Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. JEFFERSON AND RELIGION. Mr. Jefferson's skepticism was known to some and suspected by many of his contemporaries, but the nature and scope of that skepticism were only matters of conjecture until the publication of his private correspondence. This correspondence, and the investigations which resulted from its being made public seem to show that he was a radical, uncompromising, and sometimes bitter infidel; that he had little sympathy, and perhaps less respect for any form of religious faith. He was the friendly associate of scoffers and unbelievers, both native and foreign born, among whom may be mentioned the scurrilous Paine, Condorcet, Cabanis, General Dearborn and Mr. Freneau. The National Gazette, his personal and political organ, almost entirely under his control, vilified clergymen and mocked at religion. In his letters, he assails Presbyterianism, characterizes "the five points of Calvin" as "blasphemous absurdity," and rails at the theology of the great Genevan doctor as follows: "It would be more pardonable to believe in no God, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin." He styles Presbyterians the "loyalists of our country." He madly compares them to the Jesuits, and in a paroxysm of folly, he pronounces Calvin an atheist. He writes : " The metaphysical absurdities of Athanasius, of Loyola, and of Calvin are mere relapses into polytheism, differing from Paganism only in being more unintelligible." He vehemently attacks Trinitarians and the doctrine of the Trinity. In one letter, he thus expresses himself: "I would as soon undertake to bring the crazy skulls of Bedlam to sound understanding,as to inculcate reason into that of an Athanasian ;" in another to James Smith, is found the following: "Nor was the unity of the Supr...