Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Thomas Jefferson - Religion and The University

To Dr. Thomas Cooper
Monticello, November 2, 1822

DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all.... In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and praying parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use to a mere earthly lover.

Back to the Thomas Jefferson Index Page