Jefferson was unfairly criticized as being a skeptic in the withering election of 1800.So what were Jefferson’s relations with the clergy in America from that election to the end of his life? First it should be noted that Jefferson corresponded with and worked in alliance with just as many new …
Jefferson biographer Merrill Peterson comments on how Jefferson took this criticism. Jefferson was “personally hurt by the smear campaign” but thought it was reaction to his position of disestablishment which northerners had yet to embrace as Virginia had done. Note how Jefferson dealt with this unjustified criticism; he trusted that …
Not a single clergyman from the south joined in this attack on Jefferson’s faith at this time nor for that matter at any time throughout Jefferson’s lifetime. There was an Episcopal minister in Philadelphia, Rev. James Abercrombie, who on August 24, 1800, was reported in the Philadelphia Aurora newspaper to …
Although many of the ministers accusing Jefferson of unbelief hailed from New England, two of the most prominent names were ministers from New York. Hamburger notes, “The onslaught against Jefferson began in earnest when Federalist pamphlets charged that Jefferson was a deist and an infidel. William Linn and John Mitchell …