Question with Boldness

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion.  Question with boldness even the existence of a God;  because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." -Thomas Jefferson to nephew Peter Carr

This is one of the coolest quotes I have ever read.  "Question with boldness"--in this instance Jefferson applied it to knowing if there is a God.  I have thought about it many times as I go to school and read the news.  I hope that, unlike many people, I will always question everything and not just take other people's word for it.  Whenever a historic statement is made I do my best to go to the source and find out for myself what was said.  With religion I try to do the same thing and find it in the scriptures. (It makes a lot of people made when so many questions are asked, but it is essential for knowing things for yourself.) It would be great if more people in this world would "Question with boldness".  

Gunning Bedford Jr.-Signer of the Constitution

Gunning Bedford Jr., a descendant of the first settlers of Jamestown, was born in the year 1747 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he died on March 30, 1812 in Wilmington, Delaware.  Not much is known about Bedford, but he was still a key player in the forming of the Constitution and the United States.

Bedford attended the College of New Jersey (which is now known as Princeton), graduating in 1771.  While at the college, he became acquainted with the most key figure in forming of the Constitution, James Madison.  They were classmates as well as roommates in New Jersey.

After graduating from college, Bedford studied law under Joseph Read.  In the later years of the Revolution, he started a law practice in Dover, Delaware.  He also began his political participation as a representative to the Continental Congress between the years of 1783 and 1785.  Bedford also served as the Delaware state Attorney General from 1774-1789.  As one of Delaware's great statesman, he was selected to attend the Annapolis Convention which led to the Constitutional Convention.  He, like many other delegates, did not end up making it to Annapolis.

At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Bedford was a strong advocate of the small states.  He was concerned that small states, such as Delaware, would be pushed around by the larger states.  As a delegate from Delaware, he was instructed to stick with the New Jersey Plan.  He ended up helping hammer out the Great Compromise between the large state plans and the small state plans as he sat on the Committee which drafted the compromise.  William Pierce wrote that Gunning Bedford was, "Bold...[with] a very commanding and striking manner [but] warm and impetuous in his temper and precipitate in his judgement".

 Bedford was a key figure, along with John Dickinson and William Basset, in getting Delaware to be the first state to ratify the Constitution.  Without the help of Gunning Bedford Jr., the United States would not be the great nation it was formed to be.

Thomas Jefferson the Christian

Was Thomas Jefferson a deist? Many historians today would say that, yes our third President and writer of the Declaration of Independence was a deist. Perhaps one of our most well known founding fathers, Jefferson was a man of great talent ranging from the creation of new farming techniques to various inventions, and most notably, his talent as a statesman. Among this man’s talents was not that of being a deist. Through his own words, Thomas Jefferson made it quite clear that he was not a deist. By his words, one can find for themselves the falsie to the claims made by many historians concerning Jefferson’s beliefs.
First, of all what is this belief Jefferson is claimed to be a part of? What is deism and what is a deist? Well, here are the following definitions to aid in understanding this belief:

1. Deism: n. [Fr. Deisme; Sp. Deismo; It. Id.; from L. dues, [God]. The doctrine or creed of a Deist; the belief or system of religious opinions of those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny revelation: or deism is the belief in natural religion only, or those truths, in doctrine and practice, which man is to discover by the light of reason, independent and exclusive of any revelation from God. Hence deism implies infidelity or a disbelief in the divine origin of the scriptures.

2. Deist: n. [Fr. Deiste, It. Deista.] One who believes in the existence of a God, but denies revealed religion; one who professes no form of religion, but follows the light of nature and reason, as his only guides in doctrine and practice; a free thinker. (1)

It is not extremely hard to make Thomas Jefferson a deist, because frankly he fits parts of the above definitions. Jefferson was indeed “[o]ne who believed in the existence of a God”, “one who profess[ed] no form of religion”, and he was a “free thinker” (1). Still, Jefferson was not a deist because of the fact that while deists believed that God created the earth and left it to natural laws without any intervention, thus also disclaiming the divinity of Jesus Christ as God’s son and discrediting God’s intervention, through the Atonement of his son, Thomas Jefferson did believe in God’s intervention through Jesus Christ. Jefferson was opposed to the corruptions of the religion of his day, but he himself considered himself to be a Christian, when he said the following in a letter to Benjamin Rush:

My views of [the Christian religion] are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be—sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others. (2)

Jefferson indeed was a true Christian. As another proof to his belief in Christ, he took the New Testament and copied the words he believed to be the actual words of Christ. These words were copied, in his hand, into a book in several languages to allow Jefferson the fullest understanding of Christ’s words as he could possibly find. In Jefferson’s mind he held the “precepts of Jesus, as delivered by himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man.” (3) Those words from Jefferson don’t appear to be congruent to a man who’s belief held that God did not intervene in the lives of man.

Jefferson did not seem to be a conforming Christian by historians because he simply felt the doctrines of Christ were corrupted by man. Our third president, however, felt and firmly believed that there would be a restoration of true Christianity. He once said in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse that he was happy “in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity.” (4) He noted of both a restoring of truth and the corruptness of the present religions, in his time, when he said:

If freedom of religion guaranteed to us by law in theory can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, truth will prevail over fanaticism, and the genuine doctrines of Jesus, so long perverted by his pseudo-priests, will again be restored to their original purity. This reformation will advance with the other improvements of the human mind, but too late for me to witness it. (5)

Jefferson, if a deist, would never have even wanted a reformation or restoration of true Christianity. The fact that he does, easily denounces any claim to him holding any beliefs others than that of a Christian.

As is evident, Jefferson was no deist; neither was he anything other that a Christian. He may well have been more of a Christian than the average church-goer in his day. Jefferson is easily dismissed as being a deist through his own words and also through his belief in a restoration of true Christianity.


References


1. Webster, Noah. First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1967.


2. Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush (21 Apr. 1803), Bergh 10:379-80.


3. Thomas Jefferson to Jared Sparks (4 Nov. 1820), Bergh 15: 288.


4. Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse (19 July 1822), Bergh 15:391


5. Thomas Jefferson to Jared Sparks (4 Nov. 1820), Bergh 15: 288

The Real Thomas Jefferson (American Classic Series)


George Washington's Sacred Fire

Words From a Former Slave

I recently came across some interesting words from Frederick Douglas, a former slave and later the first African-American to hold a position in the white house, that I found very interesting.  You would think, after listening to our president and any liberal for that matter, that the Constitution made it harder to end slavery.  However, the following words from a famous African-American prove otherwise:

"[T]he Constitution is a glorious liberty document.  Read its preamble; consider its purposes.  Is slavery amoung them?  Is it a gateway?  Or is it in the temple?  It is neither.... [I]f the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slaveholding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholder, nor slave can anywhere be found in it? ... Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it.  On the other hand, it will be found to contain principles and purposes entirely hostile to the existence of slavery." -Rev. Frederick Douglass, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White

Were are the people like this today? The typical accusation that a conservitive hates President Obama because he is black doesn't apply to this conservative.  I submit that I would vote for any man, black, white, red, green, indigo (actually I wouldn't vote for smurfs), who has the same views as Rev. Fredrick Douglas.  To bad all we have left of many great men are there words and wisdom.

8/28 vs. 10/2

Pictures seem to tell it all.

10/2

8/28