44 Whole Number 227
Jefferson also was a Deist, as were many
of the hardheaded philosopher, lawyer,
trader, farmer, scientist, and politician
Founders. This fact is influential in the de-
cision to word the First Amendment’s reli-
gious freedom clause.
If he wasn’t as ‘religious’ as the man on
the street, Jefferson still was a supreme
moralist. In his Jefferson’s Bible, he edited
from the Gospels any instance of the mi-
raculous and saved only Jesus’ ‘correct
moral philosophy’ as he called it. He was
not anti-religious, only in favor of free
thought, “. . . it does me no injury for my
neighbor to say there are twenty gods or
no God. It neither picks my pocket nor
breaks my leg.”
Figure 6 Miss Manifest Destiny / Liberty was a popular motif and
American ‘saint’, and stirred a combined religious-nationalistic spirit
In 1802, he coined a famous phrase in a
during the 19th century. She is shown here helping lay telegraph lines
letter: “. . . I [revere the First Amendment]
West (John Gast, 1872).
which declared that the legislature should
a wall of separation between church and State.” He
‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
insisted on strict separation, which has existed thus
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building
until very recently.
Common Man America
The core values of our country devel-
oped out of laws and traditions, via
schools and parenting, through rugged
experience and a unique spiritual sense
—religious or secular, conscious or
unconscious—prompted by freedom.
Our basic ethical framework developed
as a result.
The American Character did not de-
velop only through grappling with the
elements, inventing new implements
and methods on the frontier out of sheer
necessity, or by blending varied immi-
grant ideas. The new American was
heartier and more vibrant because he
developed inwardly too. That inner self
was nurtured by Biblical themes. The
19
th
century was rife with religious ex-
pression of all sorts. It was reflected and
Figure 7 A fine 1821Morristown NJ red dial to the American Bible Society,
quoted in songs, speeches, broadsides,
founded five years before. With the influx of immigrants, many such school books, and definitely in folded
societies were formed to get Bibles into their hands, the ABS came to be the letters.
umbrella organization for many dozen local groups. Docketing says it was
an invoice for Bibles, which apparently was forwarded to the Nassau Hall
Bible Society for fulfillment.
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