Saturday, May 21, 2011

Thomas Jefferson Chews Out End of Worlder

With polite code.

From Thomas Jefferson to Reverend David Austin, January 21, 1802. The good Presbyterian Reverend convinced a following in New Jersey that Christ would return in May, 1776, the fourth sabbath. After he went bankrupt he "flooded" Jefferson's administration with requests for government jobs (see Lenni Brenner's book, p. 165).

To which TJ responded:

Having daily to read voluminous letters & documents for the dispatch of the public affairs, your letters have condemned a portion of my time which duty forbids me any longer to devote to them. Your talents as a divine I hold in due respect, but of their employment in a political line I must be allowed to judge for myself, bound as I am to select those which I suppose best suited to the public service. Of the special communications to you of his will by the supreme being, I can have no evidence and therefore must ascribe [all of] them to the false perceptions of your mind. It is with real pain that I find myself at length obliged to say in [common] terms what I had hoped you would have inferred from silence. Accept my respects & best wishes.

7 comments:

Angie Van De Merwe said...

I imagine for the likes of Jefferson, David Austin's presumption about "things he could not know", were infuriating to Jefferson!

We saw Jefferson's library at the Library of Congres not too long ago! The man read volumes upon volumes of every subject! Because of his breadth of knowledge, he must have seemed arrogant to some. But, when you have done that kind of investigation, shouldn't you be assured?

His lack of response was only his forbearance of religious liberty, as otherwise, he could've taken Ausin "under". I don't know whether silence is a good tactic for some zealots....

His response was consistant with his understanding of separation of Church and State, though...

Tom Van Dyke said...

Heh heh. Of all the Founders, TJ was absolutely the worst choice for that stuff.

What do you make of Brad's post, with John Adams getting into biblical prophecy? Da Vinci Code Adams strikes again!

Jonathan Rowe said...

I'll have to go back and check but I think Adams was pondering Priestley's prophesies.

Brad Hart said...

Adams was telling Jefferson about all of the doomsday practitioners in the north. Of course he didn't buy into it but was simply pointing out its obsurdity to Jefferson.

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