Cardinal Lorrain; just as soon as I would the Quakers
of Pensylvania; just
as soon as I would Methodists or Moravians; just as soon as I would
Rochefoucault and Condorcet; justt as soon as I would the CEconomists
of France; just as soon as I would Bolingbroke and Voltaire, Hume and
Gibbon; nay just as soon as I would Robespierre or Brissot. I can go
no higher, unless I add the League and the Fronde in France, or
Charles the first and Archbishop Laud in England and Ireland.
Let me say, however, by the Way, that I fully believe, that Priestley
is only guilty of an indiscretion, very pardonable, in this thing.
Lindsay is perfectly innocent. Belsham has done the wrong. I cannot
but contrast his Conduct with that of Disney, who found among the
Papers of Brand Hollis Letters from me and my Wife, which We had both
forgotten. He wrote to Us and asked leave to publish them. Neither of
Us recollected a Word of them for We had no Copies. We both left to
his discretion to publish what he pleased and he has done it. I
expected much more nonsense and extravagance in mine than appears, for
I wrote to Hollis without reserve.
Checks and Ballances, Jefferson, however you and your Party may have
ridiculed them, are our only Security, for the progress of Mind, as
well as the Security of Body. Every Species of these Christians would
persecute Deists, as soon as either Sect would persecute another, if
it had unchecked I and unballanced Power. Nay, the Deists would
persecute Christians, and Atheists would persecute Deists, with as
unrelenting Cruelty, as any Christians would persecute them or one
another. Know thyself, human Nature!
I am not sure, that I am yet ready to return to Politicks.
Upon the whole, I think this is enough for one Letter. Politicks
shall be adjourned to a future day. Not a very distant one, however.
JOHN ADAMS
(SOURCE OF INFORMATION: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 25th. 1813
The Adams-Jefferson Letters. The Complete Correspondence Between
Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, Edited by Lester J.
Cappon, University of North Carolina Press. (1987) (pp 333-35)
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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